In this sermon, the speaker discusses the parable of the talents from Matthew 25. The master in the parable gives talents to his servants according to their abilities. The speaker emphasizes that the servants should not grumble about the number of talents they receive, but rather focus on using them effectively. The sermon also highlights the importance of responsibility, resources, return, and reward in relation to the talents given by God. The speaker encourages the audience to use their gifts and resources for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Thank you for coming. Pray the Lord will bless the word to your heart. And I'll just be tonight and tomorrow to get my books. So you ladies better get busy and ask your husband for your birthday money ahead of time, so you can buy them. Just a word about this one, the gladness of his return. Let me just give you the chapter headings. There are two chapters on advent anticipations, that means how many glimpses of the second coming of Christ do we have in the Old Testament. And then what do the Gospels say about the return of Christ? Eyewitnesses of his majesty, the return of the Good Samaritan, the free appearing, the Mount of Olives and the Upper Room. Paul's personal expectation. Did he expect Jesus to come in his own lifetime, or did he expect to be dead? When you read 1 Thessalonians 4, he says we are alive when he comes, suggesting that he expected to be alive. Five years later he said us who are dead, us who have been raised. Five years later, had he given up the hope that he might be alive? These and other things are sticking up here. Then the day of Christ and the day of the Lord. If 1 Thessalonians 5 is the same event as 1 Thessalonians 4, nothing can save the church from going through the tribulation. We want to look at that question as to whether chapter 5 is the same as chapter 4, or if they are in contrast. And then what the revelation has to say, the trinity of evil in the last days, the woman and the man child, the bridegroom and the coming king. That's the gladness of his return. Now let's take that text again please, from which we move every night, Psalms number 78. For those of you who haven't been here in the evening before, let me say that we are taking verse 9 of Psalms number 78, and using it as a base from which to preach every night. The children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle. Now don't look at your Bible, but look at me and see if you can repeat that. Some of you have heard it now for four nights. Are you ready? None of these last minute glances. The children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had turned back and were not well-armed, but they were well-armed and yet turned back. And we have been inquiring ever since Monday night how well we are armed for our conflict with the world, the flesh, and the dead. We saw on Monday night that we are well-armed in having the word of God, which is described as the sword of the spirit. On Tuesday night we saw we are well-equipped with the indwelling spirit of God and his forward movement as seen in the acts of the apostles. We drew to your attention the fact that when our Lord said, upon this rock, Peter's confession of him as the son of the living God, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The Lord Jesus was not viewing his church on the defensive, on the gates of hell, battling at the gates and battling at the church. He was viewing the church on the aggressive, attacking the citadels of satan, and assuring them that the gates of hell would not be able to step against the advancing armies of the living God. And so we discuss the indwelling spirit in his forward movement in us as witnesses for Christ. On Wednesday night we spoke about the man at the right hand of God, our advocate if we sit, and our high priest for our weaknesses and for our salvation day by day. Now tonight we are taking two together as we did last night, and we're going to see that we are further well-equipped with the talents and the pound which he has given us. We have the word of God in our hands, we have the spirit of God in our breasts, we have the son of God appearing for us in the presence of God. We drew attention to the fact our advocate is with the father, and our high priest, our great high priest, is with God. We saw last night that if we lost our salvation every time we failed and fell, God wouldn't be our father. We'd be back where we were before, without Christ needing to be saved over again. But the verse says if any man sinned we have an advocate with the father, for he is still the father. We are maintained before God because of the fact that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins. Doesn't say if any man confessed we have an advocate with the father, but if any man sinned, the advocacy of Christ for us as believers begins when we sin, not when we confess. It is his advocacy that results in our confession, it is not our confession that results in his advocacy. That was last night. Now tonight we are speaking on the things with which we are endowed as we go forward as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Read these please with me in Matthew chapter 25. My wife said I was to be sure to express our thanks for that magnificent meal we had tonight on the part of the Park of the Palms, of which we are guests, and all you who contributed so well. I was telling somebody that I have attended quite a large number of smorgasbords in my day, but I never attended a better one than tonight. Amen. In fact we can have another tomorrow night if you like. Matthew please chapter 25. Verse 14. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. Likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his Lord's money. After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. So he that had received five talents came and brought out of five talents, saying, Lord thou deliverest unto me five talents. Behold I have gained beside them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee a ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord thou deliverest unto me two talents. Behold I have gained two other talents beside them. His Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee a ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, gathering where thou hast not brought. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth. Lo, here thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest I reap where I sowed not, gathered where I have not brought. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers. And then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten gallons. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Cast thee, the unprofitable servant, into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Let's read the second portion now, please, in Luke's Gospel, chapter 19. Luke's Gospel, 19 and verse 11. And as they heard these things, he added, and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought, they supposed, 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. He called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto 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. It came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commended these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, the margin says the silver, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. He said unto him, Well, thou good servant, because there hath been faithful in a very little, hath thou authority over ten cities. The second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said, Likewise unto him, be thou also over five cities. Another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin. I feared thee, because thou art an austere man. Thou takest up that thou layest not down, or reapest that thou didst not sow. And he said unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewst I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore then givest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. They said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds. For I say unto you that unto every one that hath shall be given. From him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. For those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me. May God bless to us his precious work. Now we need to take both of those parables into consideration, I think, at the same time to see the difference between them, and to see how that we also are well endowed with talent and with the power. The first thing we ought to see is when each of those parables was uttered. The first is given to us and evidently uttered at the time when the Lord had just spoken the parable of the ten virgins, whereas the other, the pound, was spoken after the conversion of Zacchaeus. The parable of the ten virgins is to teach us to watch for the coming of the Lord, and that is immediately followed by a parable teaching us to work in the absence of the Lord. The one teaching to watch, and the other teaching to work. The parable of the ten virgins shows us the coming of the Lord, it shows us that coming revealed, it shows us that coming relinquished, it shows us that coming revived, and it shows us the coming realized. Now the church at the beginning had the company, had the coming revealed, and they lived in the expectation that the Lord Jesus might come in their lifetime. But then the coming was relinquished as the Lord appeared to tarry, and for centuries and centuries any literature we have extant about the church's history shows that literature to be void of any anticipation of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in any sense imminent. But then later on, and particularly after the reformation, we have the beginnings of a movement in the church when that coming was revived. And we notice that somewhat in the writings of the Wesleys and so on, but more particularly in the writings of the early brethren, was the subject of the coming of Christ, to the rapture of the church into the air and taken home to the Father's house. That was about 150 or more years ago. So all these things are behind us, ecclesiastically speaking, and all that we have before us is the coming of the Lord. Now, in view then of the soon coming of the Lord, the parable which immediately follows tells us that we ought to use our talents while we wait for the Lord. The epistles to the Thessalonians show that some had gone to the other extreme, and were not working with their hands to provide a living, because they were so sure that the Lord Jesus Christ would come, and it wouldn't be necessary for them to work. That was rebuked by the apostle in his writings. Now, the parable of the pound takes place immediately after the story about Zacchaeus. If you look at the closing verses of chapter 18 of Luke, you'll find the Lord performed a miracle as he went into the city, and he performed another miracle, or performed what you'll read about Zacchaeus when he came out of it. Now, these two cases are in contrast. For instance, Bartimaeus was blind, and sat by the wayside begging. He was blind, and he was poor. Zacchaeus, on the other hand, had his eyes wide open. We read that he sought to see Jesus, who he was, and we read that he was rich. Now, blind Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was coming, and when he drew near, he cried out to him to have mercy on him. He cried out in the realization of his deep need, whereas Zacchaeus didn't cry out to talk. He was hoping he wouldn't be seen, much less heard. It was rather undignified, I take it, for a rich tax gatherer to be perched up on the tree like a monkey, but he was so anxious to see the Lord that we read he ran and climbed up in a sycamore tree because he was short of stature, and he wanted to see Jesus as he passed by. Now, blind Bartimaeus had to get up to get blessed, but Zacchaeus had to get down to be blessed. Blind Bartimaeus, we read, followed Jesus in the way, but Jesus followed Zacchaeus into the house. That was the difference and the contrast between the two. But both of them got blessed, whether they were rich or poor, high or low. Now, immediately after those illustrations of salvation, we have the parable of the pounds to teach us that after we have received a pound of the gospel ourselves, we are to multiply it and bring others to the knowledge of the Lord. Now, notice the pound is designated the silver, and the silver is the silver of redemption in the Old Testament. And now, when you come to the end of 2 Corinthians chapter 5, you will remember, we read that God in Christ has reconciled us to himself. That is when we have received the gospel pound from somebody else. God has reconciled us. Somebody multiplied his pound, and we were led to Christ. But then he goes on to say that we, in turn, are to be ambassadors for Christ. That we are to go forth with this pound in our hands, beseeching others to be reconciled to God. Now, we'll speak first of all, then, of the possession of the talents, and then of the possession of the pound. And then, have we time, I'd like to take you to a picture of what I would call the talents and the pound back there in the Old Testament. The lovely thing about speaking in the evening is you can go on as long as you like. Amen? Very feeble amen. All right. First of all, then, the talents. The first parable is that a man was going on a long journey, and called his servants, and gave them talents. And did you notice what we read? According to their several abilities. The master gave the talents according to his knowledge of their ability to use them. They were not to grumble. The two-talent man was not to grumble because he wasn't a five-talent man, nor the one-talent man to grumble because he wasn't a two or a five. He was only responsible. And I want to speak of four things in these two parables. Responsibility, resource, return, reward. First of all, then, responsibility. Each was only responsible to use that which was given him, and it was given him in the master's knowledge of his ability to use them, each according to his several abilities. Now, did you know that it says in 1 Corinthians 12, when it talks about the distribution of the various gifts in the church, we read that there are diversities of operations but the same spirit, and there are differences of gifts but the same Lord, and there are diversities of operations but the same God. And we read further down that this distribution is made according to the wise knowledge of our Lord. Distributing to every man as he will, so that you have been given special gifts by the Lord. You're not to grumble because you're not as well-endowed as somebody else. If God has given you two, you're not responsible for five. You are to use what God in his wisdom and knowledge of your ability has given you. Now, what is a five-talent man, or what is a five-talent woman? I don't know that I know, which is a terrible confession for a preacher. I don't know that I know, and I don't know that I know anybody else who knows. However, I would make some suggestion. If you know, by the way, you tell me, won't you? I'm always looking for help. But anyway, a five-talent, of course, may be a person with a superlative amount of either money, means to use, a superlative amount of natural gifts, or a superlative amount of opportunity to use them. It might be so. A five-talent woman might be a woman who has considerable wealth at her disposal. Added to that, she might have a very good degree of health to use in the master's service. She keeps well. Thirdly, she might be a person relieved from home responsibilities. In other words, she's got scope for the use of her money and her health. She's got an environment that she can use it in. She's got opportunity and scope. That's four. And she has skill. She's skillful with her hands. She's skillful in organization. It might be something like that. A superlative amount of assets in her possession. Now, of course, a woman like that has tremendous responsibility. You have the responsibility that she has, if you have got what she's got. You know, there are two women mentioned for honorable mention in the 16th chapter of the Acts. It just occurs to me. Their name is Trifina and Trifosa. They might have been twin women. But you look up the meanings of their names, and meanings are so often suggestive in the scriptures of the women themselves, or the men as the case may be, they were not strong women physically, and yet they labored for their Lord and for the apostle in the gospel. Hmm. And God takes knowledge of the state of your health, and the meagerness of your resources, and if you can go and do exploits for him, it's taxed up high in the reckoning of God. A five-talent woman might be a woman with all those things I have mentioned. A five-talent man might be a man with a passing possession of all five of the gifts which are mentioned in Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four mentions five gifts. Some versions make them four. So, we read of when Christ ascended up on high, he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors, and some teachers. Five in number. Well you say, but nobody could possess the five today because the apostles have passed away, and the prophets have passed away with the completion of the canon of scripture. There's a sense in which that is true, so that we might just have three remaining. However, an apostle is a saint person, and people have been called apostles all down the centuries by the church. They call David Brainerd the apostle to the Indians. We used to love to call Mr. H. P. Barker the apostle to the West Indies. It's anyone who partakes of that saint character into a region where Christ may not be known. A prophet, we may still have them with us, for we have considerable teaching for prophets in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 in the assembled church. Men who are declaring the truth of God for the behavior of the church, as well as announcing the future in the light of the prophetic scriptures. Evangelists are with us. A man may partake of that also, and be a pastor with a real shepherd heart, and a teacher of the word of God. And I don't have to tell you people tonight, I'm sure, that an evangelist is a person gifted to go out with the pound of the gospel, irrespective of his job during the day. A man doesn't have to relinquish his secular job to be an evangelist, to be sure. One of the finest evangelists we had in Scotland in my younger days was a coal miner, a man who came up with a black face every afternoon, and quickly changed, and grabbed his supper, and was off night after night after night in special gospel campaigns. One of the finest teachers I knew in Glasgow was a barber, and when that man got up to minister to the word, everybody sat at his feet and heard him. My brother, if I might be allowed to say, he expected to be here, I'm sorry he isn't. My brother worked for 37 years, I think, for Henry Ford in Detroit, but my brother was a pastor, a real pastor. About a year before he retired from his job in Ford's, one evening on the afternoon shift, the men were still standing around when they should be back at work. So my brother says, what's the matter boys, aren't you going back to work? Yes, we're going back Jim, but we've got something to give. So they handed him a package, and when he opened the package, he was a $25 Scofield bag, and across the front in gold it said, to the Reverend James P. Fraser. And inside there was a card signed by all the men, including Jews, to our spiritual advisor at Christmas. One day when I was there, my brother came home from work and immediately sat down and wrote a long letter, and went out and mailed it before summer. When he got back, I said, Ma, you're in a hurry with that letter. He says, yes I am, I have a colored man who works for me. He told me his niece is going into the hospital in Cleveland for a very serious operation, and he said, Jim, I don't think she's safe. Would you pray for her? My brother said, yes, I'll do better than that. Would you like me to write to her? He said, would you do that? He said, I would regret it, and he wrote to her. And three or four nights later, the phone rang, and the colored brother said, Jim, I got a letter from Cleveland. My niece came through a four-hour operation on a break. She's doing well. She got your letter before she went, and it was all that she needed to face this operation. That's a pastor, dear friends. That's a man with a shepherd heart, and you don't have to go to a seminary in order to help, or an evangelist for that matter, or a teacher for that matter. Amen? You're not so sure. But it's true. Now, these are gifts. Now, a man might partake of all five in some sense, but if he does, and there are not very many of them, if he does, he's tremendously responsible before God. And any man who has outstanding ability has outstanding responsibility before God. Now, the resources then were the talents that I have suggested, and each was to use in the absence of his master. And so the master came back, and the five-talent man with pardonable pride said, Master, your five has gained five more. He says, well done, thou good servant. Thou hast been faithful in the little, have thou authority over much. The two-talent man came and said, I too have gained other two. Each had a hundred percent gain. They were alike in their gain. He says, well done, thou good servant. Thou hast been faithful in little, thou shall have authority over many things. The one-talent man was a phony. He wasn't a real servant. He had no love for his master. He doesn't stand for a child of God. There's no child of God that ever talk about his Lord the way that man talked about his master in this earthly story. Have you ever heard a child of God saying that Jesus Christ was a hard master? Have you ever heard anybody saying that Jesus Christ took up where he didn't sow, reap where he didn't sow, or gather where he hadn't strod? No. This man professed. You say he was talented. Yes, and the world is full of talented people who ought to consecrate their talents to the Lord and have never done it. And so he was cast out. Now you and I, dear friends, have talents to use for the Lord. And the day of recompense is coming. The day of reward. You're not to grumble that you haven't got the talents other people have. You haven't got their resources. Oh, if you just had their money, what you would do with it? Or if you adjust their good health that they apparently have, and if you adjust the scope that they have, or perhaps worse, dear friends, you are really a five-talent woman. If you've lost your husband, hmm, but you sit perhaps moping at home, hmm, life has nothing left for you, you say. And yet you've got money in the bank, good measure of health and strength, ability, scope, opportunity. What could you not do with those talents, those resources that God has given you? And maybe you're not doing a thing for God, but grieving over the past. Now don't misunderstand me, dear friends. I have a tender heart over people who lose their companion in life, believe me. I think of Mr. August Van Ryn, who went to Creekshire, I think in Pennsylvania one time, and they said to her, you know there's a woman here in our assembly, her husband died some years ago, and every day, without exception, she goes to the grave and weeps. He said she does, yes, she goes for several hours every day, and has done it every day since he left, and weeps. So he went to the grave, and there she was, and he said to her, I don't, I couldn't imitate his tone, I'm sure he said it tenderly, but he said, my dear sister, you're a disgrace to the profession of your faith in Christ Jesus. You make people think that the worst thing in the world is for a Christian to die, and when the world passes by, they don't know to look at you that there's such a thing as a blessed hope in the world at all. The Bible says, friends, we sorrow not as others that have no hope, and surely if we are relieved from certain responsibilities, and are free with all the talents we've got, we are free to use them while it is called today, and before the Lord returns. Could you say amen to that? Could you? Don't you think that God might have set you free, in a sense you have never been before, with the possessions that you have in one way or the other, that you might consecrate them to God, and be used of him for the extension of his kingdom, in a way you've never been used in your life before, and that the remaining hours, or weeks, or months, and years will be crammed with a success you have never known before, because you've gone up from yourself, and consecrated your best endeavors for the kingdom of Christ, and likewise the men. Have you lost your partner in life? What is it doing for you now? Do you rather know, and I speak to you who are older, I'm on very thin ice here, do you know that the early church did not look with favor upon elders in the church we marry? I'm not talking about young men, with young families, and a young wife who dies, but the early church did not look with favor upon elders of the church we marry. They didn't prohibit it to be sure, but they argued that if a man were thus released, he should use the time that was left for the church, and for the care of the saints, and for the dissemination of the gospel of Christ. I just leave it with you. Don't sit, I beg of you, in your sorrow with all the resources you've got, rise up friends from your death, and thank God they're with Christ, and say father help me to carry on in my best endeavors while it is called today. Amen. You're not so sure. And the next thing is the pound. Now in contrast to the talents, each one received the same, just the same. And the talent is the gospel silver, the gospel pound, what Paul calls the ministry of reconciliation, and he says he has committed unto you the ministry of reconciliation. You and I friends are to take that gospel message, and we are to multiply it. We are not to go to heaven empty-handed. Oh I beg of you my sister, I beg of you my brother, don't go to heaven empty-handed. Don't arrive in heaven and not see somebody that you personally want for Christ. Oh you say Mr. Fraser I never have. To my knowledge I never have. Well it's time you did, and you can do it. It's not hard, you don't have to be gifted, but you have to be God in it. Charles Stanley got into a train in England, and as the train was about to move out, a man came rushing along the platform, was just in time to swing open the door and jump in. One man says, well you made it fine. And Mr. Charles Stanley said, and the door was shut. That's all he said, and the door was shut. And it bothered the man. What did he mean, and the door was shut, and the door was shut? What did he mean? And he had no rest until he discovered that that door was heaven's door, that was in danger of being shut if he didn't hurry up and get in. Five words dear friends, Christ died for the ungodly, may wing their way home to some troubled heart, and you get somebody in heaven with you. The poetess said concerning Samuel Rutherford, and if one soul from Anworth, Samuel Rutherford lived in Anworth, if one soul from Anworth meets me at God's right hand, my heaven shall be two heavens in Emmanuel's name. God wants you to have somebody with you dear friends. God wants you to multiply that pound and make it 10 pounds, 50 pounds, 100 pounds, 500, people in the kingdom of God, because you took that sacred deposit which was given to you, and you multiplied it for God. I think it was my sister Ellen back there, it was reminding me about Steve Blazovich in Virginia, I want to tell you about him. I knocked at the door one night years ago up there, and I went up a stair, and there were two rooms up that stair, and I knocked at the door, a man came, and I knew his first name was Steve. I said Steve I've come to ask you to come to the meeting Sunday night, would you like to come? He says no we won't be there. He was so definite about it. I said why not? He says well I'm leaving on Tuesday to go out to Seattle to look for work, and tomorrow we're going to spend all day with my people, or my wife's people in Evelyn, we're spending all day. I said couldn't you go all day and come home in the evening and come to the gospel meeting? He said no we're spending all day. Steve was a Roman Catholic, and he was so positive I thought well that's it, but I had a happy thought, oh my I thank God for that happy thought. Halfway down the stairs I put my hand in my pocket, I had a little money, I said how are you going to get out there? Oh he said I'm driving with another fellow. Well I said you'll need gasoline to get out there. Have you got all the gasoline you need? He said no. We'll use what money we have, and when it gives out we'll try to get a job somewhere to provide us some more money for gas and get out to Seattle. He heard that they were hiring me. Well I said I got all the money here, I'd like to help you out on your gas. He said oh no I couldn't take that. I saw his eyes filling. I said take it man, I think God wants you to have it, and he took it. I found out afterwards he went and sat in the bed in the little two-room apartment where he and his wife and two children were, and he wept. And his wife says what's the matter with you? He says you know that fellow came to ask me to go to his meeting and I told him flatly we weren't going. And what do you think he did? He gave me two dollars to buy gas on Tuesday. Are you surprised he was there on Sunday night with his family? He was. And my how I preached for that soul. And when he came out the door I said Steve you heard the gospel tonight? He says I did. I said maybe for the first time. He said for the first time. I said you know there's been many a man saved the first time he heard the gospel. And you could be saved right now. He says can I? I said yes. I held out my hand. I said as you would take my hand Steve, do you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose again? And will you confess that he's your savior now? And he said yes so fast I thought well he doesn't understand I'll say it all over again. Which I did. He says I will and I do. And we prayed together at the door and the way he went I thought I wouldn't see him again. He was leaving on Tuesday. But he came up to my house on Monday and he said say do you know any Christians out there in Seattle? He says you know if I go out there I got to get among Christians don't I? I said to myself my that's a sign of divine life. So I gave him an address. Then off he went on Tuesday. But he was back in about a week. I said what happened? Didn't you get to see him? No he said we just got as far as Montana. It was an anaconda. We got a job in a copper mine he said but we couldn't stand the smell. I could have stood it but the other fellow who was with me he said he couldn't stand it and he was going back home. Of course it was his car. I had to come back home with him. Besides he says I don't think he liked me anymore. I said why not? He said because I preached him all the way out there. And so he came back. But his wife got sick. And I think it was the first time he was baked. He came and broke bread with us. And if he didn't get up and say we'll sing 101. And I thought he doesn't know enough to give the right kind of hymns out. Maybe it's sweet hour of prayer. But it wasn't. It was I will sing of my redeemer and his wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross he suffered paid the debt and set me free. And I saw the tears running down his cheeks. And they ran down mine. And they ran down half the people in our little assembly. I broke his heart with two dollars. Finest money investment I ever made in my life. Because he went out and he saw other people saved. And today in California he's holding down a good job on his witnessing for Christ. Oh my dear friends if you can do that with two dollars what could you not do with a hundred or five hundred or a thousand. Put where God could use it for the souls of men. And the measure of your success will be the measure of your sacrifice. God wants us to have something to lay at the pierced feet of Jesus Christ in that day. So I ought to stop right now. But will you give me five minutes more. If you will say amen. Not that little weak kind of amen. Thank you. Let's turn please for a little while over there to first Samuel. Remember I said the first night I was here second Samuel 15. Remember I said the second the first night I was here. If you're a lady and you say amen out loud the Lord will forgive you. Second Samuel 15 please. I want just to show you what I would call. I wish I had a lot of time on this but you wouldn't give it to me. But I would like to suggest something for us. Here are five talents different talents shall I say used in the service of David that we might well use in the service of our David. Second Samuel 15 and David is rejected here. And he's going away in rejection and our Lord is rejected today. But here are men who did something for David. What did they do? Verse 19. Second Samuel 15. Then said the king to Ittiai the Gittite. Wherefore goest thou also with us? Return to thy place and abide with the king for thou art a stranger and also an exile. For as thou camest but yesterday should I this day make thee go up and down with us? Seeing I go whither I may return thou and take back thy brethren mercy and truth be with thee. And Ittiai answered the king and said as the Lord liveth and as my lord the king liveth surely in what place my lord the king shall be whether in death or life even there also will thy servant be. You know Gittiai this man Ittiai the Gittite he wasn't even an Israelite but he was a soldier and a brave soldier. He had a consecrated arm. He was a swordsman. And he says David you can have my right arm in life or death. A man with a consecrated arm. Look further down verse 24. And lo they also and all the Levites were with him bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God and Abiathar went up until all the people had done passing out of the city. And the king said unto Zadok carry back the ark of God into the city. If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and show me both it and his habitation. But if he does say I have no delight in thee behold here I am. Let him do to me as seemeth good unto him. The king said also unto Zadok the priest art thou not a seer return into the city in peace and your two sons with you and me as thy son and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. He was a seer. He was the man with the consecrated eye. He wanted to go with David but he wasn't a soldier. David says no you're a seer Abiathar you're a priest you have to do the holy things of the sanctuary. Your gift is not the soldier. Shall I say your gift is not the evangelist. No yours is in the church. You're a seer. You're the man with the consecrated eye. Look farther down. Let's look at verse 32. It came to pass when David was come to the top of the mount where he worshipped God behold Hosea the archite came to meet him when his coat ran and earth upon his head unto whom David said if thou passest on with me then thou shalt be a burden unto me. But if thou return to the city and say unto Absalom I'll be thy servant. O king as I have been thy father's servant hitherto so will I now also be thy servant. Then mayest thou be for me be thou for me. Defeat the counsel of Ittifol. Then hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priest. Therefore it shall be that what things whomever thou shalt hear the consecrated ear out of the king's house thou shalt tell it the consecrated mouth to Zadok and Abiathar the priest. In other words here was a man who had liked to have been with David and David said no you're not any use you're not any use Hosea in the forefront of the battle and you're not a priest. Your place is not in the sanctuary of God. I'll tell you what you can do for me. I'm going to send you back to the very center of the opposition. I want you to be a spy for me if you like and I want you to have your eyes open. Your ears open and your mouth open. Keep your ears wide open and tell us what you see in the very center of the opposition and tell it to the others. Hosea the man with the consecrated ears and mouth. Next chapter 17 please. 17 verse 27 and it came to pass when David was come to man that shew by the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon and Nacah the son of Ammon of Lodibar and Berzilii the Gileadite of Rodulim. Now look how the spirit of God dwelt on this. Brought beds and basins and earth and vessels and wheat and barley and flour and parched corn and beans and lentils and patch pulse and honey and butter and sheep and cheese of kind for David and for the people who are with him to eat for they said the people is hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness and Berzilii was 80 years of age at the time and if he he might have said this David I haven't got youth on my side. I can't be like Itziah the Gittite. I can't be in the forefront anymore. I'm not a priest. I'm not much use in the sanctuary. I'm not much use in the center of the opposition anymore. I got to be very quiet. Then what can an octogenarian do for you David? And they said there's one thing I have. I got a consecrated purse. On the spirit of God dwelt lengthily and lovingly in all the things that he bought and brought for the rejected king. Have you got means you could use for the service of the lord if you wanted to? Things beloved that you might be in danger of leaving to unsaved relatives that they might squabble over for years. It's been done. It's been done. Have you got means you could use in this way for the service of God? Use them by all means.