Yesterday we talked a little about wholeheartedness in service and the motive for service. Today I would like to speak a little about what God has given us for service and how we are to use it.
First of all I would like to read one verse in Mark 13:3434For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. (Mark 13:34): “For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to every man his work and commanded the porter to watch.”
Before we get into the scriptures I had before me, I just want to make a comment on these two verses. First the Word of God tells us very clearly that God gave to every man his work. That word “man” is a general term which includes the sisters as well. We sometimes get to thinking that the Lord has not given us anything to do. We look at others who are being used of the Lord, others who possibly have more ability and more gift than we do, sometimes more devotedness, and the devil will say to you, “You are nothing — you don't amount to anything — you can't do anything — don't worry about that sort of thing.” No, the Lord said these words Himself, that the Son of Man is as a man who left his house (that's his house down here), went away to a far country, gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work. So there is something for each one of us to do, and no one can do it as well as we can.
God has given you a work to do. You say “ME?. Yes, you! And no one in this world can do that work as well as you can do it. If you don't do it, God may pick up somebody else and get them to do it, but he or she won't do it as well as you could.
Then this other verse in John 15 says, “Without Me you ye can do nothing.” That goes back to what we had before us yesterday. I can remember reading a passage in some of our written ministry which really struck me. It said, “Men of God, who go forth to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, go forth from a place of strength where they have learned their own nothingness.” To me those two scriptures are a beautiful balance because on the one hand there is the problem of the Devil discouraging you or me and saying “You can't do anything for the Lord, you just don't have it... others may, but you don't.” That is thoroughly wrong. On the other side there is the tendency to get lifted up in pride and think the Lord is using us in some way and we have to be reminded that without Him we can do nothing.
I can remember our dear brother Eric Smith whom some of you may have met. He is still alive, although he doesn't get around very much. I remember his telling us that in those early days in the country of Bolivia in South America, he had a consuming desire to preach the gospel to those Inca Indians. The Lord really has blessed his labors there because there are upwards of 70 or 80 assemblies now in that country, as I understand it. But in those early days things were not going very well and at one point in his life he told me he got discouraged about it. He sat there in his little hut (and that's what he called it, perhaps it was a notch or two above that) and got before the Lord about it. It almost seemed that the Lord was saying to him, “Eric, whose work is this?” And he bowed his head and said, “Well, it is Thine, Lord Jesus.” “And whose power is it to carry it out?” “Well, it is Thine, Lord Jesus.” “And whose glory is it?” “It is Thine, Lord Jesus.” He said from that point on the work seemed to start to go ahead. Why? Because he realized that he in himself was nothing. The Lord had to be everything. If you and I try to make anything of ourselves, the Lord cannot use us in service in the way that he should be able to. He must have all the glory. And that is why you often see seemingly insignificant things that the Lord is using for His honor and glory.
I can remember a story of a well-known preacher who preached the gospel. This is quite a few years ago now. It was in a big hall and there was a large crowd. After the meeting a well-dressed man came up to the preacher, obviously well educated and with a good position in this world. He shook hands with the preacher and said, “Sir I want you to know that tonight I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour.” The preacher glowed all over, as any one of us would, and he said, “Tell me, what was it in particular that I said tonight that the Lord used to bring you to Christ?” Well, I don't know if anyone here has had the experience, but the man looked at the preacher and said, “Sir, no offense to your good preaching, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't anything you said at all. When I was on my way into this room, I was a little bit late, and as I was coming up the steps there was a woman in front of me, an older woman, and on the way up she happened to miss a step and stumbled and fell down. Her purse dropped and things spilled out of it, so I helped her up and helped her collect her belongings and put them back in her bag again. As she was getting up and rearranging herself, she looked up at me and said, 'I thank you, Sir. I thank you! And does you know my blessed Jesus'?” She was an uneducated woman, and didn't know very much, but she knew the Savior. He said, “That's what the Lord used to bring me to Christ.” Well, the Lord got the glory out of that. That poor woman probably never knew that her remark brought a soul to Christ and it doesn't detract at all from the value of a good gospel meeting. The point is, God uses those who are willing to be used by Him and forget about themselves.
Now I want to read two passages in the Word of God today and they are a little bit lengthy. I can't cut them short, so let's turn to Matthew 25:1414For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. (Matthew 25:14). Perhaps this is well known to many of you. It is the parable of the talents: “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, “Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”
Then he which had received the one talent came and said, “Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou has that is thine.”
His lord answered and said unto him, “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Now before we comment on this, please turn over to Luke 19, because it is rather to contrast the two accounts that we want this morning. Here we have a very similar account, but notice the difference. Luke 19:1111And 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. (Luke 19:11). Here we have the parable of the pounds. “And 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. He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And 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. Then came the first, saying, “Lord thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto them, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid 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? And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.”
Again I am going to make just a few comments on these passages, because it is better to get a few things stamped on our hearts and consciences, than to try and get too many at one time.
These two parables overlap. There are some things that are said in one that are said in the other, and I believe both of them bring before us the character of what God is doing with you and me in service while the Lord Jesus Christ is absent. In both cases He has gone away, in both cases He is going to return, in both cases He gives something to His servants in order that they might use it while He is away. The difference is this: in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, it is the sovereignty of God in doing what He wishes with His own. In Luke 19 it is man's responsibility in using what God has given him. I hope that is clear. Matthew 25, the parable of the talents is God's sovereignty in doing what He wishes with that which is His own. In Luke 19 it is your responsibility and mine as to what we do with what God has given us.
In the parable of the talents, everybody did not get the same. One got five, one got two and one got only one. God doesn't have to give every one of us the same thing. I don't want to be misunderstood. God has no favorites in His family. God loves and blesses all His children equally. Never entertain the thought that the Lord loves another Christian more than he loves you. Some of us may not enjoy that love as much as another Christian — that's another thing, but God's love is equal to all His children. When it comes to God using His own in service for Him He does not give everyone the same gift. I don't suppose there is anyone here who would try to say “I have the kind of gift the Apostle Paul had,” because God chose him and the other twelve to be apostles and you and I aren't apostles in that sense. We can't be — God hasn't chosen us for that. God may have given someone the gift of being a teacher, but He may not have given that to you and to me. God may give someone the gift of an outstanding evangelist but He may not have given you and me that gift. So God is pleased to give different talents to different ones and the whole point is, when it came time to reckon with the servants the reward was not according to how much they had, but what they did with what they were given. The man that had five talents, gained another five. The man that had two though, didn't gain five, he gained two. If we could use a little simple math, the first one doubled what he was given. So did the second one and the reward was the same. “Well done thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” The highest reward in glory will be to enter into the joy of that blessed One.
Do you get tired down here sometimes in serving the Lord? I hope I don't get tired of His work, but I trust that I do get tired in His work. When we get up there, the rest is really not from the troubles and difficulties of the way down here, although that is true, but it is primarily the rest from working for the Lord down here, and there is not much time left. That is the time to rest — up there, not down here. This is not the place to rest. I don't mean that we don't get an opportunity like this to come apart from the world and rest a while. But this is the time to work. Never forget that. Don't look for an easy pathway down here if you want to serve the Lord. The man that had five talents didn't get another five talents by sitting and relaxing all the time. He had to be in communion with the Lord, but he had to work. He maybe had to put up with hardships, he maybe had to put up with persecution, he maybe had some rough times — it probably wasn't easy. And any of you that want to get anywhere in the things of the Lord and serve the Lord are going to find that it is not an easy pathway, but it is a happy one.
So the point I want to make is, the reward was the same. You and I have just as much potential to get a reward as the Apostle Paul did, or J. N. Darby, or Hudson Taylor, or any others — people who have been outstanding in their time for the Lord. I say again, the Apostle Paul had no more potential to get a greater reward than you will get simply because of the outstanding gifts God gave them, because God does not reward according to gift. He rewards you for doing what He has given you to do according to the ability that He gives you to do it.
Has God put you in a place where nobody else notices? That's good, perhaps, because there is not the same tendency to get proud about it.
Then we come to the parable of the pounds. There you notice the difference. There everybody got the same. Ten servants, ten pounds — each one got a pound. Ten in Scripture brings before us man's responsibility and when it comes to your responsibility and mine, we are all on the same level. When it comes to God's giving a gift, God may give more to one than to another and if God has a great work for you to do, He will give you what is needed to do it. The Apostle Paul could not have done what he did without the kind of gift that God gave him to do it. So God gives according to what you need. But when it comes to responsibility, we are looked upon as being all on the same level. They all got one pound and then it was a question, “What did they do with it?” One man took it and got ten times as much as what he had before. He had one pound to start and ended up with ten. Another had one and ended up with five, and the reward was not the same, was it? Why? Because there was more diligence, more faithfulness, more devotedness to Christ, I believe, in the life of the one who had ten pounds at the end than the one who had five. So when it came to reward there, the reward was commensurate with the faithfulness. To the one who had ten pounds, the Lord said, “Be thou over ten cities.” To the one who had five, he said, “Be thou over five cities.”
What does that mean, you say? God never gives us rewards as the motive for service. The only motive for service, as we had yesterday, is love for Christ. God gives us rewards as an encouragement. Just imagine if the Lord gives you and me the ability to serve him and then says, “I'm going to reward you at the end of the pathway for doing what I have given you all the ways and means of doing!” Isn't that blessed! We recognize that it all comes from Him and then He is going to reward us. So, when the Lord receives His kingdom, as we read in Luke 19, He is going to give you and me positions in that kingdom. It says, “Unto angels has He not put in subjection the world to come,” (which is the millennial age), He has put it in subjection to Christ who is going to use you and me. That is why the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that ye shall judge angels?” You and I may shrink from that today, but it is going to be a wonderful thing in the coming day when God is going to manifest everything and He is going to reward faithfulness.
Are you misunderstood down here in trying to live for the Lord? Never mind, the Lord is going to see to it that it all comes out in that day. Are you trying to do something for the Lord and you get nothing but kicks and knocks for it? Never mind, the Lord will straighten it all out in that day. Are you finding that you are in the backside and nobody pays any attention to what you are doing? Nobody notices, and maybe you perhaps feel that nobody cares. Never mind, the Lord is noticing. He will manifest it in that day. We don't look for that as a motive for service because rewards are not the reason that we serve the Lord, but won't it be a wonderful thing in that day for the Lord to say, “You did something for Me down there. Nobody else noticed. You worked hard when you didn't get much praise down on the earth for it, but now I will give you authority, perhaps over ten cities.” Well, we sing that hymn together, “It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus. Life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ. One glimpse of His dear face all sorrow will erase”... isn't that blessed!
Those are the thoughts that I want to leave with you. Read these two passages again for yourself. Remember, the one is what God gives, and God is pleased to do what He will. I've heard Christians complain because they didn't get more. They say, “If I only had this or that or the other thing.” Many years ago an old brother who is now with the Lord, tended to be pretty blunt (which wasn't all bad), but one time a sister said to him something like this: “Oh, don't I wish I had a lot of money. What a lot of good I would do with it.” I guess he pulled her up pretty short. He said, “Sister, no you wouldn't, or the Lord would give it to you.”
The point is, never get upset with what the Lord has given you. He knows what we are capable of using. Has He given you a lot of money? Use it for Him. Has He not given you much money? Alright, use that for Him. Use what you have. Maybe He will give you more. The people that end up as treasurers of companies, don't start off there. They have to learn how to manage money before they get to that place, and God doesn't always put us in the limelight right away. Moses had to spend 40 years in the backside of the desert before he could lead the children of Israel.
I want to make a comment about the man who had one talent, then one pound. This makes me feel very sad, because here was the man who had one talent, and what did he do with it? It says he went and hid it in the earth. The man who had one pound didn't quite do that. He wrapped it up in a napkin and put it away somewhere. I don't want to press the point, but I suggest this application to you. In one sense, every individual born into this world has a talent, although primarily I believe what is referred to is what the Lord gives to His own. But I believe, in one sense, what we have in Matthew 25 brings in unbelievers as well, and there may be some unbelievers sitting in this room today. Why are you here on this earth? Do you know why? Why did God put you here? One woman who was a nurse, with whom I used to work at the hospital said, “We are not here for a long time, but just to have a good time.” That was her philosophy of life. No. The reason you are here is found in Revelation and I would like to read the scripture. Revelation 4:1111Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:11): “Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
Whether you are saved or not saved, you are included in this verse. In fact, everything has been created for God's pleasure, whether it is the nice flowers, or whether it is the animals, the fish in the sea, the beautiful mountains, God enjoys it all. We were commenting on a piece of poetry that some of you may recognize from Gray's elegy in a country churchyard, “Full many a flower born to blush unseen and waste its fragrance on the desert air.” An old brother used to say, “Good poetry, but not true.” Every beautiful flower the Lord created for His pleasure. Even if you and I never see it, He enjoys it. He looks down on you and me, and we are created for His pleasure. Is there someone here that is not saved that is hiding his or her talent in the earth? That means the horizon of your thoughts is nothing more than this world. Instead of using what you have for God's pleasure, you are using it for your own pleasure.
You notice the end of that passage. It is very very solemn. What do we read in Matthew 25:3030And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:30), “Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” What an awful thought, that someone in this room may be headed for that. I say again, you have been put here with something to use for the Lord, but it starts with owning yourself as a sinner before God and accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and His precious blood to wash away your sins.
But in Luke 19, I suggest to you that the thought is a little different. I suggest to you that the emphasis is primarily on a believer. I wonder if there are believers here who are hiding their pound in a napkin. We live in the most favored lands in this world, but I often think it is more difficult to live for the Lord in a place where there is prosperity, than in persecution.
Within the last year or two, a worldly man who didn't understand the ways of God said to one of the Christians (he was visiting in China and they still undergo even at this point in time, a lot of persecution for the name of Christ), “If God really loves the Christians in China so much, why does He allow them to go on year after year with so much persecution?” The man from China gave him an answer that I think was priceless. He said, “You tell me this. If God really loves the Christians in North America, why does He allow them to go on year after year ruined by materialism?” There wasn't any answer to that one. The fires of persecution are better for us than the relaxation of prosperity, but just as God gives us strength to stand for Him against persecution, He will give you and me the strength to use our pound for Him and not to hide it in a napkin.
I talk to young people, people my own age, and older people — I talk to them sometimes about a lot of things — about their work, and careers, and how they are enjoying things, how perhaps they are building a home, saving money for this, the nice vacation they had, and all the things we naturally enjoy doing. I sometimes talk to young people and I think, my, what privileges you have compared to what some of us had, to be able to travel around here and there and to go to general meetings, what privileges we have to enjoy one another's company, what opportunities we have to get good jobs and get ahead in this world. We have to ask ourselves, What is the bottom line? What is it going to look like when we come to stand before the master and he says, “What did you do with what I gave you?” Because whether I had a good job and made $100,000 a year, isn't going to matter at the judgment seat of Christ. Whether I had a nice home isn't going to matter at the judgment seat of Christ. Whether I traveled a lot and saw a lot of this world isn't going to matter at the judgment seat of Christ. Whether I did a lot of things to please myself, isn't going to matter, but what is going to matter is “What did you do with what I gave you?”
I don't want to be someone with one talent that hid it in a napkin and the Lord has to say “Sorry, Bill.” I don't think there is going to be anyone in heaven that doesn't get some reward, and that's a real comfort. There is no such thing as a real believer that doesn't get some reward. But isn't it going to be a sad thing if you and I have to stand before the Lord in a coming day and say, “Oh, I wasted my time.” I think I have wasted a lot of time in my life. I look back on it. I don't know if there are others here my age who would say the same, but I would give a lot to sit where you sit today and have the last 20 or 25 years over again. I guess we all feel that way. But you are in your prime. I don't know how long we are going to stay here. You have the potential with the Lord's help to live for Him.
One more point — Why was it that the servants did not use the one talent or the one pound? What was the problem? They had wrong thoughts of God. The one who had the one talent and the one who had the one pound said almost exactly the same thing. They said, “We know that you are an austere man” (someone that is hard and unyielding). They said He asked for something when He didn't give it. The Lord never does that. He never asks us to serve Him without first giving us all the supplies.
Someone yesterday needed to go to Shingletown to pick up some supplies. Wally was there with his wallet open and said, “How much do you need? Do you need $50 — well here's $100, just so you have enough.” Why? Because he didn't want them to run short. That is what the Lord does. If He gives us something to do, He doesn't say, “Well you go and use your own money and when you come back I'll make it up to you.” Oh, no. The Lord gives us everything. But the reason they didn't do anything with what they had is that they had wrong thoughts of God. They didn't understand the love of God. The unbeliever doesn't come to Christ because he doesn't understand His heart of love, but it is striking to me that the same thing can happen to a believer. You and I can get so far from the Lord that we look upon the Lord as an austere man, reaping where He has not sowed and gathering where He has not strawed. So we say, “I'm afraid. I can't do anything.” You say, “I would never talk like that.” I've talked to people, dear Christians, whom I knew to be real believers who have talked like that and I have known a lot more who have admitted privately that they thought like that only they wouldn't say so. They were upset. They didn't think the Lord was fair (if I might use that expression). Where do we get that idea? It is because we are at a distance. We are too far away from the magnet. We need to get back, as we had yesterday and enjoy His love for us. Are you lost and don't know Christ as Savior? Read Matthew 27 and John 19, Luke 22 and see how much He loves you. Are you afraid to serve the Lord? Are you hiding your talent in the earth and your pound in a napkin? You need to get back to the Lord and realize that even if He has only given you one pound or talent, you can have just as great a reward as the one who got five or two talents, because God will not reward according to what you don't have, but according to what He has given you.
May God stir up each one of our hearts — to recognize what He has given us. Have I got five talents? Have I got two talents or one talent? Whatever it is, recognize it and ask the Lord what He would have you to do. We will get into that more tomorrow, but also do not have wrong thoughts of God. Do not bury your talent in the earth, but say as the Apostle Paul said on the road to Damascus, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”