A lesson this morning will be
taken from Luke chapter 17. And I'm going to recap one verse,
verse 5, and go through verse 10. I titled the lesson this
morning, The Root of the Matter. Let's read these verses together.
Luke chapter 17, verse 5. And the apostle said unto the
Lord, increase our faith. I wonder sometimes if we even
think about faith, though it's plainly stated over and over,
it's a gift of God. It's a gift of God. If it's to
increase, its source will be from Him. And they knew that,
and they therefore asked him, increase our faith. And the Lord
said, if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say
unto this sycamine tree, that's a wild mulberry, be thou plucked
up by the root and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey
you. That's faith as a grain of mustard
seed. And what he's illustrating here is how miraculous faith
is. And what faith does through the
power of God. But which of you having a servant
plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he's
come in from the field, go and sit down and eat. 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 thou shalt eat
and drink. Does he thank that servant because
he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not, that means 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 this request, this prayer
if you like, was made to our Lord on the heels of His instruction
to them about forgiving their offending brothers and sisters.
That's, it came right on the heels of this. He just picked
up this subject. And we don't like to admit it,
but we're all repeat offenders. We say something hurtful to somebody,
or act a certain way, or do something that's offensive, and we realize
what we've done, and we repent of it. We ask forgiveness for
it. And before you know it, we're doing it again. It just comes
out, don't it? It just comes out. Paul said
for the good that I would. Don't you purpose to do good?
I want to do good. I want to do things that's helpful
to you. I want to do things that will
profit you. I want to prepare messages and
stuff. Paul said the good that I would.
I want to pray like I need to pray. I want to feel the way
I know I'm supposed to feel. But when I would do good, the
good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that's what I do. And as a result of this, he found
a fixed principle in himself that when he would do good, evil
was present with him. It's a struggle, isn't it? It's
an uphill battle. This flesh is not going to give
in, it's not going to change, it's not going to be tamed. This
flesh is flesh, that which is spirit is spirit. And finally
Paul cries out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? We're all sinners saved by, and
being saved by, the grace of God. These six verses our Lord teaches
His little ones, that's what He calls us, His little ones.
except you become as a little child, you're not going to enter
into heaven. And in these six verses, our
Lord teaches His little ones four things. And by way of this,
I want to ask, and as best I can, answer four questions that every
child of God might ask as he reads this precious text. And the first question is this. Who are these servants he's relating
to in this little short parable. Who are these servants? Who's
he talking to? Is he talking to the scribes?
Everything on this earth serves him. The weather we're experiencing
serves him. We want to mumble about it or
be thankful for it. At any rate, it serves him. So it's in good in thy sight.
That's what our Lord said in His prayer. So who are these? Well, it's His disciples. Isn't
that what the text said? His disciples said, increase
our faith. And then He said to them. Well,
what is a disciple? Well, a disciple is a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you might ask, well, why
is He following Him? Why follow Jesus Christ? I've
been hearing about Jesus Christ since I was a toddler. Why follow
Him? Because He needs, He has what
His followers need. That's why we follow Him. They
weren't following Him because He was famous. They were following
Him because they had a need and He had what they needed. And there's but few followers
in our day because there's few needy sinners in their own eyes. Needy sinners follow Him because
He has what they need. And then secondly, disciples
follow Him because He's Lord. He's Lord. God hath made that
same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now listen to me. Without His
authority and His willingness, you wouldn't be a follower. You'd still be chasing those
soap bubble dreams that you were chasing before He called you. Without His authority and willingness,
you wouldn't be a follower. You'd still be serving sin and
self and Satan. You'd still be on the broad road
that leads to destruction. were complete in him, Paul writes,
who is the head over all principality and powers. And as God, he was
always, always omnipotent. But as the God-man, our mediator,
our savior and representative, he was given power power over all flesh that He
should give eternal life to as many as the Father had given
to Him. It's His Lordship and that title is King and that power
and authority is King that enables Him to give life to chosen sinners. Power and authority to save chosen
sinners. And to them, John writes, gave
He power to become sons of God. and to believe on His name and
be born again. Our Lord said to His disciples
on another occasion, they said, Master, He said, you call me
Master and you do well. For so I am. So I am. The power He usurps over men
is given to Him based on the meritorious work He accomplished
on the cross and in His life. And His power to save is a power
purchased by his life and death. In Romans 14, 9 it said, For
to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he
might be Lord both of the dead and the living. God cannot intervene in the life
of a sinner unless that sinner's sin has been justly satisfied. And we follow Him because He
has power to save. You remember on one occasion,
the disciples came to Him and said, we've done everything we
can do and that devil won't be cast out. He gave them power
over the devils. And then thirdly, we follow Him
because He is and radiates the wisdom of God. Never a man speak like this man.
He said, I'm the light of the world. There's no light apart
from me. I'm the light of the world. Of
God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. Here's wisdom personified. It's
in a person. He has all the right questions
and all the right answers. How many times did he address
those Pharisees and their mouths were shut? He had none of the ignorance
of fallen man. And Satan himself came to find
something in him, some flaw, some weakness, something to manipulate
or exploit our Savior, and he found nothing. That's what our
Lord said, he found nothing in me. Nothing in him but purity
and holiness and righteousness. And when distinguishing between
heathens and saints, Paul says in Ephesians 4.20, but you have
not so learned Christ. What is it we need to know? A
person. That's what you need to know,
a person. Well, I need to know about the
depravity of man. You will if you know the person. You've not so learned Christ,
if so be that you've heard Him and have been taught of Him as
the truth is in Jesus. Salvation is literally putting
on a new man and that man is Christ. We put Him on. We put on the new man, which
after God is created in righteousness and holiness and we follow Him
because we know Him and we want to know more of Him. John said
we know that the Son of God has come and give us an understanding
that we may know Him that's true. That we're in Him that's true. Even in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God in eternal life. So we plant His fields just like
this man in the parish. And we feed His cattle because
He mercifully and lovingly grants us permission to do so. Our service,
or servitude if you will, is a privilege, not a punishment. I tell you, you start looking
at these things like gathering together, assembling ourselves
together, or hearing the gospel, or reading, if you start looking
at those things as a punishment, Oh, I tell you, your walk will
show it. You don't come away joyful, you
just see the hardship of it. But if you love him, it's not
a hard job. It wasn't a hard job for that
servant. He'd been out in the field all
day. He'd been plowing. And he wasn't riding no John
Deere. He was out there behind an ox. plowing that field, wrestling
that plow. You've seen movies where they're
plowing, you know what it is. They're fighting that plow all
the way across that field and all the way back, been out there
all day. And comes in and the master said, get my dinner on
the table. And he runs and does it, he doesn't
have anything to say, he just go do it. And he said, when I'm
done eating, and have my wine, or my cup of coffee, whatever
it was, when I'm drunken, he said, Then you can sit down and
have your meat. Our servitude is a privilege.
Oh, to serve Him. My soul, He give Himself for
us. Surely we can give ourselves,
which is our reasonable service. Surely we can do that to Him.
And then the second question is this. What are his servants
obliged to do? What does he expect from his
servants? What are his servants obliged
to do? Servants do what they're told.
Is that right? They do what they're told. Whether
they're good or bad, they do what they're told. If God would leave us to figure
out what to do, How to do it and when to do it, we'd be like
all the other religions in the world. That'd be a fit description of
us, but he didn't. Human reasoning and planning
is not how servants of God know what to do. They do what they're
told to do. We don't argue about these things
from the standpoint of human reasoning. And because they cross
up with our human reasoning, we don't fly off the handle.
We do what He tells us to do. Not what seems logical. And we
do His will as best we can discern it and pray and subject our prayers
to His will, not my will. But Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. And we do His redemptive will.
And we do it by His ordained means of grace, and we do it
according to His eternal aim and purpose. Well, somebody said, I'm not
listening to any preacher. Then you can't be saved. Is that
too hard? I ain't listening to no preacher.
Then you can't be saved. Because it pleased God through
the Foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I'm not going to confine my thinking
to the word of God, then you can't be saved. Because faith
is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus
Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Servants do what
they're told. If he says, do not forsake the
assembling of yourselves together, that's exactly what he means.
And is he telling you that to be hurtful? No, he's telling
you that for your good. For your good. This is a good
master. This master knows how to treat
a servant. The problem is we don't know
how to be servants. That's where the problem is.
And then the third question is this. With what attitude do faithful
servants serve? Well, first of all, with an attitude
of total surrender. We don't hear that term much
anymore, do we? Old preachers used it a lot. What does it mean to surrender?
Here's what the dictionary said. To cease resistance to an enemy
or an opponent and submit to their authority. Surrender. It means to abandon oneself entirely
for the influence of another. Surrender. We become servants
by way of total surrender. Much of the servants that Israel
had was taken during wartime. Now it was their right. It was
their right. They could have killed them right
there on the battlefield. But it was also their right if they
didn't want to. They wanted to be merciful. They could take
that servant home, provide him a living in their house for which
he served them. True servants have an attitude
of total dependence. Total dependence. When a person
surrenders to Christ, he becomes totally dependent on Him. Ah,
we still want that crutch of the flesh, don't we? No, you're totally dependent
on Him. in everything. And true servants have an attitude
of love and gratitude. That servant taken in battle
was at the disposal of his captor. He could put him to death right
then and there for his rebellion, or he could have mercy on him
and use him as a servant. That word disposal means an agreement
or a positioning of something. It means the throwing away or
getting rid of something. And what do you do with a rebel?
You either get rid of him or you make arrangements for him
to serve. And then fourthly, we serve our
Lord and Master with an attitude of dedication and commitment.
What good is a servant that will not serve? What possible good
is a servant who will not serve? poured a lot of concrete when
they were building the I-49. I'd never done that type of work.
We had to make our own riprap up under those bridges, which
means you put concrete in a burlap sack. Four healthy shovel loads
in a sack. You ever picked up a shovel load
of concrete? That's heavy, ain't it? Put four of them in a sack.
And the only way you can pick them up is with your fingers,
like that. Grip them, pick them up. And
I had 15 men. And the very first day, I beat
all the records of all the people up and down the highway pulling
concrete with these 15 men. And then by about the second
week, I got back and I started looking at these 15 men, and
half of them were just letting the other guys do all the work.
That's all they were doing. And I thought, well, why am I
paying you? And these guys were doing the
work. They were actually doing the work. So I got rid of half
my crew. I come in and cut it in half.
I had eight guys. And out of those eight guys, three of them,
they were there half time, half time they weren't, and so on
and so forth. I got rid of them. I had five guys. They doubled
the amount that they were pouring, and they got it done in four
hours. In four hours. Oh, my soul. What good is a servant who will
not serve? He's good for nothing, isn't
he? These were committed and dedicated men. Talking about
a handful of servants in the early church, the scripture said
they turned the world upside down. These that have come hither.
Well, who can? A handful. What did they do? They turned the world upside
down. They were willing servants and God blessed their work. Servants
of Christ were committed, dedicated servants. And then fourthly,
here's the last question that a man might ask as he reads this
parable of Christ. How long are the Lord's servants
constrained to work? What did he tell us in that parable? till the master is satisfied. That's how long. What does it take to satisfy
the master when all his elect are gathered to himself? He'll
be satisfied. He'll wind it up. There'll be
no more reason for this world, no more reason for your life,
no more reason for anything. Time shall be no more, no more
reason for time. until their master is satisfied,
until the day is done. What day? This servant had already
worked all day, but it wasn't all day. He just worked a certain
amount of hours. He got dinner time and he'd come
in. He prepared that meal for his master, waited until his
master was done, and then he sat down to eat. Well, what day
is he talking about? The gospel day. We're living
in the last days. It's the gospel day. We preach
and serve our Lord in His ministry here to all His elect who are
brought into the fold. This is the gospel day. And secondly,
He's talking about the day of our lives. Our whole life is
a day. Listen to what Christ said. He
said, I must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day. He had to die. He had to go to
the cross and die. But there was a day, and that
day was his life from the time he was born to the time he went
to the cross. He said, I must work while it's
day and night cometh when no man can work. You're not going
to serve after you die. And as long as I'm in the world,
he said, I'm the light of the world. And thirdly, all day means every
day. Concerning these works, I want
you to listen. I read this. This really impressed
me. It might not have any effect on you, I don't know, but I'm
going to read it anyway. There's something Matthew Poole said,
commenting on these verses. He said, if we were to examine
our works in the light of Christ, in the light of our Redeemer,
in the light of His example, going through this life. If we
were to examine our works, we would discover that our performances
are so lame and so imperfect that the greatest part of what
we do amounts not even to the least part of what we leave undone. That is so true. That is so true. Faith in Christ is the heart
of the matter. Therefore, Paul said, pray for
us. Pray for us that the Word of our Lord may have free course
and be glorified, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable
and wicked men, for all men have not faith. Paul, may the Lord
teach us something about being His servant.