THE GROWTH OF FAITH
‘Lord, Increase our faith.’
Luke 17:5
Whatever admits of increase must have degrees. Faith is a ladder with many and long ascents. And yet the very highest, compared to what it might be, is as nothing. But faith, like every other grace, is a thing which has, in its own nature, a necessity to grow, and which certainly and steadily increases, if only we do not wilfully hinder it, and if we use the appointed means for its progress.
What are the conditions of its growth?
I. Reading the Word.—St. Paul lays it down absolutely that ‘faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’ It was an age when there was no printing, and therefore there were very few or no books. Therefore the communication of truth was almost entirely by word of mouth. We should, perhaps, be more correct in the intention of that verse if we say: ‘Faith cometh by reading,’ not to the exclusion of hearing—God forbid!—but besides hearing, faith cometh by reading, by the diligent and close and constant prayerful reading, ‘and reading by the Word of God.’ But whether it be by preaching or by reading, it is equally the Word of God which is the instrument and channel of faith. The conclusion is evident: whoever would increase his faith must be a regular and painstaking reader of his Bible. But everything depends upon how he reads it.
II. Considering the wondrous work of Christ.—Place yourselves in holy fancy at the foot of His cross; look up into that meek, suffering, loving Face; see those precious wounds; hear Him say, ‘It is for you; it is for you.’ Feel that blood washing out your sins! What can faith want more? What has not that death purchased? Must not faith grow when it lives in that atmosphere?
III. Observing and watching the experiences of prayer.—Look at every answer to your prayers, and note them down in your mind when they come. Be constantly picking up the returning arrow which you shot into the skies. Almost every day you will find another and another and another seal of prayer, and faith seeing those seals, will learn to ask more and more confidently, and so faith will grow by watching the experiences of prayer.
Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration
‘There is in this church many a child of God who has faith, real faith, and as yet that faith is very small, and therefore the peace is broken, joy is shaded, and life is clouded. Let me put you on your guard. We are generally apt to pray for the beginning of what is good more and more earnestly than we pray for the continuance and the increase of what is good. And yet it wants as much, perhaps more to go on and grow, than ever it did to set out. Without it the best and holiest thing will go down and down, even as a stone gravitates to the earth. And yet in the things of God whatever lives grows, and whatever grows not, dies.’

SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS CHECKED
‘So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.’
Luke 17:10
We are all naturally proud and self-righteous. Seldom will a man be found, however wicked, who does not secretly flatter himself that there is somebody else worse than he is. Seldom will a saint be found who is not at seasons tempted to be satisfied and pleased with himself. There is such a thing as a pride which wears the cloak of humility. There is not a heart upon earth which does not contain a piece of the Pharisee’s character.
I. To give up self-righteousness is absolutely needful to salvation.—He that desires to be saved must confess that there is no good thing in him, and that he has no merit, no goodness, no worthiness of his own. He must be willing to renounce his own righteousness, and to trust in the righteousness of another, even Christ the Lord. Once pardoned and forgiven, we must travel the daily journey of life under a deep conviction that we are ‘unprofitable servants.’ At our best we only do our duty, and have nothing to boast of. And even when we do our duty, it is not by our own power and might that we do it, but by the strength which is given to us from God.
II. The true cause of self-righteousness.—How is it that such a poor, weak, erring creature as man can ever dream of deserving anything at God’s hands? It all arises from ignorance. The eyes of our understandings are naturally blinded. We see neither ourselves, nor our lives, nor God, nor the law of God as we ought. Once let the light of grace shine into a man’s heart, and the reign of self-righteousness is over. The roots of pride may remain, and often put forth bitter shoots; but the power of pride is broken when the Spirit comes into the heart, and shows the man himself, and God.
Illustration
‘But you may say, “Though I cannot pretend that I have ever really profited God, and though I have not profited as many people as I ought, or any single person as much as I ought, yet I trust and think I have not led an entirely unprofitable life. I hope I have profited some.” Yes, but have you put side by side with the good you have done to some, the harm you have done to others by your conscious or unconscious influence for wrong: and have you asked yourself which is the greater? It is a very solemn consideration, and no man can put it away from himself—“ Has the good or the harm which I have done in life been the greater?” And can any of us say that in any act he ever did, or any word he ever spoke, or any thought he ever thought, his motive was quite pure, no self in it? Did it rise to its proper level? Have you weighed it all fairly? I marvel if you will not yield to your conscience and say, “I have been, to use the very mildest term, I have been an unprofitable servant. I have never done what is my duty; no, not in any one single instance in my whole life; and my best works humble me the most.” ’

INGRATITUDE
‘Where are the nine?’
Luke 17:17 (The Gospel)
There are few things that we feel more than ingratitude. This was a very bad case, an extreme case, because the disease that these men suffered from was the very worst. And then, not only was the disease such an extreme case, but the cure was absolutely complete. At a word they were made whole. When the Lord Jesus Christ cures, He cures indeed. Yet out of the ten who were cleansed only one returned to thank Him. ‘Where are the nine?’
I. Nine to one!—Do you think that is a good proportion? Do you think that is the proportion that would stand if we were to count up the present congregation in church to-day? You got up this morning in health; you are well, and have come to church. Let us just ask ourselves how many of us have thanked God. Do you think nine out of ten? How many of us, as we are to-day, kneel down and thank God for creation, for preservation, for the blessings of to-day?
II. Nine prayed, but only one praised.—They were all most earnest about their prayers. When you have wanted something, when you were in great trouble, you have knelt in your room and asked God to help you. We were very earnest in our prayer when we were in trouble, but we never went into His House and gave Him thanks for recovery, or lifted up our voices to praise God. The ten prayed very earnestly, and only one of them said, ‘Thank God.’
III. The only one who redeemed the occasion was a Samaritan!—Does not that correct something within our souls? Deep down beyond all our religious distinctions there is humanity—the touch of nature which makes all men kin.
IV. A few aspects of the thanksgiving.
(a) He returned and gave thanks himself in person. If you are to thank God, do it personally. Say to yourself, God has been good to me; I must thank Him.
(b) It must come right out of the heart. You know what this man did. He turned back and threw himself down at Jesus’ feet worshipping. Thanksgiving to God is the need of a soul that knows God has blessed him.
(c) He did it at once, then and there, without a pause. I hope that some of you feel some qualms within yourselves if you have not thanked God as you ought. Do it now; now is the opportunity. Do not wait. Do not say, ‘I will thank God to-morrow.’ Now, in church—now is your opportunity.
—Rev. A. H. Stanton.
Illustration
‘This Samaritan is not praised for returning to give thanks to his earthly benefactor. “There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.” This Samaritan alone had faith to discern that it was at the feet of Jesus his vows to God could best be offered. He saw that there was One greater than the Temple, One higher than the sons of Aaron, even that Great High Priest, through Whom alone our petitions and our thanksgivings can be offered with acceptance to the Father. So we think a higher blessing was conveyed to him than to the nine.’
(SECOND OUTLINE)
A DEFECT IN CHRISTIAN CHARACTER
Who of us can read the story without a sense of self-reproach? ‘Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits,’ says the Psalmist; but how prone we are to forget! How eagerly, how selfishly, do we appropriate the blessing! How little we think of the love that bestows it! There are three main reasons for this serious defect in our character as Christians.
I. Are we not apt to receive the gifts of God too much as a matter of course, if not a matter of right?—We are wanting in that spirit of humility which recognises and realises an utter absence of merit. In the story of the ten lepers, which has led us into this train of thought, it was a stranger who returned to give thanks. The Jew was apt to take everything that came to him as a matter of right, and wonder that he did not get more, as being one of God’s peculiar people.
II. In regard to daily mercies their very commonness dulls our sense of gratitude.—Familiarity breeds forgetfulness. If a man has a hair’s-breadth escape from drowning, or comes safe out of a disastrous railway accident, he kneels down and thanks God for such a signal mercy; or if some long-desired but long-denied thing comes into his life, he will say to himself, ‘What a cause for thankfulness!’ But the daily bread that nourishes him, the daily health that makes life a joy to him, the friendships that cheer him, the love of wife and children that fills his home with brightness and comfort, are, or become, so much a matter of course, that it hardly occurs to him that they should ‘be received with thanksgiving.’
III. We may find another cause of this ingratitude in the fact that even sincere Christians walk too much by sight, too little by faith.—‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ is a familiar saying; how sad that it should have any application to the relations that exist between God and His children! We touch, we taste, we see, we handle; the things we enjoy day by day present themselves to our senses, but the Giver of all is an object of faith. ‘No man hath seen God at any time,’ so He is forgotten; shares the fate of the machinery that produces our food and raiment; we forget Him for the same reason that we forget the mill that grinds our corn and the loom that produces our cloth; ‘out of sight, out of mind.’
—Rev. G. S. Streatfeild.
Illustration
‘There is more prayer than praise in the world. It ought to be the reverse. There should be more praise than prayer. For what we have received is much more than what we want. Our mercies accumulate much faster than our necessities.’

A DAY OF THE SON OF MAN
‘The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it.’
Luke 17:22
Two kinds and sets of days are here contrasted: the coming days, and the days that are now.
I. The days of the present.—‘Days of the Son of Man,’ He calls them. There was much to make the days of that present anxious, unrestful, perplexing. The disciples were slow to learn, and were always disappointing their Master by some expression which betrayed ignorance, or by some proposal which threatened inconsistency. Before them, already casting its shadow, was a closing scene of ingratitude, desertion, or denial of their Master, as the case might be, which must have made, we should have thought, the very memory of those days of the Son of Man a bitterness rather than a comfort. Yet our Lord looked upon these as in some sense happy days for them. ‘The days will come, when ye will desire to see one of them, and sorrow because ye cannot.’ The personal presence of the loved Master and Lord made those happy days for them. In that one respect they would be losers even by the accomplishment of the redemption. Let us take one of these days of the Son of Man—Sabbath. It opened with a service in the synagogue, when the hearers were astonished at His doctrine. Then He spoke the healing word to a man possessed with an unclean spirit, and as He enters a friendly dwelling as if for repose, even then a case of sickness meets Him, and He must heal it. At even they brought to Him all that were diseased, and the whole city was gathered together at the door. Such was a day of the Son of Man, followed by a night of devotion. Ministry with Him was no substitute for prayer.
II. The coming days.—Can we not picture one of those coming days, after the great Easter, far on, perhaps, into evening of the apostolic ministry, when the wearied Apostle may have cried, ‘O that I could hear the Voice of the loved and loving Lord, “Go ye into the desert and rest awhile,” or could I be taken up by Him into the holy mount to behold His transfigured countenance, and have the prophetic word confirmed in the Voice from the excellent glory, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” ’ We have had no such personal experiences, none of these companyings with Jesus. But we can live, realising the days of the Son of Man by seeking out and ministering to the wants and woes of humanity, as He loved to do. The days of the Son of Man are wherever Christ and misery stand face to face. Whosoever tries to bring Jesus into one lodging-house of sinning, suffering London, is realising to himself and to others the ministry of the Saviour—‘a day of the Son of Man.’
—Dean Vaughan.

THREE CRITICAL DAYS
‘And as it was in the days of Noe … when the Son of Man is revealed.’
Luke 17:26; Luke 17:28; Luke 17:30
The subject is the Kingdom of God. A number of Pharisees had forced themselves upon our Lord with the question, ‘when the Kingdom of God should come?’ And our Lord answered them. ‘The Kingdom of God,’ He said, ‘cometh not with observation’ or outward show. It is a spiritual kingdom in the hearts and consciences of men. To the inquiring Pharisees He said no more. But to His disciples He gives the further teaching contained in the passage in which our text occurs.
There can be no doubt that our Lord chose out from Old Testament history these two days, as being above all others typical of the day when the Son of Man should be revealed.
I. Days of Noah.—These, as we gather from the early chapters of Genesis, were—
(1) Days of astounding and widespread wickedness.
(2) Days of unbelief and careless ease.
(3) Days in which the mercy of God was especially manifested.
(4) Days of a long probation.
II. Days of Lot.—When we consider the days of Lot we find much the same characteristics as those which marked the days of Noah. A difference between the days of Noah and Lot is remarkable when we contrast the characters of these two men. Noah was a sincere man, walking with God, wholly consecrated to His service, separated from the evil world. With Lot it was different. He was a just man, vexed at the sinfulness around him, but this is almost all that can be said. There is nothing very lovely in his character. He was weak and selfish, a moral coward.
III. The day of the Son of Man.—And Christ says, As it was of Noah and Lot, ‘even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.’ Thus—following our line of thought—we may expect that that day will be marked by abounding and widespread wickedness. There will be less sanctity surrounding the marriage state and family life; lawlessness will abound; unbelief will increase and men will scoff at the threatenings of judgments. And as it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so in that coming day it will be seen that the love and mercy of God have been fully manifested, yea, more fully than in the former days. Deliverance has been brought within the reach of man, not by a material ark or an angel, but by the eternal Son of God, incarnate for man.
Rev. Dr. Noyes.
Illustration
‘The ark itself was a token of God’s mercy, telling of a place of deliverance. Every plank added to the ark was a call to men to repentance and faith in God. Its extraordinary size, the length of time in which it was building—these were God’s warnings given in mercy to a guilty world that a day of judgment must come. Some during the one hundred and twenty years may have believed and died in faith; but it would seem at the time of the Flood there were none found faithful but Noah and those who entered with him into the ark. And so if the world was to be saved the corrupt must be destroyed. ‘The cause of righteousness had at length but one efficient representative in the person of Noah, and he, much like “a lodge in a garden of cucumbers—like a besieged city’—the object of profane mockery and scorn, taunted, reviled, plied with every weapon fitted to overcome his constancy, and if not in himself, at least in his family, in danger of suffering shipwreck amid the swelling wave of wickedness around him. It was to save him, and with him the cause of God, from this source of imminent danger and perdition that the Flood was sent; and it could only do so by effectually separating between him and the seed of evildoers, engulphing them in ruin, and sustaining him in his temporary home.’

THREE CRITICAL DAYS
‘And as it was in the days of Noe … when the Son of Man is revealed.’
Luke 17:26; Luke 17:28; Luke 17:30
The subject is the Kingdom of God. A number of Pharisees had forced themselves upon our Lord with the question, ‘when the Kingdom of God should come?’ And our Lord answered them. ‘The Kingdom of God,’ He said, ‘cometh not with observation’ or outward show. It is a spiritual kingdom in the hearts and consciences of men. To the inquiring Pharisees He said no more. But to His disciples He gives the further teaching contained in the passage in which our text occurs.
There can be no doubt that our Lord chose out from Old Testament history these two days, as being above all others typical of the day when the Son of Man should be revealed.
I. Days of Noah.—These, as we gather from the early chapters of Genesis, were—
(1) Days of astounding and widespread wickedness.
(2) Days of unbelief and careless ease.
(3) Days in which the mercy of God was especially manifested.
(4) Days of a long probation.
II. Days of Lot.—When we consider the days of Lot we find much the same characteristics as those which marked the days of Noah. A difference between the days of Noah and Lot is remarkable when we contrast the characters of these two men. Noah was a sincere man, walking with God, wholly consecrated to His service, separated from the evil world. With Lot it was different. He was a just man, vexed at the sinfulness around him, but this is almost all that can be said. There is nothing very lovely in his character. He was weak and selfish, a moral coward.
III. The day of the Son of Man.—And Christ says, As it was of Noah and Lot, ‘even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.’ Thus—following our line of thought—we may expect that that day will be marked by abounding and widespread wickedness. There will be less sanctity surrounding the marriage state and family life; lawlessness will abound; unbelief will increase and men will scoff at the threatenings of judgments. And as it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so in that coming day it will be seen that the love and mercy of God have been fully manifested, yea, more fully than in the former days. Deliverance has been brought within the reach of man, not by a material ark or an angel, but by the eternal Son of God, incarnate for man.
Rev. Dr. Noyes.
Illustration
‘The ark itself was a token of God’s mercy, telling of a place of deliverance. Every plank added to the ark was a call to men to repentance and faith in God. Its extraordinary size, the length of time in which it was building—these were God’s warnings given in mercy to a guilty world that a day of judgment must come. Some during the one hundred and twenty years may have believed and died in faith; but it would seem at the time of the Flood there were none found faithful but Noah and those who entered with him into the ark. And so if the world was to be saved the corrupt must be destroyed. ‘The cause of righteousness had at length but one efficient representative in the person of Noah, and he, much like “a lodge in a garden of cucumbers—like a besieged city’—the object of profane mockery and scorn, taunted, reviled, plied with every weapon fitted to overcome his constancy, and if not in himself, at least in his family, in danger of suffering shipwreck amid the swelling wave of wickedness around him. It was to save him, and with him the cause of God, from this source of imminent danger and perdition that the Flood was sent; and it could only do so by effectually separating between him and the seed of evildoers, engulphing them in ruin, and sustaining him in his temporary home.’

THREE CRITICAL DAYS
‘And as it was in the days of Noe … when the Son of Man is revealed.’
Luke 17:26; Luke 17:28; Luke 17:30
The subject is the Kingdom of God. A number of Pharisees had forced themselves upon our Lord with the question, ‘when the Kingdom of God should come?’ And our Lord answered them. ‘The Kingdom of God,’ He said, ‘cometh not with observation’ or outward show. It is a spiritual kingdom in the hearts and consciences of men. To the inquiring Pharisees He said no more. But to His disciples He gives the further teaching contained in the passage in which our text occurs.
There can be no doubt that our Lord chose out from Old Testament history these two days, as being above all others typical of the day when the Son of Man should be revealed.
I. Days of Noah.—These, as we gather from the early chapters of Genesis, were—
(1) Days of astounding and widespread wickedness.
(2) Days of unbelief and careless ease.
(3) Days in which the mercy of God was especially manifested.
(4) Days of a long probation.
II. Days of Lot.—When we consider the days of Lot we find much the same characteristics as those which marked the days of Noah. A difference between the days of Noah and Lot is remarkable when we contrast the characters of these two men. Noah was a sincere man, walking with God, wholly consecrated to His service, separated from the evil world. With Lot it was different. He was a just man, vexed at the sinfulness around him, but this is almost all that can be said. There is nothing very lovely in his character. He was weak and selfish, a moral coward.
III. The day of the Son of Man.—And Christ says, As it was of Noah and Lot, ‘even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.’ Thus—following our line of thought—we may expect that that day will be marked by abounding and widespread wickedness. There will be less sanctity surrounding the marriage state and family life; lawlessness will abound; unbelief will increase and men will scoff at the threatenings of judgments. And as it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so in that coming day it will be seen that the love and mercy of God have been fully manifested, yea, more fully than in the former days. Deliverance has been brought within the reach of man, not by a material ark or an angel, but by the eternal Son of God, incarnate for man.
Rev. Dr. Noyes.
Illustration
‘The ark itself was a token of God’s mercy, telling of a place of deliverance. Every plank added to the ark was a call to men to repentance and faith in God. Its extraordinary size, the length of time in which it was building—these were God’s warnings given in mercy to a guilty world that a day of judgment must come. Some during the one hundred and twenty years may have believed and died in faith; but it would seem at the time of the Flood there were none found faithful but Noah and those who entered with him into the ark. And so if the world was to be saved the corrupt must be destroyed. ‘The cause of righteousness had at length but one efficient representative in the person of Noah, and he, much like “a lodge in a garden of cucumbers—like a besieged city’—the object of profane mockery and scorn, taunted, reviled, plied with every weapon fitted to overcome his constancy, and if not in himself, at least in his family, in danger of suffering shipwreck amid the swelling wave of wickedness around him. It was to save him, and with him the cause of God, from this source of imminent danger and perdition that the Flood was sent; and it could only do so by effectually separating between him and the seed of evildoers, engulphing them in ruin, and sustaining him in his temporary home.’