Today we continue in the Lord's teaching and we will look at and review the sections that we have studied so far. The sections, the three main passages that we have seen in the Lord's teaching. So we will look at the whole section from Matthew 24, verse 45, right up to Matthew 25, verse 30. Now this consisted of three main sections, and we are not going to read this whole passage because we have been studying each of these passages before. The first was the parable — if it can be called a parable — or the teaching concerning the good and the wicked servants, in Matthew 24, verses 45 to 51. The second concerns the parable of the maidens, the ten virgins. And the third is the parable of the talents. Now all these sections we have studied. All I want to do now is to draw out some main principles of the Lord's teaching that we have not touched upon so far.
Now these three passages in the Lord's teaching have a great deal in common. And here are some of the main points that they have in common. They are very identical in these main points, and yet each one of these passages has its own character. Now let's very quickly look at the points they have in common.
The first is that in each case, the master or the bridegroom, as the case may be, is away and will return again. This point all three passages have in common.
The second is that in each case, the people are those who await His return. That is, they all have to do with Christians and not with non-Christians. All three passages are speaking to Christians or disciples, not to unbelievers.
The third thing is that in each case, a delay in the master's return is indicated. This point is also very important. In fact, in Matthew 25, verse 19, it is specifically stated that this delay would be for a long time. A long delay, a long time. Matthew 25, verse 19 reads like this: "Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them." Now this point is very essential for understanding the Lord's teaching concerning the last things, or what in theology is called eschatology, the teaching of the last things. So the Lord's teaching stresses that His return will be unexpected, but not soon. Now that's very important to understand. His coming, contrary to much of the teaching we hear — the Lord did not teach that His return would be soon. It would be unexpected, but not soon. In all three passages it says that there would be a delay. That is, there would be taking some considerable time before His return. And I'm not at all clear where the idea came from that the Lord thought that His return would be soon. If I see in these passages, in each case the word "delay" in the first two passages occurs, and in the last it specifically states, as I pointed out, that there would be a long time before His return. Now in our day, at this present time, the return of the Lord Jesus is close. After all, 2,000 years have passed. But at that time, it was not close. The Lord said there would be a long time. But it was in the light of this kind of explicit statement of the Lord that we must understand other passages, such as Mark chapter 9, verse 1, which I have expounded before.
The fourth thing that we see in common in all these three passages is that in each case, the conduct of those awaiting His return will determine whether they are considered to be faithful or wicked, as in the first parable, or foolish, wise or foolish, as in the second parable, the parable of the maidens, or whether they will enter into the joy of their Lord or be cast out, as in the third parable. Conduct is the deciding factor. Remember, this speaks to Christians. And the Lord is saying that whether or not you will enter into the joy of the Lord or whether you will be cast out — literally expelled, thrown out — depends on your conduct and the quality of your conduct. Because in scriptural teaching, judgment is always based on works, based on conduct. That is a fundamental biblical fact, denied by no one.
The fifth thing that they have in common is that this faithfulness is pictured as something extra — the extra oil that is brought along by the wise virgins, the extra talents that have been earned by the faithful servants. This extra, which is produced by his conduct, is a very important element here and has to do with what happens in terms of salvation.
The sixth point that they have in common here is that in each case there is a judgment upon the return of the Master. The judgment takes place when the Master returns. When the Lord Jesus comes again, whether you are very keen to meet Him or not will depend upon the sort of life you are living now. And if your life is one that cannot be described as light, but darkness, you won't want to meet Him. And I am not surprised that many Christians are not too keen to see Him too soon.
The seventh thing that they have in common is that in each case the faithful are rewarded. In each case, the faithful are rewarded, and indeed richly rewarded. In Matthew 24, verse 47, the faithful servant will be set over all his possessions. The Master will set the faithful servant over all his possessions. That means the Master will have total confidence in the servant who has proved worthy, who has been tried and found faithful. God will have total confidence in such a person and will put him in charge of all his possessions as a way of saying, "I have complete confidence in you. I entrust anything I have to you. I have such complete confidence." This point is very important and we shall return to this in a moment.
The other way, in terms of reward, in the parable of the pounds in Luke chapter 19, verse 12 and following, the servant who brought back ten pounds is made to rule over ten cities. The servant who brought back five pounds is made ruler of five cities. So in proportion as he proved his faithfulness, so he will be put in charge of some part of God's administration in the kingdom of God. Very important this is. And there is this parallel too in the reward, and that is like the maidens who entered into the feast, so also the faithful servant in the parable of the talents enters into the joy of his Lord. In both cases it's the same Greek word for "enter." Enter into the feast, enter into the joy of your Lord. You share in His joy because you have given Him joy. It's a wonderful thought to think that you and I could give God some joy. It's really wonderful. That through the faithfulness of your conduct you are actually pleasing to Him. It gives Him joy. And so you will participate in, share in, His joy.
The eighth and last point which these three sections of the Lord's teaching have in common: in each case also the unfaithful servant is severely punished. Severely punished, not just punished, but severely so. Matthew 24, verse 51 — and you will notice that I did not expound in any detail Matthew 24, verses 45 onwards, because in fact that is, the teaching in that section is fully absorbed in the other teaching and the other parables. It serves as an introduction to the two following parables.
And in each case the unfaithful servant then is severely punished. In Matthew 24, verse 51, there is a word there which literally means — if you have an RSV and you look in the footnote, it tells you that literally the word means "to cut in pieces." He will be cut in pieces, literally speaking. That is to say, metaphorically speaking, this means total destruction. The unfaithful servant, who is also described, because he is unfaithful, as being wicked, will be totally destroyed. That is spiritual, total destruction. He will be put together with the hypocrites, as we saw last week, that the hypocrites are put in hell where there is the furnace of fire. And there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, expressing the bitterness of the spirit, the bitterness of remorse, a sentiment that only those who fail and fail badly will fully understand.
Why this place of destruction? What is the purpose of hell? Why does a God of love want to have a hell in His creation? For the simple reason is this: that if there is to be a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, as Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 13 — a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness and only righteousness dwells — then there must be a place or a way in which all unrighteousness has to be destroyed. Now that is what hell is for. Hell is the place where all wickedness and unrighteousness is destroyed and eliminated. That is what hell is for.
Now the point here to notice is that those who are destroyed in each case are the servants of the master. They are the servants of the master. That is to say, those who are destroyed in hell — please notice — are Christians, not non-Christians. That is quite a shock, isn't it? We tend to think that non-Christians are the ones going to be consigned to hell. But what is our shock to discover that in fact every time the Lord speaks about hell, you know who He is talking about? He is talking about Christians — servants. A shock, isn't it? And so bad is the shock that we can almost not swallow this. In fact, many of us have been brought up in churches to believe that it is all non-Christians who go to hell and no Christians go to hell. Big mistake. And that is the place where many of us have had to adjust our minds and our thinking to the teaching of the Lord Jesus. It is Christians who fail, who are unfaithful, who live in sin, that in the teaching of the Lord Jesus, it is the Christians who go to hell. Can you stand that teaching? Hard to swallow, isn't it? No wonder there is a whole conspiracy in the church — and if I may use the word "conspiracy" — to throw this part of the teaching of the Lord Jesus out. They don't want to know this, they don't want to hear this, and they don't want to listen to this. But I say to you, you and I, we are going to have to listen to this if we want to listen to the words of the Lord Jesus. You don't like it, I don't like it, but He said it, and there is no way we can get around it except by misinterpretation. It is the sons of the kingdom that will be cast out.
I would like to draw three main points today out of this section. And of these three main points, the first is this: that there is a vital element in the teaching of the Lord Jesus, repeated again and again and again, that it is the sons of the kingdom who will be cast out. That is, those sons of the kingdom who are unfaithful. No wonder that preachers want to distort the teaching of the Lord Jesus today because they can't stand this teaching. Yes, everyone who listens to my preaching today knows that what I speak is the truth. And no one, but no one, will dare to contend against me that it is not true. Every time the Lord speaks of casting out, of weeping, of gnashing of teeth, of hell — you look at it for yourself and see who He is talking about. And then you begin to see how hard it is to take the shock. Before you begin to feel complacent, "Oh, I'm a Christian, I'm going to heaven, all the non-Christians go to hell" — you are wrong. Not in the Lord's teaching, it doesn't say so. Because it's the Christians who are going to answer to God, to whom more is given, more is required. The Christians will be judged more severely than the non-Christians. Understand that well. Because the privileges that will be given to him are far, far higher. Because you have higher privileges, so you will have a more severe judgment. If you don't want privileges, then you don't have responsibilities. If you want privileges, you must also have responsibilities. The higher you go, even in the world, that is true. If you are the boss of the department, you are the one who answers for everything that goes on in the department. You cannot pass the blame to your employee; you have to answer for it. If you are an officer, you have to answer for what your soldiers do under your command. You can't say, "Well, that's not my responsibility, he did it." You are the officer; you will stand trial for what he did, because he is under your command. That's the way it is. The higher you go, so it is. That is why in war, when the enemy generals are captured, they are the ones who end up getting executed, time and again, because the responsibility for crimes — look at the German officers and war crimes — one after the other, these officers, the high-ranking officers, were either imprisoned for life or executed, because it was regarded that they, being high up, are the ones who have to answer. The higher the privilege, the more severe the judgment. Now, this is the case, absolutely, in the Lord's teaching. This is the first point I would like you to clearly grasp.
Now, weeping and gnashing of teeth — that is not for non-Christians in the Lord's teaching. That is not to say that no non-Christians will go to hell. We are not saying that. What we are saying is that in the Lord's teaching, the warnings about hell are directed to religious people, and particularly to the people who think that they are the people of God. Grasp that very well. But, as I have said, many Christians and pastors find this so distasteful that they are prepared even to indulge in gross misinterpretation. I say this and warn you that there is gross misinterpretation.
Let me give you an example. I am sorry to have to give examples. Sometimes I have to name names. Not because he is the only person who does it, but he is typical of people who do this kind of thing. And it gives me no pleasure to mention names. But when you are going to read those commentaries, you will see these things for yourself. What does "weeping and gnashing of teeth" mean? Every Bible commentator knows what it means: that it means the bitterness of remorse when a person has been rejected by God and has lost the opportunity of salvation. But what does our brother Watchman Nee say? I could hardly believe my eyes when I looked at his commentary. I could not believe my eyes. What does this brother say? He says that this means "deep regret." Weeping and gnashing of teeth means deep regret and true repentance. Now that, I would say to you, brothers and sisters, is misinterpretation of the Scripture at its worst. And I'm sorry to mention names here, but there comes a time when the truth has to be said. That is misinterpretation of Scripture at its worst. There is no single commentator of any worth, and no one who seriously studies the Scripture, who can say that weeping and gnashing of teeth means true repentance. It's unbelievable. I couldn't believe my eyes.
But why do people like Watchman Nee say this kind of thing and grossly misinterpret the Scripture? Because they cannot stand the Lord's teaching at this point. They can't stomach it. It cannot be that Christians will go to hell. He admits that this has to do with servants — I mean, the very word "servant" is there. These are servants of the master who await His return. There is no doubt. And he admits that this refers to Christians. He doesn't deny that. But because these are going to be sent to the place of the hypocrites, they will be cut in pieces, totally destroyed, because they are in that place — where? In hell. In the place of weeping. In the place where the hypocrites go. In the place where they will be cut to pieces. In the furnace of fire — there will be "deep regret and true repentance"? What are we talking about? Unbelievable. To that extent, brothers and sisters, are we prepared to distort the Scriptures to escape the power of its word, because we cannot stand it. That is the reason why people twist the Scriptures: because they can't face what the Lord is actually saying. And they say, "It can't mean this. It's not possible." Unfortunately, every authority in New Testament exegesis will tell you that is exactly what weeping and gnashing of teeth means. It means the spirit of desperation, remorse, bitterness, anger, at being cast into hell to total destruction.
Now it is an element, and I must stress this against you, beloved brothers and sisters, for your own eternal welfare — it is a vital element of the Lord's teaching, not only in this passage that we are looking at today, but throughout the Lord's teaching, that those who are cast out are sons of the kingdom. And let nobody say, as some people who teach "once saved, always saved" doctrines teach, that a person who gets lost was never saved in the first place. That is, again, Scripture twisting in a most unacceptable manner. It has no more sense than to say that the unfaithful servant was never a servant in the first place. Was he a servant or was he not? Of course he was a servant. Can you say that he was not a servant because he was then unfaithful and therefore sentenced to destruction? Can we therefore say he never was a servant in the first place, or that he never truly was a servant? Of course he was truly a servant. That he was not a faithful servant does not mean that he was not a true servant. What can be a false servant? A servant is a servant. That's what he is. He is a servant of his master. Can you say that a pastor is not really a pastor because he is not a faithful pastor? Of course he is really a pastor. Just because a person does not speak the truth, even if he is a pastor, does not make us deny the fact that he is truly a pastor. So let us not go into this kind of foolish reasoning to say, "Well, if they failed in the end, they were never Christians in the first place." In this case, where is your assurance? Because you never know whether you are a true Christian or not, because if one day you fail, somebody is going to turn around and say you never were a true Christian. So what kind of assurance is that supposed to give, if every time you fail people deny that you were truly a Christian? It is nonsensical. Whichever way you reason, there is nowhere to go with this sort of reasoning. Let us not say that because a person failed, he never was a Christian. Of course he was truly a Christian, even if he was an unfaithful Christian. Of course he was truly a servant, as we read of in this parable, even though he was not a faithful servant and was thrown out. If he were not inside, how can he be thrown out? You have to be in to be thrown out. If he was outside all the time, you can't throw him out.
And speaking about this term "throw out," three times in Matthew the Lord speaks about throwing out. Matthew chapter 8, verse 12: the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out. The sons of the kingdom — Matthew 8:12 — will be cast out. Matthew 22, verse 13: the man without the wedding garment, though he had already got into the feast, unlike the five foolish virgins who didn't even get in — and everyone admits the virgins are Christians — the five foolish virgins didn't get into the feast even. But this man got into the feast, and even though he was in the feast, he still got thrown out because he was without the wedding garment, without the righteousness that comes from God. And then Matthew 25, verse 30: the useless servant, the worthless servant, is cast out, expelled. Luke chapter 13, verse 28, says the same thing: "You will weep and gnash your teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." The word literally means "to drive out." The word is very strong; hence the RSV: "thrust out," "push out."
Now this is an element of the Lord's teaching that we may not like, but there is the truth of the matter. Now this part of the Lord's teaching appears in many, many other places. For example, in the parable of the dragnet, Matthew chapter 13, verse 50, the fish already in the nets of the kingdom are thrown out. The parable of the weeds: the weeds are in the field among the wheat — notice, not around the wheat or outside the wheat, but in among the wheat — they are also thrown out. The parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew chapter 18, verses 23 to 35: the servant was already forgiven, but because he failed to forgive, his forgiveness was revoked, and he was thrown into condemnation and punishment. So we can go on and on in the Lord's teaching. This is not one isolated passage, as I say. It is an element that runs through the Lord's teaching. There is no way one can escape it or deny it. Everywhere it crops up again, that those who are in are then thrown out because they fail to prove worthy of the gospel.
Now this gives us no room for any kind of spiritual complacency. It gives us the need to watch, the need to be alert, the need to be constantly living the kind of life to which the Lord has called us. Now the same thing happens in the Old Testament, time and again. In the Old Testament, being cast out is the unhappy consequence of sin. Everywhere in Scripture — everywhere in Scripture it's the same thing, the same words — being cast out. Right from Genesis, chapter 3, verse 24, you have in the Septuagint the same kind of Greek word, ekballo, which means "to throw out." There you have Adam and Eve being thrown out of the Garden of Eden, right there in the beginning. The consequence of sin: the perfect man, Adam and Eve, though they walked in fellowship with God, that did not guarantee that they could remain always secure in the garden. For when they sinned, they were thrown out. The same thing happened in Genesis, chapter 4, verse 14, with Cain, that after he killed Abel, we find the same thing happening. The same thing happened to the whole nation of Israel. We read about that in Deuteronomy 11, verse 23, for example, that they will be cast out of the land which the Lord had already given them, the promised land. They were thrown out of the promised land. They got the promise. They entered into the promised land, only to be thrown out again. We see that in Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse 28, or chapter 28, verse 64, or 1 Kings 14, verse 15, and so the list of references goes on and on.
Whether it be in the Old Testament or in the New, this is a major element of the Lord's teaching: that no one can sin with impunity — least of all, let me say this again, least of all the people of God, least of all Christians — can sin and get away with it. No, no, you will not get away, because He is the living God. He has given you supreme privileges to be His people, to be His sons and His daughters, and He intends that you will live as His son and His daughter, live in a way that befits a son and a daughter of God — or else be thrown out. That is the way it is.
So you could be a son, but a lost son. We have the parable of the lost son, the prodigal son, as you call it. You can be a sheep and still be a lost sheep. But first you have to be a sheep before you can be a lost sheep. And "sheep" in the Bible is always a picture of the people of God. The unbeliever is not pictured as sheep, but as wolves. "I send you out as sheep among wolves." The apostles are the sheep. His disciples are the sheep. Before you can be a sheep, before you can be lost, you have still to be a sheep first. You see, the parables of the Lord's teaching are often constantly preached to the non-Christian. In fact, they are speaking to Christians. That's the amazing thing about them.
And so we can go on through the Scripture. There is in the Bible the use of the word ekballo that we have just used, "to be cast out." It's used of divorce. In Leviticus 21, verses 7 and 14, Leviticus 22, verse 13, and so forth. And it is this word that is used by the Lord to speak of His relationship to Israel in Hosea chapter 9, verse 15: "I will drive them out. I will love them no more," in view of the fact that they had forsaken Him. If you reject Him, the Lord Jesus — we read in Timothy — if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. He has no choice. If you go into sin, you will be cast off.
Even this happens today. Church discipline does that very thing. And very few churches today have enough spiritual authority and power to exercise any sort of discipline. But this is what happens already, then. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 2, Paul uses the very word "remove." In verse 7, "clear out." Verse 13, "drive out the sinner from your midst." And he is not talking about non-Christians. He says, "Drive out that sinner, that Christian who sins. Drive him out." Cast out in the future, driven out even now, as a warning of what will happen to you in the future. Church discipline is meant to show you that this is very dangerous, to sin as a Christian. That if you sin now, you will be thrown out. Because if you are thrown out now, you may repent and come back again. But if you are thrown out then, in the age to come, there is no coming back. It is better to be disciplined now than to go into judgment in the future.
So you can see that this thing goes on, whether in the Old Testament or in the New. There are so many references here that there are just too many to go through. What are the causes, then, of being thrown out? What causes this? And we can very quickly run through a few causes in the Scriptures.
One cause, of course, is disobedience. Deliberate disobedience to God's Word. Which misinterpretation is, in fact — let me say to you, and I say to those in the training team, and I say to every one of you — never do you dare to engage in misinterpretation. Because that is gross disobedience to the Word of God. And one way of being thrown out is to disobey. And the way to justify our disobedience is to misinterpret the Scriptures. Very, very dangerous thing to do. Disobeying the Word of God is what Adam did. And he was thrown out.
The second thing in Scripture is idolatry. Idolatry means that you love something more than God. For example, if you love money more than God, you can be pretty sure you're going to get thrown out. And there are a lot of money-loving Christians in this world, as you know, greedy for money, in love with this world, and they think they're going to be saved. The Bible warns again and again, and the last words of the letter of 1 John close with the words: "Little children, beware of idolatry." Idolatry is loving anything more than God. Maybe even loving your husband and wife more than God, loving your children more than God, or almost as much as God. Just as that.
The third thing is envy, jealousy, unforgiving spirit, whatever you can call this, or not loving one another. That is what happened to Cain. Why did he murder his brother and get thrown out? Because of envy, jealousy, lack of love. Look at that servant in Matthew 24, verse 49. Why is he dealt with so severely? Because he beats his fellow servants. He has no love for his fellow servants at all. And he associates — he much prefers to associate with the non-Christians, with the drunkards. The "drunkards" here doesn't mean literally people who are drunk, but who live in the darkness, out of fellowship with God, in spiritual disorientation. Drunkenness in the Bible, time and again, is the result of sin, not the result of alcohol. In Matthew 24, verse 49, it shows that there are some Christians like this. You know, they prefer to run around with non-Christians; they don't rather like God's people. If you don't feel at home with God's people, if you feel uncomfortable with God's people and you feel more comfortable with the non-Christians, then maybe basically in your heart you are really more a non-Christian than a Christian. You may well be cast out.
The fourth thing is the failure to see the glory of the Lord. Like the Jews — God did mighty works in their midst. They saw the glory of God time and again, but they still were disobedient to God. They just did not see the glory of God. There are so many Christians who simply never catch a vision of the glory of God. They never catch a vision of God's love. Have you seen the glory of God? Mine eyes, like the psalmist says, have seen the glory of the Lord.
# The Parables of the Second Coming (Part 2) — Matthew 24:45-25:30
This guy was described as "you wicked and lazy, slothful" — slothful means lazy servant. No spiritual enterprise, nothing. No spiritual drive, no spiritual zest. Like so many Christians, they always seem to be with their brakes on. They just don't move. And this point we will return to in a few moments.
So this then is the first point that I wanted to share with you: this principle of the Lord's teaching, that judgment and being cast out has to do with Christians in His teaching. That is — let this sink into our minds — and when you have gotten over the shock of it, as I am getting over the shock of it, you realize what the Lord expects of us. When He said, "Be ye perfect as your Father is perfect," that is, that standard of total commitment is what He expects of us. And those who fail to live up to that faithfulness, and yet want to steal the privileges of the kingdom of God, will find that they can't fool God. They can fool themselves, they can fool other Christians, but they can't fool God. You are not going to get the privileges of a child of God. You are not going to get salvation, in other words, without taking up the responsibilities of it and meeting the spiritual standards that God requires of us. That is His teaching, not mine.
Now, the second thing I would like to point out to you, a second principle of the Lord's teaching, and a very interesting point here, is that in the Lord's teaching, discipleship is seen as a time of probation. Being a Christian is a time of probation. I think once I briefly touched on this, and this point is something we must grasp much more clearly. You and I, in other words, are right now going through our exams. We are all in exam time. This whole life that we are living now is exam time. And my question is: how well are you taking your exams? When it comes to your school exams — whoa, no problem. I mean, grind away, as though the school exams are more important than anything else. Well, surely they are important, and you should do your best in them. But do you realize that our whole life on earth is a period of exam? That God right now is examining us, to see whether we are fit for His heavenly kingdom, and what kind of responsibilities He will give to us in His kingdom.
This is another principle in the Lord's teaching that you must learn to adjust your mind to. It is so revolutionary, it is somewhat hard for us to grasp. You see, our thinking is all defined between now and the grave. All our plans more or less stop at the grave. We plan everything up to the grave, including our retirement, and we might even be reading up what we will do when we retire. We might buy our little house in Florida, if we can afford it — although Florida seems to be a bad place to go nowadays, with all the mobsters getting in there and the drug traffic. But we make our plans all the way up to the grave. And beyond the grave — who knows? Who knows? Now if you are thinking like this, you have not yet learned to think as a disciple of Jesus. No, no. For the non-Christian, the grave is a dead end. Literally an end, which is dead. It's a dead end. But for the Christian, the grave is only a door into eternal life. He is living not for today, not for this life, but for the life that is to come.
Now you see, there is where faith comes into it. We cannot fool God. We can say we have faith, but whether you have faith or not depends on how you are thinking and living at this moment. And the true disciple of the Lord Jesus sees himself right now in transit. He is going on to greater things, more important things, on the other side of the grave. Can you think like that? Difficult, isn't it? That is why he is transferring his riches to the other side, to his bank account in heaven, as we mentioned the other day. His whole living is geared for eternity. You believe you have eternal life? Then live as somebody who has a whole eternity to think about. But I see most Christians say they believe they have eternal life, but they don't live as though they have any eternal life at all. They live as though they are going to finish when they die. Because if you have an eternity to live for, you've got to make preparations for that.
Look at these parables of the pounds, the talents, the maidens, and so forth. Look at these parables. It is always speaking about what happens when Jesus comes again, and whether or not you have wherewithal to meet Him. And what kind of an eternity you are going to have depends on how you are living now. Depends on whether you pass His test now. Can you grasp this kind of thinking? Can you think of this present life as simply an examination time, a period of transit? But I see many Christians don't think like that. For them, this life is everything. Because when their loved ones die, the way they weep shows that for them, there is no more. For them, eternity is too vague a concept to even think about in any kind of concrete terms, let alone live for that eternity.
But your life will be completely transformed if your thinking is renewed. "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Then death is something to be welcomed with joy. Yes. Not just to say, "Okay, I can take it," but welcomed with joy. Then you can understand what Paul is saying in Philippians, in chapter 1, when he says, "You know, for me it's very hard to choose whether to stay or to go to be with the Lord." You say, "What? To choose? I must stay here anytime. No difficulty to choose. What do you mean it's hard to choose? For me, there's not even a question, there's no toss-up there. Of course I want to live, I don't want to die. I mean, it's nice to go to be with the Lord. There's plenty of time with all eternity to spend with the Lord. Let me spend some time here." Paul says, "No. If you ask me to choose, then I tell you I'd rather go. I'd rather die." What? What kind of thinking is this? You see, you cannot understand Paul's mentality until you understand the Lord's teaching.
And the Lord's teaching here is very clear: for the disciple, life is a time of probation. We are living for eternity. And how well we qualify for eternity depends on how we live now. Very interesting. Can you grasp this idea? That means to say that when I study, I'm really studying not with a view to what I'm going to do in this life, but what I'm going to do in eternity. Oh! This is a means for me, a tool for me to use more effectively to create something for eternity. To bring some extra talent, some extra pounds to the Lord. Everything is geared to this goal, the mark towards which we press steadily, relentlessly, and with utmost determination. Have you got to learn to think as a disciple? If you think like this, you begin to understand what Paul means. When you read Philippians 3, you won't be so puzzled anymore.
What does Paul say in Philippians 3? He says, "That I may know Him and enter into the fellowship of His sufferings." He wants to suffer with Christ. You say, "No, no, I've got enough sufferings as I have. I mean, I've been suffering with a cold for the last week and that's more than I can take. And you want to enter into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ? What, are you out of your mind? I've got enough sufferings as it is. I've got my exams to take next week. How much more do you want me to suffer?" And Paul is saying, "I actually desire to suffer with Him." Now, nobody can understand this kind of thinking. And I, as a young Christian, could not understand Paul. I read it back and forth, back and forth, I couldn't understand it. Why would anybody want to enter, be made conformable even to His death, to die in the way He died? "I want to die like Him." You say, "Hey, this guy is a fanatic. This guy is really loony. He's had too much moonshine on him." I don't understand this thinking. Of course you don't understand it until you realize that this is your only chance, in this lifetime, in these few 30, 40 years of your lifetime, whatever it is you still have left, to live for eternity, to build a storehouse for eternity. You will never suffer again. Here is your chance to suffer for Him. Can you understand that idea? Here is your chance to die for Him, because you will never die again. You have eternal life. You are not going to die again. Your chance is gone forever.
Think of it. Everything turns around. Everything, the whole thinking turns upside down. Death becomes an opportunity to seize. Not to say, you go in and say, "Kill me, kill me, I want to die for Christ" — not in this idea. But the idea is that if there is the opportunity to lay down your life for Christ, to lay down your life for your brethren, as our brother was sharing with us in the prayer meeting — seize the chance to die for your brothers. You will never have a chance again. Does your brother need some money? Give it to him. You will never have that chance again to give. Never come back again. Is your brother hungry? Feed him. You will not have that chance again. Is he in jail? Visit him. You will never have that chance again either, in eternity.
Oh, every difficulty and suffering becomes not another problem you have to wrestle with. It's an opportunity to grasp, because your eyes are on eternity. You want to get there with ten talents, twenty talents, a thousand talents, whatever it is. This makes your Christian life dynamic. You see, "I can overcome every difficulty," Paul says. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Oh, with this kind of thinking you sure can. Death cannot frighten you. Suffering doesn't scare you. Why? Because you know this life is only probation. I want to prove to the Lord how much I love Him because He loved me first. I want to prove to the Lord how much I love my brother and my sister, that at the time of accounting the Lord will be able to say to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful in a very little thing. Now I'm going to entrust great things to you. I'm going to set you over my possessions."
Exciting, isn't it? Christian life is so exciting. It's so exciting. Once you can grasp the idea, it's so exciting. You can face death, you can face suffering with a smile. Everything becomes an opportunity because eternity is what you've got in view. And all this is being transformed to benefits in eternity. And you don't want to sin because sin is going to deduct from your account. It takes you into the red. No thanks. I'm living for eternity. That kind of luxury of sinning I can't afford. Even though the temptations may come your way — and temptations will come all the time. All the time they will be there in the life that we live. And Satan will make sure you've got enough temptations to wrestle with. And for young people particularly, this boy-girl relationship — oh, beware. Beware. You're going to go into the red very quickly. Your bank account will be very quickly depleted if you're not careful there. Satan will be always tempting you. As I shared, Satan tempts me so many times to sin. So easy to sin. "Come on, let's give it a go. Just once. Come on, you're so holy, you're super holy. Come on, come down a little bit to the level of everybody. I mean, just make yourself a little human. Don't be too holy. You're almost up in the clouds already. So sin a little bit. Get back into humanity again." Oh yeah. Satan knows how to talk our language. If you talk spiritual language, he'll talk spiritual language. If you like the Bible, he'll quote the Bible to you. He's the best salesman in the world to sell temptation.
So at this point, I would like you truly to grasp that life is a period of probation for higher service. And that is the point of the parable of the pounds and the parable of the talents as well. If you earn ten pounds, ruler of ten cities. It's just another way of saying how much God wants yet to entrust to us. He is looking for His faithful servants today. In this life, He is looking back and forth as the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout humanity, picking out the kind of people with which He is going to build His eternal kingdom.
So this takes me to the third and last point very quickly. And this third point again has to do with this parable, in this whole section. And that is: nobody produces five talents and turns five talents into another five talents by being lazy. Everywhere you look, you find in the New Testament that because we are living for eternity, there comes a powerful drive. A powerful drive to serve, to work, to do something. I cannot understand Christians who while away their life. It almost makes me bite my fingernails when I see some brothers that I have known before wasting their lifetime. Some of them are 40 years old now. I think to myself, plenty of the best years of your life have gone down the drain, my friend. It will never come back again. And you are still wasting time out there. I don't understand it. You are not doing anything useful for the Lord. Absolutely nothing.
But when you look in the New Testament, and particularly in the writings of Paul, you are struck by this word: work, work, strive, press forward. These are the language of Paul all the time. There is this dynamic drive that is very hard even to try to grasp unless you begin to think in the way he thinks. Let me give you some examples of this. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 10, he says, "I worked harder than they all" — they are apostles before me. "Yes, indeed. But there is one thing: I worked harder than they all." They work hard, I work even harder. Paul is not intending to be outrun by anybody. He speaks about the Christian life as a race. And in each department, only one person wins. And he intends to be that person. That is spiritual ambition. You run fast and I will run as fast. No, I am going to outrun you, Paul says. "Outdo one another in good works," he says. Outdo one another. There is a kind of holy competition, if you like — a loving competition in the hope that if I run harder, you'll run harder, and when you run harder, I'll run harder, and we will make it full steam ahead.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 12, you find that same characteristic language of Paul: "We work very hard to supply our needs." And this kind of thing — in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 9, "We work night and day." 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 8, and so on and so forth. Galatians 4:11, he speaks about those who labor over you, referring to the work of preaching and teaching as labor, building them up in the faith. In Colossians chapter 1, verse 29, he also speaks of labor. Very interesting. And then 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 10: "For this end we toil and strive in training oneself in godliness." Toil and strive. That's Paul's language. And yet today we have a whole set of teaching in the church that tells us not to toil, not to move, not to work. What's happened to the church? What's going on? Telling us, "Take it all easy. No need to strive." What do you want? Do you want to turn us all into a bunch of spiritual floaters? What kind of teaching goes on? I wonder how much Satan has infiltrated into the church with this kind of teaching.
But in the Scripture there is this dynamic of labor, a zeal born of vision. And where there is no vision, there is also no zeal and there is also no spiritual activity. And I don't mean running around doing this and that and organizing this and that. This striving and toiling is for godliness, for spirituality, for spiritual excellence, for the conveying of God's love. It is a deep inner toil, not some superficial running around doing this and that. All that is good, but not deep enough, and certainly not the kind of toiling that Scripture talks about. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 3: "The labor of love." Where there is love, there will be labor, the willingness to serve, the willingness to do.
Or take Paul's language, all derived from the Lord's own teaching. He speaks of the Christian as a soldier who endures hardship for Jesus Christ. He speaks of the Christian life as being compared to that of a farmer in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 9: sowing in season and out of season, sowing all the time, constantly sowing for the Lord. He also uses the picture of a builder in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 12, and so forth. All these pictures — soldier, farmer, builder — all come from the Lord's teaching, of course. Nothing original in Paul. The Lord Jesus speaks of the picture of the disciple as a soldier, for example, in Luke chapter 14, verses 31 and 32, Luke 22, verse 35, and so forth. The Lord Jesus speaks of the Christian as a farmer, for example, in the parable of the sower and so forth, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. He speaks of the Christian life, disciples compared to builders, in Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 to 27. So the Lord Jesus used all these pictures which Paul then borrows. Though Paul uses the picture of an athlete, that the Lord Jesus doesn't use, because the athlete was a Greek idea, not used among the Jews. Athletics was a Greek notion, of course.
So always this notion of activity, of sowing, of building, of fighting — all the time the Christian life is conceived by Paul as something very dynamic for the goal that is ahead. What is your Christian life like? Is there some dynamic drive there? Is there a spiritual fire? Is there a spiritual goal? Is there a vision that burns in your heart? If not, then you have also not yet understood these parables that the Lord has taught. Because that's what He expects of every Christian.
And so let us close again as we summarize. We saw today then these three vital principles, all related to one another. On the one hand, the warning about being cast out to those who are slothful, lazy, and without vision for the future. But the second principle we saw: that the Christian, the true disciple, lives with eternity in view. Life is just transient. What happens in this life is only of value as it relates to eternity. And thirdly and finally, we saw that because of that vision, the Lord teaches us to strive, to seize every opportunity. What you sow, you will also reap. Let us pray.