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The text for today is in Matthew
25 from 14 to 30. For the kingdom of heaven is
like a man traveling to a far country, who calls his own servants
and delivers his goods to them. And to one he gives five talents,
to another two and to another one, to each according to his
own ability. And immediately he went on a
journey. Then he who had received the
five talents went and prayed with them and made another five
talents. And likewise he who had received
two gained two more also. But he who had received one went
and dug in the ground and hid his lord's money After a long
time the Lord of those servants came and set accounts with them. So he who had received five talents
came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to
me five talents. Look, I have gained five more
talents besides them. His Lord said to him, Well done,
good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few
things. I will make you ruler over many things. enter into
the joy of your Lord. He also, who had received two
talents, came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents.
Look, I have gained two more talents besides them. He, Lord,
said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have
been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many
things. Enter into the joy of your Lord."
Then he who had received that one talent came and said, Lord,
I knew you to be a hard man. reaping where you have not sown,
and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was
afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there
you have what is yours.' But his Lord answered and said to
him, You wicked and lazy servant! You knew that I read where I
have not sown, and gathered where I have not scattered seed. So
you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at
my coming I will have received back my own with interest. Therefore,
take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more
will be given. and he will have abundance. But
for him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away,
and cast the unprofitable servant into the other darkness. There
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." as we sing lord we pray that
you rebuild your glory lord through the teaching of your word oh
father i pray that you use this words father to to convict your
church oh father thank you for giving us messengers who preach
the truth to us lord i pray that your church start being more convicted and
to be encouraged to live in righteousness, Lord. To live in holiness for
Your glory, Father. Amen. This passage of Scripture before
us here today, it reflects the kindness of God toward us here
in this new year We're very fortunate people to be here in this section
of Scripture now, because God has made it so that in the entire
month of January, and even a little bit before, we will be considering
various parables that speak of readiness. being ready for the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I can't think of a more important
way to begin a year than to consider our readiness. And that now,
over and over again, Sunday after Sunday, here we are considering
the very same thing. You know, are you ready? And
here are the six parables that begin in chapter 24, verse 37. And the exact same subject is
engaged, you know, as it was in the days of Noah. Now here
we're in a completely different parable, but the meaning is the
same. And all of these parables, they
focus on the second coming. They focus on the long wait. They focus on the division. of
humanity into two categories. They focus on two of the most
amazing qualities of life for those who are created in the
image of God. One is this remarkable blessing
of entering into the joy of your Master, to enter into a joy that
you've never known before. You've had tastes of it in the
world as you've read the Word of God, as He sanctified you,
as He has been blessing you by His presence. You know some elements
of His joy, but there's a joy so far beyond anything you've
ever experienced in your life It's the joy of your Master.
And on the other hand, there's the weeping and the gnashing
of teeth that comes upon those who reject Him. The sheep and
the goats. The faithful and the unfaithful. And now we come to this parable
of the talents. And the main point of this parable,
I'll give it to you right now, is that God entrusts responsibilities
to his people through the resources that he's given them so that
they will use them for one single purpose, and that is to multiply
spiritual treasure for him. That's the essence of this parable
here. But but I want us to see how the Lord Jesus is using this
parable in light of the other ones as well. Because again,
while we're dealing with this parable as a standalone, the
Lord Jesus has been talking about a lot of things and he's not
breaking his conversation and just talking about this. And
he's been explaining what it means to be watchful. Now, I
can't think of anything more wonderful in life than to have
a sense of watchfulness, to have a sense of the presence of Jesus
Christ, to have a sense that you are useful in His hands,
that your words, the look of your eyes, your demeanor, everything
that you're doing is useful in His hands. And to know that God
is in heaven, that His Son is alive, and that you have been
born for this purpose. to glorify Him, to multiply spiritual
fruit in absolutely everything that you do. And the Lord Jesus
is explaining this in various colors and textures and situations. He says it's like being ready
while you're eating and drinking. Something so simple as that. You can be ready even while you're
drinking a glass of water. or eating your food, to have
that sense of readiness, of that connection with the Lord Jesus
Christ, to be so ready for Him that in every moment of life,
there's a sense of the presence of God and the readiness. Or
whether something of enormous magnitude is happening in your
life, you're giving your daughter in marriage. But at that same
time, having a sense that as you're giving, you are an instrument
of His grace in the world, that you're so conscious of what you're
doing. It's not that you've just reached some accomplishment for
yourself, by yourself. Now finally, your daughter is
married. Now you can rest. No! There's something so much
greater. While you're giving in marriage, there's a spiritual
sense of it. Something that is happening.
Or if you're getting married. perhaps even a greater cataclysmic, tumultuous,
amazing, wonderful thing in life, but that instead of just being
caught up in that one single thing, you're so aware of Him
that in the contemplations of your very wedding, your heart
is lifted up to heaven. And you think of Him through
the watches of the night. You remember Him. You're so grateful
for your Savior. Or this other parable. Watching means it's like being
ready and protecting your home from threats. That you're ready
for that night robber. As you're normally turning off
the lights and locking the doors, you have a sense of readiness
before God. In the same way that you would
ready your house, you're ready for your master to come. Or if
you've given authority in chapter 24, verses 45 through 51. Here's a picture of a person
who's been given authority and he spends his time, you know,
instead of feeding his sheep, he's beating his sheep. And instead
of working to help them and bless them, He's off drinking and partying
and all this kind of thing. He's not ready at all. Just in
the normal life that you have as a person who's been given
authority. Everybody has been given some kind of authority
in this world. In the execution of your authority, are you aware
of your Savior? And then this readiness that we find in
these young girls who are part of the wedding party where half
of them seemed ready. They dressed right. They talked
right. They had the right friends. They
were in the right place. They knew the right people, but
they weren't really ready. But then there were five who
were really ready because everything in their life was made ready
for the coming of the bridegroom. And they made sure that everything
in their life was ready, not just their clothes, not just
their speech, not just their lamps, but I mean that they were
ready for everything. And it's that kind of readiness.
Now we come to I'm just going to call him a spiritual entrepreneur. He's excited. He loves to work
for the profit of his master. And he's boldly and strategically
working for the profit of his master. That's this parable of
the talents here. And he's using his resources,
you know, eschatologically in a sense. He's using it to amass
treasure for the future in heaven. And then after we finish this
parable, we go to the parable of the sheep and the goats. And
we learn that readiness means that you that you love your brother
and you're not just going through life, you know, having having
them bless you and being in relationship with you. And it's all about
you. But readiness means that you you love your brothers and
your sisters. And and that's a distinguishing
factor in marking who are the sheep and the goats. Those who
love the brethren are marked. as sheep and those who do not
love the brothers and sisters in the Lord are the goats. So
those are those are the parables. But you see this this how the
Lord is weaving all these situations to explain this one matter of
of readiness. Now, while the focus in the last
parable was a young woman or or 10 young women,
the focus here happens to be three men who are involved in
an investment kind of situation. And they are taking dominion.
They're expanding the kingdom. They're multiplying profit for
their master. And again, I'll just tip you
off to the whole meaning here. Here in this parable, watching
means multiplying what God has given you. Watching means multiplying
what God has given you for spiritual profit. And of course, it doesn't
mean more cars, more houses. It means more spiritual profit
for your master, using everything that you've been given to do
that. So that's the parable here. Now, the parable is similar to
Luke chapter 19, but there are some differences. They're actually
spoken in different occasions. Luke is speaking in Jericho probably
five or six days before this occasion. In Luke, there are
ten that are called and three that report back. Here, there
are three. In Matthew, there's a large amount of money that's
given to the servants. In Luke, it's a smaller sum.
In Matthew, the unfaithful servant digs in the ground and hides
it Well, in Luke, he holds it in a handkerchief. And I think
what we learn here is that the Lord Jesus uses different stories.
But he mixes some of the phraseology, he mixes some of the material
together to say a similar thing. And the Lord is like every good
father who repeats himself and he weaves principles and commands
all together at different times in his life. And he might quote
himself over and over again in a different context. And that's,
I believe, what we find here in this passage. Here, I think
we should just pause and just recognize the beauty of Scripture,
the diversity of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of His counsels,
how He says this thing to this group of people at this moment,
and then He changes it up a little bit for another moment. He's
such a customizer for His people. He ministers to His flock in
such a wise and gracious way that He takes into account the
things that they need to hear. I believe that we need to hear
this message over and over again. I think that's why the Lord has
done it. Why, for weeks, we're going to be asked, are we ready? Are our eyes lifted up to heaven? What does it look like to be
ready? So, I'm praying that that's what will happen to us. Because
we're not done with this question. Are we ready? Or how ready are
we? And to just make us a more ready people. I think the Lord
loves us. He desires to increase our usefulness
in the world. He really desires that our sense
of closeness to him would increase, that in everything that we're
doing, we're somehow more sensible of what he's doing with us in
that situation, that we're ready. to bring spiritual profit in
every moment, whether we're eating or drinking or marrying or giving
marriage or protecting our house or in all of the authority that
we've been given, or whether we're going to a wedding or whatever
it might be, whatever resources we have, whatever person is in
front of us, that we're so much more aware of the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that we would be ready in a moment, I pray,
that when we meet with our brother or sister, when we see them,
we think, Oh Lord, make me ready now. Make me bring spiritual
profit in this situation. Let me be a blessing for your
kingdom here. So I think we need this. We obviously need it or we wouldn't
be here for so long. So there are four main sections
in this parable. You have an outline in front
of you. You can see them right there.
First of all, there's the distribution of the talents. We'll talk about
that. And then there's the multiplication of the talents by varying degrees
as a result of varying investments. And then there's sort of the
assessment of the use of the talents one by one. The first
man with the five, the second with two, and the third with
the one talent. Each one is rolled up and summarized
and evaluated. And then finally, There's the
judgment for either the right or the wrong use of the talents.
So that's the basic the basic outline that we have here. So
let's begin with this first section, the distribution of the talents
in verses 14 and 15. And of course, the thought is
continuous. The first word in verse 14 is
for it's a conjunction connecting it to the parable of the virgins,
making it clear that the Lord is just continuing this exact
theme. And he's speaking of one continuous
thought. And there are two parties that
are identified in these verses. First of all, there's a businessman.
who has enormous resources and he's going somewhere. In Luke,
it's a nobleman who's going to receive a kingdom. Here in Matthew,
it's a businessman who's making an investment, who's expecting
a return while he's gone. So it's a little bit different
there. And then there are the servants as the second party
in the parable. And they were his own servants.
The terminology of servanthood is here, bondservant, a person
who has set aside his own will for the will of his master. This
is a picture of Christianity. And the servants are professing
Christians. The servants, I believe all three
of them are professing Christians. And this is very consistent throughout
these parables where the Lord is using, like with the five
virgins and the other five virgins, they represent the visible church,
the professors of Christianity in the world. And just a side
note here, you know, in this parable, you also get get a historical
window into the kind of slavery that was being practiced in the
ancient world. And here's one thing that you
get. Some of the slaves were extremely prosperous. Some of
the slaves were significantly responsible. They had substantial
abilities. And so an owner of that slave
would invest In this case, enormous resources for them to use. So while one was a slave, one
could also be very wealthy at the exact same time. Completely
different from the kind of American form of slavery that we had here.
But that's just sort of a side note about what we see here in
terms of what was going on. And what we find in this parable
here is that the master expects that his will is being done while
he's gone. The master has gone and now the
slaves are charged to take dominion with what they have been given.
And every person is being given resources. In this case, it's
money. And it's interesting. God does
even in this parable give resources to the to the unsaved. We don't
want to force every element of the parable too hard here, but. But I think that the primary
principle that we see here is that is that there are there
are resources delivered, you know, unto these these mass,
these servants so that so that they would use those resources,
not for themselves. but for their master. And it's
so consistent with what the Apostle Paul said really about the whole
matter of salvation. And that is that he who died
for all that those who live shall no longer live for themselves,
but for him. This is an explanation of true
Christianity. There's a picture of the gospel
here. that that those who are truly converted, they've turned
to Jesus Christ. They're no longer living to themselves. They've transferred kingdoms.
They've said no longer my will, but thine be done. That's that's
the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. The Christian
says, I would really like to keep my work to a minimum. And
that's what we see in the example of the third servant who's given
who's given resources as well, even significant resources. The
goods do not belong to the servant, but they belong to the master.
That's really important. And we also recognize, too, what
is happening with this man. He's traveling to a far country.
Again, Jesus is giving us this earthly picture of a heavenly
reality. He's really telling the story
of his own life. Jesus is talking about himself. Jesus is that
man who's traveled to a far country. He's going to be he's going in
just just a few hours. He's going to be killed and he's
going to he's going to be resurrected to the right hand of God. He's
going to pass through the heavens as the book of Hebrews says.
He's going to a far country. And while he's in that far country,
his servants are working. They have much to do. They've
been given resources in order to be used for the glorification
of their master. So there's this rich investor
who has gone away. And it's a picture of the great
length of time that Jesus will be gone from the earth. The disciples
expected Jesus to bring his kingdom sooner than this. But Jesus is
telling them now that, no, it will actually be a long time.
And he's given them many parables. He's got a bridegroom that delays.
There are all these things that he's telling them that it won't
be right away, but it will be and be ready as a result. And
then he gives talents. You know, what are the talents?
He delivers his goods to them. They were his goods. And then
he gives to one five, another two and another one. Now, talents. Here, in this context, can mean a measure
of weight. A talent was a measure of weight.
That's why when you look at Revelation 16, verse 21, there were hailstones
that weighed a talent, which is 125 pounds. That's a big hailstone. And so it's a unit of measurement. It was also used as a unit of
coinage. But a talent here would be the
equivalent of 20 years wages. So the man who received one talent
was receiving 20 years wages. The man receiving five, a hundred
years wages. So this was a significant investment
in a slave, wasn't it? I mean, they were given a lot
and they could have just rested and consumed and had such a great
time with the resources, which is also a parable for us. We
can use the resources that God has given us to rest, to consume,
to just spend it away and then have nothing left at the end.
No spiritual increase from it, but the talent is used here. It's something to use. It's something
to trade and look 19. There's there's trading and and
the Lord is saying, do business until I come. You know, business
is really a picture of spiritual business. God has given business,
I believe, is a picture. That's why Jesus says, do business
until I come with business. You're trading. Here's what you
want to do in business. You want to buy low and sell
high. That's what you want to do. And
you want to continue to increase. And the Lord is saying this is
a good thing because your intent is to increase. It's good to
increase. We live in a world, a kind of
a Marxist mentality that pervades everything. It's not good to
increase. It's actually more godly to not have anything. Well,
that's actually not the worldview that the Lord Jesus is communicating
here. Increase is good. Building is
good. Advancement is good. And these were really either
going to work boldly and self-consciously to multiply spiritual fruit,
or they were just going to rest and not do anything with it.
There were some who would strategize and plan and others who wouldn't.
Now, how this happened is important, too. They were delivered. They were delivered by his authority
and to be delivered means to convey, to convey something to
someone. So there's this whole idea of
a conveyance. Something is transferred to you
and it and it becomes as if it was yours, even though it's not
yours. It's still His, but it's been conveyed. And then there
are different amounts. Why the different amounts? I
think this is a really fascinating part of the parable. To each
according to his own ability. Ability is the driver of the
investment. How's that? This is your God.
No, He doesn't invest equally in everyone. And ability is the
word dunamis for power. Each man has a different kind
of power. That's the idea. God has designed
the world this way. There are different levels of
power, of acumen, that are given in the world. And this businessman
understands that. He's wise and he knows what kind
of jobs to give to what kind of people. You can't give any
job to any person. Try that, by the way. It's difficult
to have any kind of success if you just give any old job to
any old person. You have to be discerning about
it. And the Lord is presenting this discernment in this parable.
He makes observations and he doesn't equally measure out investments. And this is all to tell the story
that we all have different gifts and abilities and we should not
be comparing ourselves. with one another, as the Apostle
Paul intimated when he said, we're not measuring ourselves
by ourselves. God, God has given to every single
person a certain amount. In this case, it's money. I mean,
you could just you could just isolate it to money if you want.
I think it applies more broadly than that. But let's just just
just take it exclusively to apply with money. How much money have
you been given? You've been given some. Everybody's
been given some. And what do you do with that? And what we
what we know, what we know about the world is that every good
and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights. That's
what James said. The apostle Paul said, what do
you have? that you did not receive. In
Romans 9.16, the Apostle Paul says, it does not depend on the
man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. The Lord Jesus Himself said a
man can receive nothing unless it's given him from heaven. This
is the way the world is wired. God is sovereign. over all of
these things. And he is sovereign in his giving
of a capacity and then the investment in those who might have that
capacity. So the master knew that one had
a certain kind of ability, one for five talents, another had
the ability for two and the other of one talent. Now, I think that
this this corrects what is a really false view of success. And often, often you'll find
that successful men think that they're somehow better than others.
And if other men would just simply follow their formula, they could
be just as successful as them. And they stand in judgment often
of men who might not outwardly have the same kind of success. It can happen to anyone. It can
happen to a pastor who's pastoring a small church. And he might
say, well, why do I only have this small number and that other
man who I know to not be as good a man as I am to have such a
great number? Well, the truth is God is the
one who determines all of these things. And this is why in Deuteronomy
8, We're reminded never to say something
in our hearts, never to say that it was your hands that gave you
the wealth. That's what Moses is saying in
Deuteronomy. He's saying, no, no, do not. Do not say that because it is
he who gives you power to get wealth that he may establish
his covenant, which he swore to your fathers as it is this
day. So the talents here were given
in different measures and a talent can easily be seen as a responsibility. Whatever responsibilities you
have been given as a result of who you are and what you have,
because what you have makes you responsible, right? You know,
he who is given much, much will be required. So, you've been
given something, and because you've been given anything, it
means you have a responsibility. Every single person has been
given responsibility. So that you might occupy until
he comes. So, in this first section, there's
the distribution of the talents. And here we see what some people
call the unfairness of God. But it's not unfairness at all.
And then secondly, there's the multiplying of the talents in
verses 16 through 18. So he who had received the five
talents went and traded with them and made another five talents. Now, here's kind of a quick review
or a summary of what happened here. The five were given and
he traded them. This means to do business. It
has to do with to make trades, to take what you have and then
consider how it might be traded up and then that up and then
that up and then that up. It's buying low, selling high. Right. That's that's the proposition. And there's this trading that's
going on. And then the man who had the
two follows the same pattern and he gained two more also.
The five gained five more. The two gained two more. And there was the expansion of
both that we see. Those two were not operating
on autopilot. They were they were working.
They were multiplying. They were trading. So. What that
means for us is that when we're involved in relationships, when
we're involved in everything, our attention ought to be on
multiplication, on trading. What can we do to accumulate
more spiritual fruit in the midst of that situation that we're
in? Everybody's been given a different place in life, job in life, place
of living. But you have that, And it brings
upon you a particular responsibility to multiply. And then what we
find is the man with one talent, he went and dug it in the ground.
He hid his Lord's money. And then there is the reckoning
in verses 19 through 21. The man with the five talents
is reckoned with first, and he and the man with the with the
two are dealt with in the exact same way. So time has passed. There's lots of margin in time. He's given lots of time to multiply
the treasure that he's been given. And then the master comes back.
And then the man comes and he stands before the Lord and he
says, Lord, You delivered to me five talents. Look, I've gained
five more talents besides them. He's an excited spiritual entrepreneur. That's who he is. Representative
of. Someone who is looking to make
a profit for his master in all of his transactions. What a beautiful
picture that is. Have you ever thought, what's
the purpose of my life? Well, here it is right here. That's
the purpose of your life. Multiply spiritual fruit while
you're alive. Take every resource you have.
and look at it in a completely different way. It's holiness
to the Lord. It's set apart for His purposes.
Everything you are, everything you have, every capacity, every
square inch of your house, every square inch of your car, every
single thing that you are and have is designed for this purpose. That you might bear spiritual
fruit And he was increasing something that belonged to his master. It was not his own. In a way,
he was working for himself. But in another way, he was not
working for himself at all. He was working for his master.
He understood that it was not all about accumulation for himself
by himself. It was accumulation by his gifts
for his name. That was the whole point. And
he had taken his master's resources and he was increasing the property
of his lord because what do you have that you did not receive?
Everything has been given to us for this purpose. So a steward
here is someone who's using somebody else's resources. And this day
of accounting that we see here is spoken of all over in Scripture. In Revelation chapter 20, we
read that the small and the great stand before God. We know in
Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 14, that God will bring everything
to judgment. In Matthew chapter 12, verse
36, even every idle word will be accounted for. And so there's
a book of remembrance of all the deeds done that will be opened,
you know, on that day. And on. On the day that is representative
of that day here in verse 21, the Lord said to him, well done,
good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few
things. I will make you ruler over many
things." And then some of my most favorite words in the whole
Bible are here. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Well, he says, well done. He's
meaning excellent. Excellent. Fine job. That was that was beautiful.
That was good. It was beneficial. Well done.
Good. Beneficial. And faithful. Do
you see these words? Well done. Good. Faithful. He's
piling up all these words to speak of His joy in the presence
of His sons and His daughters when they enter into His presence. You know, people think I think
that the Lord greets only with a frown of dissatisfaction for
all of their weaknesses and all of their shortfalls and things
like that. But that's really not the picture
that you get here. You have a person, an imperfect person, just like
you, just like me, standing before the Lord and He's saying, well
done, good and faithful servant. Faithful, meaning trustworthy,
dependable, reliable. Reliable. Someone you can trust
with the treasure that you've been given. Now, he says you were faithful over
a few things. I think that's interesting. You're
faithful over a few things. Even though a hundred years wages,
Would any of us think that that was little? Well, in the Lord's
eyes, it is little because He owns the Catalan a thousand hills
and it doesn't take much for Him to sustain His people. But
what seems so great was very little in the eyes of the Lord.
Over a few things. Now, there are five things that
happen when you meet the Lord as a believer. I want to list
them here. First of all, the Lord speaks
to you. I don't know what your view of heaven or the final judgment
is for a Christian, but here it is. The Lord speaks to you. How about that? The Lord is going
to speak to you very personally. Isn't that amazing? And then
He's going to speak tenderly to you. And then thirdly, He's
going to recount your faithfulness. And then fourthly, He's going
to bring you in to His joy. How about that? I don't know of a single person
that hasn't struggled at some point with some matter of joy. Those days will be over. You
know, that longing for joy, it'll be fulfilled. Wait. Be patient. It's coming. We struggle now. And the Lord has given us many
commands to deal with our downheartedness, but at the same time, let's don't
forget that that will pass away. Some people really, really, really
struggle so deeply with it. And for you who struggle maybe
more deeply than others, just recognize This will not last. This will not last. There will
be a day. Look forward to that day. And
then finally, the Lord makes you a ruler. He makes you a ruler. He doesn't give you a harp. He
gives you a hoe. And you're going to keep laboring
for Him. No tears. No more sweat on the brow. But
labor, nonetheless, building, doing things, bringing even more
spiritual profit. I don't really know how you keep
bringing spiritual profit to God in heaven. I don't know.
God knows. But it'll be a different kind
of labor than you've ever, ever known. So we have we have the
man with the five and the man with the two and their excitement
is documented. You know, there's more more to
learn about heaven. You know, we We work together for all eternity. The church continues to work
together. We've worked together a lot in this church. Think about
the different things that we've done working together to try
to advance the Kingdom of Heaven. We're going to keep working together
as a church. The church is going to work together. How about that?
In complete harmony. And the stewardship that began
here is really just a picture of the stewardship that will
continue in Heaven. stewardship goes on throughout
eternity. Isn't that amazing that this
investment that God makes is something that also happens in
heaven. Now, he gave you a body here. He's going to give you
a new body, a new body, new work. And but stewardship all along
the way. So this this life is a parable
of of heaven. And here, the faithful receive
more responsibility for all eternity. Even in heaven, some have more
responsibility than others. It's no sin to be given two and
multiply two. But let's get to the man with
the one talent. There's quite a bit written about him in this
parable. Verses 24-28. Then he who had received the
one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man,
reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have
not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and I went
and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there, you have what is
yours. But his Lord answered and said
to him, you wicked and lazy servant, you knew You knew that I reef where I
have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. So
you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers and at
my coming, I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore,
take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. You can see the difference between
these three men. The two who were faithful, they
had a completely different view of God. This man's view of God
is so clear. He views God as a hard man. He
views Him as demanding. He views God as severe and exacting. He saw such a heaviness in the
work that God had called him to do. When he heard the commands
of God, they just seemed so burdensome to him. Even though the Bible says that
his commands are not burdensome. Well, they're only burdensome
to those who are not his. And his whole view of God is
caught up here. In Luke 19, he says, I was afraid because
you are an austere man, austere, severe, austere. And what's happening
here is he's a liar. He's lying about the nature of
God. He's lying to himself about God. and what he's really like. And
he's saying that God is merciless, that God is unrelenting, that
He's stern. And I would just like to submit
that while God does exercise His wrath toward the wicked,
He's merciful toward the wicked. He causes His rain to fall on
the evil and on the good. He pours out blessings on evil
people. He makes them even succeed, sometimes
enormously in this world. God has invested in this world
enormous mercy toward every single person who lives on the planet.
He is merciful. He's merciful every day to the
wicked. He's patient. He waits. He sends
prophets. He delays His judgment for mercy. That's why the prophet Amos prayed,
O Lord, remember mercy in Your wrath. But he has a view of God. He
has a view of God that he is unrelenting. He has no happiness
in God. He can't see how good God is. He doesn't know what Psalm 1611
says. In your presence is fullness
of joy. At your right hand are pleasures
forevermore. He doesn't understand that. There's
no pleasure in God in him. This is one thing. that you ought
to notice in your own heart. Do you find pleasure in God?
Or is He just a hard taskmaster? If He's a hard taskmaster, and
all you can think is the hardness of the laws that He gives, and
it's a burden, and it's a pressure, and it kills you, recognize that God has given you the law so
that you would see His mercy, so that you would see your own
bankruptcy, and that it would open up relief, it would open
up joy, so that you would see Him as like a river of delights. The true Christian sees a river
of delights. The non-Christian just sees a
raging river of demand. And that's often the difference
in a believer and an unbeliever. They see the law so different.
One sees it as a blessing. Like the Apostle Paul, he said
the law is wholly just and good. But to the unbeliever, it's terrifying
and it should be. You know, I was looking at the
news this week and I saw a report in CNN. It was actually an article
that a woman wrote. by a pagan woman. It was called
Why I Raised My Children Without God. And she talks about how
there's this big movement in the United States of people who
are intentionally training their children not to believe in God
at all, which is really kind of a turn. The aggressive new
atheism is having an effect. here in our land. And she's just
acknowledging that there's a wave, there's a movement of parents
who are decidedly instructing their children there is no God.
And she says, here's why I raise my children without God. Number
one, God is a bad parent and a role model. He says, if God
is our father, then he's not a good parent. Good parents don't
allow their children to inflict harm on others. Secondly, God
is not logical. How many times have you heard,
why did God allow that to happen? And this, it's not for us to
understand. Take, for example, the tragedy
in Newtown. Rather than address the problem
of guns in America, we defer responsibility to God. He had
a reason. He wanted more angels. He knows
why. We write poems saying that we
told God to leave our schools. The question we should be asking
is this. Why did we not allow this to happen? How can we fix
this? No imaginary person can give us the answers and tell
us why. So she says, I'm not teaching my children about God
because God is not logical. And she says, God is not fair.
Next, God is not fair. If God is fair, then why does
he answer the silly prayers of some while allowing other serious
requests to go unanswered? Next, God does not protect the
innocent. He does not keep our children
safe. Next, God is not present. He is not here. Telling your
children to love a person they cannot see, smell or touch or
hear does not make sense. God does not teach our children
to be good. That's the next reason. A child
should make moral choices for the right reasons, telling him
that he must behave because God is watching means that his morality
will be externally focused rather than internally structured. Next,
God teaches narcissism. They say God has a plan for you.
Telling kids that there's a big guy in the sky who has a special
plan for them, it just makes children narcissistic. It makes
them think the world is at their disposal. And that no matter what happens,
everything will be fine. I want my children to be free
not to believe. and to know that our schools
and our government will make decisions based on what is logical
and just and fair, not on what they believe an imaginary God
wants. There's this view of God that
this servant had that's exactly like this view here. That God
is not good. That if you give your whole life
to Him, somehow it won't turn out well. That's the lie of the
devil. You know what that's like. You
know, before you became a Christian, you say, you know, if I turn
to Christ, then I'm going to give up all this stuff. That's
how the unbeliever thinks. But the truth is, if you lose your life, you'll
gain everything. And that's the truth. because
in His presence are pleasures forevermore. And you spend your
life drinking from His river of delights because He's a good
God. So you see these different views
of God. But this man did not see God
as a blessing. So he hides his talent in the
ground, meaning he refuses to multiply it. Now, this kind of
person is in every church I've ever been in. This person does
not have delight in Jesus Christ. There's no happiness in his soul.
He has no delight in serving. It's just something on the schedule
that he has to do. And he begrudges any call for
service as if it's some kind of intrusion on his jurisdiction.
It's amazing. He tries not to serve. Everything
is burdensome. The work is hard. And he's like
those that were spoken of by the prophet Malachi. They said,
my, how tiresome it is. How tiresome it is to come in
and make these sacrifices. Why do we have to do all this?
Can't we just stay in bed? That's the mentality of this
man and the mentality. Of every unbeliever. This is
why Hebrews 11 says this verse six. But with faith, it's without
faith, it's impossible to please God and listen to this. For he
who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a
rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. That's what the man
with the one talent didn't have. He didn't have a belief that
God was a rewarder. He didn't believe that there
was a river of delights. He didn't believe that in His
presence are pleasures forevermore. So the men with the five and
the two talents had a completely different view of God. They believed
that He was a good shepherd. They believed they had a good
master. They believed they had a good
investor. They wanted to be near Him. Did
you know Him that way? Do you know His amiable, loving
kindness toward you? I mean, do you know it in your
soul? Do you know that He's not a hard taskmaster? And He said,
take My yoke upon you for My burden is light. My yoke is easy. Do you know
Him like a merciful High Priest who is faithful to
make sacrifices for your sins that you could never atone for
by any amount of repentance or any amount of good works. He is your sacrifice Himself. He's made it all. He has completed
it. You are justified. It's over. And there's no more work that
you can complete to earn your salvation or atone for your sins. The atonement has happened. Do you see Him as your Advocate
pleading your cause? As your bread to feed you? As
your light to illuminate your way? As the door that He opens
up to you? And He says, come, take, eat. This is My body which was broken
for you. This is My blood which was shed
for you. Come. Come. Take. Eat. Come. Don't stay away. Don't
be so overcome with yourself and your sinfulness. Remember
the cross. Remember My blood that was shed for you. Come. Come to the table. The Lord Jesus
says, come to the table. Yeah, He says that to real sinful
people. who failed like this last week,
maybe this morning, but whose hearts desire, who trust in His blood, who believe
that He is a rewarder. You know, in these parables,
you have these different characters. You have the investor, the boss. There are all these different
characters. I mean, think about it. You know, if he was your
boss, he would be the best boss. If
he were your landlord... I don't know how many of you
have landlords. It's hard to be a good landlord. And if he
was your landlord, he'd be the best landlord you've ever known.
Why was it that children wanted to be near him? Why was it that
everyone was flocking around him? Well, Hebrews 1.9 says that He
was the happiest of all His companions. The Lord Jesus is an amiable
Savior. Do you know Him like that? And then we see what readiness
is accomplished in verses 29-30. Finally, for everyone who has,
more will be given. And he will have abundance, but
from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away
and cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There
will be weeping. and gnashing of teeth. Now, first of all, you see these
two destinies. First is the destiny of abundance.
And secondly, the destiny of devastation. And I'm just going
to talk about the three D's of this devastation. It's deprivation,
stripped of everything. It's darkness. It's like outer
darkness, whatever that is. It's despair, weeping and gnashing
of teeth. You know, the unprofitable servant
knew what his master wanted. He knew. He did not misunderstand. He wasn't caught unaware. He
knew what God wanted, but he did not want God. OK, I want
to give you some applications. I'm going to throw out just sort
of cattywampus, all kinds of different applications here.
So, there's no logical order to them. There's no order of
priority, except the very first one is an order of priority.
Number one, your thoughts of God determine everything. Your
thoughts of God determine everything. What you think about God is the
most defining issue of a person's life. How you view Him. It shapes
absolutely everything. It makes everything. It shapes
everything. Everything in life comes from
that. So, I would just ask, what is
your view of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Father, Almighty God? What is your view of Him? Is it, whom have I in heaven? But thee, there's nothing that
I desire besides thee. Is it in your presence are pleasures
forevermore? Is it you are a river of delights? Is that your view of God? Is
he a rewarder to you? So, that's the first one. Your thoughts
about God determine everything. Know God. Feed your mind with
thoughts of God. Fill your heart with the knowledge
of God. Be filled with the Spirit of
God. Seek God in His Son, by His Spirit. There's nothing,
nothing more defining than that. In all of your getting, get wisdom.
That's what Solomon said. Secondly, Are you thanking Him for what
He gave you? Are you thanking Him for what
He gave you? Or are you sorry about what He
didn't give you? People often get discouraged
because they are not like others. And they're actually despising
what God did. Unhappy what God has given. This
is a terrible place to be, because God has made a world with so
much diversity, with colors and mountains and deserts and elephants
and mice and thick people and thin people. He makes Jeremiah
and John. He makes Moses. He makes Aaron.
He makes Paul. And then He puts aside Barnabas.
This is what God does. He doesn't make everyone the
same. Thank the Lord He doesn't do that. But are you happy? Are you happy with what He gave
you? How about your mind? How about
the amount of money that you have? How about everything? Or are you glad? Are you glad to say, oh Lord,
this is what I have. Let me multiply that. Whatever
it might be. Even if you don't have a penny, you have enormous
resources other than money. This parable is about money,
but I don't think it just excludes everything else in terms of capacities
that God has given. When He ascended on high, He
gave gifts to men. Romans 12 says they are differing
gifts. 1 Corinthians 7 says every man has his gift. 1 Corinthians
12 11 says all these work by one spirit. Romans 12 verse 4
says all members do not have the same office. In Ephesians
4 11 he said he gave some as apostles and prophets. But are you happy? Are you despising
what the potter has done with the clay? Have you rejected the
idea that he works all things after the counsel of his own
will, as the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 1.11? Do you reject the idea in Revelation
4 that for your pleasure they are created? God has created
everything for his own pleasure. Everything. Even the littlest
to the greatest. Third application. Nothing we
have is our own. You are not your own. You are
bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God. in your body. It's not your life. It's not
your time. It's not your tongue. It's not your mind. It's not
your business. It's not your house. It's not
your car. God gave it to you for a time, for one purpose,
and that's to multiply spiritual fruit. To live is Christ. Number
four, the amount you have is not what's
important, but what you have is important. This parable has
nothing to do with the amount given necessarily. But it's what
was done with the amount given, you know, you can you can get
into all these discussions about tithing and, you know, is it
is it 10 percent? Is it law? Is it grace? Is it
gross? Is it net? Forget all that. Forget
all that stuff. What's important is what have
you been given? And does it all belong to Him? Are you a steward
of absolutely every bit of it? Or are you fixated on some number? It's more than a number. The
number is meant to speak to your heart. The truth is, if you want the
spirit of the law, the spirit of law is always greater than what
the law demands literally by the letter. It's always greater.
People who want the spirit of the law want something far, far
greater than the letter. Number five, money is a test.
Money is a test. We're all being tested by the
money we've been given. Luke 16.10 says, He who is faithful
in what is least is faithful also in much. He who is unjust
in what is least is also unjust in much. And then the Lord speaks
about being faithful with unrighteousness. So, money is a test. We're all
being tested. Every single person in this room
is being tested today. Number six. I want to direct this to young
men particularly. Pay attention, young men. Are you ready for
Him to return? Are you like Josiah, the boy
who ushered in a revival in the land? Are you like Joshua, the
young man who assisted Moses? Are you like Joseph, the boy
who proved faithful, whether he's in prison or in the palace? Are you like Solomon, the boy
who prioritized wisdom over everything else? What you do with your boyhood. What you do with that talent
you've been given. Don't despise your youth. This is not just
for adults. This is for every young boy and
every young girl. The previous parable was about
young girls. The Lord Jesus is saying every person should pay
attention here with what they have been given. Fathers, attention
fathers, a Christian father is wise to help. his whole family
to understand every way possible to use every resource they have
for the Kingdom of Heaven. This is why God gives fathers
to children and husbands to wives, so that they as a family would
not waste the resources that they've been given. That they
would have someone coming alongside to help called a father who would
come and help them focus their time and their energy and their
resources. Are you doing that, Dads? Are
you doing that? Do you see yourselves as an executor of the will of
your Father in heaven? And you're deploying his resources
and you're carefully measuring out the energy and the money
that you've been given from heaven. Mothers, your sphere may be small,
but it's a very public and very long term sphere. And there's something in here
for mothers with little children especially. How many mothers
do we have with little children? A whole bunch. There are actually
more little children there than there are old people in this
room right now. Here's what I want to tell you.
Are you ready? Please write this down. The narrowness of your sphere
of influence is not a narrowness of reward. The narrowness of
your sphere of influence is not a narrowness of reward or significance. The narrowness of your sphere
of influence is not narrowness of reward or significance. Because
you've been given something. You've been given a baby. You've
been given a household. You've been given a husband.
You've been given much. And the leverage that you have
in this world is enormous as a young mama. And to take that resource that
you've been given as a gift from heaven is such a precious thing. And it's such a hard thing. But
recognize the narrowness of your sphere is not a narrowness of
reward or significance. I want to give you a quick method
of evaluation by illustration. A calculator, number one. A calculator,
a mirror, a friend, a checkbook and a calendar. Check those out. A calculator, your assets. What responsibilities have you
been given? What resources have you been given? What's in your
hands? A mirror. Self-inventory. Search me, O
God, and know my heart. Try me and know my ways. A friend. Someone who speaks the truth
in love. Maybe it's your wife. Maybe it's your husband who can
help you figure out whether you can better use the resources
that you've been given. How many wives have been speaking to their
husbands about the use of resources? a checkbook where your heart
is, a calendar, what you do. All those things can tell a lot
about your investments. Next, everyone should ask why
he was born. Everyone in this room should
be asking, why was I born? And the question is answered
in this parable here for a particular purpose. To look to what has
been entrusted to you and then to honor the Lord with your wealth
and multiply it. Okay, I want to just take a step
back for a moment from this parable. Now, this parable was spoken
in an enormously significant and dramatic moment in the life
of Jesus Christ. Really, just before what is the
central moment in the history of the world. Our Lord has come
into the world. He's preaching that the Kingdom
of Heaven is at hand. He's come to give His life as
a ransom for many. He's come to call to repentance
to bring many sons to glory. That's why He came. And now He's
right at the very end in just the last final hours of His mission. He's been healing the sick. He's
been raising the dead. He's been casting out demons.
He's been calming the storms. He's set His face toward the
cross. And He's teaching His disciples
right now how to understand themselves and how to shepherd His people.
And he's creating a new society of sons and daughters that will
go out throughout all the earth. And he's only hours from his
crucifixion. And he's telling his disciples
something really important, and that is that there are two fixed
dates that they must understand. And the first date is his resurrection. And the second date is his judgment. And in between those two dates
is what he's talking about, what you do in between those times. And he's speaking to them and
to every person who's ever lived that there are these two dates,
the time when the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven and
through the heavens and sat on his father's right hand, ruling
and interceding from heaven for his people who are on the earth,
who are waiting, who are like those virgins waiting for the
bridegroom to come, waiting for the investor to come back to
greet him and show him with excitement what they've done. We are between
these two dates in history. And we live all of our lives
between those two dates. And we look back to one date
and we look forward to the other. And everything that we do in
this life ought to have those two dates looming large in our
lives so that whether we are eating or drinking, whether you're
marrying or giving in marriage, whether we're preparing our households
for the fief, or we are exercising our duties as governors of some
kind, or whether we've been given investments, or whether we're
preparing for something to happen significant. Whatever it is,
that our eyes are fixed on Jesus, the author and the perfecter
of our faith. That in every conversation, that in every business transaction,
that we're ready. We're ready, like those five
virgins, we're ready even in our sleep. We're ready to just
be awoken and the bridegroom comes. Ready in your sleep. Ready when you're drinking. Ready
when you're planning. Ready at all times. Let me just
say this. There's no sweeter thing in life
than to have a sense of readiness in the common moments of life.
Like right now. Like right now. Here we are,
sitting here before God. And we're either ready or we're
not ready. We either believe that He has
a river of delights or He's hard and He's a taskmaster. And now
you know who you really are by that measure. But recognize you
saints who love the Lord in your hearts. What a sweet thing it
is. Multiply the treasures that you've been given. Taste the
sweetness of the knowledge of His coming. Remember Him in every
moment. God has brought us to this place
so there would be a church out in the world where the people
would have their eyes lifted to heaven so ready to hear their
Master's voice. So ready, so excited to hear. Enter into the joy of your Master. Would you pray with me? O Lord,
O Lord Jesus, such a good shepherd, such a marvelous light, and bread. We now come
to You as living stones prepared for Your use. Use us up, O Lord. Amen.
The Parable of the Talents
Series Matthew
| Sermon ID | 12113123471 |
| Duration | 1:16:12 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 25:14-30 |
| Language | English |
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