Alright, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. Look in verses
14 through 30 this evening. Matthew chapter 25 verse 14 through
30. And the title of my message is,
The Faithful and the Slothful Servants. Now in chapters 24
to 25 in Matthew, Our Lord is speaking of His second
coming, of the final judgment. He will come in the flesh. He first of all came in the flesh
to save sinners. But He will come again as the
righteous judge. The first time Christ came in
meekness and lowliness, He came as the Lamb of God, offering
Himself a sacrifice for sinners. But when Christ returns again,
He will not come as the lamb, He will come as the lion. He
will come as the judge of all men in great power, exercising
His dominion over all creation, over all creatures. He said this,
all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Now, make no mistake, The Lord
Jesus Christ right now is ruling over everything. There is nothing
outside of His dominion. There is nothing outside of His
power in time, in eternity, in providence, in circumstance.
He rules everything. Everything is moving according
to His sovereign will. And I'll tell you this, He exercises
dominion right now. Don't think that the things that
are happening to us and to this world are accidental. They are
providential. They are by divine purpose. He
is moving all things after the counsel of His own will. And so He is now ruling, but
I'll tell you this, it doesn't appear at times He's ruling,
does it? Not all men can see this dominion. Not all men know of His dominion
and power. They don't know that He is the
sovereign ruler. In fact, they defy Him. Isn't
that what natural man does? They defy the living God. Christ is seated on the throne
and they say, I will not have this man to rule over me. What
arrogancy! Why? Because they don't believe
He's ruling anything. That's why they say that. But
I'll tell you this, when He comes again, they will. When He comes
in power, when He comes with His holy angels in the resurrection
of the just and the unjust, at that time, His power will be
revealed to everyone. Wherefore God hath highly exalted
Him, and given Him a name that is above every name, Why? That at the name of Jesus. Now that word name means authority.
That's what it means. At the authority of Jesus, what? Every knee is going to bow and
every tongue shall confess that He is Lord. So now in these chapters,
our Lord in these parables in chapter 25, He's telling you,
listen, be ready. That's the message. Christ is
coming, He came as a Lamb. He's coming as the Lion of the
tribe of Judah to judge men. What's the message? Be ready.
Why? You don't know when He's coming.
You don't know when He's coming. Over in chapter 24 and verse
36, He says, The day and hour knoweth no man, Not even the
angels of heaven, but my Father only. And it's going to be like
the days of Noah. They were eating and drinking
and marrying and giving in marriage till the day Noah entered in,
and they knew not. They didn't know anything about
it until it was happening. That's how Christ is going to
come. He's going to come swiftly. He's going to come in judgment.
So now, that prepares you for chapter 25, because the Lord
is going to give you three parables, really two parables and one reality. The two parables are the ten
wise and ten foolish, ten wise versions and ten foolish versions.
Then he's going to give the parable we're going to be looking at
tonight, the two faithful servants and the unfaithful. And then
the last one was, of course, the sheep and the goats, the
division being made on that last day. He gives us first that parable
of the ten wise and ten foolish virgins here. And we know this, that when he
says this, look at chapter 25, verse 20, he said, The kingdom
of heaven shall be likened unto ten virgins which took the lamps
and went forth to meet the bridegroom. I'm sorry, five wise and five
foolish. Five wise and five foolish. Look at verse 14, the kingdom
of heaven is as a man traveling from a far country. This kingdom
of heaven, I want you to know what this is. This is all professing
Christendom. That's what Christ is meaning
here, by the kingdom of heaven. It's not all the saints of God.
That's not what He's intending by the kingdom of heaven in this
place. How do we know that? Because we know this, that the
five foolish virgins were lost. We know this, that the slothful
man, the slothful servant was lost. We know that the goats
are lost. So, this is not talking about
the elect, this is talking about all who profess faith in Christ. You remember what the Lord said
about His sheep, He said, those Pharisees, He said, you believe
not, because. Now, why do men not believe on
Christ? That's a good question. I mean, is it just not the most
foolish thing in the world not to believe on Christ? Not to
rest and trust in his blood and righteousness? If you're a believer,
you say, that's foolish. Why wouldn't you do that? Yet
men don't. Why? He said, because you are
not of my sheep. You're not of my sheep. See,
men think faith is just an act of will. Anybody can do it. Jesus
said, no, you don't believe because you're not mine. If you're mine,
guess what? You will believe. Listen to what
he said, for my sheep, my elect, what do they do? They hear my
voice through the preaching of the gospel. They hear his voice.
Tonight, if you hear his voice, you're not hearing mine, you're
hearing his. And if you hear His voice, that's
what His sheep are listening for tonight. I pray you listen
to that, because I just told you, I'm having trouble speaking
tonight. You don't want to hear me, you want to hear Him. My
sheep hear my voice. Now why do they hear it? I know
them. That's why they hear. You hear
the gospel? Why do you hear it? I know you.
I know you. I chose you. You're mine. You're
my sheep. And what do you do? They follow
me. That's the result of hearing
His voice and Him knowing you. You will follow Him. You will
believe on Him. You will trust in Him. And what does He give you? I
give unto them eternal life. Did you hear that? Eternal life. Now when did eternal life begin? It began before you had life.
You had eternal life before you had life. Why? Because you were
in the eternal one. Eternal life. And what's the
result? They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them. So we know that this kingdom
of heaven is not talking just of the elect, it's just talking
about the whole of professing Christianity. Some of those are
true believers, and some of them only are professing to believe. So the wise virgins are a picture
of who? Well, they're a picture of the
saints of God. True believers in Christ. And the foolish virgins,
who are they? They are pictures of those that
make a profession of faith. Now, what was the difference
between the two? Now, they both slept. They both were sinners,
right? You couldn't tell them apart
when they were sleeping. But when the message came, the bridegroom's
coming. They all woke up, they all heard
that, right? What was the difference? The
wise had oil in their lamps. And the foolish virgins had no
oil, their light had went out. You see, if a man is coming to
God by works, that candle will only burn so long before it goes
out. But if a man has the oil of the
Spirit, that'll keep burning until Christ comes again. That
makes the distinction, doesn't it? It's not in them, it was
in the oil. They had the Spirit. What makes
you different from another lost man? It's the oil in you. It's the Spirit of God that's
been given to you. And so those foolish virgins,
they didn't have any. They said, you know, give us
some of yours. I can't give this all to you. I didn't get it myself. It was given to me. How am I
going to give it to you? Go, go now. Go get it now. But you know what happened? Christ
came and they were shut out. So you see that the kingdom of
heaven is a picture of all of professing Christendom, some
are true and some are not. Now, with this in mind, let us
look at the parable of the talents. Now, I don't have time to read
through this whole parable. Really, you should do this at
your leisure, but I'm just going to bring you through the parable,
through the parable with me here. It says, there was a man, there
was a man, the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling. This
man is not just any man, he's a king. This king is traveling
and he has his servants. And he gives his servants charge
of all his goods. He gives them charge of his goods.
To one man he gives five talents of money. To the other he gives
two talents of money, and the other he gives one. Now, who
determined who had what? It was the king. Why? It's his. He gives it to whomsoever
He will. And so He gives five to one,
two to the other, and one to the other. Now, this one who
had five talents, what did he do? The Scripture says that he
that received the five talents, verse 16, he traded with the
same and made five more. And likewise, he that received
two gained another two. But this other guy, what did
he do with his? He had one. What did he do? He said he received one and went
and digged it in the earth and hid his Lord's money. He hid
it. He put it in the ground. He put
it in the ground. Now there's something when the
Lord comes back. The Lord comes back to these
servants and He requires of them what they had. And so the one
with five talents brought the five more, saying, Lord, thou
dividest unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained beside
five more. And the same with the two. Look
at verse 22. He had also received the two talents, said, Lord,
thou dividest me two talents. Behold, I have gained another
two. What I want you to see about this is when they both, they
had different amounts, but the Lord gave them the same reward. The Lord gave them the same reward.
Isn't that true? Look at verse 21. And the 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 the Lord. Look at verse 23.
This one had two. He said, Well done, thou good
and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over
a few things, I will make thee rule over many things, enter
into the joy of the Lord." They both received the same thing. The five got ten. Now, in our
world, you'd figure he'd get a bigger reward, right? But they both received the same
commendation, and they both received the same reward. That's important. But this last fellow, This last
man had this one talent and he hit it in the ground. And when
he was called to give an account, look what he said. He which received
the one talent came and said, Lord, here's what he said. He's
making excuses right here. He's going to make an excuse.
He said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man. Wait a second,
didn't he give you a talent? What's wrong with you? That sounds
gracious. But this man, he said, you're
a hard man. You're a hard man. You reap where you don't sow.
You gather where you didn't straw. What an accusation to make against
God, isn't it? You reap what you didn't sow.
Well, who sowed it? Who made it? God did. You know, when he's calling him,
he's calling him unjust. He's calling them unjust. He
said, you're hard and you're unjust. You're sovereign, but you're
unjust. And the Lord answered and said,
and I was afraid, and when hid thy talent in the earth, and
lo, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto
him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I
reap where I sowed not, and gather where I strawed not strawed. Thou oughtest therefore put the
money to the exchangers. And then at my coming I should
have received mine own with usury. And here's the reward of that
guy. He said, take therefore the talent from him and give
it to that which have ten talents. For unto every one that hath
shall be given. And he shall have abundance.
But from him that hath not shall be taken away, even that he hath
cast that unprofitable servant into outer darkness, and there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." He knew something about the Lord's
sovereignty, something about the Lord's power, and yet he
was afraid at His coming, but he sure did not fear Him while
He was gone. And now, He is cast into outer
darkness. Now, let's see this parable and
put it into perspective. First of all, who is the king?
We know the king is Christ. The king is the Lord Jesus, the
one that came to save his people, the one that earned the talents
himself and is in sovereignty, gives those talents to men. It
is Christ. Christ is the king. Notice this. He came from a far country. How
far is heaven from earth? How far did Christ journey? He came into this world, the
greatness of the condescension of Christ. You know, it just,
you cannot wrap your mind around it. We are creatures of earth. You know, I'll tell you this,
I've seen a rich man become a poor man. And that's, I've seen, that's
hard. I've watched that happen. A man
who had everything and now he's down to nothing. And that man,
it was hard. That was a great fall. But how far did the King of Glory
come to save us? He who sat on the throne became
a man, and not just a man, the servant of men, the lowest of
men. He came, the Son of God came
in flesh to accomplish salvation for His people. He came to save
sinners by the death on the cross. And we know this, that our King
suffered the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God.
For upon the cross it was there our sins were punished. Jesus Christ, our King, bore
our sin in His own body on the tree. And when God in justice
saw our sin, He justly, righteously poured out His wrath on His own
beloved Son. He suffered there. He died under
the justice of God for the ungodly deeds that we have committed. But see, he who came to earth,
came to earth from heaven, what happened? He returned. He returned! He came, and when he came, these
talents that he gave, We're going to see that these are the fruits
of the Spirit. These are the things that God gives his people,
these talents. He earned these. This king earned,
they were his. He earned them when he came and
died for our sins and rose again for our justification. He earned
our salvation. He merited our salvation as our
representative, as our high priest. And now he returns. He returned
to heaven. He said, Father, glorify me with
the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Glorify
me with that glory, that same glory. I finished the work. It's
done. It's accomplished. And I'm ready
to be received into heaven. And you know, we have the witness
of the disciples saw him ascend after his victorious work, didn't
we? We have the witness of many men seeing Him alive after His
death, and those men watching Him as He ascended into glory. I think those angels, they said,
why stand you here gazing? What do you mean, why stand you
here gazing? Didn't you just see that? Didn't you just see
Him go up there? Where'd He go? Where'd He go?
He said, don't worry, He's gonna come again in like manner. So,
He's going back to glory. That's where this says in our
parable. It says this king, he's traveling into a far country,
called his servants, delivered them goods, and then he went
away. He earned the goods, he gave the goods, and he went away. And he gives then to all his
saints the gift of grace. That's what these talents are.
They are the gift of grace and salvation by which we believe
on him and live for his glory and testify of his salvation.
Listen what Paul said in Ephesians four. He said there is one body,
one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all who
is above all and through all and in you all. But unto every
one of us is given grace. How else can you have grace except
to be given? You can't have grace unless it's
given. But how is it given? We are all
given grace, we are all given salvation, but listen, this grace,
these fruits of the Spirit that we are given, listen to what
he says. He says we are given grace according
to the measure of the gift of Christ. If you have grace, who
gave it? Christ. How much grace do you
have? As much as he gave you. He gave
you just as much as he gave you. Grace. Therefore, We are called
of God to preach the gospel. I know this. We are given grace. We're given gifts. We're given
talents. I know this. I don't have the
talent of a lot of men. I don't. Some have more, some
have less. We're given according to the
measure, right? I have a measure of gifts that
God has given me for this. Now, you have gifts as well that
God has given you. Well, how much do you have? According
to the measure of His grace. That's what you've been given.
You've been given according to the measure of His grace. Some
five and some two. I may be two, you may be five. But we both confess this, we
are unworthy of any. We are unworthy of any of His
graces. Every man, regardless of the measure of his ministry
or grace, two or five, Each is to be faithful to use these graces. You know,
I've been given the gift of declaring the gospel. It's a grace that
God has given me. You know what? I need to be faithful in using
it. Those on exhorting, they should
exhort. Those coming alongside the brethren,
giving, all those are gifts of grace and they're given in a
measure. We should be using those things. for the glory of Christ. For see, the reward is the same.
You know what? I'm preaching the gospel. You
know what reward I get? Same as you. Same as you. You know, Spurgeon, he wrote
a lot of books. Spurgeon wrote a lot of books.
Great preacher. Infinitely better than the one
before you. But you know what? I get the
same he gets. I get the same. Same reward.
Why? It is not my merit. It's a gift
of grace. It's a grace that's given to
us. Therefore, as a preacher of gospel, I point you to Christ.
It's my duty and privilege to point you to Christ. He is the
only Savior for sinners and there is none other name given among
men whereby we must be saved. Now listen, I hope there's some
sinners that I'm preaching to. I really do. You know why? Because the gospel is tailor-made
for sinners. It just is. It's good news only
for sinners. So when I'm preaching, I always
pray for sinners. I pray what the hymn writer said, a sinner
is a sacred thing for the Holy Ghost that made him one. In order
to be a real sinner, the Spirit of God has to convince you of
it, has to convict you of it. You see, there's no good news
for good people. I hear that. I was talking to somebody in
the Andrews Friends and somebody said, you know those boys are
good boys. Well, listen, I don't have any good news for good boys.
I've got news for wicked boys. I've got good news for sinners. No news for self-righteous, those
who seek to be accepted by their own religious deeds and ceremonies
and good works. The Apostle said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the world
to save one group of people, sinners. And Paul said, I'm the
chief of them. I'm the chief. He took his place. You take your place? He said,
they that are whole need not a physician, but who? They that
are sick. And so sinners are called to
Christ to believe and to repent and turn to Christ. And such
faith and repentance abide all the days of our life. You believe
in Christ? You believe in Christ? Have you
turned, have you repented from your sin, turned to Christ? Now
you that have done that, when do you stop? When do you stop
turning from self and turn to Christ? When do you stop turning
from flesh and turning to Christ? You're always turning to Christ,
always believing on Christ, it's constant. And I know this, if
you never felt your need of Christ, you'll never come. You'll never
come. But the sinners... We got no place else to go. You got any place to go? When
his disciples were asked that, Lord, he said, will you go away
also? And they said, Lord, to whom?
They didn't say, where shall we go? They said, to whom shall
we go? You have the word of eternal
life. You see, sinners have no place to go but Christ. They
have no place to go. And I tell you this, once they've
been to Christ, they don't want to go anywhere else. You want
to go anywhere else? You want to go to anyone else? That's why the Scripture says,
He that believeth shall not make haste. You know, we ain't going
anywhere. We're not going to run anywhere.
We stay right here. We got no place to go. Therefore,
we who believe in Christ, we repent from our self-merits and
loathe our sins continually, And as the word of Jesus testifies,
he that believeth in me shall never perish. What a wonderful,
wonderful promise. Never perish. Yet see in this parable that
the kingdom of God here represents the whole of professing Christendom. The outward church in all of
history is made up of a mixture tares and wheat, goats and sheep,
lost and saved, professing believers and possessing believers. The church is made up of all
of these. There are many who have made professions of faith,
been baptized, joined the church, but who have never experienced
the quickening power of the Holy Ghost. They've never experienced
the power of the Spirit to true life and faith in Christ. Most people, their profession
is nothing more than a decision made under dress. It's nothing
more than an act of will to satisfy one's parents. Mom and dad are
crying, they don't want you to go to hell, and you're crying,
you don't want to go to hell, and you run down there, you make
some decision, you say, well, there it is. I'm part of the
church. You have another group of people,
don't even wait to cry for you, they, as soon as you're born,
they throw you in some water. They throw you in some water.
They say, there, you're part of the church now. No, not how that works. No. There are many professing, done
all the things that religion does, but they don't have it
in their hearts. But praise God, there are others who are true
believers in Christ, those who are born again in the Spirit
of God, by the will of God, washed in the blood of Christ, robed
in the righteousness of Christ. Yet both are pictured in our
text, both of them. are pictured in our text, two
of which picture true believers and one pictures those who only
make a profession. Now the true servants of God
are represented by these faithful servants, while the mere professor
is a slothful servant. So all of us here are represented,
am I right? Everyone who is in the professing
church is represented here. Now some have tried just to associate
this to pastors. I've read commentaries and they
say, well, this is just talking about pastors and their talents.
And no, I don't. I think it's a mistake to do
that. I think this is talking about all true saints who have
the gift of God's grace and the gift of his spirit. Represented
by these two faithful men. Why? Because all believers grow. Not just pastors. all believers
grow in the fruit of the Spirit, all of us. And so it is with
true believers. We take what God has given us
and we use it, not for the glory of self, but for the glory of
Christ. Not to fulfill our own lusts
and desires, but to Glorify Christ. Isn't that why you desire to
grow? That Christ may be magnified and glorified? That His gift
of salvation might be displayed? You do. Jesus said you take a
candle, you put it on a hill, you don't put it under a bushel. So that all should see. Now,
I want to know this. Do you believe in Christ? And
is your faith true? That's a question, isn't it?
What good is all this work you're going to be doing, trying to
grow fruit, and you don't even have any real fruit? You're not
even alive. What good is it if you're just a professor? Do you really believe in Christ?
If you do, then this is true. You will grow. You will grow. Jesus said, when
those were given good seeds, some grew thirty, some sixty,
and some a hundredfold, but listen, all grew. All grew. Over in Ezekiel chapter 36, this
is the prophecy, this is the covenant, the covenant of God's
grace. He says, Ezekiel 36, let's see,
verse 28, And he said, and you shall dwell
in the land that I give your fathers, and you shall be my
people, and I will be your God. And I will save you from all
your uncleanness, and I will call for the corn, and will increase
it, and lay no famine upon you. I will multiply the fruit of
the tree and the increase of the field, and you shall receive
no more reproach for famine among the heathen. What is he saying?
You're going to grow. You're my people. I'm your God. I've cleansed you from your sins.
And the result is this. I'm going to call. for the fruit. I'm going to call for the graces. And we know that the measure
of our talents that are given to us are of God. The amount
of fruit of the Spirit that we have. Now we have all the fruits
of the Spirit, but we are given that fruit in a measure. In a
measure. This one talent, one man, he
was given five. He was given a full load. His
fruit was And then another man, he only
had two. But he had all the necessary fruit of the Spirit. It just
was a lesser measure. And what's the point of this?
This is it. The greatness of the gift is
not important. But rather that you put it into
practice. That's the purpose of the parable.
Not to covet or envy someone else who has more appearance
of the fruits of the Spirit than you, but rather this, that whatever
God has given me, I should put it to use. I should put it to
use. For what purpose? The glory of
God. The glory of God. Put it into practice that we
use at every opportunity for the glory of Christ. And don't
fail to see this. that our rewards are the same,
and this is important, you gotta keep that in mind. You know that
thief on the cross, how much fruit did he have? How much growing
did he have? Now, I tell you what, he grew
a lot. Now, that's not enough. He looked over at a man dying
and said this, Lord, remember me when you come to your kingdom.
How much faith did that take? He only had three hours. He only
had three hours of growth. And the Lord went home and he
led three, four more hours and that guy was gone. He was in
glory. Now, then you take Methuselah. How much fruit do you suppose
he had over those years? And you know what they both are? They're both receiving exactly
the same in glory right now. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant! You've been ruler over small,
I'm going to give you, be ruler over much. They all were pronounced good
and faithful. So let's do away with that stupid,
foolish notion that there are rewards, more rewards in heaven
for others. That's not true. That's a lie. Remember, all merit-based rewards
come by work of a man, but the rewards of God are not based
on our merits, but rather Christ's. This is why they're the same,
isn't it? Because all our merits are based on Christ. Why is He
going to call you a good and faithful servant? Is that because
you put your fruits to usury and you did... No! He's going
to call you good and faithful because Christ is your representative. Because He was good and faithful,
you're counted good and faithful. So all this growth that we do,
what does that actually add to the work of Christ? Nothing. Nothing. It doesn't add anything. Listen to what Paul said in Titus
3. He said, For we ourselves were sometimes... This is what
we were. Listen to what we were. Foolish. Disobedient. Deceived. Serving divers lust
and pleasures. Living in malice and envy. Hateful
and hating one another. You know, the Bible don't have
a good opinion of us, does it? The Bible just don't have a good
opinion of man by nature. That's what we were by nature.
That's who we are by nature. But after the kindness and love
of God our Savior toward men appeared. Now listen, when that
appeared? It would appear when Christ came,
but it appeared to me when the Spirit came. It appeared to me,
the kindness of God was manifest to me when the Spirit of God
came and I saw Christ. He's the kindness of God. He's
the mercy of God. How'd that come to you? Not by
works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to
his mercy, mercy, he saved us. By the washing of regeneration,
dawn again of the Spirit, renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being
justified by His grace we are made heirs according to the hope
of eternal life. And so it will be when Jesus,
the Son of Man, comes again and gives all true and faithful servants
their reward. What is our reward? It's the
reward of Christ. It's the reward of Christ. not
according to our righteousness. This wasn't given me. Those talents
weren't given me according to my righteousness. If you have
five talents, it's not because you are more righteous than someone
else. We were deceived, foolish. We were all that way. And so
whatever we received, we received by the gift of grace. This salvation
of God, we received it, and our reward is not based on how we
use these talents, but it's how Christ merited our salvation
and our righteousness. He is our righteous. His blood
cleansed us from all our sins. And so then these, we were by Christ, these faithful
servants were redeemed by Christ from all our sins and we were
made kings and priests under God. And this will be our song
and glory. Listen to this, thou art worthy.
Thou art worthy to take the book and loose the seals thereof,
for thou was slain." Not me, I wasn't slain. Thou was slain. And what did you do? You redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred tongue nation,
and you have made us kings and priests unto God. You made us
kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. What a blessing. That's what
we're going to sing in heaven. Faithful servants. Isn't that
what you're going to sing? Believer in Christ, behold the
great gift of God's grace to us. But we are his chosen love
before the foundation of the world. Behold, the Lord Jesus
himself has redeemed us by his blood. He has obtained righteousness
for us, even the righteousness of God by his obedience. And
now. Now, we who are ungodly, unworthy
and unwilling to come to Christ alone, now we are made willing
by his power, made willing Are you willing? Well, of course
I am. You were made willing, if you were ever willing. And
you came by His power. Now you have these talents. These
talents in your hand. Life. Faith. Love. joy, peace, meekness, temperance. You have these graces now by
the power of Christ, by the death and resurrection and righteousness
of Christ. He has given these to you by
His grace, given them to you. Graces have been put into our
hearts. Now you've got these graces.
What do you do with them? Use them. Are you in trouble? Believe on Christ. What are you
doing? I'm using what He gave me. Now,
do I get any glory for using it? No. No. It's not even my
strength to use it. If I'm using it, it's His strength
that's causing me to use it. So I get no glory for using it,
but I'm using it. And as you use it, you exercise. You're
exercising, it's growing, it's stronger than it was before.
That's what God gives us these talents for, that we may use
them, that they may grow. This will be the fruit of all
true believers, that we will grow in the grace and knowledge
of Christ. True believers grow in faith and love and joy and
meekness and temperance and peace. If they're quickened, if they're
alive, they'll grow. You put a plant in the ground,
you put a fruit plant in the ground, how do you know it's
alive? It grows. It just grows. In nature, that's the way God
intended to give a picture, isn't it? It's a picture. It grows. It produces fruit. But in the
end, when Jesus comes, the servants keep nothing for themselves.
Isn't that what He did? That man who had ten talents, where
did the ten talents go when the master came? Did he put any in his pocket?
He said, you know what, I really worked hard. I really did you
a service here, master, and I'm just going to keep this one talent
for myself. I'm going to put that in my pocket.
No, that's not what he did. He said, you delivered me five
talents and look, here's ten. all ten. We keep nothing for ourselves,
but all we have been given and all that is multiplied on the
earth, we confess this, we are unprofitable servants. I have
done nothing to add anything to you by doing this. Nothing whatsoever. I've just
done what you said. By all our growing and all our
worshiping, again, we add nothing to God, but confess this. Paul said, wherefore, my beloved,
as you have always obeyed, in my presence only and also much
more in my absence, what is this obedience? It's faith. He said,
you've obeyed the truth. You've obeyed the gospel, you've
believed. When? In my presence and in my absence. He said this to you. You have
the talents. Listen. Work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. Work out your own salvation with
fear. For it is God that worketh in you both the will and do of
his good pleasure. So who's really doing the work
here? When you exercise that faith, when you exercise that
love, who's actually doing the work? It's God who worketh in
you. What is he doing? Both to will
and what? Do. You know, you hear somebody say,
well, man, I really wish I could believe. Well, if you're his,
you can. You know why? He wills it, you
will it, right? Both to will and what? Do. God's people do believe. God's
people do love. God's people are temperate. God's
people are gentle. Why? Because God works in them
both to will and do of His good pleasure. Oh, that men would search their
souls to see if they're truly faithful, sir. Have we been born of the Spirit
of God? Or are we born of the will of the flesh? Have we been
given the talents of faith and love of Christ? Have we been faithful to put
these graces to usury? Have we grown in these graces?
Has the Lord tried our faith and proven it by the fires of
affliction? And I'm telling you what, you
want to grow, anybody want to grow? You know what you're asking for,
right? You're asking for trouble. Because that's how these things
grow. They grow through the fires of
affliction. Has your love been put to the
test? If you want it to grow, it'll be put to the test. Isn't
that what he did to Peter? Simon, lovest thou me more than
me? He'd been put to the test and
he failed miserably. But see, his faith failed not. Why? Christ said, I pray for
thee. And when he came to them, he put it to, do you love me?
Oh Lord, you know. You know I love you. Do you love
Christ? Are you like these guys? Because
these are true believers. Or, are you like this last fellow? Let me tell you something about
this last man. this last fellow, this unfaithful servant, this
one that received one talent, one talent. He is a picture of
only those who profess faith in Christ. His profession is
nothing more than an act of religion, his decision, his baptism, his
church membership, and listen, it may even be the doctrines
of grace. Is that your profession? Well,
I believe in the doctrines of grace. So what? Do you possess Christ? Are you
born of the Spirit of God? Surely, I know the doctrines
of grace are used. That's the gospel. The gospel
is used in our conversion. And surely all believers believe
the gospel. But if that's what you're trusting
in, you only got one talent. You only got one. Listen, my friend, if this is
all you have as a profession of faith and no real experience
of grace, no real affection for Christ and His people and His
gospel, then you will be like this man. You will bury that
talent in the earth. You will bury it in the earth. That is, you'll wrap up your
profession in that which is cursed. Isn't the earth cursed? The earth
was cursed. Where does his profession go?
His profession went into the earth. It was earthy. Religion is earthy. It's all about seeing and feeling
and touching. And what it says over in Colossians
chapter 2, he said, Wherefore you being dead with Christ from
the rudiments of the world, Why is through living in the world
are you subject to ordinances touch not, taste not, handle
not? Which are to perish with the
using for the commandments and doctrines of men. Which things
have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility
and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying
of the flesh. In other words, will worship
is what? Touch not, taste not, handle not. If your religion
is in something you do, something you say, something you touch,
your religion is in the earth. You're trusting in anything you've
done. You're trusting in flesh. And
those who have one talent, these professors, they love the praises
of men. They love the show of religion.
But there is no self-abasement in that. When this man, when
the end comes, and he stands before the king, listen to the
arrogancy of his word, I knew you. I knew you. I knew you were a hard man. You
see how they think of God? Religion's hard, isn't it? It's
hard. You ever tried to follow all
their rules and ordinances? It's hard. So what do you think
of God? He's a hard man. He's a hard man. If you know anything about grace,
He's not a hard man. He's a kind God. He's a gracious
God. He's a merciful God. He's a loving
God. But if you're like this man,
you'd think you know God, and you'd think, man, He's hard.
He's a hard man. reaping where thou hast not sown,
gathering where thou hast not strewed. And I was afraid and
hid my talent in the earth. And lo, whatever it is you had,
there it is. Just take what you had. Take what you had. This man's talent, he had a knowledge
of God. All men have a knowledge of God,
don't they? Paul, if you go back to Romans chapter 2, he says
this, he says, look, you can look in the heavens and you can
see that there's a God? You can see his power? You can see that
even if you had the law of God written in your heart, you can
see that? You know what men do with that? Nothing. Nothing. Listen to this, I read this a
long time ago. See, when Stephen Hawking said
this, he said, if there is a God, he's sovereign. You know that? He said, if there is a God, he's
sovereign. But you know what he did with that knowledge? He
dug a hole and put it in it and defied the sovereign God. Defied
the sovereign God. Now listen, have you the gift
of grace and life and faith in Christ, such as real life and
faith? What does that look like? It
always moves us to obedience, doesn't it? Moves us to obedience. I want you to see three things
it moves us to and then I'll close. Go to Ephesians 4. So
as we desire to grow in grace, if we have true faith, we're
not going to hide it in the earth. It's actually going to work itself
out. It's actually going to be exercised. That's the whole point of this
parable. Look in Ephesians chapter 4 and look at verse 1 through
3. First of all, if we have these
gifts, these talents of God's grace, He's going to move us
to obedience. And what is the first thing we're
going to be doing? We're going to walk worthy of this calling. Look what Paul said. He said,
therefore, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. Are you a prisoner
of Christ? Are you a prisoner? Or do you want to be free from
Christ? Paul said, I'm a prisoner. Take me away, lock, stock and
barrel, I'm yours. I'm a prisoner. And he said,
I beseech you, you other prisoners, you listen to this, you prisoners
of Christ. He said, I beseech you, walk
worthy of your vocation wherewith you are called. He said, walk
as children of light. That's what he's talking about. I think in chapter 5 he says,
be you imitators of God as dear children. That's what he's talking
about. What were they? How are we walking? With all
lowliness, meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of
peace. What do you suppose the church would look like if we
walked that way all the time? If we walked in lowliness and
meekness, If I always esteemed you above myself and you esteem
me above yourself, what would that look like? You think there'd
be any division? No, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit and the bond of peace. This is what those who
have the talents of God's grace, we exercise this by walking. Walking. After walking worthy
of this calling. The second thing we do is we
establish ourselves in the gospel. We establish ourselves. Do you know enough about this gospel
yet? Have you learned everything there is to know? The depths,
have you plumbed the depths of this thing? No, no, but we we
want to. God's people do. Look at what
is verse 14 of that chapter in Ephesians 4. He said that henceforth
you'll be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about by
every wind of doctrine, the sleight of men and cunning craftiness,
whereby you lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love. Speaking the truth. In order
to speak the truth, you got to know the truth. You know it. And what do you do with it? You
exercise it. You speak the truth in love. Not condescending, not in debate. But in love, why? Speaking the truth in love may
grow up into him in all things. Grow up? Who doesn't need to
grow up? God's people need to grow. So
what do we do? We establish ourselves in this
word so we're not tossed about. Don't be moved from the simplicity
of the gospel. Don't be moved from the singleness of Christ.
It's all about Christ. It's Christ. Christ. And if you
move away from Christ, you've moved away from the simplicity
of it. It's Christ. He's our gospel. He's our hope.
And the last thing is we mortify the flesh. We put off the deeds
of the body. This is what those who grow in grace do. Look at
verse 21. If so be you've heard of him. And been taught by him,
you heard of him, been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Listen. that you put off concerning
the former conversation of the old man." Put off the old man
and his deeds. How do you do that? Do you do that generally? How do you put off this old man?
Do you talk to him? Do you reason with him? You say,
now, Scott, buddy, let's just, you know, you need to really
just stop doing that. Mortify the deeds of the body.
Don't coddle it. You know why? It'll consume you. Mortify the deeds of the body.
which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man." Why? This
is what it is to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.
This is what it is to exercise, to put those talents to usury.
It's to walk worthy of the calling in loneliness, in meekness, in
love, in faith to Christ. That's what we're to walk in.
And we're to establish ourselves in the gospel so we're not tossed
about. And we're to put off the old man. These things are caused,
it's how we exercise these fruits. In exercising these fruits, we
do these things. We do these things. And what
are they for? The glory of God. The glory of
God. It's my hope tonight that you,
by the grace of God, have been given the Spirit that you've
been given life and faith in Christ, that you've laid hold
on Him, that you love Him and His people and His church. And
if you do, listen, put it to use. Put it to use. Why? That's what faithful saints do.
They put it to use. Not for salvation, but because
of salvation. And what Paul said, I beseech
you, because of the mercies of God, present your body to living
sacrifice. That's why you do it, for the
glory of Christ. Now, what if you don't? Well,
you just got one talent. You just got one. If your salvation
is wrapped up in what you do, and you think what you do will
glorify God, you got one talent. You see, Christ glorified God.
And I benefit from His glory, and He's given me these talents
for His own glory, and I'm going to use them for that. May God
give us grace to do that. I pray He will. Let's be dismissed
in prayer. Gracious Father, dismiss us with Your blessing and benediction.
I pray that You'd be with us. Oh, Father, strengthen us. Encourage
us that we should follow You and serve You in this life. Not
for any glory to self, but all the glory belong to Christ. And
we know this, that our reward in heaven is completely of the
merits of the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. And when He
comes, we shall soon enjoy His presence forever. I pray that
you give life and faith to those of your people who are now dead,
that you would raise them by your Spirit, give them faith
that they might grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ and come
with us. I pray these things in Jesus' name.