Well, good morning to everyone.
If you would, open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is your matchless name. Lord, we bow before you. throne of grace this morning,
a thankful people. How thankful we are for your
mercy and grace that you have for your people in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Full and free salvation, complete
forgiveness and cleansing from all of our sin and his precious
blood. Father, how we thank you. Father, how we thank you that
you've given us this another opportunity to meet together
and to worship, to open your word, to read and study it, and
have Christ preach to us from it. Father, we're thankful. And
Father, I beg of you that you not leave us alone this morning,
that you not let us just go through the motions of religion, but
Father, open your word to our hearts. Give each one of us here
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us see Christ. Let our hearts
be thrilled. Let us believe and find our hope
and rest and peace and comfort in him. And Father, what we pray
for ourselves, we especially pray for our children's classes
that are going on right now. Father, I pray you bless our
teachers and that you bless our children, that you use this time,
if it could be thy will, to plant the seeds of faith in their hearts.
And Father, bless your people everywhere who meet together
today to worship. Cause your gospel to run well
in this dark, dark time. in which we live, Father, show
us your glory through the preaching of your word, we pray. And Father,
for those that you brought into the time of trouble and trial,
we pray for them. We're thankful to know these
things are not accidental, but by your eternal will and purpose.
And Father, we pray that you would cause us to learn the lesson,
that you'd have us to learn and that you would deliver as quickly
as it could be possible. All these things we ask, and
we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of Christ our Savior. Amen. All right, now I've titled
our lesson this morning, Don't Bury Your Talent. And you'll
see where I got that title. I'm gonna read our text beginning
in verse 14 and come back and make a few comments. Matthew
25, verse 14. 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. 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. And behold, I have gained beside
them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, well
done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful
over a few things. I'll make thee ruler over many
things. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord,
thou deliverest under me two talents. Behold, I have gained
two other talents beside them. His Lord said unto him, well
done, 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 the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee.
that thou art an 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, there thou hast that
is thine. The Lord answered and said unto
him, thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I
reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed. Thou
oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and
then in my coming I should have received mine own with usury,
with 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 he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable
servant into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. Now this passage has been used
for years by false teachers to try to scare people into serving
the Lord. They say, now, if you don't take
what the Lord's giving you and you don't serve the Lord with
it, you don't serve the Lord well enough with it, why, the
Lord's gonna take away your salvation. He's gonna damn you because you
haven't done enough for the Lord. They also misuse this talent,
or this passage, trying to motivate people with the promise of rewards
in heaven. They say, you know, the more
you do in the service of the Lord, the more the Lord will
give you, the more the Lord will bless you in this earth, and
certainly the more crowns and rewards you'll have in heaven.
Now, maybe that kind of thing went through your mind as I read
this parable. But let me tell you, both of
those ways of teaching this passage are wrong. They're a misuse and
a misinterpretation of scripture. Now remember, you can't just
lift this out. You have to look at what's the
Lord been teaching, what's going on here. The Lord's been teaching
how the church on earth is made up of a mixture of some believers
and some unbelievers. both good servants and wicked
servants. Second, he's teaching us here, just like all the scriptures,
this scripture is no different than the rest of scripture. The
salvation is all of grace. It's not of works. Salvation
is of grace. I mean, the way that false teachers
teach this saying, well, you know, if you do more, the Lord
will give you more. That's works, right? That's not grace, that's
works. That can't be what this passage is teaching because we
know salvation is by grace. And third, the Lord is teaching
us there are no rewards in heaven except for one, the reward of
grace. And every believer gets the exact
same reward, and I'll make good on that here in just a few minutes.
The reward that believers have in heaven, you know what it is?
Thankfully, it's not what they've earned. It's what Christ earned
for them. That's the reward. Now, the talent that the Lord
gives his servants, that's a monetary term, Well, I'll talk in terms
of the talents and skills and abilities that the Lord has given
his people, because that's what this picture is. But this talent
that the Lord gives his servants in the parable, it's worth over
$1.4 million today. A talent in that day would take
a working man nine years to make that much money. So this Lord's
giving his servants a lot of money of his stuff to take care
of. Now the talents that the Lord
gives the servants in this parable, they represent the gifts and
the abilities that the Lord gives to all men. Some men only receive
physical and intellectual abilities, abilities with their mind and
with their bodies and the things that men can do. Some men get
material blessings. They're very wealthy in monetary
things and so forth. And some men receive these material
physical blessings. but they also receive spiritual
blessings. So first, let's look at the wicked
servant. Now, the wicked servant received
one talent, a lot of money, $1.4 million. He's supposed to take
care of that for his Lord. And this talent represents just
the natural gifts that God gives to all men. Now, these gifts
come in different and varying sizes and abilities and amounts
and so forth. But God, just generally speaking,
gives gifts, these kind of gifts to all men. Some people have
an intellect. I mean, everybody has an intellect.
Some people have more than others, but everybody's got intellect,
a mind to think with. Some people have skills and abilities
and so forth. Some greater than others, but
everybody's got some skill, some ability. Everybody has some material
blessing. Some people have a lot, some
people have little, but Lord gives everybody some. But man
is dead in sin. Now we have physical gifts, physical
blessings, but man is dead in sin. And naturally speaking,
even though man is dead in sin, man's not stupid. I mean, God
did not create men to be stupid. Mankind has done some amazing,
I mean, even with a spiritually dead mind, you think of the amazing
things that humankind, the things that they've done, And they can
do that because God's given them the gifts to do it. You know,
people make extraordinary discoveries in science and medicines and
so forth, inventions, things that are good for men. But you
know, I thought about just even things we take for granted. This
is a silly example, but I like it. What about an air fryer? I mean, what a mystery that you
can take something and put it in this thing and make it taste
like it's been fried in oil without any oil. That's a mystery to
me. Last week, our son Doug made
us fried Twinkies in his air fryer. Now, you can say that's
a small thing. You can say it's not a big deal.
But I'm telling you what, Brady, it made me happy. I mean, fried
Twinkie made me happy. Somebody invented that thing.
I mean somebody way smarter me. They have a gift. I don't have
it's amazing People do amazing things. It's because God's given
them just this Physical blessing, you know things in this world
a mind and talents and things well, the Lord gave this the
Lord of this this King whatever he was here gave this servant
one talent That's no small thing. $1.4 million worth of nine years
of working man to make this much money. And this servant took
what the Lord gave him and hid it in the earth. Now, you know,
when you look at the meaning of the parable, maybe the Lord
gave him a great mind, a great intellect, but he didn't use
it to seek the Lord. Maybe the Lord gave him very
skills and talents to do things, but he didn't use him to use
those things to help people. Maybe the Lord gave him great
wealth, like this servant got $1.4 million. The Lord gave him
great wealth, but he didn't use it to bless others, to help others.
He took it and hid it. Now remember what the Lord's
teaching here about the church on earth is made up of a mixture
of believers and unbelievers. This man is somebody, he represents
somebody that attends the local church. He's part of the local
congregation. He comes week after week. He
claims to believe the gospel. He claims to have faith in Christ.
He, um, I'm, I'm sure he believes some of the doctrines and things
that are taught, but his so-called faith, what he calls faith is
dead. Faith has to be because faith
without works is dead. That kind of faith, faith that
does not produce works of love and works of, of, uh, in the
service of the Lord, that's dead faith. That kind of faith can't
save anybody. He talks about love. but his
so-called love is dead. Because he doesn't use what God's
given him to help other people. I mean, if you see your brother
in need and you've got what he needs and you don't give it to
him, my God tell you, you don't love him. That's just all there
is to it. It's dead love. And he thinks
about God. I mean, this man is just not
somebody that never thinks about. He thinks about God. He has thoughts
about religion. But as much as he sits in the
local congregation, as much as he hears the gospel preached,
All his thoughts about God are wrong. He thinks that the Lord
is harsh. He calls him in verse 24. He
said, you're a hard man. He thinks the Lord's harsh, not
gracious. The Lord's gracious. He's thinking,
and I'll tell you why he thinks the Lord's harsh. He's thinking
about coming to the Lord through the harshness of the law, not
the kindness of grace, not the kindness of Christ. And he thinks
his Lord is unjust. He tells him in verse 24, you
reap where you didn't plant. You gather what doesn't belong
to you. Now that's not true, but that's the way he saw his
Lord. You reap what you didn't plant.
You gather up what doesn't belong to you. This man, he sits, hears
the gospel. But he thinks the Lord, as often
as he hears the scripture, he still thinks the Lord's unjust
to have mercy on whom he will have mercy. He thinks that's
not fair. He thinks it's not fair, God doesn't give everybody
a chance. He thinks God is unjust and he's
harsh to damn those that do not believe on him. And I tell you
why he thinks it's not fair, God doesn't give everybody a
chance. Because he doesn't think he's
dead in sin. He thinks I've got the ability
to decide to be saved if I want to. I've got the ability to decide
to accept Jesus as my personal savior if I want to. God ought
to give everybody a chance. I'll tell you what his problem
is. He thinks too highly of himself and too low of God. That's his
problem. It's all his thoughts about God
are wrong. Now he knows the Lord sovereign in all things, but
he says, well, there's no use calling on the Lord because there's
no use begging him for mercy and calling on him and asking
for mercy because he's so hard. He's so hard. He's only going
to save God's elect. You know, nothing I can do about
it. I mean, God's sovereign, he's gonna do his will. So me
asking him to save me, that's not gonna change his will. He's
just too hard, you know. See what he's doing? He's using
the sovereignty of God to be mad at God. He's using the sovereignty
of God as an excuse not to ask God to forgive his sin. He's
using the sovereignty of God as an excuse not to ask God to
save him and have mercy on him. He used the sovereignty of God
as a reason to be afraid of God and stay away from God. Instead
of saying this one who's sovereign, he can do as he will, when he
will, he's got the power and right to do it. Be a good idea
to ask him. He's got all power to save me. Good idea to ask
him, but he doesn't do that. He uses the power and sovereignty
of God to stay away from God. Now you see the error in that,
don't you? This is the wicked servant. He hears the gospel,
he hears things about God, but all his thoughts are wrong. So
when the Lord finally comes in judgment, he took away what that
wicked servant did have. He took away his physical life. He took away that mental capacity
that he gave him. He took away that capacity just
to, what Paul said in Romans, just look at nature. Every human
being has a mental capacity to look at nature and see that God
is. Now God has to exist. None of this could have evolved.
God had to make it. This man didn't see that. He
had the mental capacity to see, he just refused to do it. And
God took away what he had and he was damned. That's the wicked
servant. All right, now let's look at
the good and faithful servant. Now, the Lord sovereignly gave
gifts to these good and faithful servants, too, just like he did
the wicked servant. The Lord gave them physical abilities,
mental abilities, material blessings, but he also gave them spiritual
blessings. He gave them the riches of his
mercy and his grace. The value of these two talents
and these five talents is just so astronomical. That represents
the riches of God's mercy and his grace that he gives to sinners.
The Lord gave them everything he has for sinners, everything. He gave unto them all his goods,
everything he has, he gave. That's the riches of God's mercy
and grace that he gives to sinners, and he gave it to them by his
grace, by his will. Not because they deserved it,
but by his grace and his will. He gave them what he chose to
gave them. See that in verse 15, he gave
unto one, he gave five talents to another two and to another
one, to every man according to his several ability. Now he didn't
give it according to their ability to take care of it and their
ability to use it and their ability to make it grow. The Lord gave
it to them according to his ability to give, according to his ability
to give and his wisdom to give it to whom he will. And then,
for these two good and faithful servants, the Lord gave them
the wisdom and the ability to use the gifts that he gave them
for his glory. Now I tell you one thing that
the false teacher says that is true. We should use the gifts
that God's given us for his glory. We should. The false prophet's
wrong in this. If you don't use it well enough,
God's gonna God's gonna take away your salvation and damn
you. That part's not true, but this part is true. Whatever it
is God's given you, whatever gifts God's given you, we ought
to use it for his glory. The Lord's given some men the
ability to preach, to open and read and study the word and be
able to expound that word to God's people. Now, the Lord doesn't
give that to every believer, but you know, that's okay. Only
one man can preach at a time anyway. You know, everybody don't
have to be a preacher. This is what I wish I could get
across to some folks. You don't have to be a preacher.
You don't have to be a missionary to serve God. You can serve God
right where you work. You can serve God right in your
home, in your community, you know? God's given some men the
ability to preach, but he's given, he doesn't give that to everybody,
but he's given every believer some ability to serve in God's
church. He's given all of his people
the ability to give an offering. Now, some can give more than
others, but the scripture says you give as God's blessing, as
God's prosperity, as God's, he's given everybody the ability to
give something. Certainly here, I know in some parts of the country
this is not as true, but he's given every single person here
the ability to faithfully attend the service. I mean, we've got
an easy drive, in an air conditioned, heated car, whatever, you know,
it's an easy drive. God's given us the ability to
be faithful, to attend the service, to be faithful to one another.
God's given some people the ability to teach classes, some people
the ability to fill the pulpit, like Eric did Thursday when I
couldn't be here. The Lord maybe has given you the ability to
maintain this building. And you say, oh, you know, that's
not like teaching, that's not like preaching. Well, let me
tell you what, I sure do like a building that's not falling
down around us when you sit in comfort and worship, don't you?
That's an important thing that you do to serve God's people.
God's given some of you the ability to sing and play instruments,
to sing in the worship of our God. If God's given you that
ability, use it. What a blessing it is to God's
people when people have that ability. Some people have the
ability, to say a kind word right when it's needed, to have something
encouraging to say. And you know, sometimes somebody
is going through something and you just think, oh my goodness,
I just can't. I can't imagine the depth of
that trial. I can't imagine how hard that is. I can't imagine
how hard that works. You'd be amazed what just somebody really
caring. I mean, you can tell somebody
really cares when they're just saying words. When somebody says,
I am so sorry. I'm so sorry, I'm praying for
you, I love you, I'm so sorry. Everybody here's got the opportunity
to do that. Just take whatever door God has opened. I can't
think of every example that there is, but whatever ability the
Lord's given you, don't bury it, take the opportunity to use
it to help God's people. Help all people, by all means,
but especially God's people. And you know, the Lord gave these
talents, this money and these blessings to his people. And
you know what? He went away and when he came back, he expected
an increase. He didn't just expect to get
what he bought, he expected an increase. Now the Lord's given
all of his people the fruit of the spirit. I know some in different
amounts, but the Lord's given all of his people the fruit of
the spirit. He's put in the heart of every believer, love, joy,
peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, kindness God's given
his people all these fruits of the Spirit and He expects it
to increase he tells us don't make it grow Now, how are you
gonna do that? The Lord expects the increase
how you gonna make that grow? Well, I'll tell you how by being
in the word by hearing the word preached by just There's no replacing
public worship, there's just absolutely no Replacing it and
I'll tell you why You can listen to messages on the Internet and
all these things. And me, if you can't make it,
you know, to a service or whatever, that's good. Or you want to hear
extra messages and learn that. That's good. But tell you what? You know what makes this so special?
Christ the Savior's here. He's being in his presence. It's
the fruit of the spirit being in his presence is going to make
that fruit grow. That's just so. And the Lord
expects increase. Now that being said, let's remember
this. One of the things the Lord gives his people is humility. And I'll grant you some people
have that in greater amounts than others, but the Lord's given
his people humility. Now with that in mind, let me
tell you this. Don't seek to grow in the fruit of the spirit.
Don't, don't seek to have these blessings that God's given you
grow so people will brag on you. That's contrary to grace, isn't
it? Seek to grow in these things, whatever it is God's given you.
Seek to grow in these things for the glory of God and for
the good of God's people. Not your glory, for the good
of somebody else. You don't seek to serve thinking,
oh, if I serve, I do this. I give up some of my time. I
do this. I'll have a greater reward in
heaven. Every time we think about something
like we got to remember, is this contrary to salvation by grace?
I mean, of all the things that I know, I know this. Salvation
is by grace. Well, that's contrary to grace.
Well, the reward that God's people receive is by grace, too. It's
all by grace. These two good and faithful servants,
the Lord gave them different blessings, different amounts,
didn't he? One he gave five, one he gave two. But both of
them, received the exact same reward. See that in verse 21,
the Lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Thou have been faithful over
a few things. I'll make thee ruler over many things. Enter
thou into the joy of thy Lord. And he said that to the servant
that gained five talents. But look what he said to the
one that gained just two. Verse 23, the Lord said unto him the
exact same thing. Well done, good and faithful
servant. I've been faithful over a few things. I'll make thee
ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. Now that's the blessing. That's
the reward that all of God's people receive. Enter thou into
the joy of thy Lord. They both had different abilities
and they just served the Lord and what the Lord gave them and
they both entered into the joy of the Lord. They both entered
into the joy of what Christ accomplished when he went away to Calvary.
They both have the joy of having the righteousness of Christ.
They both have the joy of calling the Lord, Jehovah's security,
the Lord, my righteousness. They both have the blessing of
coming before the father and being accepted in the beloved
in Christ. They both have the joy of the
Holy Ghost. Now what's the joy of the Holy
Ghost? It's to be able to see Christ and believe on Him. That's
what the Holy Spirit enables us to do is to see Christ and
believe on Him. They have that joy. What a joy to believe and
trust and rest in Christ. And in heaven, every believer
is going to have the same joy. It's to be made like Christ.
To be made just like Christ the Savior. Now I ask you, what more do you
want? It doesn't matter the size of
that mansion that you got or how wide the street of gold is.
To be made just like Christ and every believer will see him face
to face. I'm telling you, we're not going
to be comparing how many crowns we got. Everyone in heaven is
going to be thrilled at this, at seeing the crown on the head
of Christ the Savior. seeing him crowned with glory,
seeing his face. Now, in this parable, I mean,
the Lord is teaching us this. Take what God's given you and
use it in his service. Be a faithful servant. But you
know what? There is no way any believer
honestly can think this. By my service, I'm earning rewards
in heaven. There's no way any honest believer
can say that. Let me show you that, Luke chapter
17. If we're being honest, I know that the flesh crops up from
time to time. If we're just being honest, there's
no way that we can say, oh, I'm earning this blessing from the
Lord. Because look what the Lord says here, Luke 17, verse 10. So likewise ye, when ye shall
have done all those things which are commanded you, this is what
you say. We're unprofitable servants.
We've just done that which was our duty to do. That may have
crossed somebody's mind. I'm talking about this servant
with the five talents. Oh, he went and made five more. This
servant with two talents, he went and made two more, you know.
And you think, I just don't think I can do that. I'm an unprofitable
servant. I don't have that much skill
and faithfulness and ability, you know. We just, if you're
honest, you just say, I can't brag about what I've done for
God. I can identify with this one saying I'm an unprofitable
servant, can't you? I mean, I'm not so sure I can
identify with the servant that took five talents and made five
more, but I'm telling you, I can identify with saying I'm an unprofitable
servant. If we're honest about our service,
whatever service it is you render to God's church, we have to say
honestly, I'm never satisfied with it. It's just never good
enough because there's too much flesh. There's too much pride. There's too much sin in everything
that we do, you know. There's not one of God's preachers
that ever tell you, I'm satisfied with that message I just preached.
It's the truth. It's the truth. I'm satisfied
it's the truth. But we can never tell the glory of Christ our
Savior. We can never tell the Fully what
he's done for his people and who he is with these sinful tongues. We just always say Well, that
was a truth, but I could have done better. I wish I'd never
crack at that week. I could do better That should be done better
See and you just apply that to whatever it is Everything we
do is mixed with enough sin to damn our souls a thousand times
over Yet every believer every believer is gonna have the joy
of hearing our Savior say, well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. Now, how can that be? We're unsatisfied
with our service, aren't we? We're unsatisfied. How can the
Lord be satisfied? If I'm not satisfied with it,
how can the Lord be satisfied with it? It's by grace. It's by grace. It's by seeing
us in Christ. It's by seeing us washed in the
blood of Christ. Now, often, when the Lord talks
about him going away, what he's referring to, and that's what
it applies to in this parable, he's going away to Calvary, and
he's gonna go away, he's gonna leave earth, and he's gonna go
sit on the throne of heaven as our mediator. Well, the only
way our persons, who we are, what we do, the only way our
worship, the only way our service, can ever be accepted by God is
through the blood of Christ our mediator. Through Christ our
mediator pleading for us. The only way that God can ever
see us as good and faithful servants is that's what he's made us.
That's what he's made us in Christ. And the Lord says now he's going
to return. Now usually, I think it's interesting, here he says,
after a long time, the Lord returned. Usually when our Lord talks about
his return, he makes it sound imminent, doesn't he? Come quickly,
he's coming quickly. But here he says that he's coming
in a long time. I looked at that and here's what
I come up with. The Lord is coming soon. In relation
to how long creation's been here, the Lord's coming soon. but it's
gonna seem like a long time to us. Well, during that time, don't
be weary in well-doing. As unsatisfied as we are with
our service, keep serving the Lord. Keep doing what you can
with what the Lord's given you. He'll be here before you know
it. And when he does, you'll enter into the joy of the Lord.
Hearing him say, as unsatisfied as you are with your service,
you're going to hear him say, well done, my good and faithful
servant. Because he sees you in Christ.
He sees you as doing what the Lord Jesus Christ does. He's
going to say, well done. Maybe we'll say back to him,
yeah, well done, Lord. You did well, didn't you? All
right. Well, I hope that'll be a help to you and a comfort to
you. take some stress off of you and every time you think
about this parable.