Increase Our Faith

Now I want you to turn back to
the text in Luke 17, 5, and let me read my text and topic
one more time and then the verses preceding. It's important for
us to see in the beginning the connection of our text with the
verses just prior to the text. In Luke 17, 5, the Apostle said
to the Lord, increase our faith. Increase our faith. Now, back
here in verse 3, Christ made a statement that caused the disciples
to make this request. He said in verse 3, take heed
to yourselves. 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 it was
when the disciples heard the common everyday duty set forth
in the gospel When they heard the common everyday duty of faith
set forth by Christ, that is, forgiveness, mercy, grace, patience,
humility, that's when they cried, Lord, increase our faith. When
they heard Christ describe what it is, the life of faith, What
it is, the life of grace, that common everyday duty set forth
by the Master right here. It was then that they said, Lord,
increase our faith. I read in the Old Testament about
men of God, men of faith, stopping the mouth of lions. Well, it's
not stopping the mouth of lions for which I need faith, it's
stopping my own mouth. Right? I read in the Old Testament
about men of faith bringing down the walls of Jericho, but it's
not the walls of Jericho and their destruction for which I
need faith and you need faith. It's destroying the walls of
bigotry and prejudice in our own hearts. That's why we need
faith. That's what the Lord's saying
right here. That's what the disciples realized when he said this. The
life of faith is a life of mercy, it's a life of grace, it's a
life of forgiveness. Not vengeance, not hatred, not
impatience. It's a life of mercy. And that's
when they said, Lord, you're going to have to increase our
faith. It's not smiting the Philistine enemies for which I need faith. It is smiting my own sins of
hatred and anger and lust. That's what I need faith for,
to smite those enemies within the camp, not those outside. It's not healing the body for
which I need faith. It's not standing before a congregation
and putting my hand on the head of some individual and crying,
be healed. That's not why I need faith.
I need faith that our souls might be healed before God. That's
why we need faith. It's not faith to build churches
and great denominations and colleges and orphanages. It's faith to
live the life and love of Christ in the home, on the job, and
on the streets, day by day. That's why we need faith. And I think Satan has thrown
us a curve. I think he's got our minds all
focused on these great acts of faith. And we've missed the very
foundation, the very skeleton of the body of faith. Lord, increase our faith. It's
important for us, secondly, to observe who prayed this prayer.
The men who prayed this prayer were men who already had faith,
but who realized they needed more faith. These disciples of
Christ had not arrived. They didn't know everything.
They didn't conclude they had no faith. They concluded they
didn't have enough faith. That was their conclusion. It's
not that we don't have any faith, but it's our faith is so imperfect. The centurion caught the right
note. He said, Lord, Lord Jesus said,
if you had faith, If you could believe all things are possible
to them that believe, he said, Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief. I don't believe enough. Now I want you to notice the
third thing here. The first thing is that when the Lord Jesus taught
the disciples the common everyday practices of the life of faith,
the common everyday behavior of a believer. That's when they
cried, increase our faith. And that's why we need it. That's
why we need it. And they didn't conclude that
they didn't have any faith. Their conclusion was that they
needed more. They needed a growth in faith.
But now it's important to observe this too. That when the Lord
said this, When he set forth these orders, these marching
orders, these rules of conduct, the disciples didn't reject his
word as being too much for human nature. They didn't hide behind
the frailty of the flesh. Are we prone to do that? Are
we people of grace? Are we people of sovereignty?
Are we people of salvation and justification by faith? Are we
prone to hide behind the frailty of the flesh, and when Christ
gives us an order like this, say, well, it'd be nice to have
that, but that's not possible. It'd be nice to be able to forgive
the same fellow seven times for the same thing in one day, but
that's not possible. The disciples didn't hide behind
the inability of the creature to attain this standard. They
wanted that grace. They wanted that grace. When
Christ said, the life of faith is a life of love. Love others
as you love yourselves. The life of faith is a life of
humility. Look not on your own things,
but on the things of others. Be as much concerned about their
welfare as your own. The life of faith is a life of
patience. Love beareth all things, believeth
all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." The disciples
didn't say, well, we can't do it. They said, Lord, increase
our faith. We want to. Faith is the gift
of God, that's right, but it's an act of man. Now you've put
that down somewhere in your Bible, and you always remember that
faith is the gift of God, that's so, but it's an act of man. It's a gift of God. It's the
act of man. God gives us the life and the
means, but we believe. God enables us to believe, but
we believe. God enabled that man with a withered
hand to stretch forth his hand, but he stretched it forth. Don't
ever forget that. Don't hide behind the frailty
of the flesh and the inability of the creature and lay the blame
on God for our sins. He won't let you get away with
that. He says you desire the sincere milk of the word that
you may grow. He says walk in the light as
he's in the light and have fellowship with him. You walk in the light.
That's a commandment. He says, ask and you shall receive. You have not because you ask
not. Knock and it shall be opened.
He says he's faithful and just to forgive our sins only if we
confess our sins. So faith is the gift of God.
I'll be the first one to attest to that fact. It's the gift of
God, but it's the act of man. I want you to turn with me to
the book of Mark. I want to show you something
here. Mark 11.22. Now, I tell you, I read this in one of the
old-timers' books in connection with this message, and it just
made a tremendous impact upon me. And I've read it to everybody
that listened to it, and I put it in the bulletin for next Sunday,
and I'm going to read it to you tonight. And I want you to listen. Now our Lord connects the forgiveness
of others with faith. We need faith to walk for the
glory of Christ, to live for the glory of Christ, to talk
for the glory of Christ, to have an attitude that will bring glory
to Christ. In Mark chapter 11, beginning
with verse 22, And Jesus answering said unto them, Have faith in
God. For verily I say unto you, that
whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and
be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart,
but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come
to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto
you, that what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe
that you receive them, and you shall have them. And when you
stand praying, forgive." If you have aught against any, that
your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your
trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither
will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses."
Now he's talking to the believers there, he's talking to his disciples.
Talking to the Apostle Peter, directly to the Apostle Peter.
Peter had asked him a question in verse 21. He spoke right back
to him. And he says, when you pray, you
forgive that your father may forgive you. If you do not forgive,
neither will your father forgive you. God has allowed us, now
listen to this, God has allowed us to cut out the measure of
pardon that we wish to receive. And that measure is based on
the pardon we're prepared to give. Do you hear it? That's so. That's what he's saying
right here. When you pray, pray, forgive us our trespasses as
we forgive those who trespass against us. Forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us. When you stand praying,
forgive. If you do not forgive, neither
will your Father forgive you. He's allowed us to cut out the
measure of pardon that we wish to receive based on the measure
of pardon we're prepared to give. That's exactly what that says.
God will pardon me in proportion as I am prepared to pardon others. If I pardon slowly, that'll be
my lot. That'll be my fellowship with
God. If I pardon not at all, that will be my law. And that
will be my fellowship. Not at all. That's when the disciples
said, Lord, increase our faith. Increase our faith. You say preachers
sound like you're preaching works. That's exactly what I'm preaching.
Faith without works is dead, James says. It's dead as a hammer.
as dead as four o'clock in Mexico. That's how dead it is. James
said, you show me faith without work. You talk about faith that
does not produce these things, and I'll show you a faith that
does produce it, and show you a faith by that production. A man, John, said, if we love
not our brethren, how can we love God whom we have never seen?
John said, he that hath not love hath not God. He doesn't know
God. Doctrine won't save. A belief
in facts won't save. It's to receive and to embrace
and be livingly, vitally, personally united with a Savior who makes
you a new creature. That's what salvation is. You
can be a doctrinist and a legalist and all these other things and
go straight to hell. This is the life of faith. It's a life of transforming,
regenerating life within. And if there's light in the house,
it'll shine through the window. And that life, if it's in here,
if that water of life is springing up unto everlasting life in here,
it'll produce food out here. And the life of Christ and the
nature of Christ and the character of Christ and the works of Christ
will be seen. But verse 10, but when you have
done all these things which you're commanded, you just say, I'm
an unprofitable servant, and I've done only that which is
my duty to do. I don't deserve any praise, I
don't deserve any thanks, I don't deserve any reward, I've just
done what God told me to do. If that's a paradox to you, it'll
just have to be that way, because the whole Christian experience
is a paradox. We're the emptiest people on
earth to be so full. We're the poorest to be so rich.
We're the dumbest to be so spiritually blessed with intelligence. I want to give you some reasons
why we ought to seek this increase of faith. This faith that produces
godliness within and godliness without, this faith that produces
a spirit of grace and a spirit of mercy and a spirit of righteousness,
this faith that produces a submission to God, a surrender to God. This
faith that produces a walk with God, this faith that is a living
personal experience that you don't have to go back and look
at a doctrine to prove you're saved, or look up a verse of
scripture to prove you're saved, or look up an experience to prove
you're saved, but Christ liveth in me. Now here's the reason
that we need to be concerned about that faith. We need to
be concerned about faith because faith is the salvation grace. The scripture says, our Lord
said this over and over again, Thy faith hath saved thee. Again
he said, Thy faith hath made thee whole. The Apostle Paul
said to the Philippian jailer, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. We're saved by grace through
faith. We're not saved by works. We're not redeemed by the deeds
of the law. We're not redeemed by obedience
to rules and standards and ceremonies. We're redeemed by faith in Christ.
My sins are put away not because of anything I do or say. They're put away because Christ
died for them. That's why they're put away.
Turn to 1 John 5, verse 13. 1 John 5, verse 13. Listen to this. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God. These things have I written unto
you, not that preach the gospel, that are deacons and elders and
Sunday school teachers and you that keep the law. I've written
these things unto you that believe that you may know you have eternal
life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. Turn to John 20, the book of
John, chapter 20, verse 31. These things are written to you
that believe, that you may know you have eternal life. Eternal
life is in Christ. It's in the work of Christ, the
redemptive work of Christ. It's in the person of Christ.
It's in the death of Christ. That's how sins are forgiven,
by whom we have received the atonement, made us one with God. But listen to this, John 20,
verse 31. But these are written that you
may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that
believing, not working, not keeping the law, not observing the Sabbath,
but believing, you might have life through his name. We believe
Christ is the Son of God. We believe Christ is our Redeemer. We believe He suffered for our
sins. We believe He's our Mediator
at the right hand of the Father. We believe He is our coming King.
We believe that all things are in Christ. He is all and in all. And that faith saves. And that's
why we should be so concerned about this faith, because it
is the salvation grace. But the second reason why we
need to be concerned about faith is this. Not only because it's
the salvation grace, but because Christ continually commanded
it. Continually. Continually. He commanded faith, and he commended
faith. Faith is a commandment. We're
commanded to repent. We're commanded to believe the
gospel. And then our Lord Jesus Christ
commended the faith of those who believed. The woman who came
up and touched His garment, our Lord turned and said, Thy faith
hath made thee whole. Thy faith hath made thee whole. The Canaanite woman who cried
out for mercy, and the Lord Jesus more or less rebuked her, and
He said, I'm not sent except to the lost sheep of Israel. And she continued to cry, and
our Lord finally said, It's not right to give the children's
bread to dogs, and she continually cried. And he said, Woman, our
faith hath saved thee. The centurion came to him and
said, My daughter is ill. And the Lord Jesus said, I'll
come to your house. He said, No need to come to the
house, just say the word, she'll be healed. Our Lord said, What
faith? I've not found faith like that
in Israel. The man who was born of four,
let down through the roof, and put on the floor before the Master
to be healed, our Lord said, Great is thy faith." And then
the Apostle Peter writing about the four precious things in the
book of Peter, in 1 Peter 2, 7, he said, He is precious. Christ is precious. Along with
Him, he said, His blood is precious. And then he said in 2 Peter 1,
verse 4, his promises are precious. And then in 2 Peter 1, verse
1, he said this, faith is precious. Faith is precious. We ought to
be concerned about faith because it's the salvation grace, because
our Lord commanded it. And His servants hasten to obey
the command of their Lord. Believe! Lord, I believe, help
my unbelief. Lord, increase our faith." And
because the Lord Jesus commended it, every time he encountered
faith, he always said, Great is thy faith. Thy faith hath
made thee whole. Thy faith hath saved thee. What
faith? I've not found faith like that
in Israel. And then watch this, and this
is important here. If you've missed out on the last
point, Just come alive right here, will you? Listen to this.
We ought to be concerned about faith because all other graces
depend on it. All other graces. Someone said
faith is the taproot from which all other graces spring. Peter, before our Lord went to
the cross, he said, You'll deny me three times." And Peter said,
Lord, I won't deny you. These others may deny you, but
I won't. I'll go to the death with you.
And Christ said, Peter, before the cock crows, you'll deny me
three times. And Peter said, Not so. The Lord
said, Peter, Satan hath desired thee that he might sift thee
as wheat, but I've prayed for you. I've prayed for you. that your faith fail not." Your
faith. That's the taproot. Don't talk
to me of love. How can I love him in whom I
do not believe? Don't talk to me of patience.
How can I exercise patience if I have not confidence in his
purpose? See what I'm saying? If God sends
me through a deep, heavy trial, how can I have patience in that
trial if I have no confidence in Him who designed it? Don't
talk to me of courage. How can I have comfort and courage
without faith? As your faith in God increases,
so will your other graces. And if we're poor in these other
graces, it's because we're poor in faith. Let me show you three
examples of that. There was a man called Abraham
who was definitely a man of God and a man of faith. And he had
with him his nephew Lot. And they were both wealthy men,
and they were trying to live together in an area, and they
were having trouble. Abraham and Lot were not having
trouble. But their workmen were having trouble, their herdsmen
were having trouble. So Abraham came to Lot or Lot
came to Abraham and said, we've got to do something about this.
Our herdsmen are having problems. We're both wealthy and we've
got so much and we're just going to have to divide. Well, Abraham
had no quarrel with Lot. Abraham stood out there and said,
all right, Lot, you take your choice. You pick any land you
want, I'll take what's left." He had no argument, he had no
quarrel. Why? Because this calm, composed,
believing man trusted in God. That's right. He knew that no
circumstances could alter or change his course because God
Almighty charted it. And therefore, he wasn't worried
about what part Lot would take. He wasn't worried about what
selection Lot would make. He stood there very calmly and
said, just take whatever you want, and I'll take what's left.
Because he believed God. That's what it says all the way
through this book. Abraham believed God. Abraham believed God. Abraham believed God. Abraham's
not upset. Lot may get upset, and the whole
shooting match might get upset, but not Abraham. because he believed
God. So his grace of patience and
his grace of humility, you see what I'm saying? His grace of
a calm, quiet spirit was because he believed God. And he knew
that believing God, nothing anybody could do could hurt him. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, they
had an epidemic of cholera while he was just a young pastor, about
21 years old. And people were dying in his
community in every home. You know what? You read about
cholera and the effect it had upon that particular generation
in England back in 1859, 60, somewhere in there. And he was
a young pastor, 21 or 22. And he was going around, going
in these homes where people had cholera, visiting, talking to
folks who were dying. He was sitting down beside that
disease. all day long, up into the night,
every day and every night. And it was so contagious, people
were getting it everywhere. Never touched him. And one day
he got a little concerned about it. Somebody kept talking to
him about, Pastor, you're too valuable to us, you're too important
to us, this, that, and the other. Take care of yourself. Don't
do this. Don't be exposed to this disease like you are. And
he said that got him concerned. And one day he was walking by
a bookstore and a Bible was open in the window to Psalms, I believe
it's 90 or 91, and it said, A thousand shall fall at thy right hand,
and ten thousand at thy left. It shall not come nigh thee.
And he said, I walked away from that with a spring in my step.
I believe God. Now, Joseph, the man of faith,
when his brethren appeared before him, they had, you've heard the
story a hundred times, how they sold him into slavery, mistreated
him, hated him, reported him dead, all these things. When
he came before them, he had no mind of vengeance against them.
Why? Because he believed God. He said,
you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. You can do that
when you believe. But if you think their decision
will alter your life, and their mistreating you will alter your
course, and they have in their hands your future, your destiny,
your hope, your help, your possessions, then you need to run scared.
But not if you believe God. Let them do what they will. But it's faith. Faith is the
taproot of it all. Look at David. David had been
anointed king, you know the story, how that Samuel anointed David
king of Israel and Saul hated him. And Saul tried to kill him
two or three times. One day he was sitting over there
and said something, playing his harp. Saul picked up a javelin
and threw it over there and stuck it in the wall right by his ear.
And David had to leave because Saul's son came to him and said,
my father's going to kill you. And he left and went out there
and roamed around in the mountains and lived in caves and ate roots
and drank out of the streams and lived out there a vagabond,
a fugitive for months and months and months. One day God delivered
Saul right into his hands. He was standing on top of a mountain
one night and looked down and there was Saul's camp right below
him. He took one of his trusted men
with him and they walked right down in Saul's camp. Everybody
was asleep. And David came and stood right
beside Saul. Saul was lying there asleep,
his spear stuck in the ground right beside his head. And the
soldier with David said, Let me take that spear and drive
it through his heart. And David said, No, no. The word
of God says, touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. That's
God's king. And I'm not afraid of him. I
trust in God. And David, that fellow soldier
would have killed him, but David wasn't. He wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid. He believed
God. He believed God. You see what
I'm saying? We ought to be concerned about faith. Lord, increase my
faith. I'm not going to hide behind
the frailty of the flesh and the inability of man and the
doctrinal positions and say this is not possible, this is not
within the grasp of human hands or human heart. It is so, or
Christ wouldn't have commanded it. It is so. It certainly is. And it will
be produced where faith is produced. It will live where faith lives.
It will come forth as fruits on the tree of faith. And the
older that tree is, the more fruit it ought to bear. We ought
to be concerned about faith. It's a taproot of all graces.
And then in the fourth place, we ought to be concerned about
faith because it's the only way to obtain God's blessings. Our
Lord said, All things are possible to them that what? That if you
work hard enough. All things are possible to them
that Believe. Believe. Turn to James, the book
of James. Let's look at this a moment.
In James chapter 1, verse 5, if any man, if any man lack wisdom,
let him ask of God. James 1, 5. See it there? If any man lack wisdom, let him
ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
not. It shall be given him, but let
him ask in faith. Nothing wavering, for he that
wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and
tossed. Let him ask in faith. Turn to James 5, James chapter
5. Now look at this, James 5 verse
14. is any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the
church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in
the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall
save the sick." In Hebrews chapter 11, back here
a few pages, verse 6 says, without faith it is impossible to please
God. It doesn't say without orthodoxy. It doesn't say without fundamentalism.
It doesn't say without enthusiasm. That's what most preachers lead
you to believe. It says without faith it's impossible
to please God. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him." Now, in closing, we ought to be concerned
about faith because it is essential to perseverance. Turn to 1 Peter
1 verse 4. 1 Peter 1 verse 4. He talks about
this living hope that we have, Christ
hath begotten us unto a living hope by the resurrection of Christ
from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by
the power of God through faith. Now brethren, let me say this
to you, and let me say it as kindly and positively as I can. The fact that you believed some
facts about the Bible and about the gospel, made a profession
of religion. The fact that you studied some
books and came to a knowledge of some doctrine, you learned
what happened in the garden and you learned at least in your
head what happened on the cross, that is not sufficient. If you
do not persevere in faith, if you do not continue in that faith,
if you do not continue in that experience, if you do not continue
in that fellowship with Christ, you miss Christ somewhere. I
can't tell you where you missed Him. But any man who's willing
to sell his birthright for a mess of potterage has missed the birthright.
He's missed it somewhere. I don't know where he missed
it. You may hang around for 20 years. But if you don't keep
hanging around, you've missed Christ. Somewhere you've missed
Him. I don't care how enthusiastic, I don't care. It says over here
in the book of Hebrews, let me read it to you. It says over
here in the book of Hebrews, chapter 6, he says, these people
were enlightened, they tasted the heavenly gift, they were
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, they tasted the good word of
God and the power of the world to come, if they fall away, It's
impossible to renew them to repentance. Now I'm telling you we're kept
by the power of God. That's right. Through faith. Paul said, I've finished my course. The time of my departure is at
hand. I've kept the faith. Henceforth
there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness. Now let me
read you another verse. Turn to Hebrews 3. Hebrews 3. In Hebrews 3 verse 6 it says
here, Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we,
if, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm
unto the end. Look, if you will, at verse 14.
We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast unto the end. When a wheel stops rolling,
it falls. When an arrow stops climbing,
it falls. When a professing believer stops
growing in grace and faith, he falls. Now that's truth. Absolutely true. Today's faith
is not sufficient for tomorrow's trial. The Scripture tells us
to continue in the faith, to keep on believing, to you who
are being saved. And I warn you with all of the
affection that I can muster, I warn you with all the compassion
that I have, If you are a believer in Christ,
if you are a lover of the Son of God, if you are one with the
Savior, I guarantee you ten years from now, twenty years from now,
whenever the horn blows, you'll still be a believer in Christ.
You'll still be a lover of Christ. You'll still be one of those
who will not be separated, who will say, to whom shall we go? I shall not be moved. I shall not be moved. I shall
not be moved. I want a growth in this grace
and a growth in this faith. And I'll tell you this thing
of folks quitting this and quitting that and going here and going
there wouldn't give you a nickel for a chance that they have at
the judgment of God anymore than a snowball in a Mandelbrot's
furnace down here. That's right. Believers are persevering people. Believers are living stones. They don't keep rolling. They're
built up in the house of faith, and they're laid there by the
great artesian, artisan, our master, the great stone-layer. He put them there, and they're
not going to be moved. They're not going to be moved.
That's why faith is so important. It's by faith that we persevere.
Lord, lead me to seek Thee, and seeking Thee truly to find Thee,
not an experience, but to find Thee. Not a decision to find,
not a doctrine to find Thee, and finding Thee to love Thee.
and loving thee to walk with thee. O Master, let me walk with
thee. Let me walk with thee. I don't
want to prove to be a reprobate, lest while preaching to others
I become a castaway. Our Father in Heaven, we pray, O God, keep us But we
don't pray, keep us without faith. Keep us in thy faith, in the
faith of Christ Jesus. Keep us in the love of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Keep us in the word of the living
God. We believe that thou hast given
life to our hearts and to our souls, divine life. Lord, thou
knowest all things. Thou knowest that we love thee.
We pray for an increase in our faith. Help us to grow in grace
and in the knowledge of Christ. Make this place here a place
of worship, a place of fellowship. a place of commitment to Christ. We ask it in his name and for
his sake. Amen.

Increase Our Faith

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