Lord, Increase Our Faith
Scripture: Luke 17:1-10
Text: Luke 17:5 “And the disciples aid unto the Lord, “Increase our faith”.”
Introduction:
These words of our Lord Jesus when rightly interpreted and applied, will open the door to greater Christian service, and to a closer walk with God.
I. In these verses our Lord would have us know the great sinfulness of putting stumbling blocks in the way of other souls.
A. Our Lord says: “It is impossible but that offenses will come. But woe unto him through whom they come. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones.” Human nature and the world being as it is, it is wishful thinking to expect that there will be no offenses. There will be offenses as long as the world stands. The Greek word translated here as offenses is rendered elsewhere in the New Testament as ‘stumbling block’, ‘occasion to fall’, and ‘occasion of stumbling’.
The permanence and universality of offenses in the present world does not lessen the guilt of those who cause them. Our Lord says, “But woe unto him through whom they come.” This woe has probably a wide application it includes all who cause Christ’s people to stumble and be discouraged from the fiercest persecutor like Nero, down to the least inconsistent believer. Men cause offenses to come not only when they persecute believers but also when they try to sidetrack them from serving Christ. But this is not all. Professing Christians do it by inconsistencies in their professions. We do it when we make our testimony unlovely before our neighbors by conduct not in keeping with our Christian profession. Our neighbors may not attend our church or understand our doctrines but they understand our Christian practice.
Billy Cinron, all-American football player, says, “When a football player is offside his whole team is penalized.” And it’s like that when a man drinks alcoholic beverages. His drinking too often brings penalties that are costly, grievous and sometimes tragic, to his family, his employer, his friends and neighbors, and in fact to all who are in teamwork with him in any way...I am a total abstainer from all alcoholic beverages because I don’t want anyone else to suffer in my being offside. We could add lying, cheating, stealing, gossiping, backbiting, bitterness, wrath, anger, evil speaking, malice, and other traits to alcoholic beverages. Tolerate any of these and the whole Christian team will be penalized.
B. This sin of offense against which our Lord pronounces a ‘woe’ was the sin of David. When he had broken the seventh commandment and stolen another man’s wife, the prophet Nathan said to him, (Isaiah 12:14) “You have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.” (To insult God.) In Romans 2:24 it was the sin Paul charged against the Jews when he said, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.” In I Corinthians 10:32, it is the sin of which Paul frequently entreats Christians to beware. “Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.”
C. The subject is a deeply searching one and unhappily a very common sin among professing Christians. Over and over again in John’s first Epistle we read, little children love one another. “Hereby, perceive we the love of God because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. If any man say, I love God and hateth is brother, he is a liar; For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
Let us apply these words to our own lives. Are we doing good or harm to the cause of Christ? Do we really love with that love so ably described in 1st Corinthians 13, that love which among other things suffers long and is kind in return; does not envy, is not puffed up, that love which does not grasp, is not easily provoked, is not out to get its own way. That love which does not rejoice when a fellow Christian stumbles, that love which rejoices in the truth, that love which endureth all things and does not strike back.
Is our love like this kind of love? It’s easy to say yes, my love is just like that. Would your neighbors be able to say it? Would your friend sand relatives be able to say it? Would your enemies be able to say it? Would the other members on the team be able to say it? Or are they being penalized by your interpretation of Christ’s command to love one another?
Are you taking time to be holy? Are you taking care to be holy? Writing to the Ephesians in 4:24, Paul said, “Put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” This true holiness is further described in verses 25-32. They were to quit lying, speak truth with their neighbors. Should they have cause to be angry, there but be no murderous intentions accompanying the anger. The sun was not to go down upon their wrath. The devil was to be given no quarters. Corrupt speech must never leave the lips. The words spoken must be such as to hold up the hearers. Bitterness, wrath, anger, all evil speaking must go. They were to quit their meanness and in the place of these undesirable, unholy actions, they were to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake ad forgiven them.
Lack these things and your Christianity will be repelling instead of attractive. The unbelievers cannot be expected to love the Gospel, but let us not disgust them by our inconsistency. Inconsistency will penalize the whole Christian team. “It is impossible but that offenses will come, but woe unto him through whom they come.” As Paul would say, “Let us lay aside every weight and sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith,” and let us guard against being a stumbling block.
II. We are also taught here the great importance of a forgiving spirit.
A. “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.” The forgiving of injuries fills a prominent place in the Lord’s prayer. The only profession we make in that prayer is that of forgiving those who trespass against us.
It is a test toward being forgiven ourselves. The one who cannot forgive his neighbor the few trifling offense he may have committed against him, can know nothing personally of that free and full pardon which is offered to us by God through Christ. Not least, the spirit of forgiveness is one leading mark of the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit. The one who is quick to take offense, who has not learned to bear and forebear, to put up with much, and look overmuch, lacks evidence of being born of the Holy Spirit. Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgives an injury and dares forgo revenge.
B. The doctrine laid down by our Lord in this place is deeply humbling. Pride haughtiness, readiness to take offense, chip on shoulder attitude, determination never to forgive, are too common among professing Christians. Thousands will go to the communion service and carry a grudge against a fellow Christian. Christ would have us come clean in our forgiveness.
Moody tells the story of a man who supposing he was going to die expressed forgiveness to one who had injured him but added, “Now mind you, if I get well, the old grudge holds good.” When God forgives, He forgives clean. As we make tracks in the sand at the seashore they are washed away by the incoming waves.
We read in I John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood fo Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin.” I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Going back to Isaiah 1:18 we read that when God forgives He forgives thoroughly. Faith is the foot by which we go to Jesus. A lame foot is still a foot. He who comes slowly, nevertheless comes. According to our faith will be our peace, our hope, our strength, our courage, our decisions, and our victory over the world.
There is little faith and great faith. There is weak faith and strong faith. Both are to be seen in the experience of God’s people, but the more real faith a Christian has, the more happy, holy, and useful he will be. When the Disciples said, “Lord, increase our faith” They did well.
C. The question which should concern us is, “What is the state of our faith this morning?” Saving faith is not mere repetition of the creed and saying, “I believe in God, the Father, and in God, the Son, and in God, the Holy Spirit.” Thousands are weakly using these words who know nothing of real believing. The words of Paul in II Thes 3:2 are very solemn, “All men have not faith.” True faith is not natural to man. It is the gift of God. Let us pray that the Lord will increase our faith.
The story is told of an old man who had a wonderful spiritual experience some 25 years before, which he called his ‘blessed experience’. He had it written down. When people called upon him he would often bring it out and read it to them. One night, when a friend called, he asked his wife to go upstairs and gets his blessed experience. Returning, she said, “I’m sorry, but the mice have eaten up your blessed experience.” And a good thing too. If you had a blessing 25 years ago and have not had one since, you had better forget it and get an updated experience. Let a prayer for more faith be a part of our daily devotions. We are not to despise the day of small things in a brother’s soul, but we should not be content with a day of small things in our own soul.
Conclusion:
Jesus has the power of increasing the faith of His people. Strength comes from Him, especially strength to believe and to live the Gospel. Jesus is called the author and finisher of our faith. He is able to change our hearts, that we will not give offense, that we will forgive those who give offense. May these words of Jesus applied to our hearts open a door to greater Christian service and a closer walk with God. We must not forget that when we are offside, the whole team is penalized.
