Turn with me to Luke 17. We are continuing our series in Luke's Gospel. Kingdom Come is the name of that series. We are officially in the last third of Luke's Gospel. So if you're like me, it's a little bit sad. I've really enjoyed our time in Luke's Gospel. Maybe some of you are thinking, oh, only a third left. It feels like we've been in Luke forever. We have only a third of the Gospel left, so we're almost done. We're going to be looking this morning at Luke 17:1-4. Matthew 24:1-6.
So you can look on the screen. I encourage you, if you have a Bible with you, to turn your attention there. Hear God's holy and authoritative Word. "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 out into the sea And 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 7 times in the day and returns to you 7 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. The word of the Lord. May He write His truth upon our hearts.
Would you bow your heads with me? Lord, we come to receive from You this morning and to sit under Your word. And Lord, we come in faith and just rejoicing in the promise of this passage, Lord, that even with a little faith, you will do according to your word and according to your promises. We ask now by your Spirit that you would increase our faith, that you would be at work in our midst, and that you would sow the truth of your word deep into our hearts. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, I was a little bit surprised and also not surprised at the same time. A few months ago, several months ago, maybe even a year ago, I saw an advertisement, a preview for a movie. And as is sadly becoming common, it was a movie that as the preview continued, I had to actually change the channel with the kids in the room. The name of the movie was simply Temptation, and that was what the movie was about. This wasn't a movie about temptation and how to battle temptation. It wasn't one of those kind of movies. It wasn't The Temptation of the Christ. This was a movie simply titled Temptation. The brazen title really says it all. It was a movie made to celebrate and be entertained by the reality of temptation. Now, I don't say this to commend the movie to you. I wouldn't even encourage you to watch the trailer. But that title and the fact that that movie exists is a really telling thing. You see, the people in Hollywood, the movie executives and the producers, they don't make movies that they think will lose money. These are people that are actually very good at their jobs. A movie like Temptation gets made because people in Hollywood are convinced a movie celebrating the notion of temptation, making light of it and rejoicing in it, that that will be profitable. That our culture will see it and that people will think, "Yes, I want to go see that. I want to be stirred by that." There's a market for it. As a culture, we aren't concerned about temptation so much as we are entertained by it. And that's a chilling thing, especially when we consider the dire ways Jesus talks about the stakes of temptation in this passage. Better to have a millstone tied around your neck and be cast into the sea. And here we're trying to monetize temptation, making a mockery of sin and temptation.
The first thing we see, the first point of the passage today, is that temptation isn't a trifle. Temptation isn't something we fool around with. It's not something to market for profitability. It's not something to take it easy with and to play with or not to take seriously. Luther, the great reformer of the church, right? Luther in church history, he knew this danger acutely well. He was very aware of it. Luther said that he feared his own heart. He feared his own heart more than Pope or Cardinal. Now, given the fact that the Pope, sent armies to arrest Luther and he had to flee for his life and spent a year running around Germany and hiding out in castles to survive, that's a pretty serious statement. He feared his own heart more than the people that were trying to kill him. This is a man who understood the stakes. He realized the threat temptation held.
In Luke 17, Jesus tells us temptation is inevitable. He's literally guaranteeing temptation will rear its head, not if, but when. And verse 1 makes it clear the battle is personal. Temptations to sin are sure to come. Our hearts have this This broken desire, this lecherous ability to just mint evil thoughts. Temptation isn't just something that's out there. It's also something that's inside of us. We don't often think of temptation in that way, but the reality of sin and its existence is it's there in us. It's in our hearts. Our hearts kind of operate like traitorous Trojan horses. The Bible— wow! We have a squirrel. Alright, I think he's gone. See, you guys were all tempted by that distraction and you all gave in. Your hearts are Trojan horses. One little squirrel and you're distracted from the Word of God. I knew there was something because Darrell stood. Is that the up? Squirrel! Our hearts are treacherous Trojan horses. They deceive us and they turn us. It's important that we actually start there by recognizing in every person sitting in this room, there's an innate ability to wander off into temptation. Our flesh, Paul says, is the real enemy. In Romans 7, Paul talks about our flesh and it's aroused by our own sinful passions and that these sinful passions are at work in our own members. They're at work in our own bodies, our own flesh, our own heart is at work trying to bear fruit for death. You ever think about your heart that way? That your heart left to itself is trying to go about the work of bearing fruit that will lead you to destruction.
6 · Expounds Jesus' millstone warning, explaining both the literal object and the severity of the judgment — causing others to stumble carries consequences worse than drowning
But Jesus' real warning in the passage isn't just for how we personally battle temptation, but how we might lead others into temptation. Temptations to sin are going to come in this life. Just because that's inevitable doesn't mean the one by whom they come won't face awful consequences. Jesus uses this illustration of a millstone. A millstone is this huge heavy stone, right? In the miller, in the miller's house. It's connected to the post and the millstone goes around and it grinds the corn, it grinds the wheat into flour that can be used. But it's this huge massive heavy rock. Better to have a millstone chained around your neck and be thrown into the sea to drown than to be one who's guilty of tempting someone else. I don't know if the producers of the movie ever thought of that. That's a far cry from how our culture thinks of it.
7 · Identifies the Pharisees as the primary example of those who cause others to stumble through hypocrisy and false teaching, then applies the warning to the disciples as future leaders and connects to Paul's similar warning to Timothy about watching life and doctrine
Now in our context, Jesus clearly has the Pharisees in view. That's what's going on in this chapter and the preceding chapter. The Pharisees in their teaching and their way of life Jesus is saying, are doing this exact thing. The religious leaders of the day are actually leading people into temptation. In chapter 16, He's confronted them about their hypocrisy, about their mishandling of the law, and about the fact that they are consumed with a love for money. They've propped themselves up as the most religious, the most God-loving men in Israel, when in reality, they love money. They love the almighty shekel more than Almighty God. But as teachers and leaders of God's people, their false doctrines and their false way of life is actually leading people astray. Some are actually led off into false beliefs. They're missing the Messiah who's right in front of them. And others are rejecting this whole notion of religion because they see the hypocrisy of the way these men live. Their lives is actually a form of temptation. The hypocrisy of their lives is a stumbling block that keeps them from seeing who God is and believing in Him. That's a warning to the disciples. Jesus is warning the disciples who will be leaders and teachers themselves. Don't be like the Pharisees, Peter. Don't be like— don't live as hypocrites, James and John, Matthew. It's an echo of Paul's instructions to Timothy. Timothy, Paul's protégé in the ministry, he's going to care for the church in Ephesus. He tells Timothy, "Keep a close watch." Keep a close watch on your life and doctrine. Why? Because you're a teacher and you have influence. And how you live your life and what you teach has the possibility to lead people astray, to lead them into temptation. It's a sobering thing. Better, Timothy, better Peter, James, and John, to have a millstone tied around your neck than to fail in this task.
8 · Applies the warning about causing others to stumble to the entire congregation by establishing that all believers are called to be disciple-makers who influence others through teaching and example, from parents to siblings to fellow church members
Now this is spoken to the disciples. Maybe some of you are thinking, well, we dodged a bullet. I'm not a disciple. But the call of all believers, right, is that we would be disciple makers. The whole goal of what he's doing with the disciples is that they would replicate their faith time and time again. And we would all be disciple makers, that we would all be on mission to teach each other and to influence each other and to set an example with our lives. You see, we're all called to take the Word of God and to bring it to bear and to teach and to instruct each other. There's passages that call us as believers to do this. And so this actually falls on all of us. For moms and dads as they teach and instruct their children and set an example in their lives. For older siblings who are believers, do the same for younger siblings, older saints in the body, just people here today. As we interact with her, we are called to be making disciples of one another, to be speaking the word of truth to each other, to be building each other up, to be setting an example with our lives that encourages others towards holiness, towards godliness, towards Christlikeness, and doesn't create a stumbling block. So we should all hear this warning.
9 · Diagnoses the wrong questions believers typically ask about temptation (how close can I get to sin?) and reframes them according to Jesus' concerns in the passage (will this cause my brother to stumble? does this make a mockery of Christ?)
The problem with temptations and how we think of them and how we approach them On the one hand, in the extreme, are people who trifle with them and make little of them, right? Making movies of them. On the other hand, though, are even with believers as we consider it, I think oftentimes as we think of this topic, we ask the wrong questions. When it comes to temptation and the flesh, we ask questions like, "How far can I go without being consumed?" How close can I get to the line? Or we think, will others think less of me if I indulge in this? Will others think less of me if I watch this? So maybe you don't watch it for the wrong motives or you watch it in secret. We ask questions like, is there a way to justify engaging in this activity? Can I figure out some redemptive purpose for doing this thing that probably shouldn't be done? But Jesus would have us ask different questions. Will this tempt my brother? Not have I figured out a loophole where I can feel better about doing this, but in doing this, would this prove tempting for a brother? Does this decision or this way of life make a mockery of who I am in Christ? Does this confirm the suspicions that others have that people who love Jesus are just a bunch of judgmental hypocrites? I think those are the questions that Jesus would have us ask in this passage. How do we navigate living a holy life and battling temptation in such a way that we're concerned about those around us and how it impacts them.
10 · Signals the sermon's structural shift from the warning about causing others to stumble to the second major section about watching over one another in community
In fact, that's exactly what we see next. After the warning, Jesus shifts gears. Because temptation is such serious business, He exhorts us, "Pay attention to yourselves." Our second point, pay attention to yourselves.
11 · Expounds the grammatical significance of the plural "yourselves" to establish that the battle against temptation is meant to be fought in community, not in isolation
Now, yourselves is plural. It's not pay attention to yourself. This battle against temptation isn't meant to be fought alone. It's pay attention to yourselves as a community, corporately. Keep watch over each other. In fact, to have victory in the sphere of temptation, which Jesus says is inevitable, requires that you have community. It's not just enough to be surrounded by people. That's not the kind of community we're talking about.
12 · Uses an extended personal story about his childhood church's "fellowship hall" to illustrate the difference between shallow social gathering (bad coffee and small talk) and genuine biblical community
The idea with community, the fact that community's in our mission statement, the fact that we talk about community, it's not that we're just sloganeering. We just love to talk about community and have people talk about community, have people excited about community. We put it in the name of the church because we're about community. It's not about talking about community and making and maturing disciples without actually walking them out. Community isn't just about being around other people. I think sometimes we flatten what it means to be in community. It's not just that we're together or that every once in a while we hang out. My church growing up, they had what they called the fellowship hall, right? They had a fellowship hall. And it wasn't because they bought the building from Jehovah's Witnesses. There was outside the sanctuary, you had the big sanctuary where everyone would worship. And then as you would exit the sanctuary, you entered the fellowship hall. And so every Sunday, it was the same routine. At the end of the service, the pastor would give the benediction, the church would stand and sing the doxology, pastor would walk out, he'd go to one of three doors, changed every week, and he would shake hands with people as they left and everyone filed into the fellowship hall. And in the fellowship hall, one of the church ladies would scurry over, get into the kitchen, they would open the accordion doors, and they would start serving terrible coffee. It was just what you did. They would put the Folgers in the pot and then those little tiny white Styrofoam cups. It was just inevitable as a little kid, you'd want to bite them. You just keep biting them all the way down. There's just something about sinking your teeth into the Styrofoam that was enjoyable. But that's what you did every Sunday. Made your way into the fellowship hall. Everyone got in line. They got their bad coffee. They got their terrible non-dairy powdered creamer and put it in there and tried to pretend like it was real dairy, right? Maybe put some sugar in. And then everyone would huddle together in little pockets and groups. You'd have pockets of guys, pockets of women, and just like at Providence, little kids running around in between the groups. In the pockets of guys, they would talk about sports or the weather or the crops every week. And the women— oh my goodness. I'm going to assume this is too distracting to continue. Let's see if we can just lay something down to keep them from coming back. We'll see if that works. Alright, we'll keep going. So they would have fellowship and they would be in their little— and you'd have the women talking about whatever it is the women would talk about, and they were in the fellowship hall. The irony of it all and the point is that no fellowship ever really seemed to be taking place in the fellowship hall. They were just drinking bad coffee out of their Styrofoam cups and chewing the fat, but nothing about what they were doing was actually living a common life together. That's the biblical sense of the word fellowship and of this notion of community.
13 · Expounds verses 3-4 to define biblical community in Jesus' terms — it necessarily includes rebuke, repentance, and forgiveness, not just pleasant social interaction
In Luke 17, Jesus calls us to more than shallow conversations over watered-down Folgers in those little tiny cups. He zeroes in on real community. He says real community entails forgiveness and repentance. Do you ever think about community? When we say, "We're about community," is the first thought that comes to your mind, "We're about community," which means rebuking someone caught in sin? Probably not, right? And yet that's where Jesus goes here. Are you rebuking one another in a way that leads your brother and sister to repentance, to turning away from sin and to seeking forgiveness from God? And the people they've wronged?
14 · Applies the exposition by asking how the congregation would respond if someone actually rebuked sin in the church gathering, challenging comfortable assumptions about community and pressing the question of whether we are watching over each other's souls
Or if someone tried that in the proverbial fellowship hall of Providence. So we're in the fellowship hall of Providence and we're in our little circles and someone comes and seeks to call someone to repentance. What would the reaction be? Would we spit out our Folgers? Right? Are we paying attention? Jesus' point to the souls around us. This is precisely what Paul was doing for Timothy. Watch your life, brother. Watch your life. Jesus looks around the room at us today and asks, are you paying attention to one another? Because that's exactly what Jesus calls us to do in the body.
15 · Models concrete language for how biblical community might look — specific examples of gentle probing questions and humble observations that open the door to speaking into someone's life without being intrusive or legalistic
So have you ever gently spoken into someone else's life with a probing question? Not because you're digging into their stuff, but because you care and you're genuinely wondering. You ever lovingly or graciously shared an observation with someone? Hey, I could be mistaken. I know I don't see this perfectly. Man, I've noticed this, and I'm just wondering, is there anything going on there I can be praying for you about or help you with? Ever done that? Would you ever do that? Would you ever let someone do that to you?
16 · Recalls the church membership covenant recited a few weeks earlier, specifically the language about exercising "affectionate care and watchfulness" over each other, showing that the church has already committed to what Luke 17 commands
A few weeks ago during our New Member Sunday, we recited our church membership covenant together. Remember reciting the commitments that we make to one another? In the middle of that, we say one of the commitments we make in that membership covenant, we will walk together in brotherly love as becomes the members of a local church. We will pray for and serve one another. We will exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness over each other.
17 · Interprets the membership covenant language in light of Luke 17, emphasizing that watchfulness must be motivated by affectionate care rather than legalism, and rooted in belief in the seriousness of temptation
That's talking about Luke 17. That we will love each other in such a way that our community will be of such a kind that it won't just be Styrofoam cups and bad Folgers coffee, but that we will actually exert affectionate care and watchfulness. And those two things are strategically put together. Affectionate care, not legalism, not navel-gazing, not watching your neighbor for every slip-up, but because you believe Luke 17, that temptation is real, it's inevitable, it's not a trifle, and that Jesus has called us together in this body to watch over each other.
18 · Shares a personal pastoral conversation with an anonymous church member who exemplifies healthy engagement with biblical community — excited about D-Groups not out of voyeurism but because he recognizes his need for help battling a besetting sin
I had a conversation a few weeks ago that spoke to this very thing. I was talking with a member of Providence, and we were actually discussing the subject of D-Groups, our new discipleship groups. These D-Groups have been going now for a couple months. So within all of our community groups, our smaller discipleship groups, right, where men and women are reading the Bible during the week and they're gathering just for an hour to open their Bibles and talk about where God is revealing himself, where he's pressing in. But one of the questions is, what do you feel called to repent and believe this week? And I was talking, I was so encouraged by the conversation. I'm talking with a guy in the church, I'll leave him anonymous. And he was just excited about D-groups. And he was excited not because, "I'm in this D-group with John and I can't wait to hear his dirt. I know there's stuff there. I've been waiting for this." No, it was this just tangible excitement because he knew he needed what would happen in those D-groups. He knew that he was prone to temptation. In fact, he knew a specific temptation that he had been battling, that he had been fighting. We've been talking about his battle with this. He'd been battling a particular besetting sin in his life. He'd been longing to put it to death, he'd been fighting to put it to death. And here he was recognizing and excited about the opportunity to have others with him to help in the fight. That was exciting. It was a blessing to me as a pastor to hear him talk about his need and what he'd already experienced just a few weeks into being a part of that group.
19 · Clarifies that D-Groups are not mandated by Scripture but are one practical mechanism Providence has created to live out the Luke 17 command to watch over each other, rebuke, repent, and forgive
That's what Luke 17 is calling us to. There's no Luke 17 and thou shalt do D-Groups, right? D-Groups are just a mechanism that we've come up with to have an opportunity to have watchfulness over each other's souls. To encourage and exhort, but also if need be to rebuke and to provide a context for repentance and to extend forgiveness to each other. These are holy, holy things.
20 · Signals the structural shift to the final section on faith by recapitulating the disciples' hearing of Jesus' demanding commands and their response asking for more faith
What's interesting is then how the conversation turns. Hearing all of this, temptations are going to come. You better watch each other. You need to rebuke. You need to extend forgiveness. You need to repent and be forgiven. You need to forgive somebody 7 times in the same day. Hearing all of this, the disciples turn to Jesus and they ask for Him to increase their faith.
21 · Expounds Jesus' mustard seed response, establishing what the disciples asked for (more faith) and what Jesus said (even tiny faith like a mustard seed can accomplish the impossible)
They ask for a more sufficient faith. Bolster our faith. Make it more. Give us a sufficient faith to walk this out. And so Jesus then responds with His famous dictum, that if they had faith like a mustard seed, they could uproot a mulberry tree with their words. With your words, if you had faith like a mustard seed, you could uproot that mulberry tree and tell it to cast itself and be planted in the sea, and it would do it. In another gospel account, if you had faith like a mustard seed, you could move mountains.
22 · Addresses the hermeneutical problem of verse headings that create artificial divisions and argues that verses 1-4 and 5-6 are meant to be read as one connected argument
Now, why did the disciples suddenly cry out for more faith at this point? The unfortunate thing is probably your Bible is like mine. There's a heading right between the verses. And so it makes you think these two things are disconnected. You read through verse 4. Okay, that's one thought, right? Keep watch over each other, help each other, repent, believe, extend forgiveness. Thought closed. Now verses 5 and 6, increase our faith. If you had faith like a mustard seed, you could uproot mulberry trees. But they're connected. They're in context together.
23 · Explains the disciples' motivation for asking for more faith — they recognize the threat of temptation, their own vulnerability to becoming like the Pharisees, and the impossibility of forgiving repeatedly without divine help
The disciples cry out for more faith because they sense the threat of temptation. There's a part of them that knows as they look out at the Pharisees, it's not, "Pfft, stupid Pharisees." There's a sobering recognition as they look out at the Pharisees, "There but for the grace of God go I." Right? They also know how difficult it is to defeat sin, to fight this temptation, to battle the flesh. They're probably also a little bit intimidated by what it means to walk this out in community. This isn't the first time they've stumbled over this notion. How many times do I have to forgive, Jesus? 70 times 7. How do you do that? How do I have faith to continue extending forgiveness and not be jaded towards that person? Or just despise that person. In the face of all of those things, they're convinced at this point, Jesus, if we're going to do this, You've got to give us more faith. There's a part of that that's really humble. It's like one of those times where it's not just Peter saying, well, I'll do that, Jesus. Okay, Peter, try. Falls on his face. No, there's a recognition of humility. This is insane stuff. Can you increase our faith that we can do that?
24 · Identifies the wrong assumption that more faith is what we need and sets up Jesus' corrective — the problem isn't the quantity of faith but its object
And we tend to think the same way. With more faith, we could do great things. With more faith, we could finally put that sin to death. With more faith, if I had more faith, if I was a better Christian, then I could forgive that person. You don't understand, this is the 12th time. My spouse always does that. If I had more faith, maybe. But Jesus confronts this wrong assumption head-on.
25 · Unpacks the mustard seed metaphor to establish the sermon's central theological claim — the power is not in the size of our faith but in the object of our faith
The mustard seed is tiny. Picture a grain of pepper out of the pepper shaker. That's what a mustard seed is. It's the tiniest of every seed. Jesus' point isn't, "If you had immense faith, you could do these things. If you were a church with more faith, your fellowship hall experience would be better." That's not what he's saying. The important thing isn't that you have more faith, it's that there's any faith at all to begin with. Even the tiniest morsel of faith, a mustard seed of faith, and God can use it to do great things. And that's not to sentimentalize this, like in a, "Oh, mustard seed faith, yay!" You see what Jesus is doing? He's showing us that the focus isn't on the size or the strength of your faith. We think mustard seed faith, and we obsess about the mustard. Jesus' whole point is, "It's a mustard seed. It's tiny. Don't pay attention to that part of what I'm saying. It's almost inconsequential." A tiny amount of faith is enough because the essential power isn't the size of the faith It's the object of our faith. This verse gets sentimentalized and we have this little faith, you can move mountains. We'll make a song about it, right? It's almost as abused as Philippians 4:13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And it's ripped out of the context, right? Of Paul basically saying, I can be in poverty because of the way Christ gives me ballast. That's what's going on here. The point is that we shouldn't be amazed with what a little faith can do. It's to be amazed at what the object can do even with just a little faith.
26 · Defines biblical faith not as vague spirituality but as directional trust in a person — Christ — using the Greek grammar of "believe into Jesus" to show faith's relational and objective nature
It's not a vague notion of faith either. This isn't just faith as a sort of ethereal thing that we kind of throw out there. No, this is faith as the Bible describes it. The Scriptures talk about this. Christ talked about this. Faith is in a person. The Greek, when it talks about faith in Christ, you can literally translate it, "Believe into Jesus." This is faith that has a direction. It's a faith that looks to the cross and clings to the cross so that even the smallest, feeblest, mustard-seed portion of faith, if it looks to Christ, if that tiny bit of faith hopes in the Lord, in that tiny bit of faith, God is pleased to do great things. God rejoices to do great things in the weakness of your little faith.
27 · Applies the mustard seed faith principle to the specific challenges of the passage — defeating temptation, killing sin, forgiving repeatedly
Now consider this in the context of what Jesus is saying. How much faith is required to defeat inevitable temptation? It's in my own heart. How much faith is required to finally put that sin to death? You know the one. How much faith to forgive someone who has sinned against you for the 15th time? Immensely powerful, world-changing, go-down-in-the-history-books kind of faith? No, faith as small as a mustard seed. Do you hear the good news of that? Do you hear the power of that? Your white-knuckled faith, like, I'm clinging to the edge by my fingernails. If the wind picks up, I feel like I might fall off. I don't know if I can do this again tomorrow. That faith, because God comes and puts his hands over it. But this mustard seed faith, it's never vague or ambiguous. It's not disembodied belief in some abstract notion of God. It's faith placed in the promises of God and in the truth of God's word. Jesus is telling the disciples, believe in my words right now. He's telling us, believe in my words right now.
28 · Provides the first concrete example of what mustard seed faith looks like in practice — when beset by Satan's accusations, the believer clings to Acts 10:38's promise that everyone who believes receives forgiveness, and that tiny faith moves God's mercy
Mustard seed faith that looks to Jesus and entrusts itself to God's word is able to do more than move mountains or mulberry trees. It's able to kill the flesh. It's able to forgive that person who just won't stop sinning against you. In spite of the very real acute pain that's involved in being sinned against. This isn't Jesus making light of it. Well, it's not that big a deal. They didn't really mean it. Jesus is going to die for those sins that you forgive that person for 50 times over. How does that look? How do you do that? How do you take it from this vague notion of faith and point it at Christ? This ambiguous notion of faith and imbibe it with the promises of God? I think it looks something like this. I'll give you a few examples. When you're just beset with Satan's accusations, so your faith is just small and Satan is throwing the darts and you just feel all the unworthiness and you're just tempted to despair. God can't possibly have forgiven me. The mustard seed clings to Christ and it turned its gaze to passages like Acts 10:38 and that mustard seed clings to the word of promise. To Him, Christ, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name. Okay, God, I believe it. I believe it. I'm weary and I'm doubting, but I believe it. I believe in Jesus' name, and that in Jesus' name, you will forgive me. And that tiny morsel of faith moves the mercy of God.
29 · Provides the second concrete example — when crushed by guilt, the mustard seed remembers Exodus 34:6 (the Lord is merciful and gracious) and clings to Christ as the eternal symbol of God's mercy
It's when you feel crushed under the guilt of your sin, and the mustard seed remembers the promise of Exodus 34:6. The Lord is merciful and gracious. The Lord is merciful and gracious. Just need a mustard seed, and you don't have to memorize long passages. The Lord is merciful and gracious. God is more than willing to pardon our sin. His mercy is greater than my transgression. The seed clings to Christ in feeble hope that He is the eternal symbol of God's mercy to us. He's put His Son to death. He's crushed His Son. How will He not also in Him give us all things? I'm barely there, but He's merciful and gracious. And so you cling. And in that clinging, God grips. And the Spirit testifies. So many contexts and so many situations. The mustard seed and God's power made perfect in that weakness.
30 · Closes the application section with a quote from Thomas Watson that encapsulates the entire sermon's message — when sin is too powerful to overcome, go to Christ with mustard-seed faith and beg Him to exercise His kingly office to subdue the sin and heal you with His blood
Finish with this quote from Thomas Watson: Christian, if you mourn for a particular sin, yet find this sin so potent that you cannot get the mastery of it, the temptation is real, it's inevitable, it's daily. If you find that sin so potent that you cannot get the mastery of it, go to Christ. Beg of Him that He would exercise His kingly office in your soul. That He would subdue this sin, that He would put it under the yoke. Beg of Christ with your mustard-seed faith to exercise His spiritual surgery upon you. Desire Him to lance your heart and cut out the rotten flesh, and that He would supply the medicine of His blood to heal you of your sin. And with the faith of a mustard seed, believe it and God will do it.
31 · Closing prayer that reinforces the sermon's main thesis — asking God to increase faith not so we hope in our faith but so we see more of Christ
Would you bow your heads? Lord, we ask that you would increase our faith, not so that we would hope more in our faith, but Lord, that in the increase of our faith we would see more of Christ. Would you fill us with fresh assurance that it is His work, that it is the sufficiency of what He has done for us on our behalf that is our standing and our hope. Lord, I pray for those right now who it has been one of those days or weeks or months, and Lord, they just sense in their bones concern and worry. Their faith doesn't seem strong. They feel weaker most of the time. They even are at the point of wondering, is their faith real? Wouldn't it be more if it was real? God, would you extend the encouragement of your Spirit to support them and sustain them, that even a mustard seed of faith is sufficient? Lord, would you strengthen all of us? Help us. To cling to Christ. In your name, Jesus. Amen.