Watching For Christ’s Coming

Watching For Christ's Coming

(No. 2302)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 2, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
7 1889.

"Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, shall find
watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make
them to sit down to eat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he
shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find
them so, blessed are those servants." Luke 12:37,38.

I AM about to speak of the Second Coming of Christ and I felt thankful
that my dear Brother's prayer, although we had not been in consultation
with one another upon the matter, was in every way so suitable to the
subject upon which I am to speak. He led us in prayer to think of our
coming Lord, so that I trust you are on the margin of the subject, now,
and that you will not have to make any very great exertion of mind to
plunge into mid-stream and be carried away with the full current of
thought concerning the Second Advent of the Savior. It is a very
appropriate topic when we come to the Lord's Table, for, as that prayer
reminded us, the Lord's Supper looks backward, and is a memorial of His
agony. But it also looks forward and is an anticipation of His Glory.
Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth, "For as often as you eat this
bread, and drink this cup, you show the Lord's death till He comes." By
looking forward, in a right state of heart, to that Second Coming of
Christ which is the joy of His Church, you will also be in a right
state of heart for coming to the Communion Table. May the Holy Spirit
make it to be so!

The posture at the Communion Table, as you know, according to our
Lord's example, was not that of kneeling, but that of reclining. The
easiest position which you can assume is the most fitting for the
Lord's Supper, but remember that the supper was no sooner finished,
than, "they sang a hymn," and when that hymn was concluded, they went
out into the Mount of Olives to the agonies of Gethsemane. It often
seems to me as if now, after finding rest at the Table by feeding upon
Christ, whose real Presence we have–not after a carnal sort, but after
a spiritual sort–after that, we sing a hymn, as if we would go out to
meet our Lord in His Second Coming, not going to the Mount of Olives to
see Him in a bloody sweat, but to hear that word of the angel, "This
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in
like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven."

I do not think we ought to feel at all surprised if we were to go
always expecting Him, not knowing at what hour the Master of the house
shall come. The world does not expect Him–it goes on with its eating
and drinking, its marrying and giving in marriage–but His own family
should expect Him. When He will return from the wedding, I trust that
He will not find the door shut against Him, but that we shall be ready
to open to our Lord immediately when He knocks. That is the object of
the few words that I shall have to say, tonight, to stir you up, and my
own heart, also, to be always watching for Christ's Second Coming.

I. First, THE LORD WILL COME. He that has come once is to come again.
He will come a second time. The Lord will come.

He will come again, for He has promised to return. We have His own word
for it. That is our first reason for expecting Him. Among the last of
the words which He spoke to His servant John are these, "Surely I come
quickly." You may read it, "I am coming quickly. I am even now upon the
road. I am traveling as fast as wisdom allows. I am always coming, and
coming quickly." Our Lord has promised to come and to come in Person.
Some try to explain the Second Coming of Christ as though it meant the
Believer dying. You may, if you like, consider that Christ comes to His
saints in death. In a certain sense, He does, but that sense will never
bear out the full meaning of the teaching of the Second Advent with
which the Scripture is full. No, "the Lord Himself shall descend from
Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archan-

gel, and with the trump of God." He who went up to Heaven will come
down from Heaven and stand, in the latter day, upon the earth. Every
redeemed soul can say with Job, "Though after my skin worms destroy
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for
myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another." Christ will as
certainly be here again in Glory as He once was here in shame, for He
has promised to return.

Moreover, the great scheme of redemption requires Christ's return. It
is a part of that scheme that, as He came once with a sin offering, He
should come a second time without a sin offering, that, as He came once
to redeem, He should come a second time to claim the inheritance which
He has so dearly bought. He came once, that His heel might be bruised.
He comes, again, to break the serpent's head and, with a rod of iron,
to dash His enemies in pieces, as potters' vessels. He came, once, to
wear the crown of thorns. He must come, again, to wear the diadem of
universal dominion. He comes to the marriage supper. He comes to gather
His saints together. He comes to glorify them with Himself on this same
earth where once He and they were despised and rejected of men.
Understand this, that the whole drama of redemption cannot be perfected
without this last act of the coming of the King!

The complete history of Paradise Regained requires that the New
Jerusalem should come down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband–and it also requires that the heavenly
Bridegroom should come riding forth on His white horse, conquering and
to conquer, King of kings and Lord of lords, amidst the everlasting
hallelujahs of saints and angels! It must be so. The man of Nazareth
will come again! None shall spit in His face, then, but every knee
shall bow before Him. The Crucified shall come, again, and though the
nail prints will be visible, no nails shall, then, fasten His dear
hands to the tree. But instead thereof, He shall grasp the scepter of
universal sovereignty and He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah!

When will He come? Ah, that is the question, the question of questions!
He will come in His own time. He will come in due time. A brother
minister, calling upon me, said, as we sat together, "I should like to
ask you a lot of questions about the future." "Oh, well!" I replied, "I
cannot answer you, for I daresay I know no more about it than you do."
"But," he said, "what about the Lord's Second Advent? Will there not be
the millennium, first?" I said, "I cannot tell whether there will be
the millennium, first, but this I know, the Scripture has left the
whole matter, as far as I can see, with an intentional indistinctness,
that we may be always expecting Christ to come, and that we may be
watching for His coming at any hour and every hour. I think that the
millennium will commence after His coming, and not before it. I cannot
imagine the Kingdom with the King absent. It seems to me to be an
essential part of the Millennial Glory that the King shall then be
revealed. At the same time, I am not going to lay down anything
definite upon that point. He may not come for a thousand years. He may
come tonight. The teaching of Scripture is, first of all, 'In such an
hour as you think not, the Son of Man comes.' It is clear that if it
were revealed that a thousand years must elapse before He would come,
we might very well go to sleep for that time, for we should have no
reason to expect that He would come when Scripture told us He would
not."

"Well," answered my friend, "but when Christ comes, that will be the
General Judgment, will it not?" Then I quoted these texts, "The dead in
Christ shall rise first." "But the rest of the dead lived not, again,
until the thousand years were finished. This is the first
resurrection." I said, "There is a resurrection from among the dead to
which the Apostle Paul labored to attain. We shall all rise, but the
righteous shall rise a thousand years before the ungodly. There is to
be that interval of time between the one and the other. Whether that is
the Millennial Glory, or not, this deponent says not, though he thinks
it is. But this is the main point, the Lord shall come. We know not
when we are to expect His coming. We are not to lay down, as absolutely
fixed, any definite prediction or circumstance that would allow us to
go to sleep until that prediction was fulfilled, or that circumstance
was apparent."

"Will not the Jews be converted to Christ, and restored to their land?"
enquired my friend. I replied, "Yes, I think so. Surely they shall look
on Him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one
mourns for his only son. And God shall give them the Kingdom and the
Glory, for they are His people, whom He has not forever cast away. The
Jews, who are the natural olive branches, shall yet be grafted into
their own olive tree, again, and then shall be the fullness of the
Gentiles." "Will that be before Christ comes, or after?" asked my
friend. I answered, "I think it will be after He comes, but whether or
not, I am not going to commit myself to any definite opinion on the
subject."

To you, my dear Friends, I say–Read for yourselves, and search for
yourselves, for still, this stands first, and is the only thing that I
will insist upon tonight–the Lord will come. He may come now. He may
come tomorrow. He may

come in the first watch of the night, or the second watch, or He may
wait until the morning watch–but the one word that He gives to you all
is, "Watch! Watch! Watch!" that whenever He shall come, you may be
ready to open to Him and to say, in the language of the hymn we sang
just now–

"Hallelujah!

Welcome, welcome, Judge Diviner So far I know that we are Scriptural
and, therefore, perfectly safe in our statements about the Lord's
Second Advent.

Brothers and Sisters, I would be earnest on this point, for the notion
of the delay of Christ's Coming is always harmful, however you arrive
at it, whether it is by studying prophecy, or in any other way. If you
come to be of the opinion of the servant mentioned in the 45th verse,
you are wrong–"If that servant says in his heart, My lord delays his
coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat
and drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant will come in a
day when he looks not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and
will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the
unbelievers." Do not, therefore, get the idea that the Lord delays His
Coming and that He will not or cannot come as yet. Far better would it
be for you to stand on the tiptoe of expectation and to be rather,
disappointed, to think that He does not come.

I do not wish you to be shaken in mind so as to act fanatically or
foolishly, as certain people did in America, when they went out into
the woods with "ascension dresses" on, so as to go straight up all of a
sudden! Fall into none of those absurd ideas that have led people to
leave a chair vacant at the table and to put an empty plate because the
Lord might come and need it! And try to avoid all other superstitious
nonsense. To stand star-gazing at the prophecies, with your mouth wide
open, is just the wrong thing to do! Far better will it be to go on
working for your Lord, getting yourself and your service ready for His
appearing, and cheering yourself all the while with this thought,
"While I am at work, my Master may come. Before I get weary, my Master
may return. While others are mocking at me, my Master may appear! And
whether they mock or applaud, is nothing to me. I live before the great
Taskmaster's eyes, and do my service knowing that He sees me and,
expecting that, by-and-by, He will reveal Himself to me, and then He
will reveal me and my right intention to misrepresenting men."

That is the first point, Brothers and Sisters, the Lord will come.
Settle that in your minds. He will come in His own time and we are
always to be looking for His appearing.

II. Now, secondly, THE LORD BIDS US WATCH FOR HIM. That is the marrow
of the text–"Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he
comes, shall find watching."

Now what is this watching? Not wishing to use my own words, I thought
that I would call your attention to the context. The first essential
part of this watching is that we are not to be taken up with present
things. You remember that the 22nd verse is about not taking thought
what you shall eat, or what you shall drink–you are not to be absorbed
in that. You who are Christians are not to live the fleshly, selfish
life that asks, "What shall I eat and drink? How can I store up my
goods? How can I get food and raiment, here?" You are something more
than dumb, driven cattle that must think of hay and water. You have
immortal spirits! Rise to the dignity of your immortality! Begin to
think of the Kingdom, the Kingdom so soon to come, the Kingdom which
your Father has given you and which, therefore, you must certainly
inherit! Think of the Kingdom which Christ has prepared for you, and
for which He is making you kings and priests unto God, that you may
reign with Him forever and ever. Oh, be not earthbound! Do not cast
your anchor, here, in these troubled waters. Build not your nest on any
of these trees–they are all marked for the axe and are coming
down–and your nest will come down, too, if you build it here. Set your
affection on things above, up yonder–

"Up where eternal ages roll, Where solid pleasures never die, And
fruits eternal feast the soul." There project your thoughts and your
anxieties–and have a care about the world to come. Be not anxious
about the things that pertain to this life. "Seek you first the Kingdom
of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto
you."

Reading further down, in the 35th verse, you will notice that watching
implies keeping ourselves in a serviceable condition–"Let your loins
be girded about." You know how the Orientals wear flowing robes which
are always getting in their way. They cannot walk without being tripped
up, so that, if a man has a piece of work on hand, he just tucks in his
robe under his belt, tightens his belt up tightly, and gets ready for
his task–as we would say in English, turning the

Oriental into the Western figure–rolling up your shirtsleeves and
preparing for work. That is the way to wait for the Lord, ready for
service, that, when He comes, He may never find you idle.

I called to see a Sister one morning and when I called, she was
cleaning the front steps with some whitening, and she said, "Oh, my
dear Pastor, I am sorry that you should call upon me just now! I would
not have had you see me like this on any account." I answered, "That is
how I like to see you, busy at your work. I should not have liked to
have come in and caught you talking to your neighbor over the back
palings. That would not have pleased me at all. May your Lord, when He
comes, find you just so, doing your duty!" You see exactly what is
meant–you are to be doing your duty–you are to be engaged about those
vocations to which God has called you. You are to be doing it all out
of love to Christ and as service for Him. Oh, that we might watch in
that style, with our loins girded about! Work, and wait, and watch! Can
you put those three things together? Work, and wait, and watch! This is
what your Master asks of you.

And next, He would have us wait with our lights burning. If the Master
comes home late, let us sit up late for Him. It is not for us to go to
bed till He comes home. Have the lights all trimmed. Have His chamber
well lit–have the entrance-hall ready for His approach. When the King
comes, have your torches flaming, that you may go out to meet the royal
Bridegroom and escort Him to His home! If we are to watch for the Lord
as we ought, it must be with lamps burning. Are you making your light
to shine among men? Do you think that your conduct and character are an
example that will do your neighbors good and are you trying to teach
others the way of salvation? Some professors are like dark lanterns, or
candles under a bushel. May we never be such! May we stand with our
lamps trimmed and our lights burning and we, ourselves, like unto men
that wait for their Lord, not walking in darkness, nor concealing our
light, but letting it shine brightly! That is the way to watch for
Christ, with your belt tight about you because you are ready for work,
and your lamp flaming out with brightness because you are anxious to
illuminate the dark world in which you live.

To put it very plainly, I think that watching for the Coming of the
Lord means acting just as you would wish to be acting if He were to
come. I saw, in the Orphanage schoolroom, that little motto, "What
would Jesus do?" That is a very splendid motto for our whole life,
"What would Jesus do in such a case and in such a case?" Do just that.
Another good motto is, "What would Jesus think of me if He were to
come?" There are some places into which a Christian could not go, for
he would not like his Master to find him there. There are some kinds of
amusements into which a Believer would never enter, for he would be
ashamed for his Master to come and find him there. There are some
conditions of angry temper, of pride, petulance, or spiritual sloth in
which you would not like to be if you felt that the Master was coming.
Suppose an angel's wing should brush your cheek just as you have spoken
some unkind word and a voice should say, "Your Master is coming"–you
would tremble, I am sure, to meet Him in such a condition! Oh, Beloved,
let us try, every morning, to get up as if that were the morning in
which Christ would come! And when we go up to bed at night, may we lie
down with this thought, "Perhaps I shall be awakened by the ringing out
of the silver trumpets heralding His Coming. Before the sun arises, I
may be startled from my dreams by the greatest of all cries, 'The Lord
is come! The Lord is come!'" What a check, what an incentive, what a
bridle, what a spur such thoughts as these would be to us! Take this
for the guide of your whole life–act as if Jesus would come during the
act in which you are engaged–and if you would not wish to be caught in
that act by the Coming of the Lord, let it not be your act.

The second verse of our text speaks about the master coming in the
second watch, or in the third watch. We are to act as those who keep
the watches of the age for Christ. Among the Romans it was as it is on
board ship–there were certain watches. A Roman soldier, perhaps, stood
on guard for three hours, and when he had been on the watch for three
hours, there came another sentry who took his place, and the first man
retired and went back to the barracks. And the fresh sentinel stood in
his place during his allotted time. Brothers and Sisters, we have
succeeded a long line of watchmen! Since the days of our Lord, when He
sent out the chosen 12 to stand upon the citadel and tell how the night
waxed or waned, how have the watchers come and gone! Our God has
changed the watchers, but He has kept the watch. He still sets watchmen
on the walls of Zion who cannot hold their peace day or night, but must
watch for the Coming of their Master, watch against evil times, watch
against error and watch for the souls of men.

At this time some of us are called to be specially on the watch and
dare we sleep? After such a line of lynx-eyed watchmen, who counted not
their lives dear unto them that they might hold their post, and watch
against the foe, shall we be cowards and be afraid, or shall we be
sluggards and go to our beds? By Him that lives, and was dead, and is
alive forevermore, we pray that we may never be guilty of treason to
His sacred name and Truth! But may we watch on to the

last moment when there shall ring out the clarion cry, "Behold, the
Bridegroom comes! Go you out to meet Him." People of the Tabernacle,
you are set to watch, tonight, just as they did in the brave days of
old! Whitefield and Wesley's men were watchers and those before them,
in the days of Luther and of Calvin, and backward even to the days of
our Lord! They kept the watches of the night and you must do the same,
until–

"Upstarting at the midnight cry,

'Behold your heavenly Bridegroom near,'" you go forth to welcome your
returning Lord.

We are to wait with one objective in view, viz., to open the door to
Him and to welcome Him–"that when He comes and knocks, they may open
unto Him immediately." Perhaps you know what it is to go home to a
loving, tender wife and children who are watching for you. You have
been on a journey. You have been absent for some little time. You have
written them letters which they have greatly valued. You have heard
from them, but all that is nothing like your personal presence! They
are looking out for you and if, perhaps, the boat should fail you, or
the train is late–if you arrived at eleven or twelve o'clock at night,
you would not expect to find the house all shut up and nobody watching
for you! No, you had told them that you would come and you were quite
sure that they would watch for you. I feel rebuked, myself, sometimes,
for not watching for my Master when I know that, at this very time, my
dogs are sitting against the door, waiting for me–and long before I
reach home, there they will be and, at the first sound of the carriage
wheels, they will lift up their voices with delight because their
master is coming home! Oh, if we loved our Lord as dogs love their
masters, how we should catch the first sound of His Coming–and be
waiting, always waiting–and never happy until at last we should see
Him!

Pardon me for using a dog as a picture of what you ought to be, but
when you have attained to a state above that, I will find another
illustration to explain my meaning.

III. Now, lastly, THERE IS A REWARD FOR WATCHERS. Their reward is this,
"Blessed are those servants,

whom the master, when he comes, shall find watching."

They have a present blessedness. It is a very blessed thing to be on
the watch for Christ, it is a blessing to us now. How it detaches you
from the world! You can be poor without murmuring. You can be rich
without worldliness. You can be sick without sorrowing. You can be
healthy without presumption. If you are always waiting for Christ's
Coming, untold blessings are wrapped up in that glorious hope. "Every
man that has this hope in him purifies himself even as He is pure."
Blessednesses are heaped up one upon another in that state of heart in
which a man is always looking for his Lord.

But what will be the blessedness when Jesus does come? Well, a part of
that blessedness will be in future service. You must not think that
when you have done working here, you Sunday school teachers, and those
of us who preach and teach, that the Master will say, "I have
discharged you from My service. Go and sit on a heavenly mountain and
sing yourselves away forever and ever." Not a bit of it! I am but
learning how to preach, now–I shall be able to preach, by-and-by. You
are only learning to teach now–you will be able to teach, by-and-by.
Yes, to angels and principalities, and powers, you shall make known the
manifold wisdom of God! I sometimes aspire to the thought of a
congregation of angels and archangels, who shall sit and wonder as I
tell what God has done for me–and I shall be to them an everlasting
monument of the Grace of God to an unworthy wretch, upon whom He looked
with infinite compassion and saved with a wonderful salvation!

All those stars, those worlds of light–who knows how many of them are
inhabited? I believe there are regions beyond our imagination to which
every child of God shall become an everlasting illumination, a living
example of the love of God in Christ Jesus! The people in those far
distant lands could not see Calvary as this world has seen it, but they
shall hear of it from the redeemed! Remember how the Lord will say,
"Well done, you good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over
a few things, I will make you ruler over many things"? He is to keep on
doing something, you see. Instead of having some little bit of a
village to govern, he is to be made ruler over some great province. So
it is in this passage. Read the 44th verse–"Of a truth I say unto you,
that he will make him ruler over all that he has." That is, the man who
has been a faithful and wise steward of God, here, will be called of
God to more eminent service hereafter. If he serves his Master well,
when his Master comes, He will promote him to still higher service!

Do you not know how it used to be in the Spartan army? Here is a man
who has fought well and been a splendid soldier. He is covered with
wounds on his breast. The next time that there is a war, they say,
"Poor fellow, we will reward him! He shall lead the way in the first
battle! He fought so well before, when he met 100 with a little troop
behind him– now he shall meet ten thousand with a larger troop!" "Oh!"
you say, "that is giving him more work." That is God's way of rewarding
His people and a blessed thing it is for the industrious servant! His
rest is in serving God with all his might. This shall be our Heaven,
not to go there to roost, but to be always on the wing, forever flying
and forever resting at the same time. "They do His commandments,
hearkening unto the voice of His word." "His servants shall serve Him:
and they shall see His face." These two things, blended together, make
a noble ambition for every Christian!

May the Lord keep you waiting, working, watching, that when He comes,
you may have the blessedness of entering upon some larger, higher,
nobler service than you could accomplish, now, for which you are
preparing by the lowlier and more arduous service of this world! God
bless you, Beloved, and if any of you do not know my Lord and,
therefore, do not look for His appearing, remember that He will come
whether you look for Him or not. And when He comes, you will have to
stand at His bar. One of the events that will follow His Coming will be
your being summoned before His Judgment Seat–how will you answer Him,
then? How will you answer Him if you have refused His love and turned a
deaf ear to the invitations of His mercy? If you have delayed, and
delayed, and delayed, and delayed, how will you answer Him? How will
you answer Him in that day? If you stand speechless, your silence will
condemn you and the King will say, "Bind him hand and foot, and take
him away."

God grant that we may believe in the Lord Jesus unto life eternal and
then wait for His appearing from Heaven, for His love's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. LUKE 12:12-48.

Verses 13, 14. And one of the company said unto Him, Master, speak to
my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And He said unto
him, Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you? Our Lord kept to
His proper business, which was the preaching of the Gospel and the
healing of the sick. We find, in these days, that the minister of the
Gospel is asked to do almost everything. He must be a politician. He
must be a social reformer. He must be, I know not what! For my part, I
often feel as if I could answer, "Who made me to do anything of the
kind? If I can preach the Gospel, I shall have done well if I do that
to the glory of God and to the salvation of men. Surely there are
enough people to be judges and dividers, there are quite sufficient
politicians to attend to politics and plenty of men who feel themselves
qualified to direct social reforms. Some of us may be spared to attend
to spiritual affairs."

15. And He said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a
man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he
possesses. Jesus gave His hearers a good moral and spiritual lesson
from the occurrence which they had witnessed, and then passed on to
speak of the matter which always occupied His thoughts.

16, 17. And He spoke a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a
certain rich man brought forth, plentifully: and he thought within
himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to
bestow my fruits? He did not enquire, "Where can I find a needy case in
which I may use my superfluity for charity?" Oh, no! "How can I hoard
it? How can I keep it all to myself?" This was a selfish, worldly man.

18-20. And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns and build
greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will
say to my soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years; take
your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, You fool.
Other men said of him, "This is a wise man. He minds the main chance.
He is a fellow plentifully endowed with good sense and prudence." But
God said unto Him, "You fool."

20. This night your soul shall be required of you. I should like you to
set that up as the counter picture to the one that we had this morning,
"Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." [Sermon #2078, Volume 35–The
Believing Thief.] That was said by Christ to the penitent thief, but to
this impenitent rich man, God said, "This night your soul shall be
required of you."

20, 21. Then whose shall those things be, which you have provided? So
is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
"He that lays up treasure for himself." That was the chief point of
this man's wrong-doing–his selfishness. His charity began at home and
ended there. He lived only for himself.

22, 23. And He said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take
no thought for your life, what you shall eat; neither for the body,
what you shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more
than raiment. Have no anxious, carking care. Do not be looking after
the inferior things and neglecting your soul. Take care of your
soul–your body will take care of itself better than your soul can. The
raiment for the body will come in due time, but the clothing for the
soul is the all-important matter. Therefore, see to that.

24-27. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which
neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them: how much more are
you better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add
to his stature one cubit? If you, then, are not able to do that thing
which is least, why take you thought for the rest? Consider the lilies
how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you,
that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. The
lilies simply stand still in the sunlight and silently say to us, "See
how beautiful are the thoughts of God?" If we could just drink in God's
love and then, almost without speech, show it in our lives, how we
should glorify His name!

28. If then God so clothes the grass, which is today in the field, and
tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will He clothe you, O you
of little faith! But you have some faith, otherwise the Savior would
not have said to you, "O you of little faith!" The man who has no faith
may well go on fretting, toiling, spinning, but he that has faith, as
he goes forth to his daily labor, looks beyond that to the God of
Providence, and thus God keeps him without care, and provides for him.

29, 30. And seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink,
neither be you of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of
the world seek after: and your Father knows that you have need of these
things. He knows that you must go and work for these thing, but He
would not have you fret and fume about them. "Your Father knows." He
will provide. It is enough for Him to know His children's needs, and He
will be sure to provide for them.

31. But rather seek you the Kingdom of God; and all these things shall
be added unto you. Thrown in as a kind of make-weight. You get the
spiritual and then the common blessings of life shall be added unto
you.

32. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to
give you the Kingdom. That is your share. Others may have inferior
joys, but you are to have the Kingdom of God! The Lord could not give
you more than that and He will not give you less.

33. Sell that you have, and give alms. Do not merely give away what you
can spare, but even pinch yourself, sometimes, and sell what you can
that you may have the more to give.

33. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the
heavens that fails not, where no thief approaches, neither moth
corrupts. Put some of your estate where it cannot be lost. Take care
that you invest some of it for God's poor, and God's work, where the
interest will be sure and the investment will be safe.

34. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. You can
be sure of that. Your heart will go after your treasure and, if none of
your treasure has gone to Heaven, none of your heart will go there,
either.

35. 36. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and
you yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will
return from the wedding; that when he comes and knocks, they may open
unto him immediately. Our Lord constantly reminded His disciples that
the time would come when He must leave them for a season, but He always
kept before them the thought of His return and bade them watch for Him
as those that wait for their lord.

37-39. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, shall
find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and
make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And
if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and
find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the
good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he
would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken
through. As he does not know when the thief will come, he is always
watching.

40, 41. Be you therefore ready also: for the Son of Man comes at an
hour when you think not. Then Peter said unto Him, Lord, speak You this
parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord told him that, while it
was spoken to all, it had a very special bearing upon Apostolic men,
upon preachers of the Gospel, ministers of Christ.

42-44. And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward,
whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their
portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord
when he comes shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he
will make him ruler over all that he has. Just as Pharaoh made Joseph
ruler over all Egypt, so, when men have done well in the ministry of
Christ, He will promote them, and they shall do still more for

Him.

45. 46. But and if that servant says in his heart, My lord delays his
coming, and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat
and drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant will come in a
day when he looks not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and
will cut him in sunder. This is a truly terrible expression! We are
sometimes charged with using too strong expressions with regard to the
wrath to come. It is quite impossible that we should do so, even if we
tried, for the expressions of the Lord Jesus are more profoundly
terrible than any which even mediaeval writers have ever been known to
invent!

46. And will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. The worst
portion that any man can get is with the unbelievers! Are there not
some here who may, in this verse, see what a dark doom theirs will be
if they are among those who are described as being cut in sunder, and
having their portion with the unbelievers?

47. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not
himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many
stripes. So that there are different measures of responsibility–there
are degrees in guilt, and degrees in punishment.

48. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes,
shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomever much is given, of
him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him
they will ask the more. O my Brothers and Sisters, let those of us who
are privileged with the possession of the Gospel, and privileged with
any amount of ability to spread it, enquire whether we could give in a
good account if the Lord were to come tonight and summon us, as
stewards, to give an account of our stewardship. God bless to us all
the reading of His Word! Amen.