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First Peter 4:17 says, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” In this verse we can see that there are different governmental dealings of God. God deals with His house, that is, His children, in one way and at one time, and He deals with those who do not obey the gospel in another way and at another time. Although we have been saved and have become God’s household, God’s family, this does not mean that we shall never again be judged by God. On the contrary, this verse says that God’s judgment will begin at His house. If God were unjust in dealing with His own children, how could He judge the unbelievers and those who oppose Him? The principle here is that in order for God to be just in judging the unbelievers, He must firstly make a righteous judgment of His children.
God’s intention is not to have a universe filled with neat, clean, righteous, sinless people. As we have seen, God’s purpose is to sow Himself into His chosen people, making them His children. Once we have become God’s children through regeneration, having God’s life as our seed and content, we need to grow with and into God and be fully transformed by being permeated with all His divine elements. God’s intention is not to gain a group of pure, righteous people; it is to gain a people who have been saturated with Him and built up in Him. Satan came in to frustrate God’s work mainly through sin, the world, and the self. Thus, if we are to grow in God’s life, we must hate sin, forsake the world, and deny the self. The object of dealing with sin is not merely to deal with the sin itself, but to eliminate the satanic frustration to the growth in life. Having our sins forgiven is a minor thing; being delivered from the sinful frustration so that we may grow in God’s life is the major thing. If you have committed a sin but repent and desire to go on with the Lord, God will surely forgive your sin because of Christ’s redemption. Do not worry about it. God’s intention is not simply to forgive your sins but to bring you onward that you may grow in His life. We all are human and easily fall into sin. But as long as we desire to grow in life, God will spontaneously take care of our sins and cleanse us with the blood of Jesus. However, if we are not willing to grow and yet ask God to forgive our sins, He will be faithful to do it, but we shall not be in the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Simply having our sins forgiven on the negative side does not fulfill God’s purpose. We also need to grow and enter into the Sabbath rest.
I like the picture we have in Matt. 24 and Matt. 25. As we pointed out in the last message, in Matt. 24:40-41 we see the two living ones, and in Matt. 25:1-4 we see the ten dead ones. Of the two living ones, one is taken and the other is left. Of the ten dead ones, five are accepted and five are temporarily rejected. The saved ones can never be rejected by God eternally, but they may be rejected dispensationally, like a child who does not do well in school and who, after graduation, is not allowed to share in the special dinner planned by his parents as a prize for his brothers and sisters who did well. Such a child will never be rejected permanently by his parents, but he may be rejected temporarily. If we believe Matt. 1, then we must also believe Matthew 24 and 25. We should not select the verses that we like and ignore the verses that we do not like. Both Matthew 24 and 25 are crucial to our Christian life and work.
Matthew 25 contains two parables concerning us — the parable of the ten virgins and the parable of the talents. The parable of the ten virgins depicts the life we should have, and the parable of the talents portrays the work we should have. Our life must be that of a wise virgin, and our work must be that of a faithful servant. In the parable of the ten virgins, we see that we need to have a watchful life, a life that continually bears testimony and goes out of the world to meet the Lord. This parable also reveals that we not only need to have our spirit enlightened by God’s Spirit, but our vessel, that is, our soul, must be transformed with an extra portion of the life-giving Spirit.
Furthermore, the parable of the talents reveals that our work must be the work of a faithful servant, using the Lord-given talents to do business for the Lord and to earn profit for His economy. According to what is revealed in Matthew, both such a watchful life and a faithful work are crucially needed for us to be rewarded with the coming Sabbath rest in the millennial kingdom. This is different from the enjoyment of rest in salvation which is received simply by faith in the Lord.
We have not only been regenerated that we may have the divine life to be God’s children, but we have also been talented to serve the Lord as His servants. In the parable of the talents, we see that the talents were given to the servants according to their ability. “Unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability” (Matt. 25:15). We all have some ability, and the talents given to us are according to our ability. The Apostle Paul had great ability; many talents were given to him. Brother Watchman Nee also had much ability, and many talents were given to him. However, all our natural ability has to be dealt with by the death of Christ that it may be brought into resurrection to cooperate with the Lord-given talent. Our natural ability is always a frustration to our usefulness in the Lord’s hand. In the Lord’s work, only the resurrected ability, not the natural, can match the talent which the Lord gives.
None of us should excuse ourselves by saying, “Praise the Lord, I don’t have much ability and not many talents have been given to me, so I don’t have much to do.” Whether we have been given five talents, two talents, or one talent, the principle is the same: we have to gain another five, two, or one for the Lord. If you have been given one talent, you should not use this as an excuse to be slothful. According to the parable, the danger is not with those of more talents but with those of one talent. The servant of one talent tried to excuse himself but received rebuke and punishment. Many fundamental Bible teachers, including C. I. Scofield, say that the one-talented servant was a false Christian. As we pointed out in the last message, these fundamental teachers, being Calvinists, were forced to say this because they could not reconcile such portions of the Word with the teaching that once we have been saved we are saved forever. Since they could not understand how a Christian could be cast into outer darkness, they had to say that the slothful, one-talented servant was a false believer. Calvinism does not see the matter of reward, which includes both prize and punishment. But the complete revelation of the Holy Word does not only show us the eternal salvation by faith but also unveils to us the dispensational reward (either prize or punishment) by works. The dispensational reward of a prize will be the coming Sabbath rest in the millennial kingdom. For us to enter into that Sabbath rest, we need, after being saved forever by faith, to live a watchful life as the wise virgins, and to do a faithful work as the faithful servants. Otherwise, we shall lose the coming Sabbath rest in the millennial kingdom and suffer some discipline.
Calvinists stress the matter of absolute grace, and Arminians stress human responsibility. But according to the Bible, divine grace is for human responsibility. On the day of Pentecost, Peter told the people, “Be saved from this perverse generation” (Acts 2:40, Gk.). Peter did not say, “Save yourselves.” as the King James Version renders it; he said, “Be saved.” To save yourself means that you do this yourself; to be saved means that someone else does it for you, yet you must allow him to do it. The Lord is saving us, but He needs our cooperation. For example, a mother may not say to her child, “Feed yourself”; she may say, “Be fed. Don’t be naughty and shut your mouth — open your mouth and be fed. Take the food and swallow it.” Although salvation is absolutely a matter of grace, we must be willing to be saved and willing to believe in the Lord. Even the Almighty God cannot do anything for us if we are not willing to believe in Him. Being willing to believe is our responsibility, the cooperation we render to God’s saving. Regardless of the grace extended to us, we all must be willing to believe in the Lord, look to Him, open ourselves to receive His grace, and allow it to work on our behalf.
If we only have ability, we cannot work for the Lord. In addition to our ability, we have been talented by the Lord. Once we have been talented, we must use our talent. Only when we use our talent will the profit come. The profit comes from the grace of God, but the coming of this grace depends upon our use of our talent, upon our function and exercise. If we do not use the talent, the grace will not come, for its coming depends upon our exercise.
Our growth in life will determine the time of our maturity. If we grow in life and, like the wise virgins, have the extra portion of oil in our vessel and have been transformed, we shall mature earlier. While our growth in life determines whether or not we mature early, our work, our exercise, and our use of the talent determines whether or not we share in the Lord’s kingship. The Lord said to the servant with the five talents, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:21). This is to be a co-king with the Lord Jesus and to enjoy the real rest, the Sabbath during the millennial kingdom. According to Luke 19:17, the Lord said, “Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.” In the millennial kingdom, some will rule over ten cities and others over five cities (Luke 19:19). You may not only be a mayor of one city but a governor of ten cities. Although we may not be clear about all the details, no one can argue with the principle here.
While in the parables we only have the principles, in Rev. 2:26-27 we have the details. Here we are told, “He that overcometh, and keepeth my work unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and he shall rule them with the rod of iron” (Gk.). The nations on earth surely need to be ruled by us. When the Lord Jesus returns, He will assign us to rule over all the nations. In that day there will be no more nonsensical talk. Everyone will talk rightly because they will be under the proper ruling. Who will rule over them? We, the people who have been disciplined. Do you believe that all the rulers today are the proper persons? Some of them smoke, drink, and gamble. How could they be the proper rulers? The whole earth is waiting and groaning to be released from the improper rulers. The earth will be released from that kind of rule when the Lord Jesus comes back. Why has the Lord Jesus not yet returned? Because we have not yet been disciplined. If He were to come back today, whom would He assign to rule over the nations?
The word talent in Matthew 25 is the equivalent of the word gift in the Epistles. Paul told Timothy to “stir up the gift of God which is in thee” (2 Tim. 1:6). In life we need to grow, and in work we need to exercise our gift. The parable of the ten virgins reveals our need of transformation by the life-giving Spirit, and the parable of the talents reveals our need to have the proper exercise of the spiritual gifts. We all need to be transformed by the extra portion of oil in our vessel, and we all need to exercise our gift to gain some profit for the Lord. We need to grow on the one hand and make profit in God’s economy on the other. Our growth will determine the time of our maturity, and the exercise of our gifts will determine the position we will share with Christ in the millennial kingdom. If we do not mature and exercise our gifts, we shall miss the early rapture and the enjoyment of reigning with Christ. Matthew 25 speaks of “the joy of thy lord” (vv. 21, 23). Undoubtedly, this joy is the rest in the Sabbath during the coming kingdom.
The slothful, one-talented servant will not only miss the enjoyment of being a co-king with Christ during the millennial kingdom, but he will also have some suffering. If there is to be no suffering, there would have been no mention of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 25:30), which are signs of the suffering of some punishment. This is not eternal perdition; it is our Father’s wise discipline.
Both the church age and the kingdom age are parts of the period of God’s accomplishment for the fulfillment of His purpose. The period of God’s accomplishment will not be over until the end of the millennium. Hence, God’s dealing with us. His discipline over us, may not necessarily be in the church age, but may also wisely be in the coming kingdom age. At the end of the millennium, God’s eternal purpose will have been accomplished, the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem will be ushered in, and then there will be no more dealings, no more discipline of God. I must repeat this because many Christians have the wrong concept that as long as the Lord comes back, and we are resurrected, everything will be all right and all Christians will share the reign in the millennial kingdom. Whether or not we will reign with Christ during the millennium depends on how we are doing now. Our Lord is sovereign, having a way to ripen us and make us mature. It we do not ripen in this age, He will see to it that we ripen in the next.
After the foolish virgins discovered that they were lacking in oil, they were told to pay the price and buy it for themselves (Matt. 25:8-9). Salvation is free, but transformation is not. We must pay for it. If we do not pay the price today, we shall have to pay it in the future. No one can pay it for us. According to the parable of the ten virgins, even after the Lord’s coming back, and even after our resurrection, the foolish ones will still have to pay the price to gain the extra portion of oil in their vessel. It is not, as the Calvinists say, that the five wise virgins were saved and that the five foolish ones were false Christians. That is an escape. We must take Matthew 25 in a very serious way. If we do not pay the price to gain the oil in the church age today, we shall have to pay it after the Lord comes back and we are resurrected in the future. This is the principle. This is not my concept or my teaching; it is the revelation of the pure word in the Holy Bible. Many Christians select verses according to their choice and taste, choosing verses that suit their natural concept, not daring to touch these verses in Matthew 25. How damaging that is! They are deceiving themselves and others. The wise virgins and the faithful servants shall enter into a Sabbath rest that is better than the Sabbath rest which we know today. Although we are enjoying a good Sabbath in the church age, it is not as good as the Sabbath to come in the kingdom age. Entering into the Lord’s joy is to enter into the Sabbath rest with the Lord in the millennial kingdom. When the Lord looks at all the overcomers, He will be satisfied and enter into His Sabbath rest. If we are among the overcomers, we shall enter into that rest with Him.
