Matthew 25, we're going to be
starting in verse 14. Last week we covered the parable
of the ten virgins, and today I hope to cover this one on the
talents that were given to these servants. Matthew 25. We'll begin as soon as we ask
the Lord to be with us. There was a sermon I heard, I
think it was a recent one, where Don mentioned there was a man
back in I think the 1700s or 1800s, I don't know which, a
couple hundred years ago, Evidently, he only had one eye, but he was
a preacher. His name was Christmas Evans,
I think. Kind of an interesting name.
Anyway, he was scheduled to preach. And they couldn't find him. The
time had come. So they sent a couple of deacons
out to find him. One went one way, one went the
other, and finally one of them came back. And he said, did you
find the preacher? He said, no. Well, actually I
did find him. Well, is he coming? He said,
I don't know. He says he was praying. And I
heard him say, Lord, I've entered that pulpit too many times on
my own strength. And I don't want to enter it
again without you. So he said he was on his knees praying that
the Lord would be with him. So we always want to ask the
Lord to do what only he can do, is speak from his word to our
hearts. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would indeed speak
to us concerning your son. Tell us, each one, in our very
hearts, our soul, that he is our salvation. It means nothing
if you say it to all the saints, but don't say it to me, Lord.
But if you say this and speak the word only to our hearts as
sinners, we know, Lord, that we will glory in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, because that's where he laid down his
life for us, where he won the victory over all of our enemies
and saved us, so that we are unblameable and unreprovable
and holy in your sight by his one offering. Thank you for this
mercy, thank you for this savior. Lord be with us now from your
word, in Jesus name we pray, amen. Alright, beginning in Matthew
25 in verse 14. We read, 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 he gave five talents,
to another two, and to another one, to every man according to
his several ability. And straightway took his journey,
the man who was traveling to a far country set out on his
journey. 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. But he that
had received one went and digged 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 talents, saying,
Lord, thou deliverest unto me five talents. Behold, I have
gained beside them five talents more. His Lord said to 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. And he also that had received
two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents.
Behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His Lord
said to 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. Then he which had received one
talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man,
reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast
not strawed. And I was afraid, and went and
hid thy talent in the earth. Lo, here thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said to
him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I
reap where I sowed not, and gathered where I have not strawed. Thou
oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and
then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury,
that means interest. Take therefore the talent from
him, and give it unto 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 shall be taken away even that which
he hath. And cast he the unprofitable
servant into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. Now I don't know about you, but
these kinds of parables always trouble me. And we'll go through this carefully
as we can. First thing I want to do is mention
at the outset what this parable does not teach. Because it's
easy, I think, to make this parable say what the Lord doesn't say
in Scripture. How do we know what the truth
of the Gospel is? We have to take it from the pages
of Scripture where it is most clearly set forth. Parables set
forth a message, they give a message and we need to understand what
that message is. But it's difficult from parables
to establish the truth of the gospel without first finding
the truth in the clearest places where it's taught in scripture
and then applying those to the parable itself. So using that
principle The first thing we can see here from this parable,
the first thing we know from this parable is that believers,
this parable does not teach that believers can lose grace or lose
their salvation. It doesn't teach that. For example,
in Romans 11 verse 29 it says the gifts And calling of God
are without repentance. He's not a man that he should
repent. It says in Numbers 21. He's not
like men. He doesn't change. He's immutable.
He's eternally the same. Whatever he was in eternity,
that's what he is everlastingly. That's what he is in time. His
will never changes. His work never changes. He never
changes his mind. He never backs up. He always
does his will. And his will is always done.
Whatever the Lord thought, that did he. Psalm 33 11. So the first
thing we learn from this is believers... I mean the first thing we want
to understand is believers cannot lose grace or their salvation. Jesus said this in many different
places. Remember in John 10 verse 27,
My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me. And
they shall never perish. Never perish. Neither is any
man able to pluck them out of my hand. So the sheep of the
Lord Jesus Christ were his sheep before he laid his life down
for them. They were his sheep after he
laid his life down for them. And they will be in heaven. He
says in John 10.16, these also I must bring. He must have them. He laid his life down for them
and they will be saved. No doubt about it. That's the
clear teaching of scripture. The second thing that this parable
does not teach is that believers can lose their reward. Now it
does say in scripture in 2 John, the 2nd epistle of John in verse
8. It says, look to yourselves that
we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we
receive a full reward. But there it's talking about
the same thing it did in the book of Galatians, where the
Galatians were tempted to think that their salvation required
something of them. And so they needed to be circumcised,
they needed to keep the law. And they went back to thinking
in opposition to the grace of God, that Christ is all. Just
like Paul told them, have you suffered these things in vain?
If it be yet in vain, Galatians 3.4. But by abandoning Christ
in the gospel, a man may lose something, but it's only what
he seemed to have. Luke 8.18 says, take heed therefore
how you hear, Jesus said, for whoever has to him shall be given,
and whoever has not "...from him shall be taken even that
which he seems to have." So the man in this parable, the one
talent man, it seemed like he lost everything. Now that's not
teaching that believers lose grace or lose salvation or lose
a reward. It's saying that what he seemed
to have, he lost. And so we'll understand that
better as we go through the parable. The other thing that this is
not teaching is that... Believers somehow, by their diligent
use of what God has given them in life, improve their acceptance
with God and earn for themselves rewards in heaven. That is not
what's being taught here. That makes salvation and rewards
the result of our works rather than the grace of God. If it
be by grace, Romans 11, 6, then it's not of works. Otherwise,
grace is no more grace. We're saved by grace. Saved by
grace, and through faith, and that faith is not of yourselves,
it itself is the gift of God. What one thing will we ever have
that we cannot say was... What one thing will we ever have
that we can say we earned? On the contrary, everything in
scripture, everything in the gospel is given to us freely. Righteousness is given, Romans
5.17. Faith is given, Ephesians 2.8 and 9. Salvation is a gift. Eternal life is a gift, Romans
6.23. Christ is a gift. The Spirit
of God is a gift. Everything is a gift. Name one
thing that you could earn from God. It says in 1 Corinthians
4.7, what do you have that you haven't received? And if you've
received it, then why do you boast as if you haven't received
it? Everything is given to us. If we have it, it was given to
us. That we can be certain of. So, that's the first thing I
want you to see is that these things are not being taught.
Salvation is not something believers can lose, neither can they lose
their grace, neither can they lose their rewards, nor are their
rewards or their salvation the result of their work. Those are the things that are
taught from this scripture by men, but not taught by God. So, keep those things in mind. Now, we want to understand what
this parable does teach. First of all, understand this.
This parable, the parable of the talents, and the parable
of the ten virgins, both are teaching similar things. They
have to do with Both parables identify for us the difference
in the visible church of God between the sheep and the goats,
between the lost and the saved, and between unbelievers and believers. Those two things are being taught
here. It gives us a distinction between those who are in the
church who hear the word of God, but some are sheep and some are
not. Some are God's people and some
are not. And that's what's being taught here in this parable. Looking at verse 14, beginning
at that verse, it says, The kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling
into a far country. Now this same parable, not exactly
the same, but very similar, was spoken by Jesus in Luke 19, verse
12 and following. And in that parable it says not
only was he traveling to a far country, but it was a long journey.
And here it says that in verse later on in this same parable. The man traveling The one who
corresponds to the man in the parable traveling to a far country
is the Lord Jesus Christ. The far country to which he was
traveling was heaven. After he went to the cross and
rose from the dead, he ascended and went into heaven. In Luke
19 it makes it clear, he went to the far country to receive
a kingdom. When the Lord Jesus rose from
the dead victorious over our sin, Satan, death, the grave,
hell, and everything that would be our enemy, and he rose victorious
over them, then he ascended to heaven. And having ascended to
heaven, he received glory and honor from God the Father because
of his obedience unto death. And so that's the kingdom he
went, a far kingdom he went to receive. And having been, having
gone to this far country, he's there a long time. But it says
here, before he left, he says he's traveling to a far country.
He called his servants and he delivered unto them his goods. His goods. That's what he's going
to give these servants, are his goods. What does he give them?
What is precious, what is dear to him. And let's go on, verse
15. And 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." It says here, to every man his several ability.
According to John Gill, the phrase, to every man his several ability,
actually means according to the Lord's Purpose according to the
Lord's authority he gave every man as it seemed good to him
not because the men had Natural gifts and he said well this guy
this one's really a hard-working person. I'll give him a lot to
do this one's a good speaker I'll give him things to say and
so on that's not the way it works God makes the most unlikely people
to The most unlikely people, servants in a way that we never
expected. Moses for example, he said, I can't speak. And yet
he wrote the first five books of the Bible. He spoke to Pharaoh,
he spoke to the millions in the nation of Israel. What a man,
could speak like Moses. And yet he told the Lord, I can't
speak. So we see God taking the most unlikely people. David,
he was the least of Jesse's sons and yet he was the one who was
made king in Israel. It happens over and over in scripture.
The least likely are the ones God uses, and uses in ways that
you didn't expect. Because it's our weakness that's
the context for God's strength. 2 Corinthians 12, 9 and 10, God
told Paul, he says, my strength is made perfect in weakness.
So it's not what we have, that's not what motivated the Lord to
give them these goods, it's what his purpose was in giving them
these goods. But what are these talents? What
are these things given to these men? Well, really, as I thought
about this over and over again, and looking at scripture, it
seems like there are a couple of things that we could understand
here. First of all, I think that it really includes everything
that's given to each one of us. Whatever you have in life, that's
what the Lord has given you, isn't it? It says in several
places, it says in Acts 17, Paul told the Athenians, he said,
in Him we live and move and have our being. You wouldn't even
have a being if God didn't give it to you, if He didn't say,
If He didn't create you and give you a being and place you in
His kingdom for His purpose, you would be nothing. You wouldn't
even have an existence. So in Him we live and move and
have our being. And everything that's given to us is of the
Lord. So in that sense, talents And
the other thing too, I've often heard people say this. Talents,
that's like playing music or singing or speaking or doing
stuff like that. But talents here doesn't have
anything to do with what we call abilities. It has to do with
money. Remember it was the Lord's goods
that he gave to them. It was out of his riches he gave
them something. Now, we're given things. We are
given certain abilities, natural abilities. Some can do amazing
things physically. Some can sing. Some can speak.
Some have a great mind for problem solving. Some are technicians
and some are craftsmen. There's all kinds of things that
we do in our jobs and in our lives. Some can raise kids and
some can have kids. But those things are included
when the Lord says talents. But specifically, I think the
Lord is talking about something here that we really need to understand.
Because this has to do with the Kingdom of God. And what the
Lord Jesus did when he departed this world, he gave something
to his church. And the something that he gave
them was the gospel. The gospel. Look at Ephesians
chapter 3. And we need to understand that when
the Lord speaks of his goods and his riches, he's talking
about his trust that he gives to his people. What's dear to
him and what he's going to give them. He says in Ephesians chapter
3, He says, verse 1, for this cause
I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if
you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is
given me to you, in other words, God dispensed something to Paul
for the Gentiles, for the church, how that by revelation he made
known unto me the mystery, the mystery. He made known to Paul
a mystery, as I wrote before in few words. whereby when you
read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." The
mystery has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. "...which in other
ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed
to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." Whatever that
mystery is, it's revealed. No longer is it a mystery, it's
made known by the Spirit of God to who? The apostles and the
prophets. And this is the mystery, that the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the
gospel. So the mystery really is the
revelation that by the Lord Jesus Christ a promise was made to
him that the Gentiles would be partakers of God's promise in
Christ and that that promise had to do with eternal life.
1 John 2.25, this is his promise which he has promised us, even
life eternal. Has to do with justification.
Galatians 3.8, we read it last week. The promise God made to
Abraham was that he would justify the heathen through faith. That's
the promise. And it was the promise of his spirit. Galatians 3.14. Christ became a curse for us,
that the promise of the spirit would be given to us. So those
are things in the gospel God promised to the Gentiles. Not
through their heritage as Jews, but through faith in Christ.
And so it has to do with the gospel. The mystery revealed
is the gospel given to the apostle to preach to the Gentiles. Verse
7, whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the
grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his
power. God gave Paul a gift, a bestowment, an endowment, a
trust. It was the gospel to preach it. Verse 8, Unto me, whom less than
the least of all saints is this grace given, here it is, that
I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. What are the goods of the Lord
Jesus Christ? All of his glorious achievements
that he accomplished when he went to the cross and obtained
Not just made possible, but actually obtained for his people eternal
redemption. And the Lord Jesus Christ gives
the gospel to his apostles and his prophets to the church. In
fact, stay in Ephesians, I was right there. Look over at chapter
4, verse 8. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
ascended on high, it says in Ephesians 4a, when he ascended
on high, when did he ascend? After he raised from the dead.
Why did he raise from the dead? Because he finished the work.
He purged our sins. And having purged our sins by
himself, he was seated on the right hand of the majesty on
high. Hebrews 1.3. But here he says,
wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, He led captivity
captive. Those who were held captive by
their sin, by Satan, by the law itself, and deceived by the world,
deceived by their own hearts. He led them, his own captives,
and he gave gifts unto men. Now, that he ascended, what is
it but that he first descended, he also descended first into
the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same
also that ascended far up, far above all heavens, that he might
fill all things. And he gave some apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come into
the unity of the faith. and of the knowledge of the Son
of God to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ." So what is this treasure? What is the
goods that the Lord gave to his people, to his servants? He gave
them the gospel. On the one hand, to the apostles
and prophets, he entrusted it to them to preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Christ is in heaven. He ascended. He went into a far country. And
he's there for a long time. While he's there, reigning on
his throne over all things, he's given the gospel to preach it
in this world to those he would save. Them also. John 10, 16. I must bring. And how does he
bring? How does he gather his people? Through the preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells His people,
who were dead in sins, by the Spirit of God, commanding them
to live, telling them about His glorious achievements, about
His riches in His glory, because of His grace, making Himself
a servant of all, and then being exalted by God, because as a
servant of all, He bore our sins in Himself, burying our sins,
taking them away, establishing our everlasting righteousness,
and bringing, giving, securing to us eternal life. And so that's
the treasure. But not only was it given to
the apostles, not only was the gospel entrusted to the disciples.
As the Lord told Peter, he says, do you love me? Three times.
He says, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. This
is what you're supposed to do. Occupy till I come. In Luke 19,
the parable, he tells them, occupy. Be doing the business I've given
you to do. But, In this parable, there's
one servant given five, another two, and another one. And the
five-talent servant and the two-talent servants, their talents are doubled. The five gets five more, the
two gets two more. But the one-talent servant He
hides his in the earth. He buries it. And his just doesn't
produce anything. When the Lord comes, he takes
that one from him. So how could this be then if
it's the gospel? How could the talent be the gospel?
And that's how we understand this parable. is that it's teaching
us that in the church, that what's called the church, visibly in
this world, there's always going to be those throughout time,
not only who are entrusted with the gospel, some not only are
entrusted with it, but they squander it, and others hear the gospel,
and having heard it, they squander it. And so that's what we want
to consider. Now look at Romans chapter 1.
And this is true of all men in general, but it's especially
true when we hear the gospel preached. Because when the gospel
is preached, we're hearing the Word of God concerning His eternal
work to glorify His Son and save His people. There's nothing more
important. It's the power of God to salvation.
But in Romans chapter 1 he says that the wrath of God, in verse
18, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men. What do they do? What do these
men who are ungodly and unrighteous do? They hold the truth in unrighteousness. They know the truth, they have
the truth, but they don't want the truth and so they suppress
it. And that suppressing of the truth is unrighteousness. But
in verse 19 he says, Because that which may be known of God
is manifest in them, for God has showed it to them. Don't
deny that God has made known to you that there is a God and
that you have to give an account to Him, that He created the world.
You can say those things are not true, but God says in His
Word, He's made it known to every man. And in that sense, God has
given every man talents. He's giving them the truth. Verse
20, For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are
without excuse. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image, made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave
them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts,
To dishonor their own bodies between themselves. Who changed
the truth of God into a lie. And worshipped and served the
creature more than the creator. And that's why God gave them
up unto these vile affections. But the lust of their own hearts.
They knew the truth. They didn't like the truth. They
didn't like the God who was the truth. And so they suppressed
it and they put him out of their mind. And we all did this. This is describing all of us
by nature. But in that sense, every man
has heard. God has made it known to every
man. And the gospel also comes in the world to all those who
come into the hearing of the gospel. It comes to them. And
when the gospel comes to us, we are hearing. We are being
given a talent. And the one who is speaking has
been given a talent. And that talent is not only to
hear the gospel, but it's to proclaim this glorious gospel.
The gospel of our salvation. The gospel of the grace of God.
The gospel of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. That's
the talent here spoken of. We hear it. We've received it. It's given to us. outwardly in
the hearing of it, but unless God makes it in our heart produce
fruit to him, it cannot increase. And so we read here that one
was given five talents, another two, and another one. Some men
are given by God's good will and his purpose. What seems good
to God is what he does. Some men are given faith, a measure
of faith that seems greater than others. And other men are given
what seems to be less faith. But to every man is given a measure
of faith when in God's good will he gives them grace to hear the
gospel in their heart as sinners. He gives every man a measure
of faith. Romans 12 verse 3. Every man is given a measure
of faith to whom the Lord gives faith. Not all men have faith,
but to those he gives faith they are given a different measure
of faith. What do we do? Have you ever thought, man, I
wish I had the faith of that person? Maybe it's someone historical,
maybe it's someone you've heard of. Well, what do you do? You go to the Lord who gives
and you say, Lord, increase our faith. Or you say, Lord, help
my unbelief. We go to the one who is the giver
of all good gifts and say, Lord, According to your good pleasure,
according to your mercy and grace, give me this precious faith that
I might know the Lord Jesus Christ, that it might produce fruit in
my life to you. And so that is the talent the
Lord gives to these five and two talent men. He gives them
not only the talent of faith, but he also gives them this grace
to proclaim the grace of God. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, And
verse 13, Paul says this to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 4.13,
he says, in verse 12, when he's preaching, he says, we, which,
let me see, let me back up here. In verse 10 he says, having said
that we are persecuted but not forsaken, we always bear about
in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. In other words,
we experience persecution and weakness and troubles. So that
outwardly it looks like we have no strength. So that God's glory
might be made known that it's not of our strength but of His.
Verse 11. For we which live are always
delivered to death for Jesus sake that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then, death
worketh in us, in us apostles, in us ministers, but life in
you. The things that came to Paul
that were persecutions, it resulted in the furtherance of the gospel,
in the intensity of the gospel that he preached. He preached
it with such with such an identification with sinners because he knew
himself to be such a sinner. He says in one place, I'm the
least of all saints. The other place he says, I'm
the least of the apostles. And later in 1 Timothy 1.15,
I'm the chief of sinners. He had, in Romans 7.24, he says,
O wretched man that I am. All these things made the gospel
sweeter from the pen and the mouth of Paul. Because death
worked in him, so that life might work in us. Verse 13, We, having
the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed,
therefore have I spoken, we also believe, and therefore speak.
So in other words, the talents given to the five and two-talent
men were talents not only of faith but the ability to speak
the gospel. Because God had put it in their
hearts as sinners to make it the most precious thing to them. And they wanted sinners like
themselves to see the glory of their Savior. And so they preached
Christ and they pointed men to Christ. They pointed men away
from themselves to Christ only. He says, we preach not ourselves.
But Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your servants for
Jesus' sake. That was the gift God gave to
them. Who can say that a man like Paul
wasn't given five talents? He was given an abundance of
talents in order to take the talent of the gospel and preach
it. So that people might see Christ
and Him crucified as all of their salvation and glory in Him. Be
the objects of God's saving grace to the glory of God. And so this
was a talent that God gave them. But this one talent man, it says,
he also was given one, but it says in verse 18, he had received
that one, went and digged in the earth and he hid his Lord's
money. He hid it. The gospel was given to him,
it came to him, he hid it away. Let's keep reading and we'll
talk about it in a minute. So then, it says in verse 19.
What is that long time? In Matthew 24 and 25 he's speaking
about the great end of the world and the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ in final judgment. That's what these two
chapters are about. It's about the immediate destruction
of Jerusalem and how that portrays and almost blends in, in terms
of the sequence and the signs, with the end of the world. But
here we're talking about the end of the world. The Lord Jesus
Christ went away for a long time. He's coming again. When He comes
again, it's going to be the day of reckoning. The day of accounting. The day of judgment. He's going
to take an account with His servants. He's going to reckon with them.
And He's going to judge the wicked. That's what this is about. It's about the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Remember all the warnings. He
says, watch. Be ready. And that's what he's
saying here again. There's going to be this reckoning
when these servants are going to answer to him. Now all of
these men are called the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
one of them clearly is a bad servant. It shows that every
man ultimately serves the Lord Jesus Christ. He either serves
him by grace... through faith, giving glory to
God in all of his life, walks by faith, he lives by faith,
like Paul says in Galatians 2.20, I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Or, he doesn't
live by faith like his wicked servant who was slothful and
hid his talent in the earth. But all men are Christ's servants
because the Lord Jesus Christ is the sovereign over all men.
All have to give an account to Him. Every knee shall bow, every
tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory
of God the Father. And so everyone is going to give
an account. They are all his servants in that sense. And so
he says in verse 20. And so he that had received five
talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou
deliverest unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained beside
them five talents more. And so here's a man who is excited. He's glad. He's delighted by
the fact that he was given this privilege to serve his master. And in serving him, when the
master comes, he's happy that the Lord has multiplied these
talents. And he goes to him and says,
Lord, your five have gained five more. Look what you've done. It was yours. You gave it to
me. And now you're calling for it
back. And I'm telling you that because
it was yours, not because of my own skill or natural abilities,
but because it was your money. You multiplied it. You not only
sowed the seed, but you watered it and you gave increase to it
through your servants. Paul says, I planted, Apollos
watered, but the Lord gave the increase. And so that's the way
it was here. This man is happy to return to
the Lord the grace that he's been. He gives a testimony of
the grace of God in his life. And so it was. And then again
we saw the same thing. The two-talent man comes and
he says the same thing. That it's what the Lord has done. He's happy about that. I'm looking
for something in my notes here. I hope that's not distracting
you. It's distracting me. But here I want you to see what
the Lord says to these two men. And this is amazing. He says
to these men in verse 21. His Lord said to him, when he
said the five you gave me, gain five more. Verse 21, listen. His Lord said to 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, thou good and faithful servant.
Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Now I don't know about
you, but when I read those words I think, I would like to be a
good and faithful servant. I'd love to hear those words.
But I just don't expect that somehow I could ever hear those
words from the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you think that way? The fact
of the matter is that is not what he's saying here. There's
some that are going to hear those words and some are not. But they're
all going to somehow, those that don't hear them will squeak into
heaven some other way. That's not what he's saying here
at all. The fact of the matter is that every believer is going
to hear these words, well done thou good and faithful servant. And I want you to see this from
scripture. I don't want to just tell you this. I want you to
see that the basis of Christ's commendation to his servants
here is not a basis of their works. but of his grace in Christ."
So look at a couple of verses here just so that you have these
in your mind. How do I know that the Lord will
say, well done, thou good and faithful servant? Look at Jude
just before Revelation. Jude, I think it's the last,
yeah, last book before Revelation. The book of Jude gives a quick
history of all these failures. There were the failures of the
angels who left their first estate. There were the falls of not only
the angels but of those people who were delivered from Egypt
but didn't believe and they fell in the wilderness. There was
the fall of those in Sodom and Gomorrah. There was the fall
of course of all those in the flood. And so he tells of all
these falls. And the book of Jude tells of
all these things. It almost makes the hair on the
back of your neck stand up saying, well, how can I possibly hope
to escape? Or sometimes we think the opposite.
Well, I'm not going to be that foolish. I'm going to make it.
I'm going to do the right thing. And we resolve to do right. We
usually have one or two of those responses. But at the end of
this book, he gives us this answer. He says now, verse 24. Unto him that is able to keep
you from falling, and to present you faultless, before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and evermore. Amen. Who is it that ultimately
keeps us from falling? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. See,
the reason that these fell is because they didn't have that
view. They didn't have a view that,
look, I am a sinner. I am guilty. I am not worthy
of any of God's mercies. If the Lord saves me, it's going
to have to be entirely by His grace. Because I can't contribute
one thing. In fact, He'll have to save me
in spite of who I am. In spite of what I've done. It's
going to have to be... His goodness out of His greatness
and His goodness and His grace because of His work alone. That's
the attitude of faith. Faith teaches us. God-given faith
points us to Christ and shows us that in Christ alone God receives
His people. And He receives them for Christ's
sake alone. And so with that faith, that
God-given faith, we say with the Apostle, we join Jude the
Apostle and we say, now unto Him that is able to keep you
from falling. Unto Him who is able to keep
me from falling. And to do what? To present you faultless, without
fault, without reproof, without spot or blemish or any such thing. Holy in His eyes. He is able. Abraham believed that God was
able to bring a child out of his body and out of Sarah's body.
Both were too old to have children and yet the Lord brought Isaac
out. He was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was
able also to perform. Therefore it was imputed to him
for righteousness. Every believer looks to Christ
and says, my Lord Jesus Christ is able. He paid for my sins
with his own precious blood. It's his righteousness God must
accept. I can be nothing but a sinner in myself. I come to
him looking to Christ based on his blood and righteousness.
He commanded me to come that way. And He is able to do it. And so He is able to do it. To
present you. Not only to receive you, but
present you in the presence of His glory. In the presence of
God's glory with exceeding joy. And look also at Ephesians chapter
1. There are so many verses like this. Ephesians chapter 1. He says in verse 4. In verse
3 He said, God blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who has blessed us. with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places, in Christ, according as he hath chosen us
in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love." In other words,
God the Father chose us Before the foundation of the world,
He chose us in Christ in order that we should be holy and blameless
before Him in love. And because He chose us in Christ,
we would be found holy and blameless because He would look upon the
Lord Jesus Christ and receive all that Christ did and was for
us. Receiving Him, receiving us.
And when He receives us, He receives us as Him. He blesses us as if
He blesses His own Son. Because in the eyes of God, we're
one. We're in Christ. He'll say this
to every servant. He gives us all things for Christ's
sake. Romans 8.32. He says, He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all... All of us
that He had chosen in Christ had purpose to salvation. How
shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? If He gave
His Son for us, He'll give us all things with Him. Therefore,
all those for whom Christ died, all those to whom God gave everything
in Christ before the foundation of the world, all spiritual blessings,
He gives them in time. He gives them His Spirit, who
gives them faith. It causes them to see that in
Christ they have all these things and they rejoice in Him and love
Him for it. This is the basis of this statement. The Lord said, well done thou
good and faithful servant. Just like in the beginning when
God created the world, He looked at what He had done and He says,
very good, very good, very good. He could find nothing wrong with
what He had done. Isaiah 26.12 says, thou also
has wrought all our works in us. It is God who is at work
in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Philippians
2, 12 and 13. Philippians 1, 6 says, He that
has begun a good work in you, he shall perfect it to the day
of Christ Jesus. And 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and
24 says that God himself would sanctify us wholly. And He is faithful who has begun
this good work. He will complete it. All these
things teach us that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks this way
to all of His servants on the basis of His grace. He sees His
work of grace for us and gives us all things in Christ. And
He sees His work of grace in us and He commends that grace
in us. And He rewards it for His own
work in us. Now, when God works in us, it's
not like we're like a jellyfish on the sidewalk or in our closet
not doing anything. God motivates us. He causes us
to call upon him, doesn't he? He afflicts us. Before I was
afflicted, I went astray. But now have I kept thy word.
Psalm 119 verse 67. All these things are to teach
us that God works through these means of humbling us. Bringing
us to see, to loathe ourselves and to see our sin. It's despicable. Our weakness. We have no power
over it. And then causing us to cry to the Lord. Lord, save
me. Say to my soul, I'm thy salvation.
And then we hear from the Gospel. I am thy salvation. He works
through means. He causes us to come, causes
us to call, causes us to look, causes us to believe. He gives
us the gift of faith. He causes us to see we must seek
from Him every grace we need to come to Him. And so we're
active in this. But our actions are the result
of His working grace in us to lead us to Christ. He shuts us
up. in our sin and under his law
so that nothing can satisfy his law and take away our sins but
the blood of Jesus. And then we see that we're like
Fanny Crosby in the song. Oh God, let me not glory in anything
but the Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified for me. In the
cross, in the cross, be my glory ever. And so this servant is
told by the Lord Jesus Christ, well done. Everything, everything
God says to us, it's a word of grace, isn't it? I can hear his,
the joy is uncontrollable. in this man, tears of joy streaming
down his cheeks as he looks into the face of his Savior and hears
those words. How could you say this of me?
But again, he's reminded, it's because of what you are in Christ. It's what I've given you in Him.
And he stands before the Lord. with nothing to boast except
what he has in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's so happy, but someone
else is happier than he is. It's the Lord himself. He presents
him in the presence of his glory with his exceeding joy. Zephaniah
3.17, the Lord will sing and rejoice over his people. What
a day, what a day. But then it says... In verse
22, he that had received two talents, he also heard the same
thing. The Lord said, well done thou
good and faithful servant. Notice he didn't say well done
thou good and skillful servant or well done thou good and talented
servant. He said you were faithful. You
were faithful. What were you faithful in? What
the Lord gave you. This woman who had nothing came behind Jesus
and washed his feet with her tears and wiped his feet with
the hairs of her head. She poured out all that she had
on him. The other one also came and anointed
his head with oil because that's all she had for his burial. The
widow with two mites cast in all her living. She didn't have
a huge income. She just gave what she had. The
Lord gives us what we have and we give it to Him. Solomon said
in 1 Chronicles 29, I can't remember the verse, but he says, Of thine
own hand have we given to you. What do we have that you haven't
given to us? And these servants are rejoicing before the Lord
because of His grace. That's the only way we can love
God. The only way we can rejoice is
when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, our salvation, our sanctification,
our glorification, all of His work, all of grace. But then
it says, In verse 24, then he which had received the one talent
came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping
where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not
strawed. I was afraid, and I went and hid thy talent in the earth.
Lo, here thou hast, that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto
him, Thou wicked and slothful or lazy servant, thou knewest
that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strawed.
You should therefore have put my money to the exchangers. Then
at my coming I should have received mine own with interest or usury. Now here's a man. He thinks,
he projects on the Lord Jesus Christ an attitude and disposition
that was in his own mind and wicked heart. He thought that
the Lord was a hard man. In Luke 19, austere. He thought
he was unjust. You're not fair. Since I knew
he was unfair, Since I knew that he could do whatever he wanted,
pushing me around like he wants to. He's sovereign. He can do
what he wants to. Therefore, I'm going to hide
my talent in the earth. Because it's his after all. And
if he wants to increase it, he'll do it. I don't have to do anything.
I'll just hide it here. And that way it will be safe.
Who can complain if God doesn't increase it? It's not my fault.
You see the attitude he had? It was an attitude of, yes, God
is sovereign. Yes, he can do what he wants.
But it was also an attitude of, but he takes advantage of men
in an unjust way. He requires more of them than
they can give. And so I'm just going to bury
it here in the earth. Or he's like the person who trusted in
some kind of a conversion experience that he had a long time ago.
And he hides it. It's like it's all taken care
of now. And he goes on and he lives his life. But that's not
the way that grace is given to us. Grace doesn't come to us
with a one-shot experience of faith. I accepted Jesus. I made
a decision for Jesus. And therefore all is taken care
of. Faith is something we live by. Faith in Christ. It's something
that once we have it, it grows. Grace grows in us. And faith
grows in us. It causes us to increase in love. Love for Christ and love for
His people. And so this man, he couldn't think that way though.
Because he could only think the Lord was like him. Like it says
in Psalm, verse 50, 21. You thought I was like you were. That's the way the Lord said
this servant. He was wicked and he was lazy.
You see, the Lord, He did work through the Apostle Paul. And
that work was a work of grace, but the Apostle Paul was so diligent
in what God gave him to do, wasn't he? He worked his hands to the
bone. He gave himself, and he loved
doing it. I'm just going to read one place
in 1 Thessalonians to you, just briefly, what Paul says to the
Thessalonians. He said this, he says, We were
allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. Even so we speak,
not as pleasing men, but God which tries our hearts. For neither
at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak
of covetousness. We didn't try to take something
from you or get something from you. God is witness. Nor of men
sought we glory. We didn't go around doing what
we did in order to get honor from men. He says in 1 Thessalonians
2.6, he says, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might
have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. We didn't lay a tax
on you, for example. We could have, but we didn't.
But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her
children. So being affectionately desirous
of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel
of God only, But also our own souls, because you were dear
to us. This is an attitude of grace
in the Apostle Paul. But it required much labor on
his part. He was subjected to all kinds
of trials. And so this man was lazy. If
he was a minister of Christ, the gospel meant nothing to him. He saw no beauty in Christ. He
could see no grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. He could only see
him dealing with him on the principle of justice. And so he feared
him. He hated him in his heart. He
thought he was an austere, hard man. Unjust and unkind. Just taking whatever he wants.
He didn't see him as giving. He gave him a talent. You know
how much a talent is? It's a huge quantity. Out of
his goods, this great man in the parable, and out of his riches
and glory, the Lord Jesus Christ has sent his gospel by his servants
who have hazarded and even given their lives for the sake of the
gospel. And here we have it in his word preached to us. May
God give us grace to have it in our heart like the five wise
virgins. May it be that the Spirit of
God would take the gospel and make it the light of our own
heart. So that when Christ comes we
find Him, all of our worship and all of our praise. And not
be afraid it is coming. Have confidence before Him. And
so he says here, in verse 27, you should have put my money
to the exchangers so that when I came again I'd get my own back
with interest. You see, if we really believed
that it was the Lord's and that He's sovereign, We wouldn't think,
well I better hide this so it doesn't, you know, when the Lord
comes he'll get back. We would sow it to the wind. If it was the Lord's and we knew
that it was Him that blessed it, we would be like those who
sow abundantly. This is the Lord's seed. We're
going to sprinkle it all over the place. So that when he comes,
he can produce and reap from his own field, his own harvest.
So the Lord says, take therefore the talent from him and give
it to him which hath ten talents for unto 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. Grace rewards grace. And in the case of unbelief,
God judges us for our works. And here's a man who didn't believe
Christ and he was judged for what he was in himself, for what
he thought in his heart. It was his own wickedness and
his own laziness that the Lord Jesus Christ judged. He took
his own words and said, okay, I'm a hard man. Okay, I can take
whatever I want. Okay, then you didn't take what
was mine and invest it, because had you believed what you said,
then what was mine would have produced all this fruit. So really,
you're just a man who's a lying man, a wicked man, and a lazy
man. You didn't really treat this
as the Lord's money, you treated it as unimportant. And so the
Lord answers that that way, and it says, cast the unprofitable
servant into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. We know that the parable has to do with faith and unbelief,
with the goats and the sheep, with the lost and with the saved. Because those who were rewarded
and those who received, here this man received the punishment
of eternal damnation. We know that those things are
the result of God's grace. One more verse in John 3.36,
he says this, John 3.36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. That's the first two servants.
The five-talent and the two-talent servants. He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. Because he's in the Son. And
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath
of God abideth on him. That was the one-talent man.
That the Lord's talent wasn't worth, or that the Lord himself
was mean, unjust, and so he hid it. That he couldn't make it
produce fruit. It wasn't precious to him. It
wasn't the gospel to sinners. It was the gospel to a man who
didn't really need saving. And so he went about his life
living. And may God give us grace. When we hear the gospel, that
we would receive it as those who find it the most precious
thing in all of our life and all the world. Give me Christ
and I have everything. Take him from me and I have nothing.
Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would
so give us the gift of eternal life to know the Lord Jesus Christ
in our heart. Give us this precious faith and
this grace to see Christ in His beauty, and long for Him, and
look for Him, and to take all that you've given us, the time
in our life, and in our minds, and our affections, and the goods
that you've given us, everything that we have, and help us use
it so that sinners might hear of your glory, and give you glory,
that we ourselves would find you to be all glorious, And we
would serve you not for gain, not as mercenaries, but as those
who would serve you out of love, knowing that we have all things
in Christ, and that we desire to give Him honor and glory.
Lord, give us this grace. We can't produce it, but show
us what we are, and show us our Savior, and we know that we can
do it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.