Let's be turning to Luke chapter
12. Today we're looking at the faithful and wise steward, servant
of the Lord, and the unwise steward. I think if we were to boil it
down to one thing, one waits upon the Lord. Trust Him. The other does not wait upon
the Lord and does not trust him, but takes matters into his own
hands. So this is a word of instruction
by Christ, who's been speaking to the people for a good amount
of time here. And he gives instruction for
all to hear regarding the faithful and the unfaithful store. Because
you don't want to be listening to the unfaithful store who does
not wait upon the Lord or trust Him. So hearing all that Christ
had spoken, Peter says, Peter says what's on the heart. Who
are you talking to, Lord? Who are you saying this to? Verse
41, Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto
us? or even to all. And the Lord doesn't answer Peter
directly. He doesn't speak to him directly,
but he speaks to all, all who have an interest in the salvation
of God. This is a word for you all. In
some sense, we're all servants of the Lord. And we're all called
to, all his people are called to trust him, to believe him,
to depend upon him for all our salvation. And that is so of
those that minister the gospel to you. You're trusting, Lord,
give us a man that will faithfully serve you, that will minister
the word faithfully to your people. And so our Lord makes a distinction
here between the faithful and wise steward and the unfaithful
steward. Verse 42, And the Lord said,
Who then is that faithful and wise store, whom his Lord shall
make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of
meat, and do seize him? And so it's revealing here, it's
speaking to what, to those who speak by the Spirit of God. They
are faithful to their Lord. They are faithful to minister
the grace of God of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of
God. It's the Spirit of God who does
that in them. They remain faithful to Christ.
They don't depart from Christ. They remain faithful to him,
whereas there's another who does not remain faithful, but he speaks
by another spirit, even Antichrist. And he goes off further and further
in that way. So the faithful and wise stored
is first and foremost. Now understand, the faithful
stored, The faithful steward is Christ, and He is the faithful
steward. He is the faithful one. He's
the wise one. He's our wisdom. He's faithful. He shows us what faithfulness
looks like, and He's faithful. He's the faithful servant of
God, and He's the builder of the house. And he's Lord over
all the house. Hebrews tells us that Christ
as a son over his own house, whose house we are, the church
of God, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope
firm unto the end. That's the testimony of God in
you is that we remain confident in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we remain in that hope of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is
all our salvation. That confidence and hope is speaking
to the gospel that we believe of our hope and our salvation,
that it's not by our hands, it's not by our works. God the Father
is not looking to us to save ourselves. He's looking to his
son whom he sent and gave him salvation in his hand, and he
worked it perfectly. He fulfilled it perfectly. Perfectly,
brethren. That's my hope and confidence,
to stand here before and minister these things to you. It's Christ.
Christ. He's the faithful and wise steward
of God first and foremost. And by his spirit, then, do the
faithful servants of God minister the spirit to you and preach
these things to you. having every confidence, not
in the flesh, not in my talents or abilities, because I don't
have any to speak of, none that can save your souls, but every
confidence and hope I have is in Christ. He is able to save
you to the uttermost. Look to Him. Believe Him. Glory in Him. Worship Him. and trust him. Look for a moment
at what our Lord told his disciples in John 15. Over in John 15,
in verse 4, because this is very relevant here to what our Lord
is teaching us. John 15, verse 4, this is before
his departure, before he goes to the cross. He's ministering
these words to his disciples, to the apostles. And he says,
verse 4, abide in me and I in you. Remain in me. Continue in
me. We're looking to Christ, to our
Lord. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Abide in me, he says, as the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine,
no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine. Ye are the branches. he that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit. For without me he can do nothing."
Not that. Christ is the one that brings
forth our fruit. He brings forth fruit in us,
connected to him, in him, by him. That's how we bring forth
fruit unto God. If a man abide not in me, this
is relevant to our text, he is cast forth as a branch, and is
withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire,
and they are burned." That's exactly what I do in my yard.
When these storms come through, I pick up all the branches, put
them in a pile, and at a certain point in the year, I burn them
up. They're worthless. They're worthless branches. So
all who are called of God to be a minister and an under-shepherd
of God to his people, to God's sheep, know that Christ, first
and foremost, he's the good shepherd. He's the faithful one. That's
who we live by and look to and we're nothing apart from Him.
Nothing apart from Christ Himself. And all our service in the church
here is ministering to Him. We're serving Him first and foremost
and serving the people. Giving you your food, your meat
in due season. Giving to you what you have need
of in Christ to hear Him. And looking to Christ, that's
wisdom. Of God is Christ made unto you wisdom. Wisdom. and righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. He's all to us, brethren. And so to turn a man from Christ
to a false hope in himself and strengthening his flesh and giving
him confidence in the flesh, that's not wisdom. That is folly. That is foolishness. That is
going the wicked way of death. That leads to death. But we preach Christ. lest you
be snared by the fowler's snare, and that you be saved and blessed
and helped and provided for for all you need in Christ, in Christ
Jesus, in that new and living way which he works. So Christ's
ministers, whom he appoints to serve in the ministration of
the Spirit, are first and foremost made faithful to Christ. We are
made faithful to Christ. Listen to Paul. He said, let
a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards
of the mysteries of God. See that? We're ministers of
Christ. We're stewards of this mystery, which is revealed unto
you in the face of Jesus Christ in Christ. Paul also asking,
he therefore that ministereth the spirit unto you. He that's
ministering the Spirit to you, and worketh miracles among you,
right? Dead sinners, dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually
dead, rising up by the power and grace of God, right? Before
our eyes, the miracles that we see there of life. Doeth he it
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith, right? How are you delivered? How are
you raised up miraculously by the power of God, by the law?
or by faith, the hearing of faith of what God has done for us in
and by the Lord Jesus Christ. There's the power. That's the
power of God. That's what brings forth fruit
unto God. Otherwise, it's just fruit unto
death, fruit by this flesh. Now, if Christ is the preeminent,
faithful, and wise sword of God, then we know that his ministers
are going to be the same. They're going to serve Christ. We're going to be faithful and
wise ministers of Christ and the grace of God in him. That's
our lane. That's where we stay, right in
Christ. We stay right there, abiding
in Christ. Remember how Paul, when he was
going off to Rome, Well, no, at this time he was going to
Jerusalem. And he stops, and he's visiting with the Ephesian
elders. The Ephesian elders, in Acts
20, he said to them, and we looked at this recently, but it's good
to see it again, in Acts 20, 28, take heed unto yourselves. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves.
And that's also relevant to this text. Take heed, because Christ
later says, prepare yourselves You that don't prepare yourselves.
And Paul's saying, take heed, take heed. And to all the flock
over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. Why? To feed the church of God. That's the purpose. To feed the
church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Meaning you're precious. You are precious to the Lord.
You're precious. And that's for me to take note.
You're precious to the Lord. You're the Lord's people. And
I'm serving the Lord's people. I'm serving and feeding the church.
That's how I serve Christ. That's how I serve you. I'm feeding
the church. And so those appointed by God
as his ministers and stewards, we are to feed the church of
God, which he purchased with his own blood. And he concludes
this in verse 32. Acts 20, 32, and now brethren,
I commend you. I commit you to this. I set this
before you and I commit you to it. This is what you're to do.
I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. I'm commending you to the word
of His grace. That's what you are to minister
to the people of God, the word of His grace, which is able to
build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them
which are sanctified. You mean to tell me that by preaching
the grace of God revealed in Christ, that's going to build
us up and that's going to ensure our eternal inheritance? Yes. Yes. Exactly. That is exactly
it. And so the one who's appointed
of Christ, the faithful and wise stored of God, and made ruler
over his household, which in this case would be just a local
assembly, not as an authoritarian or as a dictator, but as having
the rule, the gospel, the gospel of our salvation, ministering
this to you, brethren, feeding the flock with this word, that's
how we're going to feed the church of God. with the word of his
grace, and that, as our Lord said in our text, is to give
them their portion of meat and due season. They're saying the
same thing. Paul's speaking by the same spirit,
which is the spirit of Christ, of his Lord. We're to give you
your meat and due season, to feed you Christ. That's what
we're doing here, brethren. Now, taking from Christ's words,
from Luke 24, we see this. This fills it out all the more.
Luke 24, in verses 45 through 48, it says, then opened he their
understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. There's
people that are scholars of this book who have no understanding
of it because they don't see Christ. They have no understanding. But when Christ opens your understanding,
you'll see Christ. You'll see him, because this
book speaks of him just as he told us. But without understanding,
you won't come to Christ that you might have life. Verse 46,
and he said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.
Christ here is risen from the dead, and what's he doing? He's
revealing the gospel to them. Thus it's written, and it behooved
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.
This is the doctrine of Christ. This is the confession that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh to reveal who he is, why he came,
what he accomplished. And in that witness, he accomplishes
that salvation in his people. He was given a body. Why? To
suffer. God can't suffer. He can't suffer,
but in a body given to him, that's how he suffered for his people,
burying them in his own body, burying them in all their diseases
and sicknesses and sins in his body to put them away forever
by his redemption, by his sacrifice on that tree to make an atonement,
to provide as our surety everything we need to settle the debt, that
we might have peace through him in God, in him. And so he did
it. And he died, was buried, and
raised again by the glory of God to justify all that believe
him, all that trust him, And so to that end, that repentance,
listen closely, that repentance and remission or forgiveness
of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning
at Jerusalem and ye are witnesses of these things. That verse is
in that what we are witnesses of, of what Christ has accomplished. What I'm saying is When it says
repentance and remission of sins is not speaking of what you or
I do to get myself saved with God. It's testifying of what
He does, what He accomplishes in His people. That's why it
says, you're witnesses of these things. We're bearing witness
to the repentance that Christ works in his people and the remission
of sins that he's wrought for us there on the cross. We're bearing witness to the
testimony of the power and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, in
whose hand is all of salvation, in whose hand is everything that
we need. We declare that. Why? Because
faith cometh by hearing. hearing by the word of God, the
word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who reveals this to us in faith,
manifesting faith, manifesting the fruits of his spirit, of
his righteousness, of his glory in his people. And so by feeding
the church of God with the word of his grace, we're declaring
what he performs by his grace. And faith is wrought in them
that hear, by the Spirit effectually in their hearts. We hear Him.
And we believe Him who has been brought forth for this very purpose.
We preach Christ. And by the preaching of Christ,
revealing who He is, why He came, what He accomplished, that's
how the people hear. So that repentance is what He
works in us. To turn us from trusting dead,
fleshly works that cannot save, that don't work a righteousness
for ourselves. He works that in us. It's not
telling you, if you repent, then you'll be forgiven of your sins.
No, it's all of Christ. You repent because he gives you
life. He turns you from death. And He washes you of your sins.
That is, He cleanses us, our understanding and knowledge that
He's done it. He's all my salvation. He's all
my righteousness. He's all the hope that I have.
He's everything I need. I don't want any more. I'm not
continuing to look. I'm not continuing to go to this
path and that path and trying to seek more about God outside
of Christ. No, there is no knowledge of
God outside of Christ. It's all contained in Him. The faith of Jesus Christ is
manifest in them who are the church of God, which he purchased
with his own blood. We're bearing witness. And he's
working it in his people. He's revealing it and establishing
you, fixing you, anchoring you in Christ, in Christ Jesus. And so the hope of the believer
is not what I do for him, but what he's done for me. And we
go in that faith. That's how our loins are girded
about, in faith. In faith, in that light, and
knowledge, and understanding. Now, back in Luke 12, verse 43,
blessed is that servant. Blessed is that servant, right?
Which servant? Well, let me just say, blessed
is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so
doing. Doing what? Bearing witness,
doing exactly what the Father called him to do, what the Son
has given him to do. Bearing witness of Christ. Blessed is that servant who,
when his Lord cometh, shall find so doing. Bearing witness, feeding
the sheep. their portion of meat in due
season, bearing witness to them. Of a truth I say unto you, that
he will make him ruler over all that he hath." That is, we'll
sit down with our Savior, as he said, as I overcame and sat
down in my throne with the Father, so you will overcome and sit
down with me on my throne. He's our inheritance. And so
that servant is given by Christ, led of the Holy Spirit, and the
people are well fed by that servant with the word of His grace. Just
like Paul said, you're well fed with the word of His grace. As
Paul affirmed it this way in Ephesians 3 verses 7 and 8. Wherefore,
I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me,
who am less than the least of all saints, nothing, is this
grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ. The word of his grace. That's
what he's saying. That's where I went. Paul says,
everywhere I went, I preached Christ. I preached Christ. I
knew nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified, because
that's the word of his grace. That's how he feeds the sheep.
That's your portion of me in due season. So that for every
occasion, are you troubled? Preach Christ. Are you weak? Preach Christ. Are you weary? Preach Christ. Are you drawn
back? Preach Christ. Are you troubled?
Are you ensnared in sin? Are you vexed and tried and afflicted? Preach Christ. Are you going
astray? Preach Christ. He's going to
turn you back. to Him in preaching Christ. That's how you're nourished and
fed and kept and protected and provided for in Christ. Anything outside of Christ, danger. Danger. Death. Death. It's death and danger. And so
this is according to the promise that God said By the prophet
Jeremiah, I will give you pastors, according to mine heart, which
shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And that understanding
is Christ. And open ye their understanding,
that they might understand the Scriptures." It's Christ. You're
witnesses of these things. We come to the opposite of that,
where the servant, so called, is not bearing witness to Christ. He's not declaring the grace
of God in Christ, but he's found turning to wicked works, to wicked
ways of the flesh to try and produce what he thinks Christ
is not doing or not able to do. And he turns away from being
faithful, from faithfully giving you your meat in due season,
which is your bread, your comfort, your hope, your life, the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what we're to do. So look
in verse 45, here's the opposite. But and if that servant say in
his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat
the men servants and maidens and to eat and drink and to be
drunken. This is not a faithful servant
of Christ. This man's not faithful. He's
turned away. Rather than feeding the people
of God with the meat that our Lord has given us, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he starts giving you the husks, the empty husks of
dead letter religion, of the ministration of death, the ministration
of condemnation, those things that cannot save or help you. And he becomes their Lord. He's
now taken over. What he does is good enough for
you, and that's it. He says, when he says, my Lord
delayeth his coming, it sounds like this man had been serving
the people and feeding the people, according to what he was supposed
to do. He's feeding the church, giving them their portion of
meat and dew season, and now he's looking for fruit. I think
I should see some fruit in you by now. Where is it? Where is
this fruit? Apparently, my Lord's delayed
himself in coming. He's not coming. He said, if
I do this, that there's going to be fruit worked in you. Where
is he? Where is he? I'm doing what I'm
supposed to be doing, but now he's delayed his coming. And so he's
not seeing what he thinks he should see by that time. You
know, last year, I decided to put some blueberry bushes in
the garden. I said, let me give these blueberries
a try. They were high bush blueberry.
Never grew them. I don't really know much about
blueberries. But I got them, put them in. And this year, they
came back. This was their first winter.
They came back, and some flowers grew on them. And I said, oh
good, there's going to be some blueberries again this year.
And there's this little stem off the branch, and it's got
this thing. I call it like a crown, but it just looks like a little
cup. I don't know what it's called. And out of that was the flower.
The flower comes out of that. And the flower fell off, like
I expected. And I'm looking for fruit. And
I'm waiting. When is this fruit going to come?
Another week goes by, and then another week goes by, and another
week goes by, and there's no fruit. And all there is is this
thing sticking there like this off the stem. Empty. And then turn blue like the color
of a blueberry, but still no fruit. And I'm waiting and waiting
and waiting and thinking, this thing isn't going to work. It
doesn't like its spot. I don't know what's going on.
Anyway, I kept looking for the fruit to come out of that little
thing there, that little crown I call it, at the end there.
And I'm looking. And eventually I noticed the
fruit doesn't come out of that side. The fruit comes on the
other side of it. And that little crown is the
bottom of the blueberry. You know that little ruffly thing
on the bottom of your blueberry? That's what that thing is. So
it gets pushed out. I wasn't seeing it. I was wrong. I was looking at all the wrong
places. I didn't understand how the blueberry fruited. Well,
so it is with God's people. Just because I can't see it or
I don't understand it, God knows. And he's able to bring forth
fruit by his spirit in you. Fruits of faith, fruit of love,
the fruit of patience, the fruit of kindness. fruit of gentleness,
the fruit of long-suffering, the fruit of temperance, all
by Him, worked by Him. Just because I don't see it or
understand it doesn't mean it's not there. I just don't know
what I'm looking for. But He does. And He says, just
be faithful to minister the word of His grace in Christ to the
people and He provides. He's bringing forth the fruit
to His praise and glory. And so, He's saying, this man,
this unfaithful steward is saying, my lord delayeth his coming.
So let me try something else. Let me try something else. And
that something else is, he shall begin to beat the men servants
and maidens. This is not talking about, just
because we don't have this in our day, he's giving us a parable. He's giving us an example to
understand this is what the unfaithful servant will do. He begins to
beat the men servants and maidens. How so? By turning you to the
law, to the threatenings, to the whippings, to the beatings,
to the thunderings, to the lightnings of the law. He's putting out
ultimatums and warnings and all these things to get you to bring
forth fruit and to do better. He's putting a heavy yoke upon
your neck so that you'll bring forth fruit, he thinks. He thinks
he's going to get you. My Lord isn't coming. I was expecting
him to come and to bless this work. But since he ain't, I got
to try something else. And he does it with the things
of the flesh. This was the first awful thing
that Saul did. In 1 Samuel chapter 13, this
is exactly what Samuel told Saul. This is why the kingdom is taken
from you. Same words our Lord's using here.
Everything you got will be taken from you and given to another.
You're not going to have a lot, you that minister, in this way. It says in 1 Samuel 13 verses
8 and 9, Well, what happened was a battle's
beginning. The Philistines are gathering
together. He's only been king for one year,
and the people are starting to get worried and bugged out, and
they're scattering away from him. And it says, and he tarried,
Samuel's supposed to show up, and he tarried seven days according
to the set time that Samuel had appointed. But Samuel came not
to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. Saul's thinking,
my Lord hath delayed his coming. Where is he? He said he would
be here. Where is he? What did he do?
I've got to do something. Bring me the bowls. Bring me the offering and the
peace offering. Bring it to me, and I'll do it.
Verse 9, Saul said, bring hither a burnt offering to me and peace
offerings. And he offered the burnt offering
as though he were the high priest, as though he could accomplish
the blessing of God. which is contrary to the law.
It's not even according to the law. And then all of a sudden,
who shows up? Samuel comes. And the first thing
he says to Saul is, what have you done? What are you doing? You're totally off. You've gone
astray here, Saul. And Samuel said to Saul in verse
13, thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment
of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now would
the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. And the natural man thinks every
time he sees that word commandment, it's talking about the law. No,
it's not. Faith is obedience to the commandment.
Faith in Christ is obedience to the commandment of God. That's
how we fulfill all righteousness in Christ, our righteousness.
Our hope is in Him. But now thy kingdom shall not
continue. The Lord hath sought him a man
after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be
captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which
the Lord commanded thee. David pictures Christ. And he's our salvation. Because
otherwise, we'd all be like Saul. We all are like Saul by nature,
every one of us. And he thanks be to God for the
captain of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're
to trust him. This is my beloved son. Hear
him. He says, men drive men to the
law. trying to gather grapes of thorns
and figs of thistles. That's the fruit he was saying.
You'll know them by the fruit, because the false prophet will
turn you to the flesh, trying to gather grapes from thorns
and figs from thistles. And it can't be done. This flesh
is under the curse. It brings forth thorns and thistles
and briar bushes and all kinds of nasty. That's what this flesh
is. They only do it because they're
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the
righteousness of God, which is Christ. It's Christ. Remember when the Judaizers came
to the Gentile churches after Paul, saying, except ye be circumcised
after the man of Moses, ye cannot be saved. Better keep this law,
put this yoke upon you, And Peter stood forth and said, why are
you tempting God? Why are you tempting God to put
a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor
we were able to bear? But we believe that through the
grace, the grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall
be saved even as they. And so that faithful servant
feeds God's church, which he purchased with his own blood,
with the bread of heaven, with Christ. So that if we hope for
that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. We wait
for it. We trust the Lord who gave us
his word and said, feed my sheep. with the bread of heaven, feed
my sheep, abiding in me, trusting in me, looking to me. And we
watch in prayer, knowing that the Spirit helpeth our infirmities,
making intercession for us." He's able. He's able. Believe
him and be not faithless. Just trust him. Additionally,
Christ tells us that they were turning away from... Paul tells
us that they were turning away from Christ And that when, well,
the Lord's telling us that men turn away from Christ, and when
they do that, they serve themselves. And he gave us examples of that. Paul's saying in Galatians 6,
12 through 15, as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh,
they constrain you to be circumcised, only lest they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves
who were circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised,
why, that they may glory in your flesh. The glory in you. See,
I got them to do that. I got them to do that. I brought
forth fruit. My Lord delayed his coming, but I did it. I brought
it forth by the works of the flesh, by the law. But God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
He's the one that turns us from the love of this world. It's
the cross of Christ. It's his power. It's his salvation.
It's his work. It's his glory. It's to the praise
and honor of his name. For in Christ Jesus, neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature. And that's what he does. He makes
us new creatures. He gives us his spirit. You that
trust him and believe him have his spirit. He works that repentance
in us, turning us from dead works to the true and living God. to
worship Him because He's washed us of our sins. He's delivered
us. He's saved us. And so man preached
the law and religion as though the trappings of the law were
able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all
them which are sanctified. But that's not what Paul said
to the Ephesian elders in Acts. He said, I commend you to God
and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up
and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. It's this word of grace. That's
what's able to build you up. That's your salvation, is Christ. And he works that righteousness
in you. Proverbs tells us there is a
way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death. And the next verse, he that laboreth,
laboreth for himself, for his mouth craveth it of him. And
that's the false prophet. Just feeding, eating and drinking,
and being drunken by what? Another spirit. Not the Holy
Spirit, but the spirit of Antichrist. He has a spirit in him, but it's
another spirit. And he's gone astray. Now, returning to our
text, verse 46, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when
he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware,
and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion
with the unbelievers. He's an unbeliever who's unfaithful
to Christ. He's continuing in unfaithful
ways and practices. Now these next verses suggest
to me, these are our final verses here, they suggest to me from
my own personal experience that all whom the Lord calls, he will
teach them. He will show them that apart
from me you can do nothing. And don't steer away from Christ. He'll teach his servants, he'll
teach his ministers. and deliver them from the way
of death. Otherwise, if they won't hear, they will. They will
perish with the unbelievers. And so this is about teaching. He will prepare his ministers
to hear him, to be faithful to him with the word of grace, which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Verse 47 to 48, that servant
which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither
did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes,
shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given
of him shall be much required, and to whom men have committed
much of him they will ask the more." If there are Christ's
faithful and wise stewards, he'll teach us. He teaches his ministers. He keeps his ministers. He makes
sure that his ministers are feeding you. word of His grace and He'll
correct them and teach them. If there is, He'll keep them
and He'll correct them as needed to ensure that we know that that's
your salvation. He's your Savior. He's your light
in your life because Christ will not lose one for whom He's died. He will not lose you to dead
things and wicked things. He's blessing you. He's feeding
you the grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Amen.