Australian Bible Church – August 9, 2009 Matthew 14-16
A CONTINUATION OF THE THRUST
AND BASE OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
OF AUSTRALIA ON BIBLICAL LINES …
Duties, Responsibilities and Warnings
Talents, Gifts, Makeshifts and Triumph
Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 19:11-27, Matthew 18:21ff., 13:24ff.
I Talents and Gifts
A Talents Base: Matthew 25
Let us start with Matthew 25. This is the big money. On one reckoning, a talent of silver might be as much as 1500 days' pay for a normal worker. In current terms, what could this be ? Perhaps it would be something of the order of 300,000 dollars. When therefore the workers were given a talent each, it was a life's enduement. It represents all they would have as base equipment, skill for living, ability, applicable to labour that was worthy, with results to be assessed.
Some of course had more of this special, high-calibre capacity than others. In arithmetic terms, one had 5 lots of it, one 2 and one a single lot: and even the least was well-provided. Those more 'talented' gained as much again, by diligent application and prudent investment of time with skill to produce good things. The third, of the opinion that his master, the creditor, was miserly in disposition and miserable in appreciation, hid his talent. This meant a sort of theft, the use of this pure gift for impure motives, in this case, the satisfaction of fear and a measure of judgmental dismissal of the creditor, who after all, had given him no such ground.
You could, said the creditor, have at least lodged it SOMEWHERE, as in a Bank, with however little flair and initiative, and made some orderly use of it: NOT burial! That hidden talent, misused by not being used, was therefore taken from him and given to the one who had 10 at the first, and had made so much use of them that he had been awarded a large function, given now many things.
Why so much to one who had so much ? It is because WITH MUCH, he had shown himself ABLE to handle it wisely and prudently, well and with flair. The second one, given less, but using it proportionately as well as the other, was rewarded many things likewise, for he had shown as much faithfulness with what was given. However, if his ability was not so great, then to the one who was given and used more, is more given. It was still magnified since he had shown that sort of rich capacity. The unprofitable servant, bent on miserable judgmentalism and curmudgeonly attitudes towards God, was excluded: HE had judged GOD, and so hating the light, he inhabited darkness.
Here then is the story of life. You are saved without works, but not without faith, and faith works. It is fulfilled, culminates in works. In James 1-2, you see that. Every good and perfect gift - such as faith - is from God. He is its inventor and assayor. HE gives talents. FAITH receives them, and the greatest of all is the gift of the Holy Spirit who sheds abroad the love of God (Romans 5:5), bringing Christ direct to the heart of faith (Colossians 1:27).
HOW is this done ? It is by faith. WHAT is given, the Spirit of God by grace. WHAT however results ? Works result, as life and power combined in intimate correlation with Christ, MEAN fruit. Abide in Me and I in you, and the same will bring forth much fruit, said Christ (John 15). It cannot do otherwise. Fruit does not earn faith: for without faith in the first place, you CANNOT please God - Hebrews 11, nor CAN you bear fruit. Fruit exhibits faith, but it does not capture it! On the contrary, faith in Christ induces fruit. Here you must be careful.
Many do the good with diligence you never see (the left hand and right not speaking much of each other ...). You could IMAGINE someone fruitless and so incorrectly judge the 'faith' by presumption. JUDGE NOT, lest you be judged, Christ declared. When it is your observation and computation directed to others, take care. Yet you KNOW false prophets by their fruit ? (Matthew 7:16). Certainly, Christ said that as well; for it is easy if you ask aright, and watch closely, to see an enemy of the Lord, eating lambs, not nourishing them, in devious distillations, not clear doctrine.
Use due diligence, and do not presume; but on the other hand, if the case if clear biblically, and not a matter of subjectivity, then watch out! Wolves are dangerous, and leaving them in the flock is virtually like being remiss in taking care of terrorists - not to cosset their evil actions, but to prevent them! Churches which allow such fraud and falsity in their officers become themselves a sort of joint-terrorism apparatus. Many have fallen in this way; people meekly protesting and never bringing things to a pass, while multitudes suffer! Fruits may thin, but brutes thicken.
On the positive side, USE your talents, large gifts for life given you, whether or not someone else has more: you are responsible for what you have: so use it deftly, graciously, prayerfully, FULLY for Christ.
B Gifts Base - Luke 19:11ff.
It is convenient to separate gifts from talents here. You may be given spiritual gifts, and in one way in normal English usage, this is another sort of talent. However, these too should be used with lawful humility, watchful bountifulness (God IS love and loves to give both mercy and provisions for operation in His name - He never stints). The Lord ALWAYS provides just what is necessary, sometimes with a depth of wisdom reminding one that His wisdom is always infinite: and it CAN test faith, how He does it! and why not ? Cannot true things be tested, whether airplanes or men!
I Corinthians 12,14, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4 talk of these things. There are rules for public worship here. Those in many Pentecostal bodies like Baptists with baptism (I Corinthians 1:17), seem unduly occupied with ‘tongues’ gifts: thus some have several speak at once, some have ANY without interpretation - another 'gift', some have them as required sign of conversion, some pervert them to make them desirable for all: ALL of these things are denied in the Corinthians passages noted.
To use gifts well is not to use them blindly, or insolently, as if psychological 'wisdom' - normally close to nitwitism where the realities of God are ignored - like medically attempting to operate on legs without even knowing they are there! - were to take precedence over the Bible. It is however to study to show yourself a workman or woman (where applicable) worthy of your calling (I Tim. 2:15).
In the parable in Luke 19:11ff., there is a much lesser sum involved than before - 'minas' perhaps 50 days’ pay. It is substantial but not a whole of life matter. It is something added for a period; and it does matter. Thus those in this case concerned, were given the SAME amount for each. This time it was not a matter of trading with proportional results or failure, as before. Instead, it is ONE common gift amount, with various results noted. This exhibits the other aspect, that of differentiation of PRODUCTIVITY on a given basis, all the same at first. Some misuse spiritual gifts (or talents for that matter) and spoil their operation. Saul, for example, prophesied all night, that is the ancient King of Israel; but it did not seem to alter his actions unduly!
Gifts must be inherent in a foundation ready to receive them. Spiritual gifts may appear to act - as in the case of the seed falling on shallow ground, the man rejoicing 'for a season' (Luke 8, Mt. 18:20-21); but unless there is a saved heart and a regenerated spirit in the man, he does not even understand. Thus one man gained from his mina or lesser gift, 10 times what another man did. That is a vast difference (like 10% and 100% for an exam, on the part of two students). That occurred in the story told by Christ as shown in Luke 19, the mina parable. What was shown to be more productive, was rewarded with more scope to be so in the future, each having opportunity to use these tested capacities (not only bits but provisions in the HEART) in accord with the ratio of use before.
In this, note how Paul states that he laboured more abundantly than all (he was a terrific worker, evangelical missionary, founding churches and moving mountains as if a practical spiritual geologist of high order - Galatians 2:8, I Corinthians 15:10). Notice however that this reward is not like a sum of money. It is a spiritual reward and accords with Christ's condition for the kingdom of heaven. Among the nations, He declared, authority and dominion go together; but in His kingdom authority and service go together, and you are expected to love much and to give much from your serviceable capacities. Obviously, no hierarchical authority over underlings is in view, but serviceable capacity where heart and power are like two arms together, and love is in the head, it is this that is in view.
Use then your talents and your gifts well, as fearing, loving and serving God: NOT, be reminded, to achieve His acceptance, but BECAUSE you have received it (Ephesians 2:1-12). Thus faith which is REAL has its relished result; and this, the living association with Christ CANNOT HELP having. The more you conform in the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 5:32) to obey God, the more the blessed work of God is done. It is not mere conformity - though it has much of this, to enable your spiritual 'car' to be serviced up to specifications. It has much more: remember Moses, ACTING as seeing Him who is invisible, in what could have cost him his life, Abraham being obedient in a major and adventurous way, trusting God more than sight (Hebrews 11), enabled to be doubly productive (Genesis 28:13-14), since God knows what He is doing, all time being before Him in advance - Isaiah 46:10.
If for ANY other motive than love, however, such as ‘purchasing’ NOW, by discipline, nice real estate in heaven for your superior enjoyment as a fulfilled 'self' – the action is in itself fraudulent. You may wish not to mar your inheritance, out of love of Him who provides it, and that is pure; but to use GOD to feather your own nest AS A MOTIVE, this is self-love, a strutting phenomenon of no value at all. Let us however notice that in this case, there is another element in the parable.
At first, before ruler was well on his way on a journey, he distributed the mina gifts, saying – “Do business till I come." But these being given, as he went, the people in the city sent a delegation after him, saying that they did not want this man to rule over them. He came back, seeing the differential results from trading with the minas as before; but now, when we come to the one who FAILED, who hid it, we find that the form of condemnation is not: You did not use it! In the parable, he ordered that they "bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to rule over them, and slay them before me."
In this case, the relatively minor one, where less of life is involved, a trading operation within life rather than life’s main work in itself, with the more lordly scaled talents, it is not the failure on the mission, or even the lack of use of the gift which is cardinally in point: it is the HATRED and the ENMITY of those who held this in their hearts. It seems sure that the man who hid the mina was of this type; but the GROUND of the condemnation is the hatred, the failure to appreciate either his person or his gifts. It is his enmity against the goodness of his master, which is the basis of judgment.
If someone hates God, does not appreciate Him, then since in Him is life, and it is a gift, then he is to that extent hating life, what it really is, and so is an enemy. There is no place in life for those who will not know, understand, love and hold it sacred! It is a spiritual thing ultimately, but the point here to add is this: It is the enmity, or envy, or hatred, or disjunction from God which leads to just such a disjunction in the end. It was not poor skill which made one hide his gift in the ground: it was alienated attitude (cf. Ephesians 4:17ff.). HE, Jesus Christ is the light of the world , and THEREFORE what moves out from Him, IS in darkness and inherits it (as in John 3:19,36).
While you do not earn your spiritual keep: if persisting as an unbeliever, you do EARN your spiritual doom! Grace provides as in Matthew 25, delighted in good done by His disciples, the evil being covered in mercy; but it loathes the evils done without heart or remedy, banefully lodged in an unredeemed self. Thus the goats in Matthew 25:31ff.., have their evils cited! If they WILL not have them hidden, then open they are. It is rather like not going to the dentist or having an operation: don't blame the doctor or dentist for that! The results of it, they accrue...
2 Tares and Unholy Terrors Base - Matthew 13:24ff.
Another aspect, it is the fruitfulness of foreign weeds. Here in Adelaide, one curse is sour grass, which has a truly pleasant, rather luminescent flower, but sprawls over lawns like a sheep-dog on the backs of the sheep it superintends, as it manoeuvres for a different spot to guide them, and govern them. Weeds can govern gardens quite nicely, and it needs constant attention to prevent this. In this parable, an enemy - the devil ultimately - sows tares among a crop. At first, they look so like the young leaves of the crop that it would be easy to confuse them, so running the risk of destroying much of the crop in order to remove the weeds, a counter-productive operation at best!
Thus the advice was this: let them grow up together. In the end, their true nature - a false nature - their character will appear, and then without doubt about them, they may be consigned to the flames. Now notice that this parable concerns the kingdom of heaven (in Matthew 13:1ff., it concerns 'the world', which is the field). In Christ's kingdom, there are many variables and smart-set evils, 'sown' by the enemy. They are dubious, dangerous, sometimes crucial to the work and beauty of the whole domain. While it is well to separate out these things when they are clear, to do so precipitately or prematurely is not so good, as you may harass a holy saint, not yet mature, and stumbling a little, while thinking you are devoting to destruction, a heretic.
This brings up the point about judgmentalism previously made. Flaws and faults may and do arise in people: Luther had the wrong idea on what to do about the Jews, though you can understand it rather better in his social and ecclesiastical context, and past. Calvin had the wrong idea about the scope of the love of God in its urge and thrust, as so clearly depicted in Colossians 1:19ff.. Following his unscriptural idea of love with logic backwards, he reached a concept Spurgeon, though not averse to his major thrust, rightly condemned (‘Jacob and Esau’). For this, you do not condemn him, though you should and must condemn his error, in this fouling the beauty of divine love: even using the term 'horrible decree' of one of the misconstrued edicts of God! Yet NOTHING is horrible about God.
Where do you draw the line ? You are slow where the issue is deep, not clear-cut, requiring thought. Thus separation from those whose position is basically flawed is NECESSARY (Romans 16:17), the Bible the criterion (Proverbs 30:6); but to separate from those who repent or grow, or whose words are a little confused, this is another matter altogether. Often, both parties are wrong, and this is where tolerance comes in; but where EITHER simply teaches disobedience to a direct Biblical command from the Lord, then there is no excuse. You do not leave the distinctive savagery of lupine teeth, in such a case, to reach an evil maturity in the flock. You wait till it is apparent. You then see the necessity to act, a principle apparent in Revelation 2:16ff.,20ff..
3 Tearing Hurry and Holy Bearing
Finally, instead of being immovable in obstinacy against the clear law of God, why not relish it as did the Psalmist as seen in Psalm 119, and rejoice to be obedient. In fact, as in so much else likewise, AS you obey, you are given more grace or illumination to understand (cf. Acts 5:32). As in learning the piano, AS you use the right fingers, have the right scales (though it may seem ultra-burdensome at some times), then you FIND more clearly how well it works!
Do not therefore hurry to be holy, in the sense of being premature in judgment and superficial in findings; but DO seek to be holy, in prayer and with care adorning the Gospel in the love of God. Fruit is not borne by tearing little holes in the scraggy vine-branches of the church, and grafting in some GM stuff to hasten growth. This may merely mar and wound. Keep to the true vine with the true seed of the word of God, and act with true obedience, seeking holiness in the fear of God. And what IS holiness ? some parched, whitened corn ? Not at all, it is the most exuberant of results, coming from the rich sap in the branches, and the close intimacy of branch to vine… May God bless you as you follow His so beautiful ways within the kingdom of heaven, tolerant where possible, active where necessary, and make of you a blessing to His Church, and an appeal centre turned first in response to Him, then in entreaty to those in this world, with His word in your mouth and heart.