In this section of this discourse beginning, as we have already observed, at verse 45 of the previous chapter, it is very noticeable that there is nothing about Jerusalem or Judea. I mention this because it confirms what has been said about it, that it takes up with the Christian during the Lord's absence, whilst later in verse 31 we have before us “all the nations,” and their treatment of the Gentiles—Jewish messengers of the gospel of the kingdom after this present period has run its course. I refer to the reception accorded to those who are here called His “brethren.” Their gospel would be in connection with God as Creator and Judge, and those that fear God are manifested in their treatment of the messengers.
There are two Old Testament scriptures that bring this before us very definitely. In Israel's tribulation in Egypt, the two mid-wives feared God, and regarded not the king's edict. So in Ahab's time, during the tribulation of the three and half years' drought, Obadiah feared God exceedingly and fed the prophets of Jehovah by fifty in a cave.
Well, coming back to our subject, we have in these verses (14-30), those left in responsibility during the Lord's absence; and the One who is sovereign and infinitely wise, gives to one five, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his several ability; and straightway takes his journey. The servants were responsible to make a right use of what was committed to them. The one that had five trafficked with them and made double; and the one that had two did the same. They knew their Master, they knew His love and. His goodness; the one that so terribly failed did not know Him, but misjudged Him. Love is the motive power. There are contrasts between this and Luke 19. It is wonderful the blessing here presented, to which they are introduced, not only kingdom rule, but “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” It is more the sovereignty of God which comes out in our Gospel. The Lord knows what to commit and it is according to one's several ability, for we are not all alike as to this—to each one. Intelligence here is supposed, if they have proper knowledge of their Master and of His character. We are besought in Romans 12 “by the mercies of God” —grace is so different to law—to present our bodies, a living sacrifice, etc. Nothing short of this is becoming for us, but then if we know the love of Christ, His love constrains us to live, not to ourselves, but to Him. It is a poor thing to be aiming at rewards. They are given as encouragements, but not as a motive. The motive should be the love of Christ. Love only wants opportunity to serve. I suppose “the mercies” are what are found in the epistle, up to the end of the 8th chapter. But in view also of the wonderful wisdom, and ways of God as brought out in chap. 9-11. Wondrous mercies indeed! When we think of the fearful immoral state of the Gentiles in chap. 1, and then where we by grace are now brought, what a paramount call to us to present our bodies a living sacrifice!
With these servants it was the one who had the least responsibility that failed. Has not this a voice for us? There is a greater temptation to be lax when one has little, than when one has much! This one who had the one talent and did not know his master evidently was a lost soul, shut out from all blessedness. Then what is this one talent? How can one have a talent from God do you say and yet be lost? For John 10 is so clear and speaks of our security most blessedly. But if the talent is light, that may be possessed by one without life, as we see from Heb. 6 It is possible for one to share in all the outward privileges of even the assembly, and yet—not having life—be lost! Here they are “servants,” but not every one who is a servant has “life.” Had Judas life? It shows how far a person may go in service when they can say, “In Thy Name we have cast out demons, and in Thy Name have done many wonderful works,” but what says the Master? “I never knew you!” They had not apostatized. He never knew them. That verse in Hebrews refers to the apostolic age, because it speaks of the “powers of the age to come.” What the Lord did in works of mercy, these are samples of what He will do in the millennium. In the plenitude of His grace He healed them all, and do we not sing-
“He'll give these bodies vile,
A fashion like His own;
He'll bid the whole creation smile,
And hush its groan.”
Those who try to prove from Heb. 6 that a Christian can be lost, fail to understand the passage rightly, because it is impossible for the one there to be renewed; so this upsets their theory entirely. It contemplates the case of a Jew being baptized, etc., and then going back to Judaism.
We should never think ourselves “good and faithful.” The Lord has told us what to think of ourselves in Luke 17. How many times shall I forgive my brother? That is the point. It is an awful thing to stumble one of the Lord's little ones. So, “take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.” The apostles saw that that presented a very great difficulty, to persevere in that course. So they said unto the Lord, “Increase our faith,” the Lord said, “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this Sycamore tree, be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you.” That is, whatever difficulty stands in our way of doing it will be removed if there is faith; but if one does so the Lord warns us from thinking of ourselves as anything but “unprofitable servants.” If we have done everything, we are to say it! But then we want the Lord's “Well done.” Not he who commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.
In verse 21 there is something more than ruling in the kingdom, what is special, and blessed indeed. 'The one with the two talents was faithful too. It is only a little we can do “over a few things.” “I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” We are going to reign with the Lord Jesus, when the reigning day comes. But as to the special place and portion, we have to wait and see. There are some that have been told beforehand. “Ye which have followed me.... shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” James and John wanted the best place; so did Jonathan in David's days. Poor Jonathan! Yet he did not continue with David. He commenced well indeed, but he went back to the city.
Some Christians have said to me, “There are many things I would like to remember; what are the things behind that we are called to forget?” I think a safe rule is to remember the things that would humble us, and let us forget the things that would puff us up. The difference between the Corinthians and the Hebrews was, that while both were babes the Corinthians were never anything else. The Hebrews, however, had progressed while their leaders were living, but had gone back after their decease, and had become like those that had need of milk; the sad result of bad doctrine through Judaizing teachers.
All our privileges are connected with the Holy Spirit. And there is distinct teaching about the Holy Spirit in every chapter in Ephesians. The Colossians were in danger of losing “the Head,” so they needed to be instructed as to the Christ, and there is only one reference to the Holy Spirit, in the epistle, and that is in chap. 1. In the epistle to the Ephesians, it is what the body is to the Head, the complement of Him that filleth all in all; but in Colossians, what the Head is to the body— “In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him.” That is the difference. We may see the philosophy warned against in this epistle all around us to-day, The one way as seen in Ritualism, another in Seventh-day Adventism, etc. It is a great mercy that, in the wisdom of God, the germs of all these errors were permitted to show themselves before the apostles passed off the scene, that so we might have the revelation of God's mind about them.
Verses 24-30. Out of his own mouth the wicked and slothful servant was condemned. Then you get the principle of verse 29. In Luke 8:1818Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. (Luke 8:18), it is “that which he seemeth to have” “Cast the useless (or unprofitable) bondman into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth.” We don't want to tone that down at all. It is the case of a lost soul, and one eternally lost. There is no one who speaks so definitely, so faithfully, about the eternal state of the wicked as the Lord Himself. Mark 9:4848Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:48), is very solemn and incontrovertible, and he who denies their import denies the word of Him who is the Truth. Reject it you may, but the truth remains. “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” “Their worm” is the conscience of each individual. Man acquired a conscience by the fall, and man will have it forever—it will never die. The so-called “larger hope” is a fiction—a delusion and lie of Satan. So also is “annihilation.” Cremation with the intent to avoid resurrection is the sin of limiting the Holy one of Israel. The God who created man will raise men in the bodies in which they sinned. The Lord said, in John 13, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.” And if a man dies in his sins, he is raised in his sins, and is judged in his sins, not to decide whether he is saved or lost for that is decided here, but to apportion the just punishment to each — to some many stripes to others few; and if a man is judged, in his sins, he is cast into hell in his sins, into that place which, as the close of this chapter tells us, was “prepared for the devil and his angels.” Contrast that with “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!” There is no alternative between the two.
Now we enter in verse 31, on the concluding section of the discourse. What forms the Christian part ends here. In chap. 24:30 we read, “They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory,” and this verse, when the Son of man shall come in His glory, links up with it. We see that those that are found openly in rebellion will be cut off, as by a flash of lightning, and they will be raised again to appear before the “great white throne.” But there is more than that. This is sessional. When He sits upon the throne of His glory, His earthly throne, all the nations will be gathered before Him. Now He is sitting on the Father's throne in heaven. As the Son of man who died and rose again, He will sit on His own throne. In Rev. 3:2121To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3:21), where the Lord is the speaker, it says, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on His throne.” No creature can sit on the Father's throne. He only who is Jehovah's fellow. When He comes from heaven we shall come with Him; all the O.T. Saints as well as the church forming the armies of heaven, Enoch prophesied of this. He was in the secret of the flood as well as of the still future judgment. There is often an anticipatory partial fulfillment of prophecy. Enoch called his son's name Methuselah, which means, “He dies, and it is sent.” Accordingly at his death came the flood.
When the Lord comes, His attendants are sometimes spoken of as the saints, sometimes the, angels, sometimes both. It is here the judgment: of the living nations on the earth. In Acts 10:4242And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. (Acts 10:42), the Lord is called the “judge of living and dead"; here He is seen judging, “the living"; 1000 years later He will judge “the dead,” at the end of the millennium. We have the same expression in 2 Tim. 4:11I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; (2 Timothy 4:1), and 1 Peter 4:55Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. (1 Peter 4:5) tells us He “is ready to judge the living and the dead.” In what sense ready? If a judge has a prisoner before, him, evidence is given on both sides, and he has to weigh that evidence before giving judgment. There is nothing like that with the Lord. He knows everything perfectly, He reads the secrets of the heart, and hence He “is ready” to judge the living and the dead.
As we all know, the Lord Jesus is not yet sitting on His own throne, for it is not yet set upon the earth. Jehovah has said to Him, “Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy, footstool” and as we remarked last week, the Lord says to the Overcomer in Laodicea (Revelation3:21), “To him that overcometh, will I give to, sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his throne.” Now it is clear that the throne which we, as Christians, have to do with now, is the “throne of grace"; but here it is a throne of judgment, and all judgment is committed to the Lord Jesus. Paul told the Athenians that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead,” and, perhaps one of the most definite scriptures to give us light on it is John 5 “The Father judgeth no man” (ver. 22). The Father is a relationship of grace, and where the Father and the Son are spoken of, it is in the activities of grace. “And hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man” (ver. 27). Here he comes as such. Dan. 7 first presents Him there.
This will not be when He comes for the church; not as Son of man does He come for her, He comes as Lord. “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,” etc. Subsequently He comes in His glory. He will not come to the earth when He comes for His saints. We shall meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:1717Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)) then subsequently we shall come with Him. “When Christ Who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with Him in glory.” Here He is seen accompanied by His holy angels. Enoch prophesied of His coming with ten thousands of his saints” but; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-1714For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:14‑17) gives us both comings. Then will be fulfilled that word in John where the Lord says that the glory given Him He has given to the saints.... “and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” The witness of this will be our being seen with Him.
Of course all this is not before us here, but in the other scriptures I have quoted, it is quite plain. In Rev. 19 it is the armies in heaven that accompany the Lord. The Old Testament saints and the church are not there distinguished as they are in the early part of the chapter. The armies take in all the saints up to their glorious appearing.
The wicked living are dealt with; and later, at the end of the thousand years reign, the wicked dead are raised and judged at the great white throne. What we have in Matt. 25 is a sessional, not a summary and final judgment. You get summary judgments in the O.T. as seen in the flood, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha. Those who then perished will be raised again, and so also those slain when the Lord is revealed in flaming fire.
Well then here the Lord Jesus sits on the throne of His glory—a contrast to the flash of the lightning when He comes as in chap. 24. This is an exact discriminating judgment, some placed on His right hand, others on His left. The righteous are spoken of as “sheep,” the unrighteous as, “goats.” We do not get everything in one scripture. To understand this we must turn to other scriptures, but this very Gospel of Matthew shows us that a gospel will have to be preached—not the gospel of “the grace of God,” or the gospel of the “glory of the happy God” —but the “gospel of the kingdom.” The messengers who preach it will be the Jews. Just what characterizes them shows them to be the very ones to take this gospel all over the world in the least possible time. So you get three parties here, the Jews, the Gentiles, and those who preached this gospel. Some there are who think that this gospel of the kingdom is the same as that which is being proclaimed now. But the Lord announces in His commission to the twelve, “ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel until the Son of man be come.”
If we do not discern that there is a break, a timeless, dateless gap, many O.T. scriptures would still appear mysterious to us; for we often find these gaps. There is one, as familiar to us as any, in Luke 4 When the Lord came to Nazareth after His anointing and His temptation, He stood up to read, and turned to Isaiah 66. When He came to the words “to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,” He stopped at a comma, and did not finish the sentence. Had He read further He could not have said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears,” for the day of vengeance was still future. As far as He read, it was all grace, and told of his gracious ministry. Just that comma represents all the present period up to the time of His coming to deal in judgment. The scripture above shows there will be those on the earth after the church is gone who will be in a very similar position to the disciples gathered round the Lord at His first coming as seen in this chapter. They were the remnant then, and there will be a testifying remnant after the church is gone. Then again the Lord is spoken of as King here. He is never spoken of as King of the church. He is “King of glory,” and there is the expression, “King of saints,” but that should be, as we have before remarked, “King of nations;” and He is “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” He is Head of the body. Where the distinctive place of the church is given in Ephesians, He is “head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness,” or complement—that which makes the thing complete—of him that filleth all in all.” It is very precious to see the wondrous place of blessedness of those saved now between Pentecost and the rapture.
So He will address those on His right hand, “Come ye blessed of my Father.” The Lord Jesus spoke of “the Father,” and “my Father”; and after His resurrection (He had said in John 17 “I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it") He sends the message, “I ascend (not, “to our") to my Father, and your Father.” There is a very pointed guard there. So they are blessed of His Father here. Not a word of any being raised, not a syllable. It is exclusively of living men on the earth. Whereas at the great white throne there are no living men who had not died, but the dead now raised for their final doom—raised in the very bodies in which on earth they sinned, now to hear the sentence of eternal banishment from His presence.
Those spoken of here need to be instructed, and we cannot imagine that when we are in glorified bodies, and we know as we are known, that we shall need instructions as these do here. The church is not the subject of “times and seasons,” but in God's ways fills up the interlude, as already pointed out being chosen in Christ before, the foundation of the world. The Lord's reign will be over the earth, and those blessed here will be living men on the earth who enter into millennial blessedness. They will not be in changed bodies or raised men. There will be some who have lived at the same time as these but who will have a place of blessing in advance of these, such as the Apocalyptic martyrs. Therefore, “blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth,” for it will be better to have past in the heavenly department. All who have part in the first resurrection will have part in the coming kingdom.
Those judged here will be dealt with according to the way they dealt with the messengers. You get an illustration in the O.T. which may help us to understand this. Jacob's time of trouble was fore-shadowed in the trials they had in Egypt, and when Pharaoh sought to destroy all the male children; but Shiphrah and Puah “feared God and saved the men children alive.” God remembered that and built them houses. Then again in Ahab's time when the heavens were shut up 3 1/2 years(which in itself would point us to the last half week. Obadiah feared the Lord greatly and showed it by hiding His prophets. The “everlasting gospel” will be “Fear God, and give glory to Him,” and I take it those here who are kind to the messengers do fear God, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but the others have no fear of God before their eyes. The righteous are blessed of His Father. The others are cursed, but it does not say “of His Father.” The Father is always in connection with grace. These had themselves decided their own doom. It is a very solemn scripture.
(To be continued).