“Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” Matthew 18:7.
Our Saviour knows all things! “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure,” Isaiah 46:10.
1. In our text He speaks of “offences”. The word literally means ‘the movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick, any impediment placed in the way and causing one to stumble or fall.’
The Saviour is here telling us that such ‘impediments’ will be multiplied and increasingly encountered by the believer. “It must needs be that offences come.” As the end of this age approaches, so the world will become more outrageous in its defiance of God and what is holy and become more and more of an offence to the ‘righteous’!
2. Furthermore, the Saviour tells us the source of such offences. “Woe unto the world because of offences.” It is the worldly “man by whom the offence cometh.” This world and all in it and of it, is the enemy of God. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world,” 1 John 2:16.
How wrong it is in any way to be affiliated with the ways of the world. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God,” James 4:4.
3. By God’s grace we have been transformed and made very different from the world and what we were when we were of it.
“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Ephesians 2:2-6.
“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you,” John 15:19.
4. Daily, there ought to be a work of ‘sanctification’ going on within us, changing us from what we were!
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” Romans 12:2.
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory,” Colossians 3:1-4.
5. We should note that the Saviour pronounces a ‘woe’ against the worldly offenders!
“Woe unto the world because of offences! . . . woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” It is a double woe that is pronounced.
The meaning of the world ‘woe’ may be seen in the place where it is first used by the Lord Jesus in the New Testament.
“Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee,” Matthew 11:21-24.
I have underlined the words which clearly show that the ‘woe’ spoken of by Christ is ‘eternal damnation’!
That is what will follow the offending of God and His people by the wicked actions and words of the worldly.
Dear friends, it is no light thing to offend God by offending His people!
Recent events, both in Paris and Belfast, displayed the delight the wicked take in defying God and offending His Law and affronting and distressing His people.
I refer to the opening of the ‘Olympics’ and the ‘Sodomite’ celebration in Belfast on Saturday past (July 27th).
Headlines
The headlines and accompanying photographs in many news reports said it all.
BELFAST SODOMITE PARADE
Many, who were daft enough to watch the television broadcasts, were also offended at the opening events of the ‘Paris Olympics’A BBC news article stated:
“Olympic chiefs ‘sorry’ opening ceremony caused offence Banquet scene from Paris Olympics opening ceremony”
Of course, the ‘offenders’ always have an explanation and an excuse, with truth very much absent from such!
The BBC reported:
“A US telecommunications company, C Spire, said it would be pulling its advertising around the Olympic Games after being ‘shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies’.
The ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, said there was no intention to ‘mock or denigrate anyone’ and explained the scene in question was designed to reference pagan gods.
‘Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,’ Paris 2024 spokeswoman Anne Descamps told reporters on Sunday.
‘On the contrary, I think Thomas Jolly did try to intend to celebrate community tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offence, we of course are really sorry.’
Jolly told French broadcaster BFM: ‘The idea was to do a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus.’
A brother who ministers in a congregation in Greenwood, Mississippi dealt with this blasphemy just last Lord’s Day. Here is what he had to say on the matter:
Cowards
The cowardly hatred of the TRUTH is seen in that these mockers ONLY denigrate the GOSPEL and NEVER mock Islam or the Muslims!
That is testimony to the non-violent response of the Christian in comparison to the responses that have come from Muslim sources when they deem that they have been ‘offended’!
As it was with Lot before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, so it will be with God’s people in the last days.
“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished,” 2 Peter 2:6-9.
Christ’s “WOE” will be executed and that sooner than the world expects. For like the world in Noah’s day and also Sodom and Gomorrah, God’s judgment will fall while they are east expecting it, having rejected His warnings.
“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 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. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed,” Luke 17:26-30.
“Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” Revelation 22:20.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd
30th July 2024