I want you to turn to Luke 17. For several weeks now, we've
been talking about faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. You just can't please God without
faith. The truth is, without faith,
saving faith, you can do nothing. And you will do nothing without
this vital saving faith. In our text today, Jesus has
told His disciples, you need to forgive folks 70 times 7.
That's a whole lot of times. And you know what the disciples
said? This is what I want to talk to
you about. Lord, increase our faith. They didn't think they could
cut the mustard. Forgiving people that many times. Forgiveness of others is connected
with this faith in some way. So, look at verse 5 and we'll
move right along. And the apostles said unto the
Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had
faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this tree, be
thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea,
and it should obey. I want that kind of faith. You
know, it's not ordinary for a tree to grow in the sea. It's not ordinary for a tree
to obey orders. Hey, to the sea with you. What if we had this kind of faith?
And let me say this to you. You need to guard your faith.
You need to look at this faith that is the gift of God. Think
about it this way. If the apostles said, Lord, increase
our faith, how much more do you think you and I should be praying
this way? Lord, increase my faith. If the greatest soldiers of the
cross, if the greatest soldiers in the army of the Lord of Hosts
prayed this prayer, think about us inferior soldiers. I feel myself to be an inferior
soldier. Do you? I don't compare myself
to the Apostle Paul in any way, shape or form. If the Apostles
prayed this way, increase our faith. How much more the feeblest
of saints like you and I need pray this prayer. Do you want
to win today? Do you want to experience greater
things? Then we ought to pray this way.
Increase our faith. when we meet up with demons,
and many of us do on a daily basis. And we can't cast them
out. When some of you continually
relapse after sitting under the influence of the gospel from
this church in this pulpit, and the demon seemingly does not
want to come out, you know what I pray? Increase my faith. This church must be a church
of faith. Or we will be weak and scrawny.
We won't see those miracles that truly need to happen. If you
had the faith of a grain of a mustard seed, you could say to this tree,
be plucked up by the root. Just think about that. A mustard
seed is very, very small. You do know that, right? I hope
that becomes our prayer here. Because we're going to need an
increase of faith. This is not some little something
that's happening. We've just taken over a nightclub,
a bar. The Lord needs to increase our
faith because we don't want to go down there and fail. I would
suppose that there's still some demons down there in one of those
little nooks or crannies somewhere because there was a whole lot
of them when I went in the first time. As a Christian, faith is
important to me. I've been in this 50 years now.
I've never seen it the way I see it now. That I must be strong
in faith. There is nothing that ought to
concern us more than this. Is my faith real? Is my faith
vital? The faith that unites me to the
Lamb of God who brings salvation to my soul. To all of us, I say
this morning, be extremely careful of your faith. Faith is salvation
grace. For by grace ye are saved Through
faith. Do you have that saving faith
today? We're not saved by love. You're not saved by patience.
You're not saved by courage. We're saved by faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. God gives His salvation to faith.
Think about this. I'm going just a little deeper,
I think, today than possibly I ever have in 50 years with
regard to this thing of faith. God gives His salvation faith
and not to any other virtue. Love won't save you. Patience
won't save you. The gift of healing won't save
you. Faith. It's impossible to please God
and be pleasing to God without faith. Somebody else say amen
in here. If a man or woman lacks saving
faith, they lack everything. I don't care how religious you
are. And many here today, no doubt, who have come to this
service, you are religious, but you're not saved. Because you
do not have that faith that utterly, desperately leans on Jesus Christ
alone. You've been baptized, ducked,
sprinkled or poured six or seven times. But you're still not saved
because baptism saves no one. It is not there is a fountain
filled with water drawn from the city main. It is there is
a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
And sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty
stains. If you have not saving faith, you can't please God.
Yes, we ought to examine our conduct. We ought to search our
works. We ought to try our love. But
above all, is our faith right? If our faith is wrong, everything
is wrong. If our faith is right, everything
is right. We'll break it down a little
faster. Let me break it down for you with a word of Scripture.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath eternal life. He that believeth not shall be
damned. How's that for breaking it down? You who believe have the Son
of God abiding in you. And I say to you and to myself,
be anxious about your faith. Because all graces hang on it. Faith is the root grace. All
other virtues and graces spring from it. Tell me of love. How can I love Him in whom I
do not believe? Tell me of patience. How can
I exercise patience unless I have faith? Faith says all things
work together for our good, for the good of them that love the
Lord. But if you don't embrace the
God of predestination, the God who works all things. See, I believe God is sovereign,
that God is mighty, that this faith, this saving faith is a
faith that embraces a God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly
above all that we ask or think. It's an exciting faith. It's
a wonderful faith. It's a glorious faith. It's a
hallelujah faith. It's a faith that is built on
nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Tell me of
courage. But who can have courage who
does not have faith? I'll tell you, you don't have
a backbone without saving faith. increase our faith. Faith is
the sap that runs to all the branches providing vitality.
Faith is the silver thread which the pearls of grace are strung
on. Faith is the mother of virtues.
Faith is the angelic messenger between the soul and heaven.
Faith is the computer wire which links earth to heaven. Faith
is the road on which the cars of prayer travel. Faith links
me with divinity. Faith clothes me with the robes
of gaiety. Faith engages on my side the
omnipotence of Jehovah. Faith gives me the might of God. Faith causes me to defy the host
of hell. Faith makes me arch triumph. over the necks of my enemies.
Faith is the victory, this saving faith. Lord, increase my faith. You see, faith has taken the
burn out of the flames of the fiery furnace. Faith has shut
the mouth of hungry lions. Faith has opened the Red Sea.
Faith has mowed the Midiites with a shout and candle. Faith
is the victory that overcomes the world, but without faith. It's impossible to please God.
And without faith, I can receive nothing from God. You think God's
going to bless you while you're in rebellion? So I'm not in rebellion. Yes,
you are. Why am I in rebellion? Because you have not believed
alone on the Lord Jesus Christ. You're still trusting your denominationalism. Some of you are so glad about
being in such and such a church. You're so religious, but you're
rotten to the core because you have not saving faith. To God
be the glory. And God has locked this thing
of faith in so He gives all the glory. You have to trust somebody
outside yourself. You can't depend on you. Soon as you say, me and God got
a good thing going, you're already in hell. God is my co-pilot. Man, you're
out of your head. You don't know how to fly this
plane. You know, the man of little faith
is the man of little love. The man of great faith is the
man of great affection. It's true. The more faith you
have, The more love you have. Because you see it. You find
yourself to be a debtor to the grace of God. Oh, what a wonder
that Jesus found me. Out in the darkness no light
could I see. He put His great arm under. Wonder
of wonders He saved even me. Alas, and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would
He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? Oh, at the
cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden
of my heart rolled away. I'm in love with Jesus Christ.
Because I'm trusting Him alone. And I want that faith increased. I want to walk on water. I want
to get out of the boat. Guard your faith. A little faith
will save a man. But a little faith can't do great
things. I know some of you out there
who are Sunday morning religionists, you're not liking this, are you? Because you've come this morning
to get this whole thing over with. And tomorrow you won't
be thinking about it. A little faith will get you saved,
but you'll not be saved happily. Oh, now it's starting to rub
just a little bit. You'll be happy hereafter for
sure. But you'll not be happy here. I'll tell you what's wrong
with some of you. Some of you are not happy because
you have little faith. Now, just let it sink in. All
you Calvinists, just let it sink in a little bit. I know what
you're thinking. I think Pastor's a little off
on this grace thing today because he's making this big deal of
faith. I'll clear it up in just a minute. Do you want a religion
of sorrow or one of cheerfulness? I want one of cheerfulness. I
want a little heaven on the way to heaven. Because we're living
in a hell hole, you know. In this world, you're going to
have tribulations. Listen, you know you can sing in the furnace? You know you can shout when all
the hell is popping? When you're in trouble? Because my faith is built on
nothing less than Jesus' blood. and righteousness. Oh, even in
the swelling tide of the Jordan of life, you may sing, because
when thou passest through the river, I will be with thee. The
flood shall not overflow thee when thou passest through the
fire. Thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flames kindle
upon thee. I will sing because I'm happy. I will sing because I'm glad. His eye is on the sparrow, and
he watches over me. He watches over. A little faith can get you to
heaven, but hides itself in a nutshell and loses everything but its
jewels, the nut itself. But there is a faith that will
slay Goliath. A great faith that will conquer
Pontiac. A great faith that will turn
bars into church buildings. Conquer a nation of drug addicts. Lord, increase my faith. And I would say this to you.
Guard your faith because Jesus thinks much of faith. Now, many of us in here are so...
I mean, we are pretty doctrinally savvy. And some of us call ourselves
five-pointers and so forth and so on. And sometimes we ignore
this thing. What I'm about to say. You know,
there's three things in the New Testament that are precious.
That God calls precious. Precious blood. Precious promises. Precious faith. Precious faith. That faith that
looks nowhere else except to Calvary. That faith that puts
it around a bleeding, dying, suffering Savior and believes
that God has caused Him to be the substitute, the propitiation
for our sins, that He paid the debt in full, and that there
is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.
And I'm willing to ride Jordan with this faith. Even when death
approaches, I can sing, I won't have to cross Jordan alone. Jesus
died all my sins to atone. When the darkness I see, He'll
be waiting for me. I won't have to cross Jordan
alone. I was reading one of the old
Puritans, and I kind of stumbled over this statement this week.
He said, Christ Himself takes the crown off His own head to
put it onto faith's head, I thought, hmm, I don't know whether I believe
that or not. But I kept reading. The old Puritan
said, Mark, how often Christ says, thy faith has saved thee. I know, and you do too, that
it's not faith that saves, it's Christ that saves. But I want
you to see the position that Jesus Christ Himself gives to
faith. If you're going to put a crown
anywhere, put the crown where Jesus puts the crown. He didn't
put it on baptism. He didn't put it on your church
denomination. He didn't put it on your good
works. He said it's by faith. that boasting may be excluded.
Oh, you see, there's a purpose because of this faith thing.
And I better hurry up and say this because some of you are
wondering about this whole thing. Faith is the gift of God, by
the way. If you've got any faith at all, God gave it to you. But
the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus Himself during His earthly ministry
put this crown on faith. Thy faith hath healed thee. Faith
did not heal him or her. Christ did. But Christ did uncrown
Himself and put the crown on faith. I would just say this
to you. You'd better check out your faith. Many people have
said to me, I was born into faith. That's too long. I've always
been a Christian. That's too long. There must be
a time. And by the way, God does not
God does not exercise faith for you. It really is an act of the
will of man. Worked out by God in you, my
people shall be willing in the day of my power. I guarantee
you this, if God ever gets a hold of you, you're going to exercise
faith in Christ. You're going to do exactly what
He said. This is my boy. This is my apple of my eye. Trust
Him. and trust Him alone. Faith wears
the crown which the King of kings alone can wear." Have you not read this? We're
justified by faith. How are you declared not guilty?
We're justified freely by faith in Jesus Christ. We have been
justified without a cause. That is, there was no cause in
you that caused God to declare you not guilty. We're justified
By faith. God gives us faith to embrace
what He did through His Son and who His Son is. To embrace Him. That's why Paul would say, God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross. God has made Him to be the substitute. And God is serious when He says,
He that believeth not shall be damned. Listen, when God came
down here, or when God invaded history, or when God sent His
Son down here, He wasn't playing a religious game. He sent Him
down here to do something, and He did it, and He says, trust
Him. Well, I just, I can't kick the
bottle. Check your faith. This faith in Christ is stronger
than anything in the world. The Syro-Phoenician woman that
we talked about a week or so ago, the disciples said, send
her away. Send her away. The Lord said,
I can't give you any bread. You're a Gentile dog. She said,
right on. I'm not asking for a big hunk
of bread. Just give me some crumbs that fall from the master's table.
Just give me the crumbs at the puppy dog. You call me a dog
and I am a dog. I'm just asking for a crumb.
That's the kind of faith. And Jesus said, I've never seen
such faith. Lord, increase our faith. Take the shield of faith. And
quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Paul says in Ephesians,
Fiery darts. You know, one of the fiery darts
is, what's up? You know what that means. In
need of a little butter? Some of you folks have no idea
what I'm talking about, because you've never been in the drug
world. But those of you that I'm really talking to, that's
a fiery dart. Get the shield up. You're not going to overcome
anything without great faith. It's when you're totally caught
up and consumed with the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is the victory. Lord, please increase our faith. Note this. Note it is not, Lord,
sustain our faith. It is not, Lord, keep our faith
alive. It's increase our faith. You
know, only by increase is the Christian kept alive. You know,
a tire stands upright just as long as it's rolling. When it
stops rolling, it falls down. I don't want to stay where I
was 50 years ago. I don't want to have the same
amount of faith I had as an 8-year-old boy. In fact, the Bible says
in the book of Colossians, as you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Well, if that meant baptism,
you'd have to stay in the pool. But it means faith. As you receive
Christ Jesus the Lord by faith, walk by faith, live by faith. I'm glad I believe more than
I did 50 years ago. And I was thinking late last
night, I rejoice that the Lord has delivered me from the little
iron cages of the denomination I grew up in. I know some of
you, now you're going to say, he's going after the Baptists
as sure as the world. I did grow up in the Baptist
church. And they taught me wonderful truths of the Word of God. But they also tried to put me
in an iron cage. I'll tell you, if the Son sets
you free, you're free indeed. In many denominations, Luther
knew the Lord, but I'm not sure all Lutherans know the Lord.
Well, don't go there. You've done such a wonderful
job, Pastor, of not making us angry. Don't go there. You better
not be trusting a denomination. Amen. Amen. The Lord opened the door and
let me fly. I can remember days when people were trying to flip
my wings. I'm a rebel with cause. You know
what? I thought last night, too. You
know, I'm still learning my ABCs. You don't know anything about
grace. Oh, I'm a five-point Calvinist. You don't know anything about
grace. Calvinist, self-righteous Pharisees. Amen. You Armenian salvation by works
person, here's what the Bible says. Now that I've got you upset
enough to listen to me, here's what the Bible says. The Apostle
Paul says that in the ages to come, He might make known the
riches of His grace to us in Christ Jesus. In here, you get
a little happy. Maybe you get a whole lot happy.
And maybe some of you today have been thinking, I couldn't be
happier than I am right now. But you're going to be. Because when you get to heaven,
God's going to take the cover off the hood. When you were down
in the hood, you don't know how many times you could have died
down there. But take a look at that. If I'd taken my hands off
you, if I'd have just let you go and let you do what you wanted
to do, you'd still be a little Detroit alley cat. But I watched over you and I
protected you and my grace was sufficient for you. And then
God's going to say to all you church people, I let you sit
in church and you sat there in your self-righteousness for years. And then one day I said, look
at you. all camouflaged and hiding in
a church puke, acting like you've been born again and you don't
know the Lord. Amen. Oh, listen, let me tell
you, all you people that have been saved out of church, you
ought to be praising God more than the crack addict. Because
you are all hid. Yes, some of you haven't been
to church in 20 years and you're counting on what happened 20
years ago to get you to glory. Ain't going to happen. No. No. All right. The last thing I want you to
note is this. The person to whom the apostles addressed their
prayer. They didn't say, I will increase my faith. They didn't
say, I will go to the minister and increase my faith. They didn't
say, I'll buy a book on faith. Lord! Oh, they went to the right
person. Lord, You've got to increase
my faith. If my faith is increased, You've got to increase it. I
like that too. You see, faith, author alone
is the Lord Himself. He's the author and the finisher
of our faith. You say, You know, you badgered
us today with having more faith and protect your faith. Now you're
telling us it's a gift of God. Yes. Yes. So, I really set you
up. You know what you ought to do
and I should do? Run to the Lord. Say, I can't
do it, Lord, increase my faith. It's your gift. Fill me. Thrill
me. Fill me with the fullness of
God. Anybody here besides me want to be filled? I want to
be filled with the fullness of God. It's God's work to feed faith
as well as to give it life at first. I know I'm talking, and
I think the Spirit of God is talking through me today. I know
there's some of you are just such hypocrites. You talk about
faith and you talk about God, but you still have all that slime
on you and you will not Turn loose of it. You act like you
have faith. I mean, you're churchy, you're
religious, but you also have one foot out there in the world
too. I was thinking Wednesday night while Joe was preaching
how much I hate my flesh. I absolutely have no confidence
in my flesh. I don't expect my flesh to reform.
I don't expect my flesh to get better. And the further I can
get from my flesh, and the deeper the separation from my flesh,
the better off I am. That's right. All of you who have been born
again, there's the flesh and there's the new nature. And they
don't like each other. You can't sin against God and
like it because your new nature won't let you. You can't be comfortable
out there in this world. What's the problem, Christian?
Here's the answer. Go to the Lord and ask Him to
increase your faith. I don't care what your problem.
Are you sick? Do you need healing? Ask the Lord. Are you in financial
trouble? Ask the Lord. Maybe there's somebody
here. I don't think so. But maybe you're
a multimillionaire and you're here. Oh, you've got big trouble.
You've got more trouble than the person who doesn't have any
money. You need some deep faith to know what to do with that
stuff. Because the love of it is the root of all evil. Are
you just tired? Are you weary? Has the world
beat you up? You're just tired? Go to the Lord. He'll give you
rest. Isn't that true? And I close
with this. Some of you You just can't use
this petition. You can't use this prayer, increase
my faith. What would it avail you if you
did? Because you have no faith to
begin with. How can you ask for an increase
of that which doesn't exist? You really don't. You don't even
want to be here, some of you. Except you have to be here. You
know what my prayer is? that you who came into the mission
for a hot shower and a hot dog, and you found yourself having
to come over here, the germ of faith will begin to penetrate
you. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. You know this thing
could be catchy. I was also thinking last night
about some of you. And I said to myself, how do
they exist? Let's see. Your father raped
you? Your uncle? Your brothers? Your babysitter molested you? You've not had a mom or dad?
Let's see. How do those of you without faith
exist out there? Oh, I know how you exist. You
find a bottle. Southern comfort. Or you find cocaine. Listen, it's not that the pastor
doesn't understand why you do get drunk. I completely understand
why some of you get drunk. If I didn't know the Lord... Because there's nothing down
here. You're going to seek, but you're not going to find. Many
of you have that testimony. I sought it in the bar. I sought
life in the needle. I sought it in heroin. I sought
it in crack. I sought it in money. I sought
it in women. But I didn't find it because
it's not found there. That Grand Canyon of need that's
on the inside of you can only be filled by a great God. Some of you here, our church
truly is filled with poor people. We're a poor church, considering.
There's not a lot of wealth in this church. I don't know how
you make it. Now, wait a minute. I know how
you make it. I know how those of you who are saved make it.
I'm talking about you who are poor and don't have a penny in
your pocket. You're walking the streets, but
you have no faith. You don't have saving faith.
You know, you can be as poor as Job's turkey and be happy
if you know Christ. I know everything's working for
my good. Yeah, but you don't have a penny in your pocket.
Yeah, but I know God. He owns the cattle on a thousand
hills. Some of you are on the verge
of eternity. Some of you have used crack so
long your teeth are falling out. Your heart is failing. You're
on the verge of the abyss. You're about to make your bed
in hell. You know, this is what's great
about the Christian and having faith. You know the Christian
has wings? If I fall, and sometimes I do,
what the devil doesn't understand is I have wings. And when I'm falling, I begin
to say, my faith is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. And I rise above the abyss. I have to confess to you, I got
high last night. I was in my study until about
11 o'clock. I got to shouting, hallelujah! See, I'm not without God. I'm
glad there's a God. I'll never go to hell. Nothing
can hurt me. It can only work for my good. And I pray today that God will
give faith to those today who have none. The Spirit of the
Almighty will regenerate. I'm tired of letting the bucket
down and drawing up no water. I want to see people saved every
Lord's Day. Amen? What a shame it is to have
this big fishing pond full of sinners and not catch one. I hope I hook you today. And the Spirit of God is drawing
you in. I'd like to kick about a 10-pounder
today. I mean, you've been wallowed
in the stables of hell. You're as black as all. Get out.
There's nothing you haven't done. I want to tell you, the blood
of Jesus Christ will make you white as snow. Say, well, that's how? Belief. That's too simple. If it's so simple, why don't
you do it? Why don't you do it right now? Why don't you trust
Christ right where you are? If it's so simple. Now, if I
told you to come down front, you probably would. If I told
you to step over the line, sign a card, you probably would. But
I'm not going to tell you any of that. I'm going to say, be
still and trust Christ. Right where you are. Right where
you are, trust Christ. And I guarantee you the burden
of your heart will roll away. The burden of your heart will
roll away. And you know the first thing you're going to want to
do? Upchuck it. You know, you can't get saving
faith. You can't be a closet Christian. Jesus would save people
and heal people and say, now go that way and don't tell anybody.
And the first person they came to, they said, hey, did you know
I got saved? He healed me. That's the way
we are. If you get saved, it's going
to leak out on you. Aren't you tired of pretending?
Aren't you tired of this world? Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. Come to Christ without one plea.
Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.
Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for
me. O Lamb of God, I come. Here's
what I want you to do. And I know some of you have asked
me this week, well, Pastor, I confessed Christ up front once. When you
say about coming forward, do you mean I should do it again?
I'm not talking to you. I'll talk to you later about
baptism as we go along here. But right now, I'm talking to
you who have never, ever acknowledged Christ. You're not coming up
front to get saved. You're coming up front because
you have been. And you want to say, you're not ashamed. You
may be as bashful as all get out and scared to death of a
crowd. But God gives you a holy boldness when you trust Christ.
And you don't want to say anything? Pastor, don't make me say anything.
I won't. I just want you to come stand
right here. If you've trusted Christ this morning, I want you
to come stand right here. If you've trusted Christ this morning
for the first time, you say, I don't know much. In fact, I've
never been in church like this before. But I see it. I see that God has come to earth
in the person of Jesus Christ, lived a spotless life for me,
died in my room instead, and took my sins away. And I'm trusting
Him. I want you to come.