Now let's look back at Matthew
24. I'm taking the title for the
message. We're going to look at verse
45 down through verse 51 in Matthew 24. I'm taking the title for
the message from what is said in verse 45. Who then is a faithful
and wise servant? I want to be, by the grace of
God, I want to be faithful to the Lord. If you're a wise servant,
you'll be faithful, faithful to the Lord. Who is a wise and
faithful servant, or faithful and wise servant? The Lord Jesus
Christ is going to give us the answer to His very important
question for us, and I want us all to consider this personally. I want us to ask ourselves, are
we that wise and faithful servant unto the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, wise and faithful servant
is a loving, willing, bond servant to the Lord. Knowing this for
sure, being a servant of the Lord, think about it, being a
servant of the Lord is a very high title. to be a servant of
the Lord. It's a very important position
in the kingdom of God for every believer is in the ministry,
every believer serves the Lord's purpose. I'll give you an example
of someone who is a very great person because he's God Almighty. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
in Isaiah 42, God says, if him behold my servant. my servant,
my elect, in whom my soul delighteth. And then the apostle Paul, more
often than not, calls himself the servant of the Lord before
he calls himself the apostle of the Lord. So he puts sort
of an emphasis on the blessedness of being a servant of the Lord.
Listen to Romans 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul, a servant of the Lord. I like what the young demon-possessed
lady, young girl who was healed by the apostle Paul, she says
this. These men are servants of the
Most High God, which show us the way of salvation. The servants
of God show us the way of salvation, for they preach the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, we've been taught by our
Lord in this chapter that He's coming back. As He says in verse
42, He says, be watchful. Matthew 24, 42. Be watchful therefore,
for you know not what hour, and I love this, he doesn't say the
Lord, although he is the Lord, your Lord, your Lord's coming
back for you. In what hour your Lord does come,
he does come, he's on his way. And then in verse 44, therefore
be also ready, be ready, ready, be prepared. Well, in such an
hour as you think not, the Son of Man, the God-Man, the resurrected
Lord Jesus Christ is coming back again. We've been instructed
to watch and pray, be watchful looking for His second coming,
be ready for Him who is coming, be prepared to meet the Lord
Jesus Christ when He comes. How can we be prepared to meet
Him who is God Almighty? only by being one with Him, by
faith in Him. The coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ will be a blessed and eternal day of great glory and
comfort and peace for believers, but quite the opposite for unbelievers. Let's see if we can find that.
Turn over to 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
1st Thessalonians, chapter four. It's interesting that in each
chapter, 1st Thessalonians, chapter four, I want you to turn to,
but there are five chapters in this first epistle. And they
say this is one of Paul's first epistles, but in every chapter,
he mentioned the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second
coming of the Lord. Look what it says there. In chapter
4, 1 Thessalonians, verse 16. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with
the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. So the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ to believers If we have died before he comes, if we're
living when he comes, we'll be raised up and we'll all meet
the Lord in the air. Now, quite the opposite of true,
of unbelievers, if you look just across the page, 2 Thessalonians
1, verse 7, and to you who are troubled, rest with us. When
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, that
obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified
in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe, because
our testimony among you who believed in that day." So, you see that
the two extreme opposites of those who are comforted and blessed
when the Lord comes back, those who are one with Him and those
who are in Him, and the extreme opposite of those who do not
love the Lord Jesus Christ, who do not believe the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Good Shepherd comes
back, there's going to be a great separation of the sheep and the
goat, the tares and the wheat. We're going to see more of that
in the next chapter. In the closing part of this chapter,
the Lord gives us a description of those who are prepared and
made ready to meet the Lord in the wise and faithful servants
and those that are not ready and not prepared to meet the
Lord, as it says down here in verse 48, but and if that evil
servant shall say in his heart, my Lord's not coming back. That's
an evil and faithless servant. That's an evil servant shall
say in his heart. In other words, he didn't believe
what God said. The Lord said, I'm coming back. The evil servant
said, no, he's not. No, he's not. So we see the extreme
Opposite there don't. Those who are not ready and not
prepared to meet the Lord in that evil servant that's mentioned
here. Now all men everywhere are in
one of two groups or one or two camps as we say. Either saved
or lost. There's no middle ground. Those
saved in Christ in everlasting salvation. Those who are made
wise unto salvation. Through the Lord, as Paul said
to young Timothy, thou hast known the scriptures from your youth
that are able to make thee wise unto salvation. So those are just two groups,
those saved in Christ, made wise unto salvation, those who are
lost and dead in their sins, left in their sins, who remain
only evil, who remain evil not only by birth, also by choice
and practice, and rebellion against God. Now it's the Lord who has
made us to differ. He's given us wisdom. He's given
us faith in Christ Jesus. Now there's a parable. This parable
applies to all believers, the wise and faithful. They do serve
the eternal purpose of God. But now hold on your seat. This
also applies to those evil servants who also serve the eternal wise
purpose of God. All things in this world serve
the Lord's purpose of grace, or his strict justice. But all
things serve him, our God rules everywhere, over everything,
over everyone, totally and absolutely. Find Romans chapter 11. Let's read this. I often quote
this, but let's read a little bit more about this. Romans chapter
11. Everything and every creature, one way or the other, serves
the eternal purpose of God. Romans 11, verse 33. Oh, the depths of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out. Who has known the
mind of the Lord or who had been his counselor? is counselor,
or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto
him again. Look at verse 36 carefully. For
of him, and through him, and to him are all things, all things,
to whom be glory forever. And then, what does he say? Amen. You say amen to that? Amen. All things in heaven and earth. This includes every creature
in heaven, every creature in the earth. It includes all good
angels, all fallen angels, good angels or evil angels, Satan
as well as Gabriel, Judas as well as Peter, Simon Magus or
Paul, the apostle, All creatures serve God's eternal purpose,
some to the praise of the glory of his grace, some to the praise
of the glory of his justice. He does all things according
to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
this earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, Lord
God Almighty, what doest thou? Even the evil that men do accomplish
the eternal purpose of God. Now, that's so because the scriptures
teach that. I can't explain that. I believe
it. I'll give you a prime example of that. In the book of Acts,
the apostles talk about the Lord Jesus Christ dying, him being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. And then it says in chapter four that Herod and Pontius Pilate,
they were enemies, but they gathered together with the Jews and the
Gentiles who hated each other, but they all came together. in
the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then it says, to
do whatsoever God's hand determined before to be done. You see, even
in that, those evil servants and those evil men accomplished
the purpose of God in salvation. This parable also applies to
every true servant of the Lord, Those who were sent to preach
the gospel, and we'll talk about that more in just a minute. Those
who are called in sin of God, they are made faithful and wise,
and they're ready to declare the gospel. This parable also
applies to those evil servants or false preachers. Why doesn't
God just put every one of them out of business? You ever think
about that? They serve his purpose. This
parable also applies to those evil servants or those false
preachers who do not preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord gives us many warnings about those false preachers. Remember verse 24 in this same
chapter, where there shall rise false Christ, false prophets,
shall show great signs and wonders and so much that if it were possible,
they would deceive the very elect. But why does the Lord have them? Why does he just wipe them all
out? They serve His purpose. They serve His purpose. He says,
Beware of false prophets which come unto you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Now, in verse 45, down
through verse 47, we see a description here of faithful and true servants. I want all of us to be faithful
and true servants of the Lord. In Luke chapter 12, where that
parable, the same parable is given, he calls them wise and
faithful stewards of the gospel, stewards of the gospel, or servants
of the gospel. This is primarily talking about
those who are placed over the household of God and ministers
of the gospel, but also to all those who serve the Lord in the
ministry of the gospel of Christ in whatever capacity the Lord
has placed you. And as I've often said over the
years, everyone who is a believer is in the ministry. Everyone
who is a believer is part of the body of Christ, and we all
serve Him by serving one another. So if you're a believer, you're
in the ministry. You may not stand up here as
I do to preach the gospel, but in whatever capacity God has
given you, serve faithfully and wisely where he has put you. Believers gladly serve the Lord
with reverence, out of love and gratitude. Being a servant of
the Lord, as I said earlier, is a high title. It's a special
calling. Whatever the Lord has gifted
and called you to do in his service, whether it's giving or singing
or praying or preaching, supporting those who do. Whatever the Lord
has gifted and called you to do in his service, whatever your
calling may be, Do it heartily as unto the Lord. Don't do it
half-heartedly. Listen to this scripture, Colossians
3. Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father
by Him. And whatsoever you do, do it
heartily as to the Lord, not unto men. So I want all of us
to be wise, a faithful and wise servant of the Lord, serving
the Lord wherever he has put us. But I want to focus for just
a minute on those who were called to preach the gospel, pastors
and stewards and servants of the Lord who were set over the
household of the Lord. Several things we see here. I've
jotted down four things from these verses. The servants, ministers,
and pastors, and stewards of the Lord are put in the ministry
and are over the household of the Lord, and they do not make
themselves stewards. They are called and appointed
to be pastors, elders, teachers. I want you to find Ephesians
chapter 3. Paul writes, now therefore you are no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saint, and we are of
the household of God. Turn to Ephesians chapter three,
and Paul talks about being put in the ministry. Now we know
that Saul of Tarsus was anything but a minister of Christ. He
was an enemy to the gospel. But when God crossed His path
and made Him a new creature in Christ, He put Him in the ministry
to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter 3, look at
verse 7. according to the gift of the
grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his
power, unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this
grace given that I should preach among the Gentile the unsearchable
riches of Christ. I just thought of another scripture.
Turn back to Galatians chapter one. Galatians chapter one, verse
13. For you've heard of my conversation
in time past, Galatians 1 verse 13, in Jews religion, how that
beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it,
and profited in the Jews religion above many my equals, my own
nation being more exceeding zealous of the tradition of my fathers,
But when it pleased God, verse 15, who separated me from my
mother's womb, called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me,
that I might preach Him among the heathen, I conferred not
with flesh and blood." The Lord put Paul in the ministry. And that's what the Lord is saying
here back in Matthew 24, who then is that faithful and wise
servant whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household? Talking about the body of believers,
to give them meat in their due season. Now this household is
a family, is his family. It is God's church. It's God's
church. I don't ever refer to this ministry
as my church. Often people ask me, I don't
know how many times I've had this question. And I don't know
why they always go there. But when they find out I'm a
preacher and a pastor, the first thing they want to say is, how
many people do you have in your church? And I say, well, it's
not my church. I say, it's the Lord's church.
And in the Lord's church, there's 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands
of thousands. Wow, you have a big church. Yes,
the Lord does. I'm just a servant. I'm just
a servant. But the Lord, it's His family,
it's His church. The Lord has chosen who would
be in His family and how He would make them His own by His own
electing love and redeeming grace. How did we get into this household
of God? He put me in there. He chose
me in Christ before the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus
Christ redeemed me with His blood. He's made us good stewards of
the manifold grace of God. Now the second thing that he
says about him, their work is described in verse 45 in the
last part. So God puts men in the ministry
to serve him as pastors, elders, and teachers, to preach the gospel,
and their work is this, to give them, that is the household of
God, meat in due season. Meat. the meat of the word, to
give the household their portion of meat in due season. Now this
is, this servant of the Lord, this is a servant of the Lord's
main business and principal purpose. Peter, do you love me? Feed my
sheep. Peter, do you really love me
more than these? Yes, Lord, you know all things. Feed my sheep, feed my lambs. So this is the servant of the
Lord, the pastor of the Lord, the minister of the Lord, that's
his chief business. That's his chief business. In
Acts chapter 20, where Paul is instructing those elders in Ephesus
before he goes to Jerusalem to be tried, and sent off to Rome. He said, I'm not shunned to declare
unto you all the counsel of God. Acts 20, 28. And then he says
this, feed the church of God, feed the church of God which
He purchased with His own blood. So that's what I try to do each
week, is take His Word, study it, prepare a message, and then
I come out here and I pray the Lord will enable me to feed you
a steady diet of the Word of God. Thus saith the Lord. In 1 Peter chapter 5, Peter writes,
feed the flock of God which is among you. Now, where did he
get those instructions? Peter, feed my sheep. Feed the
flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof,
not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of
a ready mind. Be of one mind. So feed the sheep
of Christ. Paul writes in Romans 1, 15,
he says, for as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel
to you who are at Rome, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. It's the power of God and the salvation to everyone
that believe, to the Jew and also to the Gentile. Therein
is the righteousness of God revealed in that gospel. Paul, when he
writes from death row prison, In Rome, writes back to Timothy
and said to him, make sure I charge you before God to preach the
Word. Don't entertain folks. Preach
the Word. Preach the Word. As Paul said,
determined to preach Christ and Him crucified. We preach not
ourselves. That statement's on the front
of the bulletin. It's been there for 30 years. We preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord and our So your servant for Christ's
sake. We don't preach ourselves. We
preach the Lord Jesus Christ. The minister of the gospel, they
spend their time in the study, studying the word, in preparation
of writing, writing bulletins or writing out sermons. Started
an ambitious project here this last week. I started to go back
to the bulletins that I have still on my hard drive from 25
years ago. I'm going through those bulletins
and I'm taking those articles that I've written over the years.
I have no idea how many there are, but I'm going to put them
in a separate file and at some point, at some day, I hope to
be able to publish some kind of a book with the articles that
I've written over the years. Now, the Lord's sermons, they
labor in the ministry. I come over here seven days a
week. I rarely take a day off. Come
over here every day, read the Word, study the Word, listen
to sermons, prepare and write and do these things. I give myself
wholly and heartily unto it for the last 30 years. And the Lord
will bless that. The Lord will bless that effort.
So our business in the ministry is preaching, preaching, preaching,
teaching the word, preaching the gospel. Not socializing,
not socializing. Now we have fellowship around
the Lord's table and we have dinner and that's fine, but that's
not the emphasis of this ministry. The emphasis of this ministry
is not trying to feed the hungry. We're not trying to have a soup
kitchen. The emphasis of this ministry is not counseling. I
don't counsel people. I preach the gospel. We don't
go try to debate the gospel. I had one of the preachers from
over in town, one of the big churches. I don't know why he
picked on me, but for some reason he wanted to pick a fight with
me. But he came over here and knocked on my door, and I answered
the door. He said, I want to debate you. Let's do it on a
public stage over here in town. We'll run a big auditorium. I
don't want to debate you. I said the gospel's not up for
debate. We don't debate the gospel. We preach the gospel. We preach
Christ and Him crucified. So God's servants are not socializers,
counselors, or debaters. We're certainly not community
organizers or door knockers. Now, I'm not opposed to going
out and meeting folks in the community and inviting them to
the ministry. But God's main service is to
preach the word, to meet with the word in due season. They
come with the meat of saving grace, with the knowledge of
Christ, declaring what God has done for sinners in Christ Jesus. That's the focus of this ministry.
And it will be, Lord willing, until this sinner dies. And the
Lord said that's enough. As I told you 30 years ago, I
don't plan on retiring. I plan on dying. I plan on dying. So as long as the Lord gives
me strength, We continue to preach the gospel, not ourselves. And
it's basically, I wrote down here, oftentimes I've given you
that outline, the three R's of the gospel. You could quote that
to me, couldn't you? The three R's of the gospel.
Ruin, redemption, regeneration. But I've changed it to five R's
of the gospel. Five R's of the gospel. He reigns. He reconciles ruined sinners,
redeemed and regenerated by the grace of God. So we preach, first
of all, we preach His Lordship, don't we? God is never not God. He's always been God. We preach
His Lordship. That's what a wise and faithful
servant does. We preach His Lordship. We preach
that He reigns. Listen to this scripture. This
is Isaiah 52. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of them that bring good tidings, that publish peace,
that bring tidings, good tidings of good things, that publish
salvation, that say unto Zion, what do they say? Thy God reigns. Behold your God. That's our message.
God is God. He's never not God. God over
all things. That's our message. The wise
and faithful servant preaches Christ. Paul writes in Romans 5, but
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. I've
told you this before, but you know the word, we often use the
word sovereign, don't we? God is sovereign. You know the
word sovereign is not in the Bible. But the word reign is
God rule and reigns over all things. One preacher locally
here told me one time, you can't show me in the Bible sovereign
grace. I said, I beg your pardon. Because
Romans 5 said grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ. There it is, sovereign grace.
Sovereign grace. So we preach his lordship. He
reigns. And then we preach, secondly,
we preach man's ruin and fall. What happened in the garden?
And Adam all died. And Adam all sinned. There's
none righteous, no not one. And then we preach, thirdly,
we preach redemption. Redemption through the blood
atonement of Christ. That's what happened at Calvary.
Did he actually redeem his people from their sin at the cross?
Or did he make just an effort to do so? Did he make it just
possible? Or did he make it dead certain?
The Lord put away the sin of God's people at Calvary. None
for whom he died will perish. He said, it's finished. We are
redeemed with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
because we were ruined, we need redemption. And the fruit of
redemption is reconciliation. Our sin has separated us from
God. How are we going to get back
in fellowship with Him? God was in Christ reconciling
us unto Himself. So in Adam we have separation.
In the Lord Jesus Christ we have reconciliation through His blood
atonement. That's the fruit of redemption,
is reconciliation. And then we also, lastly, we
have regeneration by God the Holy Spirit. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. So God's faithful servants preach grace for the
guilty, mercy for the miserable, righteousness for the wicked,
salvation for sinners, and salvation by the grace of
God. The character that's given to
us in this chapter, the character of the Lord's servants, are called
wise and faithful. Wise and faithful. They're faithful
men. Blessed is a servant, verse 46, whom his Lord, when he cometh,
shall find so doing, verily I say unto you, that he shall make
him ruler over all his goods. God's men are faithful. Moreover,
it's required that a steward, a servant, that a man be found
faithful. Faithful. They are men who were
saved by the grace of God, taught by the grace of God, proven to
be faithful in their life, faithful in the ministry, faithful serving
the Lord. They're not only faithful, but
they're wise men. Christ has made unto us wisdom. The second thing, they've been
given wisdom. They're not faithful and wise
by nature, but rather by the grace of God and the revelation
of God the Holy Spirit, they've been given knowledge and understanding
of the scripture and ability to declare it to others. And
they are blessed of God to do so, as it says in verse 46, blessed
is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so
doing, so doing. The flip side of that, verse 48, but if that evil servant
shall say in his heart, my Lord delays His coming. This evil
servant and faithless servant, a steward that is evil in his
motives, evil in his actions, evil in his word, his character
is one of unbelief. He says he does not believe that
the Lord is coming. He doubts the word of God, does
not preach the word of God, but rather he speculates with his
own thoughts. So his character is one of unbelief. His conduct is also evil. As
it says there in verse 49, he shall begin to smite his fellow
servants. He doesn't feed the church, he
beats up on them. Smite the fellow servants to
eat and drink and be drunken The Lord of that servant shall
come in the day when he looketh not for him, and in that hour
that he's not aware of, he shall cut him asunder and appoint him
his portion with the hypocrite, and there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. He's evil in his conduct. This
evil servant is not gracious to others. He's mean-spirited. He's cruel. He's judgmental. He beats up. on the sheep instead
of feeding them. He beats up on them with the
whip of the law, puts them under the curse of the law. He's not
a forgiving person. His judgment and doom is certain
and sure. The Lord of that servant shall
come. Verse 50. When he looketh not for him,
and in the hour that he's not aware, He stands before the Lord
to answer unto the Lord. Now, I don't want to close this
message, and I've got just a little time left. On a negative note,
there is grace for the guilty, and there is judgment left for
those who refused in their rebellion against God to believe the gospel. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Those who are blessed to hear
the gospel and to believe the gospel, as it says here in John
chapter three, those who believe the gospel are blessed of God
with an everlasting salvation. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God shall abide upon him. Blessed are those servants, verse
46. That one word there, blessed.
Blessed are those servants when the Lord shall come. The Lord shall come. What do they believe? They believe this, believing
all things that are written in the word of the Lord. Paul said,
this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call
heresy, so worship I the God of my father, believing all things
which are written in the book of the law of God. What do they
believe? God. How are they blessed? They're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. Blessed is that man that
heareth me, watching daily at my gates. watching and posting
my door. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth
the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His word. That's the blessed
man. That's the faithful man looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ for all, all spiritual blessings
that we have in Him and in Him alone.