Thank you, Paul. It's been an encouraging time
for me. The first time I came over here,
I was very, very sick, sicker than I dreamed. Until I started
to get well, I didn't realize how sick I was. Paul had to take
me to the emergency room, had to go home. I often think of
that and just get sick in my soul. you know, for that happening. But I knew the second time I
left, and that, boy, what an encouraging place to be. And
Paul and Mindy were driving home from somewhere a while back,
and he called me and said, will you come? And I didn't have to
think about it. I said, yes, I'll be there. And I've been
so encouraged. This is, Manny, encouraging time
together with you. to worship the Lord. Went over
to John and Irene's yesterday, brother of mine. I love hot dogs,
and I just got my fill of hot dogs. Went over to Callie and
Robin's and watched them work with that horse. Oh, my goodness.
Spent some time with dear friends. Been a blessing. It's just been
a blessing. Thank you. Thank you, ladies, for all the
food and the fellowship. If you want to turn with me this
afternoon to my text, it will be in Luke, Chapter 17. Luke's Gospel, Chapter 17. May the Lord be pleased to bless
His Word this morning. Thank you, Mike, for the messages.
Oh, what a blessing. What encouragement. The gospel is something, ain't
it? When a man preaches the gospel to you and tells you how sorry
and low down you are, and then it just picks you up. He kicks
all the props out from under you, turns around and gives you
assurance. Makes you want to just get a hold of Christ and
flee to Him. Oh, it's been wonderful. Thank
you, man. Luke 17, and let's just begin here in verse 1. Then said he unto the disciples,
It is impossible but that offenses will come, but woe unto him through
whom they come. It were better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck and be cast into the sea,
than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed
to yourselves. If your brother trespassed against
you, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him.
And if he trespassed against you seven times in a day, and
seven times in a day turn again to you and say, I repent, you
shall forgive him. 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 sycamine
tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, and be thou planted in
the sea, and it would obey you. But which of you having a servant
plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him, By and by, when
he is come in from the field? Go and set down to me." and will
not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sit, and
gird yourself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken,
and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink." Does he thank that
servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow
not. I think he don't do that. Likewise
you, when you 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, my text this morning is
found here in verse 5. Lord, increase our faith. And I have three points that
I want to look at this this morning. The first one is the request
itself. Lord, increase our faith. And
then the second point is, I want to look at the reason they ask
this question. And then thirdly, I want to look
at the Lord's response. The disciples were ignorant.
Boy, they were ignorant. Look here before we get started.
Over to your right in chapter 18. Look how ignorant these apostles
were. Ignorant of so many vital things. In Luke chapter 18, Luke here
in verse 31, Then he took unto him the twelve,
and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things
that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall
be accomplished. For he shall be deliberate unto
the Gentiles, and they shall mock him, spitefully entreat
him, and spit on him. And they shall scourge him and
put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again. And
they understood none of these things, and this saying was hid
from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken
of." How ignorant these apostles were. How many times did they
make such statements like this? What is this that he said? We
can't understand what you're saying. The Lord Jesus even said
to them, what I'm doing now, you don't know. You'll understand
hereafter. And one time, Peter even took
our Lord and rebuked Him. And said, far be it from you.
You're not going to suffer. Not when I'm here to fight for
you. You're not going to the cross. I'll lay down my life
for you." Men of no understanding in so many vital points. If they
were in our day, Brother Mike, if they were in our day, boy,
we'd be very suspicious, wouldn't we? And rightfully so. Brother
Mike preached on one aspect of ignorance. There's another aspect
of ignorance, too. The Lord deals with this other
aspect here. If this teaches us anything about
these apostles, it teaches us this. Salvation is not how much you
know. Salvation is who you know. These disciples knew Him. Peter, whom do you say that I
am? You're the Christ. You're the Son of the living
God. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my
Father in heaven." They knew Him, didn't they? Oh, they had
a lot to learn, and they wouldn't have remained ignorant very much
longer. But I tell you, they knew Him. And they believed in
Him and had some assurance. We believe and are sure that
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But I'll tell
you one thing they weren't ignorant of, and one thing that they weren't
bored of. They may have been bored of a
lot of knowledge, but they weren't bored of faith. Do you notice what I read to you
here in verse 5? They knew they had it. Lord,
increase our faith. We have faith. I know it's mine. Increase our faith. I can't put
my finger on when they come to believe. And you probably can't
either. I doubt if the Bible even says,
but believe they did. Our faith. The Lord rebuked them sometimes
for having little faith, did he not? Oh thou of little faith. He rebuked them for not exercising
their faith. But you know something? He never
said you're destitute. They had faith. And it was real. And they knew
it. And they said, it's ours. We
have faith. That's something. How many times
have you thought you were without? Since the Lord has brought you
to Himself and gave you faith to believe. Haven't you ever
said with dear old Newton, do I believe the Lord or not? And
you may be here this morning, and you may be just a babe in
Christ. And if you are, you have more
knowledge of the work of Christ than these men did at this time.
But you know something? You have the same faith that
they had. Their faith was real, and it was theirs. Our faith. Our faith. Look at something else they said.
They put great value upon this thing. Lord, increase our faith. They may have been in the dark
concerning what the Lord Jesus Christ was going to finally do.
But you know something? They knew about the preciousness
of faith. They knew it's a rare thing in
this world for a man to truly believe. How many people do you
run into that truly believe? It's a precious thing, isn't
it? It's a rare thing. And these apostles knew it. And
they wanted it increased. Lord, increase our faith. You know why faith is precious.
You can't be saved without it. Thy faith has saved thee. Go
in peace. You can't please God without
it. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. You can't walk
with the Lord without it. We walk by faith, not by sight. It's a precious thing. Except
you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sin. A precious,
precious thing is faith. The object of it is precious.
The grace of it is precious. The trial of it is precious.
And I can ask you one question and see how precious your faith
is to you. Would you give your faith for
somebody else's? Would you swap yours for somebody
else's? You wouldn't, would you? Why? It's precious. It's precious. Lord, increase our faith. I want more of it. Why? Because
it's valuable. It's valuable. Something else they recognized
about their faith was this. They recognized it was a gift.
It was a grace. Lord, increase our faith. Lord, you increase our faith. They knew it was theirs. They
knew they had it, and they knew it was a gift. They believed
it could be increased, but they believed it could only be increased
by the One who gave it. Lord, increase. You increase
our faith. No man is born to believe in
the gospel. A man will never believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ until he believes through grace. until he believes
by the mighty working of God's Spirit in his heart. It takes
the same power to bring a man to faith as it did to raise the
Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. That's what the Apostle tells
us in Ephesians 1.19. Faith is a work of God. What
is the work of God that we may believe Him? This is the work
of God that you may believe. And we can't believe without
grace. He that gives faith has to maintain
the faith. And if it's ever increased, he
has to increase it. I tell you, they had some understanding
about it, didn't they? Of all the things they were ignorant
of, they knew this. He was the author of it. He was
the maintainer of it. And if it was ever increased,
it came from Him. And you know that too, don't
you? One of Bunyan's books, maybe it was Pilgrim Progress or Holy
War, but maybe it was there when he was in the House of the Interpreter.
You that read some of his works know what I'm talking about.
And this man showed him a fireplace. The fireplace was burning. And
this man in a black suit was dipping buckets of water and
dousing it on the fireplace. But the fire never went out. And Bunyan said, what mean of
this? Why doesn't the fire go out?
And he said, this is faith. This fire is faith. What stops
it from being quenched with all this water dumped on it? And
he said, follow me, and he took him around behind the fireplace,
and there was a man in white pouring oil into the fire. Isn't that the way it is? He
gives us faith, and he maintains that faith, or it would die. Oh, building up yourselves on
your most holy faith, what a precious grace. But I'm telling you, it's
a grace. It's a gift. And He maintains
it. And aren't you so glad that He
said He'll finish it? He begun the good work in you,
and He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. So there's
the request, and we see why they ask it. Lord, increase our faith. Why did they ask that? Well,
we have it here in verse 3 and 4. I think if we look at verse
3 and 4, you and I can see the correlation between those two
verses and verse 5. Look here in verse 3 and 4. The Lord Jesus was speaking here
to these men about a very solemn subject. And he says here in
verse 3, take heed to yourselves if your brother trespasses against
you, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. Now, isn't this
a strange thing? I've often thought this as I
read this passage. Here, the Lord turns everything
upside down. You would have thought He would
have told Peter and these apostles, take heed to yourselves and don't
you ever sin against your brother. Well, that's true, isn't it?
That's true. But that's not what the Lord
said. He speaks to those who have been
sinned against. And He said, listen to me, you're
in a predicament. You better be careful. You better
awake. You better take heed of yourself.
You could be in deep trouble here. Somebody has sinned against
you and you're offended. Isn't that amazing? Paul, you
sinned against me and I'm the one that has to take heed? What
about Paul? No, I'm the one that's in the
predicament. And what did the Lord say to
do? He gave us one course of action. Only one course to take. And I tell you, it's a difficult
course. He says, you first rebuke him. Matthew, in Matthew's account,
the Lord Jesus said, go tell him. You go to him. That's difficult,
isn't it? Have you ever got in the car
and started towards your friend's house, and you're going to have
to talk with him about what he's done to you? And you're hoping he's not home
when you get there. Or you have to call him on the telephone.
I've got to tell him this. He's hurt me. He's sinned against
me. And boy, you're dolling and you hear this phone ringing and
your heart's pounding. Oh, it's difficult. It's hard.
It's hard to go and tell him. It's hard to go be honest. It's
hard to go and open up your heart and be sincere and just lay it
all out before Him. Dear brother, here's what you've
done to me. Here's what you've said to me.
And you've offended me. I tell you, that's difficult.
But that's the course of action we must take if someone has sinned
against us. By nature, aren't we sulky people?
Aren't we powders? We'll just hold all of this inside
us. And day after day, we sulk around
and our faces get long, and after a while, there's a root of bitterness
begins to set up in our spirits. What's happened? We've not obeyed
the Lord's Word. We've not gone and laid it all
out before Him. And I'll tell you something else
that you and I are out to do if we don't take heed to the
Lord's Word. We're out to confide in someone else. Did you hear? Let me tell you something. Let
me tell you what Paul Mahan said to me. You ain't going to believe what
he did to me. Well, who's Paul going to tell? Paul is going
to go, Callie, you know what Bruce Crabtree told me. And Callie is going to go tell
somebody else. Callie is going to tell Robin. Robin is going
to tell everybody. And after a while, listen to me, after
a while, what happened? All these rumors in the congregation. And what happened? I didn't go
to the person who offended me. That's what happens. Is it not?
See the danger in that. Take heed. Take heed to yourself. There have been churches that
have split because one man didn't go to the other man and say,
Brother, you've sinned against me, and I've been offended. Some people are so timid, they're
embarrassed. They'll never go tell a dear
sister or a dear brother. But you've got no choice. The
Lord didn't give us any other option. It comes down to this,
doesn't it? It comes down to this. And here's
a good point about this, what the Lord is saying. If you and
I are going to wear our fillings on our sleeves, as it were, and
we're going to let every little cross look and every little hateful
word offend us, then we're going to be in trouble.
We're going to stay in trouble. As I read this just the other
day again, I thought, man, I don't like the process that I have
to go through. I'm going to not hear every word. If somebody
gives me a bad look, I ain't going to look at it. I don't
want to go. I don't want to open up my heart
and say, this is what you've done to me. Great peace are they
that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. A brother
said something to me the other day, and it just ran all over
me. Man, it just upset me to no end. And I thought of this. And you
know what I did? I hugged his neck. Oh, I love
you, dear brother. I hugged his neck. Now settle
it. But if we're going to be offended about everything, we're
going to put ourselves in some predicaments. That's the first
thing the Lord said, go to him and be honest, be sincere. If it's bothering you, if it's
bothering you, you might as well go ahead and do it. Go ahead
and do it. And secondly, he said this, if
he repents, forgive him. Forgive him. If he repents, forgive
him. Well, Peter had some problems
here, didn't he? I remember Matthew's account. You know, Peter said,
how many times, Lord? You know, one place the Lord
said seven times seventy, didn't He? Four hundred and ninety times,
forgive him. Forgive him. If he repents, forgive
him. When should I forgive him? Immediately. Immediately. Don't put him on
probation. Don't say, well, I'll forgive
you, but I am going to keep my eye on you. I'm going to see
how you act from here on out. And just one mess up, you're
going to hear about this. He didn't say forgive him, but
never forget it. When the Lord forgives, how does
He forgive? Their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. When He saw that they had nothing
to pay, He freely forgave them all. Somebody said, it's hard
to forgive. Then you can't forgive that way. If it's hard, And there's no
more grace and love than that in your heart, and it's so hard,
then you'll never forgive. The only way that we can forgive
truly is freely, is lovingly, is graciously, is completely,
just like you and I have been forgiven. That's it. Hard to love someone. Hard to
love someone. It's not hard to love anybody.
Is it? It's not, dear brothers and sisters.
When I find it's hard to love somebody, Lord, give me more
grace. That's what I need. And then
when grace... Is it hard for God to love us?
We think it is. We think He's just putting up
with us. Don't we think that? It's because we compare Him to
us. It's hard for us to love. Until
our hearts are filled with His love. Then how easy it is to
love your enemies. How easy it is to take off your
coat and take off your shirt. How easy it is to go two miles
when they said you're going one. Love. And if we don't forgive like
this, what did the Lord Jesus tell us? Neither will my Father
in heaven forgive you. I think this is not optional,
is it? This is not optional. Can you see then how this correlates
with my text? Increase our faith. Lord, if I have to take this
course, this is tough, and I have to forgive as You've forgiven
me, that's tough. Lord, increase my faith. What does faith have to do with
being gracious? What does faith have to do with
being merciful? What does it have to do with
forgiveness? Well, it's the nature of faith
that lets us see how much we owe ourselves. When you believe, you see something. Faith opens your understanding. Through faith we understand. And one of the things we understand
is this, how indebted I am myself. How indebted I am to God. Now let's be honest just for
a minute. Let's try to be honest. How much have we sinned against
God? Can you number the times? What about our motives? What
about our thoughts? What about our words? How have we trampled the law
of God under our feet? Time without number. Let's be
honest. How many times have we sinned
against the dear and blessed Son of God? How much have we
sinned against His goodness? Against His love? against His
provisions. How often have we sinned against
light? We knew better, but we sinned
anyway. Oh, our sins have climbed like
mountains over our head, have they not? I told some people not long ago,
if you could stand us out on the east coast, go out east here
to the ocean, And you stand there and you march all the way to
the West Coast, and every time you took a step, you confessed
to sin. You would run out of steps before
you'd run out of sin to confess. How great is our sin. How black
is our sin. Nobody has sinned against me
like I have sinned against God. Nobody could sin as dreadfully
and as terribly against me as I have sinned against him. And
yet the one that I've sinned the most against has forgiven
all. And could I go out here now and
take a dear brother and say he's sinned against me 490 times and
not graciously and fully and freely forgive him? Oh Lord, I need increase in my
faith is what I need. I need to see more clearly. That's
what I need. Oh, faith lets us see our own
sin. Faith lets us see the nature
of that atonement that was made to put away our sin. It don't
cost me anything to forgive you. It don't cost you anything to
forgive your brother or sister. What did it cost God to forgive
us? It cost heaven every precious
thing heaven had. The most precious thing heaven
possessed. That's what it cost. Somebody said, God will forgive
you, not without an atonement. We're fooling ourselves if we
think God forgives without the shedding of blood. Somebody had to bear our sins
against God. Somebody had to suffer for those
sins. Somebody had to pour out His
heart's blood. Was that easy to do? Go there
to the garden. The Son of God was on His face
on a cold night, sweating drops of blood. There was a battle
that had taken place in the garden. He groaned, He moaned, He wept,
He feared. What was going on with Him? Are
sins ready to be laid upon Him? Faith sees this. Since by faith
I saw the stream, Thy flowing womb supplied. Faith sees that. There ain't no other way to see
that fountain open but by faith. Our faith is in His blood. And
when faith sees that stream open for its sins, what does it say?
Redeeming love has been my faith. Love to God. Love to the Son
of God. Love to the children of God.
I love them. And I tell you, when they sin
against me, I forgive them. I forgive them. Lord, increase my faith. Faith
lets us see the awfulness of ourselves and our own sin. Faith
lets us enter into that atonement that was made for our sins. And
out of this faith comes love. Faith works by love. Lord, increase
our faith. That's the reason for the request.
That's the reason. The man that has the most faith
is the man that's most humble. The man that has the most faith
is the man that sees himself worthy of hellfire and damnation. The man that has faith is the
man that you'll see stand and smile in his chest and say, God
be merciful. And the man that has the most
faith is the man that sees the most in Jesus Christ and his
adornment. Thirdly, the Lord responds. We saw the request and what that
was all about. They had true faith, but why
did they make it? Boy, they saw a difficult task
ahead of them if their brothers had sinned against them. And
here in verse 6 is the Lord's response. This is a very interesting
way the Lord responds, and it all has to do with faith. Look what He says here about
faith. They first wanted an increase of faith. And the Lord said,
it's not all that important that your faith be in Christ. It was
later on. But notice this. Notice the first
thing he said. If you had faith as a grain of
mustard seed, you would say to this sycamine tree, be thou plucked
up by your roots, and be planted in the sea, and it should obey
you. What's the first thing he says
about faith? Faith removes obstacles. You
want to know why faith is important? It removes obstacles. It removes
trees. Matthew's Gospel said it removes
mountains. If you'll say to this mountain
that's standing in your way, be moved, it will obey you. Now, you and I don't see any
trees flying through the air. We don't see any mountains. This
is not speaking literally. The words I speak unto you, they're
spirit and life. He's speaking spiritually here. And what the Lord Jesus is saying
to you, your faith will be your victory. Faith will remove the
obstacles that stand in your way. Do you have a heart of pride? And it's pride that's keeping
you from going to your brother and talking with him? You know
what will remove that? Faith. Faith. You know what will overcome a
heart full of resentment? Faith. You know what will overcome
a heart full of bitterness and hardness? Faith. Faith removes
obstacles. That's the first thing he tells
them. But he didn't say great faith. He said, if you had faith
as a grain of mustard seed, they tell us that that's one of the
smallest seeds, if not the smallest, of all seeds. It's not how much faith you have.
It's the object of it. Isn't that it? Isn't that it? It's the object of faith. A little
faith. a grain of mustard seed, exercised
upon a great and mighty object, will do great things. The Lord
Jesus called Peter a man of little faith. Did he not? You remember
the context of him saying that to him, O thou of little faith?
And he was a man of little faith, and sometimes we get on to him
about it, but he's done some feats that I've never done. I've
never walked on the water. I've never defied nature. Lord,
if it's You, bid me come. Come on. And what does He do?
He jumps out of the boat and He's walking on the water. There
He is! Waves! And He's walking around. Until what happens? He takes His eye off His Master. And he looks around and here
comes a wave. And he sees the wave. And what
happens? Down he goes. He had a little
faith, but he was walking on the water. What happened to him
was this, brothers and sisters. He took his eye off the object.
And when you do that, you can't remove any obstacles. Your obstacles
will be removing you. You're talking about Talley over
there yesterday with this horse. You said he's four or five times
bigger than Talley. He was fifty times bigger than Talley. If
you want to see a big horse, go to Brother Kelly. And he was
out there with that huge horse. One of God's shortest creatures,
I think. And he had a rope on him, and a little whip. He never
did hit him with a whip, but he had the rope on him, and he
had that rope, and he was going around in circles, going around
in circles. Then finally, he took the lead
rope off, going around in circles, going around in circles. Do you
know how Kelly taught that horse to do that? This is one of the
things you emphasize, history, to us. He said, you've got to
get their attention. You've got to make sure their
eyes are focused on you. And I noticed that big old horse.
Man, he's a huge horse. I was standing there on the gate,
and he'd come trotting around there by me. If I'd have got
in his way, he'd have ran over me. But I noticed that horse. He wasn't paying no attention
to me at all. He was looking to Callie. Standing there in
the middle of that ring. And Kelly would do something
like this, and boy, you'd wheel around and face Kelly, and you'd
stand right there and look at him. He'd take him back the other
way, just giving him motions, and he was going the other way,
but he was looking at Kelly. He was looking at Kelly. He could
read Kelly's mind. He could see it in his eye. Don't
pay any attention to that bald-headed man standing on the gate. Don't
be afraid of him. You look at me. You look at me. It's not great faith, brothers
and sisters. It's little faith exercised upon
a great object. The Lord Jesus said, live upon
the faith that you have. Live in the exercise of that
faith that you have, though it be so little. Some people got
aggravated because we used that word, exercise your faith. I
don't know what else to say. I don't know how else to describe
it. And you know the cure for little
faith. Open this Bible, and when you read what it says, just believe
it. Tell all your feelings, just get behind. You've got to follow
faith. And here's the foundation of
it. And if you have faith as a grain
of mustard seed, you open the Lord's Word and whatever it says,
you just believe it, obstacles are going to be removed.
I remember the Lord one time, and you remember this, I think
it's Mark chapter 4, when the Lord told His disciples, Get
in the ship and let's go to the other side." Remember him saying
that? And they jumped in the ship and
took off. And down in the middle of the
Sea of Galilee, almost a thousand foot deep, they tell us, here
were these fishermen. They'd fished that lake all their
lives, but boy, this was a storm like they'd never seen before.
And the Lord was in the ship and they woke Him up and they
said, Lord, don't you care that we're going to perish? And you
remember what He said to them? Where is your faith? Where is
your faith? In what? In His Word. What did He just tell them? Let's
go across to the other side. And if they had just believed His
Word and remembered His Word, They could have enjoyed the journey
even in the midst of the storm. That's the cure for little faith.
Live upon His Word. Believe His Word. That's the
first thing the Lord tells them. That's it, respond. Don't be
concerned. Have you ever seen anybody, have
you ever talked to a dear child of God, and you ask them about
their faith, and they say, oh, I've got the greatest. Have you
ever talked to them? What do they usually tell you?
Oh, I've just got enough to get by. I've just got enough to get
by. Oh Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
We want enough faith to make things easy. That's not the nature
of faith, brothers and sisters. Faith is something that you live
upon when you're facing the Red Sea. And Pharaoh's army is behind
you. And the Word comes and says,
stand still. That's where faith comes in. Faith is something that you have
and use and exercise when you're between the rock and a hard place. And it don't have to be big,
but you'll have to live upon it. And you'll have to exercise
it. If you was given the choice of
being cast into a fiery furnace or bound down to worship an island,
that's where faith would come in. No, no. Faith's not given us
to make life easy. Faith is not given to help us
just to run the race with ease. But I'll tell you what faith
will do. It will help you run the race in the midst of your
difficulty. But you'll have to live upon
it. And you'll have to live upon the object of it. That's the
first response. The second one, and I'll do this
quickly, it goes on here in verse 7, and the Lord Jesus is going
to tell them something about faith and serving Him. He gives an example of two servants. One is an unwilling servant,
and then one is a willing servant. And what does faith have to do
with being a servant of the Lord? Well, look at it here in verse
7. Look at it in verse 7. But which of you, having a servant,"
that's a slave, plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by
and by, when he has come from the field, go and set out to
meet? That don't happen, does it? But he'll say to that servant,
make ready. For when I may serve, engage
yourself and serve me first. The reason the Lord Jesus is
telling these disciples this, man, they had some trouble with
humble service. They did. How can you be a humble servant
if you want to sit on the right side of the Lord and you want
your brother to sit on the left side? That's not humble servant,
is it? When you want to call down far
out of heaven, destroy a bunch of people, ain't much humility
in that, is there? So the Lord is going to tell
them, first of all, about this unwilling, self-righteous, legal
servant. And he has no faith. He's a faithless
man. And he comes in out of the field.
And he's been working hard. He's got some blisters on his
hands. And he comes in and he wants
his master to pat him on the back and says, boy, I thank you. You're the best servant a man
could ever have. I want you to sit down there
and let me serve you and I'll call for some of my other servants
and they'll serve you. If he'd have said that, this
man would have been happy. But the master didn't say that.
The master said, I'm going to sit down and you serve me. until I have been satisfied,
then you can sit down with me." And what did this self-righteous,
legalist, faithless man do? He resented that. Can you see him standing there
behind his mattress? He's got his jaws locked. How
dare him? I'm the most unappreciated man
in this world. Look at me. Look what I've done
for him. I've tended his cattle. I've
plowed his field. I've watched over and gathered
his crops. I've worked myself half to death
for him, and he don't even thank me. I'm underappreciated. I'm underpaid. And I don't like it. I hate serving his cattle. I
hate plowing his fields. I hate being his servant. I hate
him. You know there's people like
that. They pretend to serve the Lord
and they work hard. Just let the Lord cross their
path. Let Him start stripping their
health or taking their finances. Let them come into some difficult
places in their life. And you know what they're going
to do? They're going to get full of resentment. Why am I suffering
this? I don't deserve this. That's
the way people are, is it not? And then we have the willingness. And the Lord Jesus describes
him here in verse 10. So likewise, when you... Now,
he's speaking here to his apostles, not Judas. Judas never believed. But he was speaking to the leaven.
Likewise ye, when ye shall have done all things that were commanded
you, let this be your attitude. Here's what a man of faith says.
We are unprofitable. We're useless servants. We have done that which was our
duty to do. A different kind of servant ain't
he? Different type of servant. He's not serving for reward,
is he? He says, I'm unprofitable. I
don't deserve a thing. He wasn't seeking for comfort,
was he? When the Lord said, you stand
behind me and serve me, he didn't complain about that. He wasn't
seeking comfort. He wasn't seeking ease. He wasn't
seeking praise. He wasn't seeking a reward, not
even thanksgiving. One thing that satisfied this
slave, and that was the goodwill and pleasure of his master. He
said, it's not about me. It's not about me being confident.
It's not about me being praised. It's about my master. It's about satisfying my Master. Are you happy? It has nothing
to do with being happy. Somebody asked Brother Walter,
are you happy that I'm Mexico? He said, what's happiness got
to do with it? It's the will of my Master. That's
it, isn't it? Faith doesn't work for a reward. Faith works because it's already
been rewarded. Faith doesn't work for a blessing. Faith works because it's already
blessed. Faith doesn't work to be saved.
Faith works because He's already saved. Faith doesn't work to
be accepted of God. He works because He's already
accepted. There's a vast difference, brothers
and sisters, in trying to serve God without faith and serving
Him with it. Faith changes everything. Lord, increase my faith. What
do you think of a master this morning? What do you think of
your master? Oh, he's a sovereign. He's a great Savior. Oh, to think that such a master
would let me serve him? Let me carry a bucket of water
to his servants? Let me stand behind his back,
hoping to get just a glimpse of his face? To get down on his
feet and untie his shoes? Me? Wretched, miserable, hell-deserving
me? Oh, what do I think of Him? What
do you think I think? I believe Him. I believe in Him.
I trust Him. I rest in Him. He's mine by living
faith. All faith. Faith. Lord, increase
my faith. Increase my faith. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Church. God bless your hearts. Thank
you, visitors. Thank you. Lord bless you.