if you would, to Luke chapter
17. Luke chapter 17. I had Brother John read that
portion, and I love how Brother John brought out that, where
the Father said, Lord, help my unbelief. Because that was the
main reason I had him read that portion. Not taking anything
away from the miracle which Christ had done, but the fact that he
cried out, help my unbelief. Help my unbelief. And the message
today is called, Lord, increase our faith. Lord, increase our
faith. And we'll be in Luke chapter
17. We're going to read the context of the verses first here. We'll
read verses 1 to 10, and then we'll be looking at verses 5
to 10. Then said He unto disciples,
It is impossible, but that offenses will come. But woe unto him through
whom they come. For it were better for him that
a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the
sea, and that he should offend one of these little ones. 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 then look
at verse five. And the apostle said unto the
Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye have
faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamore
tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in
the sea, and it shall obey you. But which of you, having the
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? and will not rather say unto
him, make ready therewith, I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve
me till I have eaten, and afterward thou shalt eat and drink. Doth
he thank that servant because he did the things which were
commanded of him? I throw not. So likewise ye, when ye shall
have done all things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable
servants. We have done that which was our
duty to do. In verse one to five of this
chapter, our Lord Jesus Christ gives a warning to his people
to be on guard against those who hate him and those who hate
his gospel. And let us never forget that
people have not changed today. They've not changed. They're
still the same as they were then. And if they hated Christ during
biblical times when he was upon this earth, They hate him now. And we see that, don't we? We
see that all around us. It's evidenced by those around
us that they hate Christ and they hate the gospel. And we
who believe can say, I was there. I was there. And I may have not said I hated
Christ verbally like that, but by my actions, I sure did. By
my actions, I sure did. And I cursed his name to my shame,
the name that I now love. And so in people's actions and
in their verbiage even, they pronounce that they hate Christ.
And God's people of old were persecuted for his sake, weren't
they? We looked at that even this morning. And Peter wrote
that we're going to suffer for the Lord's sake. We are. We're
going to be persecuted by people because they hate they hate Christ. And we love Christ. Look what he says in verses one
and two. 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 he cast into the sea, that he should offend
one of these little ones. Now look at here. Don't be surprised
when people hate you without a cause, because you love the
Lord. Don't be surprised. Don't be
surprised when you profess Christ. Look what the master here proclaims.
It is impossible, but that offenses will come. He's telling you they're
going to come. People are going to hate you
without a cause. If you profess Christ. Persecution will come. What does the scripture say?
It says this, the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So
natural man has an enmity with God. And we who are born again,
at one time we were there. Now we love our God. We love our Savior. We're born
again by the Holy Spirit of God. He's done a great work within
us. Think of this, this very hatred was manifest when Cain
killed his brother Abel. It was manifested right there. Abel looked to Christ, didn't
he? He bought the proper sacrifice. Cain bought the fruit of his
hands. And then he got mad because God wouldn't accept that bloodless
sacrifice. And he slew his own brother. Slew his own brother. So let
we who are redeemed remember that in our natural state we
were no different. No different than those who would
persecute us for our faith. We were born into this world
just like them, dead in trespasses and sins. And the only one who's
made us to differ from them is God. Is God. And God alone. And we who believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ were born again by the Holy Spirit of God. We've
been brought out of the darkness that we were in. We've been given
faith and repentance to trust Christ. And let us never forget
the rock that we were hearing from. Let us never forget that
we were there. It'll make you more compassionate
with people around you. Because you realize, I was right
there. I was right there. But he's redeemed
us. He's purchased us with his own
precious blood. And God planned the salvation
of a particular people. He purchased salvation for those
people. The Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnated
in the flesh, purchased us with the shedding of his own precious
blood. And by his sovereign power, he reveals salvation to a particular
people, don't they? Doesn't he? And he does. They're
called his elect. They're called his elect. And
we are saved in Christ Jesus and him alone. And those whom
he has redeemed with his blood will be persecuted in one way
or another. And let us remember, though,
as we go through that, it's He who watches over us. And woe
to them who persecute God's people. Woe to them. Look at verse 2.
Woe to them. We know what's waiting for them,
don't we? If they die in their sins. That's why the Lord says
here, woe. And if it were better for him
that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into
the sea, then that he should offend one of these little ones.
So what God's saying is here is hell's awaiting. for those
who refuse to believe the biblical report that God has given of
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever wondered this?
Have you ever noticed this? People talk about heaven, don't
they? Saved and unsaved. Unsaved people talk about heaven.
They talk about it. And when someone dies who we
know was not saved, the false preacher gets up and says, oh,
they're in heaven. No one ever goes to hell in religion. No one. But how can one believe in one place
and not the other? Because the word of God speaks
of both places, doesn't it? It speaks of both places, and
they're both real. They're both real. One grace preacher commented
this way. The whole human race will live for eternity, either
in eternal torment or eternal bliss. One place or the other. Meaning, some will be with the
Lord in eternal glory, and some will be in eternal torment. They're
real places. Note our Lord exhorts His people
here to brotherly love. Look at verses 3 and 4. which
will set up our text for today. 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. Be quick to forgive, beloved.
Be quick to forgive. Be quick to forgive your brother
or sister in Christ. Be quick. Keep short accounts. Keep short accounts. And then, look what our disciples
say in light of what he said here. And the apostle said unto
the Lord, increase our faith. And one way for us to keep short
accounts with our brethren is remember that God has forgiven
me of all my sins. And God has forgiven them of
all their sins. But when we reflect, though,
of the multitude of our sins that are forgiven, when we just
ponder that, and that fact that we've been forgiven for Christ's
sake, I'll tell you, it's easy to forgive other people. It's
real easy. Oh, my. Oh, what great forgiveness
we have. Now, each of us know how difficult
it is to love and forgive those who have offended us, right?
When we get offended, and we do, it's hard for us, sometimes
it's difficult for us to love and forgive. Now, natural man,
with natural man, it's impossible. They hold things, they remind
you of things from years ago. Years ago, Vicki and I have a,
I don't know if you call it a policy or something in our marriage,
but when we have intense fellowship together, we often, one of us will come
and say I'm sorry, and when we say I'm sorry and the other says
I'm sorry, you know we never bring it up again, it's gone.
It's gone. We never bring it. And that's
something that we've held on to in our marriage. And it's
made it so sweet because things can't be bought up from the past. And to be used against. So it's
been wonderful. And so you keep short accounts.
You keep short accounts. And we forgive those who have
offended us. Again, it's natural, man. It's impossible for them to do
that. But we who are believers, we who are born again, note the
disciples there cried, Lord, increase our faith. When they
heard these things, they said, Lord, increase our faith. Again,
what will help us forgive easy is when we contemplate how much
the Lord has forgiven us. The great debt which is being
paid for, and it's all being paid for for Christ's sake. Turn,
if you would, to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. And look at verses 31 and 32. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 31
and 32. I just love this verse in verse
32. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice. Look at verse 32. And be kind
one to another. Now he's writing to believers,
right? Tenderhearted, forgiven one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. There's the key right there.
God has forgiven us all our sins. We who believe we who are the
blood bought born again believers for Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. Nothing in us is there, but all
for Christ's sake, it's wonderful. So how much have we been forgiven?
Rejoice, beloved. God has forgiven all our sins.
All our sins. All the sins of His blood-bought
people. All our sins. Not just some of them. All of
them. All of them. Past sins. Present
sins. Future sins. For all of God's
elect were laid upon Christ. Christ Jesus our Lord. And God
has given His people, because of the sacrifice of Christ, God
has given His people a full pardon. A full pardon. He's forgiven
every trespass and sin against Him. And remember that. Our sins
are against Him. Mentioned this in Sunday school.
It's His law we broke. It's His justice that's being
offended. And all our sins, all our trespasses
and sins against Him have been forgiven for Christ's sake. If
God has forgiven us for Christ's sake, then by His grace, we will
be able to forgive those who trespass against us. And because
God has been gracious to us, we're to be gracious to others.
And because God has been merciful to us, we're to be merciful to
others. And if God has forgiven us for
Christ's sake, then we'll forgive one another, won't we? For Christ's
sake. And if God has loved us, then
we'll love up. So let's consider our text again
in verses with that in mind in verses 5 to 10 and the Apostle
said unto them Lord increase our faith and and the Lord said
if if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed ye ye might say
unto this sycamore 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 has come from the field go and sit down
to meet So the servant was out there plowing the field. And
he says, which of you would say, well, you go down, you go sit
and eat first? No. And will not rather say,
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? I throw not. So likewise, 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 there'll be two points here.
Even though God has been pleased to give us faith to believe his
gospel and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, all of us
need to be convinced of the weakness of our faith. And we need to
have our faith increased. And number two, all of us are
nothing but unprofitable servants. It says that in the scriptures
there. Even if we are able to do all the things that are commanded
of us. Now the words before us here
are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, our master. And no unregenerate
person can receive these truths. Because to them, they're foolish.
They're foolish to them. And true saving faith leaves
the believer humbled before God. Humbled before God. And it moves
the born-again blood-washed saint to cry out to God for mercy.
Continuously. Continuously. All in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all for Christ's sake. We
do not boast in our repentance because our repentance needs
to be repented of. We don't boast in that. We don't boast in ourselves
as believers, do we? No. We boast in Christ. We boast in what He's done. He's
done all the work. He's done it all. So we boast
in Him and Christ and Him alone. And even if we are born again
by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, even if we have truly
repented, we're still plagued by sinful pride, aren't we? We
are. And all we do, we know all we
do is tainted with sin. Turn if you would to Isaiah chapter
1. I was talking with a couple of the men on Wednesday. And
Brother Tim was one of them and he brought this scripture up
here. In Isaiah chapter 1 verse 6. It says this, from the sole of the
foot, The bottom of the foot, even unto the head, there's no
soundness in it. Isaiah 1, 6. From the sole of
the foot, even unto the head, there's no soundness in it. But
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. So we're sinners.
From the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. Everything
we do is tainted with sin. Even after we're saved. But natural
man will not receive this. It offends them. It offends them. But the believer in Christ says,
yes, this is me. This is me. I'm a poor needy
sinner. But praise God, I'm saved from
my sins. I'm saved from all my sins in
Christ Jesus, my Lord. So with this in mind, let us
consider our text with the first truth. that I've mentioned, even
though God has been pleased to give us faith to believe his
gospel, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, all of us need
to be convinced of the weakness of our own faith. And we we need
to have our faith increased, increased. And let us note here
that when our Lord's disciples cried out, Lord, increase our
faith, they did that in verse five, right? The Lord did not
commend them for having great faith, did he? or for the faith which they had
been given. Look what he says in verse six.
And the Lord said, if ye had faith as a grain of a mustard
seed, if you had that. You know, I always used to say,
well, when I was just the faith of a grain of a mustard seed.
But the Lord says, if you had that. If you had that. Faith is the
grain. And this is his disciples he's
talking to. If you had faith as a grain of
mustard seed, you might say under this sycamore tree, be thou plucked
up by the root and be thou planted in the sea and it should obey
you. So note the disciples were here confronted that their faith
was not great faith. Lord just put it right there,
didn't he? They were confronted that their faith was not great
faith, but they were confronted with the fact that their faith
was smaller than the smallest of most seeds. Smaller than a mustard seed.
Now I pulled this up from the internet for us to know how small
a mustard seed is. A grain of mustard seed is really
small. One grain is one or two millimeters in size. And that's
very tiny, isn't it? That's very tiny. A mountain,
on the other hand, is huge. Mount Hermon is in the Galilee,
and so Jesus' disciples would have been familiar with it. Mount
Hermon is 1,804 meters high, higher than the land around it,
and 2,814 meters above sea level. And so how do those compare for
the sake of this? We say the mustard seed is 1.5
millimeters. There are 1,000 millimeters in
a meter. If you stacked a mustard seed on top of each other, starting
from the base of Mount Hermon, it would take 1,202,666.67 mustard
seeds to reach the height of Mount Hermon. Remember he said
you could move mountains if you had this one? Yeah. Why? So he's telling the disciples,
your faith, not great faith. You have faith. That's what matters,
isn't it? Faith in Christ. And now, faith
in Christ is the root of the matter here. Because people say,
well, I have faith. But here, the root of the matter
is faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. I'm going to
give us a few scriptures. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Now, you know how I said earlier
that that in religion, no one goes to hell, even the people
who supposedly don't have faith in Christ. Look what Hebrews
says here. Hebrews chapter 11, verse six,
it says this. But without faith, it is impossible
to please him. It's impossible to please God
without faith in Christ, because God is only pleased with Christ. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. And we looked at it in Sunday
school how Christ is our reward. Christ is our reward. Turn if
you would to 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter
5 verses 10 to 12. He that believeth on the Son
of God, verse 10, hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar. Because he believeth not the
record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us, eternal life. And this life is where? In His
Son. It's nowhere else. Nowhere else. So what does that do to the other
religions of the world? It just wipes them right off
the map. They're false religions. There's no salvation. There's
only salvation in Christ and Christ alone. Nowhere else. He that hath the Son, what? Hath
life. Do you have the Son? Are you
born again? Hath He revealed Himself to you?
Then you have life. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. Hath not life. So what does that
say about those folks who say, well they're in heaven even though
they hated God. They don't have the Son, they
don't have life. And those are plain words. Very
plain. John 3.36 says this. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Hath. It's not a maybe, because
it's not based upon us. Hath eternal life. Or everlasting
life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. God's blood-bought, born-again
children by the Holy Spirit believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the object of our faith. is the object of our faith. And
we're saved by He who is the object of our faith. We're not
saved by our faith, we're saved by Christ who our faith is in.
It's in Him. It's in Christ, in Christ alone.
Faith is not our Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ is. The
Lord Jesus Christ is. But no one will be saved who
does not have faith in Christ as He's set forth in the Holy
Scriptures. And think upon this, beloved of God. Faith is the
conduit. which all the blessings of God,
which are in Christ, flow to the believer. Flow to the believer. And we know that faith is a gift
of God. It's given to us by God. And God's people, we taste, don't
we? We taste that the Lord is gracious
at our conversion. And then what do we do? Then
we continue to feast upon Christ. then we continue to feast upon
Him. Whether we're hearing the Word of God preached, or whether
we're reading it or studying it ourselves, we feast upon Christ. As the Holy Spirit illuminates
the Scriptures, we feast upon Him. We feast upon Him. One grace
preacher said this, faith is the hand by which the soul lays
hold on Christ and is experimentally united to Him and saved by Him. Faith in Christ is the secret
of all spiritual comfort, all spiritual prosperity. According
to a man's faith will be his peace, his hope, his strength,
his courage, his decisiveness, and his victory over the world.
And this is why the disciples cry, Lord, increase my faith.
Increase my faith. And faith looks to the one who
saves us. Faith rests in the one, the only
one, in whom salvation is in, the Lord Jesus Christ. Brother
Matt and I were talking a few weeks ago about how in religion,
and he has some folks at work who are in the Word of Faith
cult, and they say, oh, you just have to have more faith. You
ever heard that? You ever hear people tell you that? Oh, you
just have to have more faith. Most people don't know what to
do. My goodness. Here the disciples are crying
out, Lord, increase our faith. Increase our faith. I can't muster
faith up, can you? God gives us faith, doesn't he?
And we grow in our faith. We grow in our faith. So contrast
what the word of faith people say, the word of faith called,
what they say, they say, you have to have more faith. You
have to believe that it's going to happen, and then you can name
it and claim it. Contrast that, that thought process to what
our Lord answers back to the disciples when he cries out,
when they cry out, Lord, increase our faith. And they say, the
Lord says to them, if you had faith as a grain of a mustard
seed. All of God's people have the
same faith. We have the same faith. It's
a gift from God, isn't it? It's a gift from God. There's
only one true saving faith. And God's blood-bought people
have that. And they have it only by the grace of God. Now we know that some people's
faith is stronger than others. It is. Some people's faith is
weaker. But we know this. That our faith
grows as we grow in grace, doesn't it? We trust the Lord more and
more, don't we? We cry out with the Apostles
that John read, Lord, help my unbelief. We cry out with the
Apostles, Lord, increase our faith. And our faith grows as we grow
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn,
if you would, to Romans, chapter 15. And we'll look at the very
last part of verse 23 in Romans, chapter 14, and then we'll read
the first three verses in Romans 15. Romans 14, 23, it ends with this. For whatsoever is not of faith
is sin. And then look at Romans 15, verses
1 to 3. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities
of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us
please his neighbor for his good edification. For even Christ
pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of
them that reproach thee fell upon me. Note there, we that
are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. And
these are words of exhortation by Paul, that we should be patient
with others, the ungodly, those who would persecute us, and these
are words of exhortation that should help us to be patient
with our brothers and our sisters in Christ, to help us bear the
infirmities of those who are weak, weak in the faith, those
who are weak, going through trials and tribulations, those who are
babes in Christ. And as we grow in the grace and
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, our faith will grow.
Our faith will grow. And our faith is our faith grows.
You know what else comes? Peace. Peace. All the peace that
passes all understanding that keeps the hearts and minds of
those in Christ Jesus. And then our joy grows, too,
doesn't it? Are you more joyful in the Lord than you were when
the Lord first converted you? Do you have more peace now than
you had when the Lord first converted you? We do, don't we? As we go
through trials and tribulations and situations, the Lord teaches
us, doesn't He? He teaches us. And our faith
in Him grows. And we should always desire to
see our brothers and sisters in Christ grow. We should even
ourselves desire the sincere milk of the Word. Why? That we
may grow thereby. Peter said that. is imperfect in the best of saints. And our Lord frequently called
on the disciples. He called them men of little
faith, and they were conscious, beloved, of their imperfections.
They were conscious of this. And they prayed, as we see here,
Lord, increase our faith. Is that not what we do? I'm so
weak. I'm so weak, beloved. But He's
strong. He's strong. Gil says this, there
is some deficiency, something lacking in the faith of the best
of God's people. Everyone has reason to say, more
or less, as the poor man in the gospel, Lord, I believe what
Brother John read. Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. Even the strongest of saints
cry it out. And here, the disciples of the
Lord said, Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord shows them
the weakness of their faith. He's teaching. Let's look at
verse 6 again. And the Lord said, If ye had
faith as a grain of a mustard seed, ye might say unto this
sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted
in the sea, and it should obey you. Of course, this is a proverbial
statement that he brings forth. The Lord is teaching his disciples
a lesson. The lesson is this. Jesus said
unto them, If thou canst believe all things are possible to him
that believeth, Mark 9, 23, all things are not possible to be
done by the believer himself, but all things are possible to
be done for him by God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and by
the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And he's done, think
of we who are redeemed, he's done all the things that we could
not do for us, didn't he? He obeyed the law for us. He
satisfied God's justice for us. He redeemed our souls. We couldn't
pay for our own sin. He did it all for us, beloved.
He did it all. And remember, faith is a gift,
a conduit. And it has one object, and that's
Christ. That's Christ in Him alone. He's
all that a sinner needs. Is it not so? Is He not all we
need? He's all that a sinner needs.
And we who believe are regenerated by Him. How? By His divine power. By His divine power. And the
faith which we receive is given to us. It's given to us. We didn't seek it. Now we ran
to Him when we were regenerated, didn't we? When we're born again,
we run right to Christ. But we can't regenerate ourselves.
And the Lord said, you must be born again. You must be. And the Holy Spirit regenerates
his people. So we cry out with our with the
disciples here. Lord, increase our faith, increase
our faith when things appear before us and things appear before
us that to us is insurmountable. And have you ever had a trial
coming and you're thinking, Lord, what am I going to do? It seems
insurmountable. It's then that our faith is proved
small, isn't it? Smaller than the mustard seed.
But what do we do? What do we do after that first,
because we all do that, that first shock at first, right?
What do we do then? We look to Christ. We look to
Christ. We look to He who is our everything.
We rest and we repose in our great God and Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now let us consider the second
truth that we can glean from this text. All of us are nothing
but unprofitable servants, even if we are able to do all things
that are commanded of us. Let's look at verses 5 to 10
again. And the apostle said unto the Lord, Lord, increase our
faith. And the Lord said, if he had faith as a grain of a
mustard seed, you might say unto the sycamore 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
cow will say unto him by and by when he has come from the
field, go and sit down to meet 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 that thou shalt
eat and drink. If he think that servant, because
he did the things that were commanded him, I throw 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. So notice in verses seven to
10, here one grace preacher said, it does not take a spiritual
giant to understand the meaning of these words here before us.
Masters who own slaves, or those who have servants under them,
know that those who are their servants are to be obedient to
them. be obedient to them. And there are a few exceptions
where we see those who are in authority. You ever notice those
who are in authority, they make sure that their will is, we've
seen this, where you have a boss or someone in your workplace
that they, man, you either obey them or it's the highway, right? There's no compassion. There's
absolutely no compassion. And most people in authority
insist upon their wants and desires to be catered to. And we see
this in our text before us. When the master of the house
sits down at the table that's being prepared for him by the
servants, he expects the servants to bring him food. Even though
the servants be not in the field, he still expects it. And note
in our text, he does not say, you eat first. The master doesn't
say, you eat first, and then you can serve me. No. And the
servant doesn't expect the master to do that either. And servants
and those who are employed do what is their duty to do. Do
what is their duty to do, expecting nothing more than their daily
wages that they are to be paid. And as believers, we do our work
is unto the Lord. We looked at that this morning
and Sunday school. We do our work is unto the Lord. We don't
do it to be man pleasers. We don't do it to be looked at
mothers or get praise from others. No. No, we do it unto the Lord
and unto him. And beloved of God, you who are
redeemed by the blood of Christ, you who are regenerated by the
Holy Spirit of God. Let us remember that we have
a new master. We have a new master and he is the Lord Jesus Christ
and he is a good master and a gentle master. He's a loving master,
a patient master, a forgiven master, a long suffering master. You see the opposite of what
we read here? A protecting master and a master who is generally
concerned for those whom he has purchased and those whom he has
redeemed with his own precious blood. And we serve the Lord
not out of fear of eternal punishment, no, because the Lord Jesus Christ
has purged all our sins. And we're free from the wrath
to come. We serve our Lord not for future rewards, we're not
looking to get all these crowns that these folks talk about,
no. Christ is our reward. Christ Jesus is our reward, beloved. And I ask you who are redeemed,
what greater reward can you receive than the Lord Jesus Christ. No
greater reward, no greater reward than him. And we have we who
believe have a have a living union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have a full pardon of all our sins and we're adopted by
God. We are accepted by God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. We who are held deserving sinners
are saved by his grace and mercy. And God Himself has made His
chosen blood-bought people to be heirs and joint heirs with
Christ. And we have an inheritance that
is incorruptible, incorruptible and undefiled and that will never
fade away, never fade away. It's in Christ. And for you who
believe, it's reserved for you right now in heaven. We've said this before, we've
looked at this before. You go to a restaurant, you make a reservation, what's
in it? Reserved. Oh my blood. Reserved, there's
an inheritance reserved for you in heaven. For each one of God's
elect. And it's in Christ. It's in Christ. What an honor. God is placed
upon his elect. We who are his servants. We are
servants of the most high. And it's true that we're unprofitable
servants, as the Lord said in the last words of today's text,
it's true. We're sinners. We've done that which was our
duty to do yet, yet we are his. Now the natural man, the natural
man cannot receive these truths, cannot receive these truths.
Because again, because of their sinful foolish pride, they're
not born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Our Lord said this, he that is
of God, what? Heareth God's words. He that
is of God, heareth God's words. To God's people, these are wonderful
words. Because we know, we know what
we are. But we know we've been saved
and redeemed in Christ. We say, yes, we're unprofitable
servants. Even if we're able to do all that's commanded of
us, we're still unprofitable servants, aren't we? Because
we're sinners. So how do we receive these truths
set forth here today? How do we see that we fall short
in all things we do for Christ in this life and not be offended,
beloved? Because we thank God that we're His born-again, blood-washed
saints. We thank God that we are His, by His divine power.
We thank God that we're not in Mormonism, or Seventh-day Adventism,
or Catholicism. And some of us have been taken
out of those things. And we thank God for that, don't we? We thank
God for that. We thank God that some of us
who were in free will, works-based religions, the Lord's taken us
out of that. We thank God for that. We thank God. And the believer in Christ has
received the words of Christ. We've received the words of Christ,
knowing full well that we are unprofitable servants, because
all that we do is tainted with sin. Turn if you would to Romans
chapter 7. And think upon this, beloved
of God. Think upon this. Everything we do is tainted with
sin, even after we're saved. And is it any wonder why Paul
penned these words in Romans chapter seven? And Paul's a believer
here. Some say he wasn't a believer,
but he's a believer here. Paul's a believer when he's writing
this, when he's speaking of this. Look at this. For I know that
in me, verse 18, that is in my flesh, 12th, no good thing. Is
that not true of every believer? Do we not see our own sin? Even
after the Lord saves us, now He reveals to us our sinfulness
when we're first converted, that we've sinned against Him. But
as we grow in grace, do we not see ourselves more as sinners?
We do. But praise be to God, we're saved
sinners, beloved. For the will is present with
me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good
I would do, I do not. Is that not so with you, what
Paul's writing here? But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Do you struggle with sin all
the time? Well, rejoice, because you didn't
struggle before you were saved. Now if I do that, I would not,
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. So we
receive the words of Christ, don't we? We as believers receive
the words of Christ. We receive the words here before
us that we looked at in Luke, plainly stating that we are unprofitable
servants, but we rejoice in the truth, don't we? We rejoice in
the truth of the word of God, which reveals to us, even though
we're unprofitable servants, that not one thing can be laid
to the charge of God's left. Not one thing. Even though we're
sinners, all our failures will not remove one stitch from the
righteousness of Christ, which we're clothed in. Isn't that
wonderful? That's wonderful for the believer.
When we fail in our service to the Lord, He'll not lay the whip
to us. No. Because He endured the whipping
for us. By His stripes we're healed.
By His stripes we're healed. And we cry out, God help us not
to sin. But when we sin, what do we know?
We know that we have an advocate with the Father. We know that,
don't we? We have an advocate with the
Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous. The righteous. And it is by His
blood, in His blood alone, that has washed away all our sins,
beloved. All our sins from God's sight.
Forever. Forever. And the believer says,
praise his mighty name. What a savior. What a redeemer
is Jesus Christ, my Lord. Our self-righteous, sinful pride
causes us to look to ourself, doesn't it? It does. We all struggle
with that. And to take our eyes off Christ
that causes us to look to self rather than to Him. Who works
in us both the will and the do of His good pleasure. And in
our weakness, He's strong. He's strong. And our failures
should help us to keep looking to Christ. To keep looking to
Him. He's our only righteousness.
He's our only acceptance before God. And let we who are redeemed
never lose sight of this precious truth that God let us never ever
lose sight of this precious truth. Beloved, let it burn into your
heart that God has forgiven us for Christ's sake. Christ. Forgiveness. So how do we apply the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives to walk before him? Rather than strike back at those
who persecute us because of our faith in Christ, what do we do?
We pray for him. Pray for him. We don't know who
the gods elect are, do we? We have no idea. Pray for him.
Lift him up. Like Paul, we have a sincere
desire that God would save them. And like Stephen, we pray that
the Lord would not lay their sins to their charge. Remember
as he was dying? And we, again, do not know who
the elect of God are. And sometimes the one who cries
the loudest against the truth of the gospel may be the very
one that the Lord is dealing with. We looked at how Paul,
remember he was going out and slaughtering Christians. The
believers would never think that he was one of the elect. Well,
he was one of God's sheep, one of God's chosen blood-bought
saints. And if you had known me before
the Lord saved me, before the Lord commanded his light to shine
in the darkness of my heart, before I was born again, before
Christ was revealed to me and when I was in the darkness of
my life and my sin, you would never have suspected that I was
one of his people. And I know it's so for you who
are the redeemed of the Lord. Those who hate us and persecute
us for our faith are no different than we were. No different than we were. And
if God has been gracious to us, and if God has revealed his son
to us, if we've experienced the longsuffering of God in our lives,
then we'll be gracious and longsuffering and patient to those around us
who are still in darkness. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
thank Thee and we praise Thee for Thy Word. And we who believe
cry out to Thee, O Lord, increase our faith. Have us grow in the
grace and knowledge and truth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. And Lord, help us to be gracious with those around
us. Help us to be gracious with those who persecute us when we
suffer for Thy sake, O Lord. And O Lord, we glorify Thy name. Father, we praise Thee for forgiving
we who are your blood bought people, for forgiving all our
sins for Christ's sake. In Jesus name we pray, amen.