When you turn back to Matthew
25, Zach Shuler's surgery went well, and we're thankful for
that. And I don't normally mention anyone by name, but Don, we're
awful glad you're here. Glad to see you, so. I wonder
when I read that passage of scripture in Matthew chapter 25, You thought, am I that person
being described that hid his talent and the Lord described
as a wicked and a slothful servant? I wonder how many of us thought,
is that me? Now this passage of scripture
has been used by preachers over the centuries to threaten people. I hope the Lord blesses me in
preaching this message where you're gonna leave this place
encouraged in the gospel rather than afraid. And if you are that
wicked and slothful servant, I hope the Lord will show you
that you're that wicked and slothful servant. Look in verse 44 of
Matthew 24. Therefore be ye also ready, for
in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh. Now he's talking about his second
return. And in Matthew chapter 25, he
gives three parables regarding his second return and what it
means to be ready. We considered the parable of
the 10 virgins last time, and this is called the parable of
the talents. That is what I've entitled this
message, the parable of the talents. Now, the man traveling to the
far country is Christ ascending back to his father. He lived
here for 33 years. He worked out a perfect righteousness
and behalf of his people. He died on Calvary's tree, putting
their sins away, was raised for their justification, and ascended
back to his father. And the time that elapses until
his return is the time that these men went and traded with their
talents. Now, sometimes his return is
portrayed as coming quickly, and he said, behold, I come quickly.
But in this passage of scripture, look in verse 19, after a long
time, the Lord of those servants cometh. It's been a long time.
He left a long time ago, and now he's coming back. Now there
are two types of people mentioned in this parable. Number one, the people who enter
in to the joy of their Lord. Two of those people are described
thusly. They enter into the joy of their
Lord. And then the other person is
cast into outer darkness where there should be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. Now let's pick up in 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. Now, notice how God the Holy
Spirit makes it say he called his own servants. Now we know
they're his servants, but there's an emphasis put on this. These
men are his own servants because everybody is his servant. Doesn't matter whether you're
saved or lost, you're his. You're his. He's the Lord, both
of the dead and the living. And me and you are His own servants. He can do with us whatever He's
pleased to do. We belong to Him. Now, this is a encouraging and
a scary thing. The Lord's gonna get glory out
of each one of us, either to the praise of the glory of His
grace or to the praise of the glory of His justice. but he's
going to get glory out of each one of us. We're his own servants. And notice it says he delivered
unto them his goods. Not only are we his servants,
but whatever we have, he gave us. Now you can take that physically,
What you have materially, what abilities you have, what intelligence
you have, what sickness you have, whatever it is, whatever position
you're in, He put you there. He gave to you, whatever it is. Whatever spiritual blessings
you have, if you have the forgiveness of sins, it's Him giving you
His goods. If you have faith in Christ,
if you have repentance, it's because He gave it to you. If
you have righteousness, He gave you that righteousness. It's
not something you achieved or worked at, it's something He
gave you. Whatever we have is what He has
given us. Now that sets the tone of this
story. These men are His own servants,
all of them, And what they have is what he gave them. And he, verse 15, and to one
he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. Now he's sovereign. He said, can I not do what I
will with my own? He gave one five. He gave one
two, he gave one one. Now he's sovereign in salvation,
and he's sovereign in everything else. And these men got exactly
what he gave them. One five, one two, and one one. Now talent was a very large amount
of money. I've read where it was 20 years
wages for a working man. That's how MUCH this money was. One was given 5 talents, one
was given 2 talents, and one was given 1 talent. And notice
what he says in verse 5, according to his several ability. Now, these men had different
abilities. God had made this difference. He'd given one five talents worth
of ability, and the other two talents worth of ability, and
one talent worth of ability. But what they have is what he
gave them. And you know, when people talk
about we're all created equal, no we're not. That's just not
so on any level. Some are born into certain circumstances
that are more advantageous than others. Some are born in a bad position and without
the privilege somebody else is born with. Some are born more
intelligent than others. Some are born with more strength
than others. Some are born sick. And just to say that we're all
created equal It's just not so, not the way the Lord put us.
We're all different according to our several ability, but that
comes from the Lord. Now, he did this because he intended
for them to take these things and trade with them and gain. He gave five towns to one. to another two and to another
one, to every man according to his ability, and straightway
he took his journey. He expected these men to use
these talents and increase and grow them. He expects fruit. He expects growth. The scripture
says grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. He expects growth, growth in the fruit of the Spirit, growth
in love to Him, His people, growth in peace, growth in joy, growth
in long-suffering, growth in gentleness and goodness and faith
and meekness and temperance. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
Now, remember when The Lord talked about the good ground hearers
when he gave the parable of the four different soils, and only
one was a good ground hearer. And that was the only one soil
produced good ground hearers. The other did not produce any
good ground hearers. And what was the difference?
Fruit. fruit. And the Lord said some
brought forth thirtyfold, some sixty, and some ninetyfold, or
a hundredfold rather. They brought different amounts
of fruit. Now what determined how much fruit one brought out
over another? Is it because one was better
than the other one, and he was more diligent, and read the scriptures
more, and prayed more, and did more? No. What their fruit was
dependent upon is how much seed the sower sowed there. It's that
simple. It really is a simple thing.
It's not because one was better than the other. The one that
had 100-fold, the sower put more seed there. That's all there
is to it. And the one that put 60, well,
he put a little bit less. And the one that put 30, he put
a little bit less. But the point is, your fruitfulness comes from
Him. It's not dependent upon anything
you do. It's because of what He has done.
Now, fruit is important, and He expected these men to bear
fruit. Let's go on reading. Verse 16
and 17. Then he that had received the
five talents went and traded with the same and made them other
five talents. And likewise, he that received
two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one
went and digged in the earth and hid his money. Why did he do that? Well, we're
going to come back to that shortly, but that one who received one
talent went and dig, he didn't try to trade with it. He didn't
try to see it increased. He went and dug in the earth
and hid that talent. Verse 19, after a long time, You know, it's what the writer
of the Hebrews calls these last days, all the time between the
first and second advent of Christ. After a long time, the Lord of
those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. This reckoning is
giving account of what they did with their talents. Verse 20. And so he that had
received the five talents came and brought other five talents,
saying, Lord, thou deliverest unto me five talents. Behold,
I've gained beside them five talents more. Can you hear the
joy in this man's voice as he says this? He's rejoicing. These five talents
you gave me, they've gained five talents more. I'm so thankful. He was rejoicing in this. And
you know, one of the things I was thinking about, you know, you're
going to find that on judgment day, things about yourself that
you don't know now. And I mean that by way of, uh, what about
in the next parable? Uh, you did, you did these for
me, these things for me. And they said, we win. We're
not aware of that, but they did. And the other fellas, When he
says, you didn't do those things, we thought we did. No, didn't
work that way. Didn't work that way. On judgment
day, the Lord's gonna bring out some things that we'll be surprised
by. Every believer, you're gonna,
you will have given evidence that you really were a believer.
Every believer without exception. That one who was given five talents,
he gained five others beside. And look what the Lord said to
him. His Lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Thou has been faithful over a
few things. I will make thee ruler over many
things. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. Now the same thing said to the
fellow that had two talents. He that had received two talents
came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents. Behold,
I've gained two other talents beside them. He was saying the
same thing the fellow with five talents did. And you know, the
Lord says the exact same thing to him. There's not a word different. His Lord said unto him, well
done, good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a
few things, I'll make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou
in to the joy of thy Lord. Now, listen to me real carefully.
Every believer without exception is going to hear what these fellas
heard. Well done. If Christ did well, I did well. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Is Christ a good and faithful
servant? Oh, yes. I am too, because I am in him. He's not going to say to me,
well done, because you preached a good message, because you spent
so much more time in prayer than somebody else, because you anything,
fill in the blank. The reason every believer has
done well is because every believer is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and whatsoever he did, they did. Now, it's hard to get a hold
of hearing the Lord say to you, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. As a matter of fact, I even blush
when I think that. I could hang my head right now,
but I won't then. I won't then. Well done. Thou good and faithful
servant. Now look what he says. You are
going to enter into the reward for having gained five talents. He doesn't say that, does he?
What does he say? He says, well done, thou good
and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few
things. You believe the gospel. It's because I've enabled you
to. You've continued to believe the gospel. You've held out by
my grace. You've endured to the end. You've
been faithful in a few things. I'll make you ruler over many.
He said that both to the five-talent man and the two-talent man, and
I love this. He says, enter thou in to the
joy of thy Lord. Now, this is the part of this
passage of Scripture that thrilled me so much. He didn't say enter
into your reward for how hard you've worked and you've gained
these five talents and the other fellow, well you didn't have
twice the ability the other one had but you gained two talents
so you're gonna get two talents worth and it wasn't that way
at all. He said to both of these men
what he's going to say to every believer. Enter thou in to the
joy of thy Lord. Now what does that mean? Well, the Lord said in John 17,
13, and now come I to thee and these things I speak in the world
that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Now I want you
to think of the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has the joy
of union with his father. Every believer has it too. He
has the joy of perfect obedience. He knew he had obeyed his father
perfectly. Every believer has the same privilege. I have the joy of perfect obedience. I have the joy of perfect acceptance.
The Lord knows He's perfectly accepted. The Lord knows He's
altogether lovely to the Father. Oh, the joy of the Lord, the
joy of knowing that everything God requires of me, I have, that
I'm perfect in Christ Jesus, that God is pleased with me the
way He's pleased with His Son. Oh, the Lord looks on His Son
and He's so well pleased. He's altogether lovely to Him.
Every believer is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the same thing.
That's what it is to enter into the joy of the Lord. Think of
the Lord's joy. His, I love that scripture, the joy of the Lord
is your strength. And indeed, the joy the Lord has, He has
perfect satisfaction that He loves His Father perfectly. Now
when we think of our love, what do we think? It's not very good.
That's what we think of our love. But there, I'm gonna have His
love. I'm gonna enter into the joy
of the Lord. Perfect union with Him, perfect
likeness to Him. You think of the peace. The joy
of the peace that exists between the son and the father, perfect
peace. Every believer has that. The joy of our Lord. Enter thou in to the joy of thy
Lord. Now there's joy in the gospel. Listen to the scripture. Romans
chapter 14 verse 17 says, the kingdom of God is not meat and
drink. It's not do's and don'ts. It's
not rules and regulations. It's not man-made religion. The
kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost. The kingdom of God is righteousness,
His righteousness. Now the reason I am without fear,
with regard to Judgment Day, is I really believe the righteousness
of Jesus Christ, His law keeping, His perfect obedience, is my
personal righteousness before God. Now that's the only thing
that gives me peace. The kingdom of God is not meek
drink, but righteousness and peace. Oh, what peace there is
in knowing that everything that God requires of me, He looks
to His Son for. Everything. I can't take that
too far. Everything. You know what that
does? It gives me joy. The kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost. And he said the same thing to
the one that received two talents. His Lord said unto him, well
done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful
over a few things. And you know what I think of that? I think
of, by the grace of God, up to this point, I've been able to
continue to look to Christ only as everything in my salvation,
up to this point I have. And that's the only place I'm
looking. And I intend, by the grace of God, to die that way,
to be faithful in looking to Christ only as all I have, nothing
else. Now he said, you've been faithful
in few things, be thou ruler over many things, enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord. Verse 24. Now here's the other
fella. Then Verse 24, then he which had received
the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee, that thou
art an hard man, an austere man, a harsh man, an inhumane This
word hard is the same thing that those people used in John chapter
six, when after they heard the Lord preach, they said, these
are hard sayings, harsh, austere, no sympathy toward humanity,
dry, rough sayings. Well, that's what this man thought
of the Lord. I knew thee that thou art a harsh
man. I knew you're sovereign and that
you do whatever you want to do. And I believe your sovereignty.
Therefore, I wouldn't try to do anything. I was afraid if
I, if I tried to gain this money, gain with this money, I'd lose
it. Something bad would happen. And I know you, you're a harsh
man. And I know I would be punished severely. I don't want to have
anything to do with that. So here I've hid your money in
the dirt. I knew you're a harsh man. He
demonstrates what he thought of the Lord Jesus Christ, what
he thought of God the Father. And you know, that makes me think
of, the first thing that comes to my mind is Romans chapter
nine. When we read, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to
election, might stand not of works, but of him that calleth.
It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it's
written, Jacob of her love, but Esau of her hated. Remember what
Paul said next? He said, what should we say?
Is there unrighteousness with God? Is this God being harsh
and mean? This is a victim of sovereignty.
A victim of sovereignty. This is wrong. I mean, what's
fair about this? For God to elect one and pass
by another to love one and not love the other. This is harsh.
This is inhumane. I don't like this. Then when
it says he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, why does
he find fault? If he has mercy on whom he will
have mercy and he hardens whom he will, how can he hold me responsible? How can he find fault with me?
This is not fair. That's this man. He had a low
view of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I knew that you were
sovereign. And look at this, not only does he think he's harsh,
look what else he says. He says you're unjust. I knew
you're a hard man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering
where thou hast not strawed. You take stuff that's not yours
and claim it to be yourself because you're sovereign. Really, you're
wrong. If somebody else sows something
and you take it from them and gather what you didn't reap They're
charging God with injustice, charging God with being wrong.
Now, this is this man's thought of the Lord. He had no love for
the Lord. He had a harsh view of the Lord. He heard of his sovereignty.
He said, I knew you were sovereign, so I went and hid this money
in the dirt. And here you can have back what belongs to you.
He was being so gracious in doing that, isn't he? But what a horrible
view this man had of the Lord. Really, he's sitting in judgment
on God. He's disagreeing with God. He's
saying, what can I do about the things you do? This is wrong.
I know you're sovereign. And I knew in your sovereignty,
you could do whatever you wanted with me, therefore, I've hid
thy talent in the earth, lo, I was afraid. And this is not
talking about that fear of God. This is talking about the fear
of mistrust. This is talking about the fear of resentment.
This is talking about the fear of hatred. He had no love for
God. When he heard the gospel, he
thought, I'll just bury this talent and here you have what
you had coming to you. Now, let me tell you this about
the Lord. And I'm so sure of this. The
Lord will meet you on the ground. You come to him. And he met this
man on the ground he came." Now, I realize that men have used
this to scare believers. They've used this thing to say,
you're going to lose. You're going to be the loser
if you're a disobedient Christian. You're going to be in trouble.
And they've even used this. But when the Lord called him
a wicked and slothful servant, would any believer hear that
on Judgment Day? No, that's a denial of the gospel. Every believer
is going to hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant,
because we're justified. We stand before God without guilt,
sinless. When God says, well done, we've
done well because whatever Christ did is what we did. He's not
going to say to any believer, thou wicked and slothful servant,
and he's sure not going to kick a believer into the I guess the
basement or the bad part of heaven that's outer darkness and it's
gonna be where the disobedient Christians go, that is foolishness. That's just offensive to even
look at it that way. Now what does the man do? Verse 26. He met him on the ground he came.
And let me repeat, the Lord will meet you on the ground you come.
If you come for mercy, you'll have it. If you come for grace, you'll
have it. God will meet you on the ground.
You come on the footing of your own works. He'll do it with you
that way, if that's what you want. He sure will. That's the
way he's dealing with this man. If you come to him feeling that
he's harsh, you're going to find him to be harsh. That's what
he says to this man. Look what he says. His Lord answered
and said unto him, thou wicked and slothful, Servant. Thou knewest that I reap where
I sowed not, and gathered where I have not straw. This is what
you think of me. Therefore oughtest thou therefore
to put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should
have received my own with usury. Now he said, okay, you feel like
I'm this way. Okay, I'm gonna deal with you
this way. Now you come pleading Christ's merits, he'll deal with
you that way. You come saying I'm nothing, my only hope is
Christ. God's gonna deal with you just
like that. You come accusing him this way
in judgment, you're a harsh man. You gather where you haven't
sown, take up where you haven't. I mean, he was accusing him of
injustice. Okay, I'll deal with you that way. Why didn't you
take that talent and use it so that I might receive my own with
usury? Now look what he says in verse 28. Take therefore the talent from
him and give it unto him which hath 10 talents. And he could
have easily done that with the one who had four talents too. It's not like the one who had
the most gets extra. That's not what the teaching
is here. Four, here's the conclusion to this. Four, unto everyone
that hath shall be given. And he shall have abundance,
but from him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which
he hath. Now, what is it I have? Five talents? Is that what I'm
gonna bring before God in judgment? Look at the, no. He that hath the Son hath life. What do you have? Christ. He's all I have. I don't want
anything else. I don't want to plead anything
else. And the Lord said, he that hath the Son hath life. Now, you know how you can know
if you have the Son? Is if he's all you have. If you have anything else, you
don't have him. If he's all you have, if he's that pearl of great
price, you have that one pearl, and he's the only one you want.
Everything else is worthless. He's the one pearl. He that hath
the Son, you have the Son if he's all you have. Now, if you
have something else you can plead before God on Judgment Day, you
don't have the Son. The only people who have the
Son are the people where He's all they have. I need no other
argument. I need no other plea. It is enough
that Jesus died and that He died for me. That's all I have. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son Hath
not life. Well, how can I tell if I don't
have the son? Do you have anything other than
him? That's the question. Now, this thing of persevering
in the faith doesn't mean you remain religious all the way
to the end. A lot of people remain religious
all the way to the end, and when they die, they wake up in hell.
That's not what that's talking about when it talks about persevering
in the faith. We are made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. Paul said, In Colossians 1, 22,
that we're every believer is holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight if we continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and be not moved from the hope, the hope of the gospel. Perseverance in the faith is
perseverance in continuing to look to Christ only. And if you ever graduate past
that, you're in trouble. You've not persevered in faith.
You've gone off in some other direction. He that hath the Son,
him that hath, he's going to have abundance. You're going
to have abundance of grace, abundance of forgiveness, abundance of
blessing, the blessing of perfect righteousness, the abundance
of complete redemption, the abundance of the forgiveness of all your
sins, the abundance of his grace toward you. Streams of mercy
never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise. But he that
hath not. But from him that hath not shall
be taken away even that which he hath or which he seems to
have. He's going to be taken away.
and be taken away. And then what does he say about
this man? And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. Now remember the point of this
parable is readiness. Readiness. What's your readiness? What you have. Be content with
such things as you have. What do you have? Christ. Can
you be content with that? Not have anything else. Be content
with such things as you have. Readiness is Christ. Now this,
this fella that had the one talent and was cast into outer darkness,
He had no love for Jesus Christ. He considered him unjust. He
found fault with him. He made all kinds of objections
to who he is. And he proved that he didn't
have him at all. May the Lord make us I don't
care if I have five talents, two talents, one talent, whatever
He gives me, that's fine. That's fine. And I want to trade
while this life is going, I mean in the sense that I want to grow
in grace, don't you? I want to grow in the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to become poorer. I want to mourn more. I want
to be more meek before God. I want to hunger and thirst more.
I wanna be more of a peacemaker. I wanna be more merciful, don't
you? I wanna be persecuted more for righteousness sake, I do.
I wanna be, well, you can't be more pure in heart, but I sure
wanna be pure in heart, the gift of his grace, that new nature
that he gives. Well, I hope that has been helpful. I hope that it's given believers
assurance And I hope if there's somebody that is not a believer,
it does drive you away from any hope in self-salvation and cause
you to look to Jesus Christ alone. Let's pray. Lord, we so look forward to the
day when we will enter into the joy of our Lord Lord, we rejoice
in Him right now. We glory in Him right now. But,
oh, that time when we'll see Your face without sin, beholding
Your glory, seeing You as You are, we earnestly look forward
to that. I bless this Word for Your glory
and our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.