Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Hello, welcome to Grace in Focus. We are glad you are with us today. In the parable of the talents, why are the servants given differing amounts of talents? What is a talent and what are the lessons of this parable? Stay tuned, let’s talk about it. This is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. You can learn more about us at our website, faithalone.org. There’s lots of information there. We also have hundreds of articles that we’ve written for your research and reading. And a bookstore where you can find Bob Wilkins’ latest book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege. That’s faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s discussion, here’s Bob Wilkins, along with Ken Yates. 

KEN: We’re continuing a number of podcasts on what are often called tough texts. We’ve got a book that GES puts out by Bob and Zane Hodges on tough texts. And then also in our seminary, we have a class that covers tough texts. 

BOB: That you teach. 

KEN: Yeah, I teach that one. And I think it’s a great discussion with the students. So if you’re interested in the seminary, that might be a class you’d want to take. And obviously, there’s all kinds of classes that GES offers through our online seminary. So if you’re interested in some kind of theological education, we would really encourage you to look at that option. Anyway, we’re talking about another quote-unquote tough text here, the parable of the talents. And it’s found in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, as he’s talking about his return. 

BOB: Yeah, Matthew 25, verses 14 through 30. And this is dealing with church age believers as we anticipate the soon return of Christ. And so what we’re going to see is that three servants are followed in the story, much like, in fact, exactly like what you see in Luke 19:11-27, the parable of the minas. And by the way, what this illustrates is the Lord taught on many occasions, and sometimes He would slightly tweak the parable that he was teaching. 

So for example, in the parable of the minas in Luke 19, a mina was a sum of money worth about three or four months’ wages, whereas a talent was bigger like more like a year’s wages, a much bigger sum. It is a weight of gold or silver. 

KEN: There you go. It’s a weight of money. 

BOB: So with the parable of the minas, you’ve got the three servants. Here you’ve got three servants. But in the minas, they’re each given one mina. In the talents, they’re given different amount of talents. One is given five, one is given two, and one is given one. 

KEN: So would you say, as is generally understood, that this, the talents there would be something like, we’re all given different abilities, or different, or even different talents?

BOB: Well, I like to say, time talent treasure. So we have different lifespans. We have different abilities, spiritual gifts, as well as natural gifts. And then treasure, we have different amount of money and things to invest for the Lord. 

Whereas in the parable of the minas, all ten are given one. So what it’s saying is, one way of looking at it, in the parable of the minas is, if you’re being judged next to someone else who has the same amount of time, talent and treasure, then you should be expected to come up with whatever the maximum amount of result is, which in the case of the minas was ten. In the case of the talents, it’s also ten for the five guy. But for the two guy, the maximum is four. And for the one guy, the maximum is two. 

KEN: Would you say it is inappropriate then to say for the minas that everyone has one opportunity to serve the Lord, one life, for example? 

BOB: Well, I think that’d be inappropriate. It is true. We all have one life, but that’s not what the minas is talking about. 

KEN: You’re saying if you’re given the, if you’re roughly in the same ballpark, if you’ve got the same opportunities, the same talents, you’d be expected to do the same thing.

BOB: Right. I think it’s Luke 12:50, “To whom much is given of him, much will be required.” 

So let’s say, hypothetically, that you and I have been given the same amount of time, talent and treasure. Right. I mean, we both went to Dallas Seminary, we both sat under Zane Hodges. We both had lots of good education. Let’s say we lived the same length of time. We were believers the same length of time. Let’s say we have the same amount of money to invest. Then at the Judgment Seat of Christ, okay, we could be evaluated and said, okay, if our possibility is ten, then did we reach that ten? 

But on the other hand, in the parable of the talents, let’s say that you are the five talent guy and I’m the two talent guy. Well, if you look at this parable, the guy who has—goes from two to four, hears exactly the same praise as the guy who goes from five to ten. They both doubled. 

KEN: And I think to me, the talent one is much easier for us to understand because we look and we can see that. You know, we can look around and say, okay, there’s some people who just have more abilities, more money. They’ve got more opportunities to serve the Lord. There’s a believer who grew up in a Christian home and there’s someone who didn’t become a believer until he was, you know, 25, you know, never heard it before that. And so we would say, well, the Lord expects, requires different things from these people. 

ANNOUNCER: We will return to today’s content in just a moment, but first we want to let you know about our regional conferences we have throughout the year. Get more information at faithalone.org/events. Don’t miss the Grace Evangelical Society’s regional conference, October 5th and 6th, in Trego, Wisconsin at the Trego Community Church. The topic is eternal rewards in the Gospel. Find more details at faithalone.org/events. That’s October 5th and 6th, Trego Community Church in Trego, Wisconsin. If you’re close by, we hope to see you there. 

BOB: Like I didn’t grow up in an Ozzie and Harriet household, I grew up in an Ozzie Osborne household and I came to faith not at five, but at 20. And so I kind of, in my estimation started with a bit of a handicap, but I also started out with a certain advantage because I wouldn’t have come to faith unless I believed in the promise of everlasting life. That’s how I came to faith. 

A lot of people say, oh no, I came to faith by believing that I start by faith and then I keep it by works and later on I learned it was by faith alone. And those people have a hard time recognizing they weren’t born again until they believed it was by faith alone. And so they’re unwilling to change their testimony, but for me, I grasped that it was by faith alone and before that I’d been thinking it was by faith plus works. And so I realized I wasn’t born again until I believed it was by faith alone. So in some ways I started out with a handicap because of the way I grew up, but in some ways I started out with a big advantage. 

KEN: And I would also add on that, Bob. It’s the idea of just how great the Lord is, because He’s got to judge all this. He’s got to figure all this stuff. 

BOB: And He will. 

KEN: And absolutely He will. And it’ll be a perfect judgment on every one of us at the judgment seat of Christ. 

BOB: So look at Matthew 25:21. “His Lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, you are faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many. Enter into the joy of your Lord.’ ” Now the second guy with two talents comes and he goes to four. He doesn’t go to ten. He goes to four. So you might think the Lord’s going to rebuke him because he didn’t come up with as much as the first guy, but what does verse 23 say? KEN: The exact same thing.

BOB: Right. “Well done, good and faithful servant. You are faithful over a few things. I’ll make you enter into the joy of your Lord.” Now if you compare this to the parable of the minas, the first guy goes from one to ten. And he says, well done, good servant. And because you have been faithful and little, have authority over ten cities. The second guy goes from one to five. And he doesn’t hear well done good servant. All he hears is, you also be over five cities. So the first guy goes from one to ten. He gets ten cities. The other guy goes from one to five. He gets five cities. The first guy is praised. The second guy is not praised. 

KEN: Yeah. And again, what we just said what the difference is, in the minas, they start off the same. Whereas the talents, they start off with different opportunities. 

BOB: So if I am looking at someone, let’s say that as the pastor of a huge church or is the head of a huge ministry, I don’t compare with that person and go, wow, I’m a dog. I can’t possibly please the Lord as much as those people. But I also don’t look at somebody who has a much smaller ministry than I have and say, wow, I’m a lion because I’m doing so much better than this person that has a teeny ministry. 

KEN: Right. He’s such a loser. 

BOB: Right. Besides the Scriptures say many who are last will be first and many who are first will be last. So I know that the size of one’s ministry does not indicate whether you have ten minas or ten talents. 

KEN: And it’s not just a size of ministry. It’s your mental abilities. There’s so many issues that come into play here. 

BOB: But it’s not just abilities. It’s looking at your outcome, what you achieve. And so the question is, how much treasure have we laid up? The Lord knows we don’t. That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, “I don’t judge myself before the day.” And we can’t really determine—now we can know, in my estimation based on Scripture, that if Christ will return today we’ll be one who is going to be an overcomer who’s going to rule and reign with him. But we can’t know is that going to be one city, five cities, ten cities, how much treasure we laid up. We can’t know those things. What we can know is that we’re walking in fellowship with Him. 

And by the way, we haven’t hit the problem part of this. The problem part is it ends—how does he, what did he say to him? 

KEN: Well, it ends with the unfaithful servant being cast into the outer darkness. And there there’s going to be weeping and gnashing. 

BOB: So the third servant goes from one to one, just like in the parable of the minas. And this person is rebuked. And this person has—

KEN: Because he should have gone to two.

BOB: He should have doubled, right? And he didn’t. But he still gets into the kingdom. And the people, as you said in a previous broadcast, the fact that it says “weeping and gnashing of teeth” just means he’s grieved at the Judgment Seat of Christ. 

KEN: Believers can weep. 

BOB: Right. But it’s going to be taken away. The grief is going to be taken away almost instantly because we’re going to have glorified bodies. And we can get over grief now, right? It may take time, but we’re going to get over grief. But with a glorified body, we’re going to get over grief almost instantly. But the lasting consequence is, this person is not going to rule and reign. 

KEN: Right. He lost the opportunity to serve the Lord and His kingdom in a more, what will we say, profound way, for example. 

BOB: The clear thing is when you compare the third servant here with the third servant in the minas, it’s clear the third servant in Luke 19 verses 20 through 26 gets into the kingdom, in contrast to the people who are slain and experience the second death. Yeah, in Luke 19:27. So this person gets into the kingdom, but he doesn’t get to rule in rain because he wasn’t faithful with what God gave him. 

And the key to each one of us is be faithful with what God’s given you. You’re unique. You don’t have the same gifts and abilities as your spouse, as your children, as your parents, as your neighbors, as other people in church. Just be the best you you can be.

KEN: It’s required of a steward that he be faithful. And until next time, remember, keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: We invite you to check out our Monday, Wednesday and Friday, five minute YouTube videos at YouTube, Grace Evangelical Society. You will love the content and learn a lot. Maybe you’ve got a question or comment or feedback. If so, please send us a message. Here’s our email address. It’s radio@faithalone.org. That’s radio@faithalone.org. Please make sure your question is as succinct and clear as possible. That would be a great big help. 

On our next episode: the parable of the sheep and the goats. Please join us and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.