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Sure. If I remember, which I may not very carefully remember, you were talking about something like verse 40 something. I would suggest that in view of this being the last reading meeting that you feel very comfortable to choose where to start. Because if you start at the next verse where we left off, we're never going to get to your 47.
I didn't have a suggestion, I just put it in your hands. I think you need to make a choice.
Could begin at verse 31. I know that there was some comment made on the being free from worry in which really begins that section verse 22 down to verse 30, but verse 31?
Perhaps it's really verse 35 that gives us the labor and desiring to occupy.
Ourselves in the waiting and watching for our Savior. And as this hymn has reminded us that the Lord is coming soon. So perhaps we could begin at verse 35.
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them.
And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch and find them, so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good men of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think not.
Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?
And the Lord said.
Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
Blessed it is that servant whom is Lord, when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But And if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the men, servants and maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken. The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.
For unto whomsoever much is given of Him shall be much required, and whom men have committed much of him, they will ask, the more. I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened till it be accomplished? Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on the earth? I tell you nay, but rather division.
For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided 3 against two and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, the mother against her daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
Heard a phrase and I would like for a brother to just simply define what is being said. When we're Speaking of of temporal things, money, whatever it may be, we use the phrase they're a means to an end. And I think to some we're not really speaking plainly. And I was just wondering if there's a brother that could make a very short explanation of that and then we could go on.
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That use that phrase, so I'll make an attempt at it.
I don't suppose anyone.
Here this morning.
Can live without some kind of an object.
I know there may seem to be those in this world and even believers who drift around aimlessly and don't have much of an object. But if you talk to most people, you find that there is some kind of object before them. And the whole question, I believe, for the believer revolves around what is my heart set on and what is my aim in life down here? And if we realize.
Why the Lord has left us here?
That is to honor and glorify Him in the world in which He was rejected, and to learn more of Him in going through circumstances down here with Him. Then we will make everything in our lives subservient to that. But if we have horizons which are limited by this world, then we are going to find that things down here.
Have a hold on us and they will to that extent displace what really should be the object and desire in the Christian life. And so when we look around us.
Just for example in the.
Story we had earlier in this chapter about the man who came to the Lord Jesus and said.
Tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.
Well, the world has a phrase which unhappily is all too true, that you never really know someone well until you have to try and share an inheritance with them.
And that is all too true. And it is amazing the squabbles and fights and bad feelings that occur in families and among people over trying to share an inheritance. Why? Because what has to do with life down here and getting ahead in this world and have something having something here?
Has gotten such a grip on them that that is what they go after. For you and me, yes.
Money is a means. Health is a means. Everything we have down here is a means.
But to what end?
To honor and glorify our blessed Lord in the world where He was rejected, to represent His interest down here, and to learn more of Him in whatever time He leaves to us. And if we make what we have subservient to that, then we'll be found doing what it says in Corinthians, using this world, but not abusing it. Or, as the Darby translation reads, using this world but not disposing of it.
As our own.
Thank you.
Can I just?
Want to ever give the impression in speaking about the things we spoke of in the Reading meeting yesterday, that we despise the mercies that God has given us in a land like this. And God has given us many mercies, many things to get us through this pathway of faith here in this world. And we are to work hard at whatever the Lord directs us if He directs us to go to school.
In our occupation, whatever it is, we're to work hard whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do with all thy might, and we're to do it for the Lord's glory. To just scrape through school and not do our best isn't a good testimony to our fellow students and to our teachers and professors and so on. We're to do it as as under the Lord. And I think Daniel is a nice example of one who the Lord prospered in his business and in his work.
Under every king Daniel was raised up. In fact in the end it was what invoked jealousy amongst his Co workers was the fact that he had been promoted under the king. But when you read the life of Daniel you find that that is not what Daniel said is hard on. Daniel had purpose of heart to follow the Lord and to live for the Lord's glory from the time he was a young man first brought to the court of Babylon right through till you find him scheduling.
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Three times a day for prayer, even in the midst of a busy work schedule. And so it wasn't what he set his heart on, but God gave him a good position and and many comforts and mercies. You don't find that Daniel despised them, but no doubt he used them in a proper way. The other thing we want to realize in Speaking of these things is that the temporal things that God places in our hand are not really our own.
We are simply stewards of what has been entrusted to us.
And it's required in stewards that a man be found faithful. And so if we look at what he's given us and realize that he's given it to us as stewards to use to get us through this life and to use for His glory and for the blessing of others, then that will put the proper perspective on the temporal mercies and it will help us to live in light of eternity and what place the proper value.
On the things that the children of Israel bought and sold in the Old Testament under the Levitical order was the nearness of the year of Jubilee. The nearer the year of Jubilee, the less value there was on the possessions that they bought and sold, because when the year of Jubilee came, they had to give it all back. So if a man bought a field in the 49th year just before the year of Jubilee, well, he didn't pay as much for it as if he had bought it 10 years before, because in one year he had to give it back. Now, brethren, if we're living in light of our Jubilee.
The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It will help us not to despise the mercies we have, but it will help us to use them and to place a proper value on them.
35 I'm sure coins be good about and your lights burning.
All of us in this room at least got up in at least two different ways.
Some of us in this room got up this morning. We packed our bags.
For departure, some of us got up this morning and we didn't pack any bags.
We got up in our own bed and we expect tonight to go to sleep in our normal bed. But some of us didn't. Some of us got up this morning and packed our bags. Today's the day of departure.
In this language of this verse, let your loins be gird about. That's an activity of when you're going to move, when you're going to go, when you're going to go out and do something. You in their day, you gird it up your loins for travel and you got ready to go.
If we did not morally pack our bags this morning to go to heaven today, we really aren't going to be able to serve the Lord Jesus in the full character of His intent for us today.
The sense of it is, if you told me the Lord was coming next week, I would be disappointed because you've delayed by a week. My hope?
The expectation of each one of us, properly speaking, is to get up each morning of our lives with the real. Not just profession, not just the doctrine, if you will, but the real anticipation that today may be the day. And we pack our bags, if you will, is when we get up in the morning with that anticipation, but the moment.
We enter into what this what's these verses which follow to where it says, My Lord delayeth his coming.
Our focus, our anticipation changes.
Little further to the illustration, sometimes we may plan a trip. And if it's a long trip and it requires a fair amount of planning, at least in our household, sometimes the spare bedroom things start to accumulate in that bedroom in anticipation of the trip. In other words, it's the getting ready to go. But it isn't until the last night that the suitcase might get fully packed and ready for the morning's departure.
And brethren, even if we think it's, we're planning for it. And so we take certain activities into account in anticipation, if you will, we start the process. That's not the servant here. He gets up, he said let your loins be gird about and your lights burning because he's anticipating at any moment that his master is going to come and they're going to leave on that for which his master has.
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Is under his hand and so he gets it before this chapter takes up any of the service side of it which he's preparing them for. He's telling them the attitude of the servant must be that. That's number one.
The sense, and that's interesting to us because if you think you're going to serve, you assume there's time, you assume, well, OK, if I'm going to serve in the Masters field today.
I he's, I'm going to do it.
There there's time for it, but the way the Lord presents it to us is to properly serve in the field today, there has to 1St be the sense of.
The Lord may come this moment and there won't be any more service. And that's really the only correct attitude of heart that makes his proper servants in this world, because the moment we lose that sense of any moment, he's coming immediately. The natural heart tends to settle down to, well, I'll have a cup of coffee today and I, I, I think I'll go do this today because then I'll do that for the Lord tomorrow and so on and the urgency of it very quickly.
Gets lost in US and we're going to do it, we plan to do it, but it just doesn't happen.
From from verse 22.
To verse 31.
The Lord Jesus mentions many things.
Which we could be worried about.
Many things of our daily life that we could be worried about and we should not be worried about.
And then he sums it all up in verse 31.
But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.
It reminds me of.
A time many years ago when I talked to a brother who was much older than myself about these things and I said, well anytime of the day I think of talking to the Lord and and committing things to him.
And this brother said unto me.
Dear brother.
The first thing I wake up in the morning, I commit myself to the Lord. That'll be the first thing as soon as I wake up.
And I kind of took that to heart. Ever since then, the first thing when I woke up either myself or when somebody was me, my wife or.
One of the family committed the day to the Lord as soon as we wake up and things put put all the things that were coming before us before the Lord, and ask him to bring us through the day.
And I found that was a very good.
Procedure to go by.
And ever since if I didn't start.
My first thoughts in the morning when I woke up and committed things to the Lord, I always found out things didn't go right.
The day just didn't go right.
But I would exhort anyone, and especially the young people are so very busy, the first thing when you get up.
Think of that words.
But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. There are so many things we worry, and we do worry when we get up that should be done, and there are some things that are very important.
And yet, if we commit it all to the Lord before we actually start today, things just fall in place. And when we get up at night or when we go to bed at night and we look back, we can say, well, this day went well.
In spite of all the voice that I had before myself, so this verse became a very important verse to my life.
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And it always worked well to heat what that old brother told me to do.
There are really three things in these verses that we're taking up that might be helpful to put with the same letter helps our young people and all of us sometimes. And that is, you know, we often speak about WWW and we all know what it means. But I've thought in connection with these verses and the servants too, we have three WS. We have watch, waiting, watching, and working. And that is really, brethren, what is to characterize us in light of the Lord's return and what is ahead in eternity.
And he speaks here in this verse too, about knocking in the end of verse 36, when he cometh and knocketh, that they may open unto him immediately. Now, I've thought of this in connection with the layout of our house, and I'm a little bit hard of hearing. And those who've been to my home know we have what's called a raised bungalow, and my office and computer room and general work area is on the lower level.
And if someone comes to my door and either knocks or rings the doorbell and I'm down on the lower level, I don't hear the doorbell or the knock. And so on a day that I'm anticipating someone coming to my home and someone that I don't want to miss when they come to my door, I go ahead with my work. I do whatever I feel has to be done that day, but I'm always keeping one year especially tuned to the knock or the doorbell.
And every once in a while I go up and I make sure that the person isn't at the door trying to get my attention. And so, brethren, we need to live like that, don't we? Yes, we need to go on with the work that the Lord gives us to do. And we have secular employment, We have family responsibilities, every one of us have worked for the Lord to do. But we need to keep one ear tuned, don't we? And so just as if we're expecting somebody to come to the door, we keep one ear tuned to that as we go about the house.
In the property, Are we really tuned in that way for the coming of the Lord Jesus? Yes, there are many responsibilities, as I say, but there is a moment coming when He's going to come. And brethren, we need to. I know none of us are going to miss the Lord's coming, I realize that. But won't it be wonderful when He comes to realize that we had an ear tune to it and that we were ready?
Is means that our lives are under control. You know, they used to wear these long flowing garments and if they were going to walk properly, they had to gird them. They had to put a belt around it to control it. And I think it shows that there's necessary in our lives to evaluate things and to control them properly.
One area where I think this is very important, we have in first Peter chapter 2 somewhat the same words used in an exhortation that Peter gives us. First Peter chapter one I should say, and verse 13. It says, Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought into you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Gird up the loins of your mind and I really am impressed in Scripture what it says about our thought processes. Brethren, we sometimes allow our minds to go in a lot of different directions. We need to control our thought processes. We need to think according to the.
Revelation of the Word of God that we have sometimes.
Older brethren have told us younger people.
Read the word, meditate on it and let it fill your thoughts. Let it form your thoughts so that you yourself don't think your own thoughts, but you think in the words, the very words of Scripture. And I think that's so important because we have a barrage of ideas coming towards us from this world around us in the media in so many ways that sometimes we get under the power of other thought processes.
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The Lord help us rather not just accept any idea that comes our way, but to submit it to the light of the scriptures that we have. Gird up the loins of your mind and be sober. We live in a world where there's a lot of tragedy. How can we live frivolous lives in view of what's happened in this country, in the Tornadoes and what happened in Japan?
Can you really think that you can just live it up in a world that's hurting so badly? Oh brethren, sobriety is another thing that should characterize the believer in the Lord Jesus.
2nd Corinthians chapter 10, verse five, the middle bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having any readiness to revenge, all disobedience when you are, when your obedience is fulfilled. And so that's why it says in Ephesians 6 that we're to have our loins gird about with truth, not just bringing things under control.
But under control as governed by the Word of God. And that's why we need the Scriptures and we need to read it every day. How are we going to know what is the pathway for us? How are we going to know how to live, what places the Lord, what is for His glory? There's got to be a basis for it. People talk about self-control and that's wonderful, but it may be self-control without the truth of God.
And so we're to have our loins gird about with truth. It's the thoughts brought into captivity, as you say, Brother Virgil, governed by the Scriptures.
There are two words here that the Lord uses in connection with His coming. One of them is to wait.
And the other is to watch very distinct. And the language of Scripture is very, very accurate. And the Lord desires us not only just to say that we're waiting for him to come, but they're actually evidence of our watching. And so the heart is engaged. And this is really what he desires. He says in verse 37, blessed are those servants, are happy are those servants. And then a little further on, he uses the same word in verse 43, blessed.
Servant whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. And so this word really means happy. And it's a happy prospect to be found waiting and watching for the Lord. And it'll characterize us as being a happy people because we have our object before us as the Savior. And it's not the object to enjoy the pleasures of the treasures in this scene and so on as the world does, but it's the person of Christ. It has captivated our hearts and then it's.
Speaks here in verse 37.
Of how the Lord shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them. And so if we express our love in a practical way to the Lord Jesus in this scene, we wait for and we watch for Him. There's evidence of it in our lives, in our activities in life. Then His love for us will be shown manifested in a very real way. Love, Mr. Darby said, delights to serve. And love, selfishness likes to be served.
But in that scene, it's going to be a scene of love, and the Lord Jesus will express his love to us as he saw that we were watching, that we were waiting for him to come.
On that expression that you just mentioned, Robert.
In verse 37 And he that's the Lord shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them.
When I read words like that, brethren, it I find them very humbling.
And.
I don't know how to even react to them in a certain way.
We have a very short time in which.
To have the privilege of serving the Lord Jesus.
We're here. We're here for a little bit, but it's going to pass very quickly.
And it's going to be done.
And we're going to pass from this earth into heaven, into the presence of the Lord Jesus in the Father's house.
But he.
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He will remain a servant forever.
He will remain a servant forever.
We will be like kings.
In the Father's house.
But because he loves us.
He has made the choice that he will remain a man forever.
And as a man, he will take forever the servant's place.
He will forever minister to us the Father.
He says I love my father and I will serve my father forever.
By remaining a man that the Father might be close to us.
In all eternity.
He said I love my my wife.
His pride, his Church, and that I might be near her, that I might continue to minister to serve her.
And have the close relationship. I will remain a man. And in the servant's place he loves his earthly people, his children that will be his in the tribulation and then the Millennium and on into the eternal earth. And he says, I love my children and for their sake I will remain a man.
That I might serve them forever. What does it mean to us, brethren, to think that we, this little tiny bit of time, could serve Him?
And when we look forward and see what's ahead of us.
The the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Supreme, 1 The Beloved of the Father, will keep himself in that humble place as service for eternity to us.
I say I don't know how to take it because I I feel ashamed just thinking about it to say Lord, I feel like Peter and in first grin or in first John. I'm not first John, but John's Gospel chapter 13 when the Lord wanted to serve him by girding himself with the towel and getting at his feet. Peter says no Lord.
Oh well, the Lord will change us, so we'll accept it and we'll delight in it. But it will be a very humbling thing to have the Lord's service forever.
So may it encourage our hearts not to waste life, not to waste the moments of service that are entrusted to us now, but to.
Live for him until he calls us into His presence.
The thought I've enjoyed the connection. Brother Dom little verse.
In Hebrews 7 says and without all contradiction, the.
The Hebrews 77. I'm not going to quote it right.
Without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better.
That verse has kind of been a comfort to me and thinking of of the Lord and his service in that way and feeling in that same way like Peter.
The less is blessed of the better. Yeah, we'll be blessed by the Lord in that way, but he's the better.
And the other thing too is he serves us, but he's not our servant.
He's Jehovah's servant. He's a servant of God, though he serves us.
There's that difference between waiting and watching, isn't there? And.
You could, I suppose, if you're waiting for somebody, actually go to sleep, but you're not watching. Watching is something that takes more energy. And it's interesting how those terms are used in scripture if you look at First Thessalonians chapter 5.
It uses the.
Two things that I think are.
Important to think about.
Verse 6.
Well, let's read from verse five verse Thessalonians 55. You are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
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But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for in helmet the hope of salvation. So watching involves being alert at all times. It is easy. Sleep comes upon a person, sometimes almost imperceptible. Brethren, and.
And I find that sometimes when I'm driving my car, if it's not something that.
You know, you get off the edge of the road and they have those bumps that make it make you wake up. Sometimes the Lord in our lives allow bumps that make us wake up. Oh, how we need that Brethren. It is really important. There is so much that makes us just gently, gradually.
Go to sleep, you're waiting for the Lord. Sure, I'm waiting for the Lord. But are we watching brethren, I trust that's the attitude of my heart. But only the Lord knows and he watches and he sees is there that daily expectation like Don was mentioning of he might come today. Oh how important that is. And he looks at us and that's the problem with.
Set in any dates like has happened is if you set a date in the future.
Then you don't have to wait for him today.
Clem Buchanan made a statement that was a help to me. He said this.
Any date beyond today is wrong in spirit. I think that was a good statement and I think it needs to be thought about. We need to be awake, brethren, and it involves not going to sleep.
Soberness is in connection with, in contrast with drunkenness. And that's another problem that sometimes we're not talking about drunken with alcohol. We're talking about under the influence of present circumstances to the point that we are not in control of our lives properly. There are other influences that dictate the way we go.
Rather than these things are realities in the world we live in and we need to evaluate.
To be.
Awake and to be sober.
To not being awake and not being sober and here in connection with waiting and watching the consequences, really disorderly conduct and it's really.
It's really exposes our spiritual state.
There comes in disorderly conduct, disorderly thoughts, disorderly.
Um, taking up with one another as brethren. And this is really what took place here, my Lord. Delias is coming in verse 45 and shall begin to beat the men, servants and the maidens and to eat and to drink and to be drunken. And so there's evidence of not being in communion with the Lord and not being in communion with my brethren. It's a serious thing. May God give us the grace to desire to have a spirit that would be watching and waiting.
For the Lord, and then conducting ourselves in an orderly way while we wait for Him to come, and to be profitable not only to Himself, but to our brethren.
When we move on into this portion here about the testing of the servants.
There's something in there that I would like us to note that the Lord.
Does not commend according to our ability.
The Lord commends according to the Stuart, being faithful.
And so there are two types that are brought forth.
Here in this passage, one is the fateful servant, the Stewart that is faithful, the other one that is sleuthful and wicked. But it is not according to the ability, it is according to the faithfulness that he commends later on. In the latter part of it, we see greater knowledge. Greater responsibility means that we have greater accountability.
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And so there are some beautiful teaching in here.
And we need to look at being faithful stewards. And that is that is what is the Lord is going to commend is those that are faithful. It is not according to my ability or your ability. Our our ability will vary largely and maybe far more extreme than we think. And he has given us things according to our ability, but he's not going to commend us according to that ability. He's going to commend us according to being a faithful steward.
I think another.
Good example, and we've had this before another time.
As to have to do with waiting and watching and Luke 15.
Verse 20. This is obviously the story of the prodigal son.
Who left on his own, left his father's home on his own and went out and and was caught up in worldliness. And he spent all his money and he was hungry.
And he decided to come home.
I like the thought he knew he could come home.
He knew his father's love.
Compassion. And even though he'd done what he had done, he knew he'd be able to come home.
And he said, he would say to his Father, I'll arise and go to my father, and we'll say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven. And before they He had the order right, didn't he? Before heaven, Andy He had, He had the order right.
And.
He says he arose and came to his father, but.
When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him.
I had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
What I want to bring out is his father every day that this boy was gone.
Was not only just waiting for him to come home, he was looking down that road hoping to see him every day.
If he had been carrying on with normal.
Thinks he wouldn't have seen the boy coming, but he loved him so much he was looking for him to come home. So there's a difference in looking for the Lord and waiting for the Lord.
And I've always thought this is a good example here.
Like to make a comment very much an application. It's not the interpretation at all, the passage, but I think there's something for our hearts in it.
In our chapter here in Luke 12, we have service and preparation for the time when the service is to do it and it will be done.
And the day is coming in which we will be ushered into the Father's house and.
We would all long to have the word stated. Well done now good and faithful servant. That would be a joy to each one of our hearts.
But just for your enjoyment, I've enjoyed Luke 15 in a slightly different than its normal application and that is what must have been.
When the perfect son returned to the father's house.
When our Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect Son and the perfect servant.
Was welcomed home.
It's a private moment.
We will never know, but we can certainly enjoy the thought.
Of what it was when he embraced his son.
Who was returning to the home, his father's house, from which he had left to come here to the far country, to do the father's work and service.
There was maybe much more than well done, thou good and faithful servant. It was welcome home, son, in ways that we could only.
Know must be wonderful.
Should we make a remark to?
00:45:04
On this chapter, that I think perhaps is important for all of us because sometimes there is a serious misunderstanding among believers as to the difference between the Lord's coming for us and what we also refer to as the appearing when the Lord comes with us. And that was mentioned yesterday and here in this chapter. We need to realize that.
The Lord is talking in a general way, with more of a moral import for us, without altogether specific reference either to what we call the Rapture or what we call the appearing.
They shouldn't be confused because you and I, now, through other ministry in the Word of God, know the difference.
But for example it says in verse 39.
If the Goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would not. He would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Well, we know very well that the Lord does not come for us as a thief, does he? Whenever it's referred to that is his coming as a thief or a thief in the night. It's the appearing because a thief comes unexpected and unwanted. You're not sitting up watching for a thief normally.
If you were, the thief would take care to come at a different time.
So what do we have here then?
We have the Lord referring in a general way to what will take place at His appearing.
There will be those who take the place of servants, and who will say, My Lord delayeth his coming.
And what will happen to them? Oh, they'll be deceived. They'll come under that strong delusion that's brought before us in 2nd Thessalonians 2. And they will indeed meet the Lord as a thief only if.
Me rephrase that they will indeed meet the Lord as a thief in the night, although they have taken the position of being servants.
And that's what it means in verse 46 it says he will cut him in sunder and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
But the moral import of it is intended for you and me, because the Lord doesn't immediately distinguish here between what we call the rapture and what we call the appearing. He speaks in a general way in order to give a moral lesson.
And sometimes the Lord gives us a moral lesson that primarily refers to unbelievers.
But is intended as a warning to believers because morally we can fall into the same kind of thinking and attitude, even though, thank God, we can never lose our salvation and even though we are destined to be caught up at the rapture. You get the same thing, for example, in Philippians chapter 3 where Paul talks about those who whose God is their belly who mind earthly things.
And what does he say? Whose end is destruction? Well, can you and I let ourselves off the hook by saying, well, that's an unbeliever. So I guess that doesn't apply to me. No. Why did Paul put it there when he was writing to an assembly of believers? Because they too could mind earthly things. Their God could be self, their belly. And so God gives us warning sometimes that have their eventual application to an unbeliever.
But which are intended morally to exercise you and me. And so let's be clear that when the Lord talks about coming as a thief in the night.
And coming unexpectedly, he doesn't appear that way for you and me, as Jim said.
No believers going to miss the rapture because he's walking carelessly or not watching, but it will be a loss in that day. And this is intended to exercise us in a moral way. Truth of the rapture wasn't known yet at this time, was it? And it's interesting in that connection, Bill and verse 40, he speaks of the Son of Man cometh. That's always the title he uses in connection with his.
Appearing when he comes at the end of the tribulation.
To take the Kingdom uses that term son of man. But what you say the moral import that we are to learn from we have in verse 41. Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?
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I think these verses are going to have.
A real place in the believing remnant during the tribulation that will also be waiting for Him to come. But in spirit we should have that same attitude of waiting for the Lord from heaven at any moment. We know now that there is a moment when the Lord is going to come to take us home.
But we should be waiting in the same way. This is something that applies to us as well.
So can I ask you a question, something I've been wondering about lately with with how it's made the news with the prediction of the the rapture and the verse has been often quoted even in the news that we have here. He cometh at an hour that you think not.
But as our brother presented to us, if we're in our proper hope he's going to come in at an hour that we think isn't it if we're expecting him now when he comes now it's in an hour when we think he's going to come then he'll come for us. But in connection with his coming in judgment that's more an hour when you think not is that is a question if I need to be corrected on that. Appreciate it. I think if you look in this.
Parables taken up in the Matthew's Gospel you see something a little different and so it's very striking here said blessed are those servants when the Lord, when he cometh shall find them. Verse 36 in our chapter, sorry, when he will.
Return from the wedding that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Very interesting reference to a wedding. But you get to Matthew. It doesn't mention any of that. And in Matthew 24.
44 We have 4. In such an hour as you think not the Son of Man cometh. You don't have a reference to the Son of Man again until the 31St verse of the next chapter, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory. And in between that we have 3 parables presented, the faithful and wise servant, the parable of the 10 virgins, and the parable of the talents. And I believe in those three we have this present dispensation presented. And in connection with that.
He does indeed say at the end of the parable, the 10 virgins watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour. And it adds in the King James we're in the Son of Man cometh. It's not there. But that is also because I had exactly the same question, is it? Could we also say of the present dispensation that we know neither the day nor the hour? And I believe it's perfectly true. We can say we know neither the day nor the hour.
Because it's to be momentary, isn't it, with us? And so again, to go back to the illustration I used earlier of the person who is going to knock at my door, ring the doorbell. They may not have told me exactly what moment they're going to come. They may not have said I'm going to knock on your door at 10:00, but I know it's going to be at any moment sometime during that day. By the same token, 1 summer when we were away, we had a thief break into our house.
Went through our stuff and stole quite a bit of things. But we weren't expecting, as brother Bill said, we weren't looking for or expecting that. That thief, he came at an hour when we didn't expect him. But the person that told me that they were coming for some business reason or a visit, I, we were, I was expecting them. Let me use another little illustration that I know has often been used, but perhaps it will help us to get the perspective on what we're Speaking of.
When we were children growing up, we lived in a house outside of Smiths Falls on a busy highway and we had a big plate glass window that overlooked the highway. And when you came to that, to the front room and looked out that window, you could see in both directions down the highway for quite a ways. And on a day that we were expecting company, especially if it was somebody that we as children enjoyed having in the home.
Every once in a while you'd find us at the front window looking down the road in the direction that we were expecting that company. And we'd say to Mom or dad, now, are they going to be coming from the West or the east? Are they going to be coming from Perth or from Smiths Falls? And Dad, where Mom would tell us, well, they're going to be coming this direction. And so we'd be looking and we'd spend a few minutes there. We count a few cars, and then we go back to whatever we were doing. Maybe we had some chores we had to accomplish.
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In anticipation of those guests.
Mom had some work for us to do. Whatever it was. We go back to our chores, then a few minutes later we'd be back at that window. We weren't just waiting for those people to come, those guests to come. We were watching. We didn't know exactly when they were going to come, but we knew it was going to be soon, sometime before the day was out. And are we looking for the Lord Jesus to come in that way? You know, it's a very searching thing.
Brother Nick, you mentioned the parable of the 10 virgins. And you know, we often take that parable up in the gospel and we stress the five who were foolish and who didn't have oil and weren't ready and so on. And that's very right to take it up in that way. But I think we missed something very important for our own souls when we focus simply on the five foolish ones. You know, there were ten. Five were real.
But you know, they, it says they all slumbered and slept. Not solemn to think about. If you had looked at those 10 ladies outwardly, you couldn't tell who was real and who wasn't. None of them were watching, even those that were real. And Bob read us some verses. But I was thinking too, in the end of Hebrews 13 it says, now is it high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation.
Nearer than when we believed what salvation is that? That's the salvation of the body that we're looking for when we get the complete deliverance from the presence and power of the presence of sin taken out of this world with new changed bodies and so on. Are we asleep to that those those five ladies that had oil, they were real but they weren't watching for the bridegroom either. They were sound asleep. They had to be woken up brethren, maybe we have to be woken up. And I just want to add one other thing in connection with what Bob said because.
You know, the disciples fell asleep in the garden. And why were they sleeping? They were sleeping for sorrow. You know, sometimes I think just the sorrows and burdens of life can cause us to become spiritually asleep and lethargic as to the Lord's coming. And the Lord said, could you not watch with me one hour? Brethren, let's be careful as we leave this place and go back to the burdens. And I know they're real burdens.
I have no doubt there are brethren here this morning whose hearts are full of sorrow as you think of leaving this place and going back and facing some of the situations that if the Lord leaves us here, we're going to have to face. There's lots of real burdens. But brethren, let's be careful that we don't let those burdens and sorrows cause us to fall asleep spiritually and to lose sight of the fact that we need to be watching.
For the Lord Jesus at any moment.
That's good. I want to draw attention to something.
B2 rather than that, I believe, is something we all need to be exercised about, he says. Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, and this last portion to give them their portion of meat in due season?
And there needs to be in view of the Lord's coming. The Lord has given us so much brethren of the precious truth of God. To enjoy it in our own souls is important. But there are many who don't have these precious teaching. And we should be exercised to give the portion of food in due season. Sometimes we meet up with believers.
Wherever they are, they're part of the household of God, and we need to be exercised according to their capacity to give them something of food. That was the characteristic of the faithful and wise steward. May the Lord help us. Each one of us might not be much, but something to share with those who are fellow believers.
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That may not have had the truth of God ministered to them as we have to be able to share with them.
Further comment on verse 42.
The Lord has a treasure in the earth at the present time.
It's his church, it's his possession, and it's here in the earth.
Presently.
And he looks for faithful and prudent servants for himself.
To look after and care for.
The needs of that which is his possession.
And to each in our measure someday will give answer to our Lord as to the measure in which we have cared for that which is precious to His own heart, to the extent that He gave his life for it. And there is different manners in which that which is precious to Him is cared for at the present time. And Bob just explained one of them to us, providing the portion of meat and due season for that which is his own. And so.
It's good for us to remember that part of the service of the servant is that responsibility that is presently given to care for his household.
Until he returns for it.
Could I just add one comment that too on a practical side?
We notice here that the emphasis is on the steward, who gives the household their portion of meat in due season.
There had to be a household for him to give it to, that's true.
But the emphasis in Christianity is on giving. It doesn't say Blessed is that servant who sits and receives what the steward dishes up.
That's true, and we all receive through Christ, the head of the Church.
From those whom he chooses to use, thank God we do that, but as a brother remarked many, many years ago, he said.
Christianity is characterized not by what it finds, but by what it brings.
If I can say it out loud, there is a strong tendency today among believers and we're affected by it.
To say well I'm not getting fed.
Or I'm not getting anything where I go or there's no food where I go, so I'm going somewhere else. I'm going to find a place. And there are many dear believers and we're not being critical, we're just stating the fact who go from here to there and everywhere seeking to get what they feel they need because.
The whole attitude in this world today, whether among believers or otherwise, has tended to foster a mentality of being takers.
That's not true Christianity. Yes, we are all receivers, but.
God calls us to receive from Christ and to seek to be givers.
And if we approach things in that attitude, I believe we'll find that the Lord will enable us to be givers. Yes. Will we also be receivers? Indeed we will. But at the same time, let's never complain about the situation because somebody isn't giving to us. Rather, ask the Lord, Help me to be a giver.
You see a bit of that spirit with a prodigal son, don't you? He came to father and he said, Father, give me. And isn't that what, as you say, what the spirit and attitude of the world is? And so often the spirit and attitude of the world affects the Lord's people. But I was thinking of that verse in first John chapter 3 that says, and this was manifested the love of God, and that He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
You know, we may never in this country and on this continent be asked to lay down our lives physically for our testimony like many, but we are to lay down our lives in service to the Lord and to one another as a living sacrifice. We're to present our bodies, living sacrifices. Are you and I really willing to go the extra mile for the good and blessing and the sustenance of the of the people of God if we do?
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Then we will receive a blessing ourselves, not because we so much desired something for ourselves, but because He delights as the giver to give us every good and perfect gift.
There's a beautiful commendation given to Ruth by Boaz, he says it's been fully showed me all that thou has done, thy mother-in-law. And she had known Naomi in a better day and a brighter day when she had her husbands and her sons. And now she was old and widowed and those relationships were gone. But she claimed to her and back in the in the land, back in Bethlehem, she gleaned.
And she beat it out, and she provided for her.
Just like the steward. And the commendation of Boaz is that he had seen it all.
And the and the testimony, you might say in this world.
Once knew brighter and better days.
And you might say it's old and widowed in a certain sense, and the Lord is going to commend.
Any care that has been given in that way and providing and I believe he'll say as Arboaz.
It's been fully showed me.
You'll be seeing 139 one.
So wilderness.
Was great.
Owing your body Lord wasted all. Bring the heart to your breath. Nor to lose the Lord in terms of God breakfast.
The.
Great train insects your eyes love. We love the Lord. We shall not take the fear of honor to the Christ.
There is like that one again, always gracious but steps and by Christian's home, and we follow him.
To the states where he is going on his crown. For the quiet, where I'm savior is on.
Enjoy.
Some.
Treasure came from him, his love.
That is made us stop with the brainstorm.
To the center and we should relate to standard.
And say you're getting away until the Sonicwall shall come.
You shouldn't take the moment to stop and explain why.
So give my life together and bring it home. Leave it home.
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Still with me, Oh my glory with me.
#25 in the appendix.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.