title of this message, Stewardship.
The reason our Lord gave this parable is
that he's going to go up to Jerusalem. He's going to go up to Jerusalem
and be crucified, but the people there, along with the disciples
thought that he was going to go and set up the kingdom. He
was going to immediately be set up. And that's what they were
looking for. They were not looking for redemption. They were not
looking for the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross. They were
looking for a kingdom to be set up and that they would be honored.
That's what they were looking for. They would be honored along
with him. One would get to sit on his right
hand and one on his left hand. That's what they were looking
for. And they would be delivered from all their enemies. Therefore,
he gives them this parable about the nobleman who's going to go
away into a far country and receive a kingdom. And while he's gone,
he gives to his servants these ten pounds. And he says, you
occupy until I come. And that word occupy means trade,
do business. That's why he's saying, you take
this, what I've given you, these ten pounds, and you trade with
them. And when I come back, then I'll
receive interest off of that. So it says here in verse 20,
a certain nobleman. Now, we know that this certain
nobleman is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is who he's talking about.
His birth is truly noble. He was born Son of God. He is the Son of God. He excels
everyone that's ever walked on this earth in nobility. This
is the King of Kings right here. This is the Lord of Lords. And
he tells his disciples, while I'm gone, in this parable, he
tells us that he's going to go away and receive for himself
a kingdom. And he's about to pay a price.
He's about to pay a dear price for this kingdom. This kingdom
that he is about to receive from his father cost him a great deal. It cost him his life. It cost
him the blood, his blood. And he's going to go back to
his father now, and he's going to bring that price with him
and is going to receive for himself this kingdom. I tell you this,
although all things were made by him, and all things were made
for him, and nothing exists without the Lord Jesus Christ, yet this
kingdom that he is going to receive had to be purchased by him. He
had to purchase this kingdom in order to have it. This kingdom
that he is talking about here sold itself under sin. and under
the dominion of the law. Therefore, Christ, in order for
him to have this kingdom that he's speaking of here, to have
it lawfully, he must pay the purchase price, which is his
blood. His blood. That's what he had to pay for
it. He must redeem its subjects. That's what he has to do. And
after he receives this kingdom, and all things are put under
his feet, He's going to return. He says the nobleman's going
to return. He's going to do that. Although the day and hour is
not known when he's going to return, the certainty of it is
sure. The certainty of his return is going to happen. We don't
know when, we don't know the hour, but the certainty of the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to happen. It's going
to happen. And it's going to happen with
such honor and power and display, and he's going to be admired
by all his saints. That's what the Scripture tells
us. We are going to stand in admiration of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're going to be awed when we
see him. The first time he came, he was despised and rejected.
The first time he came, he came in clothes of a pimp. But the
second time he comes, he's got royalty and power and authority. That's what we're going to see.
But, until this happens, he calls his ten servants here and gives
them ten pounds. He gives them one pound apiece,
and he instructs them of what to do with the ten pounds. He
says, you occupy till I come. You trade with it. That's what
you do. You trade with it. Now, if you'll notice, he calls,
he says, his servants. They are his. They belong to
him. Everything belongs to this nobleman. Everything, every person,
everything that exists belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. It
belongs to him. Then he says here, now he tells
them to occupy. He says, occupy till I come.
As I said, that means be busy, busy or trade. Use what I've
given you. Use what I have given you until
I come. Until I come back, you trade
with me. We ought to be busy about our Father's business as
He was. He said, I must be about my Father's business. And really,
that's our business right there. Our business is to be about our
Father's business. Our business is to be preaching
the gospel. You know, we go to work and different places and
we make money, but we do this in order to support the gospel.
We do this in order to send it out. The gospel, I tell you,
the gospel is our business. The gospel is our life. This
is our life. We do these other things, but
this is our life. Every believer has a part to
occupy until he comes. In the body of Christ, every
believer, don't think you're insignificant. There is not a part on my body
that I count as insignificant. Do you? Break a fingernail in it, you
can feel it. Everything, everything is significant in our Lord's
body. Now he says here, to occupy till
I come. We are not to keep this gospel, and this is what he's
talking about I believe here, this gospel that we have. This
gospel is our life. We are not to keep it to ourselves,
nor hide it like this one we'll look at here in a minute. We
are to spread it, just like we cast seeds. It's like you go
out and sow grass. You spread it. Spread it by using
the means that he's given to us. He's given us means by which
to spread the gospel. Use it. Use it. But it says here in verse 14,
it says, but his citizens hated him. They hated that nobleman. I would suspect they were very
jealous of that nobleman. But they hated him. And they
said, we will not have this man to reign over us. Scripture says, he came unto
his own, and his own received him not. I can assure you this,
what men will not, God will. They said, we will not have this
man reign over us. Well, you don't have any say
so in the matter. It's a matter of God's will. And God's will
is that this man shall reign over you. He is going to reign. He does reign even now. He reigns
now. Our will must give way to His
will. And I want that. And every believer
wants that. You want, Lord, Thy will be done. That's how we are to pray. Thy
will be done. We want His will to be done. And it came to pass, as everything
that God says does, everything our Lord says comes to pass.
He returned, just as He said He would. He returned. And He
called to Him His servants, called each one of them. Day of reckoning
has come. Accountability for stewardship
has come. And the first one comes, and
note what he says. I like the way he says it. Thy
pound hath gained ten pounds. He does not say, I have gained. I have done this," he said, "'Lord,
thy pound, what you gave me, has gained ten pounds. What you
gave me has gained the blessing.'" That's what it is. It's thy gift
that has gained, not me. It's the gift of God that he
gives us. It's his gift that gains. Paul said this, "'I labor
more abundantly than they ought. But it's no more I, but the grace
of God in me." Grace of God in me. Like Aaron's rod that buzzes. Aaron did not make that rod to
buzz, did he? Aaron carried the rod. Aaron
used the rod that God told him to, but God made that rod to
buzz. Aaron didn't say, rod, buzz.
And he didn't do it. God gave the increase. God gave
the blessing. Aaron only did what he was called to do. That's
all we're to do. Occupy. Be busy with what he's
given us till he comes. And then the second one says
the same thing. He says, Lord, thy pound. Thy
gift. This is what makes the difference.
Thy gift. All that we are to do is use the gift. God will
give the increase. We just use the gift. Just like
standing here preaching. I go home. I study. And I tell
you, you never feel like you study enough when you get up
here. You can study a hundred hours a week, and then when you
stand here, you say, I didn't study enough. But the increase,
I know this, the increase is of God. If we have any spiritual
blessings, if we have any spiritual growth, it'll be God giving it
to us. It'll be God's blessing. It'll
be God giving the increase. He'll get the glory for it. If
we use these talents and gifts for His glory, It'll grow. This'll
grow. It'll grow. If not, we'll lose
it. If not, we'll lose it. Every
believer, and I know some people think that they have no gifts
at all, and I've felt that way a long time, but God has given
every believer gifts. Every believer has been given
a gift or gifts to be used in the body of Christ till he comes.
We're not given these things to be used for ourselves and
our pleasure, but we're given to be used for His people and
the good of His body and His glory. That's why He's given
to us. The Scripture teaches us this, to deny ourselves, doesn't
it? It teaches us to deny ourselves.
The Scripture says this, lay not up for yourselves. That's
hard to do. It's hard not to lay up for yourselves.
It's just a human, it's a human trait to lay up for ourselves,
to take care of self first. before we take care of anything
else, for that's a human trait. But he says, lay not up for yourself.
And we have one here in verse 20, and this is the one that
we don't want to be guilty of. It says, and another came and
said, Lord, here is thy palm, which I have, listen, kept laid
up. Here, here, in and out. Nobody has touched it. No one
has seen it. No one has even heard about it.
It didn't even leak out on me. Here it is. What an awful testimony
to have, isn't it? What an awful testimony. I did
nothing with what you gave me. That's what he's saying to the
Lord. He's saying, I did nothing with what you gave me. I was
so concerned with myself, I didn't have time for you. That's what
this man's saying. I didn't have to ask you. I'll
tell you this. I bet he took what was his. I
bet he took what he counted his and did something with it. I
bet he did. I bet he took what he counted
his and did something with it. And what he thought was God's,
he covered it up. He covered it up. Here's what
he didn't realize. Here's what this man didn't realize.
All things are here. All things are God. Nothing really
belongs to me. What do I have that really, really
belongs to me that can't be taken away just like that? Everything,
everything belongs to Him. None of it's mine. And here in
verse 21, he says, I feared thee. Well, those other two didn't
say that, did they? They was excited about what they
were given. And they was out doing what the
Lord gave them to do. But this one says, I feared thee.
Well, that's a lie. That is an absolute lie. He did
not fear the Lord at all. You know what this man feared?
Here's what he feared. He feared that if he gave himself
to the use of this town, he wouldn't be taken care of like he wanted
to. That's what he feared. He said, I won't get to live
like I want to live. That's why he didn't do that.
That was a lie. Here's what happened. Here's
what I think happened to this guy. He saw that one pound, that
one, and this is no doubt the way he thought, this one little
chintzy pound, he's Lord, he's rich, he's got a kingdom, he
could have given me more than one pound, he could have given
me more talents and gifts than this to use, but that's the way
he thought. You know the scripture says this,
despise not the day of small things. I believe he despised that one
talent, that one gift. I've heard this said a lot of
times. I'm not very talented. I've heard that said a lot. Here's what this guy thought.
I'm not very talented. I don't have much. I wouldn't
give him much here. I'm not going to do anything. I'm not responsible
for this. I'll tell you this. Christ took a boy's lunch one
day. and those fishes, and he blessed
them and fed over 5,000 people. Now, if he wants to bless that
one pound, can you imagine what he'd do with it? Just imagine. The key here is whose pound is
being used, and who's getting the glory for this? Who's getting
the glory? Is the Lord getting the glory
for this? If a man, if a man cannot handle
one gift, one talent, one pound, what makes us think that he can
handle two? If he can't handle one, what makes you think he
can handle two or three or four? He can't do it. Here's the second
lie this guy's talking. That He takes up, He said, Lord,
you take up where you do not plant and you reap what you don't
sow. Well, that's another Bible. Because
the Scripture says, the earth is the Lord's, the fullness thereof,
and they who dwell therein. So it's all His. All of it's
His. Every bit of it. It's amazing
to me. It's amazing what hard views
a religious person has of God. What hard views. He said, you're
an austere man. Well, the scripture told us or
tells us that he was meek and lowly, doesn't it? He never saw
that. He never saw that in Christ.
In his heart, this man is saying this. In his heart, he's saying,
I plant, I sow, I've plowed, I've worked, I've done all this,
and you're going to reap all the glory for it. He was not
going to give himself to that. This man could not see the grace
and mercy that's in Christ, and that His glory is our glory,
and what belongs to Him belongs to us. All things, the Scripture
says, are yours in Christ. It's just the wisdom of God,
how He deals with that. But all things are yours in Christ. All
this man could see is the harshness and strictness, because that's
the way He was. What he was seeing was himself.
That's what he was seeing. He was not as the first to use
the pound that they were given for their master. You know why? They loved their master. This
nobleman gave you this pound and they went out and they used
it because they loved their master. They loved him. Service motivated by love. There's
nothing like it, is there? There's nothing like giving,
motivated by love. Preaching, motivated by love.
Teaching, motivated by love. Singing, motivated by love. Those
first two came and said, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.
Thy pound hath gained five pounds. I'm sure that they took
the pound that they were given and they fed the hungry. They
fed the sheep. They clothed the naked, they
visited the sick, and those in prison with the gospel. While
this religious man, he's religious even though he's called a servant
because all serve Christ. Does not all serve Christ? Is
not all flesh given into his hand? Everything serves his eternal
purpose. We know that. Everything serves
his eternal purpose. He ignored the hungry. His attitude was this, go buy
your own bringer. Go take care of yourself. I was
driving down a road one time. I had a man with me. And there
was a beggar on the side of the road. You know how you pass him,
side by side. And he rolled the window down.
And we come to a stop sign there. He rolled the window down and
said, get a job. He just screamed and then cranked the window back
up. And I thought, boy, you don't know the circumstance of that
man. That's the attitude of this man. He's like, go buy your own
bread. Go get a job. That was his attitude. He did not close the naked or
visit the sick in prison. He didn't do this. He did not
feed the bread of heaven. Instead, he fed himself. Well,
he did. He fed himself out of their expense.
He did not close them with the gospel or visit those sick in
sin with the balm of Gilead. He didn't do that. Was the prisoner
with the truth that sets men free? No, he hid it. He kept
it in a napkin. He took care of himself. That's
what he did. Look over in Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34. Look in verse 1, 1 through 4.
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man,
Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say unto
them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, Woe be to
the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves. Should not
the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe
you with the wool. Ye kill them that are fed, but
ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened,
neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound
up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which
was Neither have you sought that which was lost, but with force
and with cruelty have you ruled them." They took care of themselves.
Oh, I tell you, God saved us from that kind of person. And
our Lord said to him in verse 22, Out of thine own mouth will
I judge. You just judge yourself. People
condemn themselves, don't they? By thy words thou shalt be justified,
and by thy words, he said, thou shalt be condemned. If you see
God as nothing but hard and strict and harsh, and that's the way
you see God, and that's the only way you ever see God, that's
the way you'll deal with him. If you want to deal with God
in strict justice, in other words, he'll lie to you. I want to deal with the one who
is so gracious has to even think upon me. That's the one I want
to deal with. I want to deal with the one who called me by
his grace. That's the one I want to deal with. The one who delights
to show mercy. You see God as a God of mercy.
You see Christ as a God of mercy. This man didn't. This man said,
you're hard and you're strict and you're stern and you're...
Have you found him that way? I found him to be a God who delights
to show mercy." That's what I found, what I had found. Thou knewest, he said here, thou
knewest. And here's what he's saying,
or if this is the way you see me, if this is the way you see
me, in verse 22, then why didn't you put my money in the bank
and when I came I could have received interest? If this is
the way you see me, then why didn't you just put the money
in the bank? And then when I came, I could have at least received
the answer. Instead, you put it under a napkin, and you didn't
even think about it. You were not even concerned at
all. I'll tell you why, because he
really did not believe that the Lord was gracious. Taste and
see that the Lord is gracious. He never tasted it. He really
never knew that nobleman. Oh, he probably knew his name,
he knew something about him, but he didn't know him. He didn't
know him at all. He's just playing religion, that's
all he was doing. His real concern was for himself.
A man who does nothing is a man who believes nothing. He doesn't
believe anything. So our Lord here, this nobleman,
in verse 24, he takes away the pound, the gift, and he gives
the one who has ten. You know what that is? You know
what that is? That's good business. If you
know anything about business, that's good business. This one
here gained 10 pounds by his industry. Now, he thinks this
one who hit it, what are you going to do with it? Give it
to the one that has 10 pounds. If you have any business sense
about you at all, that's what you're going to do with it. But here's
the point. If we use these things for ourselves,
we'll lose them. But if we use them, we'll gain.
We'll gain. We gain by spreading what we
do. We don't ignore the Lord who
gives us all things to enjoy, and especially the gifts that
he gives to us to be used of God. So he took and he took that
pound, that one pound, and he gave it to the one who had ten
pounds. I thought about this, the wisdom,
I could see the wisdom of God here. He gave this to a man who
was competent. God made him competent. But he
was competent in what God had given him and used him. And God
blessed him. God blessed him. The Lord did
not promote this man to the point of incompetence. You know why
most businesses fail? Somebody got promoted to the
point of incompetence. That's why most businesses fail.
He took that one pound, he gave to that one wretch ten pounds.
That's God's picture. Then he says here, Lord, they
said here in verse 25, Lord, he has ten pounds. As if he didn't
know that. Lord, he has ten pounds. Jealousy.
Jealousy. Beware of it. It'll grow in any
garden. It'll grow in any garden. I said,
Lord, he has ten pounds. Why are you giving him that one
for? I said, our Lord is wise. He's
wise. I know this. If you owned a business,
that's who you'd give it to. That's who you'd give it to. You'd do the same thing. Then
he states here in verse 26 of truth. To everyone which hath
shall more be given. And to him that hath not did
not do anything with what he was given, shall be taken away,
even that which he had." He said, I'll just take it away. If we want to keep the gospel
here, and we do, the best way to do it is spread it. The best
way to do it is just send it out. That's the best way to keep
the gospel here, is to spread it out. Spread it like seed in
the springtime. This is the only thing that I
know that increases by scattering it, yet more increases by putting
it out there. But if we try, and this is what
I believe is teaching in here, if we try to confine this gospel
in these walls, become afraid to spend and be spent for the
gospel, we'll lose it. We'll lose it. He said, Occupy
till I come. Occupy, get in, be busy. You
ever watch a bunch of bees in the summertime? He talks about
old slugger, Salwa says, old slugger, go to the ant hill.
Go over to the ant hill. In the summertime, when the harvest
is ready, how those ants are just busy. I mean, busy, busy.
Constantly. That's what he's saying here.
Occupy, be busy. Listen, till I come. Till I come. Get busy with it and stay busy
with it. The gospel, and this is what was on my mind this week
more than anything, the gospel is our business. That's what
we take care of. It's our business. Every believer
has business to do for Christ in this world and the spreading
of the gospel. And look what he says here in closing to these
in verse 27, but those mine enemies, Those ones who said, we'll not
have this man to reign over us. Those who mock me, make fun of
me, would have nothing to do with me. Those mine enemies,
which would not, that I should reign over them, bring hither
and slay them before me. I don't want to be on the receiving
end of that verse. He's going to break the necks
of all those who say, we will not have this man to reign over
us. I want to bow to this nobleman.
I want, and I know you believe in gospel, you want to serve
this nobleman. He's our Lord. He's our master. And he's not a hard, strict,
austere man. This is the meek and lowly one.
This is the one who likes to show mercy. I don't want to be
able to receive any of that one. He's going to break the neck
of all those who say, we'll not have this man to reign over us.
Bring him here, he said, and slay them before me. I'd rather hear him say, well
done, Doc, good and faithful. I'd much rather hear that.