Parable of Talents: Faithful Servant?

0:00Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. Who knew? I mean, who knew reading my Bible could be so very dangerous? I know people say, no, no, reading your Bible is a good thing, but I mean, who knew? Well, I think we all should know that if we read the Bible and we take it seriously and we really think about what we are reading, trying to understand it, trying to interpret it, understanding within its historical context, within its textual context, it becomes dangerous because it's going to lead us to doing a lot of work that in many cases will find us and direct conflict with a lot of other Christians. I hate to say that, but it's just true because many Christians read the Bible through the lens of the theological team in which they have chosen. Whatever church they go to, that's their theological team. That's how they read the Scriptures or whoever their favorite preacher is or whatever theological

1:03system they were taught. And you know how I loathe that. We should read the Bible and try to figure it out, but trying to figure it out can be dangerous in the sense that it can just lead to so much like, well, wait a minute, what about this? Well, what about this? And what about this? And then that leads to the wrestling and struggling. Do I always say when we wrestle with Scripture, when we wrestle with the things of God, we always walk away with the limp because ladies and gentlemen, trying to understand it at times can be maddening. It can be complicated. But in spite of that, in spite of the difficulty, in spite of the frustration, here I am late at night, microphone, live, Bible in front of me, and my Bible's open to the passage that was assigned for my Bible reading, one of my Bible reading plans for today. And we have spent over three hours in broadcasting working on this passage of Scripture. And we're going to add, I don't know, we're going to add some more time.

2:03I don't know how much I will explain everything. Let me just go ahead and say, good evening everyone. It is Sunday, September the 13th, 2026. It is currently 11.22 pm central time. And I am coming to you live from the theology central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. All right. Now, I would like to spend about an hour doing another sermon review. All right. As we continue, I don't know what do we call it. Oh my, well, it's not just mine. It's because if you've been listening, you're a part of it. Our investigation of the parable of the talents has recorded in Matthew, chapter 25, 14 through 30. I know most pastors don't have this many difficulties, but I, who knew, who knew if reading the Bible could be so difficult and so dangerous? Well, you're finding that out at the more you listen to this podcast, all right?

3:04Now, if you haven't heard the previous episodes, well, if you haven't, why not? I need the downloads and streams. Okay. Actually, I, I mean, I do want the downloads and streams. I don't necessarily need those. I do need people that support the podcast. So that is a way of supporting it, but I just, that doesn't produce any money. But thank you very much for, for, for downloading because it is important because it does show that people are listening, all right? So let me try to get everyone on the same page. You're ready? I'm going to try to do this. I mean, I got to do this quickly because yeah, I want to, I want to see how much we can, of the review we can do, all right? So I think most of us, if you've been in church for any length of time and you listen to Matthew 25, for, and you've heard any preaching on Matthew 25, 14 through 30, you've heard an interpretation that goes something like this, the master, the one who's about to go into the far country, he represents Christ, the servants represent Christians or the probably, I think most would kind of go with professing Christians.

4:05The talents represent something God has entrusted to us our ability, spiritual give, money, time, opportunity, responsibilities or, well, we've heard at least one interpretation say the gospel itself. Christ goes away. He's going to eventually return. He goes away at his ascension. He returns and well, I, well, there's a lot of questions that most will say the second coming. And then he judges what these servants have done with what he gave them. Hey, I gave you these things. What did you do with it? Oh, well, you, the one who doesn't do anything, well, he's in a lot of trouble, right? And so basically you have two servants who are called good and faithful, all right? One is called wicked and lazy and is cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now when I read the parable of the talents, again, who knew how dangerous it could be?

5:05For me, when I read it, I don't care what everyone else says. I don't care what the church says. I don't care what pastors say. I don't care because the text is the authority, unless I'm going to just subject myself to an interpretive authority. And if I, and, and, and subject myself to an interpretive authority and allow that authority to have the authority over the scriptures, then I just as well go back to the Roman Catholic church, all right? So I started asking questions, all right? And I, and I'm just going to make this absolutely, I've got to make this one, I got to make this point clear, all right? Whatever else you and I find about the parable, whatever other conclusions we come to about this parable, the judgment, remember, this parable ends with judgment and cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There is no other way to understand this. The parable ends with judgment.

6:07That is a fact, okay? Nobody can get around that, around that. And this judgment is connected with what the servants do or don't do. It's what they did with what they were given. So this judgment is based on actions or inaction. It's based on works. And if you're going to make this final judgment, having something to do with someone's eternal destiny, either heavenly reward or eternal punishment, well, then ladies and gentlemen, you've got to ask, you've got to answer a lot of questions about salvation, justification and assurance. And I know what people are going to say. Well, look, look, look, look, the works don't save you, but the works prove that you're saved. Well, if works prove that you're saved, then how many works prove that you're saved? Is it just, do you make it so that it can be the smallest of something? Well, then at that point, you can pretty much claim anyone is saved.

7:09Or do you make it something more specific? More, I don't know, it's more detailed. It's more difficult. It's, there is a certain level. Well, at the second you do that, then I don't, I don't know why Christians don't catch on to this. So let me try to explain. If you try to tell me works don't save you, but works prove that you're saved, well, then I have to do those works in order to be saved. You say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you get saved and then you do the works. But if I don't do the works, then I'm not safe. Well, no, that just proves you were never saved. You can play all the semantic games. Works are required for salvation. You said, well, you don't do the works in order to get saved, but you're saying I have to do the works in order to prove that I'm saved, meaning if I don't do the works, then I'm not saved. Therefore, the works are required. And you can play all the semantic games, but you're just arguing in a circle. And then the bottom line is, is then the proof of salvation is not the work of Christ. The proof of salvation is the work I do or don't do. And you would think if my work is going to prove salvation, well, considering the law

8:09demands perfection, then my law, then my actions would have to be perfect in order to prove salvation, right? Well, then you said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it works. You don't have to be perfect. So in perfect works, corrupted works can then prove salvation. How does corrupted works and in perfect works prove salvation? What in the proof of salvation be perfect work? The perfect work of Jesus Christ. And only that now the assurance is found in my work. And then you cannot give me an objective standard, which I know if I've done enough or not done enough. It's all subjective and you then have me looking to myself instead of looking to the cross instead of looking to imputed righteousness. And if I'm saved by imputed righteousness, then works can't prove it because imputed righteousness does not produce works. Imputed righteousness declares me to be holy without any works because it's a righteousness that's accredited into my account. The only way it would produce works is if it was an infused righteousness, which would

9:11be Roman Catholicism. It's like I got to say this like a million times over and over and over and over and over and over again because every time we run into these subjects, we run into these exact same issues. So whatever you want to say about this parable, works are required. And if that judgment there determines heaven or hell, if that judgment at the end is hell, well then someone goes to hell for not doing any work or well, they did something. They took what was given and they buried it. So that's a kind of a work, but I guess you can say it's not a work. Well then the whole thing becomes confusing, all right? And then I think so what I asked the question is, so I ask, wait a minute, if we understand this to be about salvation, don't we have to question then everything we believe about salvation? And second, have we correctly identified the judgment in the first place? You see Matthew chapter 25, 14 through 30 does not exist and some kind of just isolated

10:17room or in some isolated bubble. It is a part of the very same discourse that begins with Jesus leaving the temple in Matthew chapter 24 verse 1 and predicting the destruction of that temple and the destruction of that temple happens in 70 AD. This parable is a part of that same discourse and that discourse is known as the all of it discourse and it's about warning the disciples, he's answering a question to the disciples, hey when is this going to be destroyed? When is this going to happen? And he gives them all the signs and if you'll note in chapter 23 verse 36, I surely assure you all these things will come upon this generation and then he says the exact same thing in verse 34 of 20, so in 2336 he says this generation and 2434, I surely ass into you this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.

11:17So this entire thing is set up that these things are going to happen within that generation and that parable of the talents falls within that same discourse, dealing with the same thing, warning them, hey, you don't know the day or hour, but he's going to come back and there's going to be some kind of judgment. Now we do know this, this is just an absolute fact. Judgment did fall in 70 AD and the temple was destroyed. So is that possible? And we started formulating a hermeneurical hypotheses that the parable of the talents has something to do about what's going to happen when judgment falls on 70 AD. I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm not saying we've proven it, but we definitely tried to work it out. All right. So we, in the last episode, we reviewed a sermon that actually took the parable and placed it in the context of 70 AD and we were very happy about that.

12:19But then that sermon went completely kuku for koko pups, drove off the hermeneurical road through offense, hit four cows, went over a cliff, crashed at the bottom, and then the cliff fell on top of the car, then an asteroid hit it, and then the world blew up. Okay. All right. Maybe that's a little bit of hyperbole. It was bad. All right. Because basically before that, we didn't even finish the sermon. He ultimately basically said that you can be a false teacher of a false gospel. You may be judged, but you'll still be saved and you can be a believer of a false gospel and still be saved. And I don't know what in the name of bubble gum all of that was. Okay. So what did I do with Matthew 25, 14 through 30, unless he was going to try to argue that the judgment there doesn't mean hell. It just means you're going to suffer by fire, but still be saved, which he tried to import first Corinthians chapter three into Matthew 25, 14 through 30. It was just a hermeneurical mess. All right. So we had that took 13 minutes.

13:20We have a, I have my Bible open. I hope I made sense through all of that. I hope it did. I'm trying to keep everyone on the same page. But the bottom line is who knew who knew who knew that reading, doing my Bible reading today would lead to 50 hours of trying to figure this out. But that's what Bible reading should do. All right. And why do we listen to sermons? Because sermons constantly remind us of how many different interpretations there are out there. So the, this is what I did. I went to sermon audio. I typed in Matthew 25, 14 through 30. I hit for newest sermons and I found one entitled, Who is the Good and Faithful Servant? Who is the good, who, who, who is the good and faithful servant? Who, who could it be? Now I think the only good and faithful servant is Jesus Christ, but that's going to be me trying to interpret something from a law, gospel perspective. That's more in line with historical Lutheranism, but we won't go there right now. We'll see where he's going to go.

14:20This sermon is long and there's no way I'm going to be able to finish this. So here's what I'm going to try to do tonight. I tend to interrupt sermons a lot. I will interrupt somewhat frequently. Well, you know what? Here's what I'm going to do. We're just going to see what happens and where we stop is where we stop. There we go. I mean, the reviews are supposed to be raw, messy because I'm going in blind. I don't know what's going to be said. The only thing I did with this when hit play and the volume was miserably too low. I had to download it, then upload it into software artificially, increase the volume, download it, then upload it to my studio software. So we have a recording that's loud enough, all right? That's it. I don't know anything else. And so I don't know what's going to happen. Could be good. Could be bad. I don't know. But let's find out. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know what church this is. I know this sermon has been uploaded. Maybe within the last 30 minutes to an hour. I don't know. I just know what's under new. Take that back.

15:21It's a new sermon on this passage. So I can't say for sure when it was uploaded. It wasn't under newest sermons. It was under a search for Matthew 25, 14 through 30. And then the new sermons on that passage. So it's listed as a new sermon, but I don't know when it was actually updated. So I don't want to go hot off the press because it may not be, okay? I don't know how many sermons have been uploaded on Matthew 25, 14 through 30, and the last 24 hours. So this could have been weeks ago. Who knows? Are you ready? Ladies and gentlemen, let's do this. I hope it goes well. We go in blind. We don't know what's going to happen. I look what happened last time. We went in blind at that sermon. We end up hearing that you can be a false teacher and believe a false gospel. And hey, you may get burned up on earth, but hey, you're going to go to heaven. So I don't know then whose loss. If you can teach a false gospel and believe a false gospel and still be saved, then at that point, just be a universalist and everyone's going to heaven. It was the most wackiest thing.

16:22Oh my goodness. I don't even know what happened there. I don't know if he even realized what he was saying, okay, but all right. We caught it. I hope you caught it. All right. So here we go. I don't know what's going to happen. We're just going to find out together. And begin with a reminder. And awesome thought. And it is this. What a mighty God you serve, amen. Angels bow before him. Heaven and earth adore him. What a mighty God we all serve. We have to remember that we are servants. The actual word here is slaves. If you go back a couple of parables and remember what I taught on last time, the actual word is slaves. We are slaves in the household of God. All right. So we already figure something out here. Obviously he's taking the word servants and he's making that us. You notice how quickly it only took about three seconds and he has obliterated the entire

17:29context. He's obliterated the entire stinking context. Oh my goodness. I don't understand. Is there a memo been sent out to all pastors? Hey, whatever you preach, just make it say whatever you want. Nobody stinking cares anyway. I know I sound sometimes like I'm being picky, but for crying out loud. This parable is part of the all of it discourse. The all of it discourse is spoken to specific disciples who are present at the time the temple stood on earth. Those disciples aren't us. Those disciples were them. Can we use the stinking right pronouns? Oh man, I get so tired of this. Five seconds into a sermon and all of the servants are us. No, it's them. And if it's not them, then we have to identify who they are in the historical context in which it was written before you put yourself in the stinking passage. And I'm going to lose my mind. See now this is where I just start losing my patience. You know, it started off with, hey, open my Bible app.

18:32Here's what I'm supposed to read. And then you read and then you, you know, with right motives, you try to work and figure it out. And so then you think, okay, well, then let's listen to sermons to here. And then we, we, we have play and all of a sudden it's about us. It's about us. Everything is always about us. We're, oh man, I wish, I wish a Bible publisher when you open the Bible would be attention, attention readers. This Bible does not revolve around you. In fact, many other passages has nothing to do with you. So keep your stinking self out. I wonder how many Bibles they would sell. If you want to make it about us, how about we wait until we get to some kind of application before you just say the servants here are us. It's not us. Oh man.

19:37I'm not saying it doesn't have an application for us, but we haven't even gotten there. We're three seconds into the sermon and you're already making it about us. We got to figure out who these people are. We got to figure out what's going on. And we do, and here what we know. Okay. Oh man. This is where I want to just get so sarcastic and just be condescending. Like, or not condescending. Just start talking to people like they're in, you know, third grade. All right, little Johnny. Let's figure this out. This discourse begins in Matthew 24 verse 1. Can you turn there? Let me read it for you. Then Jesus, do you know who, okay, all right. And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple, and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple.

20:37THAT is, NOT YOU! And Jesus said to them the them are the disciples, who came up to show him the buildings of the temple, and he says, do you, the YOU, or the disciples, who came up to show him the buildings of the temple? Do you not see all these things? that is literally seeing those literal buildings, okay? Assurely I say to you, you are the disciples who came up to show him the buildings. Okay. Not one stone should be left there upon another that should not be thrown down. He's talking about the actual physical destruction of a physical temple that was standing and was destroyed in 70 AD. This is not hard work. Man, this is not going like a late night broadcast. I'm losing my mind, all right? Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, that's a real place. Do we need to pull up a map and show you, okay? And the disciples came to him, not you, not me. And they came into him privately saying,

21:38tell us the us are the disciples who came out of the temple and showed him the buildings. This is who they are, okay? Tell us when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age? And Jesus answered and said to them, who is the them? And that discourse goes all the way through 24, all the way through 25 and ends at 25, 46. And then 26 verse one says, now I came to pass when Jesus had finished all these sayings that he said to his disciples. You know why he said to his disciples? Because that's who he's been talking to. Oh my goodness gracious. So whoever the servants are, we have to at least keep in mind the original audience. And the original audience. If you go back, if you want to add further context, starting in, I don't know, all the way back to 21, he starts going after the religious leaders

22:42and he starts going after the religious leaders and of Israel. Going all the way back to, I don't know, to the parable of the wicked vine dressers going all the way back to the end though and the scribes and the Pharisees, even know he's talking about them. Then in 23, he just goes way, he goes completely after them, he goes after them, then he brings in O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem. Now he's bringing in the city, which we know that city is going to be destroyed. And Matthew 24, he talks about, okay, oh my goodness, it's not that hard to figure this stuff out. So the people that we can refer to here, we've got the scribes and the Pharisees, we've got the Jerusalem, the Jews, the Israelites, and we've got the disciples. That's who we have here. Where do you and I show up? Oh, see, okay, man, I'm just, just continue.

23:42I'm hoping that I'm overreacting here. I'm hoping I'm overreacting because there is a possibility I am. I will be honest with you. Just because I just, after doing all of this work, you just start getting irritated. And you're like, I just want to be able to hear people who deal with the text. And it just seems crazy that he's already taking the word servants and he's saying, us, where did you get us? You can say the word servant as used in this part of Matthew 24, or in 25 or in 23, it comes from this Greek word and it refers to this. Now, how does that fit the people whom he's talking to? Well, let's identify who he's been talking to and Matthew 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25. Then we may be can identify what servants are being spoken of or maybe we can't. I don't know, but at least do the hermeneutical work. He's just already front loading and assumption. Maybe though, he's gonna clarify it. We are entrusted with our master's possessions.

24:43We, if I ever hear another Christian complain about pronouns and the use of pronouns in the culture, I am literally, I'm just gonna become an atheist. Christians shut up, whining about people's use of pronouns or what pronouns they want to be called in the culture when you don't care about how pastors use pronouns from the puppet when they're preaching the word of God. This is not about we've been given anything. It's about who he's talking to. Oh my goodness, gracious. Okay, wow, how are you doing tonight? Are you having a good evening? Everything calm? This is nice calm.

25:43This is perfect for a late night broadcast. See, this is why I usually don't do sermon reviews late at night. Oh man, I'm just frustrated. You gotta hear, my frustration's coming across as anger, but I hope you hear it's just mine for crying out loud. This passage presents a million problems, but you're never gonna get anywhere to figuring out the problems if you're already doing this with the text. It's we, it's us, no. Can we leave we and us over to the side until we figure out the they and the them? I know what a radical thought because they and them are the ones he's talking to because you and I us and we did the speaking exist at the time, okay. And he's literally talking to literal people who are literally there. I mean, the whole content, it's the same discourse. So how does it apply to what he's been talking about?

26:46Oh man, okay, I'm hoping he's gonna do better than this. Man, I know, I'm, you know what, I'm almost tempted to do. I'm almost tempted right now to grab the transcript, give it to AI and go, hey, I'm losing my mind right now. Should I stop or what should I do? Should we do that? No, I'm not gonna let AI tell me to stop. Oh no, I refuse, I'm getting, well, maybe if we go a little bit further, I'll ask AI. All right, hang on, all right, okay, let's take a deep breath, here we go. And this is a good thing because our Lord is a good master. And if there's something that our master is in terms of his goodness, it is that he loves to reward his faithful servants. He loves to reward his faithful servants. I'm going to say that again, he loves to reward his faithful servants. And I want to bring up one other passage just in your, for your minds. If you look at Isaiah 65 verses eight through nine,

27:48God says this thing about his servants and their inheritance, wonderful passage. It says this, thus says the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say do not destroy it, for there's a blessing in it. So I will do for my servants sake and not destroy them all. I will bring forth offspring from Jacob and from Judah possessors of my mountains. My chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there. So God has a plan for his servants. Okay, now I'm not even going to get into it. Now you just jump to Isaiah 65, note, no textual. Just so that, I'm going to just say this out there. If we were to take the biblical language of a quote, unquote, faithful servant, and we take that very literally,

28:50without quietly lowering the standard to someone who's just a sincere Christian who's doing his best, or someone who's trying really, really, really, really hard. Okay, the requirement becomes extraordinarily severe if you look up all the passages and take them seriously. A faithful servant, and I'll just go ahead and throw this argument out. It probably needs to do a little bit tested, but we'll throw this out there. To be a faithful servant, you would faithfully have to do everything the master requires. If you're going to be a faithful servant, you would have to do everything the master requires, and to do everything the master requires. That would seem to include then faithfully obeying the law, which means you would have to be perfect to be a faithful servant, which you cannot be. Okay, all right, all right.

29:50I mean, if you look at a master servant relationship, it essentially means doing everything the master tells you to do. All right? If we go, I mean, if we, I mean, some of these, I'm just trying to think, I'm trying to memorize, I'm trying to not memorize, I'm trying to remember scriptures. I mean, but if we go just back to Matthew 548, he doesn't use the word servant, but we are given a very strong standard in Matthew chapter five. B, how is it, how is it, it's Matthew five again. I don't want to quote it incorrectly. I think it's Matthew five 48, Matthew five 48. Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect. Well, that's how perfect is God in heaven, perfectly perfect. Well, then how perfect are you to be perfect as God is perfect? And what you should say is,

30:51well, that I can't do that exactly. You shall love the Lord, God with all your heart, my embodying soul, that's Matthew 2237. You shall love your neighbors yourself, that's Matthew 2239. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, you do to them also as Matthew chapter seven, I don't know. Yeah, we could look up other passages, but I just want you to know that if we're very honest, that we're very honest about what it means to be a faithful servant, unless you're just going to minimize the stand, what we always do is we say, we're supposed to be a faithful servant. And then if someone said, okay, well, then I'm supposed to be perfect, then they always backtrack, well, no, it just means, I mean, so then, so here's the question, how much unfaithfulness can be in my life and I still be declared to be a faithful servant? Someone tell me, how much unfaithfulness can reside in me

31:52and I still be called a faithful servant because there's going to be some level of unfaithfulness in me just because I have a sinful nature and we sin 24 hours a day, again, I'll give you one command, but you holy as God is holy, you've never been that, you never will be that, you're unfaithful to that command and you're unfaithful every day all day. And the Bible says, if you guilty of one point of the law, you're guilty of all. So that means you're unfaithful to the entire law if you're guilty of one point of the law. So then what is faithful? And so then they have to work in, well, it's just like you're trying really hard and you're giving in a good call and try, okay, well, then it doesn't mean anything. You've reduced it to nothing. And if you reduce it to nothing, then why even preach the stupid standard that you've eliminated from actually being a standard that's objective, you've made it subjective. But if you leave the standard there, then who is the faithful servant? There's only been one and there only will be one. Jesus Christ is the good and faithful servant and in him, in him, I'm losing my voice, in him, I can be declared good and faithful

32:54because I am in Christ and his goodness and his faithfulness and his obedience is imputed to my account. So in Christ, I am perfect. In Christ, I am holy. In Christ, I do love God with all my heart, my body and soul. In Christ, I am perfect. So therefore it can be welcome, that good and faithful servant because I'm in Christ Jesus. Oh man. All right, I don't know if he's gonna define what it means to be a good and faithful servant. I don't know. But if you go through the Bible and start looking at standards, you're gonna find yourself in a lot of trouble. God is a plan for his good and faithful servants to give them an everlasting inheritance, the possessors of the New Jerusalem. And so we have to remember that God is an awesome master. He's a great master. When you think of being motivated to work, most of us, this isn't a universal statement,

33:55but most people are not generally that good at being self-motivated. Most people are just not good at self-motivation. And so what has to happen is you get another motivator and that's generally an authority. I just want you to make the, I want to just scream this. He's turning this entire sermon into you, centric. Us centric. Now he keeps talking about God, but this all becomes about us, us, us, us, us, us. And you can tell he's going to import us in the Matthew 25, 14 through 30. I mean, he's already set up and he's already priming the pump. He's already put you there. So now when he mentions us as he starts interpreting it, you're gonna be like, well, of course. Yeah, because he just is spending all the time already getting you ready to just accept that this is about us.

34:59It's such a stupid preaching trick. Anybody should be able to see through you, and like if I'm sitting in, I'm like, oh, I know this game, I know this trick here, we go again. Yeah, and everybody be like, hey, man, brother, I was good. And I'm like, okay, whatever, whatever. And it's not even trying to be mean or critical. It's just, if it's the word of God, should we not try our best here? This passage leaves us with five billion questions. All right, I'm just gonna continue. Yeah, I can remember when I was growing up and playing sports, those really awesome coaches that seemed to just get the best of you. It's like you would do anything for them. They told you to run, you would run. If they told you to work on this, you would work on this. If they said, hey, when you come back at practice, I want to, next practice, I want to see you be able to do this thing. And if they were a good coach, you would do it just for them, right? Just because you wanted to make them that coach happy.

36:01The opposite is true with the bad coach. It's like, I can't think of anything but quitting today, you know? Now, if he's going to apply this to God, well, God is good, so we should be motivated. Now, I want you to just figure out, so logically, what is the problem with this whole illustration? Well, you're talking about coaching and a good coach and a bad coach, and that motivation is an external motivation that gets me to want to do something internally. But here's the problem, God may be a good God. He may be a perfect God. But guess what has happened throughout the entire Bible, this good God, this wonderful God, this high and glorious God that's perfect and worthy of all praise, everything he has done for people, they have actually sinned against him, turned against him, turned to idolatry, rebelled, over and over and over and over and over, because here is a part of the story that you have to tell. The problem with us being motivated by a good God

37:02is we have a completely depraved nature who doesn't care how good God is because that nature serves itself, worships itself, and wants to do what it wants. So whatever supposed motivation we may receive from a good God, ultimately we have something inside of us that will corrupt that motivation, get us to do things for very selfish reasons, even though we claim to be doing it for, he at least acknowledge the internal depravity inside of us, unless you're just gonna be a full-blown Pelagian. And if you're gonna be a full-blown Pelagian, then for crying out loud, here we have, we're never even gonna get to Matthew 25, 14 through 30, because everything he says, now maybe he's gonna explain, there's a, there's a, this, this his illustration is not perfect, but I have a feeling what he's gonna say is God is good. And so you should be motivated. God has been good throughout the pages of the Bible and look at everything that has occurred.

38:02A good God with really, well, guess what? There is no one good, no not one. It may be a good God, but there are no good people because it, theologically, in light of God's standards, we're all sinners and we have an internal defect. It's our sinful nature, which whatever goodness God's, whatever goodness, or whatever, whatever motivation comes from God's goodness, the internal depravity doesn't stinking care. As the same with our bosses, with our work, right? We love those employers who, and we wanna serve those employers well who give us a great employment, a great sense of calling in purpose. And no one is better at that than the Lord himself. I mean, think about this, he is the one who has made heaven and earth and he made all of it, all of it knowing

39:03that he would give it all, he would entrust every bit of it to his image bearers, men and women. Do you know this? Here it all is, here it all is, Adam and Eve, everything that is a delight to your eyes, you shall have at it. And how did that motivate them? Oh look, there's a tree we can't have. Oh, I want that tree. Good God gave them good things and they chose the thing that was forbidden. Can't enable, I mean go on and on and on and on. So is it proving his point or is it disproving his point? Fill the earth, subdue it. Be kings and queens on this ground. And isn't that just amazing? He gives his servants this wonderful, incredible possession of his to take advantage of it and make the most of it.

40:03And you know what happened though, sadly sin enters the world because Adam and Eve believe of all that God has given them, he's still holding out on him. He's still not that generous. Which means that even Adam and Eve without a sinful nature was not motivated to goodness because of a good God, they were motivated to well what was pleasant to the eyes, good for food, you get the idea. Even without a sinful nature. Isn't it kind of undercutting his own thesis? I don't know, I don't even know what the thesis is. But okay, I mean, well it sounds like the thesis is a good God motivates people to do good, like a good coach motivates people to try harder and a good boss motivates you to do better. I guess that's the story. God is good and you're motivated to do good. So let's do good.

41:05But then his first illustration is where that good God gave good things and they chose their chose but they were not supposed to have. Which seems to undercut his own message considering they didn't even have a sinful nature. There's still some things that he is punishing them with. And what do they do? They doubt the goodness of their master and they squander at all. But as you know, God put forth the Redeemer, Jesus Christ and he calls us into his kingdom and gives us his great work. I mean, God who is given, he gives his kingdom, his eternal kingdom to you so that you might serve. You might be motivated to see his kingdom known and his glory known in all the world. You have to remember the kind of master that Jesus is. He is a loving, faithful, good, awesome, redeeming master. That should motivate us to get to work.

42:07Get to work for him. So if you're thinking, if you're following with me in the introductory thoughts on your outlines there, remember the kind of master that Jesus is. But beware of also, also beware of being unfaithful in times of trial. Are we gonna even exegy the text and just remember here? Oh my goodness, man. I don't understand preaching. I don't understand church. I don't understand. You know what, we should just literally, I mean, well, not literally do it, but I, but okay, in a figurative way,

43:07all Bible colleges, all seminaries, she just be burnt to the ground because they're useless. Because all these, I've reviewed so many sermons. All the pastors have gone to Bible college and seminary and every case, what in the world happens? I mean, it's such craziness. So what's the point? It's spending all the money to go to these institutions of supposedly higher learning and they come out and can't follow basic rules of basic harmonitics. I don't get it. Someone just, never going to Bible college, just becoming, just becoming, just mastering the observational outline, just mastering an observational outline, mastering the five layers that we spend a lot of 20, 26 talking about. We need to get back to those five layers. Basic, just basic hermeneutical rules, basic hermeneutical principles. Man, if you just know that and then you can just have, just get down some basic public speaking skills, you'll be more qualified than any pastor

44:07standing in almost any pulpit. Now, not 100% because there's always some very good pastors out there, but I'm just saying considering the hundreds and hundreds and thousands of sermons I have listened to, I've listened to so many sermons, I lost count. Who knows, 25 years ago? And it just becomes, I mean, I did over 150 sermons on Isaiah 40 through 55 alone. It just becomes maddening. And it's just, it's all, all right, let's just see. I don't even know what else to say anymore. I don't even know, I can't even offer any criticism because I don't even know this. We're not even dealing with interpretation of the text. Maybe at some point he's going to start interpreting the text. I'm going to explain this as we look at this parable because there's something that happens to the third servant. He becomes unfaithful. He is wicked. He is lazy. And this is one of the reasons this happens

45:07is because there's a long time where the master is absent. He's not true. He's not faithful. And Jesus wants his disciples to be prepared for those times of testing. And in those times of testing, you begin to think, maybe God is holding out on me. Maybe God is not as generous. Maybe God is not as bididiction like as I thought he was. Okay. So he's arguing that this person becomes unfaithful because God has been gone a long time. All right, hang on a second. Oh, my goodness. All right, hang on. I'm going to read this for multiple translations. I don't know, man. How about we just read what actually happens? Matthew 25. All right, here's 14. We get down to verse. We'll get down to,

46:09I'm going to go to verse 24 and I'm going to read it in this translation. Matthew 25, 24. Then the third one, I'm going to read it in this translation. Matthew 25, 24. Then the servant with one bag of silver came and said, Master, I knew you were a harsh man. Harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops. You didn't cultivate. Does he come out and say, You were gone so long. I just died. I just don't think you were that caring anymore and there are just things were difficult. The text literally gives you the stinking reason. I'm telling you, the sermons are the enemy of biblical understanding. It literally tells you what his reasoning was. Hey, I know you were a harsh man. Harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money. So I hit it in the earth. Look, here is your money back. Now you could argue he's a liar or you could argue. Yeah, he was a scared of the master and thought, no matter what I do, this is going to go wrong.

47:09I'm not going to, because if I try to invest this, I could lose it all. I'm going to at least, I'm going to make sure I have something. But the master replied, you wicked and lazy servant. If you knew I harvested crops, I didn't plant and gather crops I didn't cultivate. Why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it. So then the argument, hey, if you knew I was like that, then you should have figured out some way to get some interest on my money. All right? Then he ordered to take the money from the servant. Okay, and then, but it gives you, unless you know something, I don't know, the text, the servant literally tells you why he didn't do it. And he didn't say, well, you were gone a long time and, you know, I just didn't think you were that good anymore. It doesn't say that. His entire idea, it doesn't look like he ever thought this master was good. He thought the master was harsh and he was going around gathering and doing things. He's scared of the guy. He doesn't seem to see,

48:10there's any goodness in him. So then you can ask the question, why does this servant see any goodness in this, were the other ones motivated because they thought the guy was good? We don't know. See, this is what happens when pastors start taking parables and just start doing wacky stuff with it. The point of the parable is this one is going to be judged. So what is this judgment? And if it's about us, does this mean if I'm unfaithful, I'm going to go to hell? Get me an interpretation. At this point, he's not even mentioning what happens. He just, just, hey, just don't let trials. I don't even know what's seeking trials have to do. Does any of this, does it say any of them are enduring trials? I don't know. He will, he's withholding. And so what do you do? You squander, you're tempted to squander. Well, you've been entrusted with. Now, before I dive into the outline here, there are three things I think that God can always,

49:10sorry, the outline of the structure of the passage. But follow with me still in your outlines on your papers, there are three things that God gives each person, each of his servants, that are those things that we just all have and if you're reading this passage, you're automatically going to be thinking, am I serving enough? Am I working hard enough? And I think there's three things that you can always, you can measure your life by. And then there's one more that I think the passage is ultimately about. But these three things are great measurements, right? God gives you three awesome resources in this life that you can use for his glory. Where? Where does this passage talk about God giving us three great resources? Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, I just want to make sure we follow.

50:17I'm just going to go back since he just accused the third. And you know what I hate is when people in the Bible bear false witness against, I hate when pastors bear false witness against people in the Bible by inferring their motives or accusing them of something. He accused this man of, I don't know, he, God, was gone a long time. I don't know, I don't know. He doesn't even realize Ticket. He was, I don't know, the actual logic here is this, all right? I knew what kind of man you are because of what I believed about you. I became afraid because I was afraid and I hid your talent. So fear seems to be the major reason, all right? He says the master is a hard man who reaps where he does not so and gathers where he scattered no seas. I think in other words, the servant perceives the master is being very severe, very demanding and expecting grain from places where no work has been done and he still expects there should be grain there.

51:19So I was afraid. So the key is this would be a perfect time. Why did this servant perceive the master as being harsh? And if the master represents God, then how, why, or how, what do, I mean, again, this is, the parables typically have one meaning, but okay, but the point is if you're going to go there, you've got to at least explain this. He's like, well, he's been gone a long time and he doesn't perceive him to be good or, or trials or whatever nonsense he said there. And nothing to do with what's actually in the text. All right, so now what did God give us? I don't, I'm still looking for us in the passage. Oh my God. You know what I want to do? I want to stop. I bought like this massive collection of X-Men comic books.

52:20And that's why I want to go read them because it'll be far more edifying than this. And I hate to say that. I bought like, I don't know, I probably got 50. Oh yeah, and I'm going to put them in chronological order and oh yeah, it's going to be fine. Now, typically I'm not an X-Men fan fan, but these collections were like, you know, $2.99 for like 30 comics. And so I was like, oh man, I'm going to get a bunch of these collections. And the collections are self-contained where the storyline starts and where the storyline ends. So, oh, this could be fun. So I can't wait, but here I am doing this. All right, let's see. What three things were we given? I don't know what in the world this has to do with Matthew 25, but okay. I know if we take Matthew 25 and we put it within its historical context, where he's been going after the scribes and Pharisees and going after Israel, we can name the things specifically given to Israel. The law, the prophets, the priest, the Shakana Glor, I mean, we can give them all the temple, the tabernacle.

53:25All right, we can give all the things that they have been given and what has Israel been done over and over and over. They've been on Faithful. So, if we put it in that context and the whole thing is, they're getting ready to be destroyed in 70 AD because the eternal Son of God, their own Messiah, came to them and they did not receive him. They reject him and say, crucify. Okay, all right. What's up? But hey, who cares about actually doing contextual work? And I don't know who cares. Let's talk about the three things God has given us. Because we're all over the passage, right? Number one is the resource of your property, right? Your money, the stuff you have. It's a great resource, your home, your car, your employment. All of that you can use for the goodness of God. In fact, some people will say they can test who your master is if they just look at your checkbook.

54:29Or maybe your Amazon order account since. Oh, man. Do you understand how, then if that's the way you're going to test, then you'll find out who's the faithful servant. Well, figure this out. Look at all your money. How much of your money goes to the things of God? You know it's going to be a much smaller portion than everything else. Everything else is going to go to bills, house, car, clothes, food, entertainment. You know, you know your money to the kingdom of God is not going to come anywhere close to that. So then you have to grade it on a curve. Well, the tith was 10%. Well, if you go to the Old Testament, start looking at all the different tithes and offerings they give, it becomes way more than 10%. But okay. All right. So if you're going to go with that, let's take it to a logical conclusion. Unless more of your checkbook is money going to the things of God than going to other things,

55:31then I guess you're not a good and faithful servant. So you go to hell according to Matthew 25, 14 through 30. All right. Well, it was nice knowing you. I hate that you're going to hell, but you know, you should have spent more money giving it to the theology central podcast. A lot of times pastors love to do that. What are you giving your money to? And inevitably it's a roundabout way of saying you should be giving money to the work of God, i.e. the church. So. And then who benefits from that, the pastor and the church. You know, all right. It's such a game sometimes. I'm not saying he's doing that, but I'm saying I've watched that game be played a million times. Nobody has checkbooks anymore, right? Right? You look there, you look there, and you see what people are spending money and what are you investing in? You can see who your master is. And that is true. Right? And we can always, we always should measure our lives.

56:33The things we have are these things useful for the kingdom. Do they help build places and spaces and opportunities for more and more people to know the love of Jesus? What do we use our church budget for? What do we use our church building for? Are we using these in the service of the master? So you have property. But then you also have another resource. This one is a very convicting one. It's the resource of time. The number of days God gives you. How do you spend your time in the service of Christ? Are you spending time in Christ? Are you spending time in Christ? Again, all right. I used to run this test all the time. I would have everyone figure out how many hours are in a week. Boom. Then let's subtract, you know, eight hours a night for sleep. Boom. Let's subtract a couple of hours a day for personal hygiene. Boom.

57:33Let's subtract a couple of hours for eating. Boom. Then let's subtract, you know, say, you know, eight hours, nine hours a day for work. Boom. Okay. Well, how much time did you spend reading your Bible? How much time did you, and, and inevitably guess what? You spend more time on everything else than you do the things of God. So you spend more of your money on things other than the things of God. And you spend more of your time. You're not a good and faithful servant. You go to hell. Because that's, you're using Matthew 25 to teach this. What happens to the unfaithful servant? He gets cast out and outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth. Unless you explain to me what that is. Since you're making it about us, well then clearly you're not making it about 70 AD. So then therefore this has to be hell. So you go to hell. Well then, hey ladies and gentlemen, how do you know if you're saved? It's if you spend more money on the things of God. And if you spend more time on the things of God. And if you don't do that, you go to hell. Well then guess what ladies and gentlemen? Everyone's going to sneaking hell. So let's just close the churches down and stop playing this stupid game.

58:36I used to play that same game and I used to do that all the time. Because that's a very common trick and especially Lordship Salvi. Is Jesus really Lord? Have you really made him Lord of your life? Well if he's Lord of your life, then most of your time will be dedicated to him. So how much time do you spend reading a Bible? How much time do you say, you don't? God is not Lord! You need to check to see if you're saved. I mean, that's typical Lordship stuff. And then all the Lordship people will say amen. And then they're all bunch of stinkin' liars because they don't spend more time of their life with the things of God. Even though they want to try to pretend they do. That used to get me so frustrated with all the Lordship people. I'm gonna wait a minute. You guys say this every time I try to talk to you guys about reading and listening to sermons and theology. You're talking about going hunting or shooting bambi or witches hunting. Buying a new truck and this football, this, everything. Okay, well then you should be the ones worried about your own salvation.

59:39But you're always pointing at everyone else. I don't think they're saved. I don't think they're saved. Buddy, you're not saved. So if these are things God has given us and to be a good, faithful servant, well then you would spend more of your money on the things of God and you would spend more of your time on the things of God. Anybody doing to, come on, check your check book or check your bank account. And if I check my bank account right now, I spend more of my money on things not directly related to the kingdom of God. I spend a lot of time right here in front of this microphone talking about the things of God. You guys can measure how much time I spend. But you know what? I spend a lot of time right over here next to my stereo equipment with headphones on listening to music. I spend time reading books, comic books. I watch sports. I watch television series. I watch movies. Sometimes I do those things more than I do the things of God.

1:00:41So I guess I'm not a good and faithful servant either. So if this text is not about 70 AD and it's about us, unless you explain what this judgment is, then I guess we're all going to hell. You see what happens when you start judging us according to any objective standard where works are involved, you end up in hell. It wisely. Are you spending it? Not wisely. You being lazy with your time. Did you know you do not, you can't invest time. You can't like, you can invest in certain timely things, but you can't add time to your life. It's only going away. It's the only resource God gives that you can't multiply. So that must mean it's very precious. And really it is true. Every breath, every moment is precious. How do we make the most of the time? How do you make the most of your time? Well, if you can't multiply it, why aren't you then using it in a sermon on Matthew 25, 14 through 30?

1:01:47Where one person was given five talents and he ends up with five more, 10. The other one was given two. He comes, they multiply it. So if you can't multiply time, where are you mentioning time and a parable of all people giving talent? They can multiply it. It's precious. Oh. Is it spent on profitable things or vain things? The last resource that I want to bring up is the resource of relationships. God gives you great relationships, these very important relationships. And the question that you have to face is, how are you glorifying God with these relationships? How are you glorifying God as a wife? How are you investing in your wives as husbands?

1:02:47How are you, how are you marriages that's that that first relationship? But maybe you're not married. Maybe it's your relationship with your kids or maybe it's relationships with neighbors. Are you, maybe it's relations to others in the church and friends and employees and all of that. All of these people, these souls God brings into your life, you are to steward well. Giving thanks, causing encouragement, sharing the love of Christ with people. Maybe even bringing correction at times. But you have relationships. How are you stewarding or using those relationships? What about in the church? How do you steward your friendships in the church? By telling everyone to leave because the preaching is go go for go go books. All right, I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking.

1:03:48But I'm getting really frustrated. We have spent now, we have spent now over an hour. Do you know anything about Matthew 25? 14 through 30. Not a stinking thing. I know what you should have come to the conclusion. Wait, if these are the three things he's given us and we're going to be judged to determine if we're faithful and if we're not faithful, we're going to be thrown out and out of darkness and there's going to be weeping and gnashing and teethe. The conclusion of this sermon, it would be I'm going to hell because that's a lot that I have to put God first. I have to make sure I'm doing all of these things in relationships. I got to be using my time more for the things of God than other things and I got to be spending more of my money on the things of God. I'm going to hell and well, you know what? Absolutely you will because the standards of God demands perfection and so anything less than perfection is a failure. Therefore you're not faithful. Therefore you go to hell. But he's not going to address that is he? No.

1:04:48Because people in the pew don't stink in care what the text actually says because this is good stuff. They can get a little convicted. I'm going to try. I'm going to try to spend my money better. I'm going to try harder to do more for God and I'm going to be a better person and you get the law, law, law, law and you go try. And if you're even remotely honest with yourself, you're going to check a couple of weeks later and you know what you're going to discover. You have failed, failed, failed, failed, failed, failed. But there is one person who did not fail and that is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the good and faithful servant who is perfect and his goodness and his faithfulness and his perfection is imputed in my account by faith alone apart from works. So in him I am good and faithful. Are we loving one another in all purity and encouragement? And godliness, this is a great test.

1:05:50Money, time, relationships. Can't we all say, well, I could give some better attention to these things. Oh snap. That sounds like you may not be a good and faithful servant. Unless we're going to grade on a curb, which you know that's the game the Christians love to play. Here's the law of God and it does not change. But then we grade it on a curb because we got to make some excuse why nobody is perfect because we try to act like everyone should be able to keep the law even though we know nobody can. Oh my goodness. And I don't know when any of this has to do with method 24, 14, 8. Alright, we're going to stop there. We're at 66 minutes. I apologize. No, actually, I don't. You know, I don't. I don't. Why should I apologize? Why? I shouldn't apologize for getting frustrated when sermons and cert us where we're nowhere to be found. Ignore the actual context in which this discourse is found, which is end within one unit, one discourse.

1:06:57We know 70 AD is a key element to this discourse completely leaves all of this out has not even explaining the judgment here, not even explaining the judgment. And I did give the transcript to AI. And according to AI, in fact, hang on. AI read the whole transcript. I got to find it because I was curious. It says, there is a major weakness in this sermon. I checked the transcript specifically for outer darkness, gnashing and related language. He apparently never stops and explains Matthew 2530. There isn't even a transcript occurrence of outer darkness or gnashing. That's striking because his entire interpretation desperately needs an explanation of verse 30. He clearly understands hell as an eternal reality. Earlier, he tells his audience that through the gospel, they had been spared of eternal hell. But when he reaches the conclusion of the parable, he emphasizes remaining faithful holding onto Christ, giving an account, and ultimately entering the master's joy, he doesn't wrestle with it.

1:08:06It's not a minor omission. It's arguably the verse that determines what is at stake in the entire parable. And given his interpretation, it creates exactly the question you've been raising. He says the talent is the very gift of salvation, the gospel of the kingdom of relationships, they have with Jesus. So you put his interpretation together, you receive salvation, the gospel relationship with Christ, you must remain faithful and invest it. The faithful enter the master's joy, the unfaithful servant is cast into outer darkness. Well, what happens to the unfaithful servant salvation? Well, he doesn't know. He doesn't review. He doesn't answer it. And AI knows what I've been doing because I gave it all of my transcripts from all of my previous messages on here. So it knows what I've been wrestling with and struggling with. So, hey, here's a test. Okay, well, this test would determine everyone's unfaithful. Well, what happens to the unfaithful unfaithful servant? Well, it gets thrown into outer darkness, weeping in ash and teeth. What is that? Come on.

1:09:13You got to identify what is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? Okay. All right. Well, that was maddening. Two sermons in. We're not off to a good. How many of these do we review? We're going to have to get back to other things today. It's now after midnight. All right. Man, I wanted to read comic books. Man, I'm irritated. Maybe I can read a one before bed. That's irritating. Oh, I'm going to be an unfaithful servant. I thought I was getting ready to sneeze, but I didn't. All right. Let me do this really quick. Man, I hate getting that mad. Man, I hate. But someone's got to get upset. Right? All right. We have North Carolina. We have South Carolina. We have Texas. We have Canada. So a small audience tonight, typically late night Sunday nights are small audiences.

1:10:19And then typically they pick back up Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So I don't know how many late. I don't know. I don't even know how this week. I know I do have a medical procedure on Wednesday. I don't know how it's going to impact me. I don't know. I shouldn't be. I don't know. I don't know exactly what's going to happen. So if you don't hear from me on Wednesday, you know why Monday, Tuesday, hopefully it goes. Hopefully we can do some things Monday and Tuesday. Well, I mean, hey, it's Monday. So are you technically already getting something on a Monday? But we'll see what else I can do later today. All right. So I'm going to go read some X-man comic books. That's what I'm going to do. Well, I'm probably just going to try to finish one. That's what I'm going to do. Just do one. And then try to get some sleep. All right. Maybe. But now after this, I'm going to be so frustrated. I don't know how well sleep is going to go. I... Yeah. There's a part of me that should should apologize, but I'm not being sincere because I feel like I have a right to get frustrated because how hard is it to open up your Bible and deal with the text instead of just preaching some...

1:11:29Hey, guys. God gives you money. God gives you time. God gives you relationships. Now you be really faithful in those. This is the test. And somehow just insert that into Matthew 25, 14 through 30 and just obliterate any context. Now maybe he's actually going to get into the context. But AI that reviewed the entire transcript already tells us he never deals with how the parable ends. How can you teach this parable and just... just magically ignore what happens at the end? Which is judgment. How do you ignore that? Everyone... Everyone wouldn't... Oh my goodness. See, now I'm going to lose my mind again. All right. So there's a part of me like, well, we should finish it. No, I'm not going to finish it tomorrow because we already know it doesn't even... No! It'll just be... I'll just lose my mind through the rest of it, okay? So maybe we'll review some others, but we'll have to do some other things tomorrow. All right. Thank you for listening. Everyone have a great morning. And I quit. X-Men, comic books, here I come. All right. God bless.