Turning in our New Testaments to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 25.
The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25. We would like to read verses 14 through 30.
Beginning to read in verse 14:
For it is just like a man about to go on a journey,
who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them.
And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.
Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents.
In the same manner, the one who had received the two talents gained two more.
But he who had received the one talent went away, dug in the ground, and hid his master’s money.
Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.
And the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, “Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.”
His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.”
The one who had received the two talents came up and said, “Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.”
His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.”
And the one who had received the one talent came up and said, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.”
But his master answered and said to him, “You wicked, lazy slave. You knew that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.
“Therefore, take away the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he shall have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. And cast out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Can we pray together, please?
Our Father, our hearts are overflowing this morning with thanks and praise to You for the abundance of Your mercy and grace that You continually, daily shower out upon us. We want to thank You specifically for this hour that we have had together, gathered with Your Son at His table.
Thank You for Your presence with us. Thank You for the help of Your Holy Spirit, as He has been here directing and enabling us to have this marvelous time with our beloved Lord. We bless You for it.
We want to thank You now that, in Your great mercy, You have placed in our hands a copy of Your written Word. We thank You for its record. We thank You for its revelation. We thank You for what happens to us when the Holy Spirit breathes upon it and causes its truth to find lodging in our hearts.
Today, as we are here before You and before Your Word, that is our sincere prayer: that once again the blessed Spirit of God would breathe upon this written Word and make it a living Word to each one of our hearts.
Lord, we know how much we need to hear from You. We are those people whose lives are in desperate need of continuing to hear right from Your own heart to our hearts. So would You this day speak words of life to each one of us.
Lord, before You speak, we want to make a commitment to You that we will not just hear what You have to say, but by Your grace we will seek to act upon what You speak to us.
And we bless You again for Your kindness, for Your mercy, for Your great love, and for this opportunity we have now. We do it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
As most of you know, the Gospel according to Matthew seeks to set before us our Lord Jesus Christ as God’s King. As one brother has entitled his comments on this book, The King and the Kingdom.
When we begin to read the Gospel according to Matthew, we find our Lord Jesus engaged in His ministry. Along with the forerunner, John the Baptist, He begins by proclaiming that men and women are to repent because the kingdom of God is at hand.
Now, among us as the Lord’s people, sometimes we do not take the necessary time to stop, ponder, and let the Spirit of God make real to us what the Scriptures are really saying. I think that many times this is true in regard to the issue of the kingdom of God.
I think that we have sometimes made the kingdom of God synonymous with going to heaven. For example, in John 3, in that marvelous experience of the Lord Jesus speaking to the man named Nicodemus, we find our Lord Jesus informing Nicodemus that he has to undergo a very special experience before he can see and enter the kingdom of God.
How often, when we think about that passage in John 3, do we think that the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Nicodemus, before you can go to heaven, you have to be born again”? Now, that is true, but that is not what the Lord Jesus was talking about. He was talking about seeing and entering the kingdom of God.
So here in Matthew’s Gospel, we find our Lord Jesus beginning with this issue of the kingdom of God. In chapters 5, 6, and 7, we find our Lord Jesus drawing His disciples up to the side of a mountain, sitting down, and beginning to relate to them the reality of this kingdom—a kingdom that they could experience here and now upon the earth.
He begins to lay before them the principles of the kingdom and the reality of the kingdom. Then, when we get over to Matthew 13, we find our Lord Jesus again speaking about the matter of the kingdom. This time, He speaks about the mysteries of the kingdom: how the kingdom of God is going to come into this world, increase, encounter various oppositions, and finally have an outcome.
But when we come to Matthew 24 and 25, we find our Lord Jesus talking about the coming of the kingdom. Earlier, the Lord Jesus, along with John the Baptist, said, “Repent, because the kingdom of God is at hand.” We find our Lord Jesus talking about the kingdom of God being in our midst, and the reason He could say that was because He, the King, was there to manifest the reality of the kingdom.
Now, in Matthew 24 and 25, the Lord Jesus is seeking to help His disciples understand some of the dynamics involved in the kingdom coming and being fully established here upon the earth. In Matthew 24, His disciples had come to Him and asked, “What sign should we look for to indicate Your coming back and the kingdom being established?” He begins to relate some matters to them.
As part of what He shared with them, we have what we call the parable of the talents. Again, I am not so sure that is the best title we should give to this parable, because that is not really the focus. The focus is upon the coming back of the man who went on a journey and calling into account those who were his servants concerning what they had done with what had been entrusted to them.
So let us take a few moments this morning to consider the parable itself. I am sure that you have read it many times yourself and heard others minister on it. Let us get some of the facts that our Lord Jesus gives us in this parable before us.
First of all, in Matthew 25:14, it says, “For it is just like a man about to go on a journey.” The pronoun it refers to the kingdom of God, as we find back in the first verse of chapter 25, when the Lord Jesus says, “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten virgins.”
Here He is comparing the kingdom of God to a man who is going on a journey. As he considers going on his journey, he wants to make sure that his possessions—what he owns—are properly cared for. So he calls his three servants and begins to distribute his possessions to them.
He does it according to their several abilities. In other words, he has apparently sat down and given some consideration to these three servants. He has measured out what he has, and he decides that this should be given to this one, this to the other, and finally that the last one should be given this responsibility. Then he goes on his journey.
We are told in the parable that, as the man leaves and goes on his journey, these three different servants respond to the responsibility that has been given to them. The first one, who had been given five portions, immediately went out and took what he had and began to trade with it—that is, to put it to work so that it would produce results.
He was not merely seeking to protect what had been given to him; he wanted to make sure that his master would gain from the investment. The second one did the same thing.
Then we come to the other servant, the one we refer to as the one-talent person. Let us remember that the master here decided, out of his own wisdom, who should get what and what responsibility should be given to which person. He did not leave any of them out, but he decided which one would be responsible for what.
When you look at this parable, you discover that the Lord Jesus spends most of the time—the bulk of the parable—dealing with this last servant, the one who had been given one talent. I think our Lord Jesus wants us to understand that He is faced with a real dilemma among His people.
The dilemma is that so few of His people take seriously, and then responsibly fulfill, the responsibilities that He has given to them. So He tells this parable about the man who had received only one portion, and He indicates that this man reacted in a very irresponsible fashion.
He took what had been given to him, and rather than going out and trying to invest it and gain something for his master, he simply went and buried his master’s portion. This was the way the three servants responded.
We are told in Matthew 25:19, “Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.” Here our Lord Jesus, I believe, would have us understand that the journey He has gone on—after His resurrection and ascension back to the right hand of the Father—was going to be a long time.
We do not know how long, but it was going to be a long time. Let it not be forgotten, however, that there is going to come a time, regardless of how long it may seem to us, when accounts are going to be required. We are going to have to give an account for what we have been given.
When the master returns, the one who had received the five comes immediately and says, “You gave me five; I put it to work, and now I have ten altogether.” The same thing happened to the second one. His response to them was, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over the little things I have given you responsibility for. Now I am going to put you in charge of something bigger, so that you can enter into the joy of your Lord.”
But then it came time for the person who had received the one portion. He came, and he had to make some excuses. He had to find a way to try to get out of the predicament he was in, because all he had was what his master had given him. There was no increase. There was nothing of benefit to his master.
The master should have simply taken that portion with him on the journey. It had produced no results at all. So the Lord Jesus indicates that the master was quite upset with this particular servant, and he addresses some very important issues that I think are relevant to us.
In Matthew 25:29, we find our Lord Jesus saying something through this master that I think we need to give serious thought to:
For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he shall have an abundance;
but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
When I first read this a number of years ago, I did not feel like this was justice. I did not think this was the fair or right thing to do. It seemed to be so unmerciful, so unfair, to take somebody in this predicament, take away the little bit they have, and give it to the one who has the most so that he can have an abundance.
The one who had one lost everything. It just did not seem to be the way the Lord Jesus would go about doing things. But you see, sometimes, brothers and sisters, our sentimentality comes in and begins to impact the way we think about certain things.
Let us get it absolutely clear this morning: our God is a God of all grace. A couple of weeks ago, when we were with the brothers and sisters in Philadelphia, I shared from 1 Peter 5:
After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace,
who has called you to His eternal glory…
He is the God of all grace. May we never, ever think differently. When we see the revelation of God in the Person of His Son in John 1, we read:
And we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
And of His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. So let us not in any way allow ourselves to think that what our Lord Jesus is saying here through this parable is somehow unjust or unfair.
But we need to face the reality of things. Even though He is a God of grace, He expects us to learn how to become good stewards of that grace. There are no exceptions.
He is talking about a time when you and I, as His servants, will be held accountable. Please notice: He gave His possessions to His own servants. Our Lord Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God as it relates to His redeemed people, those who have come to know Him as Savior and Lord.
This parable does not apply to those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not about talents in a general sense—your natural giftings as a person. This is something that has been given specifically to you by your Lord, and you are going to have to give an account of what you have done with what you have been given.
The Christian life is to be a joyful life, characterized by joy. But, brothers and sisters, may we not overlook the fact that we have to be held accountable. We need to be sobered at times by the reality of what is going to happen.
I think sometimes we get so caught up in the now that we never stop to think that there is a time down the road when every one of us will have to stand before the Lord and give an account of what we have done with what we have been given. No matter what you do, you cannot avoid it.
The interesting thing about this one-talent person is that he seems to have become an expert. You might even say he had a PhD in fault-finding and excuse-making. Does that sound familiar at all?
Is it amazing how you and I can come up with what we consider to be good reasons for not doing what we know the Lord has called us to do?
With this particular servant, first of all, he tries to turn the tables on his master. He says, in effect, “The problem is with You. The reason I did not do something with what You gave me is because of the kind of person You are. You are a hard man to work for. You are so demanding. You gather where You do not sow.”
Immediately, this servant tries to get the light off himself and find the only person he can blame: his master. So he begins to find fault with his master.
Is it not interesting, brothers and sisters, that the five-talent and two-talent servants did not see any of that? It was only the person with the one talent who began to look around and try to find someone else he could blame for his failure.
Now, dear brother and sister in Christ, when you and I stand before our Lord Jesus at His judgment seat, there will be nobody we can blame. We might as well face it now. You will not be able to say it was because of this, that, or some other person. He is going to hold you accountable for what you have done with what you have been given.
It will not be acceptable to find fault with Him. Do you suppose that you and I are ever guilty of even trying to find fault with God? Very foolishly, yes, we do.
We bring into question the way God does certain things. Sometimes we do not do it openly, but in our hearts we question whether the Lord was wise in giving us the particular giftings that we have.
Paul addressed this issue in 1 Corinthians 12. One says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body.” Another wants to be like someone else and feels that if he is not, then he is not a part of the body. In doing that, you are bringing into question God’s own wisdom—His decision as to who should receive what.
This is not for us to decide. This is for Him to decide. Our decision is: what are we going to do with what has been given to us? We must not be guilty of finding fault with the One who has given it.
Then there is this whole issue of making excuses. Oh, brothers and sisters, it goes all the way back to the garden—trying to find somebody else to blame, trying to find an excuse that will be acceptable. There are not going to be any acceptable excuses.
Do you know why? Not only is our Lord faithful and merciful to redeem us, to deliver us from ourselves and our sin, and to put us into the kingdom of God; He is also gracious enough to impart a gifting to us. On top of that, He gives grace so that we can properly use that gift.
That is why I said earlier that there will be no room for excuses when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Not at all.
It is healthy for us, at certain points in our lives, to stop and look honestly at what is actually happening with our lives, so that we do not go on wasting opportunities.
Now, brothers and sisters, I do not want to get into the matter of weeping and gnashing of teeth and outer darkness. I simply want to say this: to me, it has nothing to do with salvation. It has to do with lost opportunities.
Do you know, brothers and sisters, we only go through this one time? No second chances, no matter what others say. Only one time around. That is it. One lifetime.
There will be no opportunity to go back and try to correct mistakes, make up for failures, or somehow redeem lost opportunities. I think our Lord Jesus wants to sober us to the reality of things, for us to face the fact: this is it.
I do not care what you do; you cannot escape having to stand before your Lord and give an account to Him for what you have done with what you have been given.
I want us to look at a few Scriptures that I hope will settle something in our hearts: there are no exceptions in terms of each of us having something from the Lord that He wants us to be responsible for.
Let us look first of all at Romans 12, verse 3:
For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
Notice that: “as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” God has been faithful to give each one of His children a measure of faith. There are no exceptions. You are not an exception.
We need to face the fact that you have received a measure of faith.
Then look at Ephesians 4, verse 7:
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Notice again: to each one of us. Not just in a general, generic way, but in a very specific and personal way, each one of us has been given a measure of grace—a portion of the Lord Jesus Christ as a gift.
It is not something you earned, and not something you were born with. It is something you received from God as a gift when you came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, it is very specific: each one.
Then look at 1 Peter 4:10:
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
As each one has received a special gift. Again, I hope it really gets registered in our hearts: each one.
Let us look at 1 Corinthians 12. First of all, verse 7:
But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Then verse 11:
But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
There are five verses of Scripture: Romans 12:3; Ephesians 4:7; 1 Peter 4:10; and 1 Corinthians 12:7 and 11. Scripture only requires two or three witnesses; here we have five.
They are very specific. I do not think you can question the intent of the writers. They want us to understand that each one, without exception, has been given something from the Lord for which they are going to be held accountable.
Now again, I know that when we approach this matter, it could easily become a heavy thing for us. It need not be. But, dear brothers and sisters, I would rather go through a tough time now and wrestle with some of these issues now than have to stand before my Lord and go through a rough time then.
Do you know what He wants to be able to say to you? What are the words He wants to speak? “Well done.” Was He able to say that to the one-talent person who went and dug a hole? Do you think He wanted to be able to say that to him? Absolutely.
We need to face up to something. It will be plain when you stand before Him that there is something that came from Him for which He is holding you accountable. It is better that we go through the rough time now, face whatever we have to face, and still be able to hear His commendation.
We are not held accountable at this moment—not yet. So there is still time, brothers and sisters, to make serious adjustments in the way we have been approaching this whole thing.
I think sometimes you and I get lulled to sleep in the grace of God because we misunderstand what grace is. Grace is not just so that we are totally accepted, though it certainly includes that. Grace has to do with God involving us in His work.
There is something very, very important to Him that He is doing. As part of our salvation, He delivers us from a life of meaninglessness. Can you see how sad it would be if you came into this world, were born, went all the way through life, and never got involved in what God was interested in?
God, in His mercy, has intervened in your life—not only to forgive you your sins, wonderful as that is—but He wants to bring you into what He originally intended for you to be a part of.
There is a place of functioning that He has for you in the age to come. What do you have hopes of being involved in in the next age? Again, sentimentality affects our ideas about heaven. We sing, “When we all get to heaven, what a glorious day it will be.” It can be that way, but it will not automatically be that way for everybody.
Our Lord Jesus, in Matthew 25, points out that it is not merely a cut-and-dried issue. The issue has to do with what you do with what you have been given.
Brothers and sisters, it is very, very clear: each one. The moment you come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, at that moment the Lord gives you your measure. He wants you to learn. That is why you are a disciple. You are discipled by the Lord Jesus so that you can learn to be a responsible servant in the matters having to do with the kingdom of God.
I am sure that at some point in your life as a Christian you have been faced with this issue: what God intends for you to be involved in in the age to come. We sang about it this morning. It still amazes me. How could He take a bunch of rebels and make them rulers?
Do you notice what He said in Matthew? “I am going to put you in charge. I am going to give you a position of rulership in this kingdom.”
There is a new heaven and a new earth being brought into being, in which righteousness is going to dwell. It is God’s plan for His redeemed people to have a place of functioning in rulership in that new heaven and new earth. That is what God has called us to.
But how can God take rebels—people who were His enemies, who were set on living life for themselves—and work in them so that He can entrust into their hands the responsibility of ruling with His Son? If we are honest, we have to admit that there has to be a major work done in order for that to be something God feels comfortable doing.
He is up to the job. That is why it seems to me that God’s priority is in the issue of character.
Notice that when the master returned and the servants presented their talents—the one with ten and the one with four—he said to them, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” He was not calling them good simply because they had done a good job. He was calling them good because of their heart condition.
Their heart attitude was that more than anything else, they wanted to stand before him and be seen as responsible. They wanted to be obedient.
Brothers and sisters, what do you think is the most important thing about being in the kingdom of God? Think about the language. What does kingdom have to do with? Government. We are under the government of God. What should be the primary thing occupying our hearts and minds? Obedience.
The book of Hebrews tells us that even though He was a Son, He learned obedience by the things that He suffered. Do you think for one moment that God is going to give us a place of responsibility in His eternal kingdom if we have not learned how to obey here and now? It is foolishness on our part to think so.
What we need to discover is this grace that God has wonderfully supplied, which enables us to be obedient to Him and to take what He has given us and use it in such a way that He is able to produce in us a character like His own Son.
The Lord Jesus is the only One whom the Father can fully trust. That is why the Lord Jesus is presently in the position He holds. As a man, He proved Himself to be trustworthy as a servant.
I only do what I see My Father do.
I only say what I hear My Father say.
Obedience was the issue, and it is the issue for us. These giftings that we have been given—whatever God decides in His own wisdom to give us—are the means by which, through obedience to Him, He produces in us the character He deems absolutely necessary for what He has planned for us in the age to come.
So, dear brothers and sisters, may we be encouraged this morning to take seriously that you and I have been called by God, forgiven by God, and imparted a measure of grace and life—a special gifting, a manifestation of the Spirit of God, distributed specifically to you.
It is how we respond to what has been placed in our hands that qualifies us to enter into the age to come, to enter into the joy of our Lord.
I hope that if you have been making excuses or blaming somebody else, you will stop that today. If you try to stand before your Lord and give an account to Him, and all you can say is, “Lord, if You had had to live with so-and-so as I have,” or, “If You had had to encounter the circumstances I had to encounter,” it will all sound like empty words, brothers and sisters.
Let us look at 2 Corinthians 5, verses 9 and 10. This is the testimony and declaration of the Apostle Paul:
Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Brothers and sisters, what I think we need to seriously consider is examining what our ambitions are. Some of us may be considered not to be very ambitious people, but my own evaluation is that we are all ambitious for something.
We may not be ambitious to make a big place in the world. Perhaps the reason we are not ambitious in that way is because we enjoy just hanging out, doing our own thing, and being lazy. But some people are ambitious about being lazy. That is their thing.
So we need to evaluate: where are our ambitions? What do we hope will be the outcome of our lives? Certainly, you would expect anyone standing in the place I am today to say that your ambition ought to be to please the Lord. Yet we have heard that so many times that somehow it never gets registered.
But is that not what Paul is pointing out to us? Our ambition—our one ambition. David said in Psalm 27:
One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in His temple.
Brothers and sisters, is this our ambition? Have we narrowed it down? There are many ripple things, but what is your ambition? As you look into your own heart, what is your hope for the outcome of the years or months you spend here on earth as a believer and servant of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Paul encourages us: make your one ambition to be pleasing to Him. In the parable, do you think the master was pleased with the first two servants—the one with five talents and the one with two? What did he say? “Well done.” He was pleased.
As Christians, as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to take a good, honest look. We need to take inventory and evaluate where we are—not that we run around with a magnifying glass always analyzing ourselves, but at certain periods in our lives we ought to stop and check ourselves out.
Are our hearts still aligned with this matter of having the ambition to be pleasing to Him, or has something else come in? Just because that happens one time does not mean it will remain that way. We can easily get distracted, and something else can become our ambition. We have to be on guard.
Paul points out in verse 10 that “we must.” Here is another must. When I was in the Navy in basic training, they had different classes we were supposed to attend, and they categorized them as must one, must two, must three, and must four. When it was a must one, you had to be there. There were no excuses.
Paul says, “We must all.” What are you going to do to avoid this responsibility of coming and standing before your Lord? There is nothing you can do. We must.
But we can do something about the condition we are in when we arrive at that moment. We can change. If we need to, we can change. We can repent.
Repentance is simple. It is not complicated. You are going the wrong way; you stop, put on the brakes, make a complete turn, and come back. That is all.
When we came to the Lord, our hearts were one with Him, and all we wanted to do was what most pleased Him. But things happen. We get distracted. What we need to learn is to come back, get centered, get our focus, recommit ourselves, and reaffirm our position in relationship to Him.
We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:10 that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Our Lord is full of grace. When all is weighed out, He will be full of grace. But He is not going to let us get by. We need to face the fact that we are going to stand there, the record is going to be opened, and it is going to be right there.
That ought to encourage us to come back, get the focus, get in line, and get about the business of being good stewards of what He has given to us.
Sometimes we relegate this whole matter to only one area. For instance, when we consider being the body of Christ, most of our thought and attention has to do with the meetings we have as the body of Christ. But is that the only time we are the body of Christ? No. We are the body of Christ seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day.
What the Lord has imparted to us is not just for meetings. It is something He wants us actively involved in using wherever He places us.
Whether it is in your own personal life, you have a measure of Christ that enables you to live a life pleasing to Him—a manifestation of Him. Certainly there are levels, and we grow from one level to another. But each one of us has been given what we need in order to live an overcoming life, a normal Christian life.
It is not as though He has withheld something from you. He has given you all that you need, in abundance.
Look with me at Ephesians 1. Beginning in verse 5:
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
which He lavished upon us.
Brothers and sisters, we need to be careful what we say about God, but do you know that God is extravagant? Many of us see Him as a miser, restricted and very careful in the way He imparts grace. But that is not the truth.
The truth is that He has taken the riches of His grace and lavished them upon us. He has not withheld anything.
I do not doubt that many of us in this room have gone through very difficult situations in our lives, even as children. The homes in which we grew up were not perfect. Do you think the Lord does not take that into account? Do you think somehow His grace is not sufficient because you had a difficult childhood?
I know difficult things can happen, but brothers and sisters, understand: He has taken the riches—the abundance—of all that He has and poured it out upon us. Personally, I will not be able to offer excuses. It was there. He daily, moment by moment, imparts to me all that I need to live the kind of life He has called me to live. The same is true of you.
What about our family lives? Someone said to my wife and me a few years ago, “You deserve one another.” We were going through some very difficult times in our relationship, and still do.
You know what my tendency is? “Lord, I made a mistake. You let me marry the wrong woman. This is not the one I needed.” But I got what I needed—not what I deserved, but what I needed.
Even in our family life, there are no perfect parents and no perfect children. Being Christian does not make it perfect. But is there grace available? Yes. There is abundant grace.
I guarantee you, brother, if you can work it out in the four walls in which you live, you can work it out almost anywhere. There is grace. There is gifting. There is an impartation from the Lord Himself.
You did not marry the wrong person. You did not get the wrong mom and dad. Mom and dad, you did not get the wrong kids. You got the ones you needed, and God has given you adequate, abundant grace for whatever the situation is.
What about your experience in the world—your social life, your location, your job, your occupation? If you believe the Lord has placed you there, do you think He puts you there and then somehow hangs you out to dry, leaving you to make it on your own? Absolutely not. He is not that kind of a God.
Whatever job you have, whatever relationships you have in the world, whatever situations and circumstances you encounter, the Lord has given grace for whatever you need to be able to make it through.
You do not need merely to screw up your courage and try harder. You need to discover the resource of this unlimited grace for your situation.
The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” If there was anyone who could have said, “I have a few things in my history and background that helped me get here,” it was Paul. But in Philippians 3, he says he counted it all as rubbish so that he might gain Christ.
He discovered in the Lord Jesus Christ that there was grace sufficient for him. He did not need anything else. There was an abundant supply.
If the Lord has arranged your schedule and you have situations in your job, relationships with other people, pressures in the world, and temptations, there is grace there to get through. We will not be able to offer lame excuses: “Lord, it was just too much for me.”
It was not too much. With the temptation, He will make a way of escape. It is there.
Let us spend a few moments on body life. The Lord Jesus places you by His Spirit into His body the moment you come to believe in Him. You do not have to be voted on by a membership committee. No elders, deacons, or trustees have to decide whether you will be a member of the body. Instantly, you are placed there.
With that placement in the body of Christ also come the giftings you need to be a functioning member in that body.
Some of you know that we travel considerably, and therefore we get to visit many assemblies in different places in the world. Brothers, I can say to you without hesitation that the overriding need among God’s people is for every member to be a functioning member in the body of Christ, without exception.
We have a very dear friend who lives on Long Island. I have known him for many years. He had a swimming accident when he was thirteen years old, and he became a paraplegic. He has no function in his legs and no function in his hands. He can move his arms, but he is in a wheelchair.
Over the years, it has been helpful to realize that the members of his body do not function properly because they are not linked with the head. His spinal cord was severed. Even though the head wants to direct the body, because there is no direct link with those members, the body cannot function properly.
If you were to sit down this morning and consider what percentage of the brothers and sisters you know in the body of Christ are functioning members, what would you say? Be generous. Would you say twenty percent? That would be generous, in my opinion. Let us even say thirty percent.
If only thirty percent of the members of your physical body functioned, where would you be in terms of being able to express the fullness of life within you? That is what our Lord Jesus is faced with.
It is not that there is any lack of life. It is that certain members, for many different reasons, are not involved in giving expression to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have become non-functioning members.
That in itself is sad. But when you consider that, if thirty percent are functioning and seventy percent are not, then the thirty percent who are functioning have to bear the load for the non-functioning members, we see how very important this issue is.
I heard one brother say, “We really do not have the church until we have every member as a functioning member.” We do not have it as the Lord wants it to be.
We cannot make the decision for each other, but you can make the decision for yourself. In 1 Corinthians 12, it is clear: each one has received a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, for the benefit of the whole.
You have received something from the Lord, and all He wants you to do is find a way to give away what He has given to you. You will find that the more you try to give it away, the more you get. You simply cannot give it away.
Yet, is it not true that among most of us as the Lord’s people, the greatest percentage are still non-functioning members in the body of Christ?
Where should we start? Let us assume that some of us here this morning are non-functioning members. Where can we start? I think we can start, first of all, by agreeing with what the Word of God says.
Put your name on it and say, “The Lord Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, has given me something from Himself that will enable me to help the other brothers and sisters in the body of Christ if I will give it away.” Put your name on it. That is the first place to start.
Accept the fact that the Word of God says you have received something from the Lord that will benefit your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. Then begin to look for ways to serve.
In terms of fellowship with this group of brothers and sisters, all you need to do is go to some of those who have oversight and say, “Listen, I want to find out my place.” I guarantee you that they will work with you in this matter.
There are many practical things in which we are involved as the body of Christ. Sometimes the way the Lord leads us into discovering what our giftings are is simply by getting involved. Through involvement, we discover.
Perhaps you begin with practical things. As you become involved, you find your heart burdened about a particular matter. You begin to pray about it and share it with others. They pray, and all of a sudden you begin to discover that the Lord Jesus has imparted to you a measure from Himself that enables you to serve.
Many times, however, we want to take one great step from down here all the way up to there without going through the steps in between. The Lord simply does not do it that way.
I would suggest that you start by saying, “Lord, I am a member of Your body. You have imparted something to me, and I want to learn how to be faithful with it. I want to be able to stand before You and hear You say, ‘You have done a good job. I am pleased with the way you have used what I have given you.’”
I think the Lord will do everything He can to help you discover the place He has designated for you in the body of Christ.
First of all, accept the fact that you are a member of the body of Christ, and in you is a measure of Christ. Brothers and sisters, these giftings are not things. They are part of Him.
In 2 Corinthians 4:7, it says:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
What is that treasure? It is not a thing. It is Him. He has taken His own life and placed it in you.
Do you know what I need more of, brothers and sisters? I need more of Him. How am I going to get more of Him? By relating to you. The part of Him that you have, I can enjoy; and what little bit of Him I may have, you can enjoy as well.
That is what fellowship is: having in common the same Lord Jesus Christ.
When you do not function, you rob us. You rob us, brothers and sisters. I know that in your own mind you may think there are legitimate reasons why you do not get involved. You are timid, shy, or an introvert. Do you think that will hold water when you stand before Him? I do not think so.
He understood the kind of person you were before He ever gave it to you. It will not hold. Perhaps you say, “I tried one time, Lord, and I failed.” You see, this is pride.
Some of the thing that keeps many of us from entering in is that we think, “If I cannot do it right the first time, I am not going to do it at all.” That is arrogant. It is self-centered to think that you should be able to do it right the first time, and if you do not, that you will never try again.
We get our feelings hurt, become embarrassed, and back off. But, dear brothers and sisters, may God in His mercy grant us the ability to create an atmosphere among us where people can learn by failing and not be criticized.
Let us not set up some false standard. Sometimes certain people get elevated, and the way they do things becomes the standard for everyone else. There is no such standard except the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
You need to find out who you are in Him. Be comfortable in Him. Be willing to make mistakes. Be willing to blow it in front of everybody.
Take this matter of prayer at the Lord’s table. Some of you never open your mouth and offer prayer because you think you cannot do it like so-and-so. It sounds beautiful when they do it; their language is wonderful. You say, “I cannot do it that way, so I will not do it at all.”
Who is being wronged? The Lord Jesus is being robbed, and we are being robbed because you are not functioning.
I do not want to get down on us this morning, but I do want to encourage us to accept the fact: you are a member of the body of Christ. You have been given something from Him.
What He requires of us is two things: diligence and faithfulness. Be diligent.
What does that mean? When the servants received what was given to them, it says of the first two that immediately they went out. They did not sit around, analyze it, rationalize, and wait for an opportunity.
Thoughts can come into your mind that cause you to make excuses. Just get down to business. Do not wait for tomorrow. Start today. Immediately say to the Lord, “Lord, I am going to start today. I am going to discover the place You have for me in the body of Christ. I am not going to wait another day. I am going to do it now, whatever price I need to pay.”
For some of us, I think we need to get out on a limb and cut it off. Go to someone and say, “Listen, brother or sister, it is in my heart. I want to be a functioning member. I want to impart something of Christ to my brothers and sisters.”
Go to someone who knows you, work out an arrangement with them, and be held accountable. I am not talking about something legalistic, but something in your heart. If you are the kind of person who needs that kind of situation, then do it.
Do not spend another year or another decade being someone who merely sits in a chair and never gets involved. The temptation is that you will become just like this one-talent person: an expert in finding fault and making excuses.
Call a halt to that. No more fault-finding. Who set you up as judge, anyway?
I guarantee you, if you are pointing out someone else’s faults, you are only declaring that you have more than enough faults of your own. And excuses—brothers and sisters—there is no end to them. If you run out of excuses, I guarantee you the enemy will come with a whole list of them that you can use.
So let us stop doing it. Let us get down to the business of being diligent and faithful. That is all the Lord requires.
I remember our brother Stephen saying a number of years ago, “The Lord does not require you to be successful, but to be faithful.” That is all. That is all He wants. He wants you to be faithful. Use what you have been given and be faithful.
Then we can be assured that we will hear those words from Him:
Well done, good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful with a few things.
I will put you in charge of many things.
Enter into the joy of your master.
Please understand: this is in our Lord’s heart. There is nothing that brings greater delight to Him than to be able to speak those words to each one of His children.
Again, I hope that somehow we are encouraged this morning. Whatever stage we are at in this whole process, may we not be satisfied until we are there as good stewards, able to use to His glory the things He has been so gracious and merciful to give us.
I know my time has gone beyond this, but can you think for a moment how full of mercy and grace He is? He lets us have a part in what He is doing. It is the greatest honor to think that the God of the universe, who can do it all by Himself, has involved us.
May God be merciful to us. Let us pray together.
So, rather than me praying, I want some of you brothers and sisters to pray.