Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

And as they heard these things, He added and spake a parable, because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.

He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.

And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said to them, Occupy till I come.

But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.

And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called to him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.

Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound has gained ten pounds.

And he said to him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.

And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound has gained five pounds.

And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.

And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:

For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow:

And he says to him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?

And he said to them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that has ten pounds.

(And they said to him, Lord, he has ten pounds.)

For I say to you, That to every one which has shall be given; and from him that has not, even that he has shall be taken away from him. Luke 19:11-26.

My words are for you, Christ’s young men and women. You have come into great wealth, and the question for you is, To what use are you putting it? To assure you of the wealth I will quote well known and greatly loved words. “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” What will you do with your riches? Selfishly enjoy them? If you try that you will not enjoy them at all. I would remind you of that ancient word, “There is that which scatters and yet increases; there is that which withholds more than is meet, and it tends to poverty.” And you have surely read in wise old John Bunyan’s book of that man,
“Whom some did count as mad,
 The more he gave the more he had.”

But in this matter you need to be instructed, and our Saviour is not only our Lord to command us, but He is our Teacher to instruct us, and happy are we if we know Him in this threefold way. The riches that He has given us are ours eternally, and yet in another way we are stewards of them, and with them we are to trade for Him. Most of you who hear me are in business life, but every one of us has been called to do business for our absent Lord, and this is taught us in a striking way in the parable of the pounds. It is of that that I would speak to you.

“A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom.” I want you first to notice how the Lord describes Himself. “A certain nobleman.” The One who has saved us and whom we are to represent and serve is THE NOBLEMAN. All true nobility is in Him. Where else can you look for it? God found it in Him. How absolute was His fidelity to God — ever obedient, ever dependent. He did always the things that pleased Him, so that God could say of Him, “Behold My Servant, the One in whom My soul delights.” And how noble He was in His ways with men. No selfish motive ever moved Him, no hatred or ingratitude from men changed Him. He would not put forth His power for His own relief, but for others that power knew no limit or rest. He was the servant of all from early morn to the close of day. It is recorded that “all the people came early in the morning to Him.” He was there waiting for them when they came; to teach them, to serve them, to heal them; and not until every man had gone to his own home did He retire, a homeless Man, to the Mount of Olives.

Everything that He did in His life of service was nobly done, beautifully done. See Him as He stands beside the widowed mother, weeping for her dead. His heart is moved with compassion for her sorrow, and His word rebukes the cause of it and makes her son alive again. Then He moves on without waiting for reward or recognition. He might have claimed that young man’s life and service and have said to him, Follow Me, but He didn’t, He restored him to his mother. See Him stoop to gather the children to His heart when the disciples would have driven them away — they were of no account to others, but how dear they were to Him! No need escaped His notice, no sigh reached His ear in vain. Self-sacrificing love placed Him at the service of all, and He served because love must serve in a world of sin and need. Wonderful Saviour! The true Nobleman! Our Lord and Master, who has saved us that we might serve Him!

“But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.” The next thing that we must note is that we are to occupy for Him in a world that has refused His claims. He is the rightful King of all, but He is the rejected King. The world of men did not appreciate His nobility, so ignoble were they. His meekness, gentleness, and longsuffering moved them to nothing save contempt and hatred. The world has not changed to acknowledge His goodness, and Christ has not changed to meet its ignoble standards. He is not wanted in it now any more than He was, and we are to represent Him and trade for Him where He is not wanted. It should be plain to us that the world will not, cannot help us in this our Lord’s business. We cannot call upon its resources and we ought not to follow its ways. We are to serve in the midst of it as our Master did — doing good to all men — but we must look outside of it for our supplies and direction.

“And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said to them, Occupy till come.” It is not in this parable as in that of the Talents in Matthew’s Gospel, where the number of talents were distributed according to the ability of the servants, but to each servant is given a pound. The pound is that great treasure which the Lord brought into the world. It is the knowledge of God in His grace. This is specially unfolded for us in this Gospel of Luke. It is both interesting and instructive to see that the special character of the truth which the Lord presents to men in each of the Gospels is that which is most opposed by them. In this Gospel of Luke the leaders of the people were continually finding fault with Him because of the grace which carried Him into the company of sinners. In chapter 5 they said, “He eats with publicans and sinners.” In chapter 7 they complained “He is the friend of publicans and sinners”; in chapter 15 they said, “This man receives sinners and eats with them,” and here in chapter 19 they find fault with Him because He had gone to be guest with a man that was a sinner. But it was this grace of God that could reach down to the vilest and most needy that He had come to show. He was here to reveal the grace of God, and in this He was doing His Father’s business. How fully this grace was revealed in the Pharisee’s house in chapter 7 when He said to the sinner of the city, “Thy sins are forgiven thee;” how blessedly it was declared in the threefold parable in chapter 15 in which we see Father, Son and Holy Ghost rejoicing over the recovery of once lost but repentant sinners; and what could exceed the glory of it, when the crucified Saviour said to the dying malefactor, “To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.”

The Lord brought the knowledge of God in His infinite grace to guilty men in the world, but when He went back to heaven He did not take it back with Him, He left it here with His servants that they might trade with it for Him. We find it in the commission which He gave to them after He rose from the dead. He said to them, “Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (chapter 24).

The knowledge of God in the infinite grace of His heart is the silver pound, and our Lord has committed it to us. It is a great treasure and is so described in 2 Corinthians 4. “For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” This is the silver pound, and we are responsible to put it in circulation on our Lord’s behalf, and to trade with it for Him until He comes.

I ask you, happy young Christian, what can compare in value with the knowledge of the God of all grace? It has meant much to you. Without it you were without hope, without light, without peace; a wanderer, an orphan, an unforgiven sinner. But the gospel of His grace has changed all that, and you can say, “God is for us.” You can wake in the morning with the thought that you know God, and that He loves you and cares for you. Your needs are many, but His supplies are infinite, and His mercies are renewed every morning to you. Just as the manna was always waiting, morning by morning, for Israel in the wilderness, and God was never late with His supplies of it, so now a full provision awaits you when the day’s needs commence. What peace of mind, what quietness this knowledge should give you! The quietness of mind and contentment that the knowledge of God gives is necessary if we are to trade successfully, for if we are marked by worry and irritability and discontent, men of the world might well say to us, “What have you got that we have not?” But if they see that we have something that sustains us in trial and keeps us quiet amid the stress and tear of life, they may be ready to listen to our words. So shall we have joy of trading with our pound, of speaking to men and women of the God we know, and the words we speak will be words in season to them that are weary.

We may tell them that we know a God whose compassions are without limit, that never a cry to Him has been refused or will be as long as the day of grace lasts. We may tell them that God is moved because of their distresses, and that His mercy is poured forth to meet them in their misery. We may tell them that He has searched them, and that He knows them and their sins, and yet He will receive and save them; that He commends His love to them in that while they were yet sinners Christ died for them. What news is this for weary, sinful men! Strange it is that they care about it so little. Strange that we who possess the treasure should show such faint zeal in trading with it.

If a man is to trade successfully he must consider carefully where and how to trade, and this is surely not less important in that which is the chief business of the servant of the Lord, and every Christian is a servant. Doctors, mechanics, teachers, nurses, typists, clerks, and many other callings we may follow, but all these are secondary. We desire to be efficient in these secular duties, and that is right, but our chief concern is our business for the Lord, and we ought to know how and where He would have us serve. We ought to know where we can put the pound out at the best rate of interest. With most of us the Lord intends that we should continue in the calling wherein we are called and hold forth the word of life and shine as lights just where we are. It may be that He would have some of us to carry the pound in diligent labour into the streets and lanes of the city, or far out into heathen lands. In these things He, the Master, must direct; it is ours to obey, to serve, to trade.

“And it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded those servants to be called to him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much each man had gained by trading.”

The absence of our Lord is not to be for ever. “Occupy till I come” links up the present with the future, and produces solemn thoughts as to what He will say to us when He returns. But there is encouragement for us in the parable, for we are sure that the Lord will not forget any bit of true service. Heaven’s book-keeping is accurate. All that we have gained for our Lord is entered there, and it will give the Lord joy to acknowledge the faithfulness of His servants.

But there was one servant who knew not his Lord and cared naught for His honour and wealth, though he stood with the rest of the servants and appeared to be what they were. He never valued the pound, it was naught to him, so he hid it in a napkin and buried it out of sight; and if he did business at all, he did it with his own base coin, upon which the image and superscription of the King did not appear. There are many such: they have pledged themselves by solemn vows to serve the Lord, and to uphold and trade with the gospel of God as it is revealed in the Bible, but they have no intention of fulfilling their vows; they are ashamed of the gospel and desire to be popular in the world; they are unfaithful men, and are traitors to their trust, even though they still profess to be Christ’s servants; but they are not vitally His.

This servant did not know the Lord at all; out of his own mouth will we judge him. “I knew,” he said, “that thou wert an austere man.” Did he know? Did he not declare his ignorance when he opened his mouth? Who among you who know the Lord will go down on your knees and say to Him, “I know that Thou art an austere man”? Nay, you have other things to say of Him. You have seen no frowns upon His brow; you have heard no hard words from His lips; the tenderest heart in the universe beats in His breast, and you have proved it so. Your service has been full of failure; often you have blundered, but those very blunders have become opportunities for the display of His grace to you. This man did not know the Lord, so we who do know Him must conclude. He was a wicked servant, who loved himself and despised his Lord and His pound.

“How much?” and “Of what sort?” (1 Corinthians 3); thus will all our work be tested. But let us have neither doubt nor question as to this matter, by the pound alone can we gain by trading. The knowledge of God as revealed by Christ Jesus, now told out in the gospel, and this alone can bring men to God and subdue them to Christ. All else will fail, no matter how plausible and popular; the gospel alone is God’s power to salvation to everyone that believes. Knowing this, may we earnestly desire to be kept diligently putting it into circulation “till He comes.”