![]() |
||||||||||
Man, throughout early history, in whatever group or in whatever mindset that he was in, wanted those around him to conform to his way of thinking. There was a feeling of comfort, stability, organization, and security in this that let someone think or act out of the box, so to speak. The result and consequences might be being put in the stocks or even as horrible as being burned. Early religious communities had a mode of action and set thinking of the society they were in. This required strict adherence to the policies of conduct set forth by the group. This thought to control and a desire to regulate righteousness carried over into politics as early as 1661 in England for the formation of the "Test Acts." To state this simply, the principle was that none but the persons professing the established religion were eligible for public employment. This religious control was adopted soon after the Reformation by legislature of Flatin I. The act of supremacy and uniformity was established with severe penalties for those who refused to conform to the political climate whether they were Catholics or nonconformists or anybody else. In Scotland a religious test was imposed immediately after the Reformation, and by 1567 no one could be appointed to public office or be a notary public who did not profess and agree with the reformed religion. This act was a stipulation that all could receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and under Charles II the actual receiving of the communion in the Church of England was made a contingency to seeking the holding of public office. In Ireland, this oath of allegiance was required of members of the House of Commons, bishops, barristers, and attorneys. This was a rebellion against the Catholic Church and its teachings. This Test Acts was a method that they chose to identify those who thought as they did. This was brought about Martin Luther, by his rebellion against the Catholic Church. And the test, in whatever form it took, related to the individuals' belief as they pertained to the Catholic Church and its teachings. Now questions might have been as follows: "Do you believe that only the priests can interpret the Bible?" "Do you think the Pope is infallible?" "Do you believe in the assumption of Mary; that she was taken up to heaven before she died?" "Do you believe in the selling of indulgenceswhere you can buy your sin a little bit there and get away with it?" "Do you believe in the transubstantiationwhich is simply the literal turning of wine into blood and bread into flesh by the means of prayer?" Actually of the seven Catholic sacraments, Martin Luther kept only twobaptism and communion. So any popular practices that could be considered to reflect those Catholic sacraments could be questioned. The testing was the method used to bring those who would hold office into alignment with the government and the religion of the times. There is another time coming, brethren, in the not too distance future, when this same sort of testing will come. But this time it will be on the whole world. Please turn over to Revelation 13.
You see, this will be a final attempt of Satan, through those he has entered and has influenced, to wrench the world's population away from any part of the truth and at the same time destroy the people of God. This will be Satan's test act. But it will not just keep one from holding office or buying and selling but if not obeyed, it could take one's life. I mention all of this because we too in a very real sense are facing a test act of a different nature at this time. But the one who is conducting the test act is God the Father Himself, personally, and Jesus Christ. Just as the early tests acts of England, we too are being tested to hold office in the Kingdom of God. We also are being tested to show that we stand for the official state religion, if you will, and in that sense we are being tested to prove that we all have the same mind. The majority of us have been in the church for a lot of years. Those who have come in lately or who are newer have heard many of the stories of the events that we all look forward too. Going to Petra, we are doing this type of thing. I can remember being called by the message of prophecy, as many were, telling of a place of safety that God had prepared for us. And I can remember as the years went by, that we had ministers stand up, and they would say that God has called many carpenters and many plumbers and many electricians, and I guess that is so that we could build the place of safety that God had prepared for us. But nevertheless, those are the things we were raised on. We were all excited about prophecy and we were planning for it. I do not mean that in any kind of negative way. It was exciting to think about the future that God held for us and about being able to not have to go through the terrible tribulation that was on the horizon. I can remember our children were so small when we came into the church that we thought, "They will never go to high school". How many have thought that? Now I am a great-grandfather and my youngest son is thirty-nine and we have been in the church for over thirty-seven years. It is hard to believe. And all this time we felt the end was near and just around the corner and all of a sudden, it finally occurred to me, that while we were waiting for the end of the age, while we were focusing on every world event, saying this could be the trigger, this could be it, we were being taken through a series of events to test our faithfulness and perseverance to God. It was God's test act. While we were focused on the return of Jesus Christ, we were very carefully being put through a sequence of events to try, to test, to train, and to fit us with the mind of God. It is funny, in a sense, we can think of ancient Israel and we say, "Those people certainly needed to be tested. They were carnal." But when it comes to us, we think, "We have God's Spirit, we do not need to be tested. We really do not need that to happen to us." How foolish we have been on that one! Yet the size of the remaining church shows that we indeed needed to be tested. Out of approximately one hundred and forty thousand people in the church at one time, including children, what have we got left? Maybe twenty or thirty thousand total with all the groups combined. How many we felt were staunch and solid and sound membersmembers that had proved the Sabbath and the holy days and tithingwho then left the fellowship to go back to keeping Sunday, eating unclean food, or just wandered away from any form of religion. They missed the test. And I hope we understand that. We must understand that testing, proving, is a pattern God always uses and we better get used to it. I would like to have you turn over to a very familiar scripture, we go through it often, but it is a good one for this.
Now all of us can understand the need for qualified people in responsible positions. When we fly in the airplane to the Feast, we really hope the pilot knows what he is doing. No doubt about that. Jack Bulharowski, when he broke his leg, was really hoping the surgeon knew what he was doing when he operated on his shattered leg. And we want our leaders to have as much knowledge and understanding as possible that we might be led correctly. Looking at it from God's perspective, He has called us for specific offices and He is training us to fulfill those offices. When we consider the infinite, intricate care that God has given to this world, that makes this world operate, it just staggers the mind. Can we possibly think that we are being worked with in a random, haphazard fashion? I hope we do not think that way! When we are changed into spirit, could we perhaps think that God is going to scratch His head and say, "Hey, I am really glad to have you here! Well done, you good and faithful servant! Now I must think of something to do with you!" I do not think that is going to be the case. It is just not going to happen. Our Father and Jesus Christ, as it says in John 14:2, are preparing a place or an office for us, and at the same time, are preparing us for the place and the office. I think we had better get that through our heads. Others who have gone before us have been tested for the office that they were to fill. Turn over to Psalm 105.
Now we all know the story of David. We know the many trials he went throughthe tests that God put that man through. Mistakes he made, the suffering, the repentance. And yet David was prepared this whole time to end up in charge, being king over all of Israel. He was prepared for the office prepared for him. Genesis 22, another one that you will be familiar with. You really have to understand here, that we are to be tested for the future that God has in store for us.
At the Feast last year, I spoke and I said, "This is something that God has to know about each one of us. He has to be able to say, 'Now I know you.'" Individually. This is not a collective thing. Coming to church, keeping the Sabbath, paying tithes, keeping the holy days, does not get it. It should be done, of course. But that does not guarantee that we will be in the Kingdom of God. God has to know our heart, our mind, and what we are doing and thinking. All the heroes in Hebrews 11 that God was so pleased with, were fully tested and proven. God's pattern of testing for office should not seem strange to us in that God the Father, put His own Son through the same process. Please turn to Hebrews 4. Our Lord, our King, our Elder Brother, was tested for His job as well.
Jesus had to qualify to become our High Priest. In standing up for God's government, His government's religion, He qualified by being tested just as we are tested that He might know what we go through and that He might grow and understand it, regarding that, except that He went through it perfectly and we have not. He resisted sin and the temptation of Satan. Now why are we being tested? In part, that we might fully understand what those we will be working with in the future have to go through. To understand all the problems of overcoming, whatever their pulls may be. And I tell you they are myriad. Their pulls will run the gamut, just like ours do. As it says in I Peter 2:21, we are to follow in His steps. But there is more to it than that. God wants to see growth and overcoming in us. Not just understanding what others go through. I would like you to turn to Matthew 25. We will spend a little time there in the Parable of the Talents. I sort of found this exciting, had a good time with it.
The phrase "kingdom of heaven" is not in the original, but it has been added to that and it was inserted correctly to give the proper meaning. The story is of a man who has great wealth going away for a long time. He calls his servants to him, and his servants were, in a very real sense, trusted partners with him. And he delivers his wealth to them. And in this delivering of talents, knowing what each of his servants is capable of, he gives them no more than each man can handle.
Now, in modern English, the word "talent" is used today for skills, mental power, or mental gifts that God has given to man, but in New Testament time a "talent" was a unit of exchange and the estimates of it range widely. A talent could be gold, or silver, or copper. It was a measure of weight, each with its own value. The word used, in verse 18, as "money" can also be translated "silver" which may mean that is what that talent was comprised ofsilver. The talent was first in measure according to weight between fifty and eighty pounds. Then a unit of cordage. One common value assigned to it was six thousand denarii. Eighty pounds of silver at fifteen dollars an ounce would mean that a talent was worth about nineteen thousand dollars. In comparing to modern currency in terms of earning power, a talent being six thousand denarii, might require a laboring man twenty years to earn so much! As much perhaps as $300,000. The instruction here is that the sums are vast. In other words what is being given is really important. It is not some little thing, indicating that the gifts were given to grow from were exceedingly important and valuable. And the principle "to whom much is given, much will be required" comes into practice here.
Now the sense of the two servants in verses 16-17, is that they immediately put forth effort to increase the value of what their master had given them. They were excited about their calling, excited about the opportunity. The sense of these two verses is not that the two servants put their talents into the hand of another or into stocks and bonds and sat back and watched the income come in. The sense of it is that they set up some sort of enterprise, or they were personally involved and actively working to make their master's wealth grow. They were excited about the opportunity given to them. The individual in verse 18 receives this vast sum of wealth and it would seem that he was either lazy or complacent or possibly, as defined in the five foolish virgins that did not bring any extra oil for their lamps, afraid to step up and meet the challenge, to overcome and to cause what he had been given to grow.
The first servant who doubled the five talents is praised greatly for his faithfulness and diligence. And then he was given two things and I do not think I ever really noticed this before. He would be ruler over many things. In Luke 19 it talks about over cities, and towns, and things like this. And though we tend to think that the rulership aspect in these verses as being the chief reward, he was given something else that may have been much more important. The second thing, he was allowed to enter into the joy of his Lord. That means into the Kingdom of God, I am sure, and all that pertains to it. The second servant, who had caused what had been given to him to grow, received the same reward. Both servants had fulfilled their responsibilities and were welcomed into their Lord's joy. And given great responsibility because they were trustworthy, their heart was right, and they put forth the effort to do what their Lord asked them.
Here we have a lazy servant: to cover his own weakness, carelessness, and laziness, for fear, he referred to his lord as being hard. Now the sense of the word "hard" as it is used elsewhere in the Bible, it means that his lord was grasping by exploiting the labor of others and putting the servants into an undesirable position. Should he take the risk of increase the talent entrusted in him he would probably see little profit. Who knows what went through his mind. He could have thought if he failed, his master would have been furious. And too the servant could have been upset that he had only been given one when those others fellows were given five and two. "Was he not as good as they were? Why did I not get five?" And, in spite, he buried his talent. And now he returns it to his lord with no more or no less. Whatever the reason was, he was starting with a bad attitude. The Lord does not go for bad attitudes. It does not fly with Him. What this servant overlooked was his responsibility to his master and his obligation to discharge to his assigned duties. That is what he did not see. His failure demonstrates lack of love for his Lord. This may be the reason he masked that lack by blaming his master.
He comes and he condemns his foolish servant with the servant's own words, showing that he does not have any excuse. "If you knew I was hard and grasping, why did you not put the money out to where it would have been safe, earned interest, and still required no work on your part, if you are that lazy?"
It is too late by that time because the report card is in! You cannot go back and do it again. So the talent is taken away from the servant who is now referred to as worthless and the relationship between the master and servant is severed and his talent is now given to the man who has ten. Question: Did any of the servants consider the giving of the talents as a test? I do not think so. It does not appear so. Two considered it a great opportunity to be given such a wonderful chance and the responsibility that went with it. They were excited at the prospect of having their lord being pleased with the result of their effort upon his return! The third servant did not care for the wonderful chance that had been given to him and in truth, he did not care one way or another what the master might think. This brought him disaster and I am sure that in the end he wished he had given it much more consideration. This is how it is summed up in the Expositors Commentaries:
He is saying that you cannot rest on the oars, you have been giving a calling, you have been given an opportunity. You cannot just ignore it and sit on your bottom and do nothing. Now what does this require of us? Turn over to Romans 12, please.
I am going to stop right there for a moment. He is talking here and says I have just given you eleven chapters of instruction. He says, based on these eleven chapters, I beseech you to do something. I am going to try and summarize these eleven chapters, so bear with me on this. This will not be a complete summary, but nevertheless, I am sure that you will get the idea. The first eleven chapters precede this "therefore". Paul explains that the gospel, the good news, the coming of the Kingdom of God, is the power unto salvation. Man has rejected God and thus God has given him over to a reprobate mind but God is longsuffering and His goodness leads us to repentance but at the same time be warned that He will render every man according to his deeds. Now the Jews should hold the oracles of God and their unbelief does not make their faith of God without effect. The law is not made void through faith. The law is established, indeed we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God but are justified by His grace and the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Paul shows that Abraham and David were justified by faith and that we will be justified by faith and that we, being justified by faith now, have peace and a wonderful hope in God. And though we have trials, they produce patience, character, and experience in us. And now we have the love of God in our hearts and he wants us to remember that while we were yet sinners and could not h JOR/sbf/drm
|
You Will Only See This Once | ||
|
The Bereans "received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:10-11). This daily newsletter provides a starting point for personal study, and gives valuable insight into the verses that make up the Word of God. See what over 40,000 subscribers are already receiving each day. |
|
We respect your privacy. Your email address will not be sold, distributed, rented, or in any way given out to a third party. We have nothing to sell. You may easily unsubscribe at any time. |
||