Matthew chapter 25. This morning
I'm going to be talking to you about the parable of the servants. The parable of the servants and
the talents. Now, the Scripture says in verse
14 of Matthew chapter 5, "...for the kingdom of heaven is as a
man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and
delivered unto them his goods." And unto one of the five, one
he gave five talents, to the other two, and to another one. To every man according to his
servile ability, and straightway took his journey. Then he that
had received the five talents, when he had traded the same,
he made other five talents. And likewise, he that received
two, he also gained another two. and he that had received one,
and digged it in the earth, and hid his Lord's money. After a
long time the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five
talents came and brought other five, saying, Lord, thou deliverest
to me five talents. Behold, I have gained besides
them five more talents. 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. He also that had
received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverest to
me two talents. Behold, I have gained two other
talents besides them. 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." I want you to see this, you'll notice it in a minute,
but their reward was the same. Their reward was the same. One
had five, he gained five. The other had two, he gained
two. But their reward was no different. They both received
the blessing and the reward of joy. And when he that received
one talent came and said, Lord, I knew Thee, that Thou art a
hard man, reaping where You did not sow, and gathering where
You did not straw. And I was afraid, and I hid Thy
talent in the earth. Lo, there Thou that hast is Thine. His Lord answered and said unto
him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, Thou knewest that I
reap where I did not sow, and gathered where I did not straw.
Thou oughtest, therefore, have to put my money to the exchangers,
and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take, therefore, the talent from
him, and give it to him which hath ten talents. For unto every
one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. but from him that hath not it
shall be taken away, even that he hath, and cast ye that unprofitable
servant into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth." And this parable that I've read to you, in this chapters
24 and 25, to put this together and give you an understanding
of why this parable is given. Chapter 24 and 25 of Matthew,
our Lord is speaking about His second coming. He's speaking
about His final coming in judgment. He who first came in the flesh
to be the Savior of sinners will soon come again in righteousness
and be the judge of all men. The first time Christ came in
meekness, He came as lowly lamb and offered Himself to God without
spot and without blemish. And having accomplished His work,
God raised Him from the dead, set Him on the throne of glory,
and until then, until He comes again, He will not come in such
a manner. When the Lord comes again, He
will rightly come as judge over all flesh, and He will judge
every man righteously. He will judge every one of us
righteously with righteous judgment. Righteous judgment. Now, men
have made this mistake. Our Lord that is now in heaven,
He is not waiting to rule over men. He is now ruling over all
flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
do the will of the Father. He did the will of the Father.
And now He has ascended to heaven. He is seated on the throne of
glory. And He is doing exactly what He wills to do. He is sovereign
in everything He does. He rules all things after the
counsel of His own will. He has dominion over all flesh. But when He comes again, the
only difference is it will be in full display. Right now, it
doesn't seem as though He rules, but He rules, regardless of what
it appears to be. But when He comes again, everyone
will know who the ruler is. Everyone will know who Christ
is. He will be exalted before every
eye shall see Him, the Scripture says. Wherefore God hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name that is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth. And every tongue
shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father." And so now, in these chapters, our Lord then is warning
us. He is warning men, be ready. Be ready. His coming is imminent. He will come in the day like
when He came in Noah's day. How did He come in Noah's day?
The Scripture says they were eating and drinking and giving
in marriage. They were doing everything the same. There was
no warning. Noah had warned them for 120
years and yet they were doing the same. They weren't ready. And as the day he entered into
that ark, that's when judgment fell upon the world. And millions
upon millions of people were swiped away with judgment and
justice. They went out into eternity,
not ready. He did not heed the Word of God.
And so it is when the Son of Man comes, when Christ comes,
everything will continue the way it is. There won't be any
warning. There won't be anything that
you're going to observe in regular life that's going to change.
They're going to be eating and drinking and marriage and giving
and marriage, expecting a tomorrow to come. And that tomorrow won't
come when He comes. It'll be over. And so the Lord
is giving warning. And in the beginning of this
chapter, chapter 25, He gives the first parable of this by
the ten wise and the ten foolish virgins. The ten wise and ten
foolish virgins. He says this, the kingdom of
heaven is likened unto. And that's what He says in our
text. The same thing, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto. Kingdom of heaven. What this
is speaking of is the church. The so-called church. Christian
church. Whatever that is. Anyone who
names the name of Christ. This encompasses all what we
would call Christianity in this generation. He says the kingdom
of heaven is made up of two kinds of people. The church is always
made up of two types of people. Wise and foolish virgins. And in our text, we're going
to see that the church is made up of faithful and slothful servants. Now in the ten wise and ten foolish
virgins, we know this, that the ten wise are those who truly
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what they're a picture
of. The five wise virgins, sorry. And the five foolish virgins
are a picture of everyone who just professes to believe. Now,
which is easier? You suppose it's easier just
to have true faith or just to make a profession of faith? Scripture
says true faith is something only God gives. Jesus said, this
is the work of God that you believe. To believe on Christ is not a
mere act of the will, it is a work of God, which no man can do in
himself. He must, like these virgins,
if He is to be wise, He must have the oil of the Spirit. The
oil is representative of the Spirit of God. You must have
the Spirit of God in order to believe on Christ. But the church is made up of
true believers and just pretenders. And so that's what the Lord is
telling them. Judgment's coming. And He's saying this, which are
you? In this thing we call Christendom, in this thing we call the church,
I don't care what denomination you come from, doesn't matter.
Which are you? Are you the fool or are you the
wise? Are you the faithful or are you
the slothful? Make no mistake, when Christ
comes, all the fools will be cast into outer darkness and
shut out. All of the slothful servants
will be cast out in weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's hell. All of the fools and slothful
servants will be cast out. Only the wise and the faithful
servants will be allowed in to the God's kingdom. And with that
in mind, let's go ahead and look at this parable here. We have
a traveler here, a man, a king. He's a ruler, and he has servants,
and he travels to a far country. He's living in a country, and
he travels to another country, a whole different country, and
he has servants there. And he gives these servants,
what they say, talents. It's money. He gives them money
from his riches. Now, how much he gives, who determines
that? Well, the ruler does. He determines
what men receive. And he gives one man five talents,
and he gives another man two, and he gives another man one
talent. And then he goes away. And these
men, you see what they do. This man that had five, he took
that five talents. He took that money that his Lord
had given him. And he had wisely traded and
made five more. The man who had two, he wisely
traded and made two more. But this one man, who had one
talent, this was a fearful man. This man, he did not... Matter of fact, when you read
his account, he despises the king. He said, you took where
you didn't... You're just a thief and a robber,
basically what he called him. He said, you took where you didn't
sow. You gather where you didn't straw.
And he said, here, here's your talent back. He hid it in the
earth. But notice, those are the blessings
of those men who were faithful. They received the same blessing.
Though they had different talents in amounts, though they brought
different amounts back, yet they received the same blessing. Well
done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of
thy Lord." Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into
the joy of the Lord. But this last man, this last
man, our Lord, He said, what have you done? You should have
just took that money and I could have done what you did with it.
I could have put it to, you should have just put it to usury. You
should have put it to some use, but you didn't. And what is the
sentence? The sentence of this man was
not a slap on the wrist. The sentence of this man was
death. Death. That's what this king
was going to give him. Cast him out into outer darkness
where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so then let's dig into the
parable. Let's see what it means. It's a story. Everybody can understand
the story. You can see the story. But what
does it really mean? Because parables have a meaning.
They have a spiritual meaning. So what is the spiritual meaning?
What is the Lord getting at? Well, first of all, we've got
to know the characters. Who are they? Well, the first one is
the man who journeyed. The Lord. Who is that? We know
this is Jesus Christ Himself. He is speaking of Himself. A
man took a fire. journey into another country.
Is that not what the Lord Jesus Christ did, who is the Son of
God? Did He not take a long journey into this earth? Did He not condescend
to become a man? He came down. He journeyed. The great condescension of the
Son of God, who came to accomplish the salvation of His people,
to save sinners. He came and He died. Now how far is that for God,
that God should take on flesh? How are you enjoying the flesh?
You like it? It's painful, isn't it? It's
suffering. The body to be a man is very
troubling. And yet God Himself took on human
flesh. He came down to save sinners
through His suffering, through His death. He offered Himself
the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. Upon
the cross, He suffered for the sins of His people. He died under
the justice of God for our ungodly deeds. This is what Christ came
to do. He journeyed. And this is that
talent that He has is His grace, is His salvation, His mercy. And see now the witness of His
disciples. They saw Him. They saw His suffering. They saw Him ascend. Not only
did He come and die, but He also rose from the dead. His work, the work of Christ,
was no effort to save. He didn't come to make salvation
possible. You see, Christ actually came
to save. He came to redeem. He didn't
come to make redemption possible. He came to redeem. Matter of
fact, in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12, it says that by the
blood and bulls of goats, it could never take away sin. But
Christ offered Himself once to God, hath obtained eternal redemption. He obtained eternal redemption
by His work. And because of His victory, because
salvation had been accomplished, God raised Him from the dead
and sat Him on the throne. God set Him on His glorious throne
and testifies of His salvation. The Apostle said this in Ephesians
4, There is one body and one spirit as you are called into
one hope of your one calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through
all and in you all. and unto every one that is given
grace according to the measure of the gift." So now then we
see what the Lord, who traveled into a far country, see what
He gives. These talents are His grace. His grace. Therefore, we who are called
of God to preach the gospel, we are given gifts and talents
of God. We are called with these gifts
according to the measure of Him that gives them, some five, some
two. All men of God are given some
talents, some gifts of grace to preach the gospel. Every man,
regardless of the measure of his merits, two or five, The
end is always the same. To declare this same gospel to
you. These talents were no different.
You take a nickel and put a nickel together, what are they? They're
the same nickel. The grace that I have is the same grace that
every believer has. That every man of God that's
called to preach has. Now some may have more measure.
Some may have more abilities, more liberties. More opportunities
to preach the gospel, but they preach the same gospel. They
preach the same message. Therefore now, I point you, as
a preacher of the gospel, who has received the grace of the
gospel, I declare unto you, Christ came to save sinners. This is
our message. I sure hope there are sinners
here. Because if you're not a sinner, this message is not for you.
This message is for sinners. This is a faithful saying, the
Apostle said, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came
into the world to save who? Sinners. Sinners. And Paul said, not only sinners,
I'm the chief of sinners. You see, this message of God's
grace and mercy that He came to provide, that He came to give,
is a message of grace and it's for sinners. But there's no good news for
the self-righteous. There's no good news for men
who are justified by the works of the law. No good news for
those who seek to be accepted of God based on their religious
deeds. Do you think God would accept
you based on your religious deeds? I have no message for you. I
have no gospel for you. If you think God should accept
you based on your works, based on your abilities, then I have
no message. I have a message of grace. A
message of free mercy. Without merit. Without works. A message of mercy. That's the
message. That's the talent that is given.
It is the message of God's grace. Our Lord told those Pharisees,
you know, if anybody thought they could earn heaven, the Pharisees
did. And they thought within themselves that they could merit
His favor by their obedience. And our Lord says to these Pharisees,
He said, they that are whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick. But go you and learn what that
meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. In other words,
salvation is by mercy and not by sacrifice. Salvation is by
something Christ does, not something you do. Salvation is a free gift
of grace, not of merit. You can't mix them. You can't
put it together. Matter of fact, if you put grace...
What is grace? Grace is unmerited favor. That's what it means. Unmerited
favor. This is the only salvation the
Scripture speaks of, unmerited favor. But once you put merit
in it, you ruin grace. It doesn't mean grace anymore,
it means work. And so salvation is by grace,
through faith. And that faith, not of yourself. Faith is a gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. See, this talent that the Lord
gives us is grace, is salvation, is mercy. I know, if you never feel your need of
Christ, you'll never come to Christ. Isn't that so? Only they
that are sick need a physician. They that are whole, you don't
need anything, you'll never come to Christ. You'll never need
Christ. But to sinners, To sinners, we have no place
else to go. I'm a sinner. I know what I am. And I know this, I have no place
else to go. I go to Christ and plead for
mercy. I go to Christ because only His
blood can atone for my sin. I go to Christ because only His
righteousness can make me acceptable before God. You only come to
Christ if you've got a need. Therefore, we believe on Jesus
Christ. And as the word of Jesus testifies,
he that believeth in me shall never perish. Is that not wonderful
news? He that believeth in me shall
never die. Believest thou this? He's not
talking about a physical death. We're all going to face physical
death, except He come again. What He's talking about is that
when we die in the body, we really don't die. All that believe in
Christ don't really die. We go to glory to be with Christ. All who are in Christ. And yet see in this parable,
the kingdom of God, it represents the whole of professing church.
Now the outward church in all of history is always made up
of two types of people. Goats and sheep. Tares and wheat. True believers and false believers. Now, there are many who make a profession of
faith. There are many who have been
baptized, they've joined the church, but who have not ever
experienced the quickening power of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.
They've been through the ceremony, they've been through the ritual,
they got a little water put on them, they got a little cracker
and a little thing of wine, and they say, oh, I'm saved. Salvation is a matter of the
heart, not an action of the body. You can get baptized as many
times as you want to. When I heard this lie, somebody
told me, well, if you'll just make a decision for Jesus, everything
will be okay. I must have made that ten times.
I must have went down there as many times as he'd call me. Why? Because it was never enough.
It was never enough. I could never confess enough.
I could never do enough. Religion has always got you to
do things. Do this. Do this. Oh, that's
not enough. You've got to do more. Do more. No, the gospel
is done. That's it. Christ finished. Work
accomplished. Salvation wrought. That's the message of the gospel.
Like I said, some people go through the motions, but they never have
it in their heart. There are many, but I know this, there
are also true believers in the church. Those who are actually
born again of the Spirit of God. Have you been born again? Is
that not a question that we should all make our calling in election? Sure. Have you been born again?
It doesn't really matter about your neighbor. It doesn't matter
about the people around you. This is a question for you and
me individually. Have you been born of the Spirit
of God? Jesus said, except you be born again, you shall not
enter the kingdom of God. Have you been born again? If you've been born again of
God, then you have been washed in the blood of Christ. You've
been raised from the dead and clothed in the righteousness
of God. And both of these are pictured
by these three servants. Now these true servants of God
are represented by these two people. Those who are given five
talents and those who are given two. These servants of God. Faithful servants. while those
who only profess are seen as the slothful and wicked servant. So all of us who profess to believe
on Christ are here pictured. Every one of us in this room.
You have stake in this. You have a stake in this. You
are one of these two types. Every one of us. Now some have tried to just associate
this with pastors. I don't want to do that because
that's not true. I know this, that this is talking about all
true believers who are faithful servants. Now we know that the measure
of our talents and gifts that are given to us of God are only
according to His grace. So this guy, one of these guys
received five talents. In other words, this one servant,
he was given a great opportunities, great ministry. The fruits of
the Spirit in this one individual were overflowing. And I know
that that's true of some men. Some men that God gives ample
amounts of grace. I have large libraries full of
books. There was a man named Charles
Spurgeon that preached the gospel in the 1800s. His books are so
full of sermons and notes and commentary. The Lord used that
man greatly. I don't suppose that I'll ever
be used in that great capacity. That's alright though. Amounts
don't really matter, does it? Why? They both receive the same
blessing. They both receive the same reward.
Now isn't that going to be something? I know this, I don't have as
much work that I've done as he did in this world, but I'm going
to receive the same reward. Why? Because our reward is not
based on our Our works. The reward of heaven is based
on the work of Christ alone. You see, my righteousness is
His righteousness. My reward is His reward. He's my Savior. He's my Lord.
I receive the same reward. He pronounces us at the end when
we meet Him in glory, well done thou good and faithful servant. This idea of rewards and merits
and things, that's a false religion. That's a false religion. The
Scripture does not speak of anything, well do this, do this, and then
God will do this. You know, God will give you more
rewards in heaven than this other guy over here. No. You know what
I really deserve? You take all my works, you put
them together, you know what I deserve? I deserve hell. That's what I
deserve. But you take this, and I, being in Christ, now deserve
what He deserves. He's my righteousness. He's my
hope. He's my joy. The Apostle says in Titus 3,
he said, "...we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice
and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that the
kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost, which is shed upon us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we should
be made, listen, heirs according to the hope of eternal life. You see, it is only through the
work of Christ we should receive reward, the reward of heaven. And so will be when the Son of
Man comes. When the Son of Man comes, He
will reward His good and faithful servants." Who are they? They
are all who receive the grace of God. All who believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. All who are washed in His blood,
robed in His righteousness, redeemed, sanctified, justified, not by
their works, but by His merits. By His works. This will be the song in heaven. Thou art worthy to take the book
and open the seals thereof. Thou wast slain and hast redeemed
us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, nation,
and people. And Thou hast made us unto our
God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth." See,
when Christ comes, He is going to reward who? Those who have
His Son. Those who are in His Son, born
again of the Spirit, given faith, the grace of faith. Believer
in Christ, behold the great gift of God's grace toward us. Consider
what great things God has done for us, believer. Do you realize
He has chosen us? Chosen us. He has loved us from
the foundation of the world. And behold, the Lord Jesus Christ
has redeemed us to God by His blood, has obtained our righteousness
by His own obedience. And now, we who were ungodly,
unworthy, unwilling to come to God by Christ, now are made willing
in the day of His power." It's amazing what great things God
has done for His servants to give us such grace. to give us
such mercies. And these graces that He has
given us, these graces that He has given
us, we are to use them. Isn't that what these servants
did? These true and faithful servants?
They put to use what God gave them. Isn't that just right? God gave us the fruit of the
Spirit. Love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance, faith. And what do
we do as believers? We put these things into practice.
We desire to be faithful unto God. Not for our salvation, but
rather because of it. Because of the great goodness
our God has given us, we therefore willingly put these things out.
We love and we serve and we long to please our God. Not for acceptance,
but rather because of His grace. Because of what He's wrought
in us. I know this, when the Lord saved
me, I didn't know if I changed or
the world changed, but I tell you something changed. Something
changed. Wherefore, as before, I tried
to earn salvation. Now then, by grace, I simply
receive it. What changed? I tell you, God
gave me a new heart. He gave me a new heart. A life. I was raised from the dead. I
was dead and now I'm alive. And what do living people do?
They live. They move. One person called
us animated dust. That's what it is. Animated dust. It's true. But I tell you, now
this animated dust doesn't live for himself, he lives for Christ. He serves Christ. I desire nothing
but that you should see Christ, that you should know Christ,
that you should be ready when He comes. My hope is that God,
by His grace, would give you the same grace He gave to me.
Maybe He'll give you more. I don't know. But I know this,
we'll both receive the same thing. will both receive eternal life,
righteousness, peace with God. This is what His faithful servants
do. They go out and they love, they
serve. And this is our confession. that salvation is completely
of the Lord. That's the confession of a true
servant. When they handed back this money, did they hand him
back and say, well, God, here's your five talents. Now then,
let me talk about these other five that I did. No. You see, they were all His. They
didn't take any for themselves. One thing about true and faithful
servants is we recognize this. Everything is of God. All my
salvation was... It's His. He purposed it from
eternity. He planned it. You know nobody's
saved on accident? You know that? Look at that Romans
8.28. Everybody, I'm sure, can quote
it. All things work together for
good to them that love God. And usually people stop there.
Don't. To them that love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. You see, salvation is
not by accidents on purpose. It's not my purpose. It's God's
purpose. God purposed my salvation. Christ
accomplished my salvation, and the Spirit of God gives me salvation,
keeps me in the faith all the days of my life, and every fruit
that I can produce out of this salvation is the fruit of the
Spirit. Not the fruit of the man, it's
the fruit of the Spirit. So everything is of God. This
is the confession of the faithful servant. So that when we go to
glory, we give it all to God. All glory belongs to God. You
know what? I want to give it all to God
now. I'm not keeping anything for myself. Salvation is of the
Lord. This is the faithful servant.
This is the one that is saved by the grace of God. Are you
a faithful servant? Now what is the end of the faithful
servant? I'll read it to you again. He
says this, well done. You know why he's going to tell
me well done? Because Christ did it well. Because Christ did
it. You see, I am so in union with
Christ, He is the head and I am His body. Can you separate that? You see, His righteousness is
mine. So God's going to look at me through Him and say, well
done. Now you know what? I look in
the mirror and I can't say well done. I can't say it. And be honest. But I know this,
in Him it's well done. Thou good and faithful servant,
Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee
rule over many things." And he does this with both those who
have little grace and those who have much. They get the same
reward. Let me talk about this last,
this slothful man for a moment. There are some in the church
who are mere professors. There are some people who are
in the church They try to act like the sheep, they try to mimic
true believers, but really they're just pretending. They're going
through the motions. Religion. Religion never helped anyone
to glory. Not if it's not accompanied by
true faith in Christ. This last man, he had a talent
given to him. And it's the talent that's given
to every man by nature. It's the knowledge of God. Everybody
knows there's a God. Everybody knows that God is just
and holy. And every man knows within his
own self he is not holy. Now that's something every man
knows. Every one of you know this. You
know it in your own heart. If you'd just be honest with
yourself, you would know it. What does man do with this knowledge
that he has? This man, this slothful man,
he hid it in the earth. He took that money, he buried
it down in the earth and he hid it. You know what man does by
nature? He suppresses what he knows.
He pushes it down and pushes it down. The Scripture says he
sears his conscience like a hot iron. He's got a wound and he
takes a hot knife and he just... And when it's seared, what does
it do? It doesn't have any feeling anymore. Pretty soon, his guilt
that he had, it just sears it and it just goes away. He pushes
it down. Men dig into the earth. This
is a picture of men in religion. They dig down into religion.
You know, religion is confusing. The gospel is simple. Religion
is confusing. Religion is always doing, never
finishing, always working. Religion is always questioning
things. Well, how do you really know?
God's Word said it. That's simple enough for me.
I'm very comfortable with that. God said it. And for me, that
settles it. Now religion, that doesn't settle
anything. They need other works. They need traditions, and they
need creeds, and they need this, and you've got 20,000 books laid
out, and each one's saying a little different thing, and then they're
like that shell game. You've got those crooks, you
know, they play that shell game. That's what religion is, a shell
game. It's a crooked game. The Gospel's very open and plain.
And men hide themselves in the earth. Isn't that what Adam did?
When he found out about it, when God found out about it, God was
going to expose his sin, he called him and he ran and hid in the
woods. And that's what men do when the
gospel comes. You watch, they'll hightail it out. Why? They're
pressing what they already know to be true. They think ill of God. That's
what this man said. He said, I knew, I was afraid.
I didn't put this thing to use because I was afraid. You are
a hard man. That's how men view God, isn't
it? Hard. You know how I view Him? Merciful. To me, God is merciful. To give me hell would be to just
give me what I deserve. And I'm thankful He doesn't give
me what I deserve by nature. He gives me what His Son produced. That's mercy. That's grace. And you know at the end, this
man, this pretender, he was cast out. He was cast out. You pay close attention. Christ
is coming. He's coming. Are you ready? Are you faithful? Are you the
slothful? Are you in Christ? Are you in
the earth? Are you in religion? Or do you
actually possess the Spirit of God in you? Our Lord says this in the end,
He says, "...for unto every one of you that hath shall be given,
and he shall have abundance." If you have Christ, you know
what? You're only going to get more. When I get the glory, I'm
going to receive the full package. Everything Christ has, I'm going
to have. Those that have grace, those
that have faith, when they die, they will receive the whole thing
in abundance. But you listen, he that hath
not the grace of God, God's going to take away even what he had. I'll close with this illustration. The rich man, Lazarus. You remember Lazarus? Dogs licked
his sores. He was a poor man. He had something
that the rich man didn't have. He had the grace of God. He had
the faith in Christ. He believed the gospel. And when
Lazarus died, he was lifted up into glory. You see, he had,
and now he has more abundant. The rich man had something. He
had religion. He knew that. He had wealth in
the world. What he didn't have was grace. And when he died, he lifted up
his eyes being in torment. And listen, he's still there
right now today. Torments of God. And everything
he had was taken from him. You realize that a man without
Christ has some mercies now. You're not suffering. People
say hell on earth. There's no such thing. No such
thing. You have mercy. Every joy that
you have is given by God. But in that day, when He comes,
there will be no mercy at all. That which you had on earth,
you won't have there. There will be no peace there,
no joy there, no hope. And so then the Word is plain.
Christ is coming. Christ is coming. Are you ready? May God, by His grace, make you
ready. Let's dismiss with prayer.