Okay, now today we're looking
at Luke 19 from verse 11 down to verse 27 of Luke 19. And what we find here is a parable. A parable that the Lord gives
and it's called the parable of the nobleman and his servants. I'm taking the title for the
message from this parable that is given. And here's the title
of the message, which will set the theme for the message. The
response of the gospel. The response of the gospel of
the kingdom of God. We see that in this parable.
There were three responses to the gospel and lordship of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There were three different responses
given in this story. The first one is found in verse
14, but his citizens hated him and sent a message after him
saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. That's what those people said
who hated the king outright, and there we see the sinners
response, the sinner's will and a sinner's wicked heart revealed. That was his response. We will
not have this man reign over us. The second thing we see,
and the second response is this, what those said who were made
faithful servants to the Lord. Verse 16, 17, 18, and 19, the
Lord said, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast
been faithful in very little, And the Lord blessed each of
those servants abundantly. That was the response of the
faithful servant or the response of faith. The third thing we
see is the response of what I call fatalism or hardshelism. The unfaithful servant said,
and his response was, Verse 20, Another came, saying, Lord, behold,
here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin, and
I feared thee, because thou wert an austere man, and that thou
takest up where thou layest not down, and that thou reapest where
thou didst not sow. I call that the response of fatalism. or the response of hard-shell-ism,
believing God does not use means to accomplish His purpose. Now
that's the third response, so these three different responses.
Now we'll come back and look at that in a little bit more
detail in just a minute, but let me set the table for the
message. Look at verse 11, As they heard these things, The
Lord had just declared to a sinner named Zacchaeus, whom he saved,
the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
As they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because
he was nigh to Jerusalem, because they thought that the kingdom
of God should appear immediately. Now, remember the Lord had just
saved this notable, notable sinner. The Lord was on his way to Jerusalem
at this time to give his life a ransom for many, but he always
had time to seek and to save lost sinners. That's why he came. He came not to call the righteous,
but he came to call sinners to repentance. You remember back
in Luke 18, the cry of a blind man named Bartimaeus, the cry
of a blind man for mercy stopped the Lord of glory in his tracks,
and the Lord showed mercy unto him. The Lord always had time
for those who called out for mercy, and the Lord always showed
mercy unto them. He is the friend of publicans
and sinners. Look, turn back just a few pages
to Luke 15. You remember verse 1 and 2? Luke 15, Then do near unto him
all publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees
and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners? Aren't
you glad he does? He receives sinners and he eats
with them. He is the friend of publicans
and sinners. This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation, that the Lord Jesus Christ came to save
sinners. And I can say with Paul, I am
the chief one. Zacchaeus was the chief among
the publicans, and the Lord saved him. He was the chief offender
and sinner in his day, and the Lord saved him. When they heard
and saw these things, the many miracles, the power of the Lord's
words, and that he was on his way to Jerusalem, they thought,
you see verse 11, they thought, because he was not to Jerusalem,
because they thought that the King of God should appear Immediately. Now, they thought the Lord was
going to Jerusalem to cast out the Romans, they were under their
dominion, remember, and to establish the throne of David, again, to
set up and to sit upon that throne, ruling an earthly Jewish kingdom
in that time at that day. That's what most of them thought
He was going to do. How wrong were their thoughts. They were totally wrong, weren't
they? They were totally wrong. I always think of this story
when I see in Scripture where it says, they thought. You remember
what Naaman the leper said to Elijah the servant? Well, I thought
he'd come out and he would strike his hand over the sword and everything
would be good and well. I didn't think that he would
tell me to go down and dip seven times in Jordan. I thought You
see, the problem is all our thinking about spiritual things left to
ourselves are totally, totally, and always wrong. Mark it down
every time. We think too highly of ourselves
and we think too low in our thoughts about God Almighty. That's right,
that's exactly right, is it not? Left our own carnal thinking,
our thoughts about the Kingdom of God, salvation in Christ,
and how God saves sinners always wrong. We always think contrary
to the way of God, because the carnal mind receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Our Lord said in Psalm 50, Thou
thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thyself, and the Lord
said, I will correct your thinking, I will reprove thee. Now, in verse 12, down through
verse 27, The Lord gives this parable of a nobleman and his
servants, and it is similar, though different, though it varies
some from what we read earlier in Matthew 25. But the theme
of it and the lesson of it is exactly the same. We see in verse
12, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for
himself a kingdom. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, He
is the nobleman. He is King of Kings and He is
Lord of Lords. The nobleman represents the noble,
almighty, and sovereign Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
King in His kingdom, is He not? The Lord is King. I'm glad He's
King. I'm glad He's my Lord. He is
noble and holy in all of his actions, noble and holy in all
of his character, shall not the judge of all the earth do right?
Such a high priest became us who was holy. harmless, undefiled,
and totally separate from sin. Our most noble Savior came here
to purchase His church with His own blood, to accomplish their
salvation, to establish righteousness for them, having finished the
work of redemption the Father gave Him to do, He went away,
waiting to return and to receive this kingdom that he has purchased
to himself forever. When he had by himself purged
our sin, he sat down at the right hand of God. But my friend, one
day he's going to get up off that throne, and one day soon
the Lord is coming back to receive us unto ourselves. Turn to John
14. John 14 verse 1. Let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. talking about going
to Calvary to prepare us for the place to establish salvation
and righteousness for us. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that
where I am There you may be also. And then the Lord says in verse
6, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by and through me. When the Lord comes again,
look at verse 27, Luke 19, 27. When the Lord comes again, He said, But those mine enemies,
which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither,
and slay them. When the Lord comes again, his
enemies will be justly destroyed and cast out. When he comes again,
he'll say to those sheep on his right hand, Come ye blessed to
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the and he'll say to the goat on the left hand, depart from
me, I never, no, never knew you. These shall go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Now his faithful
servants will be abundantly blessed forever through the merit of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and his enemies will be forever justly
condemned, right? That is the theme of this parable
that the Lord gives us here. Now, notice in verse 13, Luke
19, 13, And he called his ten servants, and delivered them
ten pounds, and said unto them, You occupy, you use what I give
you. Each one of these ten servants
had one pound, and the Lord said, You occupy, you maintain. until I come back again and receive
you to myself." Now notice what the Lord says concerning these
servants. Ten servants, each one given a pound, and we'll
call it just a pound of silver, to occupy and told to be about
the master's business until he returns. All ten of these servants
belonged to the Lord, but some were faithful and good, while
others were slothful, wicked, and unprofitable. They were only
made good and did so by the grace of God. You see the Lord Jesus
Christ is Lord of all men by His eternal unchanging decree. He is not Lord by something we
do. He is Lord by the eternal decree of God. Peter declared
at Pentecost, God had made that same Jesus whom you crucified,
God had made Him both Lord and Christ. Remember our study verse
in Romans 14. 9. For to this end Christ both
died and revived. Christ both died and rose and
revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living.
He is every man's Lord whether they acknowledge his lordship
or not. The faithful servants in this parable represent those
who are blessed to believe the gospel by the power of the Lord
using the means that God has given unto them to further the
kingdom of God to increase it here while we wait for the Lord
to return. We're looking for that blessed
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're looking for His coming. Turn over here to the book of
Titus. Titus chapter 2. We're looking for that blessed
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Titus chapter 2 verse 11. For
the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all
men, all sorts of men, Teaching us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, godly in
this present world, looking for that blessed hope, glorious appearing
of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for
us, that he might redeem us unto himself, redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works,
good deeds, good things. good thing to come. The faithful
servants here are those who are blessed of God, using the means
that God has given to further the kingdom of God, to increase
it here while we wait for the Lord, looking for his blessed,
blessed coming, his blessed return. The flip side of that is the
unprofitable and wicked servants, lawful servant, he's also given
a pound of silver, but he does nothing with it, has no interest
in the nobleman's command to occupy until the Lord returns,
he has no zeal in his heart, no love in his heart for the
king, no zeal for the furtherance of the gospel of the kingdom
of God, he hates the method and means of God, has ordained to
further the gospel, he cares nothing for the preaching of
the gospel to be heard in other places, he becomes hardened in
his rebellion, complacent in his way, and he lives only for
self. Verse 14 says, describes those
servants who were unprofitable and wicked and slothful servants,
and his citizens hated him, the carnal minded enmity against
God, and sent a message after him saying, here's the message. We will not have you reign over
us. That's the natural man's response
to the gospel of the grace of God. He hates the nobleman in
this parable, and they will not have his rule, will not have
his reign. It's the same as what they said
in John 19, when Pilate brought forth the Lord Jesus Christ and
said, Oh, by the way, behold your king. Remember what they
said? Away with Him. We have no king
but Caesar. Away with the Lord Jesus Christ.
You crucify Him. Let's look at some of the details
about these three different responses to the lordship and kingship
of our blessed Lord. And we see the same thing going
on today when the gospel of God's grace is preached, when His lordship
is established in the preaching of the Word, when His sovereignty
is declared in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see
the exact same three responses right now in our day. One of
rebellion, one of bowing to his lordship, and one just not really
giving a damn what happened. Now, that's plain language, but
that's basically what the response is. Now, verse 14, the response
of those who will not have the yoke of the Lord upon them. They
may be most religious. Those Pharisees were most religious,
were they not? But they hated the Lordship of
Christ. But when it comes to the absolute
sovereignty of God, especially in salvation, that he will have
mercy on whom he will. They want nothing to do with
God who is absolute Lord of all things. They love their idea
of man's free will, they say, rather than salvation by God's
will alone. I remember about 20 years ago
or so when Pastor Mahan used to travel up here and stay with
us and preach for us on occasion. Saturday morning, he was looking
at our local paper where they had all the different church
announcements. And I noticed him looking on this one particular
page called the church directory. And he was looking over this
one and this one and this one where they list all the churches
in this whole county. And he said he knew, he said,
but Tom, he said, did you ever realize that there are 35 free
will Baptist churches in Black County? I said, well, I didn't
know. I knew there were a lot. 35.
You see, man by nature is taken up with his own wicked way, his
own wicked will. We will not have this man to
reign over us. Now they love the God of their
free will. but they hate the God who's absolutely sovereign. They're in love with themselves.
They think that salvation, really and ultimately, here's what they
preach. What does a free will preacher
preach? He preaches God done all he can do, and it really
depends upon what you do with it. Now that's what they preach.
That's heresy. That's not what this book teaches.
This book teaches that salvation is by the will of God. Salvation
is by the will of God. You see, man's fallen will is
always in bondage to his nature, like free-running water is always
downhill. Salvation that's revealed in
this book is by the free grace of God. Salvation that's revealed
in this book is by the will of God. You see, it's not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. You see, it's of His own will,
beget He us with the Word of truth. Let's see if we can make
good on that. Turn to John chapter 1. You see,
salvation is not by the will of man. Our Lord said, you will
not come to Me that you might have life. Now His people do
willingly come, but they're made willing only in the day of His
power. In John chapter 1, John chapter 1. Verse 11, he came
unto his own, his own received him not. But as many as received
him, to them gave he power, right, to become sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name. There's not a period there. Which
were born, not of blood, has nothing to do with your genealogy,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but they
believe him and receive him because they're born of God. And remember
this morning I told you it's good to know what it's not, what
something is not. So we're born again not of blood,
that is genealogy, not of the will of the flesh, not of the
will of man, but born of God. Now, can words be any more plainer,
any more Convincing that salvation is by the sovereign will of God
and by the grace of God alone? Now, that's the first response. That's the response of a natural
man to the gospel. When it's set forth in its sovereignty,
now I'm not talking about just general false preaching. I'm talking about when the gospel
of God's grace is set forth and Christ is lifted up, putting
men in the hands of the sovereign Christ, their response is, we
will not have this man reign over us. The natural man wants
nothing to do with God as He's revealed in the Word of God,
except the Lord does something in his heart, in his mind, and
changes him. Now, here's a second response. What those said who were made
faithful to the Lord. Let's begin reading at verse
15. It came to pass that when he
was returned. Now, the Lord's coming back.
having received the kingdom. He received it by purchase. He
purchased the kingdom. Then he commanded these servants
to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that
he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then
came the first saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said to him, Well, thou
good servant, because thou hast been faithful in very little,
have thou authority over ten cities. The second faithful servant
came, verse 18, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. He said likewise to him, be thou
also over five cities. Here is the faithful response,
or the response of faith, the response of faith to the gospel. When the King of kings and Lord
of lords returned, he commanded his servants to be brought before
him to give an account of their stewardship while he was gone.
They counted these two faithful servants, acknowledged that what
they had belonged to the Lord." Notice verse 16, "...thy pound hath gained." He
acknowledged that what they had belonged to the Lord. And they
used what the Lord had given them to be a blessing to others.
They were busy about the nobleman's cause, to further his kingdom,
and faithful to the Lord's purpose in preaching the gospel of the
grace of God. As we read a moment ago, they
were zealous of good work. Now here's the response to faith.
Abraham believed God when he was called, and he was obedient
unto that call. Saving faith that God gives makes
us faithful to the Word of the Lord. The Lord has told us to
go out and preach the gospel, to use what God has given us,
the means that God has given us to preach the gospel. And
here's the response of faith. They believe God. Our Lord said
as He risen from the dead and getting ready to ascend back
to the Father to receive this kingdom unto Himself, He said
to those faithful servants, go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. That's the means God has ordained.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. It has pleased
God through the preaching of the gospel to call out His people. He uses means. He has ordained
the means of preaching the gospel to further call His sheep unto
Himself. They will hear His voice and
they will follow Him. Now, here's the third response.
So, the response of the will not or the free will, the response
of faith, believing God and obedient to the Word of the Lord, just
not hearing the Word, but being obedient unto the Word of the
Lord. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. Now, here's the third response.
And we see the same thing today, what the unfaithful servant said. Look at verse 20. And another
came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept
laid up in a napkin. I mean, this is what I preserved
it. I took care of it. For I feared
thee, because thou art an austere man, a hard man, a harsh, cruel
man. Thou takest up where you did
not lay down, and you reap where you did not sow. And he said
unto him, out of thine own mouth, I'll judge thee, you wicked servant. You knew I was austere, taking
up where I did not lay down, reaping where I did not sow.
Wherefore, then, give us not thou thy money into the bank,
that at my coming I might have required my own usury. At least
you should have put my money in the bank, and I could have
drawn a little bit of interest. And he said unto them that stood
by, Take from him that pound, and give it to him that hath
ten pounds. And they said unto him, Lord, he already hath ten.
Yeah, now he hath eleven. This was the Lord's sovereign
purpose, His sovereign will. Now, what the unfaithful servant
said, that was the response of what we call fatalism. That was
the response of what we call and it's a term that we hear
around here in our day, hardshellism. Now, I've been accused of being
a fatalist, I've been accused of being a hardshell, and I'm
neither one. I'm neither one. This man who
had the response of being a fatalist, he was determined to do nothing
with what the Lord had given him, and then accused the Lord
of being hard and cruel. A hard and cruel man, showing
no mercy, showing no love, and giving no grace. Now that's just
the opposite of what the Lord is. condemned this man and called
him a wicked and slothful servant, useless and unprofitable." This
is the attitude of those today when they hear the gospel of
God's sovereign grace. Sovereign grace. The response
of those fatalists. I've had people tell me, when
they find out that I preach and believe what we call Sovereign
Grace of God, that He'll have mercy on whom He will, and whom
He will, He'll harden. They often say to me, the Arminian
preacher, the preacher of works, or the free will preacher, would
often say to me, well if I believe that, I just quit preaching. I mean, if I believe that God
elected a people, and Christ died for a people, and the Holy
Spirit's gonna call them out, I'm just gonna sit home. I'm
not going to spend money to build churches and spend money to send
missionaries out to preach the gospel. I'm just a fatalist. I'm just a hardshell. Everything's
going to pan out. I'm just going to sit home and
do nothing. That's hardshellism. That's fatalism. Brother Mahan used to say this.
He said, I dread fatalism as much as I do freewillism. Now
think about it. Both are terrible errors. This
attitude of the fatalist today, God is sovereign in all things
and does not use men and means to accomplish his purpose, that
is wicked. And it's not true according to
this book. God is sovereign, right? But God has also ordained
the means to arrive at his end. He's ordained the means to arrive
at His end. Yes, He has predestinated all
things, but He has also predestinated the means to arrive at that end. Now, the fatalists would say,
well, no need to preach the gospel to the lost. God's elected the
people. Christ died for them. No need to preach the gospel.
Yes, there is a need. Why is there a need? Because
He said, go and preach the gospel. He commanded us to do so. He
said to Timothy, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ. God uses the preached word to
call out his people. We make much of the preaching
of the gospel. The fabulist said, no need of
praying for the Lord to save sinners. No need to pray. The
Lord's commanded us to pray in everything. We're to pray about
everything. That thinking is totally contrary
to the plain teaching of Scripture. God has ordained the end of all
things to His glory. No doubt about that. Of Him,
and through Him, and to Him are all things to whom be glory.
But He has also ordained the means to arrive at that end. I'll give you a prime example.
The Lord Jesus Christ stood as a Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. Now, that's decreed, settled,
and fixed, right? Does He need to come and die? Why didn't He just stay in glory?
I mean, it's already done. Yes, He must come and die. In
the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.
We are not fatalists. We are not hard-shelled. Our
wise and sovereign Lord has ordained to me to call out His people.
Now let me show you a prime example here. Find 2 Thessalonians 2
Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13. Now I'm making much of this
because this needs to be taught. This idea of fatalism is totally
wrong. We're not fatalists, we're evangelists. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, But
we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Man is not saved who doesn't
believe the gospel. He that believeth on Christ hath
eternal life. Whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn back a few pages, 1 Thessalonians
chapter one. Look at verse four, knowing brethren.
1 Thessalonians chapter one, verse four. Knowing brethren,
beloved, your election is of God. No doubt about that, God
elected a people. For our gospel came not into
you in words only, but also in the power of the Holy Spirit,
and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were
among you for your sakes." You see, God uses the preached Word
to call out His people. Faith comes by what? Hearing. Hearing what? Hearing
the truth. The truth. The Word. shall set
you free." The truth shall set you free. All through the book
of Acts, we find the early church going about the Lord's business,
preaching the gospel, and when they were threatened and beaten
and told to stop preaching the word, what did they do? They went out from house to house,
publicly and privately, preaching Christ, preaching the word. They
weren't fatalists. When Peter and John were beaten
and Paul was put in prison, Why didn't they just say, well, the
Lord chose the people, He elected the people, and we're just going
to quit. They didn't quit, they kept right
on preaching because they believed God, determined to preach Christ
and Him crucified. This is what the ministry here
at Zebulun is all about. Have you figured that out? I
had one man tell me, who had been here for a number of years,
ten years or more, he said, I've got to have more. I've got to
have more. More than Christ? More than preaching
the gospel? If you've got to have more, you
need to go somewhere else. And he did. And he left. What
this ministry at Zebulun here is all about is preaching the
Word, preaching Christ. Here in the pulpit on Sunday,
Wednesday night, we take the Word verse by verse, line by
line, here a little, there a little. Every Sunday on the radio. Boy,
there was a great message on the radio today. I listened to
it again and I just rejoiced in it from Philippians chapter
3. Every Sunday on the radio. Radio is broadcast, that radio
message goes out all through the world. It's on the internet
all over the world, in China, Japan, everywhere it goes out. Every day all over this world.
We have over 4,000 sermons. on sermon audio. Over two and
a half million page views on sermon audio. People looking
and listening at our sermons. God uses the means that he's
put in our hand to further preach the gospel. We use the internet. People say, well, that's a wicked
thing. You know, back in Martin Luther's day, they thought the
printing press was a wicked thing. You know, we use the means that
God has given us to preach the gospel. Radio, newspaper, internet,
producing books and bulletins. We put out a bulletin every week
that's full of the gospel. And we send it out by email,
we post it on Sermon Audio, it goes all over this world, and
we mail it out to hundreds of people every week. Transcribed
sermons we do every week. Sending out the gospel. The preacher,
God's going to take care of all that, why don't you just quit?
We're not fatalists. We're evangelists. God has commanded
us to go preach the gospel to every creature. And we're going
to do it. 2 Timothy 4 says, But watch thou
in all things, endure affliction, do the work of evangelists, and
make full proof thy ministry. Now, this is not a one-man ministry.
We are, as I've told you before, we're all in the ministry together,
preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in closing,
the Lord gives this, and let me just give you this quickly,
because I know this is vital to understand. Verse 26 and verse
27, For I say unto you that unto everyone which hath shall be
given, He that hath the Son hath life. He gives all grace now
and glory forever. And from him that hath not, who
hath not been given life, who hath not been given salvation,
He hath shall be taken from him in that day of judgment. He has
in this life, he has a physical life, he has happiness, he has
these things in this life to enjoy, but at the day of judgment
those things that he hath will be no more. No more. But those mine enemies, which
would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither,
and slay them before me. Now, He that believeth on the
Son, turn to Revelation chapter 6. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Right? What's the other part
of that verse? He that believeth not the Son
of God, The wrath of God abides on him. Now, not many people
are talking about the wrath and judgment of God. Look what it
says here in Revelation 6, verse 14. This is the nobleman coming
back to receive the kingdom unto himself. He came back from a
far country. And the heaven departed as a
scroll when it was rolled together, and every mountain and isle were
moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, and
great men, and rich men, and chief captains, and mighty men,
and every bondman, and every free man hid themselves in the
dens, and in the rocks, and in the mountains, and said to the
mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face
of Him, yet set us on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath
is come. Who shall be able to stand? Who
shall stand? Where do you want to be found
when Christ comes? I don't want to be found hiding
under the rocks and the mountains. I want to be found in Him. and
Christ who is life and who is salvation. Those who would not
have the sovereign Christ reign over them, those who would not
love the Lord Jesus Christ, there is nothing left for them but
judgment, condemnation. Now, what is your response to
the gospel? What is your response to the
gospel, to His kingship, to His lordship? We bow unto Him and
we say this. Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling, to present you faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior
be glory, majesty, and dominion, and power, both now and forever. And I say, with the Apostle Jude. Amen. Amen.