Synoptic Gospels - Matthew 25

Yeah, about 266. Not section, page 266.

Well, we talked a little bit about the overall thrust of the end of Matthew 24, but really didn't go too deeply into it.

All right, well, seems the heat brings everybody out. Normally, last week at this time, there was like five of us in here and I guess everyone wants to get up and get at it and get out of the heat as quickly as possible.

Now, I know I had to get up at three something yesterday morning because I was going down to South Mountain and I wanted to climb it four times, plus do the

San Juan Road and take about five hours. And I started looking at the clock going, well,

I better get started about as early as you can get started. And it's like, yeah, that's what you do around summertime around here.

Better get up, oh, dark 30 if you want to beat the sun. It's actually going to cool off by, what,

Thursday, I think. Thursday is supposed to be 86, something like that. Mr. Callahan's going, don't believe it?

You don't believe it? You don't believe it? Yes.

Well, that's a good almost 20 degrees cooler than today, so that's cool.

That's a lot cooler than it was. I mean, I've got an outside thermometer and it's under the eave, so it actually picks up some heat from the attic, so it's off.

But it was 100 and, I saw, what, 105 yesterday, something like that.

So, it's like, well, it's going to be like that for a while.

That's why we live here, I suppose. Anyhow, so Section 297 is the end of Matthew, Chapter 24.

The reason I think the official keeper of the notes had that is that what we were talking about was the fact that what you really have at the end of Matthew 25, 13, watch therefore, if you know, neither the day nor the hour.

And then you likewise have the parable of the talents and judgments and so on and so forth.

So, you have a transition, and as I warned when we went into Matthew 24, there are no chapter divisions.

And what we were talking about was the fact that you have very specific predictions in regards to the destruction of Jerusalem, and then all of a sudden, very non -specific, you won't know the day or the hour at the end of the chapter, which indicates there's been some type of a transition.

And what you have in the parable of the good servant and the wicked servant in Matthew 24, 45 -51, and then the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25, 1 -13, and then the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, 14 -30, all three of these have the same thrust and the same perspective to them.

And while we'll look at each one, the emphasis that each one carries is the idea of a period of time when the

Master is going to be away, and then His sudden, unannounced return.

And it's hard for me to see how the first part of Matthew 24, where you have very specific signs, you have armies surrounding

Jerusalem, and the abomination of desolation, and all this going on, doesn't fit with these parables, because the parables are saying there's no sign given, there's no abomination of desolation, there's no armies.

In fact, the primary thing is people are doing what people do. They're investing, and they're doing what servants would do, and also the

Master returns. And so you have this, I think, consistent message in each one of these parables.

So the parable at the end of Matthew 24, who then is a faithful, wise servant, I mentioned last week,

I think it was last week, that this is the text that Jehovah's Witnesses use to identify their own organization as the organization you must follow in the end times, and of course, their translation is the faithful and discreet slave, is the terminology they use.

Faithful and wise servant is what this translation has. Becomes an organization, and that organization is the

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, and so they give them their food at the proper time.

So if you want to have food from Jehovah, if you want to have understanding of Jehovah's ways, then you have to listen to the faithful and discreet slave.

And that's sort of become a class, and now it's sort of just become the Watchtower Society as a whole, and as I mentioned, they are undergoing a fair amount of change right now, because for so long they've been focused on the 1914 prophecy, and they're now phasing it out.

It's almost humorous, it wasn't so sad, to sit outside from a distance and watch this, and I don't do as much with the

Watchtower Society as I once did by a long shot, but still,

I keep up with enough that it's just, it's so clear, and there has to be people there.

There just has to be people in that society. They're seeing the same things that I'm seeing, and others that are observing it, but they've gotten smart.

They've learned their lesson, that if you set dates, and they don't work, people leave, and just ask

Family Radio all about that right now. And after the 1975 failed prophecy, a million people left the

Watchtower Society over the next few years, just wandered off and became the religiously abused, but what they're doing is they're deemphasizing the 1914 stuff, but they're doing it slowly, and they're bringing in new teachings to sort of take that over, so that it's being done slow enough that you can try to bring the vast majority of the people along, and it's only the diehards that are going, hey, wait a minute, and then you just kick them out, because that's something society is very good at doing.

But anyway, this is the text that they use to substantiate their existence as Jehovah's only organization on earth.

Anyways, who then is a faithful and wise servant whose master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant who his master, when he comes, will find so doing.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed, he begins to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks the drunken, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and an hour he does not know, and will punish him and put him with the hypocrites.

Their men will weep and gnash their teeth. So you have a sort of a setup here for what we're going to see in the following ones, and that is you have a person put in a position of responsibility, and they are under the lordship of a servant,

I'm sorry, of a master. They are the servant. And the master is away for an undefined period of time, so undefined, that in this situation you have a wicked servant that says the master is delayed.

And this is one place that we encounter one of the great controversies as to the dating of the

Gospels once again. Some people would point to this, they'd say, this is a much later time period where now the church is trying to explain why the

Paducea, the coming of Christ, has not taken place. The problem is this would require us to think that the first part of Matthew 24 was written earlier, and then the rest of it was modified at a later time, for which we have absolutely positively not a single shred of evidence.

Again, the text just does not strike me as being written by someone who is looking back upon the destruction of Jerusalem.

The prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem just do not partake of the kind of made -up prophecies that you find in the historical works.

It's not unusual for people to write literature like that and to place back in the mouths of people before an event some inkling of what was going to come or something along those lines.

I think about those poor young men, the white shirts and black slacks riding around on their mountain bikes in this weather, and they're carrying around a book, actually a set of books, and Joseph Smith decided to insert a prophecy about Joseph Smith into the book of Genesis, which had been lost somehow for all these years and no one had ever seen it until somewhere in the early 1800s.

It's so specific. It's got names. It's just so obvious that it's being written by someone who's going, hey,

I'm a prophet, and look, I was prophesied. It's just almost silly.

It's laughable. That's not what you have in Matthew 24. You don't have someone going,

I'm going to make Jesus a prophet, and look at this. It wouldn't have been written that way, and there would have been much more detail, and there would have been much more focus upon that, and then you wouldn't have this, and then there's going to be this undefined period of time where we're just to be faithful servants, and we're to be always looking for our

Master's return, but no one knows the day or the hour. Nobody knows.

It's something where we are to be faithful in the midst of all this. It is very interesting to consider that each one of these parables, the

Ten Virgins and the Talents, as well as the Good Servant and the Wicked Servant, is all basically saying there is going to be an undefined period of time where you have one responsibility, faithfulness.

Now, you're to remain watchful, because the danger is when people start going, well, you know, it's not going to happen, or I'm just going to spiritualize everything, and it's real easy to become rather lackadaisical at that point.

And so you have a Good Servant, a Blessed Servant, who, you know, in this first parable, the

Master sets him over the household, and basically he's just supposed to take care of the household. He's supposed to give them their food at the proper time.

It's not like he's doing quantum physics or something like that. It's just he's been called to do what a servant is called to do, and blessed is that servant whom his

Master, when he comes, will find so doing. So, what's the lesson from that?

Well, we are called to the exact same kind of faithfulness, and it's easy to put out a special effort for a short period of time to be faithful.

You know, let's say some Christian superstar, you know, comes to your church, and someone with a real big name in your circles, whatever that might be.

We Reformed Baptists don't really have much in that way, but that's just sort of the way we are. But it's fairly easy for a short period of time for folks to give of themselves in a particular way, and to go the extra mile, and all that stuff.

But then, you know, the superstar leaves, and well, it all goes back to normal.

Well, that's not the way it's supposed to be. This servant is called blessed because he just remains faithful.

And faithfulness is really measured, I think, in God's eyes, in its consistency and longevity, not its outward visibility, shall we say.

And so, this servant doesn't go, well, he's been given a certain task.

He doesn't go, no, I'm getting tired of this task. I'm going to call myself something else.

No, he's been given a particular task, and that's what his master wants him to do, and he remains faithful.

Now, the contrast is the wicked servant that says, you know,

I've done this for a while. Notice that the master is delayed. So, for a while, the wicked servant did what the wicked servant was supposed to do.

Why? Because the master was supposed to be there pretty quick, and I better do it, or I'm in trouble.

But now, the master is delayed. And so, he starts getting the idea,

I don't have to continue doing what I've been told to do. And so, he begins to beat his fellow servants, and he stops doing what he's supposed to be doing.

He's eating and drinking with the drunken, and he's not doing what he's been called to do.

And in that state, the master, that servant, will come on a day when he does not expect him, and an hour when he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the hypocrites.

Their men will weep and gnash their teeth. This phrase, weeping and gnashing of teeth, is pretty common in the

Gospels. We've seen it before, we'll see it again, as to the regret, and the suffering, and the mourning of those who receive punishment from their

Lord. And we're going to see it, especially in Matthew, chapter 25.

And so, the parable of the good servant and the wicked servant says to us, there probably was a time in the experience of the good servant, that he was tempted to change the mandate that was his.

Tempted to start going another direction. Tempted to maybe start abusing the authority that had been given, or something like that.

All because, well, you know, it just doesn't look like judgment is right around the corner. I think if we can take anything out of this, the attitude that is to be ours is, judgment is right around the corner.

For every one of us. Not necessarily just in, well, you know, the

Lord could come tomorrow. Well, the Lord could come in a lot of different ways. I think a lot of us, and I think it's defense mechanism,

I think it is for me. But, a lot of us get into those couple thousand pound vehicles, and those of you who drive those big trucks, more than that.

Looking at just a few of you here. And we start trundling down the road, and most of us just don't even give much thought to it.

Now, if you've been in a bad accident in the past, you might give a little more thought to it than others. But I'll be honest with you,

I've never been in an accident. And it's just sort of something you do until you get to where you're going.

Now, I ride a bicycle all over the place. I also have a motorcycle, which

I don't generally ride much in traffic, because people are idiots. I mean, you get on a motorcycle and you just disappear.

It's really cool. I am the invisible man. You know, you ever thought it would be really cool to be invisible? Well, I know how to do it.

Get on a motorcycle. As soon as you do that, just gone. You know?

And, you know, 48 -year -old women in SUVs with this just attacking their face.

Oh, yes, I heard about that, too. You know, they just... And you're invisible.

It's great. It's wonderful. It's fun. Anyway, we don't think about just how very, very quickly...

Does anyone remember this guy? Oh, I don't know how long ago this was, but it's over a decade ago.

I know that. But the guy that stole the big old honking dump truck.

Well, of course, you remember that, Roxy. I mean, come on. That's just...

Yeah. Remember that? And Central Avenue, remember? And I just I can't get the video of that out of my mind.

It's amazing. I can't remember anything else. I can remember video from a decade ago because you...

I can hear the helicopter pilot and he sees the person coming across Bethany Home Road.

And it's, you know, how your mind, you know, you may have failed trigonometry, but your mind can still do it, you know, and you're just going, oh, and you just, you know, and you can just hear the guy in the helicopter going, no, no.

And they just, they didn't miss, they hit. But it wasn't a

T -bone because, I mean, that thing was doing, what, 50, 55 miles an hour. Can you imagine?

But it hit the back of the car, thankfully, and spun it. I'm sure that wasn't an enjoyable experience for the folks in the car.

And it was hard enough hit that it actually flipped the truck on its side.

So I'm sure there was injuries involved, but there were no fatalities. But you think of how many, just this morning, how many, how many intersections you went through, and your mind never turned, you know, to, wow,

I just went through another intersection safely. Thank you, Lord. You know, because you just don't, you just don't think about it.

And we don't think about, we don't think about how many times every single day the Lord extends just such mercy and grace to us.

And yet, every single day every once in a while, you know, you hear about some young person cut off far before their time.

And it reminds us that every one of us has been in that situation and have just missed death in numerous different ways.

And so there is a sense, another sense in which the Lord's coming can be considered in that way.

We're going to meet him. And anybody who becomes that wicked servant, and in light of, it's an attitude of, yeah, down the road.

I'll worry about it down the road. And what Jesus is saying is that's foolishness. That is absolutely foolishness.

You may have started off, you may know the truth, you may know what you're supposed to be doing, but it's the, it's the long term.

You know, it's that phrase, he who endures to the end shall be saved. It's not enduring to the end that saves you. It's not like that is somehow what saves, but saving faith endures.

And do not, do not be deceived. Sitting in the pews of a

Baptist church is not going to save you unless you are hearing what is being said and acting accordingly.

So similarly, Matthew chapter 25 begins, then the king of heaven shall be compared to 10 maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

Five of them were foolish and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, behold the bridegroom, come out to meet him.

Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps and the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our lamps are gone out.

But the wise replied, perhaps there'll not be enough for us and for you. Go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast. The door was shut.

Afterward, the other maidens came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he replied, truly I say to you, I do not know you.

Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour. Now we all again know the parable.

We've undoubtedly heard of it, heard it before, and you've probably heard a number of sermons on it.

And certainly when the Puritans addressed a text like this, they would plan out one sermon per virgin, just about, just to, you know, make sure to cover everything.

So you'd have a sermon on ten maidens.

You'd have a sermon on lamps. You'd have a sermon on what foolish means. You'd have a sermon on what wise means.

You'd have a sermon on what oil means. And I mean, you'd just, if you think

I'm making this up, go check out some of the Puritan sermons.

You'll find that to be the case. And certainly you can, I think with some level of benefit, consider the way that marriages were done.

And let me tell you something, if you think marriages are a long ordeal today, it ain't nothing compared to marriages back then.

And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing that they put so much effort into things back then.

I think as things have become simplified in our modern day, it's just sort of, ah, well, you know, not a big deal.

Well, you know, we can always do it again if things don't work out type of an attitude in many people's minds, unfortunately.

And so you can talk about how the bridesmaids and what their role was in escorting the bridegroom.

And I mean, these were long, drawn out affairs. You might argue exhausting affairs, and I'm sure they were.

But it was a cultural recognition of the centrality of the marriage covenant and the marriage relationship.

And as we have simplified and simplified, I think that has been a representation or a reflection,

I'm sorry, of the same problems we're having in our own society.

I happened this morning to listen to a portion, I just couldn't listen to all of it, but a portion of a discussion from England on the subject of the redefinition of marriage.

And it was just, it was so difficult to listen, especially to the non -Christian worldview being promoted, that it brought to mind texts like this and the fact that there was a real celebration that took place, because people understood back then, anyways, that this was absolutely foundational to life and to the production of life and the continuation of the society and the people as a whole.

But it's really not Jesus's point to give us a parable about all the history of marriage.

His point is that here you have a marriage and you have ten maidens who are looking to engage in rejoicing and to be a part of the celebration.

But not all of them are the same. Half of them are described as being wise and half of them are described as being foolish.

And what is the focus of their wisdom and their foolishness? But it's preparation. It's looking ahead.

It's, you know, and I've seen this. I've been involved with a lot of weddings.

And there are some people involved in weddings that are primarily concerned about how they're going to look at the wedding.

And then there are other people in the weddings that do a lot of work for other folks and sort of take up the slack for the slackers,

I guess. And they have a different perspective. They have a different set of priorities.

And so you have five wise maidens. And why are they wise? They've actually thought about the fact that you don't know exactly when the bridegroom is coming.

There can be delays. They recognize the vagaries of life.

And the foolish are just sort of, they're thinking on a surface level. Maybe they might be those kinds of people that's, you know, we all know them.

They're rather flighty and they're constantly in need of help and assistance because they just haven't done any planning.

They're not disciplined in the way they live their lives. All of us encounter unforeseen things and we need help at times in our lives.

But look, these ladies have been going to weddings. This isn't the first wedding they've gone to.

And they had been in situations where there had been delay. But they just weren't thinking things through.

Maybe they were just far more interested in, you know, the fact that people are going to be looking at them and they're going to get to dress up and they've got a role in things and just didn't think in a rational way.

And so, there is a delay. And finally, at midnight there was a cry, behold the bridegroom, come out to meet him.

Now, in other words, not the time you'd expect. Alright, again, what's the parallel here is what we've already seen.

The unexpectedness of the coming of the bridegroom. The unexpectedness of the coming of the master of the house.

This is what ties these parables together. And the wise have made preparations so that whenever the bridegroom comes, they will be ready.

And that's what's going to tie this to the parable of the talents. Is the wise ones invest, they're active, they're thinking about the future, they're being disciplined.

And so, when the master comes, they have something to answer. They have something to present to him.

Here, the maidens, five of them, are ready to go in.

They are prepared. They're not having to run off and try to find somebody at midnight to sell them oil.

And so, when the bridegroom comes, they're ready to go in. And so, when the master comes, he's coming, and what do the foolish ones do?

But they look to others to solve their problems. And so, hey, give me some of your oil.

And the wise respond, we can't.

We only, we have enough to do what we've been called to do, but perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you.

You didn't make preparation. And it's funny how the attitude in our society has become, well, that's not my fault.

You owe it to me. Give me your stuff. You know, if I don't prepare for myself, you just give me your stuff.

That's the new attitude that unfortunately is rampant in our society.

Rather than, you know, the recognition of our own responsibilities, it's, hey, if you've got more oil than me, then you need to give me some of your oil because we all need to have the same amount of oil so we can all run out together.

That's great. Anyway, and so, while they're gone, the bridegroom comes, and those who are ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.

And once again, there might be some who don't like this idea of the, you know, door to the celebration being shut.

That's not really a universalist concept. The door is just wide open to everybody, whenever.

You know, that's the big, you know, Rob Bell universalism type idea, is that the door is never shut.

In fact, the only way the door ever gets shut is if the sinner in, after death, runs up and, you know, the door is shut, and slams it shut for them.

You know, and some of them at least leave that as an option that someone could be so hard -hearted that even after death, even after they see everything as they should see things, they still are unwilling, and they reject, and so on and so forth.

There are some people who take that perspective. But no, the door is shut. And afterward, the other maidens come also, and they say,

Lord, Lord, open to us. Now, I don't think it is in any way just a happenstance that they go,

Lord, Lord, in light of the fact that at the last judgment, there is going to be the statement,

Lord, and we already had in Matthew chapter 7, Lord, Lord, did we not do these things in your name?

And Jesus' response is, I never knew you, depart from me. And that is the same thing that you get here, is these other maidens come, and his response to their abjuring him,

Lord, Lord, open to us, is truly, I say to you, I do not know you.

So, once again, there are those who will look at this, and they will say, well, what this means is that if you will keep your nose clean, and you will do all these things, and you will perform all these rituals, and you will give

X amount of money to the church, and so on and so forth, that is how you purchase oil, and that is how you get your ticket punched to get through the door.

And so, it is seen prescriptively. This is the prescription, these are the things you do, and that is going to get you where you want to be.

It is interesting that the response of the master is not, too late, it is not, you should have been ready, it is not, what were you thinking?

The answer of the Lord is, who are you?

Who are you? I don't know you. And that is very interesting to me, because over and over again in the biblical narrative, depart from me, for I never knew you.

Truly, I say to you, I do not know you. And when you get to the judgment scene in the book of Revelation, they are judged as things written in the books, but then it says, they are cast in the lake of fire because their name is not found written in the last book of life.

Now, I think that is because anyone who is judged by what is written in the books is toast. I mean, there is nobody who wants to be judged by the perfect, complete recording of all of their words, and all of their actions, and all of their thought.

I mean, if that is the standard, will anyone stand? Well, of course not.

Not before a holy God. Anybody who has the slightest knowledge of their own, just their thoughts, let alone their acts and deeds, don't want that to happen.

And so, it seems that they are all condemned, but what then becomes the basis of being cast in the lake of fire is their name is not written in the last book of life.

That is the only way out of that condemnation, is to have one's name written in the last book of life, and those are those whom he knows.

I know my sheep, and my sheep know me. So, there is this consistency in the biblical revelation of the centrality of that personal relationship with Christ.

Knowing Him, not knowing about Him. It doesn't say,

I did not know about you. I did not know you. There is a difference between the two. And we have warned many, many times, especially the young people.

You can sit in Sunday school, and you can learn, and you've been catechized, and you know you grew up here, and as long as you didn't completely sleep through everything, you've heard a lot, and you've learned a lot, whether you wanted to or not.

But that's not enough. You can know all about Jesus. That's not knowing Jesus. You can know all about faith.

That's not having faith. And you do not want to be amongst those, who someday hear, truly

I say to you, I do not know you. Jesus knows

His sheep, and His sheep know Him. There is a reciprocal relationship that exists there.

And so, the final warning is, watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

And who's going to hear that warning? The wise. Those who know Christ.

That's why they hear it. To others, it's just wasted breath, basically, to even make that kind of a statement.

In the same way, the last parable is a fairly lengthy one. I'll hardly have time to even read it. But we'll at least read it, and be prepared to continue on with it.

For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted them his property.

Again, this is just sort of an expansion on the good servant, bad servant one before him.

To one he gave five talents. To another two. To another one. To each according to his ability. Now, of course, talents is a measure of money.

To us, it's like, oh, he gave me the talent of music. I've heard a few people use it that way.

It's like, eh, not quite. It's a fair amount of money, by the way. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.

It's also he who had two talents made two talents more, but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.

After a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents here.

I've made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little.

I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also who had the two talents came forward saying,

Master, you delivered to me two talents. Here I have made two talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Now, if you're looking at the parallels in Luke, they are set over five cities, for example.

The second came saying, Lord, your pound has made five pounds. And he said to him, You already have over five cities.

Now, it might be a different version of the story told at a different time, but that's the parallel.

Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. He also who had received the one talent came forward saying,

Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not winnow.

So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talents in the ground. Here you have what is yours.

But his master answered him, You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I have not winnowed.

Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.

So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have abundance.

But from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.

There men will weep and gnash their teeth. So once again, similar concepts, just really an expansion on the first.

Utilizing now something that people would understand. This was not something that would have been unusual.

Entrusting to a servant a certain amount of money. Now it's not just providing food to the household.

But now it is something more. It is a sum of money. And the first two servants, even though they're given different sums, both have the same attitude.

And both enter into the joy of the Lord. When he returns, he finds that they have been faithful in doing what a servant should do in that situation.

But then you have the one who in essence blames the power and exaltedness and strictness of the master for his having done nothing at all.

Out of fear, not seemingly really knowing the master very well.

Out of fear, this one hides the talent in the ground. He didn't go out and waste it.

I mean, some people would say, well, he shouldn't be put down. He didn't go out and waste it. Well, actually, the description at the end is a worthless servant who is cast out into outer darkness and where they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So actually, the question might be, who are the five unwise maidens?

Who is the wicked servant? They're all left outside at the judgment. And so these would be the religious hypocrites.

These would be those who put on a display of some type of religious piety and yet will receive the judgment of God.

And that's what's going to come out in the last judgment here in the last section of Matthew, chapter 25, is they will use the term

Lord, but they don't know him. This one, you know, we have that specifically stated in the parable of the virgins, the maidens, because he says,

I do not know you. But here, the description of this one is a worthless servant and he is cast out into outer darkness, which clearly indicates this is someone who is a hypocrite.

I know sometimes these people are described as, well, this is a carnal Christian, but he's still saved.

He still gets him. Unless there's outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth in heaven,

I don't think so. But I've heard some people that have gone ahead and taken it that far that it's pretty clear that that's not the case.

Okay? Well, my ever -worsening eyes seem to indicate that we are out of time.

So let's close the word of prayer. Lord, once again, we thank you for your word and we thank you for its exhortation to us.

And we do ask your forgiveness if we have become slothful and not anticipating and obeying the command to be faithful to what you've called us to do.

Lord, help us to recognize that we do not know what tomorrow will bring, and yet whatever it might bring, we want to be faithful servants of yours.

We want to be those who are told to enter into the joy of their Lord. May we be that kind of servant, even this coming week, we pray in Christ's name.