If you're able, stand with me and we'll read Matthew chapter 25 starting in verse 14. When he says it, he's speaking of the kingdom of heaven. For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another one two to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, master, you delivered to me five talents. Here, I have made five talents more. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little, I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also, who had the two talents, came forward, saying, Master, you delivered to me two talents. Here I have made two talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. He also, who had received the one talent, came forward, saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scatter no seed. So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours. But his master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scatter no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was mine, own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the 10 talents. For to everyone who has will more be given. and he will have abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away and cast, cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You may be seated. Jesus, thank you for speaking these words to your disciples just before You were led to the cross, and just before you left this earth for glory, and now we have them for our own instruction, for our own faithfulness to be wrought, Lord. Thank you for giving these to us. Now we ask for your help, Lord, in understanding them. We ask for your spirit to properly know what your word says, to receive it as it truly is the word of God and not merely words of men, to live in accordance with what is true, to rest on the promises that you give us, to act according to the commands that you charge us with. And now as we herald your word, as we together exalt in what you have said, we ask that you would be gracious to us and kind, Lord. There is not one here deserving on our own of even the smallest glimmer of light, even the smallest piece of illumination to come through our thick skulls and see something so true and so holy as your word. Nevertheless, we are not here because we deserve this, but because Christ has in every way deserved it. He being the word from God, and we in him now, Lord, we expect, we anticipate, and we are thankful for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon your church. that we may rightly discern what is in the Word, and that we may know with full assurance the gift and blessing that is there in Christ, and we may walk in a way that is pleasing to our Master. Amen. So this is now the third parable in the Olivet Discourse that Jesus is speaking. And the Olivet Discourse that we are in will conclude with the final judgment, as Jesus depicts the scene of separating those who are faithful and those who are not, the sheep and the goats, and of speaking of how righteousness is reckoned to those who lived in accordance with his gospel. This is the third parable which speaks particularly of the delay of Christ, the delay of the Master. And so we must realize that Jesus is giving these things, as we've said before, in that context where he is about to leave the earth in ascension, going to heaven, and he's leaving his disciples here on earth. And his disciples had asked him, Jesus, what will be the sign of your return and of the end of the age? And he responded to them, outlining to them the way in which he would come with power and glory on that day. The day of his return will be a day of piercing light and truth. All three of these parables specifically speak of that day as a day where all the tensions are reconciled, the perplexities are seen for what they truly are, and the faithful are reckoned righteous and the unfaithful are thrown into judgment. It'll be a day of reckoning and of reward, a day of terror and delight. But until then, Jesus likens this time that we are in now, the time that you are sitting in, as a time of delay, a time where the master has gone away and it seems as though he is delaying. All three of these parables spoke this way. The first one, of course, with the wicked servant, where he said, my master is delayed and began to beat the servants. This wicked servant saw Christ's delay as license for wickedness. Last time we spoke together, this parable of the virgins was outlined. Here, all had lamps, but not all had the oil that would continue until the bridegroom came. And this was likened, they were called wise and foolish virgins. So the delay of the master is like that of want for wisdom. That is, the delay is what provokes the need for wisdom in that parable. Now, as we come to this third parable, this is Christ's delay as an indictment for sloth. That is, his delay specifically reveals those who are slothful in the work of the kingdom. So, the argument for this message is this. What I'm hoping to persuade you of, what I'm hoping for you to see in the scriptures is this. that with the Gospel in view, the duty that God sets before His servants is a duty of joy, The lie is that it is a duty of fear. The lie is fear. The duty is joy with the gospel in view. That's the argument. Or if I were to summarize the whole sermon in one package, this is what we're talking about today. The least of the kingdom's share, a piece of the kingdom given, the least of it is sufficient to convict of the greatest wickedness. and the least stewardship lost is the greatest privilege squandered. Nevertheless, God is not a hard master in Christ. The servant who judges God thus, that is, the servant who sees God to be a hard master, will be found sluggish, profitless, and wicked on that day. The faithful, however, they enter into their master's joy even now by trusting in his wisdom in their lot, treasuring his kingdom over all pride, counting his kingdom as truly given, and loving his joy, loving the joy of the master. So the summary is, the kingdom is apportioned, but the smallest thing squandered is the greatest loss and is sufficient to convict of great wickedness. There are some who then say, well, if even the smallest allotment of the kingdom, if even the smallest trust can condemn me to utter darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth, isn't God a hard master? Doesn't that make God somehow cruel or unjust? to convict even in the smallest case. But as the parable will say, he is not an unjust or hard master. It is the one who views him as such, who fears primarily, who buries the treasure, who will not improve on what Christ has given and is counted as wicked. So let's see this. Today, if the Lord wills, we're going to work through just the exposition, what it means. We're going to draw out some pieces to help us see this in the text. And then we're going to go and draw some principles from this. And if we have sufficient time, then we'll try to impress that upon our consciences by making it more vivid, perhaps by, depending on how the time works out, either concluding with some remarks or giving a further illustration and story. So first let's go and look at the text and see what Christ has for us here. For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. Now we're talking about the kingdom of heaven. It was clear in verse one of chapter 25, the kingdom of heaven will be like, and verse 14 continues in that same vein. For it will be like, the kingdom of heaven will be like this. This is a common way for Jesus to introduce His parables, but the question is, when Jesus comes and He's giving this portion, these talents, to the servants, what is He doing? And some have seen this primarily as limited or helpfully as, Even though the word talents, we must remember, the word talents is just a word for a weight. It'd be like if I said pounds or kilograms, something like that. But it's a predefined measurement, usually of gold or silver. And a talent is actually very, very costly, right? They disagree on, it depends if it's a weight of silver or a weight of gold and how much. But perhaps something like eight to nine years of wages in one talent. It's a very significant amount of money. But when the parable illustrates giving this talent, some say, well, it's a convenient overlap of the English and the old word talent. And we see this as God doling out talents to people, their abilities and their aptitudes. Some will see this as primarily about resources, maybe even financial resources. But I think, based on what I can tell, the best way to think of this is that Jesus is giving or apportioning a share of the kingdom to these people. And the reason I say that is because if we read the parable in the Gospel of Luke, the master specifically went away to receive a kingdom and then he comes back. And it seems to me that as the master has entrusted his finances to the servants, what he is doing is taking a part of what the value of this kingdom is and giving it to the servants. Which leads us to see why, here in Matthew at least, the costly or the valuable nature of this is emphasized. What small piece of the kingdom is given which is not imminently valuable? We're talking about a share in an eternal, perfect, pure, heavenly, ruled by Christ kingdom. And it is given to his servants. Even the smallest measure is unimaginably valuable. Now, what is this to be likened to, this share in the kingdom? How can we make sense of this? Notice that Jesus, to help draw your attention to answering this question, I want you to look at the principle that Jesus lays down at the end of this, right? He says, for to everyone who has will more be given, and to he who will have an abundance, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This phrase, or this principle laid down, is almost identical to the one that we saw earlier in Matthew chapter 13. In Matthew 13, the disciples come to Jesus and they ask, Jesus, why are you speaking in parables? And he answers this way. In Matthew 13, chapter 10, or chapter 13, verse 10, and verse 11, I'll pick up, and he answered them, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given, for to the one who has, more will be given. and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. You see that same phrase, don't you? It's the same wording. And there, Jesus likens this giving to knowing the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And so I take this giving of talents, this apportioning of a very valuable treasure to his servants, as receiving something of the knowledge of the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. But that, to make it clear though, that does not exclude all of the things which we commonly think of when we think of these talents. The kingdom of heaven, I should say, in this life, does not exclude our wealth. It does not exclude our talents, our abilities. It does not exclude the opportunities or the time that God has given us. Rather, the kingdom of heaven takes all of it within its realm. When one has faith in Christ and one understands the mystery of the gospel and responds in this way, there is nothing in our lives which is beyond the pale of the rule and reign of Christ. To whatever He has given you, so also He requires some stewardship of that thing. And so in this parable, I want us to see that what Jesus gives as a portion of this kingdom is immensely valuable, is something of the knowledge of the mystery of the kingdom. And that kingdom takes into its realm all that is given. Everything that God has given you, all of your resources, are under that realm of God's kingdom. He claims all that is yours, your relationships, your family, your abilities, your talents, your money, your time. Second, not only is this a portion of the kingdom of heaven, lotus here what the master expects. So our first topic that we're talking about, what does the master expect? He has given a portion of the kingdom, and what does he expect in return? Well, the first thing that he expects is that you would deploy these resources as an entrusted stewardship. Again, Luke is helpful in bringing this out. Luke, in chapter 19, I'll read this for us. He draws out a couple details that Matthew does not in this parable. And he says, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. So calling his 10 servants, he gave them 10 minas. Now Luke uses a smaller measure of money in this parable. And he says to them, engage in business until I come. but his citizens hated him, and it goes on to illustrate this. Luke emphasizes slightly different things, but one thing is clear, that the giving of this portion of the kingdom is intended to entrust you with a stewardship, and God expects all that comes within that realm to be deployed, that is, for you to do business with these things that God has given. So Luke uses this illustration of doing business, going out and pursuing return. The master has not entrusted you with these things merely for lavish living, but for going out and making a return for the kingdom. We could think of this business, whether you think of it in terms of going out and persuading others to join the kingdom, or of deploying your talents and abilities that help build up the kingdom, whether you're bringing meals, or you are steady in your attendance, or you are serving in finances, or whatever you are doing. And specifically, it has in mind, of course, the assembly of the saints, but it spreads more broadly than that. In any of these ways, God is intending for you to deploy these things as a stewardship from Him, and God expects some sort of return. We might think of this in another analogy. Throughout this parable is the analogy of profit. Right? It speaks of him entrusting finances, and he speaks of, you should have invested it with bankers, and why did I not have interest? Jesus is using the analogy of seeking profit, of financial gain. But elsewhere in the scripture we have other examples of this as well. We could think of growth. the planting and growing, or we could think of fruit as in a vineyard. God has planted a vineyard and he expects a yield, an increase. This is what's going on in this parable. The master did not give him these things just to sit on them, but it is intended to be deployed as an entrusted stewardship, and the master expects return on his goods. But then notice, hopefully it stood out to you, it jumped out at you, in verse 15, To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability." To each according to his ability. And here we must stop and realize that the master is most wise in how he appropriates things. Not everyone here is like alike rich, not everyone here is alike talented, not everyone here is alike given availability of time or availability of resources, but to each the master has given according to his ability. And it would be right for us to realize, master, if you have given according to your ability, there is nothing that you have given which I am not able to be a faithful steward in. Notice that. That is, the heart of faith sees this and sees the wisdom of the Master. There is nothing that you have that you have not received from God. And if you have received it from God, He has given it to you, and He has given it to you wisely and faithfully. And He expects nothing but in proportion to the gift. Notice, to the one that He gave five, He had five more. And to the one He gave two, the Master received two more. But he did not condemn the one who had two for not returning five, and he did not expect the one who he had given five to, to return two. Two each, God gave according to his ability. The master gave according to his ability. So, he expects nothing but in proportion to the gift that he has given. So now that we see the master's expectation, let's notice then the calculation of the wicked servant, right? How does this servant think about these things? Notice how, as we come to the sort of the crux of the text, right, the two servants are faithful, but the one is unfaithful. What does he say and why? Well, first we notice what he had done, right? He had gone out and hidden this measure of money or of silver or gold in the ground. And when he came, he who had received the one talent came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Notice here, what is most pressing on the mind of the wicked servant? He's fearful of losing what the Master has given him, or he's fearful of what the Master is going to expect of him, or he's fearful of the Master's coming to him with harshness. What's most vivid in his mind is loss or failure, and that's more pressing on him than this idea of success, right? The two faithful, what did they do? They immediately went out, engaged in business, and made profit. But the one who was unfaithful was afraid. The one who was unfaithful had more concern about what could go wrong than about the master's blessing of that stewardship. Notice also, how he thought the master's expectations were unjust, right? I knew you to be a hard man. He thought, how could I ever give what the master requires? In other words, he thinks to himself, surely the master has given me more than I am able to handle. Certainly he has given above and beyond my ability, not realizing that to each he gave according to his ability. See how in the servant's own mind he indicts the master. And notice, thirdly, that in the calculation of this wicked servant, the root motivation is fear. The root motivation is fear. Now, we're going to continue to lay on these things. We're glancing over them briefly. But for now, notice that while the servants were welcomed into the joy of the master, that is, the joy of the master was great reward to the faithful servants, the one who was unfaithful was afraid. That is, he does not partake of the joy of the master. So then what of the master's return? We've seen the master's expectation and we've seen the calculation of the wicked, but what of the master's return? What of the joy of the faithful? And here, first, I just want to make a note, a comment here. We must be careful not to reason beyond what the purpose of a parable is intended for. That is, when Christ gives a parable, He employs it for a particular aim, and He does not employ it for any other aim. He does not give the parable to exposit all things about the kingdom of heaven, every aspect and every angle, but he gives this parable that you might understand one aspect of the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is like this in a very particular thing. And that's important because if we wanted to go to each parable and draw out conclusions about things which were not intended, we could come to very wrong conclusions, which are more precisely laid down other places in scripture. So just as a note, what I'm commenting on here is that Jesus does not intend by this parable to make a statement about how only those whose works in this life merit reward, only those will be welcomed into the kingdom. Christ is not telling you how do you earn Welcome into God's kingdom. Rather, what is Jesus intending to do here? We know he's speaking to disciples. He's speaking to those who he's already drawn out away from the hypocritical ministry of the Pharisees, and he's speaking to them, and he intends to stir them up to be watchful and ready Christians. To be watchful and ready Christians. So we must not make Jesus to be saying something here that he is not. Okay, with that in mind then, let's look at the joy of the faithful, right? First, what is it? The faithful at the end come to the Master and they say, Look, all that you gave me to know of your kingdom and of your gospel has increased. If receiving something of these talents is receiving a portion of the kingdom, they've received a portion of the kingdom, they've gone out and done business faithfully at Christ's return, they rejoice to go to the master and say, look, all that you gave me to know of the mysteries of the kingdom has profited, has grown, has increased. Look, Lord, here is the increase of what you have given. In other words, what is given is the ministry of the gospel and what is returned is the fruit of the ministry of the spirit. Jesus is not here intending to say that primarily we must think of our salvation in terms of how much we do in this life and then therefore earning entrance into or out of the kingdom. He is talking about the fact that there is a way in which sorry, I lost my place, that there is an evil which denies all that the Father has given, denies all the Master has given, and results in being cast out at the final day. There is a deception that lurks, but nevertheless, those who are faithful in Christ find their joy in making return on what the Master has already given to them. Has God given you Salvation? Has He helped you to see that your rest and trust is in Christ? Has He helped you to see the wisdom of the Master in giving you all these things? Then on that last day, take joy in making return to the Master, saying, you gave Me a true portion of the Gospel, and in your spirit, look, it has grown. My faith has grown. These people whom I have persuaded into the kingdom, this work that the kingdom has done, Father, take joy in this, and there is a real sense in Christ, don't misunderstand me, there is a real sense in Christ that we will take joy in what is done in faithfulness for the kingdom now at the final day. all that you have given to me of your kingdom and of your gospel has increased." This is gospel increase, evangelical obedience, and faithfulness. And what does the master say? The master gives his well done, good, and faithful servant. And to which one of us would we dare say, I work for anything else but for that, that the master would say at the end, well done, good, and faithful servant. Then the servant welcomes him in, enter in, enter into the joy of the master. In other words, what makes the faithful happy? What gives the faithful delight? It is the delight of the master upon them. Do you see the mutual arrangement of that? He does not say, welcome into all the joy and happiness that you want apart from it. No, it's welcome to the joy of the Master. In other words, I am overjoyed to welcome you in. Come join in my joy. There's a mutual arrangement of this. And so, for those who are faithful, they are ever finding their joy in the joy of God. Is God joyful over what I am doing in the gospel? Then this also is what we might expect a return on at the final day. And then notice, again, I'm going to touch on all of these more in principle as we get to it. So we've seen the joy of the faithful on the Master's return, but as we still think of the Master's return, notice the strange truth of the wicked as they make this calculation, right? In other words, the wicked servant comes to Christ and he says something like this, all that you gave me to know of your kingdom and the gospel has done nothing. Here, you have what you have given. That's essentially what he's saying, right? I knew you to be a hard man. You gave me something. Here's all that was yours. I did nothing with it. It sat in a hole while you were gone. Right? So, notice this then. Okay, the truth is, is God a hard master? In Christ, no, and we'll see that more specifically. But the truth is, God is not a hard master, and those who truly receive the gospel know this. Yet it's also true, apart from faith in the gospel, God's wrath toward unfaithfulness is more than you can imagine. Do you see that? The servant thought of the master as a hard and ruthless master, and in the end, the master sends him away to a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. So there's a weird paradigm here in which what the wicked servant believed and what was untrue came upon his own head. The servant who believed the lie about who the master was found him to be all that he feared. So the principle put more plainly is this, or I could provoke you to come to the conclusion by asking you this, rather. What is added to those who have, right? Jesus lays this principle down. The one who has will be given more and he will have abundance. But to the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. What does the Master add to the one who already has? Well, in this, he rewards them with joy. He adds to them joy. And so from that, I take that added to their joy in serving is the greater joy of the master's pleasure. But to the one who has not, the one who has not joy but fear in what he is doing, the master takes even what little joy he had away in this treasure. So the principle might be something like this. To the one who has the true grace and fruit of the Spirit, even more will be given. It will abound. True grace continues to grow. It accrues. to the one who has not true saving knowledge, who has not the grace of salvation, even what he has is taken away. Though he may appear for a time to be, and may appear for the whole time to be a servant of Christ, yet at the end, he who has no true saving grace in his soul, even the blessing that he had is taken away. Now, let's draw some conclusions from this explanation. And to do that, oftentimes if Jesus uses a particular paradigm as a principle, and notice how Jesus lays this out, to the one who has, more will be given, and to the one who has not, even what he has is taken away. It leaves you a little bit perplexed for a moment. What is he talking about? Well, when you see something like that, we look for other pieces of that in the parable. What are some of these reversals that have taken place that we can press into? And the first thing I want to notice is that the greatest wickedness of the three servants, the one who was most wicked, the greatest wickedness was discovered by the smallest gift. It was the one who received the one talent who proved to be most wicked. And now, what is the principle there? Well, the principle is not, it is wicked to have little given to you, because God is a good judge. That is certainly not the principle. The principle that is laid here is this, the least gift is sufficient to convict of greatest wickedness. In other words, no matter how little God has given, it is sufficient to convict of great wrong. It is still entrusted, and God still expects return on it. Or, he who is faithless in the least may be found least faithful at the last. The second reversal that is a key to this parable is this. The one who had the least still lost all, and how great was that loss. Notice that. Even the least stewardship lost is great privilege squandered. even the least stewardship. Notice, even the least that he was given was something on the equivalent of a decade of a slave's wages. Imagine if your employer came and said, here, you may have all that you're going to make in the next 10 years, you may have it now. and he gives it to you, only the employer says, because it is mine and because I give it to you, I expect some return on it. And when he comes, there's no return and you lose all of it. The idea is, even the least bit given of the kingdom of heaven is still something of the kingdom of heaven. It's still something infinitely precious and valuable. And so even the loss of a little stewardship is great loss in the end. You may not be one who stands up and teaches often, or you may not be one who is able by providence to find many opportunities of evangelism, but even the stewardship you have, a parent to a child, or the stewardship of a coworker, or the stewardship of a small amount of money, even that stewardship, as it is connected to the kingdom of heaven, is of such great value and importance to God that its loss will be a great and total loss. As God removes you from the kingdom, so also you lose all that is there entailed. Thirdly then, not only is their great, sorry, not only is the least gift sufficient to convict of the greatest wickedness, even the least stewardship lost is great privilege squandered, and finally notice how the servant who knew the master to be hard found him hard in the end. That is, false judgments about God judge those who are false. Those who do not know the Master find Him to be a hard Master. In other words, would you be a faithful servant? Would you be a faithful servant of God? Know your Master. Know who you're serving. Think of it this way, OK? So now we're going to take these principles and try to apply them. God says, Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is something like this, OK? So how does the kingdom work? Given these principles that God is laying out, what is at play here in the kingdom? OK, well, first notice, no servant I'm sorry, first notice, even wicked servants appear to receive a portion of the kingdom. And this is fitting with what we've seen all along with these parables, right? With the wise and foolish virgins, they all had their lamps of oil. They all professed to know Christ. That is, they held up some light. But those who were foolish at the coming of Christ had their lamps gone out and there was no oil left because they did not consider that the time that was necessary to persevere in, and they did not have, as it were, a true measure of the Spirit in their lamps. So we made a distinction even then between the common work of the Spirit, where there are many who will respond, who will sprout up like the sower who plants the seeds, and much sprouts up, and yet they die and wither. There is a common work of the Spirit that brings some mild conviction in perseverance for a time. But true or special work of the Spirit is that which lasts to the end. Likewise here, notice he's saying, even the wicked servants appear to receive a portion of the kingdom for a time. They sit with us, they may sit next to us for a time, but in time, even if that time is when Christ returns, it is revealed who they really are. A small portion is something like a vain or false profession. This is the parallel between the two parables, right? The widows had less oil, the foolish had less oil than the ones who had more. And also here, the one with the least stewardship has reckoned the wicked. And so Jesus here gives some parallel or some indication that a false or vain profession is something like having little. The Spirit gives some true light, and as true light is no less precious, it's true, so the Spirit gives true light. Because it is true light, it's a true communication of the word, it's no less precious. Truth is being spoken. And so the Spirit gives freely. But nevertheless, there is a distinction between those who truly have what is given and improve on it and those who do not. So in this, then, we must reason through how does this work in the kingdom? Why do we choose? And this is a little bit of a question that I thought, do I go here, do I not? But I think it's important. So I'll lay it to you. And you wrestle with it. You look at it and see whether it is faithful. But why do we choose to talk about the kingdom here as those who are truly those who are a part of it and those who are not truly or never truly had what was there? Why do we choose to talk about it not only in terms of quantity, like, well, some have a little bit and some have a lot, and it's really just those who God gives a lot that comes. Why do we also talk about it in terms of true and false profession? Well, it's because of this. First, we believe in an actual atonement of Christ on the cross. That is, when Christ died, the death he died, he died to sin. So there is no person whom Christ came and died for who is not truly, totally redeemed. There is no one whom Christ came to save in the covenant of redemption that God has not truly redeemed. God's work is effectual. It causes to happen. And there we find all our confidence. There is nothing which must be added to God's work of atonement. It happens. Second, we must realize that we believe in the assurance of what is provided in this new covenant in Christ. We think of all that is spoken of in the book of Hebrews, how Jesus is the mediator of this covenant, and he is the one interceding for this covenant. He is the one who will plead the case of all he died for. Remember, think of that high priestly prayer. Jesus prays, all that you have given to me, I have kept, and he intercedes for them. That is, so those whom he died for are also those whom he pleads for. Those who are in true covenant union with God persevere to the end. There is no others who are there. And finally, as we think of this, there's an actual atonement, an actual assurance of the new covenant. There is also the witness of the church. As we welcome people into membership, and we also dismiss those who are not there, what are we saying? We are saying, yes, I see in you Christ. And there we find the witness of the church as bearing testimony to us. bringing a fuller and a greater assurance to us. We have assurance in Christ, and we have the witness of those around us which say, yes, I see Christ in your life. And so all of these things, the actual atonement, the actual assurance of the new covenant, and the witness of the church, all this means is that what the church professes, who we are, are the elect. We are the elect of God. This is what we profess. And that's, again, not to dismiss what Jesus is talking about in these parables. We know there are false people here, but we call them false for this reason. Whenever the apostles wrote a letter to the New Testament, they always wrote it to the elect, to the saints, to those who are called. the church always professes to be the elect in Christ. And so also, we must hold this very dear. We must say to one another, we must perceive every one of us who are in Christ here participating with us, especially in the Lord's table, we must perceive them as those who are elect in Christ. And nevertheless, Jesus does here give warning. He says that there are those who profess this and nevertheless will be found false on the last day. Wicked servants receive their portion in the kingdom as liability over stewardship. They receive it primarily as obligation over gift, and they receive grace as if it was law. It says like this. This is what the wicked servant says. You, God, demand more than you give. That is, you reap where you do not sow. You're expecting of me what I cannot make return on. But the righteous says, God, you have given me everything I need for salvation. And in that, I will live a faithful life to you. Secondly, the wicked knows God only from his law. And we must know God from His law. We must know His holiness. But the wicked knows God only from His law. That is, he does not recognize the fact that Romans 3.21 says, the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from the law. That is revealed in Jesus Christ. We must know God by his law, yes, but we must know the gospel, which comes to those who are dead under the law and makes them alive again. We must know that God has given us all that we need. We must know that he is a faithful master, and in this we find much joy. And this is, if you want to use technical words, right, the antinomian spirit, the one who wants to live without law, which here, the wicked servant is that kind, the one who lives faithlessly to the master. This spirit comes not from gospel, but from law. It receives grace as law. So these are the conclusions. To summarize again, the whole message is I understand this parable to be teaching is this, okay? Jesus is equipping his disciples for endurance until his return. And in this, Jesus would give you these three things. That is first, in Christ, God is not a hard master. Know and understand the gospel and know your master. Second, no one gets into heaven based on their own faithfulness. Nevertheless, there is a kind of faithlessness that leads to weeping and gnashing of teeth. We must not miss that point. No one gets into heaven because of their faithfulness. Nevertheless, there is a faithlessness, an indifference, a carelessness, a recklessness, a putting away of all that God has done, which will result, which leads to, which proves that they are deserving of weeping and gnashing of teeth. And thirdly, do you find yourself believing, this is a question, do you find yourself believing the gospel and trusting in Christ along for your salvation. That is, you're seeing Christ in the gospel, you're trusting him, and you're desiring to live a more faithful life, right? So you're resting in his work for salvation alone. You're not looking to add a single iota to anything in the equation of salvation. And yet, because of this gospel, because of great thankfulness in your heart, you want to live a life that is faithful. You want the master to say, well done, good and faithful servant. Here are some things that this parable urges us to do, okay? This is what he urges us to do, okay? First, don't try to whip yourself into obedience with the law. Know the law, know your guilt before it, put yourself on Christ, and say, Christ has given me all that is needed for justification. Flee to Christ, ask him for strength, and trust that he has not given you any temptation that you cannot succeed in. OK? So therefore, receive the kingdom as gift. That's what we're talking about, right? Two of the servants received, no matter how large or great, a portion of the kingdom as gift and as blessing. And the other one received it as liability to bury. Receive it as gift, and then be motivated by thankfulness and delight in Christ. OK? So in other words, this is how Christian motivation works. Gospel motivation, evangelical obedience. OK? Evangelical obedience always says, of course I cannot keep the law of Christ. Yes, I need Christ wholly for all of my salvation. And because Christ is my salvation, because he is my joy, because I can rest in him for salvation, I am joyfully engaging in all the duties that God has given me to do. There I find my joy because when I am weak, then I am strong. When I am faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. And I preach this even to my own heart this week. In other words, you can't buck sloth with slave. You can't make yourself more motivated by making yourself a slave in the sense of a slave to the law. You must always go to the law, see your wickedness, and go to your master and see his righteousness. See how he has made an utter and complete provision for it. And in that, with thankfulness, say, Father, help me to live a faithful life to you. I know that my faithfulness is not the ground of my salvation. Therefore, I want to live like Jesus lived. I want to be obedient to you. Lord, we thank you for this parable. We thank you for the way that your parables force us to consider things which we would not have otherwise wanted to consider. Theologizing, we often want to lean in one direction or another, emphasizing one thing or another. But here, your parable cuts to the heart. And it says, look, there is an indifference to the gospel, an indifference to the kingdom, an indifference to all the things that God has given, which leads to weeping and gnashing of teeth. And it stands as a strong warning in our hearts. And this we need because, Lord, we wait for you to return. And oftentimes, it seems like you are delaying. Nevertheless, Lord, we see in this all the glimmers, all the wonderful things that you have provided, a measure of the kingdom as free gift, the joy of entering into the master's work, the wonderful blessing of knowing the master to be a faithful and wise master who has not given us beyond what we are able to steward and has not tempted us beyond what we are able to bear. Lord, we thank you for the delight of knowing your gospel and of serving you in faithfulness. I ask that you would help us to be more faithful Christians as we look and eagerly await for your return. Help us, Lord, I pray in your name. Amen.