THE UNPROFITABLE SERVANT

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: MATTHEW 25:14-30




INTRODUCTION:


  1. Matthew 24 and 25 are referred to as "the Olivet Discourse" because this discourse was given on Mount Olivet (Matthew 24:3).
  2. Matthew 25 begins with the parable of the ten virgins (25:1-13). Five of the virgins were wise, but five were foolish (25:1-4).
  3. In the parable of the ten virgins, the second coming of Christ is likened to a wedding. It is on God's schedule but from our perspective it will come unexpected. The foolish virgins were not ready (25:13).
  4. The five foolish virgins are those who profess to be saved but they really are not saved because they do not have the Holy Spirit (25:3, 8).
  5. The parable of the talents is similar to the parable of the ten virgins in many ways. In the first parable He is the Bridegroom, and in the second parable He is "a man traveling into a far country" (25:14).
  6. In the first parable, the emphasis is on readiness. In the second parable, the emphasis is on diligence.
  7. The key theme in both parables is "neglect."
  8. Readiness and diligence are both very important. We are to be both looking and working. Our Lord said, "Occupy till I come" (Luke 19:13).
  9. Both parables deal with real Christians and nominal Christians.
  10. In the parable of the talents, there are three servants (25:14-19).
  11. The first two servants traded with their talents and made money for their master (25:15-17). Our Lord commended them for that.
  12. But the third servant took his talent and hid it (25:18). This morning I would like for us to focus on this third servant, described by our Lord as "the unprofitable servant" (25:30).

 

I. HE HAD WRONG THOUGHTS ABOUT HIS LORD (25:24).

  1. In this parable, the lord represents God. This unprofitable servant said, "Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man" (25:24).
  2. Like this unprofitable servant, there are many people that have wrong thoughts about God.
  3. John Wesley said, "He never knew God, who thinks him a hard master."
  4. The devil is a hard master, but not God! All about us are sinners whose lives have been destroyed by alcohol and drugs and crime and immorality.
  5. The other day a homeless man threw a drunkard onto the subway tracks, and then he stood there and watched him get run over by the train.
  6. The murderer admitted to the police he was high on marijuana.
  7. The devil is a hard master, but not God! Our Lord said in Matthew 11:30, "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
  8. Proverbs 13:15 says, "The way of transgressors is hard." Go down to the Bowery and ask some drunkard vomiting in the gutter if Satan is a cruel taskmaster!
  9. Ask the dope addict, the prostitute, the homosexual, the convict on Death Row.
  10. Satan deceives. Satan devastates. Satan destroys.
  11. Jesus saves. Jesus pardons. Jesus redeems.
  12. The unprofitable servant had wrong thoughts about his lord.

 

II. HE WAS AFRAID (25:25).

  1. There is a good fear, a healthy fear of God. Proverbs 9:10 says, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom."
  2. Psalm 19:9 says, "The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever."
  3. Spurgeon said, "Faith in God begets holy fear; but servile fear is the parent of doubt."
  4. First John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."
  5. Second Timothy 1:7 says, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
  6. These days many people are full of fear -- fear of the economy ("the fiscal cliff"), fear of terrorism and turmoil in the Middle East, fear of crime, etc.
  7. Many people cannot get through the day without popping pills because they are overcome with fear and anxiety.
  8. Our Lord said in the last days, "there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken" (Luke 21:25, 26).
  9. Revelation 21:8 gives us a list of some of the people who will be cast into the lake of fire -- "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."

 

III. HE WAS CAST OUT INTO OUTER DARKNESS (25:26-30).

  1. This "unprofitable servant" (25:30) was not saved. Our Lord will never cast a genuine, born again child of God into the outer darkness of hell (cf. John 10:27-30).
  2. If a sinner repents of his sin and turns to Jesus, he will never be cast out. Our Lord said in John 6:37, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
  3. But this unprofitable servant was not saved. The other servants were "good and faithful" (25:21, 23), but this unprofitable servant was "wicked and slothful" (25:26).
  4. The word "unprofitable" means "useless, and good for nothing."
  5. In the parable of the ten virgins, the wise virgins and the foolish virgins were all mixed together. Matthew 25:5 says that "while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept."
  6. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, the wheat (representing the children of God) and the tares (representing the children of the devil) are all mixed together.
  7. In Matthew 13:30, the Lord says, "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them..."
  8. They're all mixed together now, but on the day of reckoning the tares will be gathered together and burned.
  9. Today the unprofitable servants are mixed in with the good and faithful servants. But a day of reckoning is coming (Matthew 25:19).
  10. And on that day of reckoning, the unprofitable servants will be judged (Matthew 25:26-30).
  11. "Outer darkness" (Matthew 25:30) refers to hell (cf. Matthew 25:41, 46).
  12. Our Lord referred to the "outer darkness" of hell three times in the Gospel of Matthew. Here in Matthew 25:30, and also in 8:12 and 22:13.
  13. In Matthew 8:12, our Lord said sinners "shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
  14. Matthew 22:13 says, "Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
  15. Our Lord said in John 3:19, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."
  16. Since men love darkness rather than light, God will cast them into outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth for ever and ever.
  17. Second Peter 2:17 says "the mist of darkness is reserved for ever" for impenitent sinners.
  18. Jude 13 is similar -- "to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever."
  19. The mist of darkness "reserved for ever." The blackness of darkness reserved "for ever." You may want to consider canceling your reservation while you still have time!
  20. Tomorrow may be too late. The unprofitable servant neglected his opportunities.
  21. Matthew 25:19 says the unprofitable servant's lord was gone for "a long time."
  22. Sinners think they have plenty of time to get right with God. Matthew 25:3 and 25:8 says this is "foolish."
  23. Matthew 25:13 says, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."
  24. In the apostle Paul's epistle to Philemon, we read about a runaway slave named Onesimus. His name means, "Profitable" but he was unprofitable.
  25. But Onesimus met Paul, and Paul led him to Christ. Then Paul wrote a letter to Philemon, and said in verse 11, "Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me."
  26. Before his conversion he was an unprofitable servant, but now Paul says he is "profitable to thee and to me."

 

CONCLUSION:


  1. Matthew 24 and 25 deal with the second coming of Christ.
  2. The unprofitable servant was not thinking about his lord's return (25:14), but "After a long time" he did return (25:19).
  3. People today are not thinking about the second coming of Christ, but He is coming back and it could be very soon (Matt. 25:13).


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