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Beware Of Setting Mouse Traps
Beware Of Setting Mouse Traps!
1. That Entrap Other Christians
2. That Ensnare Yourself
Text: Mark 9:38-50
38 John replied to him, “Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we began to forbid him because he was not following with us.”
39 “Stop forbidding him,” Jesus said, “for there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name and will quickly be able to speak evil of me.
40 “For who is not against us is for us.
41 “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in connection with my name that you are Christ’s disciples, truly I say to you that he will in no way lose his reward.”
42 “And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall into sin, it would have been better for him if a large mill stone that is worked by donkey power had been placed around his neck and he had been cast into the sea.
43 “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled than having two hands to go away into hell, into the unquenchable fire,
44 “where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.
45 “And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off; it is better to enter into life lame than having two feet to be cast into hell,
46 “where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.
47 “And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell,
48 “where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.
49 “For everyone will be salted with fire.
50 “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and live in peace with one another.”
Sermon:
Beware of the unforeseen which causes a fiasco! My mission congregarion had erected near our parsonage a metal storage shed. In it bags of grass seed were stored. All was well until a windstorm tore the shed apart. Unbeknown to anyone, families of mice had taken up residence in the sheltered bags of grass seed. When the storage shed was blown apart and the heavy rains saturated the bags of grass seed, the mice scurried for dry cover.
In our garage were a few plastic bags of trash. One cold evening I carried one into our kitchen to put some trash into it. Suddenly my wife Sandy said, “What was that?” “What was what?” I asked. Then I saw it too. Some little thing ran out of the trash bag and scurried across the floor. Then another. All total six or seven of them ran out! “They’re mice!” Sandy shouted. “They’re running all over the house!” “Mice!” our boys shouted. And the chase was on. With brooms, or whatever else we could find the boys and I ran around the house swatting and stomping mice.
From that night on mice migrated into the parsonage from the destroyed remains of the shed outside. Weeks later when I opened my dresser drawer I was startled out of my wits by a mouse that jumped out of it. To combat the situation mouse traps became standard equipment in our household. I set them in every nook and cranny and corner where we suspected mice could be lurking.
I do not know about you, but I really do not like setting those deadly little contraptions called mouse traps. I am always afraid that after I have set the tongued trigger of the trap that somehow I will catch my own finger in it. This is what I want to discuss with you now. “Beware Of Setting Mouse Traps!”
I do have a spiritual lesson in mind when I tell you, “Beware of setting mouse traps!” In this text Jesus warns us about causing other believers to fall from their faith and life with him into unbelief and sin. He also warns us about things that would cause us to fall from our faith into unbelief and sin. The term Jesus used for causing this fall from faith is “skandalon”. A skandalon was the stick of an ancient trap impaled through fresh meat, the bait, which triggered a snare or trap. We might compare a skandalon to the tongued trigger of a mouse trap on which we put the peanut butter. As you know, those little tongued triggers are touchy; the slightest jar sets them off. This is why I hate setting mouse traps. I am afraid that I might somehow get my own finger caught in it.
But I am not here to tell you how to set your mouse traps safely but to warn you where not to set them. I am here to share Jesus’ spiritual warning against setting out skandalon for other believers or yourselves to become caught in. Spiritually speaking a skandalon is anything that is placed in front of a believer that causes him to begin distrusting and deserting his Savior and Lord Jesus, causing him to fall away from his faith into unbelief and sin. So when I tell you, “Beware of setting mouse traps (skandalon)!” I mean watch out for those things that you might say or do that would cause another Christian or yourself to fall from the faith, to desert Jesus and his church, and to become caught in unbelief and sin.
In the context the disciples had been arguing over who was the greatest. To settle the argument Jesus stood a little believing child in front of them and said, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me; and whoever receives me does not receive me but him who sent me.” Even receiving a small believing child as one of Christ’s own believers was great in the kingdom of God, for doing so also received Christ himself and God the Father.
The apostle John then remembered that the disciples had not accepted a certain man as belonging to Christ but had actually hindered him. He told Jesus, “Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we began to forbid him because he was not following with us.” Jesus had given the disciples authority to cast out demons. This man was not one of their own number, so they tried to stop him. He was an outsider, to use that manner of expression. They failed to consider, however, that the man’s casting out demons in Jesus’ name proved he was a believer in Jesus.
Put yourself in that man’s shoes. You are exercising your faith in Jesus when his disciples tell you, “Hey! You can’t do that! You are not one of Jesus’ disciples.” Wouldn’t your being shunned as a believer in Jesus offend you, causing you to stumble in your faith and relationship with Jesus? Wouldn’t that be the trigger of the trap that ensnares you into deserting Jesus to turn against the faith?
Jesus said, “Stop forbidding him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name and will quickly be able to speak evil of me. For who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in connection with my name that you are Christ’s disciples, truly I say to you that he will in no way lose his reward.”
There is no middle ground with regard to Jesus: either a person is for him or against him. That man, because he cast out demons in Jesus’ name, was on Jesus’ team. He was for Jesus, not against him. So the disciples should not have stopped him from serving his Lord and Savior. Even the smallest work of faith by such a believer, like giving another thirsty Christian a drink of water, will be rewarded by God as a good deed. This being true, the disciples should not have put a hindrance in front of that believer, even if he was not of their fellowship and close circle. They should not have set a trap for him, which could have ensnared him into turning away from his Savior.
We also must beware of setting mouse traps before other Christians who are not of our church body. Just because a Christian is not a member of our church body does not mean that he is not a believer in Jesus. We may not be united with him in the same fellowship of doctrine and practice based on the Scriptures, but we must recognize the broader fellowship of believers in Jesus, whoever they are and wherever they are, as members of Christ’s true invisible church. The true church of Christ is not any one visible church body, but is the living souls of all who believe in Christ.
Nor should we interfere with the ministries of Christians who are not of our fellowship. If we did, not only would we hinder the ministry and work Christ has given to them, but we would set a mouse trap in front of them that could ensnare them in turning from Jesus to unbelief and sin. We must beware of doing this.
Jesus also told his disciples, “And whoever causes one of these little ones (such as that small believing child whom Jesus stood among them) who believe in me to fall into sin, it would have been better for him if a large mill stone that is worked by donkey power had been placed around his neck and he had been cast into the sea.” To put a skandalon, the trigger of a trap that causes a believer to desert his Savior for unbelief and sin, before another Christian is a serious offense, deserving the worst punishment of God. A person who causes even a believing child to fall away from his Savior would be better off being drowned in the ocean than perishing in hell.
Think about this dear parents. Beware of what you say and do around your children. What you say or do might set a mouse trap for your children that ensnares them in unbelief and sin. The example of parents who do not worship the Lord regularly in his church, who are disinterested in Bible study, who are unwilling to be involved in their Lord’s church, might be the trap that causes their children to distrust and desert their Savior and his church.
Generally as goes the parents, so goes the children. I recall one sad instance of parents who said they wanted to leave a congregation because their children did not want to go to church there. But why should their teenagers want to go there when their parents seldom went and at home only complained about the pastor and the congregation? The parents turned off their own children! So parents, beware of setting mouse traps in front of your children. You might ensnare them in unbelief and sin, in which case God’s punishment will be most severe.
We must also beware of setting mouse traps in which we catch ourselves. Jesus said, “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled than having two hands to go away into hell, into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off; it is better to enter into life lame than having two feet to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.”
Sin in our lives is serious. Sin and hell go together. To choose sin is to ensnare oneself in hell. To commit sin is to be liable to God’s punishment in hell. So Jesus says to cut off the sin. Remove it before it can condemn you to hell.
Outside the gates of Jerusalem the Jews of Jesus’ day had a vivid picture of what hell is like – Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom. It was the city dump. There the worms feasted on the garbage endlessly and the fires that burned the refuse flamed day and night intensely. So it is in hell. The worm of the condemned, their conscience, never dies. It gnaws at them endlessly, torturing their minds with the knowledge of their many sins for which reason they were condemned to hell. And hell’s burning fires, which fry them but never consume them, never go out. They live endlessly in constant agony. Their torture is forever, without a moment’s relief. So it will be for all who cater to sin and do not cut it out of their lives.
Therefore Jesus tells us that whatever would cause us to turn from him and ensnare us in unbelief and sin, we should cut out of our lives. Get rid of it. To do so, Jesus is not advocating we mutilate whatever part of our body commits a sin. He is not saying that if our tongue gossiped, we should cut it out. Or if our eye lusted after someone of the opposite sex, we should poke it out. The parts of our body are merely the instruments that our sinful natures use to carry out their evil desires. To remove the sin, which is the trigger that entraps us in sin and turns us from our Savior, we must purify our hearts so that we are dedicated to serving our Savior with only pure thoughts and desires. Then the parts of our body will not become instruments of sin but will be instruments of righteousness.
Each of us is a guilty sinner who offends our holy God with our wrong doings. Even though we are Christians who have the best of intentions to do only right, we fail miserably to carry out those holy desires. Time and again we fail to cut the sin out of our lives. But as believers in Jesus we need not fear the punishment of hell, for Jesus suffered all its tortures for us. On the cross he gave his life into suffering and death to pay the debt of our sins. Since he paid the debt of our sins, God has declared our sins forgiven and that we are not subject to hell’s tortures and fires. Heaven, eternal life, everlasting blessedness will be our end. Having this assurance, we strive on to cut out the sin in our lives.
Only one thing will purify our hearts to cut out the sins in our lives, the Word of God. Referring to it as salt, Jesus says, “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and live in peace with one another.” The Word of God is good for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. But if that Word of God is made tasteless by a preacher, who waters it down so the law no longer convicts his hearers of their sins and the gospel no longer soothes their troubled consciences with God’s forgiveness in Jesus, the message preached can accomplish nothing. It is useless. We must be salted with the Word, so we are purified to avoid the sins and temptations that confront us. Then we can avoid the traps tthat would catch us in unbelief and sin and cause our spiritual downfall.
So let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly and beware of setting mouse traps, for the mouse trap you set may catch another Christian or even yourself.
Amen.
1. That Entrap Other Christians
2. That Ensnare Yourself
Text: Mark 9:38-50
38 John replied to him, “Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we began to forbid him because he was not following with us.”
39 “Stop forbidding him,” Jesus said, “for there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name and will quickly be able to speak evil of me.
40 “For who is not against us is for us.
41 “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in connection with my name that you are Christ’s disciples, truly I say to you that he will in no way lose his reward.”
42 “And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall into sin, it would have been better for him if a large mill stone that is worked by donkey power had been placed around his neck and he had been cast into the sea.
43 “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled than having two hands to go away into hell, into the unquenchable fire,
44 “where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.
45 “And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off; it is better to enter into life lame than having two feet to be cast into hell,
46 “where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.
47 “And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell,
48 “where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.
49 “For everyone will be salted with fire.
50 “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and live in peace with one another.”
Sermon:
Beware of the unforeseen which causes a fiasco! My mission congregarion had erected near our parsonage a metal storage shed. In it bags of grass seed were stored. All was well until a windstorm tore the shed apart. Unbeknown to anyone, families of mice had taken up residence in the sheltered bags of grass seed. When the storage shed was blown apart and the heavy rains saturated the bags of grass seed, the mice scurried for dry cover.
In our garage were a few plastic bags of trash. One cold evening I carried one into our kitchen to put some trash into it. Suddenly my wife Sandy said, “What was that?” “What was what?” I asked. Then I saw it too. Some little thing ran out of the trash bag and scurried across the floor. Then another. All total six or seven of them ran out! “They’re mice!” Sandy shouted. “They’re running all over the house!” “Mice!” our boys shouted. And the chase was on. With brooms, or whatever else we could find the boys and I ran around the house swatting and stomping mice.
From that night on mice migrated into the parsonage from the destroyed remains of the shed outside. Weeks later when I opened my dresser drawer I was startled out of my wits by a mouse that jumped out of it. To combat the situation mouse traps became standard equipment in our household. I set them in every nook and cranny and corner where we suspected mice could be lurking.
I do not know about you, but I really do not like setting those deadly little contraptions called mouse traps. I am always afraid that after I have set the tongued trigger of the trap that somehow I will catch my own finger in it. This is what I want to discuss with you now. “Beware Of Setting Mouse Traps!”
I do have a spiritual lesson in mind when I tell you, “Beware of setting mouse traps!” In this text Jesus warns us about causing other believers to fall from their faith and life with him into unbelief and sin. He also warns us about things that would cause us to fall from our faith into unbelief and sin. The term Jesus used for causing this fall from faith is “skandalon”. A skandalon was the stick of an ancient trap impaled through fresh meat, the bait, which triggered a snare or trap. We might compare a skandalon to the tongued trigger of a mouse trap on which we put the peanut butter. As you know, those little tongued triggers are touchy; the slightest jar sets them off. This is why I hate setting mouse traps. I am afraid that I might somehow get my own finger caught in it.
But I am not here to tell you how to set your mouse traps safely but to warn you where not to set them. I am here to share Jesus’ spiritual warning against setting out skandalon for other believers or yourselves to become caught in. Spiritually speaking a skandalon is anything that is placed in front of a believer that causes him to begin distrusting and deserting his Savior and Lord Jesus, causing him to fall away from his faith into unbelief and sin. So when I tell you, “Beware of setting mouse traps (skandalon)!” I mean watch out for those things that you might say or do that would cause another Christian or yourself to fall from the faith, to desert Jesus and his church, and to become caught in unbelief and sin.
In the context the disciples had been arguing over who was the greatest. To settle the argument Jesus stood a little believing child in front of them and said, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me; and whoever receives me does not receive me but him who sent me.” Even receiving a small believing child as one of Christ’s own believers was great in the kingdom of God, for doing so also received Christ himself and God the Father.
The apostle John then remembered that the disciples had not accepted a certain man as belonging to Christ but had actually hindered him. He told Jesus, “Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we began to forbid him because he was not following with us.” Jesus had given the disciples authority to cast out demons. This man was not one of their own number, so they tried to stop him. He was an outsider, to use that manner of expression. They failed to consider, however, that the man’s casting out demons in Jesus’ name proved he was a believer in Jesus.
Put yourself in that man’s shoes. You are exercising your faith in Jesus when his disciples tell you, “Hey! You can’t do that! You are not one of Jesus’ disciples.” Wouldn’t your being shunned as a believer in Jesus offend you, causing you to stumble in your faith and relationship with Jesus? Wouldn’t that be the trigger of the trap that ensnares you into deserting Jesus to turn against the faith?
Jesus said, “Stop forbidding him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name and will quickly be able to speak evil of me. For who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in connection with my name that you are Christ’s disciples, truly I say to you that he will in no way lose his reward.”
There is no middle ground with regard to Jesus: either a person is for him or against him. That man, because he cast out demons in Jesus’ name, was on Jesus’ team. He was for Jesus, not against him. So the disciples should not have stopped him from serving his Lord and Savior. Even the smallest work of faith by such a believer, like giving another thirsty Christian a drink of water, will be rewarded by God as a good deed. This being true, the disciples should not have put a hindrance in front of that believer, even if he was not of their fellowship and close circle. They should not have set a trap for him, which could have ensnared him into turning away from his Savior.
We also must beware of setting mouse traps before other Christians who are not of our church body. Just because a Christian is not a member of our church body does not mean that he is not a believer in Jesus. We may not be united with him in the same fellowship of doctrine and practice based on the Scriptures, but we must recognize the broader fellowship of believers in Jesus, whoever they are and wherever they are, as members of Christ’s true invisible church. The true church of Christ is not any one visible church body, but is the living souls of all who believe in Christ.
Nor should we interfere with the ministries of Christians who are not of our fellowship. If we did, not only would we hinder the ministry and work Christ has given to them, but we would set a mouse trap in front of them that could ensnare them in turning from Jesus to unbelief and sin. We must beware of doing this.
Jesus also told his disciples, “And whoever causes one of these little ones (such as that small believing child whom Jesus stood among them) who believe in me to fall into sin, it would have been better for him if a large mill stone that is worked by donkey power had been placed around his neck and he had been cast into the sea.” To put a skandalon, the trigger of a trap that causes a believer to desert his Savior for unbelief and sin, before another Christian is a serious offense, deserving the worst punishment of God. A person who causes even a believing child to fall away from his Savior would be better off being drowned in the ocean than perishing in hell.
Think about this dear parents. Beware of what you say and do around your children. What you say or do might set a mouse trap for your children that ensnares them in unbelief and sin. The example of parents who do not worship the Lord regularly in his church, who are disinterested in Bible study, who are unwilling to be involved in their Lord’s church, might be the trap that causes their children to distrust and desert their Savior and his church.
Generally as goes the parents, so goes the children. I recall one sad instance of parents who said they wanted to leave a congregation because their children did not want to go to church there. But why should their teenagers want to go there when their parents seldom went and at home only complained about the pastor and the congregation? The parents turned off their own children! So parents, beware of setting mouse traps in front of your children. You might ensnare them in unbelief and sin, in which case God’s punishment will be most severe.
We must also beware of setting mouse traps in which we catch ourselves. Jesus said, “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled than having two hands to go away into hell, into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off; it is better to enter into life lame than having two feet to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.”
Sin in our lives is serious. Sin and hell go together. To choose sin is to ensnare oneself in hell. To commit sin is to be liable to God’s punishment in hell. So Jesus says to cut off the sin. Remove it before it can condemn you to hell.
Outside the gates of Jerusalem the Jews of Jesus’ day had a vivid picture of what hell is like – Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom. It was the city dump. There the worms feasted on the garbage endlessly and the fires that burned the refuse flamed day and night intensely. So it is in hell. The worm of the condemned, their conscience, never dies. It gnaws at them endlessly, torturing their minds with the knowledge of their many sins for which reason they were condemned to hell. And hell’s burning fires, which fry them but never consume them, never go out. They live endlessly in constant agony. Their torture is forever, without a moment’s relief. So it will be for all who cater to sin and do not cut it out of their lives.
Therefore Jesus tells us that whatever would cause us to turn from him and ensnare us in unbelief and sin, we should cut out of our lives. Get rid of it. To do so, Jesus is not advocating we mutilate whatever part of our body commits a sin. He is not saying that if our tongue gossiped, we should cut it out. Or if our eye lusted after someone of the opposite sex, we should poke it out. The parts of our body are merely the instruments that our sinful natures use to carry out their evil desires. To remove the sin, which is the trigger that entraps us in sin and turns us from our Savior, we must purify our hearts so that we are dedicated to serving our Savior with only pure thoughts and desires. Then the parts of our body will not become instruments of sin but will be instruments of righteousness.
Each of us is a guilty sinner who offends our holy God with our wrong doings. Even though we are Christians who have the best of intentions to do only right, we fail miserably to carry out those holy desires. Time and again we fail to cut the sin out of our lives. But as believers in Jesus we need not fear the punishment of hell, for Jesus suffered all its tortures for us. On the cross he gave his life into suffering and death to pay the debt of our sins. Since he paid the debt of our sins, God has declared our sins forgiven and that we are not subject to hell’s tortures and fires. Heaven, eternal life, everlasting blessedness will be our end. Having this assurance, we strive on to cut out the sin in our lives.
Only one thing will purify our hearts to cut out the sins in our lives, the Word of God. Referring to it as salt, Jesus says, “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and live in peace with one another.” The Word of God is good for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. But if that Word of God is made tasteless by a preacher, who waters it down so the law no longer convicts his hearers of their sins and the gospel no longer soothes their troubled consciences with God’s forgiveness in Jesus, the message preached can accomplish nothing. It is useless. We must be salted with the Word, so we are purified to avoid the sins and temptations that confront us. Then we can avoid the traps tthat would catch us in unbelief and sin and cause our spiritual downfall.
So let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly and beware of setting mouse traps, for the mouse trap you set may catch another Christian or even yourself.
Amen.
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