LUKE 17
The disciples had been under the influence of Jesus, and He had been bringing before their hearts the blessedness of God as known in grace, and the blessedness of the heavenly system. Now He forewarns them that it was inevitable that offences would come; the enemy would make persistent efforts to ensnare the disciples and take them away from the spirit of little ones. Offences are inevitable. The word is often used as being caused by the Lord: Christ Himself is a rock of offence; “unto the Jews a stumbling block”; “the offence of the cross”. Christ and the truth become an offence to the natural man. But here the word is used of things that are contrary to spiritual prosperity.
The Lord is looking at the disciples as little ones who are learning from Him to know God in grace, and to move in the light of the heavenly system. The offences here are things which tend to counteract the influence of the Lord.
Many of our difficulties when traced to their root are found to arise from self-importance. A sense of the greatness of God in grace is a marvellous reducer, but the enemy would ever seek to bring in offences, something to take the little ones away from the place of littleness. That is the way the enemy works all the time. The Lord prizes very highly that state of heart which thinks not of itself, but of the blessedness of God as known in grace, and of the heavenly system. He thinks very seriously of everything that would divert from it; the Lord takes a very serious account of any influence that would tend to take us out of the place of being little ones.
“O keep us, love divine, near Thee
That we our nothingness may know”. (87:3)
There would be no hitches or jars if we all kept as little ones. The Lord saying “Woe” shows the serious view He takes of any influence that tends to counteract His own influence.
Disciples are those who come under His influence or instruction. He would make God as known in grace to be great to us, and all that is in the purpose of God, the heavenly things, He would make great to us. The very sense of that, if truly in the heart, makes us little. It is a reducing thing. We need to be exercised continually about this, in order to be preserved as little ones. Verse 2 expresses what a very severe judgment the [p. 216] Lord has on anything that would have a contrary effect to His own influence, and every true servant would desire from the bottom of his heart that what is spoken of in verse 2 should happen to him rather than that he should exert an influence contrary to the Lord’s. I am sure I would rather be thrown into the bottom of the sea than be left here to influence the saints contrary to the Lord. Of course, a man doing it deliberately would be an adversary to the Lord and would most certainly be judged.
It is a great favour to be small enough to give some expression of God; such a one is not self-assertive, but can bring in the influence of God. It is what we should desire; we all know how much there is that is contrary, but faith would bring in a power to enable us to set aside what hinders.
The Lord is telling us here what we may have to meet with; offences are inevitable, and we may be tested by a brother. He may be a naughty brother, but he is a valuable asset if we know how to take account of him, because he is an opportunity for active grace in the saints; if he sins there is a call for restorative action. The Lord knew all the conditions we may have to meet, and that a brother may be naughty enough to sin against us seven times in one day. Such a thing has never happened to me, but the Lord says it might happen and we are to take heed that even such a thing as that does not take us out of the spirit of grace that should mark a little one. The little one is not thinking of himself at all, but of the joy of grace; it is like the spirit of chapter 15 passed on to our brotherly relations.
Forgiveness cannot be administered apart from repentance; you cannot administer it, though it is in your heart. Therefore you are to rebuke your brother when he sins, not to get your due but that he may be restored. It is his need you think of, not yourself. The Lord supposes a brother in such a state, so far from a little one, that he can sin against his brother and do it seven times in one day. It might be said that if he had really repented he would not have done it again the same day, but the Lord supposes even such an extreme case as that. To deal with such a case makes a great demand on us. I do not know how I should answer to it if a brother sinned seven times; I might say at the fifth or sixth time, Well, I am tired of this; I see no alteration in you! This supposes a real sin; it is not merely that one has taken offence at nothing. If we [p. 217] get to the bottom of many things that cause trouble to the saints, there is nothing but the folly of self-importance. This supposes there has been real sin, and it is yet to be met in this wonderful spirit of service and grace. If a brother sins you cannot go on with him as if there was nothing; you are bound to hold a certain reserve until there is repentance. You rebuke him, but it is for his good, not to assert what is due to yourself. You do not stand off and want him to go down to immeasurable depths of self-condemnation; if he repents you forgive; it is a free action of grace, a free-hearted forgiveness. A rebuke needs more grace than anything else. If ever I have to speak to a brother about something wrong, it is a very deep exercise because one needs a very extraordinary measure of grace before one can rebuke; one’s soul must be steeped in grace because the flesh so easily comes in.
It is striking that it is the apostles who say, “Give more faith to us”. They felt what a keen test this would be; they felt that this was altogether too much for nature with all its self-importance. They were not up to it. Perhaps we all feel like that. It takes a great deal of grace to be able to rebuke; it is so easy for the flesh to come into activity. I have been rebuked sometimes, and have felt the difference between a rebuke in the flesh and in the Spirit. Very few Christians could refuse the power of an appeal in the grace of Christ; they would be very hard if they could. It is a kind of exaltation for myself naturally if I see wrong in others. A rebuke in the flesh tends to rouse the flesh in us, but a rebuke in the Spirit subdues us. The Lord’s reference to the sycamine tree referred to the deeply planted self-importance of the human heart. The Lord is warning us here against the things that would come in to interfere with the normal effect of the touch of grace. To carry out grace practically we must be very small; our trouble is we are too big, we are not small enough to carry out the principles of grace.
The Lord calls attention to faith here: “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed”. The disciples wanted increase of faith, but the least bit of faith will introduce a new principle in the soul, so small as to be compared to the smallest of seeds, but powerful enough to involve the complete uprooting of the natural principle of self-importance that is in the heart of man. The Lord minimises faith here; sometimes He magnifies it, but here He makes it as small as possible. Faith brings God [p. 218] in, and when that gets ever so little a place in the soul it is power to get rid of self — self not viewed here as lawless or lustful but as great and important. There is power in God to uproot all the natural self-importance of a man and to dispose of it effectually. That is the marvellous effect of this divine principle of faith having its place even in the smallest degree in the soul; one cannot be important in the light of God. Faith brings God in as known in grace; God is revealed in grace in the gospel of Luke. The knowledge of what God has brought in may be very small, and the Lord supposes that faith may be small to begin with, but still there is power in it. Grace is to govern everything; every action, word and thought is to be governed by the revelation of God in grace. It is simple to say it, but it means much. So, if a brother sins, you can bring in what is of God for his restoration, not because you are injured or that you feel hurt by the way he has treated you, but that you might have the joy of grace.
If legal principles work with us, there is nothing more damaging, because they are principles that God has discarded as useless. We sometimes find there is great spiritual grace towards a poor sinner who is a drunkard or something like that, but very little towards an erring brother. That will not do. The legal system has been discarded by God as useless, and legal principles will not work in the assembly of God. Faith is the light of God as known in grace, and everything is to be governed by the light of revelation. Desires are not real unless formed by faith. In an earlier part of the gospel we have instruction as to prayer. Our prayers and desires are formed by the knowledge of God brought to us in the revelation and, if we are not praying in accord with it, it is not Christian prayer, for all prayer is formed by the revelation of God.
The Lord continues the subject and shows that we might become self-important through the diligence and faithfulness of our service, and think that we deserve some consideration. I once heard a man say that he had been serving the Lord for fifty years; he was claiming some kind of status, something due to him. I am sure all we elder ones can only feel ashamed of having grown so little; when we have done what we ought to have done we have to say, “We are unprofitable servants”. The Lord anticipates that self-importance might come in in connection with one’s desire to serve Him; it did with the apostles even. The Lord knew to whom He was talking and [p. 219] knew their hearts. He saw the self-importance which would dispute which should be greatest, and saw some wanting a special place. The Lord knew all about it, and says to them, You have to be bondmen sent to do what you are ordered to do, and then feel that you are unprofitable. It is no credit to you if you have done your work and done it well. We are to expect no consideration but just do what we are told. It needs great grace to be an abundant labourer and not to think anything of oneself. If God in sovereignty permits any of us to do the least bit of service, we are to make full proof of our ministry and do it as faithfully and diligently as possible; it is no ground for self-importance. I am just a bondman and it is no honour to me that I do what my Master tells me to do. The sense of whom we serve would keep us humble. If the greatness of God and of the Person in whom He has made Himself known in grace is before us, we shall not think anything of ourselves; if we feel any rising of that kind, we shall judge it in secret. No one must deceive himself and think these elements are absent from him; he would deceive himself if he thought so. But I can go on in the judgment of it with my God and my Master and Lord, and so I can tell my Lord that I think just the same about it that He does. The Lord will not fail to commend and praise, and reward even a cup of cold water, but this is what is in our own spirits. What do I think of myself?
“Deeds of merit as we thought them
He will tell us were but sin;
Little acts we had forgotten
He will tell us were for Him”.
The servant comes back from his outdoor work of shepherding and ploughing to wait on his master, not to be honoured by his master. He comes back in the true spirit of a servant: “He that waiteth on his master shall be honoured”. It is like the apostles in Acts 13; they were not busy in the field, but they had been, and they come together in the presence of the Lord; in the spirit of service they fast and minister to Him. A true servant would appreciate that, if he loved his master, it would be a holiday for him to wait on his master. The Lord does say sometimes, “Come ye apart and rest awhile”, but it will be the busiest time we ever had after that.
Here there are ten leprous men who stood afar off. Man viewed as in responsibility has no status at all — that is the [p. 220] moral connection with the ten lepers — but as divinely cleansed there is possibility of God getting a place. God acquired a great place with the Samaritan leper; it is easier for men to feel their exclusion from God, and to wish to be relieved, than it is to appreciate God in the glory that He has in cleansing. It intimates that amongst the cleansed God only gets a tenth. The idea of cleansing is that God may get a great place with us. We may hear of a great many conversions in a place, and we do not doubt it, but what place has God secured in the hearts of these people? What is there for God? Many just go on with blessings like the nine lepers who got all they wanted; they were not deeply affected by God’s immediate dealing with them through Jesus. We see the Lord here, not with apostles or disciples, but with ten leprous men. It is just what man is as having a system of approach to God which makes nothing perfect. They were standing afar off and seeking divine compassion. But God is to be known in glory that would cleanse so that He might be more to the heart than the system that He had inaugurated and which He still acknowledged. The tenth leper was greatly affected by the immediateness of God’s dealing with him through Jesus, and that displaced everything else; God secured a place with him. We see here the immediateness and perfection of a divine cleansing with which the priest had nothing to do. If he had nothing to do with it there was no need for the one who appreciated the cleansing as being done directly by God in Jesus to go to the representatives of a system which was really set aside by the direct action of God in the midst of the people. The man who lost sight of the priest, because he was filled with an immediate consciousness of the direct dealing of God with him, was God’s tithe.
There is a system on the earth today which holds the nine, but they were not cleansed by the system, nor does the system accredit them. It will not pronounce anybody clean. It may speak of absolution, but if you enquire carefully there is nothing in it; all is uncertain. The Lord felt this, for He said, “Where are the nine?” The tenth leper here got confirmation; he returned and gave glory to God. The Lord’s supreme concern in regard to us is that God may have His place with us. The question is, What are my thoughts of God? Is He glorified in my affections? Then God gets His tithe.