Turn with me to Luke 17. Luke 17. We'll begin by reading the passage in verse 5, 5 through 10. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, You 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. 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 me? 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. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not, or I think not. 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.

Now, once the Lord has effectually communicated his pardon to our hearts, made known that he has given to us the forgiveness of our sins, we begin to travel. We begin to travel in that knowledge of the grace of our God on our journey home. And we do so with a growing knowledge and understanding that in ourselves we are but unprofitable servants. As we grow in the Lord, we learn this and understand more and more we are unprofitable servants and have nothing to boast of in ourselves. And we find that it is only in this humility where great faith is found. It's only in that humility.

So beginning with the verse that we ended on last week, verse 5, where the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. It's understood by most that they said this upon hearing what the Lord had been saying regarding forgiveness. And that we see in verse 3 and 4. Let's look there. take heed to yourselves, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. 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.' And the apostle said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

Perhaps they felt themselves insufficient for the truth, for the doctrine that they had just heard the Lord say. And they're thinking, how can I forgive like that? Who's sufficient for these things? Lord, help us to hear what you're saying. Help us to obey what you're teaching us here. We need you to increase our faith so that we can do that.

But when you look at the response that our Lord makes to them, I can't help but consider that our Lord is addressing the condition of our own hearts, the condition of our sinful heart. Right? They're saying increase our faith. Well, what faith do you have? What faith do you have to begin with? If you double zero, what do you have? Zero, right? Make it 100 times more, Lord. I have nothing. Make it 100 times more. You still have zero. Zero. How can you increase what you don't even have?

You see, when a man begins to seek the Lord in his natural flesh, we're proud. We're proud. We're arrogant. We're very vain. We're very high on ourselves and very confident in our strength. And we want to see more of it. We just want a few tweaks, we want a little bit of help here, but we got this thing, and we're just, Lord, increase our faith so we can be even better versions of ourselves. If you remember, Peter boasted on the night that our Lord was betrayed. He said, though all men should be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. And our Lord replied, Verily, Peter, I say unto thee, that this night before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter said unto him, though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. Now, we're ready to die with you, Lord.

And I would venture to say that it's the experience of all the disciples to this day that we think too highly of ourselves. And it's only by the grace and power of our God that we are corrected, that we are humbled, that we are brought low in ourselves so that in our attitudes, in our understanding of things, we're conformed to the image of Christ. were not made more and more in the image of Adam, being stronger and more confident in his flesh, were made conformed to the image of Christ, the lowly servant of God, who when he came, the Son of God, in all his glory and power, robed that in flesh and humbled himself and became the servant of God to accomplish the redemption of his people, and that's what we're being conformed to.

Think of what John the Baptist said, I must decrease and he must increase, or rather he must increase and I must decrease. And that's true of his ministry. That is true of his ministry. He had to decrease in the sight of the people and Christ exalt to be exalted. But that's also true of us by nature. And we see that as we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, we see I am far, far too proud, too confident in self. He must increase, but I must decrease.

And so what I'm saying here is that an increase of faith from what we think of naturally what that looks like, mighty on the battlefield, strong and fervent and steadfast in what we're doing, we think of ourselves that it's going to look like this great victory. And what the Lord is teaching is great faith is seen in great humility, in the long, patient, dark hours of the normalcy of our lives here.

An increase of faith is actually an entirely new creation. It's not just improving on what you and I are in the flesh. What you and I are in the flesh is sinners. unworthy of God's notice, unworthy of God's grace and mercy. And so it's an entirely, it's worked and wrought in an entirely new creation. And it'll be found in the lowly and the humble, that is a servant who's humbled by the Lord. The Lord's gonna do the humbling. If you're his, he'll add faith and it'll be found That's where he adds that faith. That's where he brings it forth.

So with that understanding, let me speak to you this morning of four things that we can draw from this passage. Four things here.

First, what we draw from this passage is that faith looks to Jesus Christ for all my salvation. We're not looking outside of ourselves. Faith looks to Jesus Christ for all my salvation. No man is saved by faith because of his faith. There's a lot of people in the world that call themselves Christians that are very confident that they'll be seated with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in heaven. They'll be at that great feast because of their faith. And their confidence is in their faith. But the faith of the believer is looking to Christ. It's the object of our faith that saves us, not our faith. It's the object of our faith by which we are saved.

Listen to what the Apostle John wrote in 1 John 5, 10 through 12. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He has the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made God a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And so here we see that the emphasis is on God. And the witness, the witness he gives of his Son, is wrought in us, looking to us. This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

It's not your faith that saves you. It's not my faith that saves me, but rather it's the Savior whom the Father hath sent to save his people from their sins. He's our salvation. He's our salvation. And if you're not a sinner, if I'm not a sinner, we've no part in Christ. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Peter saith unto him, Peter tried to deflect, thou shalt never wash my feet, Lord. And the Lord said, except I wash your feet, you have no part in me. We're sinners. We need the Lord Jesus Christ to wash us of our sins. And so this faith here is the operation of God bearing witness in you that Christ Jesus has shed his blood for your sins, for you, to save you, to give you life. It's an operation of God bearing witness in you. that you are his. That's why you have faith. That's why you believe. It's not your faith that saves. It's the evidence that God has saved you.

And he's bringing to bear all the fruits, all the gifts of Christ that he has earned and obtained for us by his faithful service unto the Father. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 1, verse 19 and 20. He says, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward, who believe according, right, and who believe according to the working of His mighty power. Our faith, your faith, is according to God's working, God's mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.

You had nothing to do with the raising up of Christ from the dead, of him being set next to his father. It wasn't you that made that happen. Well, so it is that with your faith, it wasn't you that made that happen. This is brought forth. This is an operation of God as part of all the gifts, as part of the redemption and salvation that Christ Jesus has obtained for us. Do you believe it? Do you believe God? Because that's His testimony. That's His witness. And you that believe that He is the Savior, He has done this. He has accomplished salvation for all His people.

That's the witness that God has given you, that hope in His Son. that you believe Him, that you follow Him, that you trust Him, that is the witness of God working that in you. He's done that in new creatures, new creatures. We don't make that happen, He makes it happen in us. When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Therefore, all these blessings of salvation flow from the Savior to His people. That's why these things are so.

Here's another one, Colossians 2.12. We're buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. This faith that we have that looks to Christ and believes he is our salvation, that is the operation of God. He does that. And so it comes back to this. What have I to boast him? Lord, I need your grace. I need your salvation. Lord, save me. Have mercy upon me. That's what faith looks like. Lord, I've nothing to myself. Save me, Lord.

The second thing we see here is that God-given faith will be tried. God-given faith will be proved. God-given faith will be put through the trial and exercised. Our Lord, what He says in response to their request for an increase of faith would seem to actually aggravate the fact that we have nothing of ourselves to boast in. It seems to aggravate their confidence in self. It shows us how utterly weak and insufficient we are in this matter of faith.

They asked, Lord, increase our faith. Verse six, the Lord said, if ye had faith has 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."

Wow. Well, how little is what I have? How little is my understanding? How little is my faithfulness? It shows us not the greatness of our faith, but the weakness of it. It doesn't show us the sufficiency of our faith, but the insufficiency of it. I don't even have that which amounts to a tiny, tiny little seed, a little, little grain. That's what you're saying, Lord? That's what he's saying.

This isn't on you. It's not on you. It's on him. We are dependent entirely on the Lord Jesus Christ, on his grace. He's showing us not the victory of our faith, but the failure of it. This is how weak we are. You don't even have a tiny little dot of faith in you. By nature, we are dead, spiritually dead creatures. We need a new birth, a new creation.

Having said that, though, we do know the Lord's people are a people of faith. We are a people of faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. The scriptures tell us, the just shall live by faith.

In other words, This increase of faith, when the Lord does give you faith, when he gives the faith, when he makes you a new creature, his creature, you and I are gonna be walking oftentimes in darkness. Oftentimes in darkness. Isaiah writes of the children of darkness walking in light, whereas the children of light, those that are of God's creation, are often walking in darkness, having no light. Crying out, Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, why aren't you hearing me? Lord, help me. Help me. I'm crying unto you day and night, and I'm seeing nothing. That's the exercise of faith. That's the Lord teaching his people that what you think you should see and the time you think you should see it to the level that you think you should see it is not coming. You're waiting. You're depending entirely on the Lord in this matter.

You want an increase of faith? There you go. Wait. Patient. Be patient. Wait. Keep crying out. Keep begging him for mercy.

You know, we see this with Abraham. His faith was exercised. The Lord promised him, I shall give you a son. And after many years, what did he do? He said, well, I guess God's asking me to make it happen. I better turn to the flesh, and I'll bring forth a son with Hagar. And God refused Ishmael. God rejected Ishmael and said, no, no, Abraham. I told you that Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son. That's my word of promise. And I'll make my covenant with him, not with Ishmael, not with the flesh. but with the seed of promise, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where I'll bless you.

And then when Isaac did finally come, the Lord tells him, now go and sacrifice your only son. Go and sacrifice. And the Lord proved that faith was not of Abraham, not of the flesh, not that false faith, but that God-given faith. That's what we need, that God give him faith. So that Galatians 3, 6 through 9 tells us, even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, not for your faith, but through faith, through faith that looks to him, that believes him, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee, in thee, in the same, this faith, through this faith, all nations shall be blessed.

And so Abraham was justified through faith, and it was witnessed or seen in that trial of faith, so that they which be of faith, in whom the Lord works this faith, These are blessed with faithful Abraham. These are children of promise, like Isaac.

And so faith is God's witness that God is your God. That's what he's testifying. That's what he's bearing witness in you and me. And that faith It will be proved. It will be tested. Not because God's wondering, do they believe me? No, he's making you and I know that I have done this in you. I've done this in you. You're mine. You're mine. Keep walking in that truth, in that light. Keep believing.

Wherein, Peter wrote, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found, uncovered, revealed, manifested, made known unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

And so when our Lord said, if he had faith the size of a grain of a mustard seed, what he's saying to us is, Look to me. You look to me. You stop looking for evidences in yourself of great victories and strength and might on the battlefield. You look to me. You keep looking to me. That's what he's doing. He's turning our eyes off of self to look to him. He's showing us in you there's weakness, shame, dirt, filth, coming short of the glory of God. In me is your victory. is your salvation found. That's what he's saying.

And then third, this is a little briefer of a point, but as the grace of our God conforms us to Christ, he forms a desire in us to desire to forgive like the Lord forgives. In other words, they asked, Lord, increase our faith in response to what he was teaching about forgiveness. As we saw in this pattern, even on Tuesday night, we saw this pattern where it's the Lord who works in his people a desire to be like our God toward our brethren, to show that same grace that he's shown to us.

We saw it with David, with Mephibosheth. He said, I want to show to any of the house of God, the house of my enemies, the kindness of God. I want to show to them the kindness of the Lord. And he showed that kindness that God showed to him that same manner to Mephibosheth. And Paul, we saw Paul said that the God of all comfort comforts us that we might comfort, show that same comfort to those who are also tried and troubled. Just like God showed me comfort, I'm gonna show comfort to other people.

Or again, in Ephesians, where Paul spoke of grace. The grace that the Lord shows you is shown to you that you might show the same grace to others who sin against you. Or, as Christ said, love ye one another as I have loved you. That we would go and love others with that same sacrificial love. Receiving them, bearing with them, comforting them, strengthening them, encouraging them, just as the Lord has done that for us.

And then here we see that we might forgive others. just as God has forgiven you for Christ's sake. Go and forgive others. Same thing. That's what he works in us. He gives us that faith to love, to be kind and comforting, to be gracious, loving, forgiving. That's why he gives it. And that's what it works in us. Not a strengthening of the flesh, but a conforming to Christ. That's what we're gonna see. More and more of him, of his humility, of his lowliness, of his service, of us stooping down because we're nothing. That's what we're called to do. That's what we're called to do in glorifying the Lord.

And that's where we understand what Paul said when he said that I may know him. and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death." Think about it. Christ gave his life as the lowest servant for sinners like us. That's what we're being conformed. That's what Paul was saying. I want to be conformed to that death that doesn't fight for my rights, doesn't fight for me to be exalted in what I want, but is willing to lay down my life and serve just as Christ laid down His glorious, perfect, wonderful life for a sinner like me, that I may be conformed to Him.

So that's what the Lord is working in us, where we show kindness, comfort, love, grace, forgiveness to unworthy, undeserving sinners, and that's the most selfless thing we can do. That's dying to self. That's dying to self. That's where you're gonna see faith in God. Lord, should I be doing this? Christ did it for me. And you're trusting him to walk in that same path, those same footsteps, trusting that he's able to bless it, just as he blessed what he did for us.

And then the fourth thing here that we learn from this passage as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, we discover more and more that we are the unprofitable servant. We're looking for high fives and pats on the back and well done and see the fruits of our labors, but oftentimes, nothing like that is seen. Nothing like that comes for a long, long, long time. And so that this, in this humility is where faith is actually found. We have an idea that faith has this easily visible thing. And what it is, it's in quietness. It's in where no one sees it, but in the heart that God has given you. That's where that faith is found. And so our Lord says, you want faith? You want faith? Here's where faith is witnessed. Here's where faith in God is found. It's in the lowest, most mundane things going on.

And he says, but which of you, verse seven, 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 meet. Oh, good job, buddy. Go sit down. You feed yourself, and you indulge. No, will he rather not 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. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise ye, when ye have done, shall have done all those things which are commanded you, shall say, or say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do.

Well, here's a striking and heavy blow to self-righteousness. So much for glorying in self. So much for what I do. Here the Lord has just put it all into perspective that I haven't done anything. I haven't added anything to the kingdom. I haven't done anything that I thought I was doing. I'm still knocked down and low. And so he's turning us to bearing those labors, to doing those things which we are commanded to do, right? We, one day, the Lord, I mean, obviously, one of the things the Lord's doing is he's speaking to those disciples, those apostles who would be preaching the word and ministering to the church, right? He's talking to his plowmen and shepherds.

But there is something here as well for all of us to be seen in this. And, you know, the site there, the picture is that field over there. Go till it up. It's hard. It's fallow ground. It's doing nothing. It's unprofitable. Go and till that thing up. And then, okay, go take the sheep out here. See that beautiful, thick, lush grass over there? You bring them over there and you feed the sheep over there. You let them sit down. Those clumps that you tilled up, nothing happened. Nothing produces. It's just grown weeds. Put the cattle over there and let them munch down on that and bring low those wildflowers and those weeds there. And then when you come in, You don't see nothing. You don't know nothing's going on. When you come in, you just prepare another meal that glorifies and worships and honors me. And when you're done with that, you'll have a little something out of it, too. You can take a little something, too. Here's a crumb for you. That'll be your food there, too.

And the Lord just Humbles us, right? It's just, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. Why aren't I seeing anything? Well, it's not for you to say. I didn't ask you to see anything. You're my servant. You go and do what you're supposed to do. And you don't complain and don't say nothing about it. You just keep doing what I send you to do. And we see in it, I'm just an unprofitable servant. That's where faith is. Just because I don't see it doesn't mean something isn't happening. The Lord knows who am I.

And so in that same thing, just coming and hearing the word, Setting up the chairs, breaking down the chairs. Praying for your brethren. Fellowshiping with your brethren. Comforting them in the same comfort you're comforted with. Trusting the Lord, just honoring Him and trusting Him. That's faith, even when you don't see things that you think you should see. That's faith. That's the faith that he gives us, not to turn to the left, not to turn back to the flesh, not to turn here or there, but to keep on walking in that light which he's given to us in his grace, in his grace.

How many times did, you know, the Lord, it does humble us, and the Lord does that, he does humble us. How many times did Paul say to us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think? I'll just give you one of them from Romans 12, three, for I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. And so in everything, the Lord saying, remember your place, just remember your place. You're a member of the body. Trust me, trust me. You walk in that light as the Lord has taught us by the gospel in Christ, remembering that he himself, who was all-glorious, he humbled himself and became the lowliest of servants to fulfill the work that God had sent him to do that had to be done, else we could not be saved. We'd have nothing if Christ didn't do this. And yet he came and did that. And so in that same lowliness and humility of mine, that's where the Lord's most extraordinary work is done in the quiet heart and out of sight from which anyone else can see. He does that. That's where faith is wrought in his people.

It is humbling to proud flesh. We all have pride and arrogance and want to see things the way we want to see them. But the new man says, that's fine with me. The new man rejoices in Christ receiving all the glory, entrusting him. The new man cries, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name. Give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake.

Because the reality of it is, Lord, I've not profited you at all. It's not of me. I haven't added anything to this. Anything that's added is of your spirit, of your grace, of your power, according as it pleases you to do for your people. And so that's where faith comes in. is found, right there, trust in the Lord, is able to do it. So when all is said and done, we need him to do it. We're never going to reach a point where we're independent and strong on ourselves, right, and having these great victories, because that's where pride rises, you know, raises its wicked head again.

Let me just close with John 15, turn there, John 15, and we'll just read out Verses four through seven. John 15, four here.

Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

And so we abide in Him, brethren. That's where we stay. Without Him, we can do nothing. Amen.