Study Lesson 16
Words Of Warning To Wise Servants
Scripture To Consider:
“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.”
“But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him [unfaithful servant] in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 24.45-51
A Few Words Of Warning:
Will We Heed Jesus’ Wise Servant Warnings
In our Scripture to consider, Jesus closes out Matthew 24 with a word of warning to His servants in every generation, and yet in this end time warning Jesus is the Master, and Christians are the servants. With that said, I am a firm believer that if a verse, a quote, a question, an answer, or a teaching was included into the canon of Scripture, it is there for a reason and for the benefit of all who read and understand.
Therefore, what remains in this Olivet Discourse Scripture to consider by Jesus in Matthew 24 and Matthew 25, is indeed for our benefit. Therefore, what is spoken by Jesus and recorded by Matthew and others must be considered and never overlooked, neglected, and God forbid, ever altered.
Jesus, speaking in Mark 13.37, regarding His second coming, very candidly said, “And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” If we as followers of Jesus can receive it, this is indeed a word of warning to wise servants. Therefore, the written Word of God should always be considered a word to all wise servants of Christ, who are born again by God’s Holy Spirit, and who desire to remain faithful end time representatives of and for Jesus Christ. We are therefore to follow Christ’s example and His conditional commandments like our eternal life depended upon it, for according to Jesus and the New Testament writers, it does.
Jesus declared, “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master has made ruler over his household, to give them food [spiritually, the Word of God], in due season?” But what defines a faithful wise servant? In Revelation 3.8, Jesus praised the Philadelphia saints [wise servants] for their having kept His Word and therefore did not deny His name. It is the written Word of God that properly prepares and qualifies wise servants. Are we obtaining our daily requirement of God’s Word?
Something To Consider:
Will We Heed Jesus’ Warning To Unfaithful Servants
The warning in our text to unfaithful servants has a most severe consequence, but is usually foolishly modified or disregarded by most recent bible teachers because it does not agree with their highly guarded and regarded theory of “Once Saved Always Saved.” According to Jesus, this warning and other warnings of Jesus seemingly contradicts their recent and false teaching. The only way to avoid that scriptural fact is to claim Jesus did not mean one-time faithful wise servants could be appointed the same judgment as unbelievers due to their unfaithfulness. But would that not be altering the Word of God spoken by Jesus?
Jesus’ disciples knew what Jesus was declaring. Therefore, they asked Jesus in Luke 12.41 concerning this very warning, if what Jesus was teaching was for their ears only or for others. Jesus had not changed the subject. He was still speaking words of wisdom and warning to faithful and unfaithful servants in every generation, and especially of us if we indeed are the end time generation.
But what will be our response to those who overlook or disregard Jesus’ teaching of eternal punishment to those one-time wise servants who did not endure, who refuse to keep His conditional commandments? This Scripture cannot be argued away or overlooked as if what Jesus warned of will never happen. Truth is truth!
Something Else To Consider:
What Produces Unfaithfulness
But what is it that produces unfaithfulness in the life and heart of a one-time wise and faithful servant? According to Jesus, “But if that evil [one time faithful] servant says in his heart, ‘My master [Jesus] is delaying his coming’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards [be found practicing iniquity], the master [Jesus] of that servant will come on a day when he [unfaithful servant] is not looking for him [Christ] and at an hour that he [departed from the faith unfaithful servant] is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion [punishment] with the hypocrites [pretending but unfaithful]. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth [great eternal torment].”
Let us always keep in mind what Paul proclaimed in Romans 10.17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” At or near this point of unfaithfulness in a person’s life, they are probably no longer listening to the true Word of God, and are now listening to their own deceitful human heart or false messages conceived in the hearts of the many false prophets and end time false teachers. And according to the faithful wise prophet servant’s words in Jeremiah 17.9, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”
Without our continuing in the Word of God our heart begins to rationalize our sinful human nature. To think the Lord is delaying His coming is wholly a human response to the actual long-suffering of God. God’s revealed written will is that none perish, but that all come to repentance and to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But because of man’s God given free will and man’s inclination toward rebellion against God, God’s Son Jesus, and God’s Word, many have perished in every generation and many more will continue to perish unnecessarily.
But as true end time enduring and present tense believing wise and faithful servants, called and spiritually ordained by God in and through Jesus Christ, we should never make the mistake of thinking the delay of Christ’s return is anything other than the intense expression of divine mercy of a loving God granting more time for the unmerited inclusion of more future faithful but presently sin stained individuals to see the error of their ways.
Something More To Consider:
Will We Be Found Weeping And Gnashing Our Teeth
Jesus emphatically declared of those one-time believers, who will choose to see His delay in coming as an opportunity to do evil, that His action would be precise and final. We can never forget the words of Jesus, “…the master [Jesus] of that servant will come on a day when he [or she] is not looking for him [Jesus] and at an hour he [or she] is not aware of…”
Neither shall we ever forget the swift and severe but just consequences that await the unfaithful one-time believing servants of Christ, for according to Jesus, “…and will cut him [unfaithful one-time believing servant] in two and appoint him his portion [eternal punishment] with the hypocrites [pretending actors on an earthly religious crumbling stage]. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth [forever and ever eternally].”
Therefore, let us not be deceived! Our falling away from listening to and obeying God’s Word has crucial eternal consequences, even if the last several generations of religious leaders have attempted to alter the warnings of Jesus. If there were not eternal consequences to avoid, Jesus would not have warned us of them. If we revert to the world’s way of showing cruelty to others, or fall prey to any of the many subtle temptations to practice sin, any sin, we will be appointed the same punishment and judgment as unbelievers, according to Jesus.
The only difference being as one-time wise servants who knew the will of God, according to Jesus, we will experience a greater degree of full punishment which will induce much weeping and much extremely painful gnashing of teeth. That is according to Jesus and not the author of this in-depth study of end time events, or any other individual who may attempt to wrongly alter the Word of God.
A Few Final Words:
What Therefore Are Our End Time Marching Orders
Jesus warned elsewhere in Luke 12.4, “For everyone to whom much is given, from him [or her] much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him [or her] they will ask the more.” Let us be faithfully found always looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our enduring faith. Let us be found faithfully waiting and watching for Christ’s soon and certain return. And let us fully understand that Jesus, when He returns, will reward every faithfully ready and wise servant.
But until then, much is required of those to whom much has been committed. Until then, may we each diligently seek the Lord fervently for His spiritual marching orders for our remaining present duty here upon planet earth, as we faithfully heed the many words of warning within Matthew 24, and what remaining warnings still lie ahead in Matthew chapter 25.
There is much too much at stake to be carried away by every wind of false doctrine. There is much too much at stake to be found not looking unto Jesus and therefore, to be appointed our portion with the hypocrites. Therefore, if we are found unfaithful, according to Jesus, “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Prayer: Our Father in heaven, impress upon us our need to heed Jesus’ wise servant warnings, while helping us to never become unfaithful and unwise servants. Help us to fulfil our own end time marching orders according to Your will for our lives. In Him Always, Amen!
According to Jesus 