Turn over with me this morning,
if you would, to Luke's Gospel, Chapter 17. Luke's Gospel, Chapter
17. Brother Gary Williams came up
to me after Paul had finished his message, and he said, Boy,
that's going to be a tough act for you to follow. I remember another Mayhem fellow. First conference I ever preached
in in my life. I shouldn't have been in the
pulpit. Brother Scott Richards asked me to come and preach at
his Bible conference years ago. I don't know if he was mad at
me. I don't know if he thought I needed, you know, some humility. But I was the first speaker on
a Friday night, and the man that followed me was Henry Mann. And
I thought last night as the lights went out while I was preaching,
I thought, it's happened to me again. Because right in the middle of
my message when I was trying to preach there in that conference,
I actually thought the lights had gone out. But it was up here. this morning that I face is not
taking anything away from what we just heard. That's my task. So here in John chapter 17, I
want to begin reading for you in verse 3. Luke chapter 17 and verse 3. Take
heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against
thee, rebuke him. If he repent, forgive him. If
he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times
in a day turn again to thee, and say, I repent, thou shalt
forgive him.' And the apostle said unto the Lord, Increase
our faith. And the Lord said, If you had
faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine
tree, Be thou plucked up of the root, and be thou planted in
the seed, and it shall 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 set 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? Doeth he thank that servant
because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things that
are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants. We have
done that which was our duty to do. And my subject this evening
is found here in verse 5. Lord, increase our faith. And I want to look at three things
concerning this. First of all, I want to look
at the request itself. Then I want to look at why the
request was made. Then I want to look at the Lord's
response to it. Lord, increase our faith. Now, if you have read after these
apostles very much at this time in their life, the one thing
you come to conclude that these disciples, these apostles either
had little understanding or they had no understanding or they
had a misunderstanding of almost everything regarding the Lord
Jesus Christ. And several times such statements
as this is made of, they understood not those things which he spoke. They knew not the things which
he had spoken. What is this that he said? We
cannot tell what he said. The things that I do now, he
said to them, you know not. You know nothing now. You shall
know hereafter, but you don't know now. And Peter even said concerning
our Lord's betrayal and going to the cross, Lord, be it far
from you. Now, if these men lived in our
day, it may be different. But they lived in their day.
And you and I will have to say these men were saved men. In our day we'd have just cause
to doubt it, but not in their time and not in their day. And
I know Judas is the exception to this rule. The Lord Jesus
said that Himself. He knew who should betray Him
and who believed and who believed not. I've chosen you twelve and
one of you is a devil. He's the exception. But these
eleven apostles, they were saved men. He asked them one day, whom
do men say that I am? Oh, they say all kinds of things
about you. Who do you say I am? Peter, who do you say I am? They
are the Christ, the Son of the living God. He said, Peter, you
know how you know me? My Father has revealed you to
me. They knew Him. They knew the
Lord. And one thing we realize from this text this evening,
this morning, is this. These men, though they were ignorant
in many things, they weren't ignorant in all things. They
knew something about faith. Now listen to this. Here's what
they knew. Number one, they knew this. They knew they had it. Lord, increase our faith. Now there was a time they didn't
have faith. And I can't put my finger on the time. And I can't
put my finger on the time when faith came to their heart. They
weren't born believing. They did not live believing,
but there come a time they believed. They had faith. It was real faith. It was saving faith. The Lord
Jesus never did rebuke them and say, You have no faith. You're
destitute of it. He rebuked them for not exercising
their faith. He reproved Peter for being a
man of little faith, but never once were they destitute of it
after he gave it to them. They had faith. It was real faith,
and it was saving faith. Lord, we believe and are sure
that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's
faith. And they said, I've got it. I've got it. How many times
have you doubted you had it? when temptations got many, and
the valley got long and dark, and the hill got difficult. How
many times in your experience, when your heart's been so full
of unbelief, you doubted you had it. Do I love the Lord? No. Do I believe Him or not?
Ain't it a wonderful blessing to know you have faith? They
knew it. They knew it. Lord, increase
our faith. And number two, regarding their
faith, they put great value upon it. They had faith and they knew
something about this faith. It is a precious thing. Lord,
increase our faith. Those who have got it want to
increase it because they know how precious it is. And if you
are here this morning and you have faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, you have come to realize what a precious thing you have. What a scarce thing you have. You are living in a world full
of unbelievers and very, very few people have saving faith. It is a precious thing. Those
who truly believe come to realize that saving faith is the world, is something this
world is without. And you cannot please God without
it. There's no salvation without it. There's no knowing Christ
without it. There's no walking with God without
it. It's a precious thing. And for
a man to know he has it, what a blessing. Lord, increase our
faith. It's mine. It's our faith. You may be here this morning
and you may have little faith, but would you trade it for anybody
else? You look at somebody and, oh,
you say, that man, he's a great man of faith. Look what he's
accomplished. Look how he's enjoying the Lord.
Oh, what faith he has. Lord, make my faith like His.
But would you trade yours for His? No, you wouldn't. Why? It's
yours. It's yours. That's what they
saw. We've got faith. I've got faith.
And it's mine. And they recognize this about
this faith. They recognize their faith to
be a grace. It's a grace. They realize their
inability in and of themselves to increase it. Therefore, they
ask the Lord. Lord, increase our faith. Why
did they ask Him? They knew He's the author of
it. A dead man cannot in and of himself
believe apart from grace, and a living man cannot continue
to believe apart from grace. That grace that is given unto
his heart is given by the power of the Holy Spirit working in
him, and if that grace is maintained or increased, it is due to the
author of that faith. Lord, increase our faith. He must maintain it. He who get
it must maintain it. The reason for the request. Now
look at this in verses 3 and verse 4. Here's the reason. There's
their faith. They knew they had it. They knew
it was a grace. And the same Lord who gave it
must maintain it and increase it. And here is the reason for
their request. He begins here in verse 3. And
look at this. Take heed to yourselves, if thy
brother trespass against thee, rebuke him, and if he repent,
forgive him. Now here is some strange language.
If someone trespasses against you, the Lord said, then you
best take heed to yourself. You would think that was the
other way around. If you stand against somebody, you better
take heed. You're in trouble. But that's not what he said,
is it? No. If someone has trespassed against you, if someone has offended
you, you better take heed to yourself. You've just been put
in an awful predicament. And he's given only one course
of action to take. Rebuke him. In another place,
the Lord said, you go to him and you tell him what he's done
to you that he's sinned against you. You be honest with him. You be up front with him. You
be sincere with him. And you explain to him what he's
said, what he's done that has offended you. That's the course
of action they had to take. Now, why is that so important?
Well, here's the problem we face in forgiven sin. By nature, we're
sulky. compelling people. And instead
of going to someone who has sinned against us, we want to just wait
until our heart gets full of bitterness and resentment and
keep it within ourselves. That is the first problem we
are faced. Have you ever felt that way? And then we face this
problem. We are apt to confide in others.
rather than doing what our Master said, going to Him in private,
and discuss it between just you and Him. Did you hear what old
so-and-so did to me? Let me tell you what old so-and-so
did to me. Aren't we like that, brothers?
Anybody here this morning ain't guilty of doing that? The Master
said, take heed to yourself. And can you imagine the trouble
these first two things would cause? If you help that offense
within your own heart, the bitterness, the resentment that would build
up there. And if you begin to spread this all over the place,
could you imagine what that would do to a congregation or to the
other brethren? Go to Him. Take heed to yourself. You go to Him and you talk to
Him. You tell Him His offense is towards you. And then we have
the problem of this. Some of us are so timid. We'd just be too embarrassed.
I could not endure to go to somebody and say, you've offended me.
I'm too timid. I'll just bear it. I'll just
bear it. But you know something? There's
no option to me. Here's what the Master tells
us to do. If someone has offended you,
take heed to yourself. You're in a predicament, and
here's your only course of action. You go to him. If a man is going
to wear his feelings on his sleeves, and you and I are going to be
offended with every hateful look or unkind word, instead of letting
the grace of God in Christ rule in our hearts, then we are going
to be put in a lot of predicaments. Great peace have they that love
thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Be careful, brothers and sisters,
about being offended with every word and every hateful look,
unkind deed. You put yourself in an awful
predicament when you do that. And look at this. If he repents,
forgive him. And the Lord says here that if
he repents seven times, Sin against you seven times in
a day. And Peter was sort of hung up on that. This is where
Peter got that. Lord, if you turn seven times,
how often... Peter had trouble with forgiveness,
obviously. Lord, let's put a limit on this
thing. If he sins against me seven times, you know... You
know what the Lord told him? Seven times seven. 490 times. You ever had anybody
sin against you 490 times? And the Lord said, forgive him
if he repents, forgive him 490 times, forgive him immediately. Forgive him fully and freely
and graciously and lovingly. Don't wait and try to discern
if he's genuine in his repentance. Don't see how he's going to treat
you in the future. Don't say, I'll forgive you,
but I'll never forget it. Forgiveness means you don't harbor
any resentment after forgiveness. I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness.
Their sins and iniquities will I never remember against them.
That's true forgiveness, ain't it? Graciously, freely, fully,
lovingly, from your heart, Forgive those who have sinned against
you. And if we don't forgive that way, then we don't forgive
at all. And if we don't forgive, you
know what the Lord told us? Neither will your Father in Heaven
forgive you your trespasses. Forgiveness is not an option,
is it? If I sinned against your pastor, and he comes to me and
says you sinned against me, what am I to do? Donnie, I'm
sorry. What you need to do, forgive
me. I got up this morning at 6 o'clock and I had my alarm
clock set for 6.30. I got me a cup of coffee and
went out on the porch at 6.30 and my alarm clock came on. Everybody
heard it but me, obviously. Half the house got up. And Brother
Donnie come out on the back porch and when I turned and saw his
face, I repented. And you know what? You know what?
You know what? When I said, Donnie, I'm so sorry.
Oh brother, I'm so sorry. He smiled at me. He was aggravated. You was aggravated at me. Where
you at? Lord, increase our faith. See
what brought this request on. If a man sins against You 490
times, no matter what the nature of the sin is, Forgive him freely, fully, graciously,
lovingly. No resentment, no bitterness
left in the heart at all. Never bring it up. He's forgiven,
just like I've forgiven you. Lord, increase on that. That's
what brought it on. What does faith have to do with
forgiveness of others? What does faith have to do with
me being a gracious and merciful? servant of the Lord, and forgiving
my brothers and sisters." It is the very nature of faith,
and I am talking about saving, that leads us to see how much
we ourselves owe, the debt I owe, and how indebted that I am to
the Lord. Nobody has sinned against me
so greatly and so often as I have sinned against my Lord. That
is what faith says. I have sinned. Oh, I have sinned against God.
Trampled His law under my feet, times untold. Sinned against
the Son of God, the dear and blessed Son of God. Sinned against
His love. Sinned against His counsel. Sinned
against life. Sinned against the gospel. sin
against the Holy Spirit, sin against His people, sin willfully,
sin ignorantly. My sins are great and there are
many and they are against an infinite God. And yet He has,
for the mere sake of His holy child Jesus, forgiven me all. How could I dare not forgive
another man for his trespasses against me? Faith sees what a
dead end holds. It's the nature of faith that
brings us to consider the enormous price that was paid to atone
for our sins and secure the forgiveness of our sins. It doesn't cost
me anything to forgive you. It costs the Lord everything
to forgive me. And faith sees that. Christ bore
my sins in His own body. I have never bore anybody's sins
in my life. Christ suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust
to bring us to God. His soul was made an offering
for our sins. He poured out His soul unto death
and He finally died on the cross for our sins. Faith sees this. And I tell you, faith not only
sees the great debt we owe ourselves and how indebted we are. Faith
sees the enormous price that was paid to secure our forgiveness.
Faith sees its interest in these things. And it feels the love
that flows out of it. That's where faith comes in.
As a woman came to the Lord Jesus, she was a sinner in the town.
She stood at the Lord's feet and wept. And the Lord looked
down upon her and He said to this man, You see this woman,
her sins are many, but they are forgiven her. What was the result
of that? She loved much. And the Lord
turns right around in the same breath and says to that woman,
Thy faith has saved thee. What does faith have to do with
our loving due to our sins being forgiven? It lays hold upon it
all. The enormous sins that it has
committed, the enormous price that was paid, our interest in
it. And oh, when faith lays hold
upon that beloved that flows out there. Lord, increase our
faith. Increase our faith. Great peace of they that love
thy gospel, and nothing shall offend them. Great peace of they
that see their enormous sin and the price of their redemption
from it and their interest in it and the love that flows from
it. Here is the Lord's response.
In verse 6 and verse 7, we read about, really, these servants. These two servants, if you will,
if you want to look at it that way. Two servants. Well, look in verse 6. Look at
this. Don't want to miss this. Here's the Lord's response. If
you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this
sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, and be thou
planted in the sea, and it would obey thee." What's the Lord saying
about faith here? What's He telling us about faith?
He's not speaking literally now. In other places He said, save
this mountain. He's not speaking about literal
trees and literal mountains. My goodness, the air would be
full of mountains and trees flying everywhere, wouldn't it? He's
speaking in a spiritual sense. And what He's saying here, faith,
removes obstacles. Little obstacles, like a tree,
are a great obstacle, like a mountain, that would hinder you from freely
and lovingly and graciously forgiving someone of their sin. That's
what he said. Lord, I know what you're saying
about forgiveness, and I know it's not an option. I know it's
not an option. I know faith has something to
do with it. The Lord says here's what it has to do with it. It's
going to remove the obstacles. in your heart. This is the victory
that overcomes the world. This is the victory that overcomes
the stubborn heart. This is the victory that overcomes
the prejudice in our hearts. The pride that's in our heart.
The unwillingness that's in our heart. Even our faith. And the Lord Jesus is saying
here, it's not the greatness of faith. It's not the mountain
that you're at. It could be just as a grain of
mustard seed. It's the greatness of the object
of that faith. That's what it is. Little faith
exercised, and I don't know a better word to use than that. If the Armenians use that, I'm
sorry they do, but I know what I mean when I say that. Little
faith exercised upon a mighty object. can do mighty things,
move a mountain and move trees and everything else that stands
in our way from our obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing but faith can do that. Christ is telling His disciples
here in a word, don't be overly concerned with the degree of
your faith. but live in the exercise of that
faith which you already have. Peter had a little faith. The
Lord said, you've got a little faith. But I'll tell you what
that little faith enabled him to do. Defy all nature. Walked on the water. And he could continue to walk
on the water, too, if he hadn't got his eye off the object of
his faith. It's not the degree of faith you have, it's faith's
object. Live upon the object of your
faith. And it's the object of your faith
that plucks up the trees and removes them out. Have you ever
talked to a believer that said, I've got great faith? I've never
talked to the first man or woman that I have any confidence in
at all that said, I have great faith. Every believer wants more
faith. And I tell you what we want for.
We usually want more faith to make things easy. But that's
not the nature of faith. I'll tell you where faith comes
in. When the Red Sea is out in front of you, and Pharaoh's mighty
army is stirring up dust behind you, that's where faith comes
in. Faith comes in when there's a
fiery furnace in front of you, There is a mighty king behind
you saying bow to my idol or else. That is where faith comes
in. Faith comes in when you are between
the rock and the hard place. And the hard place is harder
than the rock. That is where faith comes in. We are not given
a degree of faith to make running the race easy without facing
any difficulties. We are given faith to run and
finish the race in spite of the difficulties. That's faith. Now, here's the conclusion of
what the Lord Jesus said. He tells us about two servants,
if you will, here in verse 6 and verse 7 through verse 10. He
really tells us about two servants. And in the Scriptures, there
are two servants. These two fellows working in the field. One of
them is a willing servant, and one is an unwilling servant. Those two servants are mentioned
in the Scriptures. You find them there, an unwilling
servant and a willing servant. Why would the Lord mention this
to these apostles about service, serving Him, being His servant?
They have some trouble with this. They have some trouble with this.
And He's going to teach them something about faith and being
His servant. James and John made a request
one time that was utterly ridiculous, and I'm sure they'd come to be
ashamed of it. They went to the Lord even with their mother and
said, we want to set one of us on the right side of the Lord
and one of us on the left side. What a request! And why would
they want that? Well, we want people, when they
look upon the Lord, to look upon others. Look where we're at. Who is worthy to sit there? What
pride, what arrogance of any man to want to sit there and
make a request for that? These men were proud. They were
servants of the Lord. And they had faith that it was
going to be increased. How does faith affect a man as
he is a servant of the Lord? Does it let him say, Lord, You
want us to call them far out of heaven? destroy this bunch
of rebels? Consume men, women, children
and livestock? Burn up the ground? Wouldn't
that be an awful thing? We're the Lord's servants. If
we're going to call down far out of heaven and destroy this
bunch of them, they have something to learn. What kind of servant
is a man who has the grace of faith in his heart? That's what
the Lord's going to teach him. So he gives them this example.
I look at it as being two servants. You have this unwilling servant.
What is it? Well, he's a legalist. He's a
self-righteous man. He's a faithless man. He's a
slave working for a reward. And because he's been working
just for a reward, he becomes restless and resentful when the
reward is delayed. He gets mad. And he says, I'm
unappreciated. I'm undervalued here. I'm not
getting what I deserve. And you picture him as he stands
behind the Lord. His Lord is sitting there at
the table. He's come in and he may have some blisters on his
hands indeed. And he's put on his apron. He's
prepared his Lord a meal. And he stands there behind the
Lord waiting. But boy, he don't like it. He
don't like it, Joe. Because them jaws are locked. His eyes are looking down at
him. When's he going to be finished? I'm so tired of this, he said.
I worked out in his field and sweat and I fed his cattle. He
don't even appreciate it. What a sorry man. And I've come
in tired, and what does he do? Sit down and make me wait on
him. A legalist, self-righteous legalist. I hate his kettle. I hate his oxen. I hate his service. I hate my master. And you go to the majority of
the church members in our country today, and if you could look
at their heart, you'd see that's their attitude. They're working
to stay out of hell, or they're working for a reward, and that's
it. And if they don't get it on their
terms and get it quick, they hate their Master. That's the
first step. And then you have this willing
slave. He serves by faith. He loves
his Master. He's put his ear to the post
and says, Lord, come through. I love my Master. And I am going
to serve Him because I love Him. He does not seek comfort. He does not seek ease. He does
not seek the praise of men. He does not seek thanks or reward. Faith seeks one thing, and that
is this, the will and the good pleasure of His Master that He
serves. That's His reward and that's
all. Faith doesn't work to be loved. Now think about that. I'm working so Jesus will love
me. That's not faith's attitude.
Faith's attitude is I'm working because I'm loved. I'm not working
for a blessing. I'm working because I'm blessed. The heart of faith does not seek
to satisfy itself. Its chief joy and aim and end
is to satisfy its master. It does not work to be saved.
It does not work to stay saved. The heart of faith works because
the Lord has saved it. I will not work my soul to save. That my Lord has done. But I
will work like any slave. for the sake of God's dear Son.
That's faith's attitude. Faith takes on the nature and
the attitude of its object. Let this mind be in you which
was in Christ Jesus, being found in the fashion of a man, the
form of a servant, humble himself and did the will of God lovingly
and graciously. That's the way of the heart of
faith, sir. The Lord increased my faith. What do you think of
your Master? What do you think of your Master?
Oh, He's a sovereign Master. I love Him. What condescending love on His
part to suffer such a useless wretch like me to plow His field
and to feed His oxen. My chief joy is just to think
he'd let me unloose his sandals or carry a glass of water and
give to one of his other servants. Why, he would suffer me, a wretch
like me, just to work and occasionally catch a glimpse of his face. Oh, that's my joy facing. You ever wonder why Abraham left his own country
and went off into a country that he had never seen before? Left
his father's house just because the Lord told him to? You ever wonder how he did that?
You ever wonder how Noah, even though it had never rained upon
this earth, took his saw and hammer and nail and began to
build an ark to carry him and his family through a flood. You
ever wonder how Moses and why Moses forsook Egypt and the pleasures
of sin and went out into a desert full of slime pits and suffered
reproach for Christ Jesus? You ever wonder that? You ever
wonder why Samson would give his life just to slay the enemies
of the Lord? Now you know. They believed God. Faith. Faith. Faith seeks one
thing. The good pleasure and the will
of the Master. When Brother Walter Griever first
went to Mexico, he had to tell you, most of you know better
than I do, it's tough. It's tough down there. Walter
said he'd go out to some of those communities, try to get a hearing,
Sometimes they would borrow firecrackers or turn up loud music to drown
him out. Lived in conditions that weren't
too agreeable to the flesh. Had it pretty tough. Somebody
asked Brother Walter one day, they said, Walter, are you happy?
You know what he said? What's happiness got to do with
it? This is my master's will. That's what makes me happy. The
Apostle Paul stood before an arrogant bunch of people one
day, King Agrippa and Bernice and all their pomp, living with
everything their heart could desire to have. And here he stood
in chains, dressed in the clothes of a prisoner. And you know what
he said? I think myself happy. Why? I'm right in the center of my
Master's will. And that's what gives me joy.
And the Jews can use me as a whipping post. They can stone me. They can cut my head off. I'm
going to finish my race with joy because that's my Master's
will. What is that? That's faith. Okay
then. If that's faith, Lord, increase
mine. Increase mine. God bless you.