Our scripture reading consists of the first 10 verses of the chapter and the text to which I call your attention is verse 10 Luke 17 verse 10 Let us hear the word of the Lord Then said he unto him unto the disciples 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. 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. And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you. But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go, and sit down to meet, and will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken, and afterward thou shalt eat and drink. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not, that is, I think not. Now our text. 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. Here ends the reading of God's holy word. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, The portion of Luke chapter 17, which we have just read, is the conclusion to a lengthy discourse of our Lord, consisting of Luke chapters 15 through 17, chapter 10. And in this discourse of our Lord, Jesus delivers many very penetrating teachings, some of his most memorable parables are contained in this discourse. For example, the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, the parable of the lost son, as well as the parables of the unjust steward and the rich man and Lazarus. And at the beginning of chapter 17, The Lord Jesus also gives instruction that is very difficult for us sinful creatures to carry out. Instruction as to how we are to deal with the brother who has sinned against us. He lays out the biblical pattern for addressing sin among brethren. Going to that brother and rebuking him, explaining to him his sin, and seeking repentance, and then forgiving that brother who repents of his sin. A lengthy discourse which contains much important truth. Gospel truth and truth concerning the Christian life. Now, the occasion for our text is the request of the disciples in verse 5 of Luke 17, where the disciples ask the Lord, increase our faith. We might wonder where this request of the disciples came from. A likely explanation is that the disciples were overcome with the teaching that they had just heard their Lord and Master deliver. They were touched with a feeling of their own weaknesses, their own insufficiency, the utter impossibility of them carrying out what those teachings set before them. And so they come to the Lord Jesus and they pray, increase our faith. A good request, a request, a prayer that every child of God should often bring before the throne of grace. Increase, Father, my faith. Strengthen my faith. Help thou me in my unbelief. It is a request we ought to pray as we prepare to come to the Lord's supper, that we may partake of that supper with an understanding faith, rightly discerning the Lord's body. But now, The Lord Jesus' response to this simple request of the disciples, increase our faith, is a two-fold response. First, he replies with a proverbial saying that sets forth the power of true saving faith. We read that in verse 6, a very interesting verse. There the Lord says, The point Jesus is making here is that true faith or by true faith the impossible is possible. Not because faith has any inherent power in itself. That idea is often abused in our day by prosperity gospel preachers and others of that ilk who treat faith as some sort of magical power that a man can command and do what he wants. That's not the Lord's point here. The power of faith lies in the object of saving faith. The object of saving faith is Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is almighty. And therefore it is by means of faith that the almighty power of the Savior, the almighty power of God, operates, is brought to bear in the life of the child of God. And that is the point that Jesus is making here. Even a small faith by such a small faith, the impossible is possible. Not because of the faith in itself, but because of the one to whom faith connects us, the Lord Jesus. But now Our text comes next. Verses 7 through 10, the Lord Jesus moves on to instruct his disciples about something that is utterly impossible for any human being. And that thing which is utterly impossible for the human being is meriting with God. And there's an important connection to see here between verses 7 and 10 and the disciples' request in verse 5. The disciples requested, Lord, increase our faith. And that is what the Lord is doing here in this teaching of our text. He is furnishing their faith with essential knowledge, knowledge that faith must have. And that is this knowledge. I cannot merit anything. Faith must know that, so that faith looks only to Jesus Christ, the one who merits and accomplishes and obtains all of my salvation. And so that is a very important point that our Lord Jesus brings to the foreground here in our text. Jesus instructs us in the reality that we of ourselves are unprofitable servants. Even if we were perfectly to obey God's law, we would still be unprofitable servants for we had only done that which is our duty to do. That is what believers must say about themselves. That is the confession that every believer must make. I am an unprofitable servant. And I look only and exclusively to the one profitable servant, the servant of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus this is a very profitable text for us to consider as a congregation as we prepare to come to the Lord's Supper, as we prepare to come to the table. We need this lesson on merit because merit is something that's so ingrained in our sinful human nature. We want to work, we want to earn. But the gospel, the beautiful gospel sets before us this wonderful reality that Jesus Christ has accomplished all of our salvation and the Lord's Supper shows us that. The Lord's Supper is the visible gospel of the finished work of Jesus Christ. And so as we prepare to come to the table, we must come with that spiritual mindset, knowing our own sins, renouncing any effort to make myself worthy to be at this table, because of myself I am unworthy. but looking to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ alone and His finished work alone, which is the basis for my place at this table. And so this passage taken from our Lord Jesus' words here in Luke 17 is a comforting and instructive passage. It sets before us the reality that we can do nothing to earn our salvation, and that's a comforting reality because where do we go from there? We go to the one who has done it all, our Lord Jesus. So let us enter into this text and consider it under the theme, what believers must say about themselves. We notice in the first place the confession, the confession every believer must make about himself. Secondly, the reason, the reason we must make this confession, the reason for the reality that we confess about ourselves. And then finally, the fruit, the fruit that is born by the grace of God in the life of the believer as he makes this confession about himself and about his Lord. Jesus teaches us in this text how we're to see ourselves. He teaches us what we are to say about ourselves. He teaches us a confession we must make. We are unprofitable servants. But now the first element of that confession to notice is servants. We are God's servants. And that we are servants is an essential part of our identity. This defines who we are, what we do, what our life is all about. We are servants of God. We aren't wage-earning servants hired by God to serve him. We are God's bond servants. And that's the idea of the word here in Luke 17, verse 10. It's the ordinary Greek word for a bond servant, a slave. A bond servant is one who is bound to his master for life. His life is his master's possession. He is totally subject to the will of his master. He lives and exists for the sake of his master. That's the kind of servant you and I are. Now, while being a bond servant may sound like miserable bondage, being God's bond servant is not bondage at all, but is in fact the highest blessedness. Because God, Jehovah, is not a cruel master, but a gracious Lord who brings us, His servants, into the bonds of His covenant, into the bonds of His love. We are God's bond servants, and the bond that binds us to God is not a chain of captivity, but is the sovereign grace of God that has brought us into relationship with Himself so that we are His friend servants. These are the sweet bonds of saving grace that the text would have us think about. We were miserable captives. That's what we are by nature. We were slaves to sin. We were slaves to the devil. He tyrannized us. But the Lord Jesus redeemed us. He purchased us with the ransom price of His precious blood, so that He would transfer us from being the slaves, the friend slaves of the devil, to being His bond servants, His friend servants. By His work on our behalf, He took us for His own. so that the outcome of his redemptive work is now, we belong to Jesus, body and soul, in life and in death. Redemption has broken that bondage to sin and Satan and brought us into the bonds of God's covenant. The sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ has established this covenant relationship with us, preserves us in that covenant relationship so that we are and forever shall be the friend servants of God. That's who we are. And now, as the bond servants of God, we have a calling, we have work to do, we have service to perform for the glory of our Master. And the text speaks of this calling in the phrase, all those things which are commanded you. There are things which are commanded us as the bond servants of God. God, our Lord, commands us to do His will. Most broadly, that refers to obedience to God's law. In God's law, His will for our life is expressed to us. He has redeemed us unto this obedience, just as God redeemed the children of Israel out of Egypt, and then brought them to the land of Canaan. He redeemed them, and then He called them to obey His law. So too, God, who calls us to be His people, redeems us unto this service. He commands us to faithfully serve Him in our station and calling wherever He puts us according to His providence in this world. He commands us to serve Him with a life of worship and spiritual devotion. Worship, such as we are engaged in here in this sanctuary on this Sabbath day. Ultimately, the service that our Lord and Master calls us to is a life lived out of true faith, lived according to the law of God, and lived unto the glory of God's name. That's the calling of covenant friend servants in the relationship that God has established with us. That's our calling. It's not how we get into a relationship with God. It's not how we stay in the relationship with God. It's what we are called to do in that relationship that God has sovereignly established with us. He's taken us into the bond of his covenant. And now he says, this is how you serve me in this covenant bond. We are bond servants of God. But now, What are we to say about ourselves? And this is where the text becomes very striking. What a beautiful truth it is set before us that we are God's bond servants. But now, what does Jesus teach us to say about all our obedience as his servants, about all our devotion? He teaches us to confess this. So likewise ye, When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, here's your confession, my people, we are unprofitable servants. And that's quite something, isn't it? When you have done all those things which you were commanded to do, say this, You are an unprofitable servant. Now Jesus isn't saying here that we actually can perfectly obey all of God's commandments. We can't. Not on this side of the grave. Jesus is saying, he's making this point, that even when you are at your best, this is what you must say about yourself. I'm an unprofitable servant. Jesus is saying, and making the point hypothetically, that even if Adam didn't fall, and you lived in the Garden of Eden, and you perfectly served God in the office of prophet, priest, and king there in the Garden of Eden for tens of thousands of years, this would be your confession. I am an unprofitable servant. What does Jesus mean? What is he getting at here? Well, let's first briefly understand what Jesus does not mean when he says we are unprofitable servants. Jesus is not saying that the obedience of the child of God, the service, the devotion of God's people is utterly worthless in God's eyes. After all, God has redeemed his people unto new life. We are created in Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Our Belgic confession says that so very beautifully. In the second paragraph of Article 24, speaking of the service, the good works performed by the regenerated child of God, the Belgic Confession says this, these works, as they proceed from the good root of faith, are good and acceptable in the sight of God, for as much as they are all sanctified by His grace, albeit they are of no account to our justification. So we see that the service of God's bond servants is pleasing in the eyes of God. It is sanctified by His grace. After all, that service is the workmanship of God's grace. It is the fruit born from the branch that the husbandman engrafted into the true vine. It is the fruit that the husbandman himself cultivated. It's the fruit of God's own gracious work. But now, this is the important point that we have to understand. The important point that we must understand is that all of our obedience, all of our service, all of our devotion cannot merit with God. Our obedience, our service and devotion is useless, worthless, when it comes to our justification, when it comes to meriting or obtaining anything from God. Jesus is saying that we are unprofitable servants in this respect. Our service does not earn a single thing from God. Our obedience to His commandments do not merit His blessings or obtain His blessings for us, nor do they earn any kind of reward as if God must pay us back for something that we do. Merit is doing something for someone that indebts them to pay you back. A profitable servant is a servant whose service obligates the man he serves to pay him back. And Jesus is saying, you can never do that with God. You can never put God in debt to you. Jesus is teaching that we must put to death any notion of human merit. The service of God's bondservants, as it is the fruit of the grace of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts, is pleasing in the eyes of God. It's still tainted with sin, and that's why it must be sanctified by God's grace. But not any of even the best works that faith produces can ever merit or obtain. Not at all. Not at all. We must say this about ourselves. We are unprofitable servants. We can do nothing to indebt God to us or put him under obligation to reward us. Nothing we do will elevate our standing before him. No work we perform will contribute to our righteousness before God. Nothing we do will bring us into God's fellowship. No work will keep us in God's fellowship. Nothing makes us worthy of anything from Him. It is utterly impossible to merit with God. That's Jesus' teaching. And now Jesus calls us to say this about ourselves, to make this confession, I am an unprofitable servant. And that's so very necessary because it's ingrained in my sinful nature to want to be a profitable servant, to want to do something for God in such a way that He has to pay me back in some way. we can so easily operate with that merit mentality. And even when we reject it at a theological level, it can still show its face in our lives in so many ways. Do we serve God and his people, but we're really looking for honor and recognition for it? Do we hesitate to serve because we wonder whether there will be any honor found in such service? We mustn't be thinking with a merit mentality. Do we ever ground our confidence, our confidence before God in anything but Jesus Christ? Do we think ourselves to be something sometimes? Surely I'm right with the Lord. I have a stable covenant family. I'm a faithful church attender. I know my doctrines reasonably well. I contribute to the causes of the kingdom. All good things that God calls us to do, but we never place our confidence in those things. But our sinful nature wants to. Look at my service. Or when we react to trials in this way. It isn't fair. I don't deserve this from God. I deserve better from the hand of God. He owes me something better than this affliction. And though we might not put words to it, what we're saying is there's something in me that deserves better. I've merited something. I think we all feel acutely how this cleaves to our sinful flesh, this thinking. And so the Lord Jesus puts his finger on a sore spot of our human nature, our sinful human nature, and says, this is your confession that you must make, my people. We are unprofitable servants. And it's a confession we must make as we prepare ourselves to come to the Lord's table. You see, we cannot come to the table and partake worthily if we think we are worthy in ourselves. We cannot come to the table and partake worthily if we think we've done something that has earned us a spot at the table. No one who says, I'm a profitable servant may come to the table, but only those who know and sincerely confess, I am an unprofitable servant. I look at myself, I see my sins, I see how even my best works are polluted with sin, and I recognize there's nothing in me that makes me deserving to be at this table. And yet I come confidently. Because the one who makes me worthy is Jesus Christ. My worthiness is His worthiness. My righteousness is His righteousness, imputed to me freely by His grace. I come confidently in Him. And so we must come to the table with that frame of mind, come by faith in the Lord Jesus, hungering and thirsting for Him, for Christ crucified, for His righteousness, for His blessings. Coming to the table means humbling myself, seeing my sin. casting aside anything and everything that I would try to use to prop up my standing before God, and casting myself wholly and entirely upon Jesus Christ, my blessed Savior, who has fully and completely accomplished my salvation on His cross. Those who confess, we are unprofitable servants will look to Christ's finished work alone, and those who look to Christ's finished work alone will be received as worthy partakers of this heavenly meat and drink. And so, beloved, as we prepare and examine ourselves in the week ahead, let us see our sins. It's a painful exercise. None of us likes to do that, but it's good, because the more we see our sin, the more we see our need for Christ, and the greater the joy when we see all that he has done for us, and what joy we will have in coming to the table where that visible gospel will be set before us. We will see in that broken bread and that poured out wine what Jesus did for his people. That's the confession that believers must say about themselves. But now let us turn to an important reason The confession we must make is that we are unprofitable servants. Now, why must we make this confession? What is the reason? What is the reason that it is utterly impossible for us to merit with God? Jesus gives us that reason at the end of verse 10, at the end of our text where he says, puts these words in our mouths, that is, we have done that which was our duty to do. That's the description of all of the believers' obedience, service, and devotion to God. It was just what my duty was to do. Now, to make this teaching crystal clear, let's look at the interesting little story, or a parable you might call it, in verses seven through nine. Let's read that a second, because here Jesus brings that idea out for us. Verses seven through nine of Luke 17. But which of you, having a servant, plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him, by and by, that means straight away, right away, When he has come from the field, go and sit down to meet, and will not rather say unto him, make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself and serve me till I have eaten and drunken, and afterward thou shalt eat and drink. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So let's get that picture before the mind's eye. Picture a wealthy landowner in the day of Jesus who has a slave and early in the morning he rises and he sends his slave out into the fields to labor there, to plant his crops, to cultivate his fields, to feed his livestock, to tend to his cattle, to shepherd his sheep. The servant does a great deal of hard work in the service of his master from sunup till sundown. And then at the end of a long, hard day of labor, the servant returns to his master's house for supper. Now, Jesus says to his disciples, put yourselves in the shoes of the master. Which of you is going to say this when the slave comes back? Great job, slave. Sit down now. Be at ease. Have your meal. Be at rest. That's a rhetorical question. The obvious answer is no one's going to say that. No master would say that. No master in Jesus' day would say that to his slave. Instead, this is what he would say. He would say, you've done a lot of work for me, but there's more. There's more that you owe me. Prepare my table. Wait upon me while I eat and drink and take my ease for the evening. And only then, when I, your master, am finished, will you go to your quarters and tend to your needs. And then Jesus goes even further in verse 9 and he says, does he thank that servant because he did these things that were commanded him? I think not. When the servant has finished serving his master, the master dismisses him to his quarters without a word of thanks. And in Jesus' day, that's what everyone would expect. That was a standard master-servant or master-slave relationship. The bond-servant lived for the sake of his master. And by doing his labor as a slave, he didn't earn anything from his master. The master wasn't indebted to pay his slave back for the labor he did in the field that day. That work was simply the servant's duty. It was what was expected of him. It's what he was supposed to do. He's a bond servant after all. He exists for his master. So what's the point Jesus is making with this little parable here? Well, we see how he's giving the reason why we must make this confession. We are unprofitable servants. Jesus is underscoring here the utter impossibility of us ever meriting with God in any way, shape, or form. And the key words are in the beginning of verse 10, so likewise ye. That picture that Jesus drew for us, he now tells us to apply to ourselves. So likewise ye. You see, my disciples, Jesus is saying, That servant represents you. And the master represents God. The slave's service to his master pictures all of your obedience, service, and devotion to me. And the master's dealing with the servant represents God's perspective on all of that obedience, service, and devotion. Now let's understand very clearly, Jesus here is not approving the ethics of this kind of master-slave relationship, nor is Jesus saying that God is harsh and uncaring in the way he deals with us, his people. Jesus is using this master-slave relationship simply as an example to make a point. The point Jesus is making is, You can't ever make God owe you something. Just as the master did not have to show any special favor to the servant because of his hard work, so too God can never be obligated to show us any favor or treat us in any special way or give us anything on account of any service we render to Him. Jesus is showing us merit is impossible. Now, the reality is, God is a master who shows us far great kindness, great kindness and grace, unlike this master in the little parable. But the explanation isn't our works. The explanation is God's sovereign grace and good pleasure, the wonder that he chose his people in eternity, chose to set his love upon us, chose to give us to the Lord Jesus Christ, chose to redeem us in Jesus Christ, chose to bring us into the bonds of his covenant. The explanation for the kindness of God, his care and provision for us, is not that we're such good servants. The explanation is to be found in himself, who he is as God. and His good pleasure. And so, we must say we are unprofitable servants. Why? Because even when we have done what we are commanded to do, we have simply done our duty. You can never go above and beyond the line of duty with God. Even if you or I were to live that perfect life, it would be our duty. Let's bring out a few dimensions of that to flesh out this reason. The reason why merit is impossible with God and why we must confess we are unprofitable servants. First, the vast chasm of difference between us and God. The little parable here emphasizes that to an extent. A slave is way down here, a master is way up here. There's a chasm of difference between the two. But that's puny compared to the chasm of difference between us and God. We are creatures. God is God. He's the eternal creator of all things. He is the self-sufficient, independent, almighty, eternal, infinite, I am that I am. We are the works of his hands. God made us. He gives us our being. Every breath we breathe, every second of life we have comes from Him. His hand of providence upholding us and giving us life. Everything we have is His gift to us. He owns us and He owns everything about us. And that means no quantity or quality of service can ever put God under obligation to pay us. Because everything belongs to God anyways. We belong to God. He gave us our being. He continues to give us our existence. We owe everything to God already. By virtue of our creation, and by virtue of the fact that God is our creator, we owe Him perfect obedience. service, and devotion. That's simply a creature's duty. And even if we did it perfectly, we would do nothing more than duty requires. A perfect life would not so much as earn a little thank you from God. We must confess that, recognize that. How great a difference there is between us, creature, God. And when we see the vastness of that difference, we appreciate the vastness of God's grace and mercy to us, that he treats us with such love, that he lavishes us with such blessings in Jesus Christ, we who are nothing in ourselves. What a Lord, what a God, what a Savior we have. But now another dimension. why merit is utterly impossible, the reason why we must make this confession about ourselves. And the second dimension is this, when we obey God, when we serve Him, when we worship Him, it's God's grace that works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. It's His strengthening hand that gives us the strength. It is His indwelling, working, operating Holy Spirit that brings forth that fruit. Ephesians 2 10 says We are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Every good work every act of service every moment of devotion is a gift of God's grace to us now Can you or I ever merit with God by giving his own gift back to him I Can we ever put God under obligation to us by giving Him what He has freely given to us? You can't. All that we have is a gift of God, and every good work, every act of service, every moment of devotion is the fruit of His grace. It can't earn anything. Third, on top of all this, there's the reality of our sin. The reality of our sin. We can't do our duty. It's not just that we can't do it perfectly. It's the fact that, as the Apostle Paul says, we fall far short of God's glory. Every day we sin against our Lord. We disobey His commands. We don't serve Him with that zeal as we are bound. Our devotion and worship is flawed and faltering. Even our best works are stained with sin. And as the Belgic Confession says in Article 24, later on in that article, even the memory of just one sin would be sufficient to condemn us. Even our best works by themselves are punishable because they are tainted with sin. And so our sinfulness is yet another reason that shows us the impossibility of meriting with God. And so we see all of the many firm reasons why we must say we are unprofitable servants. is that a convicting truth, let it be a convicting truth for you and for me, that we may see who we are, and so that we may see the wonder of God's grace magnified all the more. How great, how good, how glorious our God of grace is. So when you and I say this about ourselves, we're praising God, we're worshiping God. When we acknowledge this about ourselves and then turn to our Savior, that brings glory to the name of God. So when you say this about yourself, say it, I am an unprofitable servant, Lord. This is the confession of true saving faith. But now, we want to turn to one last dimension of the reason standing behind this confession, a very important and positive dimension that we've alluded to already. And that second dimension is this. By confessing that we are unprofitable servants, we confess the name of Him who is the one profitable servant of God. And we give the glory to that profitable servant. And who is that profitable servant? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is the profitable servant whose obedience, whose service, whose devotion merits with God. He is the only one who can For He is God Himself come in our flesh to save His people from their sins. He is the profitable servant, the Master Himself, who now takes the form of a servant in order to merit eternal salvation, covenant fellowship, and life for those miserable slaves of sin that He chose to set His life upon. The Master Himself comes and takes on the form of a servant. to serve us, unprofitable, unprofitable servants, Jesus Christ. Here's that amazing truth of the gospel, that the Master, who alone was worthy of all service, honor, and glory, took on our flesh to be the suffering servant of Jehovah to us, our sin-bearing Savior. Ponder the words of Philippians 2, 7, and 8, what this means. Jesus made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Remember the service of our master in the upper room the night that he was betrayed, recorded in John 13, when Jesus, the master himself, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, wrapped a towel around his waist, took a basin of water, and began doing the slaves' work of washing the feet of his disciples, picturing for them what he would do with his shed blood, wash away the guilt, the grime of their sins. When we make this confession about ourselves, we are unprofitable servants. We make this confession about Him. He's the one profitable servant. He's the all profitable servant. He is the one who has secured and obtained and applies to me all of the blessings of salvation. And that's the ultimate reason for making this confession. How it honors the Lord Jesus Christ. So you see that little parable Jesus told in verses seven through nine is completely reversed in him. Jesus asked his disciples, which of you, which of you having a slave, when he comes back would say, sit down and eat? Thank you. No man, no man would do that. Jesus, Jesus is the master who came down from heaven, took upon himself the sins of all of his elect people, bore that sin, suffered the punishment our sins deserved, endured the depths of the anguishes and terrors and pains of hell for us, that he might pour out all of his blessings and grace upon us. What kind of a Savior, what kind of a Master would do that? What a God and Savior we have in Jehovah and in His Son, Jehovah's salvation. What a God and Savior is ours. And so let all glory be given to Christ. Let this text, let this Word of God fix our eyes on Him. That's the movement that the form for the Lord's Supper directs us to, a movement from seeing our sins to going to Christ. Let us move in that direction, see our sins, confess that we are unprofitable servants, and be led by that to see the wonder of Christ and His work for us. What a wonderful Savior. Finally, the fruit. The confession that we are unprofitable servants is a confession of faith. And it is a confession of fruitful faith. When we make this confession from the heart with the strong conviction of the truth of Jesus' words, this confession will shape our attitude and our conduct as the Lord's servants in the midst of the world. Just two main areas that this confession shapes our attitudes and conduct. Two areas to point out. First, when we live this confession from the heart, there will be the fruit of humility, true, genuine humility. When we live as servants, humble before our Lord and Master, when we have this mindset of humility, Humility will animate our service of God and our service of one another. The man who thinks he's a profitable servant, the man who thinks he's got something he can barter with, with God, the man who thinks he has contributed something to his righteousness, that man is proud. He sees himself not as the Lord's bondman, but as the Lord's wage earner, somebody who has a standing with God. And his motive for serving God then will be to earn and to get, rather than simply to thank and to glorify. He will take some credit for the service that he renders. That's pride. But when we see ourselves as Jesus teaches us to see ourselves and make this confession that Jesus teaches us to make, it will foster godly humility. I am an unprofitable servant, and I recognize my lowliness before God. I will not boast in His presence, I will not demand of Him, I will not bargain with Him, but I will bow humbly before Him, and I will adore Him for every good thing He gives me, because I don't deserve any of it. And yet he lavishes such spiritual blessings upon me, he lavishes the bounties of his providence upon me, and I will give him humble thanks for everything that comes from his fatherly hand. Everything. Troubles and trials, as well as the prosperity. I give thanks in all things, humbly. We see how far short we fall, the righteousness that God's law demands. We humble ourselves. We say, Father, I put no confidence in myself, but I put my confidence in Christ alone. Humble trust. I'm an unprofitable servant, and so there is none to whom I can turn but the Lord Jesus. A humble servant who prays that humble publican's prayer Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner." And goes home, goes home at peace, resting in the finished work of his Savior. So humility, but also heartfelt thankfulness, making this confession from the heart will bear the fruit of thankfulness. When we're convicted of the truth Jesus is teaching here, that I am an unprofitable servant, that will allow me now to serve God with that proper motive of thankfulness for what He has done for me. I don't have any interest in trying to earn wages. Perish the thought! I'm liberated now to serve God simply out of thankfulness and love for Him, for what He's done for me. I don't serve God to be thanked. I serve God to thank Him. And eternity won't be long enough to thank Him. This is the service that is perfect freedom. The service that is liberated from any attempt to try to get something, any attempt to try to improve my standing, any attempt to do anything that's self-focused. This is the free obedience of love. thankfulness to my Savior who's saved me from all my sins. This is the service that's perfect freedom, the joyful obedience of thankfulness. So, beloved, as God's bond servants, let us confess this from the heart as we prepare to come to the Lord's Supper. I'm an unprofitable servant, but confessing that is not to deject the contrite hearts of the faithful, Rather, that confession elates the contrite hearts of the faithful, because in making that confession, we confess that we do not come to the table because we see ourselves as righteous in ourselves, but we acknowledge that we seek our life out of ourselves in Jesus Christ. We make this confession about ourselves, that we may make the twin confession about our Lord Jesus, that He is all, and He has done all. Now we come to the table in confident faith, looking to Him. So beloved, let this word stir us up to say about ourselves, we are unprofitable servants. Stir us up to say about our Lord, praise and glory, honor and power be forevermore to Him the profitable servant of Jehovah. Amen. Our blessed God and our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this word of Jesus Christ. It's a difficult word because it pricks us in a sore spot of our sinful nature, and yet it is a blessed word, a word that frees us. For Thy word is a freeing word. Thy gospel is a freeing gospel. We thank Thee for this word and ask that Thou grant it ready entrance into our hearts, that in the week ahead as we examine ourselves we may see our sins, and that we may turn to Christ and find our refuge in His cross, and that we may hunger more and more and thirst more and more for His righteousness. and to have our lives made more holy through the work of thy spirit. Bless this word to us as thy people, comfort us by it, build our faith by means of it, that we may go forward now from this Sabbath day, carrying the rest of the gospel with us into all of the different aspects of our earthly lives. Hear us in mercy for Jesus' sake, amen. Let us now open our Psalters and sing from number 109. Psalter 109. We'll sing the first three stanzas, stanzas one through three of 109. We have, we have, we always have heard ♪ Oh, hear me hear, how well you'll be kind ♪ ♪ Come in this time to me ♪ ♪ Oh, my God, I come, I come ♪ ♪ I'm worthless to find you here ♪ ♪ My God is written in my heart ♪ ♪ There's joy to the world ♪ ♪ For thy people I will crown ♪ ♪ Thy righteousness proclaim ♪ Thou knowest, Lord, I will not cease to praise thy holy name. Then bless the Lord, ye saints below, who in his praise divine. By all his creatures let his name be honoured in the Lord. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Amen.