Luke chapter 19. Luke 19. I was going to read all of this,
but I think we'll just go through it. But look at verse 11. I hope you read it beforehand. Verse 11. As they heard these
things, he added, our Lord added and spake a parable after they
saw him or heard him speak to Zacchaeus. They heard him command
Zacchaeus that he was coming to his house, going to his house.
And they heard Zacchaeus, his confession. and heard him say
he was going to give half of his goods to the poor and restore
what he had taken falsely. So it says he spake this parable
after they heard these things. And look at verse 11. It says,
And because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they, almost everyone,
disciples included, thought, that the kingdom of God should
immediately appear. He's going to Jerusalem. And so many thought, and when
he did come into town, they said, this is David, the son of David
to come, the king. They tried to make him king. So he spake this parable. A parable
is an earthly story of heavenly things. You know that. It illustrates
spiritual things. He was near in Jerusalem. And
they thought that he was going to set up his kingship in Jerusalem
on an earthly throne. And after they heard what he
said to Zacchaeus. Now our Lord's purpose for going
to Jerusalem was one thing. He's going to Jerusalem to die. Isn't it? That's why he came. And he kept saying that. And
we're going to see in a minute, and Mark said the same thing,
or later. And he said this before, the kingdom
of heaven doesn't come with observation, but the kingdom of heaven is
among you. Remember? He just said that. In other words,
the king is here now, and the kingdom is within his people.
The king has come. He just said, I've come to seek
and to save the lost. not set up an earthly kingdom. He already has a kingdom, and
the kingdom of God has come to earth, and it's in the hearts
and minds and souls of His people. He's come to bring His subjects
into subjection to Him, to reveal Himself to them, for them to
become His subjects, and for Him to reign and rule in their
hearts. And he just did that to Zacchaeus,
a man who was in love with this world, a man who was in love
with money. You know, the love of money is
the root of all evil. What's the root of all good?
The love of God. And God puts his love, he sheds
abroad his love in his people everywhere. Love for the truth,
love for him, love for his kingdom, love for the things of God. So
the kingdom had come. And he was going to Jerusalem
not to sit on an earthly throne, but to hang on Calvary's cross. And really, that was his coronation
right there. Because to this end, Christ died,
rose, and revived that he might be Lord. That was where he destroyed
the power of the godless world and proved that he reigns and
rules. All right? So our Lord is plainly saying
that kingdom is here, it's now, it's within you, it's the gospel
of the kingdom, and the power of the gospel subdues his subjects
like Zacchaeus. He just proved that, Zacchaeus.
And right before the Lord died, there was another sorry fellow
hanging beside him, a thief. and what he said to him today.
Now here's what the thief said, you're coming into your kingdom. And now the Lord said, yes, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. You're going to behold my glory. So verse 12, now, so he said,
therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive
for himself a kingdom. And to return a certain nobleman,
nobleman means well-born, high-ranking, dignified and honorable person.
Now there's none more so than our Lord Jesus Christ. What a
noble man, what a dignified man, what a well-born man, what a
high-ranking man he is. He's the son of the Most High,
a nobleman. It says he went into a far country
to receive for himself a kingdom, and then to return. How far did
our Lord come to set up His kingdom in His people, to take this kingdom
for Himself? How far did He come? Oh, how
far He condescended, from heaven to earth. The Lord came to this
earth to take possession of what God had given Him. God gave him
a people. Two ways you can take possession
of a country and be given to you or conquer it. Christ did both. God gave him
a people and he conquers, given and conquered. And so he came
to receive this kingdom given to him by God and to win it by
the sacrifice of himself. He came from afar. Emmanuel came
all the way from glory. to receive this kingdom given
by the Father. And they're a kingdom of heathens.
Remember Psalm 2? Ask me, I'll give you the heathen. They weren't friendly people.
This wasn't a friendly country he came to. And we're going to
see in a minute, the citizens, they didn't want him here. But
he came. I've just read where David came
into Jerusalem. He was inhabited by the Jebusites,
okay? And David came to the... I love
it. He came to the outskirts of that
city. He's going in to take it. And he's going to call it the
City of David, the City of Peace. And the inhabitant says, he can't
come in here. The next line says, he took it.
Isn't that what false religion says? He can't come into your
heart unless you let him. He takes it. He takes what's his. He came to receive this kingdom,
then to return. He set up his kingdom in the
hearts of his people. He came to seek and to save the
lost, and he found every one of them where he put them. He
still finds them. And then he returned, didn't he? Went back
to glory where he sat down. Oh, he's coming again. To do
what? To receive the kingdom. To take
us all back to the Father and to glory. To behold His glory.
All right, verse 13. So he called ten servants and
delivered them ten pounds and said unto them, Occupy till I
come. One pound per servant. Ten pounds. One per servant. He called his
servants. Now all of God's people are His
servants, male and female. All right? And we serve in a
different capacity. We've all been given grace. We've all been given grace. The
same thing. One pound. They were all given
one thing. One pound. Which was a lot. One pound was a lot of money. He was very generous. How gracious
the Lord has been to us. And the Lord has given all of
us grace. And he said, Occupy till I come. Occupy means to live, means to
dwell in His kingdom. It means your occupation. It's where you live, what you
do. It's your occupation. It's what
you're occupied with. It's a good word. What are we
occupied with? What occupies our thoughts, our
minds, our hearts? Didn't Simon Peter say this?
He said, Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what
manner of people, persons, we ought to be in all holy conversation. That is, our minds set on things
above. Everything, everything, we're
just passing through. This is not our dwelling place. We're in His kingdom, we're servants
in His kingdom, and we're to be occupied with these things. Set your affection on things
above. Think on these things. Jonathan Edwards, Now, John Calvin
wrote an article, I almost put it in today's bulletin, on thinking
of our future state. We should always be thinking
of the future. And Hebrews 11 says, it talks
about those who saw far off. And they weren't thinking back,
Paul said, forgetting those things, but pressing where? For the mark,
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. This is what's
to occupy our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, our cares. Our
Lord just said you can't serve two kingdoms. You can't serve
two masters. You can't give yourself to both. Now we all have earthly occupation,
we do. Our Lord did as a man, didn't
He, for 29 years. He was a carpenter. You reckon
He gave it His all? You know it. Everything He did. And whatever our hand finds to
do, we do it with all our might. How? For whom? As unto the Lord. So we're still in his service
and whatever, whatever occupation we have is still some way, somehow
be for him. You know why we earn money? Well,
we have to have food and rain. Yeah, that's fine, but really
it's to support the kingdom, the gospel. That's it. And the
Lord gives more than those who do that and we're going to see
that. The Lord who, those who invest,
He gives more. Okay. And you have false religion
that wants you to sow your seed faith. In other words, give me
your money. No, no, no, no. That's not it. That's their purpose.
People give money so they can have more money. No, no, no,
no, no. We give so the gospel will go
out. People hear the gospel. That's
the reason. Not to get more. All right, he
says his servant came and verse 14, look at it. His citizens
hated him. And they sent a message after
him saying, we will not have this man reign over us. His citizens
hated him. Who are the Lord's citizens?
Who are God's citizens in this world? Everybody. The earth is
the Lord, and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell
therein. He owns all souls are mine, God said. We're tenants. We're renters. We don't own anything. So many are squatters, aren't
they? Trespassers. You're a trespasser if you don't
ask. And if you don't give thanks for him allowing you to live
on his property, you're a trespasser. And all trespassers will be shot
unless he breaks them. That's my next message. But these
tenants hated him. And I was going to go to Romans
1 and Romans 3. Do you know these scriptures?
You know these things, don't you? Romans 1 talks about they
weren't thankful. Though they knew God, the heavens
declare His glory, the firmament and all things clearly show His
eternal power and God-heaven. No, man is not going to have
one. He doesn't want God. So he's imagined a God the way
they want Him to be. Or worse, they worship and serve
the creature. They call this earth their mother. And they've made man a god. They
worship themselves. They worship man rather than
the Creator. He's God forever blessed, he
said. So God gave him over to reprobate
man. And then Romans 3 talks about
man by nature. Romans 3 is a description of
all human beings by nature. We're all born, wild asses caught. We're all born in sin. Our mothers conceive us. We come,
the wicked go astray from the womb, they go astray from the
womb speaking lies, loving and believing lies, don't want God.
It goes on down to Romans 3 to say that. Haters of God. They
don't understand the way of peace, they don't know, they don't understand
who God is and what man is. And they hate God. Now you tell
people that today. You tell that, that man hates
God. No, he doesn't. My mother's a
good Methodist woman. She helps people. She does this
and that and the other. Start telling them about God, the real
God, the true God, the living God, the sovereign God, who reigns
and rules. Tell them about man. Tell that
sweet mother what she really is, what God says about her,
and watch the venom come out. What's the hatred come at? Like
that sweet little blonde hairdresser said to my wife, I hate your
God. Hearing who God really is, it came right out. I hate your
God. Little did she know, that's her
God. And she's going to find out.
I hope not too late. I hope, Lord. But the tenants,
they hated him. The servants hated him. I mean,
the citizens hated him, not the servants. The servants loved
him. We will not have this man reign over us. Oh, yes, you will.
He does. You just don't know it. You know
what salvation is? For His people to be made willing
in the day of His power. For Him to come to them and say,
You will have me reign over you, won't you? I do. And now you
will. He says, I will and you shall.
We say, Thank you. Thank you for subduing them. All right, verse 15. It came
to pass when He was returned and having received the kingdom,
He commanded His servants to be called unto Him to whom He
had given the money. that he might know how much every
man had gained by trading. Okay? We're not merchants. We're traders. They were given
something. Not to sell. To invest. We don't sell salvation. That's
religion, isn't it? Selling. Barnard used to say,
they're trying to sell Jesus for a dollar, and if they won't
give a dollar, they'll take a dime. Like some poor man who's trying
to get a rich dowry from an ugly bride. No, no, no, no, that's not our Lord.
Salvation's not for sale. We're not redeemed by corruptible
things, silver and gold. No, no, no. Remember, Simon Peter
came to the man sitting there. He said, silver and gold have
I none. I'm not here to give you money, but here's what I
do have. I have a gospel concerning Christ. And the Lord must give that.
The Lord must bestow that. The Lord must give a heart to
receive it. The Lord must give faith and
repentance and all of that. But we're not merchants. We're
traders. Do you hear me? And investors. They're like a
sower of seed and so forth. So he says, he came to see how
much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first,
verse 16, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he
said, Well, thou good servant, well done, thou good and faithful
servant, because thou hast been faithful in very little, have
thou authority over ten cities. Ten cities. This first servant
invested diligently. He used his pound for his master,
and he gained ten pounds. Brothers and sisters, the increase,
what comes is not up to our diligence. It's not. Paul even said that. We plant and we water. But the
Lord must give the increase. However, our Lord did say, he
that sows sparingly, will reap fairly, and he that sows diligently
will reap diligently, or liberally, so reap liberally. It was Brother
Barnard one time, and that man went all over the world, and
the Lord used him to, oh my, this church is here because of
Brock Barnard. And every great church you know
is an indirect result of Brock Barnard going everywhere with
the gospel. But he used to say this, he never thought, he said,
one of these days I'm going to enter the ministry. Brother Barnard,
aren't you in the ministry? Not like I want to be, not like
I ought to be. And, but this principle, now,
In our hearts and minds, if we sow to the spirit, we'll reap
spirit. If we sow to the flesh, we'll reap flesh. It's not talking
about salvation. It's talking about what we give
ourselves to. We'll reap from it. Okay? If we sow to the flesh, we can
get a lot of money and we can get a lot of stuff. You know,
a lot of this world's goods and all that, but you know what we'll
be? Spiritually poor and lean and fat in the flesh. We don't
want that, do you? We need to be rich in faith. If we sow to the Spirit, spiritual
thing, we'll reap fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy. Oh, we love the Gospel. Oh, we
love the Lord. We love one another. Joy. Are
you mostly sad or are you joyful? What are you thinking about?
Who are you listening to? What are you doing? What are
you investing your thoughts in, your heart on? Because the things
of this world just leave us sad. Joy, assurance, you need assurance. Where do you get that? Faith?
Where do you get that? It comes by hearing. What are
we hearing? Who are we hearing? You reap
to the, you sow to the Spirit. Think on things about it. Set
your affection on things. Sow to the flesh, you'll have
less joy, less peace, less assurance, less faith, until you think,
I don't have any at all. Like a lot inside of him. Well, the man that sold, that
traded his pound and gained ten pounds, the Lord gave him ten
cities. Here's a good illustration of
that. Brother Walter Gruber. The Lord gave that man grace.
He taught him the gospel of God's grace. Alright, he taught him.
How do you know? Because he sold out. He was sold out, dedicated,
like Paul, to the gospel. And he sold his home. He quit his job at the steel
mill. He took his four, soon to be five children, babes in
arms and toddlers, to a foreign, hostile country, Mexico. Dangerous,
humanly speaking. He was in no danger. with a land
of perils and disease and affliction. In fact,
they thought Betty was going to die if she got a sickness
down there. Oh, no. No, she's 85 years old. And they stayed there 60 some
years. But anyway, Walter took that gospel, very little knowledge
of the language, all right? God gave him a desire, gave him
grace, gave him the ability to preach in English, mind you.
He's learned a little bit of Spanish, went down there in that
broken Spanish that he had and drove his little Volkswagen bus
into a village and got out in the town square and started preaching. Years later, ten villages with
church buildings in them, and Brother Walter speaks just like
a lady. Pastors raised up there, well
done, now couldn't be certain. Now, did Walter do that? No,
the Lord did. But he put it in his heart. The Lord, see, He encourages
us to. He commends those that believe
Him. He just believed the Lord. And
did what the Lord told him to do, and the Lord blessed it greatly. Gave him ten villages, ten churches,
up to twenty. We have one little village we
preach in now. You've got one message, one pound,
one gospel, one thing, one faith, one little village. Let's preach
it by whatever means the Lord has given us. And He has. He's given us fruit.
I think I counted the other day, there was six or seven people
here, still here, when I first came here. That's it. So, the
Lord's blessed today. He's blessed the gospel. And
we don't know what he's doing by these other names. All right,
look at verse... It went down, now there were
others, there were 9, 1, 2, 9, 1, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Got down to this last fellow,
verse 20. He came saying, Lord, behold,
here is thy pound I've kept laid up in a napkin. He went on to say, I feared thee,
because thou art an austere man. Austere. No, he's a fine man. He's a noble man. He's a kind
man. And he said, thou takest up that
thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. He came
to this one fellow, and the fellow said, I've laid your pound up
in a napkin. Now, the word napkin, I had to
look it up. It's used in Scripture. It means
a sweat cloth, that's what it means. It has two purposes, a
sweat cloth, we're so proper these days, you know, hankerchief,
hankerchief. It's a sweat cloth. That's what
it's for. Sweat means if you're working.
If you're working and sweating, you need it. It's a good purpose.
It serves a good purpose. If you're sweating. This man
wasn't sweating at all. He was doing nothing. And a napkin was used. Do you
remember what the napkin was used? It was laid over our Lord's
face. It was a facial covering for the dead. And in Revelation 3, he talked
about, was it Sardis? Did I write it down? He said
of that city there in Revelation 3, Sardis, I think. He said,
you have a name that you live, but you're dead. He was rebuking them for not
saying or doing anything. It's covered, hidden. Nobody sees it. Nobody hears
it. Dead. No sweat. No work. You know, a primitive Baptist,
you've seen these little white buildings here and there. There's
one on, what's the name of that street, behind the post office
there, on top of that hill. Anyway, that started out as a
primitive Baptist. It changed hands. It ended. But
you know this, and the Primitive had, they had the doctrine, didn't
they? You know the Primitive Baptists, they had the doctrine.
And some today still do. And I've been listening to a
man who is a Primitive Baptist, but he's not to this degree.
But the Primitive Baptists had Calvinism. And early Baptists. And they
had this Calvinism, but they were hyper-Calvinists. They believed
that God has to elect people, he's going to save them no matter
what. You don't even have to hear the Gospel. That's what they
believe. You don't have to hear the gospel.
If you're one of God's elect, you're going to be saved no matter
what. That's not true. You must hear the gospel. And
our Lord said, go into all the world and preach the gospel.
That's a direct denial of what our Lord said to do, didn't it?
They don't do it. They don't believe in mission,
so they don't go out. They keep to themselves, and what happens?
How's it end up? If nobody's paying any attention
to them, they're not hearing them, they're just dead. Dead
doctor. It's hidden. A city set on a
hill is not hidden. You don't light a candle and
put it under a bushel. Our Lord said that. He said, you're the
light of the world. You're supposed to take it out.
Salt. Salt has lost its savor. It's
trodden underfoot. And this man said, but I believe
you're sovereign. That's what this man basically
said. You're sovereign. You own everything. And you're
holy. You're just. You're sovereign. Okay, the devil believes that. Doesn't he? The devil believes
that more strongly than anybody. He knows God's holy. He knows
God's just. He knows God's sovereign. He
knows. He doesn't believe you. And that's what this man is basically
saying. And our Lord said, out of your mouth, verse 22, I will judge you out of your
mouth, thou wicked servant. Thou knowest I was an austere
man, taking up that I laid not down, reaping what I did not
sow. Wherefore, then gavest thou not, not thou thy money into
the bank, that it might come, and I might have acquired mine
own with usury." In other words, he's saying, why not give it
to someone who is going to use it? In other words, support somebody
that is going to. If you won't do it, support somebody
that will. I got to tell you this. There
was a man who came here a long time, and he gave some money. You know, when the money comes
here, it goes into the general fund, okay? And we use it as
the need arises. And the church at Kingsport started
building a new building, and they needed money, okay? And we had a big bunch of money,
okay? And so I asked the man, I said,
let's send them some money, remember? And nearly every single man said,
yes, send it, send it all. We sent some money and one fellow
sitting over here said, let's send some more. One man called me and said, I think we
ought to pray about it. As if I hadn't. And he said, I think we ought
to wait on this. Leave it in the bank. Hmm? And that man's
not here anymore. And he slept through every message
I ever preached. It's a facade to have a name
that you live and you're dead. We're not a savings account.
We're a distribution center. Can you believe that? And, you
know, I was ready, we were ready to give it all. Freely, it's
been given to us. The Lord's angry with people
like that. Angry. He was angry with this man. Give
it to somebody that will, if you want. Give it to somebody
that will. And the Lord said, take from
him that pound, and give it to the man that had ten pounds.
Take from him what he has, or seemed to have. Take it from
him. He seemed to have faith. No. Take it from him. He doesn't
have it. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
If He's given you true faith, it will manifest itself in love,
in joy, in peace, in generosity, liberality, a zeal for the gospel,
for the truth, with a hunger and a thirst. You're sitting
there hearing the gospel and you're loving it. You'll love
the gospel more in the end than you did in the beginning. That's
life. That's true life, okay? And those that just seem to have
it in the end, He's going to take from them what they seem
to have. So our prayer should be, Lord,
don't ever let me lose my hunger and thirst and zeal for the truth. Please. I think I have a little
faith. I want more. And they, you know,
somebody said, Lord, that man has 10 pounds. He doesn't need
it. No, but he's going to use it. He's going to use it. You know, those that seem to
have more faith and assurance, they seem to be getting more
and more, those who have little. So he said in verse 26, in closing,
everyone which hath shall be given. Oh, I'm glad of that. A lady commented on the article
on Little Faith by Phil Pott. Wasn't that wonderful? Did you
read that? Did you read that? Did it touch you? Well, here's
what he said. If it moved you, if it made you
mourn over your little gun, that's a sign there's life there. If
you just read a book, okay, threw it to the side and it didn't,
that's scary. Everyone which hath shall be
given grow in grace in the knowledge of the Lord. And from him that
hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. And then
he ended up by saying, mine enemies, those that said they would not
reign over me, bring them here. Look at it, verse 27. Look at
it. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is our wonderful, merciful, gracious, kind, loving Lord. He says, those that said, I should
not reign over them, bring hither and slay them right before me. Slay them. And you know, in the last part
of this chapter we're going to look at Wednesday night, maybe,
I guess, I don't know, where the Lord came into Jerusalem
and went. And then right after they went into the temple and
planted a whip. Behold the goodness and severity of our Lord. Behold the sorrow. Man of sorrow
is acquainted with grief, but behold, our God's a consuming
fire. That's our Lord in Him. Okay.