Now those of you who have been here in the last two months will know that I've been preaching a set of mini-series of messages from Matthew 23 to Matthew 25. There's still one seat here in front if it's needed. Last time we were talking about the coming again of the Lord. And we want to see how practical this matter of the Lord's return is. It's not a matter of academic interest. But it has a profound effect on our lives. If it does not have this effect on our lives, then we don't understand — we have not rightly understood the return of the Lord and what it means.
So Matthew 24 talks about the Lord's return. And Matthew 25 immediately goes on to speak about the practical effects of His return upon us. And there the Lord speaks of three parables. The last of them actually is not a parable but a parabolic illustration of the final judgment.
The first parable is about the ten virgins. And all of them had lights, waiting for the coming of the bridegroom, that is, for the Lord Jesus to return. But then as they were waiting for the bridegroom to return, five of these virgins discovered that the oil in their light was not enough. The lights were going out. They had to go and get some more oil. And while they were away, the bridegroom came back. And when they came back with their oil to enter into the wedding feast, it was too late. The gates were closed. The point is that nobody can enter into the wedding feast except with their lights burning. What does that mean? Very simply, the lights represent the quality of life that shines forth for the glory of God. And we glorify God, as the Lord Jesus said, through the good deeds that we do. The quality of life is expressed in concrete ways. And if you do not live in that quality of life, the Lord Jesus is saying, "I tell you something very clearly: you will in no way enter into the wedding feast on that day."
The second parable is the parable of the talents. That says something very similar in a different way. And again, the person who was not able to multiply his talents — that person was severely, severely punished. The person who was able to take the money but not able to use the money, to continue to develop his talents to the end, was severely punished. You can see that in verse 30 of chapter 25: "And this worthless servant is cast into the outer darkness, the place where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." That is, of course, a picture elsewhere describing the conditions of hell.
The third picture is the picture of the judgment. And there you see that people are divided into sheep and goats. And the distinction between them is what they did or did not do. And that we see in verse 41, for example: "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat. For I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me. I was naked and you did not clothe Me. I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'"
Do you think these things are important? We live in a day and age when we are told that good works are of no importance whatsoever. But why did the King say to them, "Depart from Me into the eternal fire"? Precisely because they did not do these things. Does that shock you? Maybe you've been taught differently — what you do or don't do doesn't really matter. All you have to do is believe in Jesus. You believe in Jesus and everything is fine. Even though you go gambling and do everything else, it's fine, doesn't really matter. If you've been taught like that, you better look at what the Lord Jesus says.
These three should be — three parables. I wonder if you've noticed something remarkable about them. They have one thing in common. In all three cases, nobody is punished for sins which they committed. They are all punished for things which they did not do. I repeat this clearly again: they are not punished for evil deeds that they have done. They are punished for good deeds which they ought to have done and did not do. That gives us something to think about. Because we have always had the impression that we will go to hell if we do evil deeds. We never thought that we shall go to hell for good deeds which we ought to have done and didn't do.
What's the explanation of this? The explanation is very simple. Because all these three parables are speaking to believers, not to unbelievers. The virgins who wait for the coming of the Lord — I mean, non-Christians don't wait for the coming of the Lord, and their lights are not burning anyway. The second parable says specifically, a master had three servants. They are the servants of the master. The master, of course, represents the Lord Himself. Therefore, the servants are the servants of the Lord. The other one, of course, the judgment scene describes two kinds of creatures which are related to each other — goats and sheep. And the judgment is based on how each one reacted or responded to the Lord Jesus. You can hardly punish a non-Christian for not visiting the Lord Jesus in prison. Goats and sheep are of the same kind of family; they even look like each other. And the Lord uses this to distinguish between true and false Christians.
Now, what is the point we are driving at? I stress again the scriptural teaching, and I should speak both to Christians and non-Christians, but first I'm speaking to the Christians. And the point that the Lord stresses here is that if you claim to be a Christian but you don't live like a Christian, you don't produce the fruit of a Christian, you will in no way enter into eternal life. If you are a Christian, don't comfort yourself by saying, "Well, I was baptized, I belong to this good church and so forth." At the judgment scene here, the Lord Jesus doesn't ask one question as to which church you belong to. He doesn't ask when you were baptized. He wants to ask only one question: did you do what you ought to have done?
You see, the Christian's sins are forgiven. All the past sins have been cleansed away and forgiven through the blood of the Lord Jesus Himself, the Lamb, the sacrificial Lamb. That's why true Christians are here portrayed also as sheep. Precisely because the Christians have their sins forgiven through the blood of Jesus, there is no condemnation for past sins. That is why they are not punished for evil deeds done in the past.
But most people preach the gospel to that point and stop. "Because my sins have been forgiven now, it doesn't matter how I live." Do not be deceived. The judgment of every Christian will be depending on the fruit that you bear, on the way you live. If you do not let your life continue to shine until the coming of the Lord, you will not enter the kingdom. If you do not use that new life that God has given to you — in the picture of this talent — to multiply it, to bring forth fruit to the Lord and His people, to the body of Christ, as the Lord Jesus says, "What you did for the least of My brothers, you have done for Me" — if you do not do that, you will also end up in the eternal judgment.
There are lots of Christians today who don't want to listen to this. But I assure you that I am not saying this. It is the Lord Jesus who is saying this. And if you are a Christian and you don't want to listen to what the Lord Jesus says, then you shall end up in the same way as those mentioned here.
So the problem in all these three examples, these three parables that the Lord Jesus gives, is that there were Christians who were non-productive. They don't produce anything. Now this is the problem that concerns me today. I see a lot of Christians in the church who are non-productive, and my heart is fearful for them, what is going to happen to them.
In John 15, the Lord Jesus says, "Herein is My Father glorified, that you produce much fruit." And the only way you can produce fruit is to abide in Me, live in Me. But if you don't live in Me, the Lord Jesus says, you will be cut off and thrown into the fire, because you will be fruitless. You are producing nothing. Like another parable, the Lord Jesus spoke about a tree that sat there and produced nothing — "Cut it down." But I see so many Christians, and I wonder if you are one of them, that is producing nothing.
I am talking about producing spiritual fruit. Conveying that new life that God has given you to other people. I am not just talking about external activity — you are very busy doing this and that. I am talking about internal fruit. The Lord Jesus is talking about fruit — that spiritual quality of life that comes from God.
But I say again, I am very worried because I see many Christians who simply are non-productive, and they are going to be cut down. Now the question I want to ask is: why are they non-productive? If you are non-productive and passive — so many Christians are passive. They do nothing. They sit there. They wait for you to say something, and finally they move a little bit. And then when they have done that thing, nothing happens. They sit down again and wait for the next instruction. How can you be productive if you are completely passive?
What is the problem behind all this? I see a church full of people listening to the dynamic, powerful word of God that can motivate your life. And then I see only a relatively small proportion who catch that spiritual fire, as it were. They are beginning to move. They are beginning to become productive. And I am saying, what is happening to all the others? I even see people in full-time training, and they go on for years in training, but they don't seem to move. I am wondering what I have to do. Do I have to attach a rocket behind them and light it and blow them away? I am sometimes frankly quite frustrated. Why don't they move? I sit there and say, "I don't know what I should do." So you give them some advice and they say, "I still don't understand." So you go from one counseling session to the other and you wonder when will this ever finish. You see the picture of the problem that I am mentioning?
And so I come to the question: is this a problem of character? Is it that some people are simply by nature more dynamic? Is it that some people are half asleep most of the time? What do you have to do to get these people motivated?
And here I would like to share something with you. Perhaps you can turn to Titus, the book of Titus. And we read in chapter 1 verse 12. I think you need to know that Titus was the overseer of the church in Crete, the island of Crete in Greece. And when I was in Crete a few months ago, I remembered the book of Titus. And I remembered what Paul said concerning the Cretans. And I spent a long time thinking about the relationship, the question of character to salvation. And I remembered that Paul said something that seemed to be quite hard on the Cretans. This is what we read in verse 12. And Paul is speaking concerning the people of Crete, and he says, "One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.'" He says this is the character of the Cretans as mentioned by one of their own people.
Now I wonder how any people like this could ever be productive. Lazy gluttons. They just want to lounge around and eat food. I mean, work is not in their vocabulary. How exactly are you going to get this bunch of people motivated? Seems that Paul was rather harsh on these Cretans. Although he says this is not what he said — that's what one of their own prophets said. But of course in the next verse Paul puts his own agreement to this. And Paul says, "This testimony is true concerning the Cretans. For this cause," Paul says to Titus, "reprove them severely that they may be sound in the faith."
I wonder if you can see what we are getting at. Paul is saying that although these people are believers now — verse 13 says here "that they may be sound," that they may be strong and pure in the faith — but he is afraid that the character of the Cretans will be smuggled into the church, and indeed is already being smuggled into the church. So that this church would become completely non-productive.
Now it's interesting that nations, just like individuals, have their own special character. For those of us who have lived in different foreign countries, you will very quickly see that each nation has its own characteristics. If you live in Switzerland, you will discover that the Swiss people are very reserved but very hardworking. If you go to England, you will discover that English people are also quite reserved but generally quite polite. If you go to Italy, you will find a completely different characteristic. I found, for example — just watch the way they drive their cars. Very fascinating. It seems they understand only one way to drive a car, and that is to press your foot on the accelerator right down to the floorboard. Possibly right through the floorboard. It's quite remarkable. The little car I was driving was quite powerful, so going uphill, I passed the whole row of cars. But that was only for a moment, because down the other side, they all passed me again. Very fascinating.
What is this temperament? Of course, you know, Italians are very impatient. Very expressive too. Each nation has its own temperament. Very interesting. And as you travel around, you see that there is truly this national characteristic which is displayed. I found that French people are somewhere between the British and the Italians. I hope Michelle will forgive me for saying so. I very much like their style of driving. In Paris, it's very exciting. Because every red light is a potential Monte Carlo start. Everybody gets the car in gear, ready. Every eye is fixed on the light. The foot is ready on the accelerator. And the slightest hint of the change of the light — everybody is go! Very exciting driving. It's too bad if you don't get out of the way quick enough when the light changes. That's how my mother-in-law ended up in hospital in Paris — she couldn't get out of the way fast enough and she got hit. Because nobody wants to lose the race when the light changes. That makes life very interesting.
And what is even more marvelous is when they are driving at full speed they can talk to you looking at you. Just like our French friend was showing us around Paris and talking, and I was saying, "You might want to have a look at the road." And sure enough, a few blocks later he and a lady driver collided. So his fender got knocked in a little bit, and the lady had some dent there too. And so they both got out and they smiled at each other and had a nice little talk, got back in their cars and drove away. This was just nothing to be worried about. Who cares about this? Very nice. Very nice, relaxed attitude.
Well, I remember that Paul said that the Cretans were "always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons," and I decided when I came to Crete I would investigate this matter somewhat. And therefore I made some notes just for the first day, the first day of our arrival in Crete. I said, here are some observations regarding our stay in Crete. We arrived in Heraklion, which is a large city in Crete, at 9:20 pm on Tuesday, 11th March 1986. And I'll share some of these for you to decide, even 2,000 years later, whether Paul's observations are true or false.
The first point that I noted down — this is just for the first day — after checking into the hotel, a Class C hotel called Kronos, we went for a stroll, a walk. The nearby square was full of young people sipping drinks. A lot of coffee tables in the square, and it was full up with young people sipping soft drinks. The people who were sipping drinks were mostly natives, because it was not the tourist season; there were hardly any foreigners there. My report here was: it appears that they have nothing to do. They were sipping drinks all evening, and up to 11 something, and they were still there sipping drinks. And I remarked to Helen, "Are these people working, or are they students that have nothing to do?" There was some eating and some drinking, but only one thing in common — they were there for hours chatting and socializing. You remember I said this is Tuesday. This is not a weekend. So what's happening to you? Lazy gluttons. I thought maybe Paul has some point here.
So we went to a little shop in the square to buy a drink. And the advertisement said freshly squeezed orange juice for 80 drachmae, which is about 80 Canadian cents, about 4 or 5 Hong Kong dollars. Quite expensive. So I watched the person. So when we went into the shop, we ordered a glass of orange juice. And as is my habit, I watched this person preparing the orange juice. So he took out one orange, average size, and he sliced the orange and squeezed out the juice, which filled only a little bit of the tall glass. And then he disappeared with the glass behind the refrigerator. And the next moment the glass was full. It was like magic. Well, I think we all know what he did. The fresh oranges are out there to be squeezed. He didn't squeeze two oranges — only the one. And behind the refrigerator, he had a bottle of artificial orange juice, which is worth, of course, next to nothing. So we pay five Hong Kong dollars for a glass of one orange plus artificial orange juice. But the advertisement said "freshly squeezed orange juice." What does verse 12 say? "Always liars." Amazing. Two thousand years, and the character of these people hasn't changed yet.
And the next one, the third observation. In the hotel, the bathroom floor was one large puddle of water from the sink to the toilet bowl. It was like a small swimming pool. Obviously the hole in the floor was blocked and nobody was willing to clear the hole. That's all correct. After all — evil beasts, lazy gluttons.
Next morning — this is the fourth point — next morning, Helen went to pay a bill. So they took the money, but didn't want to give a receipt. And so we said to them, "If you don't give us a receipt and we go out of here, and you report to the police that we didn't pay, what's going to be our situation?" Because they had taken our passport numbers and everything, and then we have no receipt to prove that we have paid. Of course, maybe the reason was, in order to cheat on taxes, that they didn't give us a receipt. But in any case, Helen insisted on having a receipt. That receipt took more than 20 minutes just to write out. Evil beasts, lazy gluttons.
But the evening of the next day, we found a little restaurant for supper. Full of young people eating and drinking and apparently with nothing to do. Well, I won't go on with this. But it's enough to illustrate the fact that the character of these people remains constant even 2,000 years later. Isn't that remarkable?
Now, I am far from saying that there are no nice people in Crete. In fact, you might discover that lazy people are among the nicest people to meet. They are very relaxed. They are easygoing. They can talk to you all day. Paul is not saying that they are nasty people, but that they are dishonest. Because if you are lazy, you have to find some way to get money without working. And there is where the lying and the deception comes in.
Becoming a Christian, Paul was concerned that these people were going to corrupt the church with this kind of character. So Paul tells Titus, "Rebuke them severely." The question I want to ask is: how come their character hasn't changed yet?
This takes me to the next point, and here I am speaking to non-Christians. What then, fundamentally, does it mean to become a Christian? Does it involve a fundamental change or not? That is the question. Now, much of the teaching given today seems to indicate that it doesn't involve any real change of character. It would be good if the character can change to some extent, but that it has nothing to do with salvation. Salvation, you remember, is just a matter of believing. It's just a matter of believing that Jesus came, that He died, and so forth. It doesn't have to involve any change in you. We saw that this teaching runs into problems with Matthew 25. But in fact, it runs into problems with the whole New Testament.
What does the Apostle Paul say? He makes it clear that to become a Christian involves a fundamental internal change. He describes this as becoming a new person. For example, in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul says, "If any man be in Christ, he has become a new person, a new creation." There must be a fundamental character change. It's meaningless to say that you are a new creation, a new person, a new creature, when you are still the same old person with the same old character that you had before.
The Bible has remarkably a lot to say about character. In fact, the English word "character" comes from the Greek word "character," which you can see is exactly where the English word comes from.
# Fruitfulness: The Evidence of Inner Character Transformation - Part 2
"Character" means an impress or reproduction, such as you see on a coin, as a heavy machine has pressed an impress on it. This impression, such as you see the head of the emperor or the head of the queen, this impression is called in the Greek "character." And Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 has this word, "character." There it says Christ is the exact representative of God's nature. It is His picture, His image. When you look at the Lord Jesus, you see what God is like. That's exactly what character is about. If you have become a true Christian, and God's seal has stamped you, and you carry God's character, God's nature impressed upon you, that is why you become a new person. You carry a different image from what you had before. It's like the coin that has been melted down, reformed as a coin, and with a new impress put on it.
Now, the failure to produce results. If this failure is due to idleness, is it that our God is idle? Or is it that the change in the person is inadequate? Now, clearly, our God is not idle. The Lord Jesus says, "My Father works hitherto, and I work." Never stop working. God is always active, always productive. But Christians — what's happening? There needs to be a change.
So, when you become a Christian, let us understand this: God's power comes into your life and puts His character into your life. Has that happened to you? If not, then you are a Christian only in the head. Your life has not been transformed.
But now here we have to distinguish something very carefully. It is not being said that when you become a Christian, you immediately are so transformed that none of your past bad habits remain with you. The character transformation has a beginning, but it has to be ongoing. It's not finished yet. This change, this initial change, is what we call regeneration in Scripture. Even that picture tells us the need for character change. Because if you are born of the Spirit, born from God, you must have some likeness to your Father. And so if you are truly born again, there is a character change in you. But like a baby, at first it still has to grow. It is still very young. It is very immature. And the change is progressive. God's Spirit continues to mold and transform your life.
You know, I find the New Testament message of salvation very exciting. Paul says, "I glory in the gospel because it is the power of God to salvation." Now, if being a Christian is simply believing this and that, it doesn't really involve God's power. But if it involves a transformation of the person, it requires God's power to change you. This is truly wonderful. The only way we can change the world, as it has been said in some way in the United Nations, is through changing the people. We cannot just change its ideology — that's not good enough. You cannot just improve education. You cannot just improve the standard of living. All these things are desirable, but they are not enough to change people. If you are concerned with the problems of mankind, as I am, you will soon know that the only answer to man's problems is in the gospel. Because it is the power of God through the work of the Holy Spirit. He can take you as you are. He can take a Cretan as they are and transform the person.
The island of Crete is a beautiful island. It's a very rich island. That's where the danger is. You can keep making a good living without having to work very much. You don't need to run. Then they have to lie and steal. But God is able to transform these Cretans who have believed.
The capital of Crete in the Roman days was a place called Gortyn. And I went to visit — we visited Gortyn. And there is a church in Gortyn which is attributed to Titus, where he was the overseer. The building is just a ruin now. And nearby Gortyn, within easy walking distance, is a place called Hagioi Deka. "Deka" in Greek means ten. "Hagioi" means holy. "Holy Ten." I wondered why this place has a name so strange — Holy Ten. And then I learned the reason for this. The reason was that in the fierce persecutions in the second century, the Roman Emperor declared that anyone who did not worship him would be put to death. Thousands of Christians died rather than worship the Emperor. And of the Cretans in that little town, ten people laid down their lives for Christ. And because these ten people were faithful unto death — as Chung Pang was preaching to us last week from the Scriptures, faithful unto death — because of these ten, this place was called the Holy Ten.
I was very moved by this. The people who once were "always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons" had been so transformed by the power of God that under torture and suffering, they remained faithful unto death. What a wonderful transformation. What a wonderful gospel! By glory in the gospel — it is the power of God. They became fruitful for God. Under those most terrible persecutions, their light shone and did not go out. Their oil did not run out. The talent that was given to them, they held faithfully. And through their witness, in death as in life, they were able to multiply that talent. Through their witness, who knows how many hundreds came to the Lord. That is the glory of the gospel.
And I ask you: has your life been adequately transformed? Until there is the dynamic, the courage to be faithful — faithful to the end. Now faithfulness, as you can see from the parable, is not just a matter of dying; it is a matter of living too. You have not yet been called to die. So how do you live faithfully?
There is this word here in the Greek, "faithful," which has as its basic idea a faithfulness which has initiative and enterprise. Think of the parable of the talents. And with this, in the next few moments, we have to close. It is a business picture, a picture of business, of how to multiply the capital that has been entrusted to you. Have you ever been able to multiply the assets or the capital in your hand by doing nothing? No. Every business person understands that to multiply your capital and assets, it takes initiative, enterprise.
Do you have this quality, I wonder? God has given me this wonderful new life. Now how do I transmit it to others? How can I be fruitful? Do you ever sit there and think, "I should visit this friend of mine that I haven't seen"? And then you go and visit him and try to share with him this abundant life? Have you thought of a new project of how to advance the Lord's work? Somebody sits there and thinks, "Ah, wouldn't it be good if I had a little Bible study in my home?" Or someone else thinks, "What if I could sell some books in this stall over there? What about student work? My friends in the school, I can invite to church or to the meetings."
A faithful Christian, a transformed Christian, is full of ideas, thinking of new ways to advance the Lord's work. I thank the Lord that though I have so many things to do, I never cease thinking, "What more can we do?" And right now I'm thinking how to advance the work into China. And I'm thinking we need Mandarin-speaking people. I think of Huntsville in Alabama — these are Mandarin-speaking Christians. And though it means traveling a thousand miles to the south from Canada — maybe 800, I don't know — but I want to get there, because in order to do this, we have to do something else first. So the busier people become even more busy, and the idle have even less to do.
I think for myself, how come nobody has any ideas? Faithfulness involves this moving by the Spirit. Like Paul — he is always driven on by the love of Christ. "There is somewhere the gospel hasn't been preached yet. I have to get there, or get somebody to go there." It's remarkable as you study the Gospels how many ideas Paul has. How to draw the Jews and Gentiles closer to one another — maybe we can use the famine and use the collection to bring the two together. And how to bring the gospel to the west as far as Spain. "I need a base in the west." So he writes a letter to the Romans, which has become one of the most important letters that we have. As most scholars recognize, he wrote this letter to prepare a base for the outreach to the west. As Paul says, "By all means I have to save some." He's thinking endlessly of ideas. Dynamic, faithful Christian.
It is this kind of Christian who finally will lay down their lives for the Lord. It is this kind of Christian who will be faithful unto death. The others will not appear on that day. Paul was told, "Don't go to Jerusalem, you might die there." He says, "I am more than ready to die." He's not afraid to die. Because like a seed going into the ground, when the seed dies, there will be more fruit. He's not afraid.
So I am fearful that if you are not one of these dynamic Christians, you will not be faithful unto death. And on that day, the Lord will say to you, "Depart from Me, I don't know who you are." He will put you with the goats. We are talking about a matter concerning salvation. May God transform every one of us to be marvelous, dynamic manifestations of His saving power.
I would like to see more Christians that open people's eyes. That is an exciting Christian life. An inactive, lazy Christian life is a disgrace to God. But isn't it wonderful when you come home and your parents say, "Wow, what's happened to you? You are a changed person." When you go to work and your colleagues look at you and say, "Amazing person, this. Full of a spiritual dynamic and enthusiasm." Always occupied with myself and this problem and that problem and endless problems — because these passive Christians are the Christians who are full of problems. And the more they have problems, the more problems breed like germs. You try to be a dynamic Christian and it's amazing that your problems seem to disappear. Your whole life is going outward to accomplish something for God. It is an exciting life.
Why should you be locked down with your problems all the time? And your problems will breed more problems and you will be forever stuck in problems. You will be a problem producer. In fact, I have said before that most Christians produce problems, and the small minority are there to solve their problems for them. The church is like that. But that's not how the Christian life should be.
Learn to let the Holy Spirit become a power of God for salvation in you. Your whole lifestyle will change as your character changes, and everybody around you will see the difference in your life. But if you go to work and school and nobody even knows that you are a Christian, or they say, "That's a Christian? Forget it, I don't want to be a Christian." You don't know what it is to be a Christian. You have not been transformed.
May the grace of God be in each one of us. Let us be quiet before God in prayer.