the blessed and the evil servant.
I took this, you know, one of the things that really opened
my eyes, the Lord used to open my eyes to the gospel and the
truth, the light, is when you look at passages where you see
a specific line of separation between the people of God and
the people of the world. And of course, we all know that
as we fell in Adam, we fell into a state of spiritual death. That's why we're born in sin.
Adam fell, we fell in him. The result of that is our spiritual
death and depravity, born in darkness. which all means that
we don't have eyes to see and ears to hear. You know, I think
about this passage here we're gonna study in verse 46, it starts
out with blessed. Well, who is really blessed?
You know, all the time as we go throughout the week and we
go into stores and buy things or we meet people, and all the
time people tell me, they say, you know, have a blessed day,
have a blessed week, or I'm blessed of God. and you know I'm glad
that people will use that term but I wonder how many really
understand what it means because here we're going to see here's
a blessed servant, servant of God, and here's an evil servant
who claims to be a servant of God but is not and it's found
in this parable But what happens here is you see that that line
of separation, that which distinguishes the blessed servant from the
evil servant, is not what people think naturally. And that's how
the Lord opens our eyes. What is evil in the sight of
God? What is blessed? You know, blessed,
we have what we call the Beatitudes. For example, Matthew chapter
five, that's some of them, but there'll be attitudes throughout
the scripture. Here's one of them here, verse
46, blessed is that servant. And that's a bond servant. And
anytime you think about a bond servant, think about someone
who is serving, not to pay a debt, but serving out of love, out
of grace and gratitude, that's a bond servant. And you know
the story of that. I think it's back in Exodus 25,
the law of the bond servant. That's a servant who had paid
his debt and now is serving because he loved his master. Well, we're
serving Christ, not because we paid our debt. We're serving
Christ because he paid our debt for us. And we're set free. We're servants of righteousness,
meaning we're servants of Christ. And so we know that what we have
in the way of blessedness is totally due to the merits of
the obedience unto death of Christ and none to our merit. And I've
often said, and you all said it too, the men who preach here
for me, that look, there's not one blessing Whatever we put
in that category, certainly salvation and all of its benefits and blessings,
there's not one blessing, physical or spiritual, that we can come
before God and say, I earned it and deserved it. Because they're
blessings of grace. But what happens here, we're
born into this state of cursedness in the sense that we're spiritually
dead. But as we, that state changes
for God's people. You think about, you know, we
talk about our standing before God is always in Christ, and
that never changes. And that's why we talk about,
you know, being chosen by God before the foundation of the
world, being justified before God in Christ. God not imputing
our trespass, and that's a beatitude. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. That's a blessing. And for the
life of me, I know preachers who used to preach that, but
they avoid it like the plague now. The imputation of sin to
Christ, the imputation of righteousness to us. David, Romans 4, 6, describes
the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness
without work. That's a blessing. Why would
we not want to proclaim that from the mountaintops? And it's
a blessing of grace. We're blessed to be, that standing
before God never changes, but then our state in this world
does change. And that's why Christ said, you
must be born again. Christ redeemed us by his blood.
And as a result of that, he sends the spirit to give life from
the dead. And we come under the preaching
of the gospel. So blessed is that servant. Again, one of the many Beatitudes
of the Bible, describing the state into which God's people
have been brought by his grace, his power, his goodness, under
the preaching of the gospel. And what does he say? He says,
blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, when
Christ comes the second time, this is the second coming of
Christ, Now he's going to, you know, I've heard preachers say,
well, he's going to come for some of us before that, because we'll
die and go to be with him. Well, that's true. But here he's
concluding, you know, all this revelation that he's given about
the last days leading up to his second coming. And he's told
us to do what? To work hard to be saved? No,
he hadn't told us that, he's forbidding us to do that. There's
not one passage in the Bible where God tells his people to
work hard to be saved, to earn your righteousness, not one. But there's a lot of passages
in the Bible where the Lord tells us to work hard because we're
saved. because he has graced us and
blessed us and given us all things freely by his grace through the
merits of Christ's work. So when he says, blessed is that
servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, when he comes a second
time, shall find so doing. Doing what? Well, we read about
it here in this whole chapter of Matthew 24, but basically
it has to do with watching, be on your watch, knowing that Christ
could come back any day, any time. He could come back today. Now we always say, well, he's
not coming back today. I don't know that, you don't know that.
But we gotta be watching. And I'm not talking about being
a doomsday sayer. I remember years ago that we
used to have a fellow come and visit us. every now and then. He came here and when I was up
in Ashland, he showed up in Ashland too in Kentucky and he followed
a man named Harold Camping. I don't know if you remember
Harold Camping, he's dead now, but Harold Camping was big on
trying to look in the scriptures and set the date of the second
coming of Christ. And he wrote a book on it, and
then he turned, of course, it didn't happen, and he said, well,
I was wrong, I didn't figure out this part of it, and all
that, and he'd come up with a new date. And this guy that would
come and visit, he had a T-shirt that had the date on his T-shirt. And his name was Al, and he'd
say, well, the Lord's coming back then. I said, well, Al,
I hope you're right, but I know you're wrong. Because he said
no man knows that date, except the Father which is in heaven.
But we don't know the date, we don't know the time, it could
be now, it could be a hundred years from now, we don't know.
But we're to be watchful. Now how are we watchful? Not
by trying to figure out the date, we're to be watchful by looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, by looking at his
word, living by his word. And that's not working to attain
your salvation, that's working because you are saved. Worshiping
God. And then it involves also preparing. Now how do we prepare? We'll
go on that website where you can get all this food and stuff
and stock it up. No, that's not preparing. Preparing
again is the same thing. Keeping our eyes focused on Christ
and His righteousness. Knowing that we're saved because
of His grace. and living a life that's pleasing
unto him in thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. All of that, being prepared. So he says the one who is blessed,
that true servant of God, is the one whom when Christ come,
he finds watching, preparing, looking unto Christ, worshiping
God, seeking to please him, again, not working our way into his
favor, but realizing that we're blessed of God with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In other words,
what he's saying here, look at verse 47 now. He says, verily
or truly, I say unto you that he, that is Christ, shall make
him ruler over all his goods. What is that about? Does that
mean he's going to reward us according to our efforts? No. This is not any kind of incentive or fear
that we're not going to get as much as somebody else who works
harder than us. That's not what this is about.
Watching for His return, preparing for the end of the world by looking
and resting into Him for all grace here and all glory hereafter,
this blessedness is a state of being that God has put us in,
making us new creatures in Christ. Giving us the gift of faith,
giving us the gift of repentance, preserving us unto glory, all
by His grace. And so it refers to being watchful,
faithful, wise servants, and that gives evidence of being
blessed of God. So he says he's gonna make them
ruler over all his goods. I've got in your lesson, this
verse does not teach earned rewards or positions in glory earned
by or based upon our obedience and works. It doesn't say that
because I'm the pastor and I preach that I'm gonna have a higher
position than you in glory. Because that's not true. That
will not happen. You know, people talk about,
well, there are degrees of punishment in hell. And I think the Bible
teaches that. I believe that's probably true.
But there are no degrees of heaven. Why is that? Hell is what we
earn. Heaven is given freely. It's
not what we earn. And that's why. But people argue
about that. And I'm not going to argue about
that. It seems like every month or
so we get something new to argue about. Now if it challenges the
gospel, it's a different thing, isn't it? We have to be careful
there, we have to stand fast. But what this is when he says
he's gonna make them a ruler over all his goods, I've got
it in your lesson this way. This is a statement of the abundance
of all blessings of salvation and glory that those who are
blessed of God possess already have now by virtue of our union
with Christ based upon his righteousness imputed alone. That's what that's
talking about. And how will we be ruler over
them? Well, it's talking about being
in charge of all that he freely gives us in the sense of making
us stewards of his blessings. You see, the blessings have been
given and he's made us stewards of those blessings as servants
of God and we're to try to be good stewards, we're to deal
with them responsibly to the glory of God. It's like a person,
and I won't pick on any particular denomination, but think about
it this way. It's like a person who, we see the doctrine of election
in the Bible. God chose a people, and we know
that every one of them are gonna be saved. Now don't we? God's not willing that any of
them should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Now, a person who sees that truth and says, I believe that truth,
therefore it doesn't matter whether they hear the gospel or whether
I speak to them or witness to them, I'm just gonna sit back
and watch it all happen, that's being a lousy steward. That's a terrible steward. What
did Christ say? He said, my sheep hear my voice
and I know them. Well, how are they gonna hear
his voice? Well, it pleased the Lord by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. Now people argue about how do
you hear and all this, who you hear from, listen, all I know
is this, if you're one of God's chosen people, one of Christ's
sheep, justified in him by his righteousness imputed and redeemed
by his blood. At some point in your life, between
birth and death, he's gonna bring you under the gospel and you're
gonna hear it and believe it. And until that time comes of
his second coming, what are we to be about doing? We're to be
about spreading the message, preaching the message, seeking
Christ's sheep, I've even had people, I had a guy up in Cincinnati
want to debate me. I don't do that, but not like
what he wanted. You get a big stage thing and
all that. And he was talking about preaching
the gospel that he only preaches to God's elect. I said, well,
how do you know who they are? And he said, I don't, but God
does. And I said, well, I preach to anybody who'll listen. He
said, well, would you, he used this analogy. He said, would
you go out and water a stand of dead grass? Would you water
it? And I told him, I said, yes,
if God told me to. And I asked him, I said, would
you go out and preach to a valley of dead, dry bones? Think about it. The man named
Ezekiel, God said, go preach to him. Can these bones live? What did Ezekiel say? Lord thou
knowest. I know when I preach the gospel,
when you men preach the gospel, you ladies even witnessing the
gospel to others, that it can be either the savor of death
unto death or life unto life. Now who makes the difference?
God does. And so it's not up to us to operate
on the basis of the results. If that were the case, then Noah
would have stopped after about the first month. But it says
he preached righteousness for 120 years. And as far as I can
see, there were no converts, or there's none mentioned anyway.
And it was up until the time of the flood. So understand,
we're to be ambassadors of Christ. Second Corinthians 5.20. As though
God did beseech you by us, be ye reconciled to God on the basis
of the fact that Christ was made sin and we're made the righteousness
of God. That's the imputed righteousness of Christ, sin imputed to Christ.
So that's what that's talking about, just being a good steward
over all that he's given us. Acting responsibly out of love
and concern for the souls of people. I want to see people
saved, don't you? I want to see people come to
Christ. That's what I want to see. And I know I can't do it.
I know if I preach the best sermon I've ever preached in my life
today, there's no power in me to save anybody. It takes the
power of God and the salvation. Well, that's the blessed servant,
the one blessed by God in Christ. Well, look at the next line.
Look at verse 48. but and if that evil servant shall say in
his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming. Oh, he's not coming today,
so what does it matter what I do? He's not coming this year. That's
what he's talking about the delay. What he's describing here is
everybody who's found in unbelief when Christ comes back. When
he comes again, all who are found in unbelief. don't live their
lives watching, looking to Christ, expecting his return any day
according to his word. Doesn't he say in his word he
could come back any day at any time? He doesn't give us a specific
day. You remember the Thessalonians
Paul deals with this, how some of them were expecting the Lord
to come back in their lifetime. And they were just so sure of
it. So many of them quit their jobs and kind of went off and
lived out in the hinterlands, maybe in a cave or something.
And you know what happened to them? They got hungry. And they came back wanting their
brethren to feed them. And you know what Paul said?
If a man don't work, he don't eat. Now he's talking about those
who are capable of earning their daily bread. Now we don't earn
salvation, but we've got to earn that paycheck. And we've got
to pay for our bread, all of that, however much it is. They
say the price of eggs is going out because of the bird flu.
And I remember, I think it was your dad, Rachel, he put a thing
in there, he said, why is it when the bird flu comes, they
only kill chickens? And you know, so, because that's
what we eat most of anything, yeah. More money, all that. But the thing about it is, We
need to live our lives in expectation and the evil servant here is
one who doesn't do that. He's not talking about drunks
and whoremongers and drug pushers. Now they are evil, they do evil.
But he's talking about a person who just does not live their
life in expectation of the Lord's coming, looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. That's unbelief. And I put in here, they are evil
servants as evidenced by their lack of faith and in refusing
to live according to the word of God. And this would include
anybody who's found at the time of Christ's second coming to
be an unbeliever, but it especially includes those who claim to be
his servants and don't live according to his word. false professors. I think that's the real crux
of what this is pointing to. Look at verse 49. He says, and
shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink
with the drunken. Now this smiting his fellow servants
describes their hatred of God's true people who tell him the
truth. And the Bible speaks of that,
John 3, 19 through 20, this is the condemnation that light is
coming to the world and men hate the light and love darkness because
their deeds are evil. Christ in John 15, he says, marvel
not if the world hates you, it hated me before it hated you,
they'll persecute you, they'll throw you out of the synagogues.
We read the history of the beginning of the New Testament church that
was formed in blood First of all, formed in the blood of Christ.
Remember those thousands that came to Christ at Pentecost.
But then they began to have their own blood shed because of their
testimony of the gospel. And that shows the hatred. And
when it talks about drunkenness, now, certainly, we don't promote
physical drunkenness. But I don't believe that's what
he's talking about here. And I put in your lesson this way,
their drunkenness could describe the ill effects of overindulgence
in alcohol, but it mainly refers to spiritual drunkenness of false
doctrine. The wine of the false doctrine
of false professors. And the Bible's full of that.
Old Testament and new. A person who believes a false
gospel is drunk spiritually. They're dead spiritually. but
their mind is addled and confused by false doctrine. Just like
when a person who gets drunk physically, their mind is addled,
their response time, you know, all of that. So I believe that's
what he's talking about particularly, and then look at the last two
verses. Verse 50, the Lord of that servant shall come in a
day when he looketh not for him, when you least expect it. In
an hour that he's not aware of, it'll be a total shock to his
system, and shall cut him asunder, cut him off. You know, one of
the things that when the Lord shows us our sin and depravity,
we see at that point in time, like Isaiah said, he said, woe
is me for I'm undone, literally means I'm cut off. And what we
realize that based upon our works and our efforts, To be saved,
we're separated from God. And that's why he drives us to
Christ, to where we see we're not cut off, because we are in
Christ. We're washed in his blood. We're
clothed in his righteousness. We're full of his spirit, the
life-giving spirit. And so we're not cut off, and
it has nothing to do with our works, but all to do with Christ's
work. So he says, in a day that he's
not aware of, and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion
with the hypocrites. Remember the Bible speaks of
them in Romans 9, I think it's verse 22, as being vessels of
wrath, fitted, made up for destruction. That's their portion with the
hypocrites. It is damnation. And he said,
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. because of the shock
of it. They'll be crying, they'll be
gritting their teeth in anger, what that means. And I've closed
your lesson out with this. This is why we are assured that
unless by the grace of God we're found in Christ, washed in his
blood and clothed in his righteousness, there's no hope of glory for
any of us, whether we die before Christ comes or when he comes.
And that's why Paul preached what he preached in Athens, when
he said, God has appointed a day when he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, and that
he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised
him from the dead. And then in Philippians, where
he said that I want to be found in Christ. When Christ comes
again, or when I go to the judgment, I want to be found in Christ. not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law or by my work, but that which is through
the faith of or the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness
of God by faith, which we receive in the knowledge of it by faith.
So be watchful, be prepared. That's the blessed servant and
not the evil one. Okay.