Welcome to Affirm Foundation, presented by Princeton Ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Continuing our study of the parables, if you would turn with me to the book of Matthew chapter 25 beginning at verse 14. Hear God’s word. For the kingdom of heaven is like a man travelling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them, and to one he gave five talents. To another two and to another one to each according to his own ability. And immediately he went on a journey, then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and made another five talents. Likewise, he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his lord’s money.

After a long time, the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Look, I have gained five more talents beside them. His lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord. He also who had received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Look, I have gained two more talents besides them. His lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord. Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid and went and I hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours. But his lord answered and said to him, You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed.

Therefore, you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore, take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has more will be given. And he who will have abundance, but from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Our God and our father, we come before this your word. We ask that you would give us ears to hear. Help us to understand those talents, those gifts that you have given to us. That we might use them and that we might bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ. For we ask it in his name. Amen.

Five minutes after you die. And are standing before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ. Will you hear these words? Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Or will there be a solemn declaration from Jesus Christ? As he says, you wicked and lazy servant.

Cast this unprofitable servant into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The first five minutes that we spend in eternity. As we look back over the 60 or 70 years that the Lord would give us. In those few moments, we will look very quickly to see how our lives have been spent. The scripture says we will be silent when the verdict is given. Jesus told a parable towards the end of his ministry about the kingdom of heaven. He said it is like a man traveling to a far country. And he called his servants and delivered goods to them. To one servant he gave five talents. A good sum of money. To another he gave two talents.
A substantial amount of money. And to the third he gave one talent. Still a noteworthy amount of money. And he left these valuable talents with these three servants. And on a time unexpected he returns. And he asks for an accounting. The first comes and he says you gave me five talents. I’ve traded them and here are your original five and five more. Well done. You’re a good and faithful servant. And what about you? Well you gave me two and I’ve traded them also.

And here are the original two and additional two. Well done. You’re a good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. And what about you? Well you gave me one talent. And I knew you were a hard master. I was frightened. And so I took the talent and I hid it in the ground. You mean you didn’t even invest it? You didn’t even take it to the bank to get simple interest? No? I was afraid. You wicked. You lazy servant. Take him away where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. You and I have been given a trust by Jesus Christ. Jesus who quickly returned to be seated with the Father in Heaven. Jesus Christ is now in a far country. He is making intercession for us. He has entrusted to his church gifts and talents and abilities. He has entrusted to his church the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel which sets men free. He says this is very precious. But I’m relying on you, my church, to accomplish the work. And so I give you the gospel.

Go and take this gospel. Make disciples. See them baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Take this wonderful gift that I’ve entrusted to you and share it with someone else. We live in a day where faithfulness is hard to find. Another definition of faithfulness is loyalty. To be loyal is to be faithful. To be faithful is to be loyal. Yet I’m afraid it seems that faithfulness and loyalty are qualities that seem to be from another time. Ask any businessman who is trying to get reliable help, loyal help, faithful help. And he will tell you that the loyalty of so many employees is dependent upon who gives the best benefits. And loyalty is only to the point of the benefits and the salary that you’re able to give. And what about loyalty in our nation?

There was a time during World War II when our manufacturing companies halted the making of profit simply because there was a national Endeavor in a war. Yet today we read continually, it seems, of those who are disloyal to this country and would sell secrets to anyone who would give the highest bid. What about in the family? Faithfulness and loyalty. Divorce rates are staggering. We ask, where is faithfulness and loyalty? Where is loyalty and faithfulness in the Church of Jesus Christ? The parable is about a servant who was faithful to the Lord. Faithfulness and loyalty to the Lord produces, I believe, the greatest people that have ever been found on the face of the earth. People who are faithful and loyal to Jesus Christ are some of the most precious and wonderful people that you will ever meet in your life. And yet there are some people who think, well, if I just work my body, I’ll get strength. That is the highest goal. But they haven’t read the lesson of history. For history says anyone who would simply rely on strength alone will be defeated in the end by those who are smarter, who are more intelligent. And so strength alone is always defeated by those who are more thoughtful and intelligent.

But those who would just be thoughtful and intelligent alone will be defeated by those who are working according to some moral principle. And so that nation, that family, that person who is working by a moral principle will defeat in the end those who are simply trying to work out of an academic intelligence. And they, in turn, will defeat those who are only trying to work out of strength. But it is the Christian who is faithful to Jesus Christ, who is able even to defeat and to rise above the crowd of those who would simply be living their lives by moral principle. The greatest words I believe that you and I will ever hear will be uttered within minutes of entering eternity, as Jesus Christ would say to those who are faithful. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is always noticed by other people. The person who is faithful and loyal to Christ stands out.

David Livingston, as we are all familiar, was the great missionary who opened up the interior of Africa. David Livingston died in the heart of Africa. He was so loved by the men who travelled with him that their custom, believing that the essence of life was the heart, they cut the heart from David Livingston and they buried it under a tree in the center of Africa. Then they took the body of Livingston and they embalmed it and they placed it under the sun. And they knew that this body of this great missionary must be brought back to his homeland.
There was a man by the name of Jacob Wainwright who loved Jesus Christ, who was loyal to Christ and was a faithful servant of David Livingston. And for one year, with faithfulness, through the jungles, through the mountains, through the arid deserts of Africa, carried the body of David Livingston, that it would be brought to the seacoast of northern Africa. And there the body of David Livingston would be taken by an English man of war. And that ship would bring back the body of David Livingston. The only thing that Jacob Wainwright asked was that he be present to see that David Livingston was placed in the ground to be buried. And it seemed that all of the nobility of England gathered for the burial at Westminster Abbey of David Livingston.

But a word went through that congregation, assembled to pay tribute to David Livingston, that the man standing at the head of the coffin of David Livingston, Jacob Wainwright, a devoted man from Zanzibar, who would faithfully, no matter what the cost, see that the body of his dear friend was buried. And at the close of the service, when David Livingston was finally placed in his place of rest, all eyes, with honor, were focused on Jacob Wainwright, a faithful servant who would accomplish a task of loyalty. And certainly as David Livingston, within five minutes of standing in eternity, would hear from his master, well done, good, and faithful servant. So too, Jacob Wainwright, a Christian, would hear from his master’s lips, well done, good and faithful servant.

The parable of the talents teaches us an important lesson. Notice that one person received five talents, another two, a third one. The principle is that faithfulness to the Lord has nothing to do with quantity. It has to do with what the Lord has placed in your hand and what you are doing with it. And so that first servant had five talents. He returns an additional five, a total of ten. And what are the words from the master? Well done, good and faithful servant. But there’s another who received only two. But in his faithfulness, he returned those original two, plus two, a total of four. Wouldn’t we, according to man’s standards, say you did very good? You didn’t do as well as the man with five, but you did very well. But the word of the master is the same words that he spoke to the man who had five. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. And the lesson is that whatever the Lord has placed in your hand, whether it is one talent or two or five, he is not looking for quantitative faithfulness as much as he is looking for. What have I given you? Are you using it to the glory of your father? I can never teach on a point like this without remembering Stan Mooneyham, who told about being in a leprosarium. And as he made his way through the stages of this hospital, there were varying degrees of people who had leprosy. And so in the outer corridors were those who had just been diagnosed with leprosy. But as he went further, the degrees of the illness progressed until finally he came to the back ward. There was all manner of the evils of that disease. And he was told that there was the worst case in the back bed. And you need to know that that man is a Christian. And Mooneyham, who says he was shocked by the things that he had seen, came to that last bed in the back ward. There was a man close to death whose fingers had all been destroyed, who could no longer hear, whose eyes and the orbs of his eyes were gone through the ravages of that dreaded leprosy. And even his voice was now not able to speak, but only could grunt. And this man, sensing that someone was in the room with all of the strength that he had in his body, on one worn out elbow, lifted himself with great pain and took a hand, a fingerless hand, and he pointed to heaven and he cried out, Jesus, Jesus!

And Mooneyham realized that here was a faithful servant, who at that point had only a single talent, but he used that talent to the glory of God and would even speak out the name of Jesus. And I believe that that man would hear from his master, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord. Jesus has entrusted you and me with many gifts, with many possessions. He has given us a portion of this world’s goods. We have not all received the same portion, to some five, to some two, to someone. But he asks, what have you done with that portion of the world’s goods that I have placed in your hand? Have you used them for my glory? Will I say to you, well done, good and faithful servant? Some have homes, some have apartments, condominiums, gifts from the Lord, places to live. Do we use them to the glory of the Lord?

To open our homes for Bible studies, to invite neighbors in acts of Christian hospitality? Do we use those things which the Lord has given to us? So that when we stand before him, he’ll say, you know that home, you use that talent so well. You used it to bring honor and glory to me. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Light your tongue. The use of words.
In the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 15, we read this verse. Let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That’s a wonderful truth. I want to offer before God a sacrifice of praise. It sounds so spiritual, doesn’t it? Now we ask, what is a sacrifice of praise? And he tells us that is the fruit of your lips. Are the words that you utter, words that Jesus Christ is going to say, you use those words so well. You are such an encouragement to other people. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. What about the time that the Lord gives us? That great gift of time. The average American, we’re told, watches 17 hours of television a week.

A baby born in 1974, if it’s a typical baby, by the time it’s 18 years, by the time it has lived its life, it will have spent 18 years watching television. The rate of television watching has gone up dramatically. How do you use your time? Will the Lord say to you, you know that time I gave you, those years I gave you to live your life? That was a talent I gave you. That was a gift. It was of great value. And you used it in such a wonderful way. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. The Lord has given to all of us talents, gifts that he asks us to use to bring glory to his son, to share with others the great gospel of Jesus Christ. And there’s a day coming when our master, Jesus Christ, who is now seemingly in a far off country, seated at the right hand of his father, is going to return. And he will ask for an accounting of the things that he has given to you and to me.

How did you use them? To bring honor and glory? Or did you use them selfishly? Did you use them only for yourself? In my mind’s eye, I can almost see that day. I can almost see Mr. Unbeliever as suddenly in a moment, within minutes, he is standing before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ to give an accounting. And he is shocked that it is Jesus Christ to whom he must answer. And a look of fear crosses his brow as Jesus asks, what did you do with the time, the treasures, the talents that I gave to you? And he looks back over his life and he thinks to himself, there was not one deed that I ever attempted in repayment to God. You wicked and lazy servant.

I see another one coming down the path, Mr. Churchman, who every week was faithfully found in his seat. He looked like a churchman. He sang like a churchman. He knew his Bible like a churchman. But it was only one hour a week. The rest of the week, he looked like one of the pigs. There was no difference between him and an unbeliever. And he comes and he stands before Jesus Christ. He thinks to himself, if ever there was a moment to sound like a churchman, it’s now. So he gathers as much as he can of those words that he learned for one hour. But Jesus doesn’t ask him for words. He asks him to repay the account. What did you do with the talents and the treasures that I gave you? I see another one, Mr. Hippocrate. He sees Jesus Christ trying to decide which side of his mouth he should speak from. As he speaks, Jesus simply asks, please make an accounting. Please show to me the good works that your father wanted to be manifested in your life. Please present those now. He says, I knew you were a hard master. I just buried them in the ground. But there’s another one who comes. As they come up the path, it’s almost like a light shining like the sun. They stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ. And knowing Jesus, they say, do you know the talents you gave me? Here they are. I’ve returned them to you. But I’ve been very busy for you. I have wanted to bring glory to your name. And so those two or five talents that you gave me, here they are. But also here are other things that came as a result of the gifts that you gave me. And Jesus will say to that servant, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Five minutes into eternity, will Jesus say to you, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Or will you hear these words? You wicked and lazy servant.

Let us pray. Our God and our Father. You have entrusted us with life. This is your gift of our lives. We ask that we would use all that you have given us, knowing that someday you shall return. And you will ask for an accounting. Help us, Father, to use those gifts and talents and abilities and time and treasure all to bring glory to your son. Help us, Father, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others so that they might know about him. That we would use all of the resources that you have given us to communicate to others that Jesus Christ has come to earth. That Jesus lived an obedient life. He died upon the cross. He was raised from the dead. And now by faith, we are made new. And Father, we ask that our faithfulness, our loyalty to you would in great abundance, add to the gifts and talents that you have already given. So that when we come before you, we will give you not only five, but an additional five, not only two, but an additional two. And even not only one, but at least an additional one. Help us, Father, to use the time wisely. For we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to Affirm Foundation, presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by You the Listener. You may go to our website ,princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries, Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. That’s Princeton Ministries, Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. The Lord bless you, and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rone’s Web Development Company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.