ttob20

The Testimony of Believers

Lesson 20: by turtle

Luke 17:1-5
(1) Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe
unto him, through whom they come!
(2) It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into
the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
(3) Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he
repent, forgive him.
(4) And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn
again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
(5) And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

A child is innocent victim. A child is born into sin, but learns what sin is. Sin is the one
thing that separates us from God. Yet without knowledge of sin, no one knows that there is
sin. Yet from the beginning the knowledge and consequences for sin is at the door of
everyone born. Adam created on earth goes back to the earth after eating of the fruit. Eve
being deceived herself gives her husband fruit that will get Adam back to earth and her
too. The knowledge that they did not obey God instead obeyed the serpent. Anyone
hurting innocent child is being doing the devil’s work. No parent, no teen, no child is
perfect, but salvation comes through belief in Christ. Yet parents do hurt their kids, other
kids hurt other kids and other teens hurt other kids. Jesus said it would be better for a
millstone to be hung around the neck of the one that hurt a child and to be cast into the
deepth of the sea. However Christ is also about saving life. If you harm a child you do not
tie a cinderblock to your foot and drown yourself. However you should repent and not do
again. See immediately after Christ talks about drowing, He talks about forgiveness. I
wonder if someone in the crowd was considering the very action of drowning in the sea.
Yet we do not know. God wants us to rebuke and to forgive. Some of the hardest things to
do when an innocent person is hurt. If it someone that is a bully and they get knocked
down, people say he deserved it. Especially if a bully were hurting innocent children.

Forgiveness is something hard to do. To show more mercy then someone shows you.
However action to make sure innocent people are protected is sometimes a necessity.
What if innocent person is not protected, then one has to continue to fight for the rights of
others. To protect them from people that might cause them harm. Yet prayer is needed as
well in each situation. Laws are to protect people not to be a burden to people. Yet if the
law fails, then correction takes place. God corrects His people as well as the law. Yet it be
better to deal with the wrath of the law then the wrath of God. God calls us to repentance.

If we ask in faith for sin to be removed it will be cast into the sea.

Luke 17:6
(6) And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this
sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it
should obey you.

Sin has to leave you command it too. However it takes faith to believe sin can leave. When
you confess your sins God is just to forgive our sins and what He does with them is put
them in the sea. We to have to learn to not only seek forgiveness, but to get rid of the sin of
others in the sea of forgetfulness. If as a child you were abused, or as adult you were
abused, they only thing you can do is ask God to remove the hurt others have caused you
and ask God to enable you to forgive. It is okay to take political action to solve issue.
Nothing wrong with that, if the laws are in place or you live in a place where government
can be petitioned on the issue.

One has to remember they one day too have to face God and give account to what we have
done. God will be discussing the good things we did.

Luke 17:7-10
(7) But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and
by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
(8) And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself,
and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
(9) Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I
trow not.
(10) So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you,
say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

How will we respond to those things that we knew already to do. That were command to
all to do? Our response according to God’s word is to say we were unprofitable, because it
was our duty to do them. It is like doing clothes, or washing dishes it is duty of those living
in the house not just one person. Each person having a task. Will the kingdom of God is
like that we have a responsibility to what is right and to share the truth of the word of
God. It responsibility of all.

The gratitude of believers is best represented in the next few verses with the story of the
Leper who returned.

Luke 17:11-19
(11) And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of
Samaria and Galilee.
(12) And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers,
which stood afar off:
(13) And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
(14) And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And
it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
(15) And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice
glorified God,
(16) And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
(17) And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
(18) There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
(19) And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

How often we take for granted the things God does for us. Yet in the story a man born a
Samaritan, who is consider unclean already by Jewish priest just because of his birth line,
when realizing his healing returns to Jesus, praising God. Jesus tells him his faith made
him whole. Our faith made us whole, not our the cleansing process. Yet Jesus cleanses us
from all unrighteousness. From all our sin, without us believing in the promise God gave
through belief in His Son we can not be saved.

Jesus then begin to speak to the Pharisees who were present and had ask when the
Kingdom of Heaven would come. Christ said it would come without observation. In other
words signs of end time, would not have a timeline, or signs of His coming. He would come
as a thief in the night. He would come like when Noah built the ark and Sodom and
Gomorrah was destroyed. Take time to read this slowly.

Luke 17:20-37
(20) And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come,
he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
(21) Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within
you.
(22) And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of
the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
(23) And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
(24) For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto
the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
(25) But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
(26) And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
(27) They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the
day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
(28) Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they
sold, they planted, they builded;
(29) But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from
heaven, and destroyed them all.
(30) Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
(31) In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him
not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
(32) Remember Lot's wife.
(33) Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life
shall preserve it.
(34) I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and
the other shall be left.
(35) Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
(36) Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
(37) And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them,
Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

Everyone wants to know when Christ will return. Yet many seeking signs understand not
that Christ return comes without signs, but not without warnings. We see and have
warning all the time. We have tornadoes, earthquakes and car wrecks that remind us of
how instant death is. And where there is death is the eagles. With death comes the Lord
takes us home, or we go to hell. Are we going to soar with Christ one day. Will we fly
heavenward or downward into a pit of fire and brimstone.