Faith To Obey

Please turn in your Bible to Luke 17. Preaching of the

Word of God will continue in Luke 17 today. In the previous passage,

Jesus had instructed the disciples to reconcile, to rebuke, to forgive, and to repeat.

And now he addresses them about the power by which they would be able to do such things.

So when you have that, please stand for the reading of God's Word. Luke 17,

I'll begin in verse 1 and continue all the way to verse 10. And he said to his disciples, temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

And again, pay attention to ourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him.

The apostle said to the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.

Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and recline at table?

Will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink?

Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So also you, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, we are unworthy servants.

We have only done what was our duty. Amen. You may be seated.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the guidance it gives us.

It tells us how we ought to live. It tells us of your way. We thank you also for the power by which we might be able to follow after your way.

We thank you for your spirit and the gift of faith. You have been most gracious to us, and we ask that today as we hear your word that that grace would be made more evident in order that we might fully appreciate the salvation that you have given in Jesus Christ.

In his name we pray, amen. The Christian life is a difficult thing.

There are many things that a Christian is called to do. Obedience itself is something that is very difficult.

And as you go about the Christian life and as you face various trials and challenges, you will undoubtedly get to some point where you are tempted to be discouraged, and you ask yourself whether or not you have the power to do what

God has called you to do. And this is what the disciples here are facing.

The disciples have been given some difficult commands by the Lord, and so they ask themselves, do they have the power to do what he has called them to?

Do they have the faith to obey? And the answer is yes. Yes, God has given faith in order that men might obey.

And so as we look here, we see that God has given the faith that is necessary, but he has also given faith that is sufficient, such that nothing else need be added to it.

And this is the goodness and graciousness of his gospel, that he gives not only what is necessary, but what is sufficient.

And so we see the apostles' request and the need for faith here in this first verse.

In verse five it says, the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith.

Now it might be worth considering just for a moment what the various tasks they have been given. This discourse

I've pointed out before continued all the way from Luke 14, from the beginning of Luke 14.

And in that time, he's given many instructions. A couple of these were particularly to his disciples.

So in Luke 16, he had turned away from the Pharisees and scribes, and he says particularly to his disciples, he gives them the parable of the shrewd steward, the man who has his account for only a short while left and who uses that to his advantage.

And the message there is that they should make friends by means of unrighteous wealth. In other words, that money that they have in this life, they should count as being not worth anything so much that they would use it in whatever ways bring them some spiritual advantage, in whatever ways are in service of God's kingdom.

It is a very difficult thing to do, to look at money which has a lot of value in this world and say that it is something that is not eternally valuable.

And then after this, most recently, at the beginning of 17, he turns to his disciples once again after having addressed the

Pharisees, and he tells them about the need to reconcile. He tells them in verse 3, pay attention to yourselves, if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times, saying

I repent, you must forgive him. These things require faith. It requires faith to be able to look at the eternal perspective and say that the money we have in this world is ultimately of no value.

Given that this command also to reconcile with brothers and sisters comes after the story of the rich man and Lazarus, once again it takes faith to obey because once again you must have an eternal perspective.

You must be aware of what comes after this life. Realize how serious the penalties are.

Realize how great the rewards are. These are things that require faith.

Indeed, the Bible says that it is impossible to please God without faith. Romans 14, 23 says that anything that does not come from faith is sin.

You know, we're supposed to honor God with our whole heart. If we have a heart that does not trust in him, is that something that truly honors him?

It is not. Hebrews 11, 6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Once again, it's very clear that without faith, anything that we render to God, any kind of obedience is not something that is ultimate pleasing to him even if it outwardly conforms to his law.

But even beyond this, even beyond this, just doing those things that conform to his law can sometimes be too impossible without faith.

We need faith in order to do those things. Just as I said, the disciples need faith about the afterlife in order to count their money as they should.

They need faith about the afterlife in order to count their relationships as they should and pursue reconciliation.

Now we also see one passage that seems very relevant here. At the end of Hebrews 3, at the end of Hebrews 3, it talks about those who wandered in the wilderness because they did not trust

God to bring them into the promised land. The Israelites were supposed to trust God to bring them into the promised land, but they did not think he was going to be powerful enough to defeat the mighty enemies that lived in the land of Canaan.

And so having distrusted him, they were not permitted to go into the promised land. It says in Hebrews 3, 17 through 18, or excuse me, 18 through 19.

And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but those who were disobedient? Okay, these are disobedient people.

So we see that they were unable to enter because of, what does it say, does it say because of their disobedience?

It doesn't. It says because of their unbelief. It equates these together. Those who do not believe will not be obedient.

Those who do believe have the power for obedience. Faith is important in order that one might obey the

Lord and the difficult commands that come with discipleship. If you consider getting on a plane, would you get on a plane and take a ride if you did not have confidence that the pilot was capable of flying a plane?

You probably wouldn't. Would you get on the plane if you were not confident that it was going to the destination that it was supposed to go to, if you didn't think it was going to that destination?

These are not things that the average person would do. The Christian life, the stakes are so much higher. It just requires, it requires faith.

Now many people think that they can be good without faith. I don't know. We have a decent number of visitors here today, so I don't know where the background that everyone is coming from, but maybe you have heard it said or you've said to yourself that people can be good without God.

You don't need actually to have faith in order to be a good person. The Bible is very clear that what is good is not just outwardly conforming to God's law, it is what is truly pleasing to Him, and if you are not obeying, if you are not conforming to His law out of a desire to honor

Him, this is not something that is pleasing to Him. And even beyond that, let us not fool ourselves and pretend as though we are conforming to His law, even outwardly, when day by day there are so many things that the average person does, even the best among us does that are even outwardly contrary to the

Word of God. You know, we see the difficulty of this previous command to the kind of forgiveness, the kind of willingness to confront that is required.

And so the disciples essentially in asking this question are asking for the power in order to obey

Jesus' commands. They recognize how difficult the command He has given is, and they respond saying,

Lord, give us more faith, give us the ability to do this. We don't know how we would be able to do it otherwise.

And there are two mistakes that are being made here. The first is to think that the faith that is given is not what is needed, that more is needed.

And then secondly, to think that it's not sufficient, that something else, that it might be enough faith, this might be the faith that is needed, but more is needed to fill the gap.

And so just considering that first one, that God has given the faith that is necessary.

Consider what Jesus says here in verse 2, excuse me, here in verse 6.

And the Lord said, if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.

Now just for a moment, it's worth considering some of these, some of the specific things that are said here.

First of all, Luke has not frequently referred to Jesus as Lord. He has a few times, but not frequently.

And here in this context where we'll end up talking about the relationship between a master and a servant, it's fairly relevant because Jesus is the one who is giving the commands.

The disciples are the ones who are supposed to obey. And then moreover, how does he refer to the disciples? Once again, a title he's used a few times before, but it's not the only title he uses.

He calls them the apostles. These are the best among them, and the best among them think they need more faith.

And his answer is, if you had faith like the grain of a mustard seed, you know, just very small, very small little seed.

And then he talks about being able to remove a mulberry tree. A mulberry tree is a tree that's got a deep root network, so it's not something that's as easy to pull out of the ground as another tree might be.

He's talking about it being planted in the sea, something that's, not sure if that means all the way at the bottom of the ocean or just move there, but it's something that would be quite miraculous.

Now a lot of people have stopped at this point and asked, is this supposed to be taken literal? I find that an odd question to ask because there's two things that could be meant by that question.

One is, is this supposed to be a regular feature in the Christian's life where we are literally praying for miraculous things like this, you know, signs that, where the parallel text talks about moving a mountain.

Should Christians be praying about things like moving trees and moving mountains and stuff like that? And it's very evident that that is not, that part should be not taken literally.

James 4 .3 says that you ask and you do not receive because you ask to spend it on your passions. You know, if God has not revealed in His Word that His will is for mountains to actually be moved or trees to actually be moved, we would be making those kinds of prayers just out of our own passions to see a sign or to impress people, you know.

And so that is, that part should not be taken literally. However, is faith truly this powerful?

Yes, I don't see any reason to see this as a hyperbole where Jesus is saying something that is more than true.

If this were the will of God and someone had faith and they prayed to God that that thing happened, certainly it would be done because God is all -powerful.

So He is all -powerful. Now what this answer does when

He says, if you had faith like the grain of a mustard seed, you could have the mulberry tree be planted elsewhere, or what

He says in Matthew 17, if you had faith like the grain of a mustard seed, a mountain could be moved. What He is saying is that this metaphor about increasing faith or size of faith should not be taken so directly.

You know, Scripture speaks in this way, it speaks in this way frequently. Jesus Himself even speaks in this way.

He talks about little faith, He talks about much faith, He talks about strong faith, He talks about weak faith.

But the idea of faith as being some kind of spiritual substance that has various quantities, right, where there's a little bit of it or there's a lot of it and you could have a little bit of it or you could have more of it, what

He is essentially saying here is that that is what that is, it is just a metaphor, right, it is not so much about there being some kind of spiritual substance called faith that people need more of or less of.

But these idioms, right, these idiomatic expressions of faith are designed to show us the war between the

Spirit and the flesh, right, the flesh being our own corrupt sinful natures that war against the work of the

Spirit in our lives who has given us by the gift of God faith that we might believe.

And I think you see that too when you look at some of the parallel passages. For example, in Matthew, where it talks about moving a mountain and what's in, this is in context of someone who is possessed by a demon, the disciples not being able to cast him out, cast the demon out.

Earlier, before Jesus said, oh you of little faith, He had described the generation as a faithless generation.

So on one hand He calls them faithless and the next time He says they have little faith. In fact, this has confused people enough that many manuscripts of Matthew 17 actually say you could not cast him out because of your unbelief, right, rather than saying little faith.

So this, what is going on here is not so much faith that is increased or decreased but faith that God has given and the war of the flesh against it, to work against it.

And this is what you also see in Mark 9, where you have the man, similar situation, child afflicted by demonic activity, and the man says,

I believe, help my unbelief. Now maybe you've always wondered how can, that's just a weird thing to say,

I believe, help my unbelief. Does he believe or does he not believe? Well this is the reality. There's a war here between the faith that God has given and our sinful corruption that works against it.

And likewise, we have other passages, Peter, as he is, as he's walking on water,

Jesus speaks of him as one of little faith and he talks about him doubting, right, and doubting in scripture is contrasted faith.

It's something that works against faith as opposed to something that just comes from a little faith.

It's not that a little faith doubts, doubt works against faith. That's the way that this should be pictured and we see that even in James 1, 6, where James 1, 5 instructs you that if you want wisdom, you must pray to God.

And then the next verse, James 1, 6, says, you must pray with faith and not doubt.

Okay, that's not a tautology, right, it's not just repetitive saying the same thing.

You have to believe and also you must not doubt. Okay, those things are things that, those are actually distinct things that are being talked about here.

So it is not about the quantity of faith.

The quantity of faith does not matter according to Jesus, even faith the size of a mustard seed is powerful enough.

It is simply true faith, true faith is powerful enough. And if you consider why this is, you know, the quality of the faith that God has given,

God has given faith as a gift. That's what it says in Philippians 1, 29, Philippians 1, 29 explains it is being granted to us to believe.

Ephesians 2, 8, 9 calls faith a gift as well. Faith is a gift to us.

It is what God has given to us in order that we might obey him. All right, he is not a harsh taskmaster.

He is not a hard master who, like Pharaoh, requires people to make bricks and then doesn't give the straw necessary in order to be able to do it.

Okay, God has given sufficient faith. When the disciples say, give us more faith, what they're essentially saying is,

I don't think you've given us enough for this. You know, I don't think you've given us the straw to make these bricks. Right, in addition, what is the power of faith?

The power of faith is not in the believer. The power of faith is in the one who has believed in it, it is in God himself, and when someone lacks faith, you know, so to speak, or has a smaller faith, to use that idiomatic expression the

Bible uses, is it really that this person, is it really that God is less powerful in those circumstances?

No, it is rather talking about the corruption of the flesh, and so God is powerful.

That is why even small faith is sufficient. The faith that God has given is enough, it is enough for us.

And so, what is going on here, and let me add this too, you might respond with a doctrinal question, you say, well, doesn't the believer grow in sanctification in this life?

You know, isn't it expected that you will grow in obedience? Yes, it's expected that as you grow in your

Christian life, more and more, the flesh is mortified, but that is not the

Spirit, the Holy Spirit within you, you know, Almighty God growing more powerful, He is already all -powerful, you know, you and Him, rather, mortifying the flesh in you as you grow in the

Christian walk, is not Him becoming more powerful, He is already powerful, He has already given you what is sufficient,

He has given you the faith that is necessary. And moreover, on top of asking about sanctification, you might ask, well, isn't this, you know, some kind of perfectionism where you're saying, we have the ability to be perfect in this life if we've really been given everything we need?

Well, I'm not saying that either, because that corruption does continue, it does keep us from being able to obey

God, it does keep us from being able to obey God perfectly, such that even our acts of obedience are not perfect before Him.

So I'm not denying either of those things, but I'm saying that God's gift of faith is sufficient, it is what you need in order to be able to serve

Him. Any faith that is needed, any faith that you, if He has given you true faith, it is not lacking.

Think about salvation, right? The person with little faith, you know, they don't receive a different salvation or less of a salvation than the person with much faith does, right?

God is perfect to fully save all those who come to Him with faith, because it is simply the quality of saving faith, it is not the, you know, to use that metaphor, the quantity of saving faith.

So the disciples come to Him with this request that seems very pious at first, right?

Seems very pious to say, Lord, we want to obey, we want what's good from You, we want

You to increase our faith, but what Jesus is exposing is it's not actually that pious at all. In fact, it's a complaint to Him that He hasn't given them enough.

You know, they're essentially calling Him a hard master. And then moreover that, it admits too much.

You know, it says basically that, well, if I don't have enough, if it's true that only a mustard seed of faith is needed, then it's saying basically

I don't have any at all. You know, you imagine a classroom where there's a calculus teacher and his students just never turn in their assignments, they never do the work.

And so one day this happens, he's given them a stack of papers, they're supposed to do the assignment and bring it in, and they come to him, you know, two weeks in, they say, we need more time, you really haven't given us enough time for this, et cetera.

And he says, go ahead and open up the packet, and they open up the packet, and it's all arithmetic questions that any grade schooler could do, right?

They're sitting here complaining, oh man, you know, I don't know if you've given us enough time for that, have you even tried?

You know, the disciples hear this, oh, forgiving people seven times in a single day?

I don't know if I have faith for that. God has given us sufficient faith.

He is not a hard taskmaster. And so do not make these kinds of excuses in the

Christian life. You know, it's something that people say often, they say, well, I know that that's good, but I'm just not there yet, right?

Like I just haven't grown to that point in my Christian life. You look at this stuff that Jesus was describing.

You know, I'd like to give of my resources, I'd like to do that generously,

I understand that I'm not doing that now, but I just haven't grown to a point in Christian life,

I'm still working on it, you know? And then consider also the forgiveness, right?

Yes, I know I'm supposed to confront this person, I know I'm supposed to, you know, reconcile, et cetera,

I'm just not there yet. You know, God's still working on me, I'm still a work in progress. What are they saying?

He hasn't given me enough faith yet. You know, he hasn't given me the faith to obey. Disobedience is justified in this circumstance, because I don't have enough faith to obey, right?

Or opening up your home to others is something a lot of new Christians struggle with, right? Because the Bible commands hospitality, and people think, oh,

I'm not there yet. All these various things where people look and they say, well,

I'm still a work in progress. Now, I'm not saying that you can't celebrate small wins over the flesh.

You know, if you struggle with sin and you have a small win, yes, celebrate that. Celebrate that more and more of the flesh is being mortified, but never use this as an excuse for disobedience, as though God is a harsh master.

He has given you everything you needed, and this should be not a, it should be challenging to you in one way, but this should not be a discouragement to you, rather it should be an encouragement to know that you have sufficient faith, that if you step out in faith, he will be faithful in order to uphold you in any kind of obedience that he has called you to.

It says in Romans 8 -11, if the spirit of him who raised

Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

Now, this is talking about the battle against sin and the battle against flesh. You read the rest of Romans 8, that's the context here.

And what's he saying? He's saying that if the spirit was powerful enough to raise Christ from the dead, then any kind of deadness that's in you can be handled by him.

You are not insufficiently equipped. Rather, he has given you the faith that is needed. He has given you his spirit who gives that faith in order that you would believe, in order that you would be able to obey.

So be encouraged. If you don't think that you've got enough strength, if you don't feel like you're equipped, any kind of thing that you lack,

God will supply. And when it comes to faith, it has already been given so that you already have it. If you have indeed trusted in the

Lord Christ. So now, consider this in the opposite direction.

Okay, so there's going to be some people who say, alright, I don't have enough and I am not able. Right? There are going to be other people who say,

God hasn't given faith, he's given the faith that's necessary, and I can supply the rest, but he hasn't given faith sufficient, so I do have to supply the rest.

Okay, that's the other half of this, and this is what he's going to address next. Okay, so there's going to be some people who say, he's not given enough, so I can't do it.

And there's other people who are going to say, he hasn't given enough, and so I have to supply the rest. Or that all he can require of me is this much, and then

I can go beyond that. That's another way of saying it. So he says in verse 7, Will any of one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and recline at table?

Will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink?

Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So in this passage, you have a servant, and you know, it's less common seen in our own culture, but you can imagine, the servant does what he's supposed to do.

He doesn't, you know, he doesn't get any kind of special awards for it or anything. You know, there's no like, there's no bonus for him having done his job.

He just does the next step. He does the next thing that he's supposed to do. This is what a servant is supposed to expect.

He's not supposed to expect anything beyond that, as though he had earned it.

Now, if we haven't been given a sufficient faith, right, if we need to supply more on our own, what does that mean?

That means that we are able to go beyond anything that God could reasonably expect us to do, right?

That we, that if all he can require of us is that what he's given us faith to do, we can go beyond that, and we can do more than what's required.

This is how the Pharisees are thinking about it. Okay, I am doing more than what's required. You know, go on me.

This is meritorious, right? I've got real merit that I'm supplying to this equation.

God's given me most of it, maybe, but I'm adding a good chunk, right? This is known in Roman Catholicism as supererogation, okay?

If you've never heard that before, to supererogate is to go beyond what God has required, okay?

And this is clearly against Scripture. This passage is my favorite for it, but there's also Matthew 5, 48.

It says, you therefore must be perfect because your heavenly Father is perfect. Okay, if God is perfect, he requires perfection.

There's not, there's no ability to go beyond that, okay? There's no ability to do more than what God has required of his servants.

And this is where Roman Catholicism gets a lot of their, a lot of their doctrines from. If you've ever wondered why they do indulgences, well, what happens is that if you haven't done, if you haven't done a certain amount, then you go to purgatory, and so you need to be able to be cleansed by the fires of purgatory.

However, indulgences exist because there are some people who did more than what was required, right? The saints and Jesus and Mary, right?

They've done more than what's required, and so the Pope is able to dispense from this treasure of merit where all those extra good works beyond what they had to do go, right?

And he gets to dispense those out and dole them out to folks as they do different things. And then they have these indulgences, more merit that makes up for their lack of it, okay?

And that's, so purgatory, indulgences, all this stuff is coming from the idea of supererogation.

Now, as that is like a strictly Roman Catholic thing, however, you know, the

Reformation denounced this. However, it's just so common that people think this way. It's so common that people think, this is what

God required of me. If I do more than that, you know, I'm owed something special for that because he only required this much of me.

And if you think that way, you're going to be frequently disappointed. If you realize you're not owed, when

God does give his rewards, oh, they are so precious. But if you think that way, you won't appreciate any of them because you won't feel like it was enough.

And this is not just individuals, you know, laymen in the church that think this way. This is really some of the, unfortunately, some of the best evangelical scholars talk this way, too.

I really love the book, 1 Corinthians. It has a phrase in it that's used a couple of times in chapter 6 and in chapter 10.

It says, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. Now, a lot of people interpret that as meaning, essentially, supererogation, right?

That, well, all things are, okay, so you've got what God requires of you, but maybe you don't want to, you know, there's things that are allowed, but maybe you don't want to do it, and you can go above and beyond and not do that thing.

That's how a lot of people take it. Now, I don't say this to brag because I haven't read them all, but I've bought a lot of commentaries on 1

Corinthians. I have, like, almost a whole shelf full of them, okay? And I've not read them all, but I have read them all on these particular verses, right?

And so, there's a couple that I have that are Roman Catholic. They just say straight up, you know, this is proving supererogation, right?

They don't address Luke 17. They don't address Matthew 5 and explain how that could possibly fit with those things, but, you know, they say this is supererogation.

Paul is saying you can go beyond your duty, especially in chapter 9, where he talks about his right to receive from the

Corinthians, and then he refused it. They say he's going beyond his duty. Now, toss out those two commentaries.

The rest of them, the evangelical commentaries, while they don't use the word supererogation,

I have at least, you know, anywhere between 6 and 12 of those commentaries that basically say the same thing. That, you know, these are scholars in the church who read this and come to the conclusion you can do more than God has required of you.

You can be a profitable servant. You can be a worthy servant, unlike the one— what we're supposed to confess here, that unworthy, unprofitable servants.

It's just wild, people's willingness to believe this idea. You know, to think that, oh, it's all just in some kind of balance, where, you know, if you're on this side, you know, if you do good works and bad works, you know, you've done more than what's required.

Now, that would make sense if God and Satan were, like the world often thinks of them as, like, equipotent forces, and, you know, you just, like, end up on one side for the other.

But the reality is God owns everything. He is the one who is all -powerful. And anything that lacks what

He is is evil. Now, if you're wondering, well, how do you answer that question in 1

Corinthians 6 and in 1 Corinthians 10, when Paul's talking about things being lawful but not helpful, you know, what's the answer to that?

Very simply, he is responding to the Corinthians who have spoken to him. If you look at your ESV, you'll even see the first part in quotes, all things are lawful.

He's responding to them. They're talking about the fact that because of the grace of God, they're not going to be penalized by the law.

He says, yes, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. In other words, yes, you might not, you might still be saved.

You know, you're not going to suffer hellfire for it because God has saved you. But that doesn't make it actually a good thing.

And one of the examples he even gives in 1 Corinthians 6 is sleeping with a prostitute. You know, he talks about all things being lawful, but not all things being helpful.

And what's an example? Sleeping with a prostitute. Now, that's, he's not using the word lawful the way that, you know, people tend to think of the word lawful.

He's talking about the Corinthians misconception of God's grace. So, yeah, hopefully you can realize just how dangerous this is, that people at every level, you know, get swept up in this idea that they can do more than what

God requires. Now, you might also ask another question about doctrine and good works.

You know, well, hasn't God, you know, some of this stuff we're talking about, about generous giving of money, about, you know, going out of your way for certain things.

Some of these, it's not clear because God hasn't required the same thing of every person. You know, he has different callings on different people's lives.

Like, not all of these are real obvious across the board obedience issues.

How do you know, you know, maybe I'm just not called to this higher kind of generosity. You know, how do you know these things?

I think, I've got it here. I think our confession talks about this really well. This is 16 .3

in the Second London Baptist Confession. Talks about believers. Their ability to do good works does not arise at all from themselves, but entirely from the

Spirit of Christ. To enable them to do good works, they need, in addition to the graces they have already received, an active influence of the same

Holy Spirit to work in them, to will and to do is good pleasure. So they have everything that's needed, but then, you know, the

Spirit has got to work in them. Yet, this is no reason for them to grow negligent as if they were not required to perform any duty without a special motion of the

Spirit. Instead, they should be diligent to stir up the grace of God that is in them. And so, people tend to presume what

God's calling on their life is. They say, well, I don't feel called to anything special. Maybe I'm not, you know. And so they just kind of continue on in the way that they were going.

You know, your Christian life is going to be cold if it's not heated by the fires of the Word of God and prayer.

You know, if you're not really stirring up that grace of God within you, know it's been supplied.

But as we look to His Word, as we look to Christ Himself, as we pray to Him, these things are stirred up so that the

Spirit is active. You know, if you have a set of instructions that you're reading in a room lit by a fire, and you can't read the instructions because the fire is too dim, are you going to say,

I guess there's nothing written here for me? Or are you going to say, maybe I should put more, I should stoke the fire, put more wood on it, and be able to see?

This is where a lot of people are. A lot of people don't even know what God is calling them to because the fire is so dim.

If you think that good works are optional in the Christian life, you will excel at mediocrity.

Okay? Don't excel at mediocrity. Actually, excel. God calls His people to high and good things.

And yes, some people get called to higher things. And yes, people get called to different things. But don't just assume because you haven't felt any particular heart tug that He isn't calling you to something higher than you feel called to right now at the moment.

And so this must be the confession of the disciples. This is part of their identity.

It says here in verse 10, So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, we are unworthy servants.

We have only done what is our duty. All right. So now

He's, after having told the parable, He's telling the disciples, the apostles, what their response needs to be.

Okay, when they get a task, when they get a command and they obey, their response is to be, we are unworthy servants.

We have only done what is our duty. Now, a lot of translations say unprofitable here, and I find that to be a better way of thinking about this.

You know, both could fit, but unprofitable really is a better way. Because a servant, you know, if he's already, you know, and we looked at that sense of ownership in Leviticus, right?

If he's already part of the master's estate, he's not really adding to the value. He just is what he is and he does what he does.

In the same way, the same word is used to describe the servant who's given the talent and keeps it and doesn't actually invest it.

He is unprofitable, right? He has not, he has not added anything to the kingdom.

And so this is what, this is how we should think about the situation.

This is a matter of identity, that we are unprofitable servants.

And it really is critical if you want to have this identity as being a servant, to be able to confess that we are unprofitable servants.

You know, if you think about discipleship, you know, what is required in discipleship? Discipleship requires obedience.

It says in Matthew 28 at the very end, it says,

So make disciples, how? By teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you.

That's part of it there. You know, to be a disciple is to have these commands, but then to be equipped to do them.

You know, when you confess that God has given you what is needed and that you can supply no more, you are confessing that you are a disciple.

And also think about servanthood. You know, a servant's not able to add anything in this way.

And so when you confess that, when, you know, God has given us forgiveness. He has given us, he has forgiven us of everything and then given us this economy of forgiveness to steward.

And so when we feel like, well, when I forgive my brother, I'm really adding to the pie here.

No, God has given us everything. When we think that, well, when I give him my praise,

I'm really giving him something of value. He gave us the heart to be able to praise him. He could raise up rocks to praise him if he wanted to.

We don't have anything to add in that sense. And in fact, you know, in 1

Corinthians 9, you see Paul talking about his stewardship of the gospel. He says, if I do this of my own will,

I have a reward, right? So if he preaches the gospel as though it's not something he's a steward of, but something that he's actively supplying, that the world doesn't have, right?

He's the one giving the gospel as opposed to just being a steward of it. I have a reward, but if not of my own will,

I'm still entrusted with the stewardship. What then is my reward? That in my preaching, I may present the gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

And so he does not consider himself some kind of profitable servant that deserves something in return.

Rather, he recognizes he's just stewarding what God has already given him. So if you want to confess yourself to be a servant, you have to recognize that not only has

God given you everything that's needed, but on top of that, you have nothing to add to it. And this is

Milton, famously in Paradise Lost, imagined

Satan as saying that it is better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven, right?

And I think that's the mindset a lot of people have, you know, that they want their works to be meritorious. They want to be able to say that they did something.

They would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. No, it's better to be a doorkeeper in the courts of God.

It is so much better. To be his servant is one of the highest identities that you can have.

And so confess, confess this truth. You know, if you're a student at a university and they have certain colors, if you want to be identified with that school, you wear the colors.

Even if, you know, if you don't think the colors fit or the colors make you uncomfortable, you still wear the colors.

I went to a school that had maroon and burnt orange as the colors. I don't think those are very good.

But, you know, if you want to show school pride, you wear the colors. And so these are the colors of a servant.

The colors of the servant are the one who recognizes that God has given everything that is needed.

And on top of that, he's given what is sufficient and nothing can be added. And to confess this is to confess the gospel itself.

Consider what it would mean to say that he has not given me what is needed. He's not given me enough faith.

It's to call him a hard master and to say that he's not a good enough savior, right? He's not a good enough savior.

And then in Matthew, when it talks about the parable of the talents, what happens to the servant that says, you know,

I knew you were a hard master, reaping where you haven't sown, gathering where you haven't scattered. What happens to the one that says that?

The master says, cast him into the outer darkness. You know, the parable kind of like has a rift in it at that point because we're kind of switching metaphors.

But he says, cast him into the outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. There's no place for a disciple who says,

God is not a good enough savior. He hasn't given me enough. He has given you enough. He has given you the faith to be able to obey him.

And then what happens to the one who says that they can add to that and go beyond what God has required or that maybe he hasn't given enough and they have to supply that extra.

Well, that's not the gospel either. The gospel is that by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing, not of works so that no one can boast.

If you say that it's yourself, you have some reason to boast. And what does God say about that in Galatians 5, 4?

The one who thinks that they're standing with God comes from what they have done from their own law keeping, from their own works, says that they are severed from Christ, severed from Christ.

You know, either end of denying that the faith that God has given is necessary or it's sufficient is a denial of the gospel itself.

God is a wonderful savior. He has supplied everything that we need and there's nothing more that we can add to that.

And now, considering all this whole, it is important to confess that gospel by confessing this status as a steward, as a servant, as a disciple, right?

When you confess to the Lord, you confess to him with thankfulness, not with complaints saying, I need more.

You gotta give me more in order for me to be able to do this. Yes, you know, we need that active influence of the spirit. Yes, we continue to need him.

But as far as faith, as far as equipping you as a disciple, he has given you and he has given you enough.

And then you need to confess it to others. As you speak to others and you say, and you identify yourself, you need to do it with boasting in the

Lord. What happens through you is not your own doing, as though you're adding to it. Rather, it is

God who has given you everything that is needed, and then with humility towards yourself because you are not adding to it.

And many people, many people get discouraged in the Christian life, right? They feel that they, that they're having to put in extra than what should really be required of them, that they have to do more and they don't understand the expectations in the

Christian life. You see this often in marriages too, where husband and wife are differently aligned on what the home duties are.

And so if one thinks that the, that the duties around the home work one way and the other thinks the other way, they'll be just constantly upset when the one thinks that, well,

I'm doing, you know, I'm doing it extra. And the other person thinks, you know, you're barely doing enough, you know, and there'll be this discouragement and exhaustion.

And this is what a lot of people experience in the Christian life, because they think that either they haven't been given enough or that they're having to put in extra beyond what

God has given. But Jesus is not a hard master. His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

And moreover than all that, He is especially kind in how

He rewards and gives. One of the most surprising things about this passage is how different it sounds from a couple of other passages in Scripture.

I don't know if that caught your eye at all, but this sounds almost the opposite of what Jesus says elsewhere.

Here He says, what does He say? Does He say, come in at once and recline at table?

Doesn't He rather say, prepare supper for me, dress properly, serve me while I eat and drink, et cetera, et cetera?

Just do these things. What does Jesus say elsewhere? In Matthew 25, verse 23, to the one who has the talents, who brings in the talents and has made interest.

His master said to Him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little. I will set you over much.

Enter into the joy of your master. And then in Luke 12, this is just earlier in the same gospel.

He said, Truly I say to you,

He will dress Himself for service and have them recline at table and He will come and serve them.

Now this is exactly the opposite of what Jesus said in 17, right? What does the master do? The master says, no, you don't get to recline at table.

I get to recline at table, et cetera, right? And so He's saying, what are the expectations of a servant? This is how your mindset should be.

But then in 12, He's already told them that your master is so kind, He actually does do that.

He actually does invite you to come and recline at the table once you have done your duty. He is an incredibly rewarding

God. Now, if you think that is owed, you are not going to appreciate it. You are not going to appreciate the glories of the gospel.

If you think that is owed, but if you don't think that that's owed and you know what you are, if you know that you're the unprofitable servant, that when

He does this, having bound Himself to be a God who is rewarding, you know, Hebrews 11, six, talking about faith says, without faith, it is impossible.

Please, God, for the one that comes to Him must believe that He is and that He's a rewarder of those who seek

Him, right? So I'm not saying you should push the reward out of the mind, but if you understand that it's not owed and that He is a rewarder, of those who seek

Him, not by any merit on your own or anything you deserve, but rather by the merit of Jesus Christ and then

Him binding Himself by covenant to reward obedience as such, you will appreciate these things greatly and you will not be a servant going on and being discouraged and thinking that He has not given you enough and you can't do these hard tasks that He's given about valuing money one way, valuing relationships another way and it just all seems so hard, but if you recognize that He has given enough and He has given what is sufficient so that nothing else is added, then you can confess the gospel in such a way that those rewards are enjoyed with joy and appreciation and this life is filled with a gratitude knowing that you have an excellent status before the

Lord, not because of something that you have done, but something that has been graciously gifted to you by the wonderful accomplishment of Jesus Christ on the cross and His death and burial and resurrection and it is my hope for you every

Sunday that as we go through Luke or any passage that you would know more about your Savior, be able to appreciate

Him more and the heart that says I haven't been given enough or I have to supply more of my own isn't going to get that, but if you recognize

He has given enough, He has given what is sufficient, you can appreciate the gospel completely because He is an excellent and wonderful Savior.

He is not a hard master. He is one who rewards His disciples beyond anything they deserve.

Amen. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful gift that you have given in Jesus Christ.

He is our great inheritance. We thank you for your promises of reward even though they are not owed to us.

We ask that we would be able to embrace this truth that those things are not owed so that we would fully appreciate the gospel and that we would not be the one who says that you are a hard master.

We would not be the ones that say that we add more to what you have given, but we would confess ourselves as unprofitable servants and so enter into the joy of our master.