these verses that we read earlier, Luke chapter 19, verses 11 to 27, we have the record given of instruction that the Lord Jesus imparted to his disciples. He imparted that instruction in the form of a parable. We learn that the word of parable occurs several times with regard to the Lord's ministry. Whenever I went to Sunday school as a pupil, I remember the Sunday school teaching telling me, telling us all in the class, that a parable was an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And that's a good way of summing it up. We could say also that it is divine truth. conveyed in an earthly setting. And this is what the Lord was doing here. He was conveying divine truth in an earthly context. And this shows us again the great preacher that the Lord Jesus Christ was, the one in whom is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, And yet he speaks in a language that people can readily understand. And we see that time and time again in the Bible, because when he spoke in word pictures or told stories, at times people took up stones to stone him. Other times we're told, The common people heard him gladly, and others said, Never man spake like this man. So we want to look at this parable that the Lord Jesus has spoken to these disciples, and to all of us for that matter, And we want to look at the parable of the pounds, as it has been called. I want you to notice first of all the motive for it. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ tell the story? Why did he tell this parable? Well, the answer is given if you notice verse 11. in this particular chapter. The Lord Jesus Christ had just been in the home of Scythius. He had wrought a mighty spiritual miracle in that man's life. He converted him. He saved him. He gave him the new birth experience. And the evidence of it was seen in what Zacchaeus was saying to him. But the Lord Jesus Christ said, if you notice verse 11, and as they heard these things, he added. And the things that these disciples heard was in verse 9 and 10, Jesus said unto him, that's Zacchaeus, this day of salvation come to this house, for so much as he also was a son of Abraham. for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. And as they heard these things, he added, and spake this parable." So there's one aspect of the motive, because of what he had been saying to these people, and he who knows the thoughts of all men knew their thoughts. their reaction and response. But there was an added element. Notice what we read in verse 11. As they heard these things, he added, and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem. Jericho was only about fifteen miles from Jerusalem. And the Lord Jesus was heading up there, and The feeling was that he was heading up there to set up his kingdom, and there was anticipation even on the part of the disciples. And they thought that he was going now to the capital because many people all over the land, while some took up stones to stone him, namely the religious leaders, many recognized that the Lord Jesus Christ was more than a mere man, and they were taken by him. the feeling was he was going up to Jerusalem to establish his kingdom. But he was not going to Jerusalem for that reason. He was going for another reason, as the disciples would soon know and as we know. He was going to die on the cross at Calvary to provide eternal redemption for lost sinners. But this is why The Lord Jesus Christ was telling this parable. Notice it again, verse 11, As they heard these things, he added, and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear." There was another element in the motive, not only because of the things that he had spoken, that they heard, that he had come to seek and to save that which was lost, The salvation was not a physical salvation. It was a spiritual salvation. But they recognized, He has got mighty power. We're near to Jerusalem. He's going to set up His kingdom. But the Lord knew. what they were thinking, and that was not why he was going to Jerusalem. And that's why we read here at the end of verse 11, because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear, he said, therefore, and then he began to tell the parable. Now, these disciples were not wrong in expecting the Lord to set up a kingdom. I'll give you reasons for that. Way back in the Old Testament, Jerusalem was a very, very special place. Let me read to you from Psalm 137, these words from the captives of Babylon. You remember they said, by the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept. And they're lamenting their state because they were carried away, captured from Judah to Babylon. But in that Psalm, I want you to notice if you're turning to it, verse 5 and 6. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy, what a place that Jerusalem had in the thinking, in the mentality, in the minds of the Jew. You remember in Matthew 5, the Lord Jesus says, Swear not by heaven or earth, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King." So Jerusalem had a special place. As we have seen, they're near to it. The contrary is a kind of feeling that the Messiah must surely be revealed, the promised Messiah that the Old Testament Scriptures promised, He must be revealed soon now. that was not going to be the case. But still, they were not wrong in expecting it to happen sometime. After the resurrection, in Acts chapter 1, verse 6, the Lord was instructing the disciples, spent a lot of time instructing them. And these disciples said, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said, it's not for you to know the times or seasons that the Lord hath put in his power, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. He did not correct them with regard to the fact that there was going to be a kingdom, but he only corrected them with regard to the time that it would happen. But in this parable, they are being corrected. This is what he was saying. And let me say this, there are times that even as Christians, we need to be corrected. We may have opinions that may not tally with the Scripture. For instance, good Christian people who insist in staying in a modernistic church to try to reform it or to turn it around. Bible says that we've got to come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. So Christians, we need to have our views corrected if they're not tallying with the Word of God. Unconverted people whose opinions are, well, if I do my best, if I help people perform charitable deeds, be a good citizen, or if I become religious, start attending church, that should make me right for heaven." My dear friend, that is contrary to God's Word, and the Lord corrects our views in that when He says, By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So let's leave ourselves open to the Lord to not only have our bodies before Him, but our minds before Him all the time, leave ourselves open to His truth at all times. So that's the motive for the parable, to correct the mistaken view that the kingdom of God was about to be set on time soon in the days of the disciples. But secondly, I want you to notice not only the motive for this parable, but the meaning of it. Now, the meaning of it can be summarized if I bring three words to you. We'll take the words, first of all, one at a time, and then we look at the meaning that way. The first word is company. The meaning of this parable can be seen here by the company that's mentioned. Notice verse 12. He said, therefore, a certain noble man. Now, keep that in mind. A noble man of some great dignity here. Notice verse 13, he called his ten servants. Now keep that in mind. There are servants here. There's a noble man and there are servants. And then the third word is accountability. There's accountability here. And let me explain that to you. This noble man was going into a far country. He was going to secure a kingdom. But this noble man, before he left, he took 10 servants and gave them a pound apiece. Now a pound is not the same as our money, the sterling that we are used to. And it was a fair bit of money in those days, but not overly much. But he gave them that and expected them to do something with it. And then there were these servants who took that. And then there were citizens, if you notice a way down further, verse 14, his citizens hated him and sent a message after him. So keep that in mind, this company of a noble man, of servants, and of the citizens. So we have, first of all, the company. Notice, secondly, the activity. The noble man had to leave his land. to go into another land, called here a far country, to receive a kingdom." Now, that would not have been strange language to the Jew, because they were under the occupation of the Romans, and these Roman leaders who came back and forward, they had to go to Rome itself, and whoever the Caesar was, the Caesar would give them honor. and give them a kingdom of some part of the world. We have it here in this land. If you read Luke chapter 3, you'll find that certain people were apportioned over the whole of the country with big positions of responsibility and privilege. So it wouldn't have been foreign in the thinking of a Jew to know what the Lord Jesus is talking about here. So while this noble man was away to get the kingdom, he said to the servants, I want you now to be active for me whenever I'm away. I want you to occupy till I come. That word occupy means to trade, to do business for me. And he says, I'll be back. So these servants had to be busy for him. There's activity there, and we'll come to that later on. But then there was a third group, these citizens. And these citizens hated the noble man for some reason or another. Notice verse 14, but his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. Now let me go out of biblical history for a moment. I'm not saying that this was in the Lord's mind when he told this story. it would readily have struck a chord with those who heard it, because there was one of these people that was over the land of Israel, Archelaus by name, and he was sent for by Caesar from Rome because he was going to be promoted. But the Jews did not like him, And the Jews, according to Josephus in his record of the times of the Jews then, he said they sent a delegation to Caesar saying, we don't want this man to be over us. If you're going to have people over us, put people that we can work with. But Caesar ignored them, and Archelaus was the ruler over part of Israel. It may be that the Lord had that in mind when he was telling the parable, Maybe not, but it may be that the Jews said, ah, we know of Achilles. We didn't like him, and a delegation was sent. So this parable would have resonance with the disciples and those that were listening to it. But at any rate, the activity was that the Lord the noble man came back again. And that brings me to the third word. We've looked at the company here, we've looked at the activity, and then I want you to see the accountability. We have that in verses 15, right down to the end of the chapter. Now, this accountability, notice verse 15, it came to pass that when he was returned, having received 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." Try to think of the flurry of activity there was here. Whenever these ten servants said, Our master's back, And the messenger came and said, Yes, he wants you all to come into his presence. He wants to find out how you've profited him in his absence, what you've gained for him by your trading. Well, we read of two of them. And the first one came, and the first one said, Well, he said, The pound that you gave me, I have gained ten more pounds. And the nobleman said, that's great, well done. Be thou over 10 cities. Another man came. He said, what have you done? And the servant said, well, your pound that you gave me, I've worked with it. It has gained five pounds. Oh, he says, very good. Be you over five cities. And then there was another servant who came. And what a story he had. He said, you notice the wording. He said in verse 20, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept, and laid up in a napkin. For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man. Thou takest up that thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thy wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I let not down, and reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury, or interest, that is? He said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. So you can see here the activity that the noble man had institute it, activate it, whenever all of the servants who had been given the pounds see how they had worked for him. Now, let me stop here and say that our Lord Jesus Christ is coming back again. This is what this parable is all about, and we'll come to the heart of it just in a moment. And whenever He does come back, we're going to appear before Him, And there's either going to be commendation, we're going to hear the well-done, good, and faithful servant, Enter thou into thy Lord, or else we're going to suffer the Lord's displeasure as what this unfaithful servant suffered. And then for the citizens who sent after him, we don't want this man to rule over us, to reign over us. If you notice the end of verse 27, he said, Bring them hither to me, and slay them before me. And I want to put it to you today, my dear friend, that all of us are going to appear before the Lord. And if we are Christians, we want to make sure that we are among the right group. The Lord Jesus will come back. He says, I will come again. Bible says, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. He's going to come back to this earth. To you who are troubled, he says, rest with us, for the Lord shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. So we want to be sure that whenever this accountability takes place, that we will be able to answer cheerfully, with comfort and with confidence, knowing that we have served the Lord the best we can." So that's the meaning of the passage. The meaning of the passage is that he's saying I'm going away to secure the kingdom. I'm going to heaven. I'll be away for some time, but I'm coming back again. In the meantime, I'm giving you these pounds to trade with. There's going to be this time of accountability, and I want to see what you'll have done for me." So that's the meaning of the parable. We've looked at the motive for it and the meaning of it. I want you to notice lastly the message of this parable. I want you to notice that little phrase at the end of verse 13, occupy till I come. Now, there's plenty of teaching in this parable, and we've looked at some of it briefly, but this is the whole burden of the parable. He says, in effect to the disciples, the kingdom will not be set up immediately. Much has got to happen before that. And he says, I'll be going away from you. But I will be back again. But in the meantime, I want you to be serving me while I'm away. And my dear friend, this is what the Lord wants us to do during this time whenever he's away from us. And before he comes back again, he wants us to be involved in Christian service for him. You remember what he said in Matthew 5? He said, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Your light shining before men is going to occur whenever we are given to good works as Christians. Paul writing to the Ephesians, and I quote it from part of the Weave section earlier, whenever he said that, By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, as any man should boast. But he went on to say, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before ordained that we should walk in them. That's what God wants us to do. And whenever Paul was writing to Titus, he said, be zealous of good works. Be careful to maintain good works. And whenever James was showing the importance of good works, he used two Old Testament characters to illustrate the reality of the faith of the professors. He used Abraham, and he used Rahab. And he said, in each instance, their faith was evidenced. The reality of their faith was evidenced by their works. And so, my dear friend, what the Lord is saying to us today is, Occupy, trade, do business for me while I'm away, because I'm coming back. Now, very quickly, I want you to notice four things about this message, and we will be quick. First of all, there's a requirement that is stated, Occupy till I come. And that word, as we've seen, means to work for him. There's gain that the Lord wants here. He sent for these people to see what they had gained by their trading. The unfaithful servant who put his pound in a napkin and didn't put it out into circulation, the man said, well, you could have put it in the bank, or what was the equivalent of the bank, and you would have got me some money with interest. But you never bothered, you were so indolent. So the Lord Jesus Christ requires that we would work for him. We do not want to be the unprofitable servants that he spoke of a couple of chapters back in Luke. He wants fruit from our lives. He said in John 15, You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you Go forth and bring fruit, fruit that should remain. I want fruit from you," he is saying. So there's the requirement that is stated here. You remember in a previous parable here in Luke chapter 13, there was a fig tree that was barren. And the man who owned the ground and the fig tree, he came looking for fruit, And there was no fruit year after year. And he said to the vinedresser, he said, I come three years here looking for fruit and find none. And the vinedresser says, let alone this year also. Give me an opportunity to dig about it and dung it and to fertilize it. If it doesn't bring forth fruit, well. But the point that I'm making is, and I want you to see is, that husband man or that man wanted fruit from that fig tree. In Mark chapter 12, the Lord told the story, and there was spiritual application to it with regard to the Jews, about a man who owned a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen to work it so that he would have the profits of it. The point is, the Lord requires that we be involved in His work in such a way that it will bring glory to Him. The first thing. I want you to notice the equipment that he provided. Not only was the requirements stated, but the equipment provided. He didn't let them go out and trade with their own resources. He gave them the money. God wants us to work for him, but he's not expecting us to do it of our own abilities and skills. He has provided resources for us. The Word of God. What a resource that is to go out and serve the Lord with God's Word. The power of the Holy Spirit. What a resource that is. The presence of the Lord Jesus Christ working with us. You remember at the end of Mark it says that the disciples went everywhere. The Lord working with them. And whenever you and I go out to occupy till he comes, to serve till he comes, The Lord's presence is with us. What a resource! And in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 and Ephesians 4, we learn of the gifts that he gives individual people—people call them talents and skills—gifts that he fits them for certain types of work that he appoints them to. We don't go on warfaring at our own charges, brethren and sisters. He gives us the equipment. And then thirdly, there's not only the requirement that is stated and the equipment that is provided, there's the assessment that is undertaken. And we looked a little bit at that. We saw the fruitfulness of some, and then the failure of the other. Let's notice this failure. Go to verse 20 in this parable and see what happens when the Lord interviews this man. Another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have laid up on a napkin, for I feared thee, because thou art an austere man. Thou takest up that thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. He had unkind thoughts of the noble man. He had an opinion that was flawed of the noble man. His thoughts of the noble man was not right. And men and women, you and I should not have harsh thoughts of God. And it's quite possible to develop them whenever God doesn't answer our prayers the way we want or in the time that we want. Or if God lets trials come to us that are hard to bear, we begin to gripe and say, Lord, you're dealing hardly with me. We ought not to let those thoughts come into our mind. The Lord is our Father. You take our fathers, how loving and kind. As a rule, I know that there have been exceptions, and people have suffered at the hands of fathers indescribably. But generally, a father is one who gives security in the home, provides for the home. But what about our loving heavenly Father? What an earthly Father who we esteem and whose memory we cherish, Could they be any better than our loving Heavenly Father? How could our loving Heavenly Father treat us meanly? This servant was wrong in his thinking. He had failed abysmally here, and so he was rebuked for that. And verse 22, the nobleman said, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was not a steerman, taking up what I let not down, and reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore then, in the light of all of this, why, if you didn't want to trade with them the money, why did you not put it where it could have gained some interest? And so this man was severely censured and condemned for this. Oh, the assessment. Men and women, let us not be unfaithful servants. How many people here are born-again believers, but they never come to pray in a prayer meeting? They never put their shadow across the door. How many have stopped coming on a Sunday night and are joining the crowd that do not remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy? How many have stopped reading the Bible? How many have stopped soul winning and trying to get people saved? Are you pictured by this unfaithful servant here? Well, then, when the noble man comes back, be prepared for the assessment that it doesn't go ill with you. The requirement that this message states, the equipment that it provides, the assessment that it undertakes, and then lastly, the commitment it stresses. Notice the wording, occupy till I come. Some people grow cold in the Lord's work, and here's how they try to justify it, excuse it. Well, I've done my bit. They seem to be possessed of this notion that you've only got to do a bit. in the Lord's service. The Lord Jesus said, I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work. That night hasn't come yet, friend. There's no call to come in from the fields and wash up and clean and sit down at the table yet. I do not hear the sound of retreat from the trumpeter and the regiment and the army. We've got to stick at it. Occupy till I come. Now, if the commitment is lapsed, would you not renew that today? Would you not become rededicated to the Lord, remembering the words of Paul to the Corinthians, to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord? For as much as ye know, your labor is not in vain in the Lord. The Lord promises reward for those who faithfully serve him that those men gained who had five cities and ten cities donated to them. The Lord is no man's debtor, and He will abundantly reward us as He teaches time and time again in His Word. What a message then, a message of Christian service for the Master. What a prospect of being rewarded for the service that we render to Him. This is a message, ladies and gentlemen, that requires a response. response in the light of us being divinely assessed one day at the return of Christ, let us be sure that our response is the right one, because be assured, we will have all eternity to reflect on what our response was.