I want to read this evening to
you here in Luke chapter 17 and verse 5. I tell you what, let
me read these 10 verses because I want to be calm in most of
them. Luke 17, let's begin here in
verse 1. Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible,
but that offenses will come. But war to him through whom they
come. It were better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea,
than 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 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 sycamine
tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in
the seed, and it should obey you. But which of you, having
a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him, Thou
and thy, when he is come from the field, go and set down to
meet? And I will not rather say unto
him, Make ready wherewith I may sit, and gird thyself, and serve
me, till I have eaten and drunken, and afterwards thou shalt eat
and drink. Doeth he thank that servant, because he did the things
that were commanded him? I shall not, 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. Here in verse 5 it was said by
the apostles, Lord, increase our faith. And I want to look
at this this evening, and four things about this passage here
that I read to you. And one is, if you're concerned,
in verse 5, this request that these apostles made, Lord, increase
our faith. And secondly, I want to look
at the reason for this request. Why would they even ask this
of the Lord Jesus? And then thirdly, I want to look
at his response to our beginning in verse 6. And then lastly,
I want to see something of the nature of faith. So let's begin
here in verse 5. Lord, increase our faith. Now,
sometimes you and I, when we remember these apostles and when
we study about them, we often look at their ignorance. their
lack of understanding, or how darkened their understanding
was, or how they misunderstood so many things. And you don't
have to be a theologian to realize that these men did not understand
much of why the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. We often
hear it said that they asked the Lord when he had told them
something, they said, we don't know what you just said. They
asked themselves, what did he just say? We can't tell what
he said. And the Lord even said to him
himself, he said, he said, Bob, what I tell you now, you know
not, but you'll know where you're at. And it was said these things
were hid from their eyes. So there are many things that
these apostles did not understand. But in the text, I think you
and I will see here that they understood something about this
matter of faith. that I never knew the understanding
for. They said, Dear Lord, increase our faith. And that tells me
some things. And first of all, it tells me
that they understood something of the preciousness of faith.
There may have been a lot of things they didn't know. But
they had enough discernment of what faith was, they said, I
want more of it. It's something that's precious,
it's something that will help me, and I want an increase of
it. They seemed there was something
peculiar and necessary about it. So they said, Lord, increase
our faith. And secondly, they knew this
about it, they knew their inability in and of themselves to increase
their own faith. Lord, You increase our faith.
And what does that tell us? Don't that tell us that whatever
they did not understand, they knew that faith was a precious
grace, that it was given to them of God, and that He who gave
it to them was able to increase it? Now, I can't put my finger
on it. And you probably can't either.
But when you read about these apostles, there was a time when
they did not know the Lord. I don't know when that time was.
There was a time when they did not believe on Him. A man is
not born knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't care what age
he lives in. There's a lot of people here
that didn't know Him. And they didn't know Him at first.
I don't know when that was. But there was a time they didn't
know Him. There was a time they didn't believe on Him. And then
there was a time they did know Him. And they did come to believe
on Him. And what made the difference?
What brought them from an unbelief to... They knew what it was.
The Lord gave them faith. The Lord brought them to faith.
He said to Peter one day, the Lord said, He said, Peter, flesh
and blood has not revealed this to me to you. It wasn't because
your mother taught you of the Messiah. It wasn't because your
daddy instructed you that the Son of God was coming. My Father
has revealed you to me. So see, there's a time they didn't
know the Lord. There's a time when they didn't believe on the
Lord. And then there's a time they did. And it seems here that
they realized where they got their faith from. Because they
realized they couldn't increase it. The increase of it was a
gift just like it was when they received it. And then he says,
Then he said, these apostles said, Lord, increase our faith.
Increase our faith. Increase our faith. Increase. And notice this third of it about
what they knew about faith. And I hope I don't lose you.
But notice this. They knew they had it. They knew
they had it. See, they didn't ask Him for
faith. They asked Him to increase their faith. And they called
it their faith, even though they knew it was a grace. It was their
faith. And they did not say, Lord, give
us faith, but Lord, increase our faith. They knew they had
faith. Now that's a blessing, isn't
it? For a man to have it and know
it. Listen now, those who are destitute of this grace never
pray for an increase of it. Because they are destitute of
the knowledge of it, only those who have it know they have it. Now don't that make sense? Only
those who know they have it, know they have it, and those
who don't know they have it, don't have it. And they don't
know they have it because they don't have it. When you come
to realize you've got it, then you've got it. See what I'm saying? They said, Lord, increase our
faith. By the time you realize you have
faith, you already have it. And though you don't fully realize
how you've got it, does anybody here realize how you've got that?
I know not how. This faith to me He did impart. How believing in His Word brought
peace within my heart, I just know I believe it. I just know
I believe it. You recognize you have it, and
therefore when you recognize you have it, it's not long you
want an increase in it. But you'll never want an increase
in this grace until you realize you've got it. That's why they
said, Lord increase it. We've got it. We've got it. It's only a person who has any
amount of money in his wallet, who would even look in his wallet
to see if he had money. A man who's broke don't look
in his wallet. He's broke. He's destitute. You take a man
that's got a will of money in his wallet. He's the man who
takes account sometimes to see how much money he's got in there,
because he has occasion to buy certain items that he desires.
But you take a man that's absolutely destitute, he don't have one
copper penny in his pocket, he don't ever take account of what
he's got. He has none. Only those who have anything
are apt to take account of what they've got. Nobody else knows
they have anything, because they don't have any. Have I confused
you yet? Lord, increase our faith. Don't you have a desire sometimes to
purchase things like a precious promise? You find a precious
promise and you want to purchase it as it were. Boy, if I can
just get a hold of this. I know there's something here
that will comfort me and strengthen me and help me. But you know,
you just don't feel like you've got enough money to purchase
it. It's a little bit out of your reach, too expensive for
you, and you wish, oh, I wish my faith could lay hold of that.
I wish I had the increase of my faith to buy such a great
promise this day. That's the way these fellas here
felt. You believe. You know you believe. But you say with that poor man,
Lord, help mine. Increase my faith. Those who
have this grace know it, but they feel a need of the increase
of it. And those who don't have it,
don't recognize they don't have it. A man who is destined to
the faith, he don't know it. He just don't know it, does he?
You've got people, you've got friends you work with, your neighbors,
your family members. They don't know they don't have
saving faith. They don't even know what it is. Therefore, they
can't recognize it without it. But these fellas here are saying,
Lord, I believe it. We got faith. We want you to
increase it. So first thing they said here,
they knew faith was precious, they knew it was a grace, they
knew they had it. That's the thing we see now.
Whatever they were ignorant of, well, they wasn't ignorant of
that. They began to lay hold of this. Okay, here's the second
point of my message. What was the reason for this
request? Just out of the blue, the Lord
increased our faith. Well, that brings us back here
to verse 3 and verse 4. It was this awesome subject the
Lord Jesus had been speaking about concerning forgiveness
of sin. That's what prompted this request.
Increase our faith. Now look at this. Go back here
in verse 3 and look at this. And this is very strange. Look
what he says here in verse 3. He says, Take heed to yourselves,
if thy brother trespass against you. Now ain't that strange?
He would have thought he would have directed this take heed
to the man who did the trespass. The man who did the sinning.
If you sin against a brother, you better take heed. But he's
not speaking to the man who did the sinning. But he's speaking
to the one who had been sinned against. And there he says, you
take heed if somebody sins against you. Isn't that amazing? And
he begins here to stress the absolute necessity of our forgiving
those who sin against us. He shows us how important it
is that we forgive. Another place, he said this to
show us it's important. He says, if you forgive not those
who sin against you, then your Father in heaven won't forgive
you. You'll trespass it. That's important. This business
of our forgiving those who sin against us, oh my, this is so
important. This is so important. And note,
he says here, and note, he says here, Here's the only way out. Here's the only way out. Take
heed to this that you do, he says, what I instruct you to
do. In verse 3 here it says, If thy
brother trespass against thee, number one, rebuke him, and if
he repent, forgive him. First of all, look at this. If
thy brother trespass against thee. I'm glad he didn't say
when. I'm glad he said yes, because
we don't have to sin against one another. We should not even
think that way. If we let this mind be in us,
that's in Christ Jesus, and we walk humbly before one another
with a tender heart, seeking our brother's wealth, we don't
have to sin against our brother. So the Lord Jesus does not say
when, but He said if your brother sinned against you. Then He says,
you go to him, He says in another place, you go to him and you
tell him his fault between you and him. Here He says rebuke
him. I like that place where he says, go to him. Go to him
and you confront him. Say, brother, listen. Here's
what you've done to me. You've offended me and you've
hurt me and you've done me wrong. And I want to confront you with
this. That's what the Lord said to do. Now here, we run into
a problem, don't we? Here's the first problem about
doing what the Lord tells us to do if somebody has done us
wrong. By nature, we're sulky people. By nature, we like to pout, don't
we? And if somebody does something
to us, instead of obeying what the Lord told us, what do we
do? We get off in the corner. And we suck up and puff up. And
we get full of bitterness and resentment. And pull back in
our little shells. And we get in a worse shape than
the one who committed the trespass to begin with. Aren't that the
way we are? Aren't that the way we are? It's not always easy
to confront someone who has done you wrong. But if he's committed
such a wrong against you, that it's offended you, you've got
no choice. Here's the Lord's commandment.
You go to Him, and you tell Him. Secondly, we're apt to confide
in someone else, rather than going to the one who has did
us wrong. Well, let me tell you something
old soul told me. I've got to get this off of my
chest. Let me tell you what he did. Let me tell you what she
did to me. And could you imagine what a serious problem this would
create if we take that route? It spreads all through the congregation?
Or you keep it within you and your heart's full of resentment
and bitterness about it? There's no option when it comes
to forgiveness. That's what the Lord's telling
us right here. The only thing we can do is what
He tells us to do. Go to the one. And then there's
those timid believers. They'd be embarrassed to go.
Tell someone, you offended me. They just couldn't do that. But
you know the Lord Jesus leaves nobody any choice, does he? He
says, here's what you do if someone has trespassed against you. You
go to him and you tell him your fault between you and him. And here's the last problem we
face with this business of forgiveness. If he repents, forgive him. Upon the acknowledgement that
he has sinned against you, you forgive him immediately. Why do you say immediately? You
don't wait to see if his repentance is genuine in your eyes. You
don't wait until you see if he's going to do it again. You forgive
him immediately upon his repentance. Fully, completely, never to bring
it up again. That's the nature of forgiveness,
ain't it? When the scripture talks about forgiveness, it speaks
it like this. I'll be merciful to your unrighteousness,
and your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more. I'll
never bring them up again. Now, you and I cannot forget
what somebody's done for us, to us, even though we forgive
them. I'm not saying that. And that's not what the Scripture
means. What the Scripture means is, I'm not going to hold anything
against you. When I think about what you've done, there's not
going to be any resentment in my heart against you. And if
you ever do it again to me, I'm not going to bring up what you
did in the past. It's over with. I have forgiven
you fully and freely and graciously. Everything's forgiven. Verse 4, look at this. Now this
will probably never happen, but the Lord is stressing here the
importance of having a forgiving heart. And look at what he says
in verse 4. If your brother trespasses against
thee seven times in a day, And seven times in a day, turn again
to be saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. Seven times
in a day. Another place, when Peter said,
Lord, seven times, he said seven times seven. That's 490 times. I doubt that would ever happen.
But the Lord is stressing here how crucial it is for us to have
a forgiving heart. If you from your heart do not
forgive, your brother is trespassed. The Lord tells us here to take
heed to ourselves because forgiving one another is not an option.
The number of times we forgive one another is not an option.
If thy brother, whoever he be, has sinned against you, whatever
may be the nature of that sin, and he turns to you saying, I
repent, no matter how many times he sinned against you, thou shalt
forgive him. Thou shalt forgive him. Forgive
him immediately, forgive him fully, forgive him freely, never
to hold any resentment, never to hold any bitterness against
that man again. forgive him. Lord, increase our faith. See
where that comes in at. See why they asked that request. Lord, increase our faith. These
apostles recognized there was something about faith There was
something in faith that would enable them and strengthen them
and help them to do what the Lord required them to do. He requires absolute forgiveness. Lord, faith, only faith is going
to help me to do what you require me to do. They may not. They may not have been able to
distinguish much between law and grace, but they seemed to
grasp this concept that faith would enable them to do what
the law commanded them to do. That is love. Love. You know faith works by love.
It works by love. Faith purifies the heart, and
if a believer says he believes in divine forgiveness, then such
a thing will help him to forgive even as he has been forgiven
in death. Lord and Christ, our Savior.
We can't live without faith, can we? We can't do it. We can't obey Him without faith.
We can't have a right heart without faith. It don't matter what the
law demands of us. It don't matter what Jesus Christ
requires of us. Without faith, we cannot do it.
And that suddenly dawned upon the hearts of these disciples.
Lord, I can't forgive like that. Increase my faith. Increase my
faith. Faith has something to do with
all this stuff. And notice thirdly, the Lord responds here to this
request. Here in verse 6. And the Lord
said, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say
to this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, and
be planted in the sea, and it shall obey you. Now he's not
speaking literally here. Faith is not a foolish thing.
He talks in other places about speaking to the mountains and
being cast into the sea. But he's not talking literally.
That would be silly for us to think that you'd have a sycamine
tree and mountains fly down for it. He's speaking of a spiritual
sin, and what he's saying here, faith removes obstacles. Whether they be a little sycamine
tree or a great mountain, faith can move. Whatever hinders you
from obeying the Lord fully, faith can remove that obstacle. If you run into an obstacle on
your road, this heavenly highway, and you can't get over it, and
you can't get around it, and you know it's right in your way,
and you've got to go on, it's got to be moved, what can move
it? Faith. That's what he said. Say it. You can say to this obstacle,
this little sycamine tree that's in your road, get out of here. Get plucked up and get out of
here. I've got to walk right where you're playing. So you
get out of the way. Obstacle. This is the victory
that overcometh the world. That overcomes resentment. And
that overcomes bitterness. That overcomes our hesitancy
to forgive. Even our faith. That's what John
said. Even our faith. But note this,
does it have to be a great faith? Is this only for those who have
great faith? No. The Lord Jesus said, if you
have faith as a grain of mustard seed. That's supposed to be.
The smallest seed in the world. I don't know that, but it's got
to be smaller. He wasn't used to it. A little tiny grain of
mustard seed. If you've got that kind of thing.
It's not the greatness of our faith. I mean, tell him what
he's saying. But the greatness of faith's objectivity. Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness. Paul said, brethren, I believe
God that it'll be just like He said it would be. These men had
great faith, but it wasn't the greatness of their faith, but
it was the greatness of the one whom they believed. Little faith exercised in an
almighty object can obtain great fame. That's what the Lord's
teaching them. and remove every obstacle that
hinders us from lovingly and willingly obeying our Master."
That's what he said. Christ is telling His disciples,
don't be overly concerned with the degree of faith that you
have. You want your faith increased, He said, but I'm not talking
about the increase of faith. I'm meeting you with the faith
that you have. It may be little faith. But don't
worry about the degree, but be concerned about this. Live in
the exercise of the faith that you have now. Whether it be a
great faith or a little faith. Peter had a little faith, but
I'll tell you what he did. He did something no mere man
had ever done before. He walked on water. Didn't he? He defied nature, didn't he? And if his little faith hadn't
of taken itself off of that great object out there, he never would
have sunk. It don't take great faith to
walk on water. It's the object of that little faith. You ever
talk to somebody, you had any confidence in them that was a
believer, and they said they had great faith? I never have.
I never have talked to a true believer that said, boy, I've
got great faith. A true believer knows he's got
just enough to barely get by. He wants an increase of it. But
it's not an increase, brothers and sisters, you and I should
be concerned about. First and foremost, let's live
in the exercise of the faith we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. What we want sometimes is enough
faith, a great degree of faith, so things will be easy. Is that
what we're looking for? That's not the nature of faith.
The nature of faith is this. It's what scrounges you between
the rock and the hard place. That's where faith comes in.
Faith is what you use when you're standing with the Red Sea in
front of you and faith rolls behind you. That's where faith
comes in. Faith is what you use when you
have to swim upstream and not float downstream. Faith is the
strength to run one more mile when your muscles are aching.
Faith is not given to make the way easy. Faith is not given
to run the race with ease, but faith is given to help us stay
in the race, no matter how difficult it is. See what I'm saying? We
want enough faith to make running the race easy. Liberation is
not easy. That's not what faith's about.
Faith enables us to run the race even though it's difficult. You
have so much faith you don't have to exercise it. That's not
the nature of faith. You've got just enough, just
enough to barely get you by. That's the nature of faith. That's
the nature of faith. Believe on the Lord. Abide in
Him. Believe His Word. Live by that
faith upon Him. And whatever He requires of you,
that faith will enable you to graciously and lovingly and willingly
do it. That's what He's telling us. Lord, increase our faith. Well,
there's something more important than an increase. Exercise what
you have. Exercise what you have. Now lastly,
verses 7-10, he tells us something here of faith's nature. Now look at this. Faith does something in our thoughts.
That's why it's said to purify the heart and work the love. It gives us and establishes in
us that attitude that's proper for the Lord. and an attitude
that's proper towards ourselves. And then when my thoughts and
my attitude is right towards my master, and my attitude and
thinking is right towards myself, then I am apt to think rightly
towards my brethren, even those who trespass against me. See
what I'm saying? There's two kinds of slaves in
the scripture. And the Lord said here in verse
7, look at this, Which of you having a servant, if he's plowing
or feeding the cattle, will say unto him immediately when he
comes into the house, Go and set out to me. And he went, he
said. But he'll say rather unto him,
Make ready wherefore I myself, and gird thyself, and serve me,
till I have eaten and drunken, and afterwards thou shalt eat
and drink. Does he thank that servant because he did things,
the things that were commanded him? I don't think so, he said.
There's two kinds of servants in the scripture. Two kinds of
slaves, and that's what this word here, servant, means. He's
a slave. There's two kinds of slaves. There's the unwilling
slave. He serves because he has to. He's afraid. He's going to
get beat if he don't. He's out plowing the field, but
he knows if he don't he's going to get whipped. And he has to
feed the cows, but he'd let them starve to death if it was up
to him. Because he don't have any regard for the master or
what the master possesses. And can you see this slave as
he comes in? He's got this legal spirit about
him. And he comes in and he washes up and he puts his servant's
clothes on that he's going to cook with. And he cooks and he
sets the table for the master. And he stands over there in the
corner behind the master. And he watches his master eat.
The boy, he's full of resentment about it. He looks at him out
of the corner of his eye. I don't like him. I just don't like him. I serve
Him because I have to. He owns me. And He'll whip me
because of it. That's an unwilling shirt. That's an unwilling shirt. And
then here you have a willing slave. In verse 10, look at this. 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. Here's the difference between
faith and a legal spirit. Faith is a willing slave. He's put his ear to that post
and they bore the hole through it. And he says, I love my master
and I'm going to serve him well. A willing slave does not seek
comfort. He does not seek ease or praise
or even thanks. but seeks the will and the good
pleasure of his Master first and foremost, without the thought
of receiving a reward. Now do you see that there in
verse 10? The Lord Jesus says, So likewise ye, when ye shall
have done those things that were commanded you. That's what a
willing servant does. He seeks first and foremost to
do those things that his Master commands him to do. Now none
with a slave is working for a reward in some form or fashion. And
he grows tired and he grows resentful when his reward is delayed. He feels unappreciated, he feels
undervalued, and he's full of resentment and bitterness. My
master just don't appreciate me. I've done this great work
and he's not rewarding me as he should. That's what he's working
for, you see, a reward. But faith, this willing servant,
doesn't work to be blessed, but he works because he's already
blessed. His joy is not to satisfy himself,
but his joy is to know that his master is being waited on. That's his joy. Faith understands
this. It's not just the doing of a
thing the Lord commands, but the attitude in which we do it. It's not enough to plow his field. We want to love to plow his field.
It's not enough to feed his cows. We love feeding his cows. It's
not enough to cook for him and set and watch him eat until his
stomach's full. We love to watch him set and
eat. That's the difference between
a willing slave and an unwilling slave. What do you think about
your Lord this evening? What do you think about Him?
Oh, He's a wonderful Sovereign in Him. Oh, He's a wonderful
Sovereign. He's the best Master I ever had.
I had a Master who used to whip me. He used to beat me. Helped me in bondage. He wouldn't
let me go. Oh, I've got a master now that's a good master, seated
there in heaven, ruling and reigning over all things, the sovereign
of heaven and earth. What do you think about your
master? Oh my, you'll stick your ear to the post and say, Lord,
bore it, bore it, I love you, I love you, you're my master.
What do you think about his work? What do you think about his rule?
What do you think about his commandment? I take great delight in them,
don't you? Oh, His will, His will. Lord, just show it to me. Teach it to my heart. I delight
to do it. I will not work my soul to save,
for that my Lord has done. But I will work like any slave
for the sake of God's dear Son. I love it in His vision, don't
you? He don't have to come to me and say, Bruce, you did a
good job today, old buddy. I thank you a lot. He don't have
to do that. No, just knowing that you're
doing the will of your master. That's enough, ain't it? That's
reward enough. That's what faith takes hold
of. What do you think of yourself? You know what this word unprofitable
means. It means useless. Lift it up
again today. What do you think of yourself?
When you've done everything your Lord tells you to do, and you've
done it for His glory, and you've done it with the right attitude,
surely you're all tough to everybody, isn't it? Boy, if anybody makes
it all the way, surely I will. What do you think about yourself
after you've done everything He told you to do? I'm one of
the most useless fellows you'll ever see. I'm the sorriest fellow
under God's heaven. That's what I think about myself.
I'm amazed that He didn't let me bend down and loosen His shackles. I can begin to understand why
He'd even allow me to bring Him a glass of water. That He'd let
me do anything for His glory. I'm amazed at that. Oh, faith will not only remove
those obstacles that would be in our way of obeying our blessed
Master, but it enables us to serve Him with this gracious,
loving, Lord, increase our faith. Increase
our faith. Lord, give us grace to live with
what faith we have. That's what I say. If you're
not pleased to increase my faith, give me grace to exercise what
you've given me. Our Father, we do thank you.
Thank you, our Father, for allowing us this evening to look into
your precious Word. Oh, Lord, there's no book like
your Bible. It speaks to our spirits. It instructs us. It gives us strength. When we're
discouraged, it encourages us. When we're in the darkness, it's
a light to us. Oh, God, You know. You've caused
us to rejoice at Your Word. That's those that find great
riches. We bless You for it. Thank You for the dear folks
this evening that's come here. to worship you, to lift up their
voices in praise and thanksgiving. Our Lord, keep us this week.
Satan is after us. The world is after us. Our flesh
is so weak. Hold us up. Don't let us leave
you. Quicken us, each one of us. Bless your people here. For Christ's
sake. Amen. Barb, Barb Wilson, I talked with
her yesterday.