Charles J. Brown D.D.**
“AND another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: for I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow,”
Luke 19:20 and 21
Text: “For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man.”
I HAVE many a time thought of preaching a sermon, taking for the text of it some such words as we sang just now from the hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm, “Thou understandest my thought afar off”; and having for its object to bring out the principle that God is accustomed in the Scriptures to put words into the lips of men, which they would never dream of speaking out, but which He knows to be the true index of their character, and the expression of their inmost thoughts and feelings, if only they ventured to tell them to themselves and others. So it is, beyond doubt, with these words, which the blessed Lord Jesus puts into the lips of this man of His parable, who has come to give in his account in the judgement of the great day: “Thou art an austere man – I feared thee, because thou art an austere man.” Of course it is not that such words will be spoken by any man at the judgment seat. And it is not that even in the present world men venture, in so many words, to speak thus to God. But it is, that myriads upon myriads of men, whom Christ represents in the person of this man, on supposition of their being made to disclose in the judgment their most secret thoughts, with the motives that all along actuated their life in this world, would give expression to them in some such appalling words as these: “Lord, I knew thee to be a hard master, whom it was very difficult to please; and so, dreading thee, I thought it best and safest to keep as much as possible out of thy way, and avoid simply, as I hope I have avoided, giving thee any serious ground of offence with me. ‘Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I
*This version of the sermon is abridged because of lack of space, and is edited in some other ways.
**Brown, Charles John (1806-84), says the Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology, an influential Free Church (FC) minister and preacher. The brother of David Brown, he was in Aberdeen and educated at Marischal College there. He was minister of Anderston Chapel, Glasgow (1831-7) and of New North (C of S and FC), Edinburgh (1837-84). At the union he adhered to the FC, and was made Moderator of the FC General Assembly in 1872. He was made a DD in 1863. He took a significant part in Church controversies – on non-spiritual independence, establishment and union. He was particularly influential as a pastor. His publications mainly derived from sermons or dealt with
have kept laid up in a napkin: for I feared thee, because thou art an austere man; thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.’ ‘I feared thee, because thou art an austere man’!”
I am the more anxious to look at these words somewhat carefully with you, because they may be found to have a great deal more to do with not a few of us, and we with them, than might at first view seem probable. Certain it is that the Saviour does not describe here any rare, abnormal, exceptional case. I have mentioned “myriads upon myriads of men”, for in the two servants who had before given in their account with humble joy, Christ had represented all the righteous: all God’s regenerated and forgiven children. And in this last servant (alas! a servant without service) He represents all others besides. If you ask how this can be when the language is so peculiar, I answer that the very peculiarity of it was doubtless intended to make the description the more widely comprehensive: intended to prevent any man making his escape from the searching application of it, by saying, “Well, I am at least no profligate, no thief, drunkard, adulterer, murderer!” Neither was this man any such sinner. “Lord, behold, here is thy pound,” says he. If he had done no good, neither had he done any flagrant harm. “Behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept” – he had not squandered it; he had not “wasted his substance with riotous living.” Indeed, he was not without a kind of religion of his own. “I feared thee,” says he. In short, it is here just as in that profoundly solemn account of the judgment in the twenty-fifth of Matthew, where Christ does not expressly deal with the case of licentious, profligate men, but pronounces the doom of everlasting death on the simple lack of all loving, active, service rendered to Him. That pronouncement is: “For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.” So in this parable He includes the licentious and the profligate in describing the man on whom He is about to pronounce the like doom: “Another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: for I feared thee, because thou art an austere man; thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.”
I have singled out these central words, “For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man,” because they will be found to contain, in brief, the entire inward character of the natural man: the character of the ungodly, natural heart out of which unavoidably comes the ungodly life, though in endlessly different shapes and forms. Three distinct features will be found to make up that character – distinct, yet inseparably connected together.
I. First, lying at the bottom in the character of the natural mind, there is
“the evil heart of unbelief,” – a fatal misjudgment of the adorable God, – an entire heart-ignorance of God, estrangement from God, and believing of the devil’s lie about God, in the place of God’s blessed revelation of Himself. “Thou art an austere man,’ a hard master, very difficult to please, ‘taking up that thou layedst not down, and reaping that thou didst not sow,’ demanding (if, indeed, thou dost seriously demand anything of us) things impossible for us frail creatures!” You observe that I have thrown in these parenthetical words, “if, indeed, thou dost seriously demand anything of us.” But the truth is, that these extremes strangely and fearfully meet in the natural heart: the extreme of a secret, sceptical contempt of God, with the extreme of a dark, servile dread of God: that word, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself,” meeting with this word, “I feared thee, because thou art an austere man.” Still, still, the natural conscience will bear stern witness to the reality of a divine law and judgment. When the fallen heart is forced into near contact with God, this is its language (scarce uttered consciously even to itself, much less uttered audibly to others), “Thou art an austere man; a hard master, demanding things unreasonable, things impossible for us weak creatures!”
Need I say that this is a lie of the devil, a foul calumny on the blessed God? A hard master? Oh, “God is love.” “There is none good but one, that is God.” A hard master? “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him; for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust.” A hard master? “As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not”! A hard master? “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” “If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” A hard master? “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” But, “if our gospel be hid,” as Paul writes, “it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him.”
It is solemnly interesting to note, that this was the very lie with which Satan ruined our race in the garden of Eden, saying to the woman, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” – as if to say, “An extraordinary restriction! – very capricious and arbitrary! Was it so in truth?”
But, as Scripture states, “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat” (literally, “eating thou shalt eat,” that is, mayest freely and abundantly eat) “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Assuredly it was nothing strange that the glorious God, in the act of giving to our first parents more than leave to regale themselves over the whole extent of that garden, should, without giving His reasons to them, restrict their liberty in a single instance; and it was all the less strange, that in the midst of the garden He had planted another tree, “the tree of life,” in whose fruit, as often as they partook of it, He gave to them a kind of sacramental pledge that they should be raised, by and by, with their posterity, to a higher, immutable, everlasting life, on condition of their loyal obedience to His commandment. But that “liar and murderer from the beginning” said to the woman, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” The lie, alas, already found lodgment in her heart, since she not only recoiled not from the tempter and from entering into communication with him, but ventured to change the terms of both the liberty and the restriction: “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die;” as if to say, “Possibly we may not!” “And the serpent (following up his advantage at once) said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat”! So fallen man says, “‘Thou art an austere man,’ a hard master!” Well, we see that lying at the bottom of all here, in the character of the natural mind, unveiled in the day of final account, there comes out the “evil heart of unbelief,” a fatal misjudgment of the adorable God, an entire heart ignorance of God, estrangement from God, believing the devil’s lie about God, in place of God’s blessed revelation concerning Himself.
II. Second, and inseparably connected with this first feature in the character of the natural man, see a second: a dark, jealous dread of such a God, prompting the wish to be away from Him. “I feared thee, because thou art an austere man, a hard master!” This fear is obviously that of dark distrust, jealousy, suspicion. It is the opposite of confidence, affection, love. How, in fact, can such a God be loved? Ask the Israelites if they love the
tyrant that demands the full number of bricks of them, without giving them the straw with which to make them. “I feared thee, because thou art an austere man; thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.” It is the fear that “hath torment.” There is a fear of holy reverence, begotten of faith, springing out of profound regard for the blessed God, and, in turn, deepening the regard from which it springs. But this is the fear of a slave beneath the master’s lash, prompting, as I have said, the desire to be away from him.
Behold the earliest manifestation of it in our first parents, immediately on their committing the fatal sin. It is written, “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. . . And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Ah, it was well for them that God had come after them, calling to Adam, “Where art thou?” There is reason to think that both of them soon had the fear of dark and jealous dread replaced by a gracious fear; and faith in the devil’s lie concerning God replaced by faith in His blessed revelation concerning Himself, in the covenant promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent! But behold the natural heart in every age, left to its own workings. “I hid myself”! Oh, listen to its language, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” O God, if we can get but thy benefits, let us have as little to do with thyself as possible.” This is the “evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God”! “I feared thee, because thou art an austere man.” This is the fear of the doomed spoken of in the Book of the Revelation: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable;” the fear that springs from unbelief; from dark, jealous distrust of God. “I feared thee, because thou art an austere man!”
III. And now, connected inseparably with these two features of character of the natural heart, see the third feature: an utter indisposition for all cheerful, active service of God. “For I feared thee. Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin; for I feared thee, because thou art an austere man.” Now, it is impossible to serve such a God; impossible, first, to love Him; and next, impossible to serve a God unloved. Oh, love is the spring of service; but distrust, jealousy, suspicion, are the death of it.
But this man thinks he has served God tolerably well. “Lord, behold, here is thy pound!” In the exceeding deceitfulness of his natural heart he contrives to persuade himself that he has given God no serious cause of offence. “Behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin.”
It is the more strange that he should be able so to persuade himself, inasmuch as in his own words, “thy pound,” he confesses that it was the property of another: of a Master who had lent it to him for a purpose, which, assuredly, was not that of keeping it laid uselessly up. Would you see what the purpose was? You have it in the thirteenth verse: “And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.” “Occupy,” that is, trade diligently, “till I come.” Oh, what is the whole Christian life but a busy commerce, a trading for God, for our own good and the good of all around us, for eternity? To this end has the Master lent us our time, mental powers, reputation, influence, property, with all spiritual privileges, saying, “Occupy till I come.” But this man, along with all the myriads whom he represents, has contrived to forget all that, and to persuade himself that God too has forgotten it. “Lord,” says he, “behold, here is thy pound!” What is this but that insolent contempt of God of which I spoke near the outset, as meeting in the natural heart with the dark, jealous dread of Him, “Thy pound,” says he. “Lo, there thou hast that is thine!” In reality, the man’s whole life had been a continued disobedience to the Master, rebellion against the Sovereign, robbery of the great Owner and Proprietor. Yet says he, “Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I kept laid up in a napkin.” The word “napkin” is to be noted. It means literally a sweat cloth: that with which some earnest labourer might wipe the sweat from his brow. But this man, having no occasion for any such cloth in toiling for this Master at least, has taken it to wrap the Master’s pound in!
Oh, beloved, when God “will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts,” it will be seen terribly that for one to have done no good in this world was to have done evil; that to have been useless was to have been mischievous; that not to have served God was to have served the devil; that not to have “gathered with Christ” in His kingdom was to have “scattered abroad”; that not to have been the loyal, loving servant of Christ was to have been His enemy, and at war with Him!
Look a moment at the solemn reply of the King. “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant.” Ah, the disguise is removed. “Thou wicked servant.” “Thou fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable one!” The King will not descend to dispute his character with the man. “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: wherefore gavest 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.” O terrible word: all the things now taken away, from which might have come the hope of recovery! But that is not all.
The King also says, “Those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” Compare the words in the parable of the talents: “Cast ye the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And again, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.” These shall go into everlasting punishment!
I would have you to note – although it belongs less to my main theme – that, if you take the three features of character which we have seen in the text, and simply reverse them one by one, you shall have the whole character of God’s regenerated child – of that heart of which it is written, “A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.” Thus:
First, substitute that word of the apostle, “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them,” by the word which follows it, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” For heart ignorance of God, substitute the promise fulfilled, “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord.” For the “evil heart of unbelief” which credits the devil’s lie about God, substitute that heaven-born faith, “We believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God;” “We have known and believed the love that God hath unto us.” And now you have the foundation of the whole character of the new creature in Christ Jesus.
Secondly, for that dark and jealous dread which springs from unbelief, substitute the love that springs of faith, “We love him, because he first loved us;” “My beloved is mine, and I am his;” and there you have the new heart in its very soul. No doubt, there remains a great deal about God, His character and ways, which the believer is unable to understand and explain. But he is content to be unable, saying, “Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.” The old fear has given place to a new fear, the close companion of love, “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name?” “It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.”
Thirdly, for the utter indisposition to God’s service, substitute that heart for all service which asks, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” “The love
of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” True, the Christian’s service, at the best, is full of imperfection, not only meriting no reward, but needing forgiveness every day and hour. But here is a Master, maligned by the devil as “austere” and “hard,” who delighteth to crown the poor services of His people with mansions, cities, kingdoms! “Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him. Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.” Can it be doubted that, had the third servant come, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained two pounds, he had been met with the like glad welcome, and with the gracious reward, “Be thou also over two cities”? “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” “But the righteous shall go into life eternal!”
A practical inference or two before I close. First, there is to be a judgment day. Do you believe it? If there were none, this whole world would be a horrible enigma; a world in which any vile criminal could, after his crimes, do away with himself by one of those easy deaths which science tells us of, and it should be as well with him as with him who had diligently “served his own generation by the will of God, and fallen asleep.” But, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” “He hath appointed a day, in the which he shall judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” “I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God: and the books were opened; and
another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”
Second, how worthless, in that day, will be all merely negative religion. “Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin!” As for attempts to occupy neutral ground in the kingdom of Christ, what dreams they are! The man who seeks for neutral ground here, has already taken his side with the devil against Christ. “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” “He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”
Thirdly, note that this, properly speaking, is not yet the Judge, but the Prophet, telling beforehand of the Judge, and of the judgment to come. Thus, there is richest mercy even in the most terrible things we have heard from His lips. Oh, are there those before me whom the god of this world still blinds, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them? I bring you good tidings this day from the mouth of Jesus, “I counsel thee to buy of me” (elsewhere He says, “without money, and without price”) “gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.” Oh that you were made to cry with Bartimeus, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me! Lord, that I might receive my sight!” Then, soon would your eyes be opened; and, knowing God’s name, you would put your trust in him. And trusting, love him; and loving, serve Him; and serving Him, hear at length the blessed voice, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!”
Finally, I remind the children of God of their life-work, “Occupy till I come.” The whole spiritual life, as I said, what is it but a busy commerce; trading for God, and for the highest welfare of ourselves and others? See how the man of business attends to his secular calling; how his thoughts run ever on it; how he makes other things bend to it and its interests; how he economizes and arranges his time with a view to it; how he watches for ways of advancing it; how he insists on having definite security about all its affairs. Thus are you to “occupy,” trade, in the grand spiritual business. And, remembering that the spring of all Christian service is faith and love, long and strive after advance in both. “Abide in Christ, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” “Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” ●