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Scripture Reading: Matt. 24:45-51; 25:14-30
In the last chapter we covered the matter of our being watchful in the spiritual life so that we may have an extra portion of oil. This extra portion of oil is not in the lamp but in the vessel, and it is not concerning the Spirit in our regenerated spirit, which is the lamp of Jehovah, but concerning the Spirit of God in our soul, our entire being. The word soul in the Bible has several denotations. One of the denotations is our being (cf. Gen. 2:7; Exo. 1:5; Acts 2:41). Every soul is a person, and every person is a being. The soul refers to our being, to our person. Our being, our person, was made by God as His vessel. Romans 9:21-23 tells us that we human beings were made by God as His vessels to contain Him. Therefore, in the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13 what is covered and stressed is the extra portion of the Holy Spirit in our soul, the saturation of our entire being with the Spirit. This is the need of all Christians, yet this is the thing that is neglected by Christians. Today not many of us are paying attention to this saturating Spirit that moves from our spirit into our soul, even into our entire being, so that we may have not only the oil in our spirit but also an extra portion of this oil to saturate our entire being.
Since I came to this country in 1962, I have spoken many messages on the matter of transformation. I have stressed very much that transformation could be possible only by our being saturated by the Spirit of God. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we all “beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” The Lord Jesus is for our redemption; the Lord Spirit is for our transformation. To be transformed is to be saturated by the Spirit. To speak of an extra portion of oil in our soul to saturate our entire being is another way to express the transformation by the Spirit. You may say that we are to be transformed by the Spirit or that we are to have an extra portion of the Holy Spirit in our soul so that our being might be saturated. These two expressions indicate the same thing.
Christian preachers and teachers may stress that wives must submit themselves to their husbands, that husbands must love their wives, children must love their parents, and that fathers must not provoke their children. However, it is difficult to find one who stresses that you need to be filled in your spirit that you may have a flow out of your spirit to have an extra portion of the Spirit in your soul. If you are filled in this way, then your love, your submission, your obedience, and your care for your children will all be a spontaneous flow out of the saturating Spirit. Since I came to this country, it has been hard for you to say that I tell wives to be subject to their husbands. My stress has always been on transformation. Even now I need more transformation. Do not think that I do not need it. As long as I have breath, I shall still need transformation. You also need this every day. Transformation is just like breathing. Breathing can never be terminated. Once you terminate my breathing, I will be through. Therefore, we have to stress this matter. Every day in the morning you must go to the Lord, saying, “Lord, thank You that I am here. Fill me up. Saturate me. Soak me. I want to be soaked in You and with You.” We need such a prayer. It is not too much to have this kind of prayer three times a day. I advise the young people to have this prayer ten times daily. The more we pray this way, the better. People may teach you that you should not eat so much, but no one has ever taught you not to breathe too much. Your breathing should not be reduced. Rather, you had better exercise to have more breathing and to breathe deeply. To pray in this way is to gain the oil in your vessel.
The two portions of the Word listed in the Scripture Reading relate to being faithful in the Lord’s service. However, there is a difference in these portions. Both are on the faithfulness toward the Lord in His service, but the first portion in Matthew 24:45-51 is on the faithfulness in the Lord’s commission. In this portion we are told that the Lord committed something to His slaves, His servants. That committal is a commission given by the Lord to all of us. The Lord’s commission is His charge to us to minister the life supply to His household.
In the second section, Matthew 25:14-30, faithfulness is not in the Lord’s commission but in His gifts. Whenever the Lord would give us a commission, at the same time He would always give us gifts. Without gifts being given by Him to us, how could we carry out His commission? To carry out His commission, to take care of His household, we need His gifts. Both of these portions are on the faithfulness in the Lord’s service, but one is in His commission, and the other is in the gifts that He has given us.
I would advise you all to be faithful in the Lord’s service. Every believer, old and young, great and small, would consider that John 3:16 is the word of the Lord, but we must consider Matthew 24 and 25 in the same way. These chapters are the word of the Lord, but we did not hear much speaking and teaching about this portion. It is easy to receive John 3:16 it seems that there is no obligation or requirement in this verse. But here in Matthew 24 and 25, especially in these two portions concerning being faithful in service, this is not the case. No doubt, the talent has been given to us. That was something free. However, all the other items in these two portions are requirements and demands, demanding your watchfulness and demanding your faithfulness. Furthermore, the word in John 3:16 is short, and many of us can recite it. However, the word in these portions regarding our faithfulness is rather long, altogether twenty-four verses. Could you recite these two portions? When the Lord spoke concerning God’s love in giving His Son for our salvation in His divine life, He seemed to indicate that this was very simple, speaking only a few verses. But when the Lord touched these two matters—watchfulness in life and faithfulness in service—He knew that He was touching some of the things that are not so easy for us to get into. Therefore, He gave twenty-four verses concerning faithfulness in our service to the Lord. If the Lord spoke more about a matter, this indicates that this matter is more important. Therefore, we have not only to recognize these portions of the Lord’s word but also to regard them as something not so simple. We must spend some time to get into this. With John 3:16 we will have no problem, but with these words in these two portions we have to be careful.
In these two chapters we have two things to take care of—our watchfulness in life and our faithfulness in service. The watchfulness in life has very much to do with our being raptured on time, with our receiving the permission to enter into the Lord’s wedding feast (Matt. 22:2; Rev. 19:9). This wedding feast refers to the one thousand years of God’s kingdom on this earth. The one-thousand-year kingdom will be the wedding day in which we will have the wedding feast with the Lord (2 Pet. 3:8). Whether or not you will be on time to be admitted into that wedding feast depends upon your care today concerning the extra portion of oil in your being. Therefore, you have to pay your full attention to this. This is a great matter.
I have been practicing this watchfulness throughout the years, but I am also human. Occasionally I became negligent. I was just a little slothful about one or two days, sometimes perhaps five to six days. Then I woke up, telling myself that I was neglecting my obligation and that I had to take care of the oil, an extra portion in my vessel, in my soul. Concerning faithfulness it is the same. I love the Lord, and I love to serve the Lord. To teach or to minister His Word to people is really my “hobby,” yet we all are human. Sometimes I became tired and desired to have a few days of vacation. I wanted to stay away from this ministry of the Word, and I was advised to do so by some dear ones, even by my family. But every time I took their advice to take a vacation, I began to regret, realizing that I had to serve so I could make more profit.
In this parable of the talents the Lord said clearly that “after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them” (Matt. 25:19). He will come back to settle accounts with you. The five-talented one came to report that he made another five talents. This is to use the Lord’s gifts in full. The second one with two talents gave the same report, and they both received a reward. To these two faithful ones the Lord said the same thing: “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful over a few things; I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your master” (vv. 21, 23). The last one, who was not faithful, lost what he had and was also cast out into the outer darkness (vv. 28-30).
Beginning in 1930 I began to teach these things, to minister this kind of word. My Christian friends and Christian relatives came to me, trying their best to argue with me. They asked, “Could a saved one be cast out into the outer darkness?” I said, “Dear ones, it is not I who say this. Read Matthew 25:30. Whose word is this? This is the Lord’s word.” Then they argued with me, asking, “What is this darkness?” I said, “I have never been there. I do not know, but one thing I can tell you is that it is not a good place; I would not like to go there. If you are cast out into that darkness you will not be rejoicing but weeping and gnashing your teeth. Do you want to go to a place where you will be weeping and gnashing your teeth?”
This word was clearly spoken by the Lord Jesus, and it was sovereignly recorded in the Bible. Can you deny that this is the Lord’s word? Can you say that this unfaithful slave is a false believer? This is what Dr. C. I. Scofield taught, and the Brethren did the same thing. This is not a false believer, that is, a tare (13:24-30), for the Lord gave him the talents. The Lord will settle accounts with him, not on the earth but at His judgment seat in the air (2 Cor. 5:10). All those who will be judged there will be real believers. How could a false believer be raptured to the air and go to the judgment seat of Christ to be judged by the Lord? It is impossible. In chapter 13 of Matthew the Lord said, “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Collect first the tares and bind them into bundles to burn them up, but the wheat gather into my barn” (v. 30). When the Lord comes, He will send the angels to bind the tares, the false believers, and cast them into the lake of fire (vv. 40-42). How could there be a false believer who was not bound by the angels but rather raptured to the air to meet the Lord, even at His judgment seat? It is altogether not logical. Because this slave is not faithful, is he a false one? Unfaithfulness does not indicate falsehood.
All those who questioned me about this matter were convinced; eventually, most of them had no way to argue with me. However, some still said, “Anyhow, I do not believe that a believer will be cast out into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” I said, “Friends, whether you believe or you do not believe, this is the Lord’s warning.” Do consider this. Paul in his teaching to the Hebrews called this kind of teaching the word of righteousness (Heb. 5:13). The Lord is not sloppy, nor is He unjust. He is strict and just. Surely He saved you, but after this He gave you the Bible with much advice and many warnings. You have to take the advice, and you have to take all these warnings. Just go along with Him according to His word. I am telling you the truth: I am not sure whether I will successfully pass through the judgment seat. I hope that I would, but that remains to be seen. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:5, “So then do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then there will be praise to each from God” (cf. Rom. 14:10-12; 2 Cor. 5:10).
If we mean business with the Lord that He is real, that He is living, and that His word is altogether trustworthy, we have to be sober. First, we have to be sober to rise up, learning to be watchful in life, daily seeking the extra portion of the oil to saturate our entire being so that we may be ready in life to be raptured at any time. Then we will not miss the chance to enter into the wedding feast, the thousand-year, joyful kingdom. Second, we all have to be ever faithful in our service. Otherwise, we will not only miss the entrance into the wedding feast, but we will also lose our right to enjoy the Lord’s joy in His coming kingdom. Watchfulness in life relates very much to our rapture, and faithfulness in service relates to our entrance into the Lord’s joy to participate in His coming kingdom.
D. M. Panton, who taught concerning the kingdom reward, said that many Christian teachers are giving tickets for the entrance into the kingdom. However, if you bring such a ticket to the entrance of the kingdom, you will discover that your ticket will not be honored. Do not be cheated. This is the Lord’s clear word to us. I would like to advise you, to have a loving fellowship with you, and even to warn you that we all have to be watchful in life and faithful in service.
Now we need to fellowship concerning our practice of being faithful in service. In what way should we be faithful in the service? What shall we do? First, in Matthew 24:45-51 we are told clearly that the Lord commissioned us to take care of His household. His household refers to the believers (Eph. 2:19), who are the church (1 Tim. 3:15). The church today is the Lord’s house and also the Lord’s household, what we refer to as the folks. We are His house, and at the same time we are His folks. The Lord charged us, commissioned us, to minister something to His household, that is, to the believers in the church.
According to Matthew 24:45, what we minister is food. Verse 45 says, “Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom the master has set over his household to give them food at the proper time?” At the proper time we have to minister food, the life supply, to the Lord’s people. Do not say that others have a gift of teaching to teach you the Word of God and minister spiritual food to you but that you do not have such a gift. There is not such a thought here. All the Lord’s servants received the gift for their commission.
In the second section in 25:14-30, the Lord said that He is like a man going abroad, who delivered his possessions to his slaves (v. 14). In the next verse he gave talents to the slaves. Possessions and talents are the items of this parable. His possessions signifies the church (Eph. 1:18) with all the believers, who are His household (Matt. 24:45). The church with the believers is a real inheritance, a possession of the Lord. Talents in this parable signifies spiritual gifts (Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:4; 1 Pet. 4:10; 2 Tim. 1:6). Matthew 25:14 says, “The kingdom of the heavens is just like a man about to go abroad, who called his own slaves and delivered to them his possessions.” Verse 15 continues, “To one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one.” The reader of these verses may think that the five talents refer to possessions. Possessions are the Lord’s church, His believers, and talents are the gifts. The Lord not only gave the possessions, but He also gave the talents. Has the Lord not given you the church with so many believers? The Bible does not refer to the church of the apostles, the church of the elders, the church of the prophets, or the church of the evangelists. The New Testament rather speaks of the church of God (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 1:2), the church of Christ (Rom. 16:16), and the church of the saints (1 Cor. 14:33). The church is the possession of all the saints, the believers.
The Lord, before going to the heavens, delivered to us His church with all the believers. If He had given to us only the talent to minister the life supply, then to whom would we minister? However, He gave us two categories of things: one is His possessions, the other is the talents. Today we have the church with all the believers as the possession, the portion to us, to which we can give something, and we have the talents as the spiritual gifts. You cannot say you are not gifted. Actually, you are much gifted. For this reason I have always encouraged you to function. Some may consider this merely to be my practice. They may say that in all of Christianity they only saw the practice of good preachers speaking to a crowd. They never saw a meeting with so many standing up to speak. Some have even called this a “popcorn” meeting. One after another stands up like popcorn popping. It is very good to have a “popcorn meeting.” This is altogether what we expect to have. This is not my teaching; this is the Bible’s teaching (1 Cor. 14:24, 26, 29-32). We all have to learn to function. This is the reason that even in a ministry meeting, I always like to leave half an hour for you to “pop up.” Do not just be stuck to your chair. It seems as if there is a strong glue to keep many of you stuck to the chair. You have to jump up to say something. For you to speak is to minister food to the Lord’s household at the proper time.
Whoever serves food knows the proper time. If you are serving food every day, you have to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner. To buy a cup of coffee and a doughnut for breakfast is the lazy way. If we are like this in the spiritual realm, we will be poor slaves to minister the life supply to the master’s folks at the proper time. The proper time in the morning is breakfast. Also, good wives prepare the best sandwiches for their husbands to bring to the office for lunch at the proper time and are accustomed to preparing a big dinner for their family.
In like manner, whenever we meet together, this is one of the proper times, the appointed times, for you to minister the proper food to the Lord’s folks. Suppose, however, that I was sloppy, not reading the Word. If I did not labor adequately in the Word and came to speak to you, I would just be ministering to you “a cup of coffee and some doughnuts.” To cook a nourishing, good breakfast, requires your diligence. According to the context of this parable, the faithful one is the diligent one. Faithful here equals diligent, and slothful equals lazy. We must be diligent in seeking the Word so that we could prepare to serve good food when we come to the meeting. The eating time is the proper time, and the meeting time is the proper time. We have the proper time on the Lord’s Day morning, on the Lord’s Day evening, Tuesday evening, and Friday evening. The meeting times are the proper times when we all have to minister some portion of the life supply to our folks, to our fellow believers, to our possessions.
The Lord has given us the church as the object for us to serve, and He has also given us the ability, the skill, the gift, to care for our obligation. We may also enlarge the interpretation of the term possessions. Do you not believe that all the sinners belong to the Lord? All the sinners belong to the Lord; they are all the Lord’s possessions, and the Lord has given them to us. The translators of the Recovery Version were very careful in their translation of this portion. In Matthew 25:14 the possessions are delivered, and in verse 15 the gifts are given. The Lord did not give us the church with the believers; the Lord delivered these to us. In the same sense the Lord has delivered all the sinners to us. The possessions not only denote the church with the believers as the Lord’s possessions but also all the sinners. The Lord has surely delivered to us the church with all the believers and all the sinners that we may take care of them for His sake.
To care for them is simply to feed them, to minister food to them. To the sinners the proper food we minister is the gospel of Christ. The nurses in the hospitals know that they must serve the patients with different meals. Different food is ministered to different patients to meet their specific needs. It is the same with us. The entire earth is a hospital, full of sickness and full of all kinds of sick people. The church in a good sense is also a hospital, full of sick people. Therefore, we have to minister different words to them at the proper time. The Lord’s possessions are always around you. The believers, the churches, and even the more all the sinners are around you. It is your duty, your obligation, to minister food to them. If they are sinners, you have to minister the gospel of grace to them as the food they need. If they are believers sick of something, then you need to minister some word from the Bible that suits their condition, either to nourish them, to heal them, to strengthen them, or to wake them up. To do this is to be a faithful and prudent slave, ministering the proper food to the Lord’s possessions, which are all kinds of persons, at the proper time. When you enter into your office, you must realize that this is one of the proper times to minister the proper food of the gospel to the unbelieving ones. When you go to school, even if you are not going there to teach but to attend classes, all the classmates around you are the Lord’s possessions delivered to you that you may take the opportunity, the proper time, to minister the gospel to them.
In the first of these two portions of the Scriptures, the Lord spoke of food, related to our service. However, in the second portion, the parable, the Lord spoke of profit in business. We all have to make a profit. As a slave commissioned by the Lord to take care of His household, we need to serve food, but as a slave in the parable of Matthew 25:14-30, we need to make a profit. The more you preach the gospel, the more you have the feeling that you have more talent. As I am speaking, I feel my talent is increasing. The more I minister something to you, the more profit I make; it increases my talent.
Each one of us will have no excuse at the judgment seat of Christ. Every day is a proper time for us to minister the proper food to anyone, and every day is a proper time for us to make some profit. For this reason I have been declaring, “Rise up, and wake up!” We all have to rise up and wake up to be diligent, to be faithful, to be prudent and not foolish, to minister the proper food to the needy ones at the proper time, and also to use our talent or talents. Perhaps you only have one talent; actually, most of the believers have only one talent. The danger is not with the ones who have five talents or two talents. The danger is always with the one-talented ones, who are always thinking, “I do not have much gift; what I have is just a little; whether I function or not means nothing.” Actually, it means much.
Since October of 1984 when I went to Taipei, I did many things at a risk. My burden was to stir up the saints to adequately care for their obligation in the matter of preaching the gospel. In 1985 the church in Taipei baptized over five thousand people. Recently they began to have a gospel-preaching practice. The gospel teams going out to the nearby villages baptized thirteen hundred new believers in less than two weeks. They went to the villages and baptized people, cast out demons, and healed the sick.
In a training of one hundred thirty young full-timers who had the burden to go to the villages, I told them that they must exercise in faith to cast out demons when they go to preach the gospel to the sinners (Luke 10:17; Matt. 10:1). According to the New Testament, you do not need to wait to be asked to cast out demons. The demons are devilish, something satanic, and we must cast out anything of the devil for God’s kingdom. Whenever there is a case of demon possession, you have to cast out the demons. However, whenever there are any sick ones, do not go right away to heal them; you have to be asked. To cast out demons you do not need to be asked, but to heal the sick you have to be asked. When they ask you, you may do it. A little over one month after this time the full-timers went out to practice the preaching of the gospel with the casting out of the demons and healing of the sick. It really worked. I told them not to promote healing as the Pentecostals do. If you are going to promote this, eventually you will be pretending that you can heal people. When you are asked to heal the sick, just do it according to the Bible by faith. Whether the sick one will be healed or not, leave this matter to the hands of the Lord. Just act according to His Word. I am so happy to hear the news that they did this.
On one occasion the brothers went to a little mountain to pray. One of the villagers learned that there was a group of Christians there, and he went to join them. He asked the brothers if they were Christians. They told him they were and that they were preaching the gospel. He said that he was a Baptist, yet he had been sick for a few years, and he asked if the brothers laid their hands on people and prayed for the sick. When the brothers replied that they did, he asked if they would lay their hands upon him and pray for him. The brothers agreed, and the man was healed. He was so joyful and full of praise. No doubt, this kind of person would always attract his relatives and friends. There was a revival in the villages. There was also the casting out of the demons there. However, the brothers and sisters were charged not to boast of these things and not to promote them; our boast is in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we must promote the gospel. Although the brothers and sisters went out for less than two weeks, they baptized thirteen hundred people. Furthermore, they expect to baptize many more before the completion of their gospel preaching.
On the one hand, those dear ones in Taiwan were making a profit. On the other hand, they were feeding the hungry sinners in the villages with the food of the gospel. Many were fed and became satisfied and so joyful. Their joy spontaneously became a testimony in those villages. To some degree it might not be so easy in the cities with educated people because the educated people are not so simple as the villagers. However, please do not think that those people in the villages in Taiwan are uneducated; they all have a certain amount of education. In the cities, in the schools and offices, we still have a great possibility to feed people with the food of the gospel. It all depends upon our faithfulness. We must be faithful. Deducting all the holidays and weekends, there are still over two hundred days in a year in which you go to your place of business or to school. Every day is the proper time for you to minister the food of the gospel to your contacts. Do you not believe that within one year you will gain one person?
Apparently, it has been very difficult to gain a new person. We have been cheated; we have been made disappointed. We do not have the faith, the morale, the impact with the full assurance, that we will gain someone. You had better quietly consider why, within one year of at least two hundred working days, you could not gain one. It is not logical. There has been no increase because you became disappointed.
All the believers should be the fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). Sometimes at the schools the fish will jump not only at your feet but also into your bosom. However, you may not have wanted that. How can you get a fish if you have no intention to get one? You may prefer to keep the fish away. This is the real case, and this is the reason why I am fellowshipping with you in this way. You need to make some profit. You need to gain some oil.
Who knows that the Lord will not come back soon? Recently, the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger attracted the attention of the whole nation. I felt sorry for the ones who died in it and sorry for our country. Would that not be a warning to us, though? Who among us can know when will be the proper time for us to die? We should take this as a warning. If a real Christian dies without the adequate supply of oil in his vessel, his soul, and if he has not made much profit for the Lord, he will regret in the next age that he had wasted his time. I believe that some of those who love the Lord were warned through this incident. We do not know, as the Lord said in Matthew 24:36, the hour or the day of His coming back. We do not even know the hour, the time, or the day of the month of our death. Our life is so fragile (Psa. 39:4). With a little accident we might be killed.
As we read these portions concerning the watchfulness in life and concerning the faithfulness in service, we should be warned. We must be enlightened that to have an extra portion of the oil, the Spirit, in our vessel is not as simple as getting saved. We can be saved and regenerated instantly. To have the Holy Spirit come into our spirit is simple, but to have an extra portion of the Holy Spirit to fill you up, to saturate your entire being, takes much time. This is clearly indicated in the New Testament. To bear a child requires nine months. However, to grow up to be a full-grown person requires at least eighteen to twenty-one years. In the Bible the required age for entrance into the Lord’s service as an apprentice is twenty-five years (Num. 8:24); the full, legal age for the priest is thirty years (4:3). To prepare an extra portion of the Spirit to fill your being, that is, to have the full growth, requires time. I dare not to say that I am fully grown. However, I do believe that in the Lord’s hand there might be a record that says I have grown much. Yet I still need some more growth. Consider your situation related to the growth in life and related to the profit for the Lord. My burden and my heart’s desire are to pass this fellowship on to you.
At this time, rise up and wake up to seek after the extra portion of the oil daily, and do some business with the talent you have received of the Lord to make a profit. If you do not, you will suffer. This suffering will not be immediately after you die; the suffering will be at His coming back. All the dead saints will resurrect to be raptured with the living ones to the air to meet the Lord and to stand before His judgment seat. Then He will settle accounts with you. You must keep a good account. We all know that to keep a good account is not a one-day matter; it is a lifelong matter. You all must have some profit accumulated, a deposit built up.
This word in the plain speaking in Matthew 24:45-51 and in the parable in 25:14-30 is altogether adequate. We will have no excuse. Therefore, please rise up, wake up, and do not take any excuse. The one-talented one argued with the Lord, taking to Him a very good excuse, saying, “Master, I knew about you, that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow” (v. 24). The Lord admitted that was true but said, “Evil and slothful slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not winnow. Therefore you should have deposited my money with the money changers; and when I came, I would have recovered what is mine with interest” (vv. 26-27). The word of the one-talented slave condemned him. Actually, we have no excuse at all. May this portion of the Word give us a word of supply and a word of warning.
