Are You Responsible Until Christ's Return?

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for today and the chance we have to study your word. Truly, Lord, you are a great God and worthy to be praised. Our prayer, Father, is that you teach us much about you and your return, that we might be ready and that we might be responsible until you come. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Sorry, I prayed quick. I didn't give you guys a chance to get that up, but it looks good. It looks good. I'm going to redo that one day in color, so it will have all the verses on it and everything.

One day, one day, when I get around to it. We are in Luke chapter 12. If you have your Bible, turn there with me, if you would, please. Luke chapter 12, verses 41 down to verse number 48. It's a very simple story with many variations throughout Luke, Mark, and Matthew. And yet the story speaks a lot to us concerning our responsibility in being ready for the return of Christ. We need to be ready. That was last four weeks. Now we need to be responsible until Jesus Christ comes back again. Let me read to you the setting or the story so that you can get into your mind and understand exactly where it is we're going to go.

Verse 41, and Peter said, Lord, are you addressing this parable to us or to everyone else as well? And the Lord said, who then is the faithful and sensible steward whom his master will put in charge of his servants to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says in his heart, my master will be a long time in coming and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and that an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will shall receive many lashes. But the one who did not know it and committed deeds worthy of a flogging will receive but few. And from everyone who has been given much shall much be required and to whom they entrusted much of him they will ask all the more. That last verse in verse number 48 at the end, my mother used to quote to me all the time as a kid growing up, too much is given, much is required, she would say.

She would always quote that. I always used to scratch my head and what do I have that's so great that I'm required to give an account for? But she would always quote that verse to me, to whom much is given, much is required. Well, the story in Luke chapter 12 unfolds for us in a very unique setting to help us understand exactly what Jesus is saying in response to a question given to him by the apostle Peter. And when we come to realize that this is a simple story set in a master-slave relationship, very common in the time of Jesus.

But also we note that within this setting comes, Peggy, have you found my stool yet? How does it just, was it raptured and we just missed it? Anyway, the point being is that, maybe I'll sit right here, I'll sit right here, this is fine, oh good, ah, here we go, this is good. And so anyway, it's set in a very simple setting that everybody in Jesus's day would know about, that slave master scenario. But remember they lived in a day where there were no cell phones, there were no fax machines, there were no taxis, no buses, no schedules for those taxis and buses, no watches and clocks, right?

So when someone left, when a master would leave, the servants, the slaves had no idea as to when their master would return. He couldn't call them up and say, okay, I'm on my way home, I'm coming now.

You know, they had to wait for his unexpected return. And those slaves who were faithful in their stewardship, when he would return, they, in this story, would be blessed and receive much more. But those who were unfaithful, the Bible says they were cut into pieces, kind of a harsh statement.

Cut into pieces? Is that really what the master is going to do to those slaves that are unfaithful and are unworthy? And then there are some slaves that were unfaithful and they weren't cut into pieces. They just received many lashes. And then there were other slaves who didn't receive many lashes, but only a few lashes. What does all that mean? How does all that come together with the story of the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you least expect Him? You need to be ready. And that's what we talked about last week.

Everything is centered around verse number 40 here. He's coming at a certain time, or certainly He's coming, but He's coming at an unexpected time. The Lord, the master, is going to return. And so everything is set in around verse number 40 of Luke chapter 12. And so when we go through this scenario, it says very simply that you too be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. The Son of Man, that's a reference to Daniel 7 verses 13 and 14. And every Jew would know Daniel 7, 13 and 14 about the Son of Man who was going to come on the clouds.

Now remember that in Acts chapter 1 Jesus had spent 40 days talking to His disciples about things pertaining to the Kingdom. That is this age right here. Forty days before the church age, before Jesus ascended into heaven, He spent time talking to His disciples about the Kingdom age, which prompted them to ask, Are you now going to restore the Kingdom to Israel? And the Lord said, No, now is not the time. But you're going to receive power because the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you and you're going to be witnesses for Me.

And that would embark on the whole church age with the Spirit coming and we being indwelt by the Spirit of God and being powerful witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it says this in verse number 9, And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside Him. And they also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?

This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven. In other words, just as you saw Him bodily leave, so you will see Him bodily return. He's not going to leave physically, literally. His body ascended up into heaven. And then His return be allegorical or spiritualized. See? He's going to come again in the same way He left. In Daniel 7, as the Son of Man, He came with the clouds. There were the clouds that He ascended up into.

He will come back with the clouds. He will come back with us in white raiment as those two men in white raiment stood around Him. So the scenario in His leaving is the same in His coming again. Jesus assured them that He was going to come back again. So we know that just as He bodily left, physically left, literally left, up into the clouds with those in white apparel standing around, so too He will return in the same manner in which He left. And we know that He will come back to the Mount of Olives, but He doesn't descend upon the Mount of Olives because He descends in Edom at Bozrah, according to Isaiah 63, Isaiah chapter 34.

We know that. And we also know that He will make His way up the Judean wilderness to Jerusalem, to the Mount of Olives, and split that Mount, as Zechariah chapter 14 says. But it's been 2,000 years, a long time in our thinking. But in the mind of Christ, it's only been as of a day, according to 2 Peter chapter 3, verse number 8. A thousand years is as a day, and a day is a thousand years. And in heaven's perspective, it hasn't been really, truly that long. And so the exhortation comes, is that is, you need to be ready, because He could come back at any moment.

And we talked to you about this the last couple of weeks, but primarily last week, you need to be mindful of His person. You need to be dressed in readiness. You need to be fruitful in, according to His precepts, because your lamps are lit. You need to be faithful to His purposes, because as a wise slave to His master, you're faithful to doing what He says. And you need to be watchful unto His presence, because He comes as a thief unexpectedly and suddenly. So Christ says you need to be ready.

And yet, we need to come to grips with what's going to happen, because this event here is a trigger event, the rapture. Now, notice with me, is it not true that people always ask, well, you know, if there's going to be this rapture event at the end of the church age, and all these people are going to be gone, and does that mean that people driving in cars are going to crash, and people in planes, the planes are going to go down because a pilot was raptured?

And you ever heard those questions? I have an answer for that. You're not going to like my answer, but I do have an answer. You want to hear it? No, you're right, I don't know entirely, but I do have an answer. It might not be the right answer, but I have an answer. Here it is, okay? Matthew 7 says, narrow is the way, and straight is the gate, and few there be that find it. Right? And Luke 13, when asked the question, are only a few being saved, Jesus says, strive to enter, because many, few are there who seek it.

Let me read it to you exactly. It says, strive to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able to. Meaning, of the few who find the gate, many of the few will seek to enter but won't. Do you actually think that the rapture of the church is going to be that significant of an event on the earth? It's not. It's not. It's not going to be that significant. Few there be that find the gate, and of those who find it, even fewer ever get in. Modern evangelicalism has sold us a bill of goods when it comes to what it means to follow Christ.

And we need to go back to do what the words of Jesus said. I don't think it's going to be that significant of an event that it cannot be easily explained away by those who remain. There will be a strong delusion, not only by the Antichrist, but a strong delusion set by God himself. And so, therefore, when you look at what the Bible says and the translation of the church out of here, the Bible is completely silent as to what takes place on earth because we are gone, except for the restrainer has been removed, according to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, that restrainer is the spirit of God functioning in and through the body of Christ upon the earth.

I don't think personally that it's going to be that big a deal or event in the life of the world that it cannot be easily explained away by Antichrist and those in power to be able to make people think that we were the ones, us weird ones, us believers, were the ones who were on the outskirts. So think about that. I'm not sure that's the total answer, but I think that if you follow Scripture through to the end, you begin to see, because we know that the multitude of people who are saved are saved right here in the seven-year tribulation period, not now, not today.

And so, when you read about that in Scripture, you begin to realize that maybe our leaving is going to make that great of impact upon the world with the delusion that's sent by Antichrist and the delusion that God sends himself to keep people from not truly believing in the gospel once they've heard it during the church age. But we told you that this event, the rapture, triggers the whole event. We go to heaven. There's the judgment seat of Christ. We receive our rewards. There's the marriage supper of the Lamb.

We come back with Christ. Before that, there's a seven-year tribulation period defined by seven seals that are broken, seven trumpets that are blown, and seven bowls, or seven vials that are poured out upon the earth. Christ returns. There's a great big battle. It begins in Bozrah. It begins in Edom. And the blood flows for 200 miles through the valley of as the Bible says in Revelation 14.

And then the Lord God begins His kingdom, begins His kingdom. Remember what it says in Matthew chapter 24? In Matthew 24, it says these words, "'For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, and they were marrying and giving to marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away. So shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there shall be two men in the field.

One will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken, and one will be left.'" The ones taken are the ones taken into judgment. The ones left are the ones that enter the kingdom age. Okay? In the context of the Olivet Discourse, you begin to realize that those taken, that's not the rapture of the church. The ones taken are the ones taken into judgment, and the ones left are the ones who enter the kingdom age. And you had that kingdom age for 1,000 years.

Satan is bound for that 1,000-year time. He is loosed at the end for one more battle. And then there's the great white throne judgment. And then you have the creation of the new heavens and the new earth and the eternal state with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the plan of the end. That's where we're going. That's what it's all about. And so we give you this chart. We put it before you because we want you to understand it. Because, listen carefully. Folks, without this, we have nothing. We have nothing.

There's nothing to hope in. There's nothing to look forward to. And that's why, that's why Jesus said, when the 70 returned to Luke chapter 10, they had seen so many miracles, souls saved. They saw demons cast out. They saw so many. They came back ecstatic in Luke chapter 10. Remember that story? They were on fire because they saw the hand of God working in and among them. And what did Jesus say? Do not rejoice that the demons are subject to you. But rejoice in this, that your names are written down in heaven.

You ever notice that we rejoice over the wrong things? Even as great as ministry can be on earth, it's nothing compared to eternity. Nothing. Jesus wanted to keep them from having a wrong perspective of what's happening on this earth. I think that you ought to be overjoyed when ministry happens and people get saved and great things begin to take place. That should excite you. All right. But it can't compare to eternity. And Christ was always drawing his men heavenward, heavenward. Oh, don't, don't just rejoice in this as great as this is.

But rejoice in this, that your names are written down in heaven. Now listen, that's the words of Jesus to his men. Because Jesus knows that there is nothing on this earth that can compare to the joy that he has for you in glory. And yet so many times we as Christians are so wrapped up in what's happening here, that our joy, our emotions are all tied into this place. That's why Paul would say over in the book of Colossians, a very familiar verse of scripture, Colossians chapter three, if then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is sitting with Christ and God. When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Paul is saying, look, you've been risen with Christ. You're seated in the heavenlies. Keep looking above. Keep looking up here. Why? Because when you, when you are, when you go home to be with the Lord, you receive the ultimate reward from Christ. You, you become the praise of God.

You enter into that great marriage supper of the land, the great joy of heaven. And everything is about tomorrow. It's not about today. Boy, I wish as Christians we could get that through our head. The modern emergent church movement is all about today, all about living for today. The, the, the, the movement on television with the charismatic movement is all about today. The, the feelings and the emotions of today. Christianity is about tomorrow, the future, your hope, your anchor. It's all rooted in Christ.

That's where we should be looking. That's what we should be anticipating. And as you go through the, the gospel writers, you see them always anticipating the joys of glory because that's what it's all about. And so, you know, I'm glad that we're here in Luke 12 to refocus our thinking on things above where Christ is seated in the heavenly places, because that's where our reward is. That's where our joy is. That's where everything exciting is going to be. And yet we find ourselves more excited about what's going on down here than what's going on up there and what's going to be happening up there.

That's a spiritual problem in your soul you need to deal with. You need to come to grips with. If you're more excited about tomorrow at work, or you're more excited about your pay raise, or you're more excited about your marriage, sorry, or you're more excited about anything on this earth more than you are heaven, heed the words of Jesus. Rejoice that your names are written down in heaven, in glory, because that's where your joy will be so complete and so enormous. You can't even begin to comprehend it this side of eternity, but it always keeps you looking heavenward.

It always keeps you looking into the future. It always keeps you looking and anticipating the coming of the King. How do we know that all this is true? How do we know this is going to happen the way it's laid out up there? And of course, that's just not a perfect map, but it's a chart, it's an overview. How do we know all those things are going to happen? Let me give you three reasons.

This is all introductory material, okay? Three reasons, okay? One deals with the person of God, the other deals with the purposes of God, and the other one deals with the priorities of God. First of all, the person of God.

The person of God demands His coming again. The purposes of God determine His coming again, and the priorities of God will deliver His coming again. The person of God demands it. The person of God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. The tidings of the Father, the teaching of the Son, and the testimony of the Spirit all demand, all demand a return of the King. That's why we say the person of God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, tidings of the Father all throughout the Old Testament, the testimony of Jesus, I mean, the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament, and the testimony of the Spirit of God once Jesus ascended into glory, all demand that Christ come again.

How do we know that? Remember way back in Genesis 49? Genesis 49, Jacob is blessing his sons. Verse number 10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Shiloh meaning the one to whom it belongs. Who's that? The Messiah. The scepter belongs to the Messiah. And once the Messiah comes back again to this earth, the people will be obedient to His rulership. Remember over in Jeremiah chapter 23, verse number 5, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I shall raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is his name by which he will be called the Lord our righteousness. There's coming a day where the branch, the Messiah, will rule. And when he rules, the text says, he will reign as king, he will act wisely, he will do justice, and righteousness will fill the land. When's that going to happen? That's going to happen in the kingdom age. You can go back to Isaiah 11, Isaiah 33, Isaiah 34, Isaiah 35. You can go back to Malachi chapter 4.

You can go back to those prophets of the Old Testament. The tidings of the Father was all about the second coming of the Messiah and His rulership on the earth.

It demands He come again. It demands it. All of the teaching of the Son of God from when He was on the Mount of Transfiguration, and that was the first mention of His return.

And James and John and Peter would hear for the first time that He's going to return in glory. They would hear that from the Lord. All about His Olivet Discourse would speak again about His return. In John chapter 14, on the eve of the crucifixion, He would talk about that He was going to prepare a place for them in heaven, a place where they would be able to dwell with Him forever. It demands His coming again. We read earlier Acts 1 verses 10 to 11 about His coming again in the same manner in which He left.

So even the teachings of Jesus centered around His coming again. It demands that He comes back again. And then the testimony of the Spirit of God demands that He come back again, because whether it be Peter, whether it be James, whether it be Paul, the writer of Hebrews, they all anticipate the second coming of the Messiah, that revelation where He's going to come back again.

But the rapture of the church, we're translating into glory, come back again with Him. They all speak about those events. So the person of God demands He come again. The character of God is at stake. His veracity is at stake. Either He is truthful or He's not. So when Jesus says 21 different times, I am coming again, is He a liar or is He telling the truth?

He is the God of truth. He speaks the truth. So the person of God demands that Christ come back again. The purposes of God, the purposes of God determine His coming again. God has a purpose. He has a purpose for Israel. He has a purpose for the nations. That's why you had the church age, the tribulation, the kingdom age. God has a purpose for the church. And the purpose for the church is that we as the bride of Christ would be able to experience the glories of heaven with the bridegroom. The bridegroom is going to come and the whole picture of Christ coming again is set in with a Jewish wedding.

He's already made the down payment. He's already given us the Spirit of God. He's already paid the price through His blood. He's going to come and take us home and present us in heaven to His Father and then come back again and present us to the world as His bride. God has a purpose for His church that we might be able to experience the glories of Almighty God in heaven. What a joy. The Bible says over in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

But behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, God has a purpose for the church. We're the bride of Christ. He's going to take us home to be with Him and fulfill His promises. God has a purpose for the nations. He's going to judge all the nations of the world. He's going to judge them in a place called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Kidron Valley, the Valley of Decision.

It's recorded in the book of Joel, third chapter, Joel chapter three. It says, For behold, in those days, and at that time when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment on them there on behalf of my people in my inheritance Israel. I'm going to judge the nations, he says, whom they have scattered among the nations, and they have divided up my land. They have also cast lots for my people, traded a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine that they may drink.

Verse nine, proclaim among the nations, prepare a war, rouse the mighty men, let all the soldiers draw near. Let them come up, beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am a mighty man, hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down, O Lord, thy mighty ones. Let the nations be aroused and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.

Come, tread, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision. God has a purpose for the nations. You can read about it in Revelation 14. You can read about it in Revelation 19. But what's going to happen is that when the King returns, there will be a judgment called the Sheep-Goat Judgment, Matthew chapter 25, in which he will judge the nations. He will put the sheep on his right, the goats on his left.

The goats are the Gentile nations. He will judge them. God has a purpose for the nations. He's going to judge them. He has a purpose for the church. He has a purpose for Israel. Abrahamic Covenant, Davidic Covenant, it will all be fulfilled in the Kingdom Age. Christ, the son of David, will sit on the throne in Jerusalem. He will rule with a rod of iron. The land will be theirs. Their Lord will rule, and they will have experienced the blessings of the New Covenant. And all of Israel, Romans 11, will be saved at that time when the King comes again.

Every eye will see him, and they will mourn for him, and they will believe. And so God has a purpose. So the person of God demands it. The purposes of God determine it, and the priorities of God will deliver it. In other words, God has a priority. One is the vindication of his Son, the vindication of his Son. The last time the world saw Christ, they saw him hanging on a cross. Jesus never appeared to any unbelievers at his resurrection, only to believers. So the last time the world saw him, he was hanging on a cross, naked, unrecognizable, beaten, bloodied.

But that's not the last way the world's going to see him. That's the last way they have seen him up till now.

But when he returns in all of his splendor, in all of his glory, Revelation 1, verse number 7 says, not only will Israel see him, but everybody on this earth will see and understand that Jesus Christ is the Messiah of God, the ruler of the nations. God has a purpose. He has a priority. He's going to vindicate his Son so everybody knows who he is, and that what he came to do the first time was to save his people from their sins.

Not only the vindication of his Son, but the destruction of Satan. Oh, Satan will be bound during the Kingdom Age. Yes, he will be inoperable for a thousand years, but he will be let loose at the end and lead one more rebellion and one more revolt, but he will be destroyed and he will be cast into the lake of fire, never ever again. Satan is not in hell. He's not there. Matthew 24, 25 says that the devil, or hell, was prepared for the devil and his angels. Okay? Unbelievers go there, but it was prepared for the devil and his angels.

But he's not there yet. He's not there. Revelation 12, 10 says he's in heaven. I know it's hard for some of you people to believe that, but that's true. That's where Satan is today. He accuses the brethren day and night in heaven before the throne of God. That's where he is. He'll be bound, but one day he'll be cast into the lake of fire. The priority of God. Genesis 3, 15. Remember? The seed would crush the serpent's head. Happened at Calvary. Made Satan inoperative because the blood of Christ would save us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son.

And yet, yet, Satan will need to be pushed and thrown into the lake of fire and experience eternal torment forever and ever and ever. And then there's the expectation of the saints. What are we expecting? The return of Christ. That's a priority of the Lord. He wants us to expect Him to come. He wants us to live in expectation and He will fulfill that expectation to the degree of infinity because we have longed for His coming. We long for His appearing. All that to say is that you better be ready.

He's going to come again. His person demands it. His purposes determine it. His priorities will deliver it. It's going to happen. You've got to be ready. And that's what Jesus says in Luke chapter 12.

You need to be ready for the coming of the King because no one knows the day nor does he know the hour. Now, let's get to our text in verse number 41. And why do I keep reviewing this for you? I keep reviewing this for you because outside the doctrine of faith, the doctrine of the second coming is the most important doctrine spoken of in Scripture.

You need to know this. This is our expectation. This is our hope. This is our longing. This is what life is about. It's about anticipating the coming of our King. So we need to spend time talking about what's going to happen in the future because if you understand the future and you anticipate the future, you can live in the present honoring and glorifying God. If you have a hard time with the future and don't understand it, you're miserable in the present. You're miserable. Are you miserable today?

Are you filled with joy today? Are you filled with misery and pain, sadness, or are you filled with the joyous expectation of the return of my glorious King that I might go home to be with him forever? See, there's a big difference there, folks, and we need to live in that anticipation. And so you have in verse number 41 a question because Peter's listening. And Peter said, Lord, are you addressing this parable to us or to everyone else? What parable? Well, the parable in verse number 36, And be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks.

And blessed are those slaves whom the master shall find on the alert when he comes. Surely I say to you that he will gird himself to serve and have them recline at the table and will come up and wait on them, whether he comes in the second watch or even the third, and finds them so.

Blessed are those slaves. That's the parable. So Peter says, Lord, Lord, remember Christ is interrupted twice in this scenario, one about a guy who wants his brother to divide the inheritance and hereby Peter. Is that parable about us or is that about somebody else? Now you'll note that Jesus never answers Peter's question directly, only indirectly. The Lord is a master teacher. But remember in Luke chapter 12, verse number one, he's speaking to the biggest crowd he's ever spoken to yet in his ministry.

It's a huge crowd. It's huge. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people are there. And in that crowd, you have the committed, Peter, James, John, Matthew. You have those disciples that are committed to him. And then you have the curious, those who have yet to make a commitment, but they're curious about all that Jesus is saying. They're enamored with his miracles. They're enamored with his message. There are the casual. They kind of go along with the flow. They kind of go along with the crowd like everybody else is going along with the crowd.

Then you have the counterfeits, the Pharisees, the Sadducees. They make up this crowd, this huge crowd that's there. And so Peter, he wants to know, am I ready? How do I know if I'm ready? Are my loins girded? Am I dressed in readiness? Is my lamp lit? Am I like the slave to the master who is fulfilling my responsibility until he comes? Are you speaking to us? Are you addressing me? Who are you addressing? So Jesus will answer that question in a roundabout way, but give a specific answer to the question by giving another parable to describe, listen carefully, two groups of people, faithful, unfaithful.

Remember, there's only two kinds of people in the world, saints, aints, believers, unbelievers, saved, unsaved, faithful, unfaithful, only two kinds of people. And Christ is going to describe those two kinds of people. The faithful are the ready. The unfaithful are not ready. The faithful who are ready will be blessed and the unfaithful who are not ready, some will be cut into pieces, others will receive many lashes, others a few lashes. Wow. How does that all come together? What does all that mean?

Two groups of people. If you're in group one, you're ready. If you're in group two, you're not ready, but you better get ready. Make sense? So Jesus gives a parable. Here it goes. Who then is the faithful and sensible steward who the master will put in charge of his servants to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that says in his heart, my master will be a long time in coming and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk.

The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him in an hour, he does not know and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. Now listen carefully because there'll be many commentators who will tell you this parable deals only with believers because there's a master and there are slaves. And in Christianity, Christ is the master and we are slaves. And they go into long dissertations to make an argument for that. They're wrong. Well, are you smarter than those commentators?

No, no, just got to read the text. Very simple. Let me share it to you this way. Number one, the slave that's unfaithful is assigned a place with the unbeliever, making him a unbeliever, not a believer, right?

You don't take a believer and assign him a place with the unbeliever at the judgment. He goes home to be with the Lord. He receives the blessings of the Lord. So we know, we know that this slave is assigned a place with the unbeliever, the one who is unfaithful. So how can you be a servant of the master if you're not a believer? Good question, right? Let me answer it for you with two different passages of Scripture.

Number one, Philippians 2, 9 to 11, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess the Lordship, the mastership of Christ. Listen carefully. Everybody is a son of the Father by creation. Only saved ones are the sons of the Father through salvation. Everybody created is a son by obligation. Everybody. Everybody is. Paul would speak about that in the book of Acts, that we're all sons of our Father who is in heaven. But because Jesus Christ is the master of the universe, we are all, we are all accountable to him as slaves by obligation.

We have responsibility. Why? Well, if you go through and read the Scripture, every person is accountable to God by divine stewardship, right? Everything that we have, believer or unbeliever, is given to us by who? By God. And we are all divine stewards, are all stewards of the divine because of what God has given to us. And one day we will all be held accountable for what we did with our stewardship. Everybody. The parable of Talmud teaches the same principle. Everybody's accountable. You're accountable to what you do with the law of God.

Did you know that? Romans 1 and Romans 2 says the unbeliever suppresses the truth. They had the truth. They suppressed the truth because they don't want to be accountable to a master. They don't want to be accountable to a king. So they fashioned for themselves their own gods in their own way so that they can feel good about their accountability in a sinful way. But they know the truth. They suppress the truth. The law of God, the moral law of God has been written on the heart of every man. And every man in the world is accountable to what he does with that law.

Because Romans 1 says every man is without excuse. And so because the Lord God is the master of the universe, all of us are slaves by obligation. That is we are all obligated to respond to the truth. That's been written on our hearts. But there's a parable that Jesus tells. This is the second passage of Scripture.

There's a parable that Jesus tells. Very familiar parable. You all know it. We're going to talk about it in a couple of months, Lord willing. And that is the parable of the, quote, prodigal son. It's not really the parable of the prodigal son because it never mentions the word prodigal. Okay? And really it's the parable of the two lost sons because both sons are lost. Okay? One son is representative of the Pharisees. The other son is representative of the prostitutes, tax gatherers, and sinners. You know the story.

Both lost sons have the same what? Father. Don't they? Absolutely. Both have the same father. One repents. One repents. The other one doesn't. The son that stays home, the Pharisee, representative of the Sadducees and Pharisees and the religious elite, the one who stays home and says, I've done all these things to follow you yet there is nothing for me. Why does he, the sinner, get all the joy and all the celebration? What's in it for me? Representative of the Pharisees. Still a son of the same father yet remains in unbelief.

So you have biblical precedents already. Philippians 2, 9 to 11, Luke chapter 15 to show you that all of us are sons of our father in heaven by obligation. All of us are sons by creation and those who are believers are sons by salvation. Okay? Make sense? And so now you have a parable. Peter says, are you talking to, are you talking to me? Lord, are you talking to me? Is this about me being ready? Because, because if not, I got to get ready. I want to know how to get ready. And Jesus doesn't answer him.

Say, Peter, don't worry, Peter, you're ready. I think that's good because the Lord never gives anybody a false assurance, does he? He doesn't even assure Peter he's ready. What he does is he gives a parable about faithfulness and unfaithfulness and the master who goes away and leaves his slaves in charge. And the one, the one who is faithful, the one who's faithful is blessed because when the master returns, he finds him doing exactly what was prescribed of him before he left. And when he comes, the master comes back.

And that slave does not know when he's going to come because he doesn't call him on the phone. He doesn't text him on his cell phone. He doesn't send him an email. He doesn't do anything because he can't get to him. There is no technology in those days to do that. He just shows up when he gets home. He's faithful. He responds. And he is absolutely blessed. He's a faithful steward of his time, his talents, his treasures, the law of God. He's faithful. And so therefore, he has followed the path of readiness.

He anticipates his master could come back at any moment. So therefore, he does what the master asks because that's what people who are believers do. They live in the light of the return of Christ. And because they live in the light of return of Christ, they live in that moment, Christ could come back. And so they are anticipating, they are ready for him to come and everything is set in order. It says they're called faithful and sensible stewards. They're wise. They're discreet. They're understanding as to what the master has asked them to do.

It says that when he comes back, what does it say? Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. Can you imagine that? It doesn't say he's going to put him in charge of some of his eternal possessions. But this faithful slave is put in charge or able to receive all of his possessions. Back over in Luke chapter 12, verse number 32, Christ says, Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has chosen him gladly to give you the kingdom.

He's not going to give you a piece of the kingdom. He's going to give you the kingdom. Do you understand that? You get the whole kit and caboodle. You don't get just parts of the kingdom. You don't get parts of his possession. You get it all. The Bible says in the book of Revelation chapter 3, verse number 21, you get to sit on Christ's throne.

That's a pretty big deal. Why? Because we are, Romans 8, joint heirs with Christ. What Christ gets, we get, because we're faithful stewards. Second Timothy 2, verse number 12, I believe it is, that if we endure, we will reign with him.

With who? With Christ. We'll reign side by side with Christ because we sit on his throne and we receive what he gets because we're sons of our Father in heaven. We are faithful stewards of the master. Wow. But the butologies of Scripture speak volumes of truth. What's it say? But if that slave says in his heart, My master will be a long time in coming, he doesn't care. I don't know when he's going to come. Who cares? And begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk.

The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and in an hour he does not know that he will. He lives not expecting, listen carefully, the coming of the master. See, don't diminish the truth about anticipating Christ's return because it characterizes the faithful servant. The unfaithful one's characterized by, I don't know when he's going to come. I don't care when he comes. And, you know, when he does come, I'll just get ready right before he gets here. No, you deceive yourself.

Why? Because the longer you deceive yourself, the harder it is for you to be delivered from the deception because you believe the lie. And you begin to fall into a trend of apostasy, having heard the truth, having been a partaker of the truth, having participated in aspects of the truth, and yet never given your life to Christ. You're in danger of apostasy as the book of Hebrews speaks, as the book of Jude speaks, as the book of 2 Peter speaks about. See, hearing the truth, being a part of the truth, and then turning your back on that truth and falling away.

A lot of people like that in the church today. See, oh, they've heard the truth. They've even embraced parts of the truth, but they know Jesus is coming again, but, you know, eh, whatever, whatever. And yet, this one was an unfaithful steward. He lived in defiance. He didn't care about keeping things in order, taking care of those in his charge. He wasn't caring about his time and talents and treasures being used for God. Oh, he was a steward, but he was a bad steward. He was a bad household manager of God's things because he used what he had for his own selfish purposes.

It was all about him. He lived for him. He didn't live for God. He lived for himself. He lived in utter defiance of the truth. When the master comes back, what's it say? It says, He will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. Doesn't that seem a little harsh? Why would Jesus say that? Because of the severity, the severity, the severity of rejecting truth. That's the worst place you can be, in danger of not accepting that which you've heard for years and turning your back on it, knowing what it says, knowing what the master said to do.

He knew what the master said. He knew the master was going to come again. He knew that the master gave him a stewardship responsibility and he defied the master. He did what he wanted to do. He indulged himself. He got drunk. He beat his slaves. When the king came back, cut him to pieces. Now, there's biblical precedence for this. Do you know that? First Chronicles chapter 20.

David did that. David did that. Way back in First Chronicles chapter 20 it says, Then it happened in the spring at the time when kings go out to battle that Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the sons of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah.

But David stayed in Jerusalem, and Joab struck Rabbah and overthrew it. And David took the crown of their king from his head, and he found it to weigh a talon of gold, and there was a precious stone in it, and it was placed on David's head. And he brought out the city a very great amount, and he brought out the people who were in it, and cut them with saws, and with sharp instruments, and with axes. What a way to go. What a way to go. Jesus knows. They know the story of King David. And so he uses these terms to describe the horrific destiny of people who have heard the truth, because in this crowd there were many counterfeits, many of them, all under the garb of religious elite, Pharisees, scribes, Levites, they were there.

And they would hear this, and they would be the slaves that by obligation did not fulfill the master's objective for their lives. They did what they wanted to do. They abused the people under them. They lived the life of debauchery and defiance, because that's what they wanted to do. And when the king returns, they experience a horrific destiny. But notice what it says.

And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will shall receive many lashes. Whoa. There's a difference here, isn't there? One guy is cut to pieces. Another one receives a flogging, many lashes, but's not cut to pieces. He knew the moral law of God within his heart. He heard the truth of God. He never did anything. Never did anything. And he received many lashes. And then it says, but the one who did not know it and committed deeds worthy of flogging were received but few.

That's the people that we always argue, what about the guy in Bogo-Bogoland who never heard the gospel? That's the guy who receives a few lashes. Never heard. But as a slave to the master, as a son to the father of creation, he's obligated to respond to the light that's been given to him. He doesn't. Telling us that there are degrees of punishment in hell. Degrees of punishment. Hell is bad just in itself. But if you can believe it or not, there are degrees of punishment in hell. Some will be cut to pieces.

Others will receive many lashes. Others but a few. But hell is still hell. It's still a place of torment. And that's why Christ concludes with these words, and from everyone who has been given much, that's everybody, much shall be required. And to whom they entrusted much of him, they will ask all the more. In other words, everybody is responsible because they've been given much. But those who have been entrusted with truth, oh, they're asked to give all that much more. They don't respond. They're cut to pieces.

They will endure the hottest of hell because they did not respond. So what's the application of this? Application is this, what do you know and what have you heard? Because if you know about this and the return of the King, the promises given to us as believers, if you know about this stuff, you've been in church and you've heard this stuff, and you still defy the truth, and you still don't respond to the truth, if you don't get ready today, you'll be cut to pieces tomorrow when he comes again. You will.

Because William Barclay said it this way. He gave a fable. Fable about three demons who were going to come to earth. And Satan brought them before him and said, what is your plan? Demon number one said, I have a plan.

I'm going to tell them there is no heaven. And Satan said, that's not a plan. Everybody knows there's a heaven. How about you? Second demon said, well, I'm going to tell them there is no hell.

Really? You think people don't believe there's a hell? Then he went to the third one and said, what about you?

What's your plan? He said, I'm just going to tell them that there is no hurry. And Jesus said, I'm sorry, Satan said, sorry, Satan said, go quickly because they'll believe that. People live in the moment. They live today. I got tomorrow to give my life to Christ. No, there's no guarantee of tomorrow. Only of today. Let me pray with you.

Father, thank you, Lord, for today and the opportunity we had to study your word once again. Please, Lord, help us to be ready for the coming of the King. Help us not to do anything else, but to anticipate your coming, that we might live today in the light of your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.