SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/18/2024 9:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Reward We Gain”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
25:28-30
Message of the verses: “28 ‘Therefore take
away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ 29 "For to everyone who has, more
shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not
have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 30 “Throw out the worthless
slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth.”
I realize that I have been repeating the fact that chapters
24-25 of Matthew are mostly about what happens in the tribulation period. I realize that there are many things in these
two chapters that we can learn from and apply them to our lives in the church
today, but Christ is answering a question that the disciples asked back in
Matthew 24: 3 As He was
sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying,
"Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign
of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’” The question that the disciples are asking
about is the statement that Jesus stated in verse two “2 And He said to them,
"Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here
will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”’” The disciples thought that this was going to
happen very soon, but it has been almost 2000 years since Jesus spoke in these
two chapters and a lot of things have happened in the church age, and it is and
has been my hope that the Rapture of the church will come very soon, which will
be the end of the church age as the Lord will come to get His bride in the
clouds of the earth and then take His bride, the church into heaven to be with
Him forever.
John
MacArthur writes “Therefore when Christ returns, He will figuratively take away
the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ As He had
declared on at least one previous occasion (see Matt. 13:12), Jesus now said
again: “To everyone who has shall move be given, and he shall have an abundance;
but the one who does not have even what he does have shall be taken away.’”
What does all of this mean to us who are alive now
in the church age? Well it will mean the
same as those believers who are alive in the tribulation period and that is
that those who demonstrate by their spiritual fruitfulness that they belong to
God will be given even greater opportunity to bear fruit for the Lord. However those who demonstrate by their
unproductiveness that they do not belong to the Lord will lose even the
benefits they once had. I think that
speaks of people who are now in church’s doing things that they perceive are
for the Lord, but are not true believers and so the things that they perceive they
are doing for the Lord will not count because they do not truly belong to the
Lord. This person does not have any true
blessings from God because he has made them worthless through disuse. MacArthur writes “But the reality of what
those blessings could have been will be given to someone who has proved his
genuineness. The divine principle is
that those who trust in Christ will gain everything, and those who do not trust
in Him will lose everything.”
This
third slave that we are talking about was not simply unfaithful but
faithless. A true believer in Christ who
wastes his abilities, spiritual gifts, and opportunities will have his work “burned
up, [and] shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through
fire” (1 Cor. 3:15). I remember a long
time ago when I was teaching some new believers truths from the Word of God
that we talked about this verse and came to the conclusion that the person
spoken about here will have “smokey robes.” The person represented by this slave, however,
has no faith at all and therefore no saving relationship with the Lord. No matter who much he may appear to have been
blessed by God and to have served Him, one day he will then hear from the Lord’s
own lips these awful words “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23).
The following is what the Lord says will happen to this
third slave: “Throw out the worthless
slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth.” This third slave will be just
like the man who tried to crash the king’s wedding feast without the proper
garments (Matt. 22:11-13), this unproductive, counterfeit servant was destined
for destruction.
The
term Outer darkness is a common New Testament description of hell. MacArthur concludes “In that place there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, signifying the unrelieved agony of
being separated from God’s presence and goodness.”
3/18/2024 10:15 AM
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