Audio Archive

Transcript

Well, good morning, brethren and sisters. Nice to be here with the Boston area again after so recently over here. This is quite a bonus for me. Well, this morning I thought we might look just for a few minutes at the parables, but in particular to look at the parables of judgment in Matthew 25. In this chapter here, we've got really three parables that bring our attention upon the aspect of accountability. And I guess with all of us in the truth, we have one great hope, and that is the wonderful coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, in which these vile bodies might be put aside and the glory of Yahweh's kingdom established throughout this earth. This is the hope of the believer. This is the hope of the person who says, right, I want something to happen to put an end to all this misery, this sin, this death in the world. And therefore, the expectation that we have for the return of the Lord is so very real. It must be real. Without that, we would be without hope. And therefore, as the apostle says, why would he want to be a believer if there's no resurrection and therefore eternal life? And so in the case of Matthew 25, it brings our attention now to look at the parables of judgment as the parables of accountability, the day of reckoning in terms of what we do as a relationship with what we receive. Now this does not of itself indicate that therefore one is earning salvation or salvation as a result of what we do as acts or performances, that is based upon the performance. That's not the case. What we do see in Scripture is that there is a relationship between what we do and what we receive. And though eternal life is not the reward, absolutely, for the works endured, let's say, of the saints of God who will therefore earn salvation, there can be no salvation earns, unlike the mystic views of the Judaizers at this time who believed that they could get their salvation from doing works of law. Now to ask when we understand the truth and perceive its value in our lives, there must be a relationship between what we think or what we are or what we do and what we expect to receive. And therefore this chapter here, in Matthew 25, reminds us of the point of accountability in terms of that relationship. Now in these three parables, we have parables, the first parable, verses 1 to 13, is the parable, the very commonly understood parable, of the ten virgins. And then the next of the parables really concerns the work of the talents. This is verses 14 to 30, the parable of the talents. And then we have, of course, in the same chapter, verses 31 to 46, we have the parable of the sheep and the goats. And this then reminds us of the way in which we relate now to the two categories that shall appear at the judgment seat of Christ. So in our session this morning, we plan to just touch on two aspects, or the aspects of parables here, in the parable of the ten virgins, the parable of talents, and then in our next class, next Sunday morning, to look at the parable of the sheep and the goats. So let's look, basically introduce this, and see the way in which the ten virgins really reminds us of two categories of people that are to be servants of the Most High God. Well verse 1 it says, Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like another ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Now the number ten, of course, is just a representative number. It's the number of ordinal perfection, the number which is the first cycle of completion of the digits. You get to nine, you get to ten, and then you start all over again. You go back to one, you see. And it reminds us of the fullness, the totality. So it really is talking here about the total number of the people of God that are called within his ecclesia. But within that category, as we know, there were two groups. Five of them were wise and five were foolish. Now the word wise here doesn't mean necessarily that the person is very old, as if wisdom only comes by disposition of old age. It has to do with a person who is being prudent and sensible. Someone who stops and thinks about the implications of life, what they're doing, what their relationship is to others, particularly the relationship to God. So it has to do with a wise person who prudently and sensibly directs his life towards the things of his master. Now the other group of the foolish ones, they were not those people who were unspiritual at all. They were spiritual people. They were members of the community of Christ, but nevertheless they were dull and sluggish. Now it didn't mean that they didn't have any bright mental ability at all. It simply meant that they were spiritually dull, and it's very easy to be spiritually dull. It's very easy to come along to the meeting week after week after week for 50 years plus and be spiritually dull, because it means we are not spiritually alert, thinking about the things we hear, chewing them over, looking at the implications and more particularly looking at the application of what we do with what we've got, with what we've learned, with what we've become and what we've not become. In other words, what we prevent happening in our lives. This has to do with a person who takes up his life with spiritual generation, sensible and prudent and bright for the truth, and the contrast is of course to do with a person who is spiritually dull and sluggish. So they don't really stop to think about the beautiful things that they're learning and chewing over as they come along week after week and be in touch with the word of God day after day, but rather they are also sluggish because they don't do anything about what they learn. However small they might learn it, they don't do anything with it and this parable, the whole of this chapter is about is about Christadelphians who have something but do nothing with it. A very good reminder to all of us. Well this is the two categories then, the five wise and the five foolish and they the foolish themselves, they took their lamps but they took no oil with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and they slept. Now here is a situation which represents the period of time when the bridegroom is away. Now we need to perceive the scriptural position of marriage, I think in terms of this parable here. The tradition, and though it's not really strongly written into scripture, you find lots of mentions of it going through scripture, but this was actually the tradition of marriage which was impregnated through the whole of the Jewish community and probably through the earliest days, since the days of Eden, it was the will of God in application concerning marriage. Now what would happen normally is that the father of the bride, the bride-to-be, the father of the bridegroom, they would come and negotiate a marriage contract. And in the negotiation of that contract, the father of the bridegroom would pay a measure of compensation to the father of the bride in order for her to leave his care, and of course his dominant role as the paternal welfare officer of his daughter, in order to gain her from that environment into the environment of his son. And this would be what was called the dowry that was paid. It's also called in scripture the price of redemption. So it has to do with the amount of nativity and obtain that woman for the husband, for the son of that father. So this was a tradition very, very strong and even in today's society, in many areas, it is still the tradition of marriage. The negotiation takes place between the parents, the two fathers. Now the normal thing that would happen then, there would be about a 12-month period of engagement or betrothal, during which time the bride would be trained and tutored by her parents as to how to be a good wife to the husband. The husband, who was to be shortly that bridegroom, he would be working now with his father in order to provide a house for the married couple. And then when the day came for the marriage to take place, the tradition was that the son of the father, he would go and on a long journey with his friends, which were the bridegroom's we might call it the best man or the attendant company for the bridegroom. They would go on this march and they would march over towards the house of the bride to be. And as they would go, there would be a herald standing at the home of the bride and saying, right, the bridegroom is coming. So now the bride with all her maidens and attendants would go out and meet the bridegroom coming. And then they would return to the bride's house for the festivities for the marriage ceremony to take place and for the feasting to take place. And then they would, sorry, that was not the full marriage feast, but there would be a community feast held there. And then they would leave on what was called a wedding march. And they would go on at some distance towards the house that had been prepared for the couple by the bridegroom and his father. And then there would be seven days of feasting at that house, after which, of course, all the company would leave and the company of the bride and bridegroom would now enter into their nuptials. And this would be now their private dwelling place. So that was the tradition, which even today in many communities, as we say, is very, very common. Now, this being the case, we can see this built into the parable here of the bridegroom and the bride. Now, Christ gives, of course, more than one parable about bridegrooms and brides. And he talks about the bridegroom going into a far place and coming again. And this all represents, of course, as it does Christ going to heaven to the right hand of God and then coming again. And you can see the parable to work its way through in the expression of Christ when he said, in my father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. So here he is speaking to the bride that in my father's house are many mansions. That means many rooms, not many big houses, but rooms in the sense of there is a multitudinous number of rooms for the multitudinous bride. And of course, that is the concept in scripture, isn't it? That the multitudinous bride makes up the bridal community of the bridegroom. So Christ has now gone to heaven to prepare the house in which there will be many rooms. And he will come again that where I am, that you will be also. So Christ has gone and with his father is preparing the house for the married couple. And hence Christ goes to prepare a place for you. And in that sense we see Christ preparing this great spiritual temple, of course, in heaven. And Revelation 21, he comes with that spiritual temple of the great building which represents the bridal community, the bridal establishment, the bridal institution, which shall all be established upon the mountains of Jerusalem, which will be like superimposed upon the great temple as the house of prayer for all nations, that shall be built there. So this gives us the background of some of this parable. So hence the bridegroom goes away to prepare the place. Now the virgins had to go out into the night. And in order to do this, during this period of Gentile darkness as we now live in, we must have a light that is burning brightly. Otherwise you can't see where you're going, and nor can you show anybody else where they're going. Without the light all is dark and all is lost. Now the foolish virgins, they took their lamps but they took no oil with them. Now this is the first lesson we really come on in this particular parable. The oil itself represents the word of God, doesn't it? Remember the oil of God is seen in Scripture as that olive oil that had to be beaten out, collected and beaten out by the men, the women and the children, and it had to be beaten into an oil substance. And then that oil was taken, given to the priest, and the priest used to daily order it on the lampstand, the menorah in the temple of God on the tabernacle. And that became the means whereby the priest having gone into the tabernacle or into the temple, the holy place, he would know what he was doing, he would see what he was doing, he would be enlightened in his work as a result of that lamp burning brightly in that holy place. And of course there were three items of furniture in the holy place, wasn't there? There was the lampstand that burned brightly, there was the table of showbread and there was the altar of incense right at the entrance into the Kaddash Kaddashim, the holy place. And this particular, this particular house here, the holy place represented the position we have today. That is, we as the spiritual priests of God are waiting to go in beyond the veil of mortality into the glorious holiest of holies, symbolized as heaven itself, and in order to do that we must serve as priests at the holy place. Now the lampstand represented the word of God, it was burning brightly, thy word is a lamp under my feet, a light to my path, you see. And that was exactly what the word of God had to be. So we have to gather the oil, we have to crush it up small, and then of course it becomes the burning bright light. The only means of showing is where we're going. And without light in this world from the word of God we are totally lost in darkness. Hence the moon also is taken up as a symbol of that light in scripture, because during Gentile darkness or the period of the night, it is the moon which is in fact representing the Ecclesia, which is reflecting the light off the sun, which is Jesus Christ that you can't see during the period of Gentile darkness, and that light is now reflected in the moon, and the moon shows the light on the earth. Without the moon there is no light on the earth in night and that's why the Ecclesia is like that moon. And therefore the moon as it tends to wax and wane, you know, it goes around a little sliver and then it goes to a big full bright moon, really represents the vicissitudes of Ecclesia life, doesn't it? You know Ecclesia gets strong, they get weak, and over a period of time the amount of light shining on the earth is going to be differing in terms of the amount of clear, viable, truth-giving witness that the Ecclesia is giving to the world around them. And in this way we can see how we have a responsibility to bear that light. But you see, that light really represents the fundamental teaching of the Word of God. If you like, it is the first principles of the truth. And we must have a lampstand in Boston, in Melbourne, wherever we might be, there must be a lampstand, and the Ecclesia's lampstand is its constant and bright witness for the Word of God. What the fundamental first principles of truth are as well as, by contrast, what it is not. And we have to often point out what the truth is not in terms of this rather distant Christian world because they have not really adhered to the principles of the one faith. And therefore we have to show the light as against, by contrast, the darkness. So we must show what the truth is as well as what it's not. But this represents the burning first principles of the truth. But how do we get those first principles of the truth? Well, you might say, okay, well, you can get it by reading something like maybe the declaration or some description by, well, maybe some of Robert Roberts' basic principle works pointing out the truth, Christ and the Mastrae. It might tell you what it is and what it isn't. That's true. You might get it from a summary of the one faith. You might get it from a book called What do they believe? They are the first principles. But you see, those first principles do not stand on their own. As if, well, I've now got the first principles and it's optional as to whether I get anything else. But the truth is, and if you read a book like Elpis Israel, I mean, Elpis Israel was a pamphlet for interested friends, wasn't it? It was written for people who were not Christadelphian Bible students. But when you read Elpis Israel, you will see it's about the fundamentals of the truth. This is true. But it is built upon the vast reservoir of the teachings of scripture from Genesis to Revelation. So from the reservoir of the Bible comes forth the first principles of the truth. And we can express it in three principles. We can express it in 23 principles. But however many principles you express the truth in, it's a revelation. Now, a lot of our young people who are baptized, of course, they need to express what these fundamental first principles are. But our young people have probably had, you know, 15 years of education in the truth before they're baptized. And that comes from a constant exposure to this word. In daily Bible readings in the home, in Sunday school classes each week, in attending Bible schools and youth camps and youth opportunities for learning the word, all of these things accumulate a concept. And that concept is simply expressed in the fundamental first principles that we would say are necessary in order for one to enter into the Christadelphian community as a measure of understanding and baptism. And we might express that in the BASF or some other documents that so simply tells us what those first principles are. But we must be very conscious that those principles as expressed will not simply stand on their own without constantly being resupported from underneath. In other words, it's out of the reservoir of the word of God that comes forth the meaning of those principles. And that's why constantly in exhortations and studies in the word of the truth in our community, we will go into study the word of God. After all, we've been given, you know, 66 books by God for that purpose. And in studying and meditating upon that, constantly we are saying, well, there you are. We see again the nature of man. There you are. We see again an aspect of the kingdom of God. There you are. You can see the aspect of evil, that there is no devil, that the devil is inside here and this is the power we've got to battle. So all of these aspects of fundamental first principles are underpinned by the constant feeding of them by our meditations on the reservoir of the oil. And that's the reason why it's most important that an ecclesia will not really maintain that strong bright burning lights unless it has a reservoir feeding it all the time. You can't live on first principles. And in scripture it's put rather like this, that first principles represent the milk of the word and you can't live on milk. A baby can for a short period of time but then by means of the growth of its body it has its spiritual senses built that it might be able to have the meat and the strong stuff of the scripture. And this is really showing us milk is quite insufficient to give spiritual growth to a body. For a baby, yes. A newborn babe on the spiritual principles of the truth needs but they then must grow till they can eat the meat. And if we don't get to the point of eating the meat the milk will go sour, it'll go off and it'll lose its meaning. And that is really the point of why the father said we have 66 books in here not just the statement of faith because all of this supports the first principles of the truth. So you see the foolish virgins believe that all they had to be was a Christadelphian, all they had to be was baptized, all they had to do was go along to the occlusal meetings constantly and never feed the first principles with the reserve of the oil of God's word. And that was foolish, very foolish. But yet as we see the wise ones took the oil and they took their reservoirs with them. Now of course at midnight the cry comes. Midnight it says behold the bridegroom comes go ye out to meet him. Now in the meantime however we have these virgins as they were involved in difficulties of human living and that is that they while the bridegroom tarried while he he wasn't there they all slumbered and they slept. Now I would suggest to you on the meaning of these words that slumbering relates to the first group which is the foolish. So it's something that relates to the first group which there was and the slept relates to the other group which were those that were foolish. Now in the sense of these two words a slumbering means to nod the head in weakness. You often see it over Sunday morning in the meeting you know we've had a real late ecclesial night Saturday night and you'll see the brothers and the sisters. The excitation was probably very good but it's just that the weakness of the flesh is very bad and you'll see you saw the head nod like that and also the neck goes up bolts upright like that and it goes down again up again and this is what it means to slumber. You nod the head in weakness you keep pulling it back because we say hey I must concentrate on this but the weakness of the flesh is driving you into a difficulty of concentration but the spiritual mind is pulling the chin back up again saying right try again and so you take on the matchsticks and you put in your eyes and you try and keep awake because you know it's importance. Now everybody gets caught like that. Uticus was caught like that. Remember when he fell down out of the top floor? That's because at this time that top floor was like a courtyard and when Paul was preaching the truth as he was in Assos at that time and he was giving an excitation that went on till midnight. I mean it was a long excitation expectedly but you see the lamps were burning the lamps were fires that were burning in that courtyard and the heat was rising you see and the higher up you sat the more heat you got and therefore the more sleeper you got and that was why Uticus fell out of the top window because he was sitting exposed where he could go off to sleep during the memorial meeting when it was a long excitation but as his name means he was fortunate that Paul was there and the power of God was there to revive him out of that slumbering action which of course eventually brought him down to the floor but that is the slumbering of a person who wants to hang in there but finds the weakness of the flesh very real. Now all of us are in that category. However the next category it says and those who slept really means to go cold out right out dead unconscious asleep and that represents those who've gone asleep on the truth. Well of how can you go about collecting oil using your reservoir building your meditations on the word of God if in fact you are asleep and we've got a lot of people in the truth you know who are spiritually asleep. It's the one who comes to the memorial meeting sits through the excitation and all the time is either asleep not interested or thinking about what they're going to do when they get out of the meeting so that we spiritually lose track of our meditations and our fellowship together around the word and with our Lord. Now that is that is the the foolish virgin but still a virgin that's the point still a virgin these are not the people who've gone out and prostituted themselves to the world they are still virgins they're at the meeting every Sunday there may be at even every Bible class but spiritually they're not switched on there's no one home nothing's happening the word is not growing germinating that powerful sword of the spirit that must constantly recognize items of fleshly deviation and domination in our spiritual hearts and get rid of them have battle against them go as a warrior and don't go to sleep on the truth so easy is it to become drunken in the things of this world and when you get drunk you don't sleep and this is a category of person that loses spiritual perception the battle is over it's not being fought the enemy's won the enemy's gone home but the person is still a virgin that's the important thing so it's talking here about a group of chrysadelphians and all of course chrysadelphians means brethren of christ i use this term because it's very good for the application to us but it goes down through time doesn't the brethren in christ the real brethren are the ones who have the real battle all the time to stay asleep in the weariness of this life and to get on with the constant sword of the spirit to battle away at the difficulties that surround us so these are the two categories that christ is referring to now at midnight the call goes out behold the bridegroom cometh now what does that represent it represents a time when as christ said to his own disciples watch therefore don't go to sleep don't go to sleep watch for the signs will tell us when the bridegroom is coming and of course we're living in very significant and momentous times in many many ways so many things happening telling us that christ return is near very near but yet this is the very time when we're in the darkest times of ecclesial history now is not the time when the ecclesia is noted for its protipitous active work of proclaiming the truth everywhere we have difficulty in getting teams together to go preaching the truth we have difficulty in getting you know a lot of people along to a preaching project our halls are much less full of a sunday night than they are of a sunday morning this is all showing us that though we live in a time of vibrant fulfilling a bible prophecy we still face the difficulties of an ecclesiast the tanny to go to sleep because that's the way in which the suffer if it will we live in leans upon us take it easy do what comes easy you know have a relaxation is most important don't get too involved or too hyped up tense with with life just take it easy and we can end up taking it easy in the truth too to the point where our dedication is constrained but the call goes out behold the bridegroom comes because of all the signs around us will tell us look the lord's coming is so near and this time is not yet here i don't believe i don't we have lots of signs telling us he's coming but i think we have a period of time coming when the signs are going to be more worrisome to us in the sense that lawlessness is going to grow darkness is filling the earth i think we're coming to a stage when at midnights in other words it must be the darkest hour of the night midnight you know between sunrise and sunset if you go back on the continuum you come to midnight the darkest hour of the night and this represents the world when it is most sinful when the light of god's word is least seen maybe within the household as well as outside but what it does represent is a time when there is fear and insecurity and we may well yet see that emerge before the christ returns one of the signs he gives us particularly as we know when he writes to timoth he talks about the time when there would be violence and aggression and lawlessness and no love this is a worrisome time coming and yet in that dark period we can say surely with all the signs around us everywhere negative and positive signs christ coming is very near well this is the moment he talks about behold the bridegroom is coming and the virgins arose and trimmed their lamps now this means that the the wise virgins those who can trim their lamps are those who can you know get the wick get all the the graphite sort of solution the carbon off the wick you trim it up you then refill your your lamp with from the reservoir in your hand and it again begins to rightly and so it represents a time when in the darkness of that hour the wise ones are going to make sure that those first principles of the truth are burning brightly what happens in the case of the others the foolish says to the wise give us of your oil for our lamps are not gone out it's in the present participle there they are going out now what's this represent here are the group of those attached to the ecclesia and have been maybe for 50 years of those have simply gone along under first principles they have not underpinned the first principles with the depth of understanding those qualities of spiritual endurance that we get not by reading a list of rules but by perceiving the qualities of christ and of his servants as we must have them to endure the difficulties and trials and the tribulations of an insecure world and unless we have that burning brightly we shall not be able to survive it and then this group of the foolish ones say to the wise give us of your oil but it almost seems as if it's uncharitable of the wise to say no you can't have any of ours you know we want our own you can get your own you know it sounds like that sometimes the problem it's not really what it's saying what the wise are saying when they are asked the wise replies and look not so lest there be not enough for us and you but go rather yourselves to them itself and buy for yourselves what it's saying here is not the fact that this this why the wise people were so conservative they they would not fear to be left under their own supply at all by giving to others it sounds uncharitable doesn't it i mean if we are a self-sacrificing group of people and we give up our own lives for christ and for others then why wouldn't we give up our own oil because there's a principle at stake here and there's a fundamental application it's describing the brother and sister who during the time of their occupation in the truth have built up their understanding of this word they're built up not only understanding but remember understanding gives wisdom it gives perception it gives application this applies to a group of people who've taken that word the oil of god's word and they have constantly burned brighter and brighter in the sense that the greater understanding of god's character has reached their hearts and their minds and their hands and that brethren or sisters takes time and if you get a brother or sister running around insecurely saying i'm so afraid i don't know what i don't know what's going to happen my family is all falling apart my children haven't come to the truth and a whole series of things have happened as a result of neglecting the word of god now in those circumstances when trials become great what do you call on where is the strength of character to take us through those difficult days well one thing's for sure as the provost has often said you can't put an old head on young shoulders and you can't put a spiritual head on young shoulders that have not yet learned how to think in spiritually perceptive terms you can transpose a mass of knowledge into somebody's head like that and say now they're all there's all the wisdom that you you're wanting it doesn't happen that way can never happen that way knowledge is data data has to be processed in order that it becomes meaningful then the meaningfulness of that data has to be seen in a practical application to make it workable in the sense of a spiritual life now that is a process of time it's a filtration process it's a building process it is a maturation process and in the same way that you can't put the little apple seeds in the ground and say right apple tree grow i'm going to watch you growing nor can you say here's the word of god get all the wisdom of maturation spiritually that could come in five minutes of time never happens that way growth is a process of time maturation is a process of distillation and as we constantly grow in the truth from the first principles of the milk of the word eventually to the meat of the word the spiritual growth of that individual is maturing and it's the maturity that's important until you grow up unto the measure of the man in christ jesus remember the words of paul when he talks about it in ephesians chapter four you know until you come into the into the fullness of jesus christ that's maturity that's growing on the reservoir of oil turning first principles into fundamental foundations of belief and understanding now that you cannot give to anybody you can't transfer a spiritual mind like that it's years decades of growth so you see in the darkness of the night when fear and security surrounded the foolish who all the time they really went to sleep on the word of god instead of collecting the olives and grinding up the oil and burning the oil brightly they were unprepared for the urgency of the darkness of the moments so all the wise virgins could really say was look i've spent my life on this immersing myself in the oil of god's word look that's where you got to go you got to go there that's where it's sold doesn't cost you much money in fact but that's where it's sold and that's where you have to get from look get down to the word prepare your heart and mind for the the insecurity of these days and the darkness of this night and you see that part cannot be transferred that part must be obtained by oneself individually and that's very important you know for often sisters in the truth too who might think well the study of the words and meditation the word is not important for them because they don't do any speaking this word of god is not here to make speakers it's to make their sharers who will share what they know with others with whoever they speak but it's not like a training for toast masters club or something it's not here for what we're going to say on a platform it's here for what we're going to say to our hearts what we're going to share with one another and those outside that's where the oil is and unless we get it in that process sisters as well as brethren they will not be prepared i mean when we get to the judgment seat and we all have to come before the lord jesus christ the sister is not going to say to christ will you ask my husband he's got all the knowledge i mean the sister must stand in her own integrity before her own god to her peculiar qualities and characteristics and the work that she has to do in the work of the truth that's her responsibility and if she doesn't have the oil how can she answer the lord so all of us have an individual though a collective responsibility to feed one another so on the day of judgment this critical time coming the bridegroom is coming the word of god is going out the sound shall go out behold the bridegroom is coming will we be ready well we can't suddenly say well i must look up these chapters of the prophecy to see what's going to happen in the world i don't know anything about the kingdom of god i really only know he's coming it's going to be set up but i don't know how it's going to be set up and i don't know what's going to happen to me and my children these things take time and that reservoir must be looked at to feed that bright light of the first principle standards the word of god that we must all be doing individually and collectively as an ecclesia in the area where we live and that's vitally important as an involvement for virgins so the foolish virgins go off and they're being ill prepared they scatter around and they try to get some sort of spiritual mindedness into themselves but behold the bridegroom comes they're not ready they just are not ready the spiritual mind that must stand behind the fundamental first principles is now lacking they have gone off and while they go off to try and prepare themselves behold the bridegroom comes they go into the great wedding and the door is shut and afterward comes running along the other foolish virgins saying lord lord open to us open the door but he answers and says really i say unto you i know you not now he says i know you not in response to their proclamation or acclamation open the door but you see they don't know christ so how can christ know them they don't know christ because they have never spent time at his feet with their ear pinned to his mouth to listen to listen to the qualities of the mind of the son of god and if they don't have those qualities in their mind how can they have them in their being they don't know christ i mean know him in the sense of of a scriptural knowing to experience to know by experience they don't know christ so christ will respond in kind i don't know you and that was the dark and the sorrowful moment at the end of it all and the reason why christ says in the parable watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour in the son of man does come because the darkness is getting darker but at that critically dark moments that's the time when we our exposure shall be known when our unpreparedness shall be revealed and when the spiritual mind will clearly not be there so really that's a very important little parable to remind us all to constantly feed on the oil of the word of god that's what feeds the meaningfulness and the constancy of the first principles of the truth without which we shall not be ready for christ's return so that's a parable of judgment a very meaningful one that reminds us of just how important it is as an ecclesia to make sure that the first principles the light burn from the word of god and it's well said that how can ecclesias have fundamental progressive outworking programs of proclamation if they don't have good bible classes to get the word of god to turn it into a conviction to go out and spread it a bit like a profane proverb used today in the business world a company either grows or it fails can never stay the same size fundamentally we're the same people we either go backwards or we go forwards we can't stay the same people we were when we're baptized we can't be a peter pan and fail to grow old or grow foolish or grow wise we must move we move up we move down but where we move depends on the quality of the mover and in this case it's the oil of god's word that must burn brightly in our hearts every day fed by the reservoir of spiritual perception and understanding that gives us the vitality of our spiritual beings without that we will not want to preach we will not want to go out and share the word with brothers and sisters we won't have anything to we'll run out of things to say and we'll start going backwards like the proverbial recession country and that is a real problem it's a problem to our community it's a problem to the world we must grow there is no room for stagnation and here was stagnant to virgins who were still virgins but stagnant virgins they didn't get on with the growth and therefore the reservoirs were not there warning to all of us i'm sure the parable itself stands in its stead as a fundamental principle of spiritual life and therefore our next session next sunday morning we'll look at the next part of the parable that's got another meaning more important again for us as an ecclesiastical thank you

Transcript

Well good morning everyone. Everybody's a little more refreshed at least an hour extra in bed this morning so we should be extra alert this morning. Well brethren and sisters, last week we introduced the parables of judgment in Matthew 25 and we looked at the theme that we have there of the ten virgins and looked at some of the wonderful excitations and some of the expositions of Christ concerning the theme of the virgins there and this morning we want to look now at the next of these parables which is dealing with the parable of the talents and then perhaps we'll just touch finally on some aspects of the the sheep and the goat parable which occupies only a very small part of course in the verse 32 of this chapter but nevertheless he builds a whole scenario of judgment of ins and outs and acceptables and non-acceptables about that judgment so let's just review this for a while this morning in the time we have together to see what we can learn from the precious word of life well verse 14 to verse 30 is the parable of the talents now you recall that the basic message we had in the earlier verses verses 1 to 13 was really outlining for us the responsibilities we have for gently feeding ourselves with the word to build up the reservoir by which the first principles of the truth stand so that was really the excitational value that I'm sure emerged to all of us from our Lord's words here now we move to a different kind of theme now and in this section of the parables incident to the parables themselves by the teaching of Christ have a very clear thematic study going through and they start chronologically with his teaching with the sowing of the seed the spreading of the seed the word of the gospel and then over a process of time of course that seed grows and grows good seed grows bad seed grows wheat grows tears whatever it might be so in the beginning the first part of all the parables is the sewing and the final parables are these parables were looking at here the parables of judgment so there's the installation and eventually there is the final evaluation of what has grown what quality what quantity has come forth and so now we see a measure of examination of the quality and quantity of what has come forth and is put forth here in the case of the virgins it's a preparation as a virgin and the quality of the virgin would be preparedness of the virgin and the virgins ability to survive the dark hours of the night and here we look now in the terms of the talents as what we do with what we've got but it's important to note that we must not confuse this word talents with the human capacity to have a talent to something the talents here represents a weight of money it was always a silver piece of money that's what a talent was and in our case when we now talk about our particular aptitudes or particular abilities skills training background whatever it is then they are capacities as they're not talents by this parallel we might have talents by which we exercise that capacity but that's not what this parable is talking about so don't confuse that English word you know have a capacity as to to the value of the talent as a measure of money and it was a measure of silver and it was the Lord's talents that he gave to us to work with and that talent was given to us according to our capacity so it's a different thing we'll see that as we go through anyway okay verse 14 he says the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a fire country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods now when you see this expression the kingdom of heaven is likened unto you can't say that well okay now the kingdom of God has come and now this is the kingdom of heaven Christ's return now he's going to give to people talents that's not what it's saying that's not the sequence of events that he's talking about when you look at any of these parables is really saying the whole of this story is an aspect of the workings of the kingdom of heaven and in this case it's not a part of the kingdom of heaven at all it's really telling us about preparation for instruments that will be evaluated at the time when the kingdom of heaven is put together and remember the putting together of the kingdom of heaven is bringing many features from diverse quarters and placing them in one location right Jesus Christ is in heaven the laws are in heaven the citizenships in heaven we are well in this case in America a few thousand miles away from where the kingdom is going to be in Israel but the land is over there and the Jewish people are over there and right under the ground are all the saints that are going to come out and be part of that kingdom so you see there's things in heaven under the earth and in the earth that is the way in which the scripture describes it and all these things are part of the kingdom of heaven but they're not together so there is no existing kingdom of heaven yet but the elements are there we are and hope by the grace of Yahweh we are part of the kingdom of heaven but we're not there yet it's not yet been put in and installed all these elements have not been brought together on the production line to make that final product of the kingdom of God in its installed sense so when he gives us these parables he's talking about aspects of preparation for and he's not saying this is a definition of just it's important to note that because otherwise we'd have a very confusing picture of what the kingdom of heaven supposed to be like the timing and the preparation would all be most different so looking here he says the kingdom of heaven is like this it's like the whole of this parable not just the first verse so he talks about the fact that he called his own servants together his servants of course are always his bond slaves those who belong to Jesus Christ in the sense of belonging to a Lord a total Lord who owns us 24 hours a day and even the hours we're sleeping so you know this is what the Lord is and we are his servants we are bond slaves we're not nine to five people who work under certain skilled working conditions and we have our own union to support our contentions it's not that area of work this is service total bond slaveship which is how we serve our Lord so to his servants he delivers under them his goods now these goods were in the first century of course the power of the Holy Spirit but it also represents the fact that that the power of the Holy Spirit was there for creating spiritual gifts and spiritual fruits hence we don't have the power of the Holy Spirit but we have the edifice which the power of the Holy Spirit built so in effect the workings of what we see in the New Testament scriptures there and the great activities of the Apostles were activities that were related to the creation of the spiritual environment from which and by which we accumulate spiritual qualities the spiritual minds right now all of this you know the Apostle describes a lot of it into the Philippians he talked about these you know qualities of mine didn't he knew that the fruits of the Spirit they're beautiful you know a mind of humility loveliness and and kindness and a spiritual mind all these are gifts that come from God of course they are but they started they kicked off in the apostolic age with the Holy Spirit power and therefore that provided the basis of teaching and learning and understanding that is recorded for us in the New Testament well that's what these goods were and under one he gave five talents to another he gave two and to another he gave one and he says to every man according to his several ability and straightway took his journey now this means that he's giving talents a talent was the largest Hebrew weight for metals it could be measured in either silver or but was most commonly measured actually in in the silver so therefore this involves the knowledge of the word pertaining to the kingdom however manifested or ministered and therefore it has to do with the talent as the word of life the precious understanding of the kingdom of God and the measure of that understanding seen in the way in which we preach it perform it do it share it live it so this is what it has to do with now let me go through that again it might be slightly confusing to to pull that into one particular concept it has to do with the fact that it's the knowledge of the word of God that we have pertaining to the kingdom however manifested or administered so if you get that idea it's it's our understanding of these things it is our now that must be given to us in terms of our facilities that can handle it's if you like it's a complete software program with all the database and all the techniques of using something and we've got to find a computer that will cope with that now if the computer only has x-byte capacity then we can only give it x amount of software and systems into that computer I'm talking this most of us almost know what that means that our kids are teaching us and we find that we've got to have a facility for acting on the information put into us and that has to do with the several abilities that a person has so everybody in the ecclesia has a specific defined according to God a defined ability and that ability is the capacity that we have to work with what God gives us to work with okay now this doesn't put value on necessarily different jobs in the ecclesia is not to say that the exhorting and lecturing brethren or the arranging brethren are better they've got a more important job to do not to say that at all the the brethren and sisters in the meeting who might perform what might be considered more humble tasks are just as important in every way and the value of this is that in terms of the gift that is given and the reward that is given concerning these parables the power of the talents the reward is identical now you'll notice this for instance in verse 20 his Lord sent unto him now this is the man on this occasion who had the ten talents he says his Lord said unto him well done thou good and faithful servant thou has been faithful over a few things I'll make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy thy Lord and exactly the same words are said to he who had the two talents rather in verse 23 now there's a slight different reading there in the authorized version but I can I can assure you in the Greek it is identical so the reward and the statement of reward and the judgment on the matter concerning the two talents as against the man who had of course the five talents not the ten talents but the five talents so whether you had two or five it didn't matter the reward was the same that was the point so the respective capacities that we must have are those with which we were born now that's important those with which we were born so that capacity represents if you like the ability of a person to be able to use the gift of the word of life the gift of understanding the gift of the knowledge of the kingdom of God in their lives and even if they work 24 hours a day that capacity would not increase it's what we happen to have been born with and that in effect is also not not leaving out the divine hand in these matters nor our calling is what God intended for us to have not just an accident of genetic accidents all right now that's what we're starting with now he says and he that had received the five talents in verse 16 he went and traded in the same really he's working within this world he traded in the same and he made other five so he went and traded and this word traded here is that is the Greek word ergozomai which of course means energy you know it's ergonomic it's the energy so he labored he labored in those talents to bring forth another five so as you can see he had five to match his capacity and therefore he produced another five so he ended up with ten but now that was proportionate to his capacity a very important point of the lesson and he that had received the one and said or likewise he that had received two he gained another two right so again his achievement level in terms of spiritual growth within himself and what he was able to foster amongst others was proportionate to his capacity and what he'd got to start with he got to his capacity was a two he was a two-talent capacity he produced another two now the one the one person who'd received that one talent because that capacity was not so great he went and he digged in the earth and he hid his Lord's silver that word their money incidentally is silver in the Greek so it tells us that this is a silver talent and silver you'll also recall is in fact the the metal of redemption in Scripture isn't it a bit like you know you under the law you had the blue and the red there was God and there was man and in the middle there was purple you see and that was a mixture of the red and the blue and that meant the color of redemption it's where God and man got together son of God son of man had represented Jesus Christ as the redemption from to bring man acceptable be to God to create a unification and reconciliation here now with the metals it was rather similar there was gold on the one hand which represented of course the great triad faith belonging to God and there was brass or copper the base nature of flesh on the other and in the middle there was silver the sort of conjunctive metal bringing the two opposing metals together so this is rather represents a lovely picture of redemption and reconciliation in the center so again this money this silver represented the word of redemption and of course that's exactly what it is as we come this morning to to surround this word around this word we surround ourselves with the gifts of God with his wonderful knowledge we come and fellowship in the memorial meeting together and this is all the word of redemption isn't it we this is a process of redemption we see its need we love its comments we love the the wonderful gifts and the wonderful promises that are held out for us we love the things of God so we're in the process of redemption so the one that received one talent went and noticed this hid his notice that point it's not his money that he hid it was his Lord's money that he hid and now we have to work out exactly what this is really saying well so the he that received five talents and he brought the other five and he said that delivers to me five talents this is verse 20 he said behold I've gained on them another five talents more and of course now the Lord repeats to him those wonderful words of faithfulness he said to him well done good and faithful servant thou has been faithful over a few things I'll make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord now notice what he said to this man he said look you've been faithful now that's what it was it was faithfulness was the virtue and remember faithfulness is nowhere near perfection or righteousness or being an absolutely perfect Christadelf in this has nothing to do with sinlessness it has nothing to do with the fact that a person doesn't have failures and personal failures and heaps of them and there might be many personal flaws in that person flaws of character that may have taken 20 years or even 50 years to try and deal with in terms of flaws of character it didn't matter that was not important it was not the issue successful in this in righteousness was not the issue the issue was he labored right that's the first thing he put in his energy he sacrificed himself he worked hard at it at the job that he was given it wasn't that he succeeded in doing everything he did besides success doesn't belong to us it belongs to God because in fact God is working through us to achieve his purposes we are not the achievement machine we sow the seed God gives the blessings God gives the rain the sunshine he nurtures his own seeds so the successfulness of repentance all around the world is not due to our work it's due to our sowing of seeds everything else takes place in the quietness of Yahweh's own working with the minds and hearts of individuals so this doesn't concern us and nor does it concern the parable what was concerning was this that as a result of his injection and laboring in that word it was not how many people he converted how many sinners he brought to repentance it was how much he grew in himself as a result of all of those things that were happening to him so within that word that word as it worked within him he labored in that word in his own heart and his mind and his soul and his strength for the things of God sometimes that meant sitting by the side of his of giving her comfort and consolation for days and weeks on end that that was laboring in the words as much as going out and preaching it on television or anywhere else so really it was laboring in the things of that word of redemption that was important it meant sitting down at night doing the readings chewing them over afterwards you know it takes us approximately half an hour if we're reasonably efficient in doing the daily Bible readings we can say yes I've done the daily Bible readings today we close the book up we turn on the next television program or we go out and do something else you know the readings themselves are not what creates benefit not just doing the readings in fact it can have an adverse effect with the wrong attitude because we can be really interested in saying I know what this chapter says I've read this 50 ,000 times a bit of an exaggeration but that's sometimes how we feel we know it so we close it up but that's not doing the readings as God intends it what Yahweh wants of us is to read that and chew it over think about it and if you got any children in the room with you help them chew it over think about it look what it's saying make some comparisons bring out the power of that word look at the lessons for us today what lesson do we learn today which will help us in the battle against the flesh what things are we going to take out of this message so we can do the readings but never labor in the word we're going to just flash through it like reading the morning newspaper what's the weather going to be like what are the readings today they can come in the same moment of breath and we can think as little about them too as we do about the weather pattern do we get outside and see whether the prediction was actually right or not and so here we see a position where the laboring is not necessarily the quantity of work the kind of work or the exposure of the hours of duty exposed you know it's not the hours of duty we're putting in it's what the heart is putting in it's what the soul is putting what the mind is putting what our strength is putting into it all of those things will have an effect upon us as to how much we grow and nurture and and fulfill those fruits of the spirit so it has to do with what we labor in what we do now therefore he says to the one who brings forth the two talents Lord I've labored and and here's another two talents this has been my capacity and then in verse 23 he's receives exactly the same words but notice the virtue is not success it is faithfulness and when he talks to him he says oh you've done a great job no that's not what he says he says you've been faithful over few things few things and that's true isn't it if we really note what our surely to be honest we'd have to say we're faithful over few things but you see now is not the time for great building and success there are no monumental spiritual monarchs on the earth right now what we are doing is laboring in this word that faith might work it's causing us to bring forth works and fruits meet for repentance that the word grows in us it's faith that saves not success and therefore we are declared righteous sinless when in fact we have never been so because that is the gift of God to a faithful person and therefore whether we've had a lot of ability or lesser ability it doesn't matter it's what we've done with what we've got it's the same with our knowledge of the Word of God if we've been young in the truth we are young in the truth and we're doing a lot with what we've got then that's what God wants but if after 50 years we haven't got any more than what we had after the first year in the truth we have a big problem and it's that problem to which this parable is directing okay let's come look now at the problem of the of the one-talented man in verse 24 then he which had received the one talent came and said Lord I knew you that you were a hard man you reaping where you hadn't sown gathering where you hadn't strawed and I was afraid so now here's the context of this man with the one talent he saw God only as severe demanding success wanting too much expecting too much he didn't see the mercy of God this was the Judaizer who sort of related directly that what I do must produce success and if it can't produce success then what I did was no good at all it's the one relationship of a man who thinks only in terms of achievement levels and I think we have to divorce ourselves completely from the value system of the work ethic in our society to in order to understand this is not the success levels it's important it's the labor of the heart and soul towards the faithfulness of the things of God that have a big effect upon our characters and quality of living what we think about God and what we think about others and what we do towards others so he said I was afraid this really belongs to that category that we read off in Revelation 21 verse 8 you know the fearful and unbelieving he was afraid of his Lord and he said I hid thine talent in the earth and lo here thou hast what is thine you see here's the man who says Lord you really did expect too much of me you know that you gave me a job to do but Lord you didn't give me the the great capacity genetically at my birth to handle this work as I wanted to do it I wanted to be as successful as that other brother or that other sister over there you gave them more capacities than you gave me why did you do that Lord's a questioning of God's a judgment made on quality of the Lord himself and the Lord simply said he gave him one talent that's all he gave him he was only a one talent machine he gave to him something that he could do a lot with according to his respective capacity but this man said no Lord you expected to sow this seed in me but you wanted too much when it came to harvest it he said you're a hard man sowing where you hadn't gathered we as he says that has not sown you're gathering where that hasn't strawed you expected too much of me basically that's it Lord you expected too much of me you know this is the cop-out isn't it it's the brother or sister who sit back and envy and a jealous maybe jealous maybe quite put out that they don't have all these skills of capacities that other brethren and sisters have to do so many different things and to be able to labor and create so many beautiful outworkings and to be able to teach so many people the truth or to be able to give so many talks in the ekklesia or to be able to share so much work out there to those people desperately needing help and aid of a personal sucker and so this person sits back and grizzles and grumps and groans that God didn't give that person as much ability because he can't come out in the frontline and say I'm as the rest of them so instead of feeling that he gets a self-image problem a self-spiritual image problem that is no good and therefore he pines away in particularly his own self-deceit which really is a problem of a self-image factor that he can't see himself as important to God so he virtually says God you wasted your time but really you gave me a talents well I've still got your talent Lord I've hid it in the earth and the earth is well and truly a very good description for the flesh isn't it he hid it in the flesh he took his talents he wrapped it in a napkin to preserve the talent because that was you know that's his down payment on eternal life so he now puts it away and he does nothing because in his mind if he couldn't do it and success as successfully as others and shine his great lights up in a neon sign and say this is me I've arrived look what I've done you can all look at me now and be proud of me because he he felt that he couldn't do that he went into a period of you know self-enclosure got depressed got depressed and got all all thing about the other people that around him that were better than he was so he had a self-persecution complex but he wanted to hang on to his his his deposit on eternal life hey I've been baptized I'm christened off and that's my rights to eternal life and the Lord answers him and he says look you do mean to say that I was this sort of person he says that wicked and slothful servant it actually in the parallel record just dealing with it with the the pounds a slightly different parable and with different meanings too but there it says out of thine own mouth will I judge you that's the one in Luke 19 out of your own mouth will I judge you in other words I'm going to take your logic your philosophy and I'm going to turn it back on yourself so I'll use your logic and I'll judge you with your logic he says thou wicked and slothful servant do you mean to say that you knew I reap where I sowed not and gather where I hadn't strawed that's a question it's a question there the Lord's not like that he doesn't gather where he hasn't stored he doesn't try to wheat reap where he hasn't sowed this was a false accusation against the Lord and therefore he says you mean to say that I was this sort of person reaping where I hadn't sowed gathering where I hadn't stored question my well he says what you should have done is you ought therefore to have put my money to the exchanges and then at my coming I should have received my known with usury what's he mean there he's saying look if that was your attitude if you think I was asking too much of you then what you should logically have done is given over your responsibilities however small they were back to the money changes now who are the money changes perhaps you might like to have a go at answering that one who were the money changes the money changes is actually the bank and where is the bank now remember we've all got lots of the Lord's money we've all got it in silver the word of redemption so what's the bank represent sorry your mind yes that it's our minds it's a man but that mind has got one or five or two talents now when you put all your money together what have you got and a cliche exactly we got an ekklesia haven't we here is the bank here this morning to the Lord's money is all here this morning and it's in the ekklesia so for the brother who says our Lord you expected too much of me I only had one little humble job to do and you wouldn't give me any big and glorious jobs to do so you expected really too much of me and so the Lord says well why didn't you give over your responsibilities to the bank to the ekklesia and just get out just give it up let them do your job for you if you think I asked too much for you you let them do do my job they'll do your job they'll do my job and what's more they'll do it everybody else's job too if they need to because they're my servants they're working they are laboring they are sweating in my work you never sweated with anything I had nor anything you did for me you didn't raise the slightest perspiration on your forehead you'd have sat down buried my work and let it go and did nothing to accumulate the spiritual qualities of my heart in your mind in your soul in your strength and so the Lord made it very clear take therefore the talent from him and give it under him which has got ten talents that's often the way it is isn't it you know if you want anything done give it to a busy man it's really the laboring horses that do all the work that's the qualities that we need in the truth so therefore this is a great warning of the Lord Jesus Christ not to the great leaders in ecclesial life that have their own problems to have to cope with and we know what they are very well we know how easy it is to become self-important self -righteous powerful to become manipulative of others there are all sorts of problems associated with leading brethren they got their own problems to deal with and of course the scripture develops a great length of lessons upon this you know be not many don't strive to be masters in the ecclesial assembly the lessons are all there for all of us in this regard but this is a lesson single doubts for that humble brother or sister that doesn't have a lot of capacity and they go through life with a chip on their shoulder that they don't so they sit down and do nothing that is the tragedy of it and that's what the Lord addresses here so the person who sits down and does nothing is saying in effect to Christ all you expect too much from me Christ but you haven't given me the capacity and I'm all chipped off because I haven't got the capacity to do things that others can do there's a pioneer way a resentment of other brethren with or sisters with more capacity a resentment of the success that might be seen in the headlines by others but as Paul said I know how to handle praise I know how to handle abuse too that doesn't worry us but sometimes if a brother is praised for something or he's given respect for something others come on side become envious of that and so a problem sets up this is the lesson for that category so the brethren sisters in this parable is a very important lesson for us all we've got to do the most of what we've got and in effect how do you know what your capacity is until you've reached the limit there was an older proverb established probably seen in this country is actually a writer in this country had used it called the Peter principle it was a professor Peters that said that what we often do in in our society is in corporations and government offices we keep promoting a person until we can see they can't do the job any longer so we don't promote them any higher but we don't know they can't do the job till we've promoted them to a job where their incapacity is demonstrated so they stay in a job where in fact they're not coping with it because we can't sack them and we can't demote them you see this is an old problem called the Peter principle we're elevated we are promoted to the level of our incompetence that's a problem in corporations with God is not such a problem of course but to us we can often say well I don't have any capacity or I have huge capacity how do we know if we don't ergozomai how do we know if we don't labor in the word that's a problem we put limitations on ourselves because we don't want to be put to inconvenience because we don't want to get out there and tough it out and realize in the end that everybody else is getting more praise than what we are and that therefore forces somebody to say well I won't do anything I won't expose myself to be criticized I want to expose myself to so that my work is compared with someone else and I always come up you know having the least praise this is a person who saw about his own self-esteem what we are important to God is the only important thing that matters our importance to Yahweh he is our father he's the one we're working for what others think about us around us does not matter it's what the father thinks that is all important when the Lord Jesus Christ returns he will bring back that reward with him so the message is labor on ergozomai we will find out our limitations won't we and then we have to learn to work and live within those limitations and all of us have limitations remember the brother that we might say has tremendous capacities and he goes out the front line and he's doing an awful amount of work he's achieving a tremendous workload and he's he's able look he can get by with any four-hour sleep a night this is marvelous he lives with four I wish I could only get by before I sleep tonight and he says I could do so much more work if I didn't have to have so much sleep we've been yet probably an average of four hours this week but nevertheless we can go short periods with little sleep but we we need certain amount of sleep but some need ten hours some even need twelve hours sleep a night others need you know four or five and they're fine and often this becomes a point of comparison how do we know our capacities how do we know what the Lord can achieve in us unless we're laboring to reach that achievement level when we can see that we can't go any further we'll accept it we'll accept it after all that becomes part of our capacity and the Lord does not expect more than us than what we can give and that's important okay just finally just a word on the sheep and the goats in the next parable verses 31 to 46 we have the judgment seat together we have the sheep and the goats together and we have the Lord sitting at on his judgment throne here with all the holy angels with him and before him in verse 32 as gathered of not all the nations as if you know is the nation of the USA and Australia and Canada all put together you know it's not that at all it's of all nations this is the people called out of the nations for his name so it relates to this to the people accountable for judgment and it has to do with the brethren of Christ both those that are righteous brethren those who are unrighteous brethren and that third class of course those who are accountable for judgment on account of the light of knowledge well he now says he divides them as a sheep does the sheep from the goats he said the sheep on his right hand the goats on his left now I just like to make one small point here at the judgment seat of Christ can you imagine what a horrific experience it would be if everybody accountable for judgments were thrown into a great corral I mean a corral a huge area at the judgments it would I mean it whether it's in the region of Sinai or elsewhere let's not go into that but the point is there's a place of assembly for the judgment we know that we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ now you imagine everybody accountable for judgment and there must be a decision made on everybody we're thrown into a vast corral of hundreds of thousands of people maybe and we have to wait to see what the judgment of God would be you imagine the righteous men that have slept in Christ the righteous ones who slept in faith in Old Testament times that will be raised up who are certainly going to be in the kingdom of God you imagine those men and women down through history who've now fallen asleep in Christ and they rest waiting for the joy of their Lord now imagine if they were thrown into a corral for maybe maybe some weeks maybe some months if the judgment was a process where every person had to individually appear before the tribunal of Christ to find out whether they're worthy or not you imagine the truly faithful person would say if he's left in the suspense at a judgment seat I would never be acceptable to God not with my sins and the truly righteous person would think like that he wouldn't say well I know I'm short of a spot I've done this I've done that I've done something else I've done all lots of things look at my track record in the truth tremendous track record you know and he gloats in that he says I'm gonna be there for sure do you think you'll be there I know I'm gonna be there you might be there now you've had a lot of problems back in the past I know I'm gonna be there you know and we can think comparisons like this absolutely stupid comparisons and it would give flesh a chance to be elevated but I cannot think of a more psychologically purgative persecution and trial than that did you if you had to sit around for some weeks waiting to know whether you're going to be in the kingdom or not terrible psychological stress to the righteous no the Lord hasn't prepared us for that the decision as to whether we are in the kingdom of God or not not only is it already known but it will be made at the moment of Christ's return to this earth that decision is already made because he's bringing within the list the book of it's coming with it now when we come to the judgment seat if we were to be put in this great corral and have to wait for that decision that's information already known the judgment seat brethren and sisters is not the occasion for the Lord to find out or determine whether we're in or out it is simply the occasion for demonstrating that God's judgment whatever it be in or out is that no flesh should glory in his presence that everybody might receive in their own lives that for which they have worked and that under which God has intended their future that decision is already known the judgment seat is to demonstrate the glory of God in that decision therefore it is not necessary for indecision once the resurrection takes place once we come before the presence of the Lord so that's why I suggest when we get to the judgment seat the sheep are separated to the right the goats are separated to the left then he says to the sheep on his rights come my blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the worlds and then this group says Lord look when did I see you in prison and visit you when did I see that you were thirsty and give you water when did I see you are unclothed and I gave you a power you see this group never counted up the notches of their righteous acts today they were so conscious of a wretched man that I am that they were never counting up their righteous acts the other group the goats one he says to them well yes you didn't do this for me you didn't do that for me well well Lord we did many wonderful things for you well what are you saying you see they were so conscious of doing wonderful things they didn't think about their failures they didn't think about their humility before Christ did they their attitude was wrong but in this case the Lord speaks to the sheep on his right now you might end up with a final query saying yes but is it just that you know we can be put into a corral where all the sheep are knowing that until we appear before our Lord personally before we give any mortality this might give us a reason for pride would it I don't think it would to me I could only say what an incredible wonderful thing the grace of God is that I am here and I think everybody would be greatly humbled by that remember there's also a word of the Lord Jesus Christ to his enemies who will certainly be at his judgment seat those scribes and Pharisees the ones who conspired his murder he said to them you will see literally see Abraham Isaac and Jacob over there in the kingdom Karel and you yourselves cast out now you know that is the judgment that is the punishment of the unrighteous their punishment is seeing what they have missed out on and that's why they mourn they gnash their teeth they weep because their punishment is seeing Abraham Isaac Jacob David Abraham the rest of them all there the sheep class the sheep class are the ones that have followed the shepherd wherever he calls them to go the goat class are those who mix amongst the sheep try to copy the sheep get the referred benefits of the sheep they get the best pasture and if the wolves come in the shepherd also secures them from the wolves as well the goat and the sheep have actually if you look at them in Israel you can't tell the difference on the hillside they look the same when they come to the Karel at night the shepherd always sorts them out sheep their goats there they don't belong together you see in a bit like the way that the tear is a hypocritical wheat leaf or wheat ear it looks as if it's got wheat in it looks as if it's got a product in it but it hasn't you see they feign to be proper good wheat likewise the goat runs with the sheep does everything the sheep but the one thing with the goat is he never got his head right he uses his head as an offensive weapon against other people he's an offensive animal a goat a sheep is not the lambs lie down and die when they caught they never fight they never struggle having sheep myself back on our little farmer I marvel at this a sheep is not an offensive animal at all but the goats when I had the goats running with the sheep you got to watch the goats they'll come around behind you and really thump you the goats fight with their heads and that's what we do we're not being touched in our minds with the word of God sealed in the fire with the name of God the thinking of the flesh is such an impenetrable bone carrier around us it can't get through and that's the difference of the goat to the sheep and that's why the qualities we have to develop now brethren and sisters our sheep hearing the voice of our master and going wherever he takes us taking his security trusting in him implicitly taking the pasture that he's decided to give to us that's the wonder of the sheep a wonderful creature that cannot live and cannot survive without a shepherd a goat thinks he can and to some degree he can a goat will you know thumb something that comes to it he'll fight with his head he'll fight with a can't get through that bone structure he will fight he's an aggressive retaliatory involuntary and cruel creature and he won't really do what he's told he won't follow the shepherd he'll follow the sheep but he won't follow the shepherd and that's the difference of the goats so we've got to develop the qualities of the sheep and try and refuse the qualities of the goats and thereby by the blessings of God when the judgment seat does happen that wonderful moment will come to us when on arrival of the judgment seat there shall be pain and suspense no longer for the beloved of the Lord that sleep in his heritage they will immediately be given the kingdom corral and they'll know what it means and just imagine if you had to spend any time any time before a judgment seat arraignment where would you like to spend it rubbing shoulders with the most vile people of the earth that are going to be there for judgment or spending a wonderful wonderful Bible school with Abraham Isaac Jacob and David and Solomon having the most fantastic discussions the most wonderful reflections and asking all those questions we wanted to ask them and we can do all that together with the sheep for whatever time it takes for our personal arraignment before Jesus Christ to receive the words well done good and faithful servants thou has been faithful over a few things enter thou into the joy of the Lord I'm gonna make you a ruler over many things now now you're gonna have my strength to rule over the whole world my king priests my associate kings what a wonderful definition and brethren sisters that's what is held out for us let's not lose let it slip let's take the message of these parables so that they help us get to that wonderful moment of hearing the words of our Lord inherit that kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world