The slothful servants who are not so faithful in the Lord’s commission have an excuse that the Lord is not coming back immediately, that He is delaying His coming (24:48). As a result, they begin to mistreat fellow believers and partake of the worldly things. Their excuse is that if the Lord would return right now, everything would be solved; they would not have the time to love the world. However, the Lord’s word in Matthew 24 tells us He would not take this kind of excuse. At His coming back He will cut off or cut asunder His unfaithful slaves (v. 51). To cut asunder does not mean to cut into pieces. When we were saved we became attached to Christ, the anointed One (2 Cor. 1:21). Even if we are in a backslidden condition, the Lord will not cut us off. But if we remain unfaithful and slothful, at His coming back He will cut us off from this attachment. He will carry out a cutting asunder between us and Him. We will be cut off from His glorious presence into a place which will be the portion of the hypocrites. The portion of the unbelievers is eternal perdition, while the portion of the slothful slaves is a temporary, dispensational punishment.
The slothful slave who was not faithful with the Lord’s talent also had an excuse. He said, “Lord, I knew you, that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter; and I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the earth; behold, you have what is yours” (Matt. 25:24-25). The Lord admitted that He is strict in what He demands of His slaves for His work and indicated that since the slothful slave knew this, he should have done something. The Lord admitted that in a sense He does not sow, yet He claims the reaping. He does not scatter, yet He claims of you the gathering. We may make many excuses that it is really hard to reap anything or to gather anything. We may present these excuses to the Lord at the judgment seat, putting the blame entirely upon Him. We may tell Him, “Why did You delay Your coming back? Why are You so hard, reaping where You did not sow and gathering where You did not scatter?” The Lord will not listen to our excuses, but instead will cut us off from His presence and take away the gift He has given to us. This is not my teaching, but this is what the Lord tells us in Matthew 24 and 25.
I hope that this fellowship can be used by the Lord to open our eyes to see that the way we have been taking is not the right way. Instead of making so many telephone calls, use the time to go to contact your next door neighbor and give him a rainbow booklet we have published. If you visited one of your neighbors once every two weeks, continuously, regularly, properly, and with a sincere burden and some prayer, do you not believe this person could be caught by the Lord? We cannot take anything as an excuse. We cannot say that many have been poisoned against us or that our particular area is a place full of Christians. We must ask ourselves how much time we have spent in visiting others with gospel tracts, with the Bible, and with some of the rainbow booklets. If you try this week after week and even day after day, you will see the result. The Bible tells us that the husbandmen or farmers should labor with patience, expecting to see the gathering (1 Cor. 9:10; 2 Tim. 2:6). You cannot say it is hard to reap a harvest before you have even sown something. That is not fair. You have to do the sowing, the cultivating, and the watering to help the crop grow. After a certain time according to the natural law, something will grow up. We all must ask ourselves whether or not we have done our duty. We have to realize that some day we will stand before the judgment seat.
The Lord’s word tells us that He will come back and He even warns us to get ready to meet Him. He will come back to settle accounts with us (Matt. 25:19). We will have to tell Him what we have been doing and what we have been gaining for Him. This is why I say that Matthew is a heavy book. If you do not feel that Matthew 24 and 25 are heavy, it may be that you are deeply stupefied. A sensitive person will have the deep sensation of how heavy these chapters really are.
George Whitefield, who was more powerful than John Wesley, was once preaching the gospel, telling people about the lake of fire. One of the listeners stood up and ran to embrace a big column in the hall and cried out that he was afraid of falling into the lake of fire. He preached the lake of fire in such a prevailing way that one of his listeners was warned to the uttermost. George Whitefield did not merely talk about the lake of fire, but he showed that the unbelievers would go there. In this chapter we are talking about the Lord’s judgment seat and His settling accounts with you and with me. This is more than serious. I hope that we would all wake up. The Lord is coming and He will settle accounts with us.
According to the complete revelation of the Bible, the dead sinners have not yet been fully dealt with. Luke 16 tells us that they are still in Hades in a section of torment where all the perished sinners are (vv. 23a, 26, 28 and note 261—Recovery Version). Eventually all the sinners will come out of that section of torment to stand before the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-12). On the white throne, the Lord will be the judge of the dead (2 Tim. 4:1) to make a final decision for all of the sinners to go to the lake of fire. Do not think that any dead sinner’s problems are over. In like manner, do not consider that once a believer dies his problems are over. We will stand at His judgment seat to receive something from Him according to what we have been and what we have been doing since we were saved (2 Cor. 5:10). The Lord will settle accounts with all of us.