Continuing the progressive reading through Proverbs, we come to chapter 9, where the wisdom of God, personified as a great woman, speaks to us, calls to us. Proverbs 9, we'll read 1 through 6. Wisdom has built her house. She has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts. She has mixed her wine. She has set aside her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the high places in the town. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. To him who lacks sense, she says, come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and live. and walk in the way of insight. And if you want something to do when you get home, read the contrasting picture that begins at verse 13. We are going to be reading Luke chapter 17. Before we do, let's read, let's pause for a moment and pray for the work of the Holy Spirit to illumine the word and enlighten our hearts. So please join me in prayer. Thank you, our Father, that you have not closed the heavens against us. We came into this world with hearts in rebellion against you. and left to our own devices, would wander in darkness and ignorance until the light of your holy judgment descends upon us. But we thank you that you have stooped down, that you speak to us in words we can understand with the help of your Holy Spirit, and we surely do need the help of the Holy Spirit. And so we pray that you would help me to open your word accurately and truly. You would help all of us to place ourselves before you as those who seek to listen to Jesus, who said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So enable us to hear Jesus' voice in his word. We pray in his name, amen. Luke 17. In Anoka had a large print eight and a half by 11 of this. We'll see how this goes. And he, Jesus, 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. 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 a day, and turns to you seven times saying, I repent. You must forgive him. The apostles 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. unworthy, oh I'm sorry that's a heading. Will any of you, will any of you who has a servant, and the word could be translated slave, plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he comes in from the field, oh 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 you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, we are unworthy, I think unprofitable is a better translation there. We are unprofitable servants. We have only done what was our duty. You read the Gospels and everywhere you encounter our Lord challenging his disciples and therefore challenging us with a very high call to obedience and service. And we have two of those strong demands that our Lord makes here in these opening verses. First, he reminds his disciples that temptations to sin are sure to come. Yes, indeed, we live in a fallen world. We're surrounded by the enemies of God, by demons themselves. And yes, temptations are sure to come, but, he says, woe to the one through whom they come. That is, don't you be the cause of someone falling into sin because you are unloving, uncaring, indifferent to how your behavior affects others, and you have made choices that leads one of Christ's little ones, not meaning just little children, they're included, but believers, leading one of Christ's little ones to follow you into sin. How serious is this? Well, our Lord says you'd be better off if you'd drowned in the sea before doing that. That implies a very severe judgment from God And so I think each of us should think about that. This is not an unpardonable sin, but you do need to repent of it. If you've been so selfish, so self-centered, you haven't cared how your behavior may adversely affect other people, encourage sin in them, provoke them to sin, lead them, by example, into sin. You need to repent of that. and plead with the Lord to forgive you. But that's a very high standard that he sets, isn't it? It's a very severe, serious challenge. And then he goes, and so he says, lost my place, knew that would happen. He says, take heed to yourselves. Take heed to yourselves. We need to do that. And then he sort of flips it over and he says, If your brother sins, rebuke him. That's a ministry of love. 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, what's the word, must forgive him. Our Lord's not giving advice. This is not optional. We remind ourselves of this in every worship service when we pray the Lord's Prayer, forgive us our debts, what as we forgive our debtors. And at the end of that prayer, the only petition in the Lord's Prayer in which our Lord comments, he says, if you will not forgive those who sin against you, your Father in heaven will not forgive you. an unforgiving spirit, a hard heart and an unforgiving spirit. To that God says, there's no forgiveness until you repent of your hard heart and your unforgiving spirit. So that's quite a strong challenge. There's a similar passage in Matthew 18 where Peter says to Jesus, well, how often shall I forgive my brother? Seven times? Like he's feeling generous that day. But the fact that he puts it that way reveals that for Peter, and I think he was typical, he's typical of humanity, typical of people in his day, forgiveness did not just come as an impulse. And I don't think it does from us either, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in us. So, Jesus' answer to Peter? I don't say seven times. He said seven times here in one day. He says, I don't say seven times, but seventy times seven. Now, can you picture Peter going home and buying a little notebook and starting to keep a record, and when he gets up to 490, he says, OK, I don't have to forgive anymore. Of course, that's not our Lord's point, to keep score. Our Lord's point is, you forgive and you don't keep score. Well, this is a real challenge to the disciples. I can imagine that what they might have done is to say, come on, Jesus, that's impossible. We can't do that. Lighten up. They don't. They have more respect for Jesus than to speak that way to him, even if they might have thought it. But what they do say is, Lord, increase our faith. What they recognize is that they've been presented with two very difficult commands. Two very difficult commands that they're not up to. And they need Jesus to increase their faith. Now this is a very humble response, isn't it? And I say, Luke recorded these, the Holy Spirit had Luke record these events, not just as a historical record about the apostles and Jesus' training of them, but because this Word speaks to us also, speaks to God's people in all places, in all times. We need to be humble before God, humble before Jesus, about the fact that In our sinful hearts, we are not just automatically inclined to be gracious and forgiving. We're all too quick to make excuses for condemning and judging, being harsh, especially to people who have mistreated us. We forget what our Lord says in the Sermon on the Mount, love your enemies, pray for those who mistreat you, We need the humility that is displayed by the future apostles here in this passage. Lord, give us the grace. Increase our faith. And his response to that is very encouraging. In verse 6, if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and planted in the sea and it would obey you. It's probably a favorite text of charismatic preachers like Benny Hinn. But it's not, it's not, we're misunderstanding if we don't see the metaphor here. Telling a mulberry tree to uproot and go to the ocean is what? Demanding the impossible. Demanding the impossible. Our Lord lays on us obligations that to our flesh are what? They are impossible. I have been grievously sinned against and he expects me to forgive. But he says if you have Faith like a grain of mud. See, they think we need more faith. The problem is not small or little faith. They have faith. They left everything to follow Jesus because they believe He's the promised Messiah. They are believers. They have faith. But the thing is, it's God-given faith. They just, it's not that they believe a set of doctrines that are all true and how good that is, but the truth about Jesus has gripped them, to the extent that they understand it. They don't yet grasp His atoning work, His coming resurrection, but they know that He's the one promised by God to bring salvation to His people. They have faith. It's like a little mustard seed. But our Lord is saying, you believe, you believe. And out of that faith, you'll be able to do things that I call you to do that are impossible to your flesh. That's a very encouraging word. But then we come to the parable of verse 7 through verse 10, which seems really harsh and probably would be very offensive to many people today because he speaks about a slave who is Things are demanded of him. He works all day in the field taking care of the of the sheep and the crops, and he comes in. You can imagine him coming. He's been out in the sun all day. He's tired, and his master's not concerned about whether he's tired and hungry, but whether he stinks. Clean up. Change your clothes. Serve my supper. When I'm done eating, then you can eat. That seems very harsh, and somebody might say, Well, is Jesus here saying that he, because clearly the master stands in the place of God in this parable. Is he saying that God or that Jesus is a harsh taskmaster? Well, we'll come back to that question. What's the point? The point is, yes, in that relationship between master and slave, The slave has only done what's required of him. And our Lord then applies that to the disciples and to us. The implication is, or the application is my implication, that when we've done everything, ha ha, that the Lord commands, we are still not in the black. there's no treasury of merit. How hard you work to reform your life, depending on the Holy Spirit, reading the Word, trusting the Word, growing in grace, growing in obedience, however hard you work at that, you will never have been so obedient to Christ that you will have exceeded His commands to you. You will always fall short this side of glory. And so you need to say when you've done everything, I am an unprofitable servant. I have only done what the Lord has a right to expect of me. What's he confronting here? Our Lord knows what we're made of. He knows his disciples and their hearts. He knows us. And what happens, what happens when, in answer perhaps to humble prayer, earnest pleading, God enables you to do a hard thing that is good. Maybe it means how the chapter began, confronting a brother who sinned. That's a very hard thing to do. Or forgiving someone who's hard to forgive. But he enables us to do the hard thing, the good thing that he commanded. And what's the temptation then? Come on, you know what it is. Look at me. Look what I did. What's my reward? And when we think that way, we are getting ourselves in trouble and we may cause a lot of trouble. Because here's what happens. You're still living in a fallen world. You're still beset by infirmities. Some of us are old enough to write books on infirmities. You'll still be set by infirmities. So you do this good thing that God enabled you to do, this hard thing, this good thing that God enabled you to do, but hard things come into your life. Bad things happen. And what's the temptation? Why, Lord? I tried so hard to do the right thing, and this is what I get? What's up with you, God? Right? Now, I don't say it's wrong when you fall into affliction and trouble in life to say, Lord, can you show me why this is happening? What's the lesson I should learn? That's a good way of saying why. But most often we say, why? It's a defiant why. What do you think you're doing, God? I've worked so hard to be right, and you're doing this. And the other thing that's bad that causes trouble in the church often is I've done these good things that God called me to do, and I felt strongly it was the right thing to do, and it pleased me to work and to labor and to help, and nobody noticed. Nobody said thank you. And that really gets to me. That really gets under my skin. Why should I bother? Well, what do we need to do? We need to get off our high horse and recognize that if God gave us what we deserve, it would be hell for every sin. But Jesus bore that hell for us. What's my complaint? And if people don't recognize what we've done, well, did we do it for them? Did we do it for the recognition? Or did we do it because we are thankful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ? Slaves who are willing to work all day with the sheep in the fields and come in at night and continue to serve in other ways This is the Lord who poured out His life for our salvation. Can He ask too much of us? And the answer's no, He can't. He can't. But He does promise to meet us with His grace. So this brings us back to the question. Is Jesus presenting God or presenting himself here as being a mean slave master? So, number one, don't make too much of the details of parables. They have a point. Get the point. Don't draw conclusions you shouldn't draw from details that make the story work. I can give you lots of illustrations from parables on that, but I just lost my train of thought. Be patient. Yes, is Jesus a harsh slave master? Well, what can we say? Let's go back to chapter 12, where our Lord is teaching his disciples. I'm not going to give you the context. If you want to take the time to do that, you can read it. But beginning at verse 35, his eye is on the future, and he's encouraging them to keep their eye on the future. We should keep our eyes on the far horizon. What's the saying that arose in the Civil Rights Movement? Keep your eyes on the prize. Well, for us, the prize is being with the Lord. So he says, stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them reclined at table, and he will come and serve them. That's Jesus. And he pictures himself when he comes again, welcoming, being welcomed by his servants, serving them, laying out a table for them. Well, you know, what is that? That's the marriage supper of the lamb, isn't it? If you think of how it's fulfilled. Jesus, you know, is not going to be sitting there on a couch while He expects us to do all this work, prepare all this meal for the millions upon millions of people, a multitude no one can number, feasting there at the Mirror of the Supper of the Land. He's the host, He's the one who presents the meal, He's the one who spreads the table, He's the bread of heaven that has come down to give life to the world. So that's not the picture of a harsh slave master, is it? Or let's think of one of Pastor Michael's favorite passages at the end of Matthew 11, where Jesus is looking out at people, ordinary people who are burdened down by the requirements of the scribes and Pharisees the weight of all the commands that they lay on people to be acceptable with God. And he says, all you who are weary and heavy laden, come to me. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. It's not a harsh taskmaster, is it? And there he is, the very night he was betrayed by Judas, stooping down, dressed as a slave, washing the feet of his disciples. And then where does he go? He goes to the cross. To bear the filth, the guilt, the shame of our innumerable sins. To pay our debt in full. Not a harsh taskmaster, but a king who comes as a servant and obeys his father. and follows a path of obedience and a path of service, not only to his Father, but to undeserving sinners, and lays down his life for us. Not a harsh taskmaster. And now that he has risen to the right hand of the Father, he is still. And all that power As the Lord of heaven and earth, He devotes that power, that authority that is His to the good of His people. He never ceases to intercede for us. He never ceases to watch over us and know Jesus knows you better than you know yourself. He knows your troubles better than you know your troubles. He's able to hold on to his sheep and not lose one that the father has given him for whom he gave his life. Not a harsh slave master. We have been bought with a price. In a sense, we are the slaves of Jesus Christ, but what a blessed servitude. What a blessed, what a blessed servitude. So, think about the response of the disciples to the very serious demand Jesus lays on them, not to act out of selfishness and self-centeredness and through careless thought and bad decisions lead people into sin. And when sinned against, and one says, I'm sorry, forgive me, forgiving, and all the other demands that Jesus lays upon us in his word that are beyond our strength, let's be like the disciples. Lord, increase my faith. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, please attend the word that we have read and that we have considered that's been proclaimed with the work of your Holy Spirit. Help us, O Lord, when we read your word or are confronted by parts of your word that seem to ask the impossible of us. Help us to humble ourselves before you to look to you for mercy and grace and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, to look to you for forgiveness for bitterness or a vengeful spirit or sinful anger that we might rather forgive and love even our enemies. Build us up, O Lord, in the faith. Build us up in love for you. Enlighten the eyes of our heart to see more and more clearly the wonder, the amazing grace of You, our God, in giving Your Son, of You, Lord Jesus, in giving Yourself to be our Savior and our Lord and our daily deliverer and keeper. We do pray in Jesus' name. Amen.