All right, let's turn to Matthew
chapter 25. Our subject is faithful or unprofitable. Faithful or
unprofitable. Now all of God's true saints
who were made holy by electing, redeeming, quickening grace by
God, shall be found faithful, and they'll be found profitable
in the day of judgment. It's because we're His workmanship,
created unto good works, which He has before ordained, that
we should walk in them. And we shall, because He's ordained
them beforehand. He gives more light as we walk
in the light that He's given. But those with a mere profession
that's been worked of themselves shall be proven unprofitable
in the day of judgment. Now our text is Matthew 25 verses
14 through 30. I read it to you before we began,
so I'm going to go verse by verse here. The first thing I want
you to notice is Christ is the King. of his kingdom and those
he calls are his servants. Verse 14 says, for the kingdom
of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country. Christ Jesus
has come and he's accomplished blood atonement for those the
father gave to him. Now God is satisfied with him.
He has gone into a far country. He's risen to a far country,
seated at the right hand of the Father. And all those for whom
Christ died have been reconciled to the Father, so that they must
be called out of darkness into His light, and they shall be
called out of darkness into His light. And all power in heaven
and earth is His, so that He gives us gifts and graces to
go forth for this work, using us to call out those sheep. That
was the very motive he used when he told his disciples to go forth
into the world and preach the gospel. He said, all powers given
unto me in heaven and earth, therefore go forth and preach
this gospel. Christ has power over all flesh
that He should give eternal life to as many as the Father has
given to Him. And He's doing just that. That's
exactly what He's doing. And Christ calls His own servants,
those that He's redeemed, and He works through them. Verse
14 says, This king, who this lord, he went into a far country,
called his own servants. Christ's servants are those he's
called, those he's called effectually by every believer. that's truly
called into the kingdom of God are faithful servants. Some are
given responsibility as pastors and teachers and deacons, and
some are not. But all are His servants in His
kingdom. That's what He's called them
for. We're willing bond servants. We've been called by His grace
to serve Him, His cause in this earth. But some have heard the
call, they've heard it with these ears, they've heard it with the
natural ears, and they've gone through the whole form that they've
watched with the natural eye, and they have made themselves
appear to be as his servants, but they are not his servants. He said many are called, but
few are chosen. The gospel goes out, and there
will be many who will be proven that they heard the call with
the natural ear, but they weren't the chosen of God. Now, the believer
is not frightened by that. The believer pays attention when
he hears that. You remember when the Lord said,
tonight somebody's going to betray me? Everybody, every one of them
at the table said, Lord, is it I? Except for one, except Judas. He never did say it. You see,
God's people really, they take heed to God's Word and listen
to what He said, pay attention to what He said, because we've
been made up, given a heart to know what we're capable of. So
Christ delivers to His servants His goods. Look, it says there,
He delivered unto them His goods. They're Christ's goods. Talents
here means money. But that's just an illustration. He's just using that as an illustration.
These are spiritual gifts, spiritual goods, spiritual graces. They're not talents like natural
talents. They're spiritual grace, spiritual
gifts God's given. He gives them. They're not of
us. They're given freely of Christ. This is what the Scripture said.
Who maketh thee to differ from another? What do you have that
you didn't receive? Everything you have, you received
it from God Almighty. If thou didst receive it, why
do you glory? Why do you glory as if you didn't
receive it? Everything He delivers to His child is His good. They're
His good. He gives them. And they're spiritual
gifts to be used for the good of His kingdom. Understand that? They're spiritual gifts to be
used for the good of His kingdom. When Christ calls you by His
grace, your whole direction and your whole motive for living
in this life changes. And if it hadn't, we hadn't been
called. Now that's just so. Christ said, freely you have
received, freely give. Freely give. And look at 1 Peter
chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4. This principle is what the whole
kingdom of God is built upon. It holds its place here in 1
Peter 4. I think I'm going to come back here in a minute, but
look at verse 10. As every man hath received the
gift, how do we receive it? Freely. Freely. Even so, minister. The same. How? Freely. Freely
you receive. Freely give. One to another. as good stewards. Now here's
what we're ministering. The manifold grace of God. That's what these talents represent.
Alright? Alright, that's the first thing.
Christ is the king and he's the one calling his servants and
he's the one gifting us with everything we need. And all these
gifts are spiritual gifts for the purpose of edifying his kingdom. Alright? Now, secondly, we see
here Christ doesn't give the same measure of spiritual gifts
to each of his children, to each servant. His gifts differ according
to his ability to give those gifts as he sees fit, as he sees
they're needful. Look at verse 15. Unto one he
gave five talents, to another two, to another one. to every
man according to his several ability. And straightway took
his journey. Now when it says here, he gave
to every man according to his several ability, it doesn't mean
that he looked at his servants for some ability in us and said,
all right, I'm going to give them a greater measure of gift
because they got more ability in them. That's not what it means. It means Christ, according to
his ability, According to His power, His authority, His wisdom,
His ability to judge how best it serves the interest of His
kingdom, He gives to some more and others less. Do you understand
that? Our ability to do anything in
the kingdom of God is determined by the gift of His grace that's
been given to us. Not by any ability in us. And
it's the proportion of faith that He's given to us. If we
don't have faith, we can't do anything. Without faith, it's
impossible to please God. Without faith, we can't do one
thing. Not one thing. So everything
that we can do, it's not by our ability. It's by the measure
of the gift of His grace, according to the proportion of faith that
He gives to us. Look at Romans 12. Romans 12,
look at verse 6. Having then gifts differing according
to the grace that is given to us. Do you see that? These gifts
of grace differ according to the grace that's given to us.
Where there prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion
of faith. Do you see that? We got this
gift of His grace given to us and we use it according to the
proportion of faith that He's given to us. Or ministry, let
us wait on our ministry. Or he that teacheth on teaching.
Or he that exhorteth on exhortation. He that giveth, let him do it
with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Look back there again at 1 Peter
chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4. Look at verse
11. If any man speak, let him speak
as the oracles of God. That means, Don't say what you
think. It don't matter. Say what God
says. That's all that matters. We spend
a lot of wasted time talking about trying to say a bunch of
junk, when all we got to do is say, here it is, right here.
This is what we have to say. This is it. He's given us what
to say. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister in any way,
you minister in anybody, let him do it as of the ability which
God giveth. You see that? The ability which
God giveth. That God in all things may be
glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. So secondly, all the ability,
all the gifts is according to His giving. He gives it, He gives
it all. Christ is the King, He calls
His servants, and everything He gives is according to the
gift of His grace, according to the ability He gives by His
wisdom, by His power, by His authority, and they're to be
used for His kingdom, for the profit of His kingdom, His spiritual
kingdom. All right, thirdly, Christ gives
us His goods This is that third point, to use for the profit
of his kingdom. Verse 16, Matthew 25, 16. Then he that had received the
five talents went and traded with the same, and made them
other five talents. And likewise he that had received
two, he also gained other two. Now bear in mind again, talents
right here mean money. It doesn't mean natural talents. I've heard so many people think
that that word talent means what we naturally think of as talent.
It means money is what the word talent means, money. But he's
using money as a spiritual illustration. The Lord's not teaching us here
how to invest our money so we can get a good return on our
investment. That's get money out of your
mind. The covetous man, when he reads a scripture like this,
he can't stop thinking about money. All he thinks about is
money. And he blocks out everything spiritually edifying to be heard
because all he thinks about is his money, his money, his money.
He's going to go to hell with his money. That's what he's going
to do. This is about grace. This is about God-given grace
that works effectually in his people. Talents represent every
kind of spiritual gift he gives. And they're to be used to minister
with for spiritual profit. For our own spiritual profit
and growth. for the spiritual prophet of
our brethren and for the spiritual prophet of his lost sheep that
he's going to use us to call out. Let's go to 1 Corinthians
12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians 12, 4. Now there are diversities of
gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of
administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities
of operations, but it's the same God, now watch this, which worketh
all in all. Do you see that? It's God doing
it. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given for this
purpose. It's given to every man to profit
with Him. To profit with Him. Alright?
Now, believers use these spiritual gifts. We use them, as He's given
us, because He works affectionately in the hearts of His people.
But He's the one who gives the increase. Christ gives the increase. He gives the profit. Paul said,
I've planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So
then, neither is He that planteth anything, Neither he that watereth,
but God that giveth to increase." The covetous man who wants God's
glory, who can't hear what this gospel is teaching, the reason
he can't hear it is he wants the glory. He thinks that God
needs him to build his kingdom. He thinks that God's children
need him to keep the whole operation going. That he's the end-all
be-all of the whole work. No! No believer, true believer
is that. And certainly not somebody who
is so wicked and covetous that he thinks God needs him. Certainly
not. God's the one doing the work.
And he says, now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.
We're not working against each other, we're working with each
other. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his
own labor. It's labor, it's work. We're
not talking about now, this is not a movie. We don't come in
here and sit down and watch somebody get up, speak, and hear it all
like it's a movie, and we walk out of here and go, boy, that
was good, wasn't it? I like that part about so-and-so and so-and-so,
and then go home and live like hell and forget it. The Word
of God is living and abiding in His people. It has an effect
in His people. It does something in His people. Christ is the head from which
all the body, by joints and bands, have nourishment, ministered,
and knit together, and they increase with the increase of God. This
is all His wise counsel in doing this. Now look back at our text
there, and look with me, it shows us there He that had received the five
talents went and traded with the same and made other five
talents. And likewise, he that had received two, he also gained
two." The men that were given five and two talents, they went
and they traded with exactly what they were given with the
ability God gave them. That's what they used. That's
what they went with. They didn't consult with their flesh and
they didn't look to their wisdom and say, I don't know what would be best.
The other men did. We're going to see what happened
to him. The other men did that. They didn't look to their own
carnal interest. They didn't. They freely had
received from God. And if you freely receive from
God who says everything is mine, I own everything, I've given
you life! Life! Life! Life! Life, spiritual life, eternal
life. That's all you need. That's all
we need. He's given us life. And it cost
the death of His Son. Will He not with Him give us
everything? Huh? This whole thing is about Him.
It's not about us. It's not about our house. It's
not about our little fickle way. It's Him. It's Him. And He gives
us an understanding of this in our hearts. This thing's about
Him. They represent the believer who
trusts Christ, who sees Him high and lifted up, sees Him glorified,
sees Him as the head and authority in the church. We talk about
these false religionists. We talk about them who really
don't believe God's working in His church, in His people, as
real as He did when He walked this earth. They don't believe
it. If they did, they'd preach the truth that Christ has effectually
redeemed particularly His people. They'd preach that Christ has
brought them from under the yoke of the law, from the bondage
of the law, and that now God works in His people in spirit
so that they do what they do by faith trusting Him to provide
because they love Him and they love their brethren. They're
constrained by His love for them and their love for Him causes
them to do what they do. And if they believed that, they
would preach that. And we talk about the fact that they don't
believe it because otherwise they would stand up and declare
it. If we really believe it, we'll do what the Lord's teaching
right here. We'll give ourselves knowing there's no way I can
fail. The only way I can fail is not
believe in Him. The only way I can fail is not
trust in Him. Is it possible to out trust the
Lord? Is it possible to trust Him too
much? I met with an accountant this
week. She was looking at my records and she told me, she said, you've
given enough. You need to be concerned about
your family. You need to be worried about your children. I said,
you can't out trust God. I trust God. I don't like to
hear that kind of talk because it makes me start thinking, well,
I need to look to this earth. I need to look to this, all this.
I'm not neglecting my family, but God's house is more important
to me than my family. If he's not preeminent, he's
nothing. That's just so. He's given us spiritual graces,
spiritual gifts to use for the edification of His kingdom. And
we're to sow in the same abundance as He's abounded toward us. That's
all we prove when we don't. Is we don't really think He's
abounded toward us. Isn't that right? The man with five sowed
five, the man with two sowed two. The man with two didn't
try to sow five, he just sowed two. Disregard difficulties and
discouragements. Bear the cross, bear reproaches,
bear persecutions, bear all difficulties with courage and confidence knowing
Christ's presence in His hand is in the work. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthen me. What does that mean? What does
it all mean? What does all mean? It means
all things to me. What's it mean to you? Now these
two faithful servants profited in proportion to what they traded
with. Look here. He that received the five talents
went and traded with the same and made them other five talents.
And likewise he that received two, he also gained other two. This principle applies to all
God's spiritual gifts. God promises we shall profit
in proportion to how we use the gifts he's given. That's exactly
so. So to the Spirit. And Christ
increases us personally in spiritual knowledge, in our gifts, and
in our opportunities. So to the Spirit. And Christ
will use us to edify our brethren. So to the Spirit, and Christ
calls out his elect, adding to the church daily, such as should
be saved. In proportion to our sowing, so shall we reap. That's
the Bible. That's God's Word. Christ knows
the heart He's given. He knows the motive. He knows
if it's constrained by His love. And Christ makes it profitable.
So all the glory is His glory. It's not mine. Look over at Luke
6.38. This is Christ speaking. If any other man said this, you
ought not to believe it. But if Christ says it, we ought
to believe it. Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure,
pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall man give
unto your bosom. For with the same measure that
you meet, withal, it shall be measured to you again. You see
that? When I come and preach the gospel
to you, I just don't want to give you some crumbs. I want
the table packed out. I want it loaded out. I want
it just thoroughly packed out with food. Pressed down, shaken,
running over. I want it to be just overabundance
of food. And I believe God will bless
it. I believe He will give into your bosom. This grace, whereby
the best thing you could give back to me for that would be
believe God. That's it. Believe Him. That's
what we're talking about here. And all these things. Look at
second, well, I'll just read this to you. This I say, He which
soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth
bountifully shall reap also bountifully. That's what Paul said. God's
able to make all grace abound toward you. We're talking about
grace here. We're talking about grace in
every way. Grace in every spiritual gift. Faith, repentance, hope,
love, patience, long-suffering. All spiritual and all temporal
substance. Every way. God is able. He's able to make all grace abound
toward you so that you having all sufficiency and all thanks
may abound to every good work. He quotes this as it's written,
he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor and his
righteousness remaineth forever. The Lord called it not putting
your treasure in a bag with holes or something like that, but his
righteousness remains forever. Now he that ministereth seed
to the sower, both ministers, the one that gives that abundance
to that one who sowed it, He will minister bread for your
food and multiply your seeds sown and increase the fruits
of your righteousness. It's all of God. Everything's
of God. Y'all getting this? I mean, if
this was, if this was money we were talking about, if God was
talking here, if he was saying, now, if you'll just give $10,
God will give you 20. I bet you right now we'd be laying
our money down. And we'd be perking up listening. Wait a minute.
I'm talking about something way more important than that. That's
way lesser than what I'm talking about. And we just listen to
it like, I don't know. Were you hearing this? You hearing
this? It's what God said. It's what Christ is telling us.
This heavenly principle applies to all areas of spiritual growth
in the kingdom of God. The principle of the kingdom
is giving freely that which you've been given freely. In proportion
to our sowing, so shall we reap. That's the truth Christ declared.
I'll give you an illustration. Who's going to increase more?
Who's going to benefit more? The man who denies this earth
and his carnal treasures and his carnal riches and his carnal
just letting the world consume him, pull him and pull him and
pull him into the world so that he can give himself to the scriptures
and he can give himself to the hearing of the gospel? Is that
man going to benefit more? Or the man who just goes with
the flow and takes off into it because his heart's set on this
world and on awe and he's anxious about his food and his raiment
and all those things and he's seeking all those things first
and he neglects the scriptures and he neglects hearing the gospel.
Which one's going to profit more? He's given you faithfulness to
come. He's given you faithfulness to
hear. He's given you faithfulness to be here and to hear. And you
know what's happening? You're growing in grace. You're
growing in grace by what He's doing for you. He's adding to
the church. He's called some. and added some
to the church. And He's growing you that He's
already called in grace. He's doing that. But those who
go the opposite direction, they neglect a little, then they neglect
a little more, then they neglect a little more, and next thing
you know, that earth that they've just been drawn to, it opens
up its mouth wide and just swallows them right up into it. That's what happens. Well, notice
where the other man sowed, and a little later we're going to
see how he profited. Verse 18, but he that had received one,
one talent, he went and digged, now watch these three words,
in the earth. He digged in the earth and hid
his Lord's money. Now, this man sowed to the earth. That's where he sowed his. He
went and hid it. Like the man goes and puts it
under a mattress somewhere. He sewed his to the earth. He
represents the man sewing to the flesh. He represents the
man who takes this spiritual grace, this spiritual light,
this gospel that he's heard, he heard it with the carnal ear,
and he claims he believes it. But he just keeps on neglecting
these gifts God's given him and he puts them in the earth. You
can't use them in the earth. You can't feed upon the bread
that's in the earth. You can't drink the water that
you've hidden away in the earth. You can't walk in light and take
a candle and bury it in the ground and cover it up. You can't walk
in that light. It's of no use to you whatsoever. And he did that so he could get
on with his business and do his business so that he'd have that
right there when God came he could say, see I got it right
here what you gave me. Some claim to believe the truth
of God, that He's sovereign, that He's provided all in His
Son and that He'll provide all lesser things. They claim to
believe the truth. But they prove their hypocrisy by looking out
for self. They prove their hypocrisy by
looking out for their own house. They prove their hypocrisy by
looking to the riches of this world and the temporary gratification
of the flesh. All you've got to do is preach
the Gospel. Just preach the Gospel. Preach
the Gospel. The first thing it's going to
do is it's going to interrupt a man's profession of faith,
his false profession. And that's going to aggravate
him. But he can keep on listening. He can bear that. He can keep
on with it. But get in his pocketbook, and he's gone. Now you got too
close. He can put up the charade and
keep on listening, but now ask for a raise and see what happens.
And sometimes you need to do that, just see what happens.
Get rid of the dead bait. That's right. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Why do we have scriptures like
this? Why does the Lord give us scriptures like this? Well,
He gives them to us to rebuke us. To rebuke us. Because you and I look to ourselves
way too much. We look to ourselves and we sow
to this flesh rather than to the Spirit. And scriptures like
this rebuke us. They grate against... The only
thing that makes a scripture like this incomparable for a
believer is not the new man. It's the old man. It's that corrupt
fountain. It's the only thing that would
make this grate against a man's flesh at all. And if that's all
he is, It'll, it'll just, it'll just bang him into a rage. But
do you understand what grace and faithfulness it is of God
our Father to give His child scriptures like this and to teach
us, to make us to profit in spiritual things so He can keep us from
looking to the earth and our flesh and perish with those that
perish like that? Do you know what faithfulness
that is? Why do we discipline our children? Why do we correct
our children? Why do we do it? Mainly for our own pleasure.
But He doesn't. He does it to teach his child. He does it because he's not going
to let one of his children be lost. He does it to make us lay
aside the weights and the sins that are besetting us. That's
making us angry and making us mad and making us uncomfortable
and make us doubt and making us dispute God's Word and God
and everything he says and making us lash out in our hearts. He
makes us lay all that aside Because He turns us from ourselves and
He turns us to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, so
that we might be partakers of His holiness. That's why He does
it. He's a faithful Father. That's why. What God did with
those believers in Haggai's day, it graded against their flesh.
But it saved them from their flesh the same as it does us.
He said that they were earning wages to put it into a bag with
holes. If your child was earning wages
and he had holes in both his pockets and you watch him walking
around and everything that he worked his tail off for, he's
putting in his pockets and you watch him just spill it and walk
away and don't even know, it's in a bag with holes. Wouldn't
you stop him? Wouldn't you say, son, this is
ignorance. This is just plum ignorance right
here. Let me tell you where there's a bag that don't have holes in
it. And so God blew upon everything they had. And He said, I did
blow upon it. Why? Said the Lord of hosts.
Because of mine house. My house. You see, this was the
King of the house. This was the Lord of the house
in our text. And the Lord of the house, Christ, is going to
save His children from sowing to our flesh so that we don't
reap corruption. He's not going to let us. He's
going to turn us and make us so to the Spirit by this, that's
part of this gift of grace He's given. So that we continue to
walk in Him. And by walking in Him and seeing
that He's making good on His promise, He fills our hearts
with joy. It makes us more edifying to
our own self. It makes us edifying to our fellow
brethren. He does it for the good of His own house. Now only
a fool would get angry about that. That's what he said. A wise man feareth and departeth
from evil, but the fool rageth and is confident. Our faithful
father turns his child because he won't suffer any of his children
to perish with the wicked. Now that's grace and that's love.
Here's the fourth thing. Every one of us is going to give
account to the Lord Jesus in the day of judgment. We can hide
it away in our hearts and make excuses, but we're going to give
account to him. He knows the heart. Look at verse 19. After
a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth
with them. We're going to all stand before Him and give an
account for the light He gave us. And He's given all men light.
We've got men that never hear the Gospel preached have the
light of nature. We've got the light of the Scriptures. We've
got the light of the Gospel. We're sitting here. We've got great light.
He's given us some light. And we're going to either walk
in it or we're not. And all Christ's true servants
shall be given the same reward. These gifts and callings are
without repentance. It's not like He's going to take
them from us. His true servants are going to
walk in His light because He's going to constrain us to do it. And then when we are taken account
of, He reckons with us, we're going to be found profitable,
profitable servants. We may not see ourselves as being
profitable, but He will because He's done it. And he's going
to give us all the same reward. Look at verse 20. So he that
had received five talents came and brought other five talents,
saying, Lord, thou deliverest unto me five talents. Behold,
I've gained beside them five talents more. And his Lord said
unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast
been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many
things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Look at the next
one. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord,
thou deliverest unto me two talents. Behold, I've gained two other
talents beside them. His Lord said unto him, Well
done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over
a few things. I'll make thee ruler over many
things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. You see, each received
the same reward. The same reward. We get a taste
of that eternal joy right now in this life. There's nothing
more joyful than using the gifts God's given to sow to the Spirit. For ourselves, for our brethren,
for our families, for the good of His house. Nothing more joyful.
And on the contrary, nothing more interrupts the believer's
joy than not doing it. That's where most of our everything
that's not joy comes from. giving ourselves to Him. But
look, the professor here that was the unfaithful servant, look
how he twisted the Word of God. Verse 24. Then he which had received
the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee. Lord, I knew
thee. Now in another place the Lord
said, I'm going to judge you out of your own mouth. Now listen
to this. He said, I knew thee that thou
art a hard man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering
where thou hast not strawed. And I was afraid and went and
hid thy talent in the earth. Lo, there thou hast that is thine."
Now this prophet didn't really know the Master, not in love,
not in newness of life. He represents a man that doesn't
know God in love and newness of life. But he used, because
he used what he knew as an excuse for his own wickedness and his
own laziness. That's what he did. Now, we've
heard men do something like this. I'm sure you have. I've heard
men say, well, God is sovereign. I believe God's absolutely sovereign. And if he wanted me to do this,
then I'd be doing it. Well, God is sovereign. And God
has made it obvious what he would have us to do. That's right. And it's nothing but the deceitfulness
of a wicked heart that twists the truth of God to excuse laziness. That's all it is. He saith unto
him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant.
Now look. Knowing that our Savior is God,
that He is sovereign, that's the very confidence of His true
child. That's the very confidence because we know Christ is going
to provide all for us. He's not a hard man. He said,
I knew you were a hard man. He's not a hard man. He only
expects us to do what we can with what He's given. That's
all. The man whom He gave two talents,
He wasn't expected to do what the man did that He gave five
talents to. He's not a hard man. Our Lord's
not a hard man. He's not unreasonable at all. He's not. His yoke is so easy. It's so light. He don't tell
us to go to the cross and have our faces spit in and have our
hair of our beard plucked out and have a crown of thorns placed
on our head. He doesn't call us and tell us,
now, be forsaken of God. and bear
hell in your body and your spirit. He didn't tell us to do that.
He just tells us to believe Him. That He's already done it for
us. That He's already fulfilled all the precepts and penalty
of the law for us and will provide us everything because He's already,
He loved us from everlasting. He's done all this for us. He
brought this gospel for us. Look at what He's done for us. Some will say, I can't do more.
God don't expect you to. God don't expect you to do more.
He don't expect you to do more than what He's given you to do. But He does expect you to be
faithful with what He has given you. Isn't that so? Not more, just what you have. That's all. For if there be first
a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath,
not according to that he hath not. You think of how much more
the apostles had, his apostles that walked with him, think how
much more light they had. Even Judas had some, he had great
light, he walked with the Lord. And when Mary came there and
she broke that alabaster box of ointment out and poured it
on his feet, the only place in scripture he said, she's done
a good work. And that was just, I mean, and
he said, he commended her and he said, she has done what she
could. She did what she could. Now,
he says here, I knew you reap where you don't sow and gather
where you haven't strawed. In one sense, Christ is reaping
where he has sown and he's gathering where he has strawed because
it's Christ giving the grace and it's Christ giving the increase.
But in another sense, he's using us earthen vessels to sow and
to straw in his vineyard and the powers of God, not of us.
But knowing that makes us more eager to serve him, not less.
Listen to the Lord's Word in the next two verses. He said,
rather than you knowing this and it excusing you, it ought
to have made you do it even more. Look at verse 26. His Lord answered
and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest
that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strawed.
Thou allest therefore If you knew this about me, you ought
therefore to have put my money to the exchangers. And then at
my coming I should have received mine own with usury. You see
that? What I'm saying to you, brethren, is the sovereignty
of God, the absolute sovereignty of God, That doesn't make us
say, well, if God wanted me to do this, I'd be doing it. That
makes us look at it and say, well, I believe that we can do
this. I believe I can do this. I believe
God's with me. I can do this. And we move forward
until God makes it clear He ain't in that. That's what Paul did.
Paul said, I was determined to go to Macedonia. Is that where
it was? And the Lord showed him, Paul,
you're going to Macedonia. You're going to another place.
And he went that place. But he didn't walk around going,
well, if the Lord was sovereign now, he'd be putting me down
there on the riverside with Lydia. He got in the ship and took off
with the fellas. He told them, he said, don't
sail. He said, it's not commodious to sail in this weather. It's
gonna be harmful to us. But all the while he trusted
God and he didn't rebel against it. He went with them. And God
appeared to him, Christ appeared to him. He said, you must be
cast upon a certain shore. I got the gospels gonna be preached
there. And when he got off of that ship, got out there on that
shore, he preached the gospel to them. Got back in the boat,
went to Rome, preached the gospel in Rome, everywhere he went.
He just kept on preaching the gospel, trusting, my God's providing
for me. He said, sirs, be of good cheer.
I believe God. That ought, therefore, to put
these gifts to use rather than make us hide them away. All right,
here's the fifth thing. Those who walk in the light God's
given shall be given more light. And those who do not, he shall
remove the light they have. Verse 28. Take therefore the
talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. For everyone that hath shall
be given. You know what's going to happen to the one that has?
He's going to do what that man did. That man gave an abundance.
He went out and used the gifts God had given him to do whatever
it is. It might be, it might be, it might be you preach, it
might be you're the best carpenter, it might be, I mean, it could
be any number of things. It's whatever God has given you
the ability to do, rather than doing it for ourselves, it's
doing it for God and for his kingdom, for the furtherance
of his church, his gospel, his people. One of these days, he's
calling out to the last sheep, and we're going to the house.
That's right. We're going to get out of the
heat of this field and the heat of this barren desert. We're going home. That don't
make me want to sit around out here in this heat and say, well,
I trust he'll call them out when he does. That makes me want to
find them. That makes me want to get the gospel out and say,
where are you? So we get them there. These fellas
that aren't preaching the sovereignty of God and they will not preach
the particular redemption of God's people, they will not declare
Christ's children are not under the law anymore. They look at
God's people and they say, that message kills evangelism. I don't
think it does. I think it is the message of
evangelism. I think it is. I think this is
the message that makes us do what God's given us to do with
confidence that he's gonna bless it, don't you? I do. Well, let me get back on this
point here. He says, take that talent from
him and give it to him that hath ten talents. Verse 29, for unto
everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance.
But from him that hath not, and that man just does what that
one man did. He just hides his gifts away. He don't use them.
Every man that hath not shall be taken away, even that which
he hath. And he says, and cast ye the unprofitable servant into
outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. The greatest example of this is natural Israel. God
gave them the oracles. He gave them the promises. He
gave them all those spiritual gifts. And they projected Christ. They just wouldn't walk in the
light. He gave them. God took the light away from them. Remember
when the apostles came and said, why do you speak to them in parables?
And he said, because it's given to you to know, but it's not
given to them to know. It had been given to them, but
they wouldn't walk in like they had. They wouldn't trust God.
And he said, it's given to you, but it's not given to them. He
took the light away from them. You understand? You see that?
Alright, where God gifts are given, His gifts are given effectually,
the servant will obey. And God never removes His gifts.
The calling, the gift and calling of God is without repentance.
He doesn't take them away. That's not what this is teaching.
It's teaching us to walk in the light He's given us. And His
people will. His servants will. Because we
got a God that's providing everything for us. But for those to whom
He sends the gospel, and they hear it, but they refuse it,
they claim, they may claim they believe it, claim they're His
servant, but they refuse it, making excuses for their wickedness
and their laziness, so they go after this world? He'll take
the light away from them. Just take it away from them.
Not that 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. Here's the application. Same thing Isaiah said to them
in his day. O house of Jacob, come ye, let
us walk in the light of the Lord. If we walk in the light, as He
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. It just grows
and grows and grows. He gives the increase. And the
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. That's great news. Amen.