This chapter, as you know, is
a list of, is three what can be classified as parables, even
though the last one's really not so much of a parable as it
is a prophecy or a view of the future judgment that's coming. It's appointed unto men once
to die, and after that, the judgment, that's what the scripture tells
us. And we just thank God that as believers in Christ, we've
already been judged for all our sins in Christ on that cross. And that's the import of what
the Lord told his disciples when he talked about conviction of
the Holy Spirit, he would convict you of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment, John 16, verses eight through 11. And he said,
because the prince of this world is cast out, Satan, who is the
accuser of the brethren. But here's the point. With those
of us who know Christ, who've been brought to Him, there's
no sin laid to our charge. Who shall anything to the charge
of God's elect? We've already been judged. Our
payment, the payment for our sins has already been made in
Christ. But there is a coming judgment
that is a declaration And that's what it is. You don't go to the
judgment to determine anything. We've always been taught you
go there and God weighs your good works with your bad works
and that kind of stuff. And if that's not your salvation,
that's your rewards or whatever, or you lose reward. That's not
what the judgment is about at all. The judgment is about a
declaration. And each one of these passages
here, the first one where it talks about the ten virgins,
five foolish, five wise, and the Son of God comes in the second
time, and of course the lesson there was be prepared. Watch
and be prepared to meet the Lord. That's what I call the lesson.
Prepare to meet the Lord. Well, how do you prepare? You
prepare by keeping your focus, your eyes, your heart, your mind
on Christ. And that may sound too simple
for most people because, you know, I've had people even say
this to me, oh, it's gotta be more than that. You know, you
gotta do your part, you gotta do this, do that. My friend,
Paul, he described it in Philippians 3 that I may know him and be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faithfulness of Christ. Righteousness
of God by faith. Well, here we come to what is
commonly known as the parable of the talents. And he's talking
about talents as far as gifts that God has given to people,
both believer and unbeliever. And the reason I entitled the
lesson, The Haves and the Have Nots, look at verse 29 of this
passage, Matthew 25, 29. It says, for unto everyone that
hath, has what? Well, he's talking about having
the grace of God. which causes us to use these
talents for his glory, promoting the kingdom of Christ. Everyone
that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But
from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which
he hath. What's he talking about? Well,
that's the haves and the have-nots. That's what we're gonna lead
to. But let's look here in Matthew 25. Look at verse 14. where the Lord says, the kingdom
of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called
his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. Now, one
of the keys to understanding this parable is to understand
the difference of what he's talking about in verse 14 and verse 15
where it says, and unto one, One of his servants, he gave
five talents. And you may have in your concordance
that word talent. I don't know how it's translated
in your Bible, in the concordance, you know. But a talent normally
was used back then to refer to a lot of money, silver or gold,
and quite a bit. But here it's recognizing that
it has to do with gifts that God gives to people. But now
back up in verse 14 where it says he delivered unto them his
goods, his good or his goods. Now that's talking about Christ
who came to this earth as the surety, the substitute, the representative
of his people, this man traveling into a far country. And he came
from heaven to earth and he lived a life of obedience unto death
to put away the sins of his people and to establish a perfect righteousness
whereby God is just to justify the ungodly, and from where God
gives his spiritual gifts of salvation, which we all in the
kingdom of heaven, all the servants of God, true servants who are
saved, sinners saved by grace, we all have these goods equally. The goods are the benefits and
the blessings of salvation. And there's no difference in
us in that way. There's not one of us sitting
here who is more righteous than another in the eyes of God concerning
the ground of our salvation. There's not one of us who are
more forgiven, who are more blessed. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What he's saying
here, he says, the man traveling into a far country, he called
his own servants and delivered them his goods. At the time of
Christ's second coming, what he's gonna show in this parable
is pretty much a lot of the same which he showed in the parable
of the 10 virgins, and that's this. When Christ comes again,
and that's where we're headed to here, when he comes a second
time, he's gone into a far country. Now, he is seated at the right
hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for his
people. And the intercessory work of Christ is no light matter. That's our preservation. You know, John wrote in 1 John
2 that when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous. And that's who we need. He's
always the one mediator between God and men. They've been talking
about the Pope being sick, and I'm sorry that he's sick and
all that, but he's not a vicar or a mediator or an intercessor
between God and sinners. He's one who needs an intercessor,
but he doesn't have one because he preaches and teaches a false
Christ. So, but we need a mediator. We
need one who is qualified. And how does he qualify? Well,
he's appointed by the Father, he's willing to do it, and he's
able to do what was necessary. And that's Christ. And that's
why Paul said, I know whom I have believed. I'm persuaded he's
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. But even though we have the same benefits and blessings of salvation,
and the assurance of final glory in Christ. There are some differences,
but let me say this first. I put in here, there are many
passages in the Bible that warn us of this point, that when Christ
comes again, the church here on earth, even where the gospel
is preached now, the true church here on earth, where the true
gospel is preached from the pulpit, will be a mixture true believers,
and false religious professors. And we talk about that, we're
gonna say in the next one, talking about separating the sheep from
the goats, the wheat from the tares, all of that. And all of
these things that are given here are given for us to examine ourselves
whether we be in the faith. And there's ways to do that.
It's not to sit you on edge. saying, oh, am I one of those
or am I one of them? Look into the scriptures and
examine yourself whether you really know, for example, I'll
give you this. The Christ that I profess to
believe in, is he the true Christ of this book? That's one of the
most important things. Or is it a false Christ? Paul
talked about that in 2 Corinthians. They come preaching another Jesus
by another gospel, another spirit. I want to know who Christ is
from this book and then what I'm banking on as my whole hope
of salvation. Is it the true work that Christ
accomplished on the cross when he said it's finished and was
buried in a rose again or is it something else? Most people
who profess to be Christians are banking on something else.
They're not banking on Christ alone because they'll say he
died for everybody, even those who perish. So what makes the
difference? It's not him. Has to be something
you do or you decide or whatever. And that's a false Christ. So
that's one thing about this self-examination. Am I really clinging to the true
Christ, the glorious person, the finished work of Christ,
his righteousness alone? But anyway, But there's going
to be a mixture. So here's this man traveling
into a far country, that's Christ himself who came from heaven
to die for his people. He was buried, he arose again,
and then he ascended unto glory. And he delivered unto him his
goods, all the spiritual blessings that God gives all of his people
equally. Salvation and eternal life, the
assurance of glory that are given by his grace. And these are all
blessings we don't earn and don't deserve. They're all freely given. He that spared not his own son,
how shall he not with him freely give us all things? And the Spirit
of God, what does he teach us? As written in 1 Corinthians 2
and verse 12, the things that are freely given us from him. And that's what people don't
understand. because they believe salvation is conditioned in some
way, at some stage, to some degree, on what they do, or what they
decide, or what they feel, all kinds of things. But all the
promises of God in Christ are yea and amen. Well, then he comes,
verse 15, he says, unto one, he gave five talents. And as
I said, that's generally used back then for a great sum of
money. But here's what it's talking about is gifts that God gives
to people. Now we can talk about spiritual
gifts and we can talk about natural gifts. God gives gifts to all
people. All right, now hold on, he says
he gave to one, gave five talents. to one and to another, he gave
two talents to another one, and to every man according to his
several ability." That doesn't mean that God looked down and
he saw, well, you know, this guy has this ability, so I'll
give him this gift. Most commentators say to his
several ability, the his there refers to God, God's ability
to give these things. Others disagree with that, it
doesn't matter, but it's not something that God gives based
upon your character and conduct. 1 Corinthians 12 teaches us that. When he's talking about spiritual
gifts in the church in 1 Corinthians 12, and he says there are differences
of gifts given. To one, he gives the gift of
speaking, explaining. The other, the gift of knowledge. Another, he gives gifts of, well,
the gift of tongues. Now, you know what that was back
in the early New Testament days? That was the ability to preach
the gospel in a language that you had not learned before. And
it was a language. And that's why Paul said, if
you're going to speak in tongues, make sure you've got an interpreter,
because there are going to be people there that don't know the language.
It wasn't gibberish. It wasn't some kind of heavenly
language that people couldn't understand. But it was given
that gift. Well, a lot of them in the Corinthian
church that had that gift, they were abused in it. They were
using it just to make a show of themselves. And that's why
Paul wrote that in 1 Corinthians 14, telling them, you know, look,
if you're gonna speak in tongues, make sure you have an interpreter.
And he said, I'd rather blow a trumpet, make the sound of
a trumpet, blare a trumpet, than to get up and speak words that
people don't understand. Because if they don't understand
it, it means nothing. There's no glory for God there. There's no spiritual growth there.
There's no encouragement, there's no correction. It's just gibberish. And that's not what speaking
in tongues was. But he gave those gifts to people
in the church, and everybody's got some gift. Now, it's not
all the same. It's not, you know, somebody
may have the gift. But there's also physical gifts, like, for
example, the gift of money. That's a gift. Gives one some
and others not as much, and whatever that is, you know. And I've got
here listed some of the things, health, intellect, we could talk
about all of these things. The point that he's making here
is that all these talents, all these gifts that he gives different
ones of his people and to unbelievers is to be used for the glory of
God. Now we know that no unbeliever's gonna use whatever gift they've
got. I know unbelievers who have a lot of money. I know unbelievers
who have a lot of earthly wisdom. They have the ability to speak. You all know false preachers
who sound good to people. They can keep people's attention.
I used to know a guy, when I was in seminary, we would have these
preaching sessions, and anytime he got up to speak, he was like
E.F. Hutton. Everybody stopped and listened.
He had that kind of voice. But he didn't use it for the
glory of God. He used it to preach a false gospel. And so there's
a gift that God, all right, how many times have you heard me
say the next breath you get is a gift? And that's the believer
and unbeliever. So God gives different gifts
to people. And the point of this parable
is that they're to be used for the glory of God. Now, no unbeliever's
gonna use it for the glory of God. And I'll give you some examples
here. Look at verse 15. One, he gave five talents. To
another, he gave two. To another, one. So we all don't
have the same gift, in that sense, and we all don't have the same
amount of gifts. And he says, to every man according to his
several ability and straightway took his journey, he left. And
that's Christ left to go unto the Father. But I'll give you
a couple of examples that I put in the lesson. These abilities,
these talents can be natural abilities that God gives to various
people by which he holds them accountable. And it can refer
to God's ability, as I said, that his several ability, God's
ability or whatever. But think about this, think about
an emperor, a ruler named Cyrus. Now Cyrus was a powerful man.
He was the head of the empire, the Medo-Persian empire that
conquered Babylon and delivered Israel back to their homeland. And Cyrus had a lot of gifts.
He was a powerful man. He was a leader. He had an army. He was rich and all of that.
Now Cyrus, when he used that gift, to deliver the people of
God. Now, some people may argue with
me on this, but I don't believe he had in mind the glory of God. All right? Now, God overruled
Cyrus' sinful, depraved heart, just like he does all of us,
and got glory out of it, but that wasn't Cyrus' intention.
So he didn't use his gift for the glory of God. Another one
is Balaam. You remember the prophet Balaam?
He spoke a lot of truth. And through that truth, God spared
his people. But Balaam, he was in it for
the money, not for the glory of God. But God gave Balaam gifts. Another one is Judas Iscariot.
Judas had some gifts along with the other apostles, but he didn't
use it for the glory of God. Now again, God overruled that,
what Judas did in betraying Christ, that was overruled for the glory
of God, because that's the greatest glory of God you can find on
earth, the death of Christ for the sins of his people. So I
hope I'm making that clear, that even unbelievers have gifts,
they have talents, but like this last one, look at verse 16, he
says, then he that received the five talents went and traded
with the same and made them other five talents. In other words,
he used it for the glory of God, and God gave it more abundance,
and what we're talking about there, it's not like you're gonna
get an equal or more return on your money or anything like that,
like you earn it. No, it's spiritual growth, and
it's the furtherance of the kingdom of God. Many of you have witnessed
a people, for example, and you've seen them brought to Christ,
That's what he's talking about here. Many of you have supported
the gospel here and the Lord has perpetuated it. It's still
here. This church could have been gone
several years ago. Isn't that right? But the Lord
overruled and worked his sovereign will. He's working all things
after the counsel of his own will. And we can go on with example
after example how the Lord has given abundantly spiritual growth,
spiritual knowledge. We see God's elect sheep brought
into the kingdom and what a joy it is. That's the more abundance
that we're talking about here. It's not earning God's blessings
by our works, in other words. And so he says, verse 16, he
said, verse 16, then he that received the five talents went
and traded with the same, made them other five talents. And
verse 17, likewise, he that had received two, he also gained
other two. Verse 18, it says, but he that
had received one, one talent, he went and digged in the earth
and hid his Lord's money. And it says in verse 19, after
a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth
with them. There's the day of reckoning.
And it will always be. And in that day of reckoning,
what will be shown? Well, how much you earn from
God? No. The day of reckoning will expose
your state and your standing before God. Are you in Christ,
washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness? Or are
you like those in Matthew 7, 21 through 23 that we refer to
so often? Just have a profession, an outward
profession, like those foolish virgins. They had a lamp, but
no oil, all right? And that one servant, like this,
is a day of reckoning. And of course, again, what is
our desire in that day of reckoning? It's to be found in Christ. I don't want to come before God
and brag about how much money I gave to the church, or how
much work I did, or how many sermons I preached, or how many
people I led to the Lord. Who is that guy? I can't remember.
He's a real famous preacher. He talked about how he'd baptized
thousands. I said, well, goody for you.
It means nothing. I'm preaching a false gospel?
I don't know how many I've baptized. I really don't. And you remember
what Paul said about that, you know, when they were, the Corinthian
church was bragging on who baptized them, you know. And Paul said,
he said, I don't remember baptizing any of you except a couple of
guys, you know. He said, it doesn't matter. Christ did not send me
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And so we're not in the
numbers game like that. That's not what we're wanting
in all of this. There's a day of reckoning. And
so verse 20, it says, And so he that received five talents
came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliverest
unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained beside
them five talents more. Now, I know how preachers deal
with this. You know, they tell me, well,
he's bragging and all that. No, no. Well, we're going to read
verse 21. His Lord said unto him, well
done thou good and faithful servant, for thou hast been faithful over
a few things, I'll make you ruler over many things, enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord. This is a recognition of the
grace and the goodness and the power of God. Not the grace or
the goodness or our power. And the joy of the Lord is final
glory. And there's nothing better than
that. The abundance of the Lord is final glory. And so he goes
on, it says in verse 22, he also that had received two talents
came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents. Behold,
I have gained two other talents beside. His Lord said, well done. You know what it is to do well
in the sight of God, don't you? Go back to Genesis chapter four
and you find that he told Cain, if you do well, you'll be accepted. Well, what did Cain not do? He
didn't bring the blood of the lamb, like Abel did. That's what it is to do well. to come before God, pleading
the blood and the righteousness of Christ. So well done thou
good and faithful servant, good in Christ, that's what he's talking
about. And of course, this is a parable now, and you don't
get your doctrine from parables, you subject the parable to the
true doctrine, the clear teaching of doctrine in the gospel. Thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I'll make thee ruler.
And remember last time I talked about the ruler there means a
steward. a steward of the good things
that God has given. Use your talents for the glory
of God, not for selfish, self-righteous purposes. And so your good steward
over many things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. And
then verse 24 says, then he which had received the one talent came
and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping
where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not
strawed. Some people have likened this
to a person who claims to believe in the sovereignty of God. and
because God is sovereign, then we really don't have to serve
him, we don't have to preach the gospel. I'm gonna preach
today on election and evangelism. You know, there are people who
say, well, if I believe that God had to elect people, then we don't
have to preach. Maybe there's servants like that,
I don't know. But here's what I know about
him. He didn't use his talents for the glory of God. He used
them selfishly and self-righteously based upon what he thought he
knew, and he didn't know anything. I knew you were a hard man. Well,
we know God is a just God. That's not the hardness of God,
that's the goodness of God. We know he's a merciful God.
How are we to act upon what we know from the scriptures? We're
to act upon the commandments of God. And one of the points
I'm gonna make in the message coming up is God has chosen a
people and he's gonna save them. And he didn't choose everybody.
And I know people get angry, but that's what the Bible says.
And somebody comes along and says, well, then why go preach?
Because he said to, because he commanded us to, and that's the
way he brings his elect, his sheep into the kingdom for his
glory. And that's what we're here for,
isn't it? For the glory of God. So he said, I knew you were a
hard man reaping where you have not sown, gathering where thou
hast not straw. Bible doesn't teach that. Paul
said, we go out and we sow and God gives the increased. That's
the way he does it. We preach to anybody who'll listen
and it's God who gives the new heart, gives ears to hear and
eyes to see. And verse 25, he says, and I
was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth, lo, there
thou hast, that is thine. And verse 26 says, his Lord answered
and said to him, thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest
that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strawed,
thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers
and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
Now all that's just simply saying that God, when you do what God
says, he's glorified. It's not saying that he steals
from anybody like that or anything. So he says, take therefore, verse
28, the talent from him and give it unto him which hath 10 talents.
Now all of that just showing that the glory of God, which
is the main issue of all of these things, that God will glorify
himself through the talents that he's given his true servants.
And those to whom he gives more, that's up to him. He says in
verse 29, for unto everyone that hath shall be given and he shall
have abundance. Well, what is the abundance?
A greater place in heaven? A bigger mansion? No, it's glory
itself. Is there anything more abundant
than being glorified with Christ? No. What else would you want? To be perfect in Him. No tears,
no sorrow, no pain. living forever with Christ. And
he says, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even
that which he hath. And it will be taken away because
they'll be damned forever. They'll be judged and damned
forever. And so he says in verse 30, and
cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. There shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And that's a signification of
anger. anger. And that's what happens
to those who stand before God without Christ. And when they're
exposed, like those in Matthew 7, depart from me you that work
iniquity, I never knew you. Now gnashing of teeth means gritting
of teeth. It means anger. And so that's
the issue of the talents. Use it for the glory of God.
You know, somebody said use it or lose it. Well, you may not
lose it in this life, but you'll lose it at judgment. if you don't. But now, again, none of this,
I don't believe, is any statement of work hard and earn more. It's simply work hard and glorify
God in Christ. Lift up Christ and enjoy the
benefits and the blessings that we have in Him.