Would you turn with me back to
Luke chapter 17? I'm going to attempt to preach on
this subject, a biblical self image. Now everybody's got a
self-image, the way they view themselves. I love what Henry
Mahan said. He said, every one of us are
three distinct people. He said, we're who other people
think we are, we're who we think we are, and we're who God knows
we are. I like that definition. What
is a biblical self-image? Everybody has a self-image. You
know, some people have very inflated views of themselves and their
abilities. Some are just confident, some
are riddled with insecurity and lack confidence, and some feel
worthless. But what is a proper biblical
self-image? How should I view myself in light
of the scriptures? There's a wide range of scriptural
answers I could give. For instance, Romans 611 says,
reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin and alive unto
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that, if God tells me to
reckon myself to be dead to sin, how come? Because I'm dead to
sin. I'm dead. It's got nothing to
say to me. Here's another way that we ought
to esteem, let each esteem the other as better than themselves.
If I have a proper biblical image, I'll be thinking you're better
than me, and I'll really believe it in my heart. I won't volunteer
to be humble. I will take the lowest seat,
believing that's where I belong. 1 Timothy 1.15, Paul said this
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. of whom I am chief. I'm to view myself as a sinner.
Now, when we view ourselves as a sinner, that doesn't mean we're
making excuse for wrong behavior. We're not. We're not. I don't
want any wrong behavior. I don't want iniquity to have
dominion over me, but I'm still, I gotta answer to that. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the
chief, and I really believe myself to be that. I believe myself
to be, worst person in this room, I surely do. And I bet there's
a bunch of other people who feel that way about themselves as
well. You know, I know myself. I know what I am. Nobody else
in here does. And you're the same way. And we're to view ourselves
in that light. That's a biblical self-image.
And then Ephesians 1, 6, we're accepted in the beloved. I'm
to view myself as accepted. Everybody wants acceptance. Well,
I'm accepted in the Beloved. I'm graced in the Beloved. Without
any reference to me, it's in Christ. But I'm accepted in the
Beloved. Isn't that a wonderful place
to be? In the Beloved, accepted am I. Oh, what a blessed place. And then I found my own self
to be an enigma. An enigma. When I would do good,
evil, is present with me. And I find myself to be an enigma,
a paradox. How can that be? Well, it is.
I don't know how to say it, but it is. Have two natures working
in you. That's why that is. And I have this self image. I can do all things through Christ,
which strengthens me. Oh, may God give us grace to
lay hold upon that. I can do all things through Christ,
which strengtheneth me. Now, I know I could find more,
but the one I want to dwell on is found here in Luke chapter
17, verse 10. The Lord gives us some real clear
instructions as to how to view ourselves. Now, when you shall have done
all those things which are commanded you. The only way I know how to handle
that verse of scripture is that when Christ kept every commandment
I did too. But yet he says, when you've
done all things that are commanded you. And in the context, he's
talking about forgiveness. When you have forgiven, like
I told you to. When you've done whatever I've commanded you to,
here's the way you're going to respond. So likewise you, verse
10, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded,
you say, we are unprofitable servants. Now that word unprofitable,
it's the same word, it's only used twice in the New Testament.
It's the same word where it said, take the unprofitable servant
and cast him into outer darkness. That one who hid his talent.
and a napkin and never got usury on what he did. And he called,
he said, send him to hell. He's an unprofitable servant.
It's never a good thing. This is not just, you don't make
money on it. It's talking about it. This is a bad thing. Say,
I am an unprofitable servant. Useless is the word. The word
always has a bad connotation. Now the Lord has given this difficult
command in verse three. Take heed to yourselves. If your
brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. You know, that's
hard to do, isn't it? That's hard to do, but the Lord
says to do it. Rebuke him. Not in a harsh way, not in a
wrong way, but in a kind way that'll make him want to say,
I'm sorry. Rebuke him. And if he repents,
forgive him. And if he trespass against thee
seven times in a day, and seven times in a day, he turns again
to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. As a matter
of fact, in Matthew's account, the Lord says 70 times seven.
That means all the time. Now, when the apostles heard
this, the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. They thought this was such a
difficult command that we need to be better equipped. So we
need more faith is what we need in order to do this. Increase
our faith. And then the Lord answers this
in kind of an interesting way. And the Lord said, if you had
the smallest faith, if you had the smallest faith, faith is
a grain of mustard seed. You might say unto this sick
of mine tree, be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted
in the sea, and it should obey you. Now some people have implied
that what he's saying is, no, you don't need more faith, you
need to do what I'm telling you to do. You need to forgive. You need to
forgive. I mean, if there's anything that we ought to be, it's forgiving. To think of how the Lord has
forgiven us, how quick we ought to be forgiving. And when you
have forgiven, don't pat yourself on the back and say, I did good.
I did what I was supposed to do. He's looking at verse seven,
but this is the same thought is going on. But which of you
having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him, by
and by, when he's come from the field, go and set down the meat. Now, if you've got a servant,
he comes in, he's going to serve you. Now, remember at this time,
this is a slave. We don't know much about that
now, but this was a slave and ownership was involved. And when
your slave comes in from the field, you don't say to your
slave, sit down and let me serve you. No, he will not rather say
verse eight, and will not rather say unto him, make ready wherewith
I may sup and gird thyself and serve me till I've eaten and
drunken and afterward thou shalt eat and drink. Now, I think it's
interesting the way the Lord gives us the perspective that
we're the slave owner. We're the slave owners. If you've
got a slave out in the field and he comes in hot and sweaty
and dirty and tired, you don't say, sit down and let me serve
you. No, you say, go clean up, gird
yourself, go clean up and come back and serve me. And after
that, you'll get to eat. Now, they said, yeah, that's
the way we do. I mean, that's the way you thought.
There was a different attitude towards slavery, and nobody thought
it was wrong. And they said, yeah, that's what
we would do. Now, he turns it around, he kind of does a role
reversal, and look here, verse 9. Doth he thank that servant,
because he did the things that were commanded him? Oh, I trow
not, I think not, of course not. Everybody knows you wouldn't
do that. So likewise you, now here's the
role reversal, when you, now he puts you as the slave. So
likewise you, when you 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. Does God need to say thank you
to you? Does he owe you anything? Have you ever done anything that
you should be rewarded for? Anything. before God. Now, I want us always to do the
right thing. But before God, anything you've
done, do you really believe there's anything that he owes you? Does
he need to thank you? The answer is no. No. We are unprofitable servants.
We've only done that which is our duty to do. Now, we're slaves. You're somebody's slave. You
know, I really like that song by Bob Dylan. You got to serve somebody.
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you got to serve
somebody. And you do. You're somebody's slave. I'm
somebody's slave. And we don't have anything we
should be rewarded for. The Lord doesn't owe us anything. If I created a machine that was
designed to serve me, once it started working, would I thank
it for doing it? No. We were created, designed to
serve and glorify Him. You see, His glory is all that
counts. And if you're a believer, this
is the one difference between a believer and unbeliever. A
believer has this thing about them that Christ has to get all
the glory. They want Him to have all the
glory. Anything that gives man any glory, they're offended by
it. They're disgusted by it. They
don't like it. This is about His glory. This is not about
me being recognized, or you being recognized, or me being rewarded,
or you being rewarded. We're a slave. And we're His
slave, that He can do whatever He wants to do with, and we like
it that way. And you know, on our best days
we fall so short. Well, I got in my notes, when
have you had a best day? Which day is that that was your
best day? Every day we fall so short. Is there anything that
the Lord would reward us for, for what we've done? Now, like
I said, I want us all to be servants one to another. I want us to
seek to honor Him in all we do. But when it comes right down
to it, when you know yourself, you know you don't deserve a
reward for anything you've ever done. I told you about that fellow
that I'm still thinking about that letter I got from that fella.
He said, how's your walk with the Lord? Oh, well, the way I answered
him, I said, there's never been a greater master or a worse servant. That's how my walk with the Lord
is. That's what I believe. And that is a proper biblical
self-image, isn't it? If I do everything I've been
commanded, Does God owe me anything? Turn with me a moment to Romans
11. I'm going to be preaching on this pretty soon, and I can't
wait. This is one of the most glorious doxologies of praise
you'll ever find in the scripture. Romans chapter 11, verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who hath known
the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?
Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto
Him again? No, He's not paying anybody anything. Everything's
His. For of Him and through him and
to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Would that God owe you anything?
Of course not. Would he have a reason to say
thank you for what you've done? Now, if I am an unworthy servant,
And that's all I am. And I'm told in the word of God
to view myself that way, as an unworthy servant. If I am an
unworthy servant, an unprofitable servant, that means all I get
is by grace. We do not deserve anything. All I get is by grace. And if I did everything I was
commanded to. God still wouldn't owe me. Everything
we get is entirely by grace. From election to glorification
and everything in between, everything is entirely by grace. Amen. You
believe that? You believe that? It's entirely
by grace. But here's what's so amazing.
Here's the thing. Our master serves us. He demonstrated that in John
chapter 13, where he got down and washed the feet of his disciples.
And he served us, our master. The Son of Man came not to be
ministered to, but to minister and to give his life a ransom
for many. And oh, how he serves us. Heck, he washes our feet. Now,
how often do you get your feet dirty? Every day in our walk,
we get dirty feet. And the Lord washes our feet
over and over with the gospel. We're clean every whit. We're
clean every whit, but we still get dirty feet, don't we? and
thank God for our glorious master who condescends to wash our feet. And the Lord said, if I, your
Lord and master, wash your feet, you ought to wash one another's
feet. That's an ought that everyone
should do. Now, if we are his slave, I've
been talking about us being slaves, that's the picture here. If we
are his slave, that means that he delivered us from being slaves
of the devil. We're either the Lord's slave or we're the devil's
slave. That's a humbling thing to think about, but we're either,
one of the two. We're either the Lord's slave
or we're the devil's slave. And if I'm the Lord's slave,
that means he delivered me from being the devil's slave. And
if we're slaves, we've been bought with a price. I think of that
scripture, 2 Corinthians 8-9, for you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. That though He was rich, yet
for your sakes, He became poor. And beloved, you know that doesn't
mean just materially poor, although our Lord was a street person.
He didn't have a place to lay His head. He said the Son of
Man had not a place to lay His head. But it means He, at one time,
He had the praise of angels. At one time, He had the favor
of the Father. And on the cross, He lost everything. He became poor in praise. He
became poor in righteousness. He became poor in every way you
can think of it. He became poor that you, through
His poverty, might be rich. I want you to think about how
rich you are right now. Rich in Christ Jesus, joint heirs
with Christ. He bought you. He shed His precious
blood for you. You are of such great value to
Him that heaven wouldn't be heaven if you weren't there, if you're
a believer. This is talking about all of God's elect. Heaven wouldn't
be heaven to Him. It would be incomplete if you
weren't there. That's how significant you are.
Now that, well, I thought you said we're unprofitable. We are,
we are. We're very unprofitable, but
it's also true to Him with the apple of His eye. You see, this
is what is so glorious about the gospel. I see myself as this
unprofitable servant. I know you do too, but you know
how he sees me? Thou art all fair, my love. There
is no spot in thee. Now that's the power of the gospel.
It makes me to where he looks at me and he sees me as beautiful,
not because he's denying what I really am, but because that
is what I really am in Christ Jesus. You know, it's a good
thing to be His slave, isn't it? I like being His slave. I want to be His slave altogether. We're willing slaves, and we
count it a grace to be His slaves. We're like the Gibeonites. Remember
the ones who were sentenced to be haulers of water and hewers
of wood in the house of the Lord? That's a pretty good sentence
if you've got to spend your whole time in the house of the Lord. That's us. slaves
and willing slaves. And actually, think about this.
Serving him is its own reward. What could be better? What could
possibly be better than being a slave of Jesus Christ the Lord?
Serving him is its own reward. Now, what thanks do we deserve? I'm asking that again. When and
if by the grace of God you do the right thing, it was His grace
that caused you to do it. You can't take any of the credit
for it. It makes you more indebted to grace. Whatever grace, grace
unto it, whatever we get, it's by grace. We're His debtors,
debtors to grace and an unprofitable servant. And what could we do
that would profit or benefit the God of glory? What could
you give God? You know, I'd give him my heart.
You think he wants it? Now, he'll give you a new heart,
and you can give that to him, but as far as that old heart,
no, he doesn't want that thing. It's wicked, it's evil. You ask
him to give you a new, see, he's a giver. You're the taker. We're
the givers. I like being in that position.
But our works have been sinful and can only be accepted through
Christ. Now, I'm preaching this message. I'm preaching the truth.
I'm preaching the gospel. I'm trying to. But do you know,
I am. I am. I'm preaching the gospel.
I know I am. But you know what? Apart from
Christ, God sent me to hell for this message. There's enough sin. If I did
it, that makes it bad. That's all it takes. The plowing
of the wicked is sin. That's all it takes. There have
been enough bad motives that could just go on and on and on.
The only reason this message or any deed is accepted is for
Christ's sake. We're accepted in the beloved. What God accepts from me is what
came from Him. He did it anyway. Anything that
you or I do for the glory of Christ, it's Him doing it in
you. There's absolutely nothing to
thank us for. Now we have to be thankful. I
say thanks to you. I want to say thank you all the time to you. I want
you to say thanks to me. But when it comes to God, We thank him, but he has no reason
to thank us because there's nothing we've done that would even be
thankworthy in his sight. What is a proper biblical self-image? We are unprofitable servants. And that's Romans 12. You're already there. Verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now, look what he
says next. For I say through the grace of
giving unto me to every man that's among you, not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think. That's the first thing
he says when he speaks of proving that good and acceptable and
perfect will of God. Not to think of yourself more
highly than you ought to think. Now back to our text in Luke
17. So likewise, verse 10, you, when
you 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. Duty. That's a good word. Duty. Something that we're indebted
toward. Are you God's debtor? Do you
have a duty toward the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, of course you do.
Every believer is a debtor to him. Oh, debtors to grace. We're
debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. Every believer
has a duty. And the way this is worded, for
instance, 2 Thessalonians 2.13 says we're bound to give thanks. It's our duty. It's our debt.
It's our debt. Same word. It's translated duty
is bound. We're bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. And it is our bound duty
to give thanks to God. Isn't it glorious when the Lord
enables you to be thankful? I don't reckon there's anything
that's more pleasant and pleasurable than being able to be thankful.
And then in Luke 11, 4, when the Lord was teaching us to pray,
he says, forgive us of our sins, for we forgive everyone who is
indebted to us. That's the same word. We forgive
everyone who is indebted to us. Now, it is your duty, it is my
duty to forgive everybody and forgive them quickly. It's my
duty. And we're bound to. And then,
In John 13, 14, the Lord said, if I, your master and Lord, wash
your feet, you ought, it's your duty, to wash one another's feet. Now, I want to be somebody who
washes people's feet with the gospel. Is this talking about
a literal foot washing? Well, if you want to do it, I'm
not going to say not to, but I think it has to do with you
getting your feet dirty in this life, walking through, and being
an encouragement. kind to one another and point
each other to Christ. Oh, may the Lord enable us always
to do that. And then in Romans chapter 15
verse 1, it says, ye that are strong ought to bear the infirmities
of the weak. You that are strong, here's what
your duty is. It's to bear up with the infirmities, the weaknesses,
the inconsistencies of the weak. Now turn with me to Hebrews chapter
5. talking about the great high
priest. Verse 1, for every high priest
taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining
to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifice for sins. And we know that the Lord Jesus
is the one who offers those gifts. who can have compassion on the
ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself
also is compassed with infirmity, with weakness, with sinfulness.
And by reason thereof, he ought, as for the people, he ought,
that's the word, he's indebted, he ought, it's his duty, as for
the people, so also for himself to offer for sins. No man takes
this honor unto himself, but he that was called as God, as
was Aaron. But what a word, what a word.
Let me give you another couple of scriptures. 1 John 3, verse
16. He laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives
for the brethren. That's what the Bible says. 1 John 4, 10 and 11. Herein is
love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us. Oh, I love
that verse. It's so clear. Not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sin. Now, brethren, if God so loved
us, we ought also to love one another. Oh. How should I view myself? Well, first of all, I want to
view myself as someone that I'm asking the Lord to give me the
grace to do my duty. And when I do my duty, I don't get paid
for it. I don't get thanked for it. I shouldn't. I ought to do
it anyway. And I want to view myself at
all times as I am an unprofitable servant. Well, doesn't that hurt
your self-esteem? No. No. This is the way a believer ought
to view themselves. May the Lord give us grace to
do it. That's a proper biblical self-image. Let's pray. Lord, we