All right, we're gonna be in Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. We'll be looking at the first 13 verses this morning. Our Lord tells us the parable of the unjust stored. And in this parable, there is mention of a certain rich man. And this certain rich man is a picture. He represents the Lord our God. And the stored is ultimately you and me. The stored is speaking of me. And each one of us says, this is me that he's talking about. In every generation, there are new storeds. And in our generation, we that hear this parable are the target audience. We are the stewards. As we go through this, understand the Lord is speaking to me. I am the steward. I am the steward here.

Now, our Lord had just given a parable of the prodigal son. And the word prodigal means wasteful. Wasteful, he is the wasteful son. He wasted that which was given to him. If you look back at Luke chapter 15 in verse 12, there was two sons. This man had two sons, an elder and a younger. And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto him his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted, wasted his substance with riotous living. Prodigal means wasteful. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.

This famine, which is spoken of, has come upon all men. There's a famine upon all the world, a famine in which we do not hear the word. We are sick, we are dying. Spiritually, we are dead. Physically, we are dying. And our Lord addresses his hearers regarding this unjust store now, who also, like the prodigal son, wasted. wasted his Lord's goods. Men and women have taken the good things which God has given to us, and we have wasted them in riotous, sinful, wicked living. And there's coming a day when we shall be called before the Lord our God, that certain rich man, concerning these things, concerning our stewardship.

Now, this unjust stored we'll see is going to be commended, commended by the Lord in this parable. Commended means he's going to be given approval. He's going to be given approval. However, understand that he's not commended for his injustice and his wastefulness of his Lord's things. That's not what he's commended for. What he is commended for is his wisdom and care to provide for his future. When he heard, when he knew, I'm being called unto my Lord to give account for all things, this effect, right, he was being called to give account, he understood, I need to prepare, right? And this is the effect that Christ was having upon the people. When he walked among them in the flesh, he had this effect upon him, that though there were many that were hearing him, whose life was wasted wasted in sin, yet hearing Christ, they were made to see, Lord, I need help. Lord, I need grace. They were made to consider these things, to prepare for that coming day. So they began to lay up, not in the things of the world, but the things of Christ.

As we look at this parable, consider the spiritual application that our Lord is teaching us here, because he's going to use something that's very familiar to us all, very familiar to our flesh, to teach us a spiritual truth. And he's showing us, I'm going to tell you what he's saying here, he's showing us here is a wicked man. by diligence, by his earthly wisdom and urgency in life, is securing for himself. He's laying up for his future. He's diligently laying up for his future now, and the example is in the parable here is for this life, right? Because people can understand someone who's diligent and laying up financially for themselves for when they cannot work, right? They're laying up for themselves treasure, but that's not the end of it. There is a spiritual application in this parable for us. This is a spiritual application which is soon your stewardship in this temporal life is going to be over. It's going to be over. Hear Christ and pursue Him regarding eternal things. With everything he's given you, pursue him. With the abilities, the talents, all that he's given you, pursue his grace. Pursue him. Ask him for grace and mercy. Even if you've wasted everything you have up to this point, even if you've ruined everything, wasted everything as it's unjust stored, stop and pursue Christ. Seek Christ. Seek him. Lay up for yourselves eternal treasure. and the heavens, which is in Christ, in Christ.

So let's read now verses one and two. He said also unto his disciples, there was a certain rich man which had a stored, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, he sent word to him, and said unto him, how is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest no longer be stored." So this unjust stored, he was careless, he was wasteful with those things that were not his. They were another's, another's goods. And now he's being called to give account for them. Now, it helps us to remember that when God made man, when he made Adam, He created him upright. Adam was righteous. There was no sin in Adam. But Adam, the first man, rebelled against God and fell into sin and ruin so that he died spiritually and all his seed, made of his seed, comes forth spiritually dead and rebellious to God, not wanting to serve God, not throwing off God's commandment, throwing off what the Lord says.

And so we all come forth like this unjust stored, wasting that which God has given to us, freely given to us, the good that he's given to us. And one day we too shall be called to give account unto God for our deeds. Hebrews 9.27 says that it is appointed unto men once to die, And after that, the judgment. So now we have been warned, we have been warned, prepare to meet your God. We've been warned.

Now, as soon as this unjust stored heard that he was being called to give account, he heard the Lord say, thou mayest no longer be stored. There's a permanence in that, right? That's death. That's like the permanence of death. You shall no longer be stored anymore. And so he's hearing this and he's thinking, this is my livelihood. It's over. This is now over. And he's preparing for the end of his stewardship.

Look at verse three. Then the stored said within himself, What shall I do? For my lord taketh away from me the stored ship. I cannot dig, to beg I am ashamed. So here we see that all men are wasters of what they've been given. Many fail in some areas, some fail in all areas, but we all fail in some area. We're all not perfect. The scribes and the Pharisees are hearing this, and they're hearing, this is all going to be removed from you. You guys are no longer going to be the stewards over God's people anymore. But they weren't the only ones hearing this. Publicans and sinners were hearing this too. They were stewards over what was given to them. All men fall into this address. All men are stewards and shall be called before God.

This man in this parable had preyed upon his lord's goods, meaning to take them. He's lazy and proud. He's saying, I cannot earn my livelihood, and I'm too proud to beg for a living. Well, he wasn't too proud to steal, but he was too proud to work and too proud to beg. And therefore, this unjust store decided to prepare for his future by making friends of his lord's debtors. by making friends of his Lord's debtors.

Spiritually speaking, because we are sinners, understand, we are not justified by our works. The scriptures say that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith, the faithfulness, the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ, his faith. And by Him, we are given faith to look to Him and trust His redeeming grace, His redeeming blood. God justifies His people by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of His people as their substitute in their place, and who rose again from the dead for their justification. Salvation is by grace, and God gives His grace and all of salvation's blessings to whomsoever He will. It's His to give. He is the certain rich man, and He gives His blessings as He will.

Take heed with what you hear him speak. Take heed to what this unjust steward did with regards to earthly carnal things because there's a spiritual lesson in it for our good. There's a spiritual lesson here. The unjust steward says in verse four through seven, I am resolved what to do. that when I am put out of the storage ship, they may receive me into their houses. He's preparing for his future home. So he called every one of his Lord's debtors unto him and said unto the first, how much owest thou unto my Lord? And he said, an hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, take thy bill and sit down quickly and write fifty. He just cut it in half. And he said, to another, how much owest thou? And he said, in hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, take thy bill, and write for a score." Take off 20%. He now only owe 80.

So look at how diligent this careless, wasteful stored is being now. He's on top of everything. He's figuring out how to prepare for what's coming. He is preparing for what is coming when his stewardship is over, which is coming quickly. And his Lord in the parable then commends him for his behavior in preparing for himself. That's what the thrust of this is saying. You've been a wasteful man your whole life, a sinner your whole life. Prepare for what is coming.

And he says in verse eight, the Lord commended the unjust stored. He approved of what the unjust stored had done because he had done wisely. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. Those that be of grace and faith. All right, now he didn't commend him for his wastefulness. but for his actions of being wise in preparing for his future when the stewardship was over. Nothing he did up to that point was commendable. It was awful. But once he heard, your time is up. You're coming in to stand before the rich man whom you serve. Well, then he wasted no time to secure for his future. He's about to lose everything. He's coming into utter ruin and lasting poverty.

Think of that in spiritual terms. He's coming into utter ruin and poverty forever to be destroyed in eternal things because he cannot work and he's too proud. And that's true. And so he prepared instead to have a good home, a good home and friends afterward.

To which our Lord Jesus Christ adds, for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. That's a contrast. He's making a difference here in saying this. What he's saying is, for his disciples to hear this and understand. He's saying, with regards to earthly things, look at how diligent man is in laying up for himself an inheritance, a treasure in the end. Look how diligent he is. Look at what he's doing with regards to earthly things that are short and passing and going away quickly. And that's foolishness, right? Because they're temporal things. They're passing away, but look at how diligent man is. The natural man in unrighteous manhood, look at what he does to lay up for himself.

You know, Solomon made use of this earthly example as well to teach us eternal things. When he wrote in Proverbs chapter six, verses six through nine, saying, go to the end, look at the end. Look at the Anne, O sluggard, you lazy person, look at the Anne, and consider her ways, and be wise, which, having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard, when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

Now, if all we get from that is carnal words, earthly words, and all we get is a carnal understanding from the parable of our Lord, and it's just earthly diligence, what good is that? What good is that? You're doing yourself a great injustice against your own soul. These are spiritual words.

Brother, can you also turn on the fans so we don't hear all the noise that they're making out there? Thank you.

So there's much more than this, right? We're gonna hear the spiritual teaching that our Lord is giving us here. Paul said it this way, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal. And that's not what the Lord is teaching us here is temporal things, but the things which are not seen. are eternal. The Lord is giving us eternal instruction here.

And so, in the context of the parable of the unjust store, there is a day quickly coming upon us when we shall no longer be stored in the earth. We shall no longer be stewards of our families. We shall no longer be stewards of our possessions. We shall no longer be stewards of this body. It's going to pass away. And our Lord is warning, whatever stewardship you have right now, listen and seek Christ. Lay up for yourselves eternal things. Because all that we naturally lay up for ourselves here in this life is passing away. It's going away.

Be diligent with the things you have heard of Christ concerning who He is, why He came, what He accomplished in His coming. These things are revealed to you in the preaching of the gospel. This is where the mystery of God is unraveled and made known. Who is He? He is the eternal uncreated Son of God. Why did He come? Well, he came in the flesh, and the reason why he came is because we're sinners and unable to work a righteousness for ourselves. We are rebels against God. We have rebelled against the truth of God. And he came to put away the sin of his people and he accomplished it. He put away our sin, he redeemed his people by the death of himself as their substitute in their place on the tree to put away their sin and to satisfy the wrath of God which is against us because of our sin and rebellion.

And so hear Him, look to Him. He is the Savior whom the Father has given to save His people from their sins. Give yourselves diligently to these spiritual matters the way that you see carnal men running and spending and laboring and sacrificing and giving up everything in this world just to have temporal riches that diminish, fall apart, and go away. They spend all that. You instead seek Christ. Prepare for what is coming. Prepare. That's what he's teaching us here.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things that men look for and strive after and look for shall be given unto you. They'll be given unto you. You don't have to set your heart on those things. The Lord knows you have need of those things. And though you are a sinner, because as the Lord's preaching this, though you are a sinner who spent your whole life serving yourself, hear the Lord. Hear the word of his grace, the word of his faith, the word of his power, the word of his mercy. Beg him for that spirit of grace and supplication. Beg him to be delivered from the death that is coming upon all men. to give you life in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is able. He is able.

David, David was a man who, when you look at it, did a lot of wicked things. There was a lot that David did that were very severe, very wicked, very wrong for what he did with Uriah and Bathsheba, wickedly. And yet, though he failed in a great number of areas, he was a man, God said, a man after his own heart. He was a man who served and sacrificed in the kingdom of God for the kingdom of God.

All right, so that if you've wasted everything, don't let that stop you. Turn to the Lord right now, right now as this unjust stored did. And our Lord applies this parable to you that believe him. Look at verse nine. And I say unto you, unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, because you will, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

So the instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ, he's not saying be like the world in laying up for yourselves worldly treasures, but the opposite. Be diligent, yes, but in eternal things, in eternal things. He's telling us don't set your heart on this world's riches. Do what the unjust store did in reducing what the debtors to our Lord owed, right? You do what he did. You do the same as he did. Think of what he's saying there in spiritual terms.

What does our Lord teach us? When he gives us his spirit, what does he teach us? When he taught his disciples how to pray, what did they say? What did he say? And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Reduce that debt that people owe. Don't hold it against them. Put it away. Strike it down. You don't owe me anything. You don't owe me anything. Just let it go.

But I have rights. Let it go. Don't fight for it. Don't battle the way this world battles for what they have and what they get and their rights. Be gracious. Don't compete with them. Don't set your heart on hate and divisiveness and tearing down the way this world does. Don't put your heart on it. It'll just eat you up like a cankerous, rotting rust and sore. Just let it go.

What did Stephen say as they're stoning him? They're stoning him. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when they sin against you and me, they're sinning against the Lord, like David said. Against thee and against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah in the process of doing it. And yet he sinned against the Lord. And so what we're saying is, Lord, don't lay it to their charge. Don't hold it against them. Lord, forgive them. Be gracious to them. Bless them, Lord. And help me, put away the hate that's in my heart. Put away the anger that's in my heart. Just reduce that debt. That's how you make friends to yourselves of the mammon of unrighteousness.

Those who all they know is this world. Those who all they know is dead things that cannot save. Because when Christ saves, we are new creatures. It is a new and living way. It is contrary to the flesh. It is the way of peace, joy, and life everlasting because we don't need it, this world. You don't need it. It has no meaning, no bearing on eternal things. Just let it go. Let the anger, the wrath, and the bitterness go.

When our Lord Jesus Christ came, what did he do? He came to save sinners. You're going to run into sinners. You're going to meet sinners just like yourselves, who are going to sin against you. And there's not many of us that are going to be wealthy and rich in this life to be able to give away all of our things. But we are rich in the blessings of God. in the spiritual blessings that God has given you, to use and to expend to help others in that way, to show them that new and living way, to be gracious to others with the grace that God has shown to you. That's how we may be gracious even to others. And so strike down that debt. Lord, forgive them. Lord, help me not to hold that against them. Just put it away, Lord, because I don't want to hold on to the hate and the bitterness and getting back at them and revenge because that's unprofitable. It's all works of the flesh. It's unprofitable. It does nothing good for anyone.

But if you live in this world, if you live in this life to acquire this world's things, this world's riches, you're going to come up short of God's glory. That's where we do. We come up short of God's glory. But if you have Christ, you shall love and serve the Lord in his kingdom, serving his people, serving those whom he brings in your path. When through various afflictions, troubles, setbacks, trials, difficulties, hardships, you're going to be steadfast on the rock, which is immovable, because you're just continuing serving him. No matter what's coming down, rain or sun, it's fine. You're going to be fine there. If you have Christ, you shall serve the Lord, you shall have a pleasant and wonderful welcome into everlasting habitations. Now, what does that mean?

Peter writes something similar to that language. If you turn over to 2 Peter chapter one, 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter one, Peter is writing to you that have obtained this life, this salvation, this spirit of Christ, this forgiveness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he speaks of the fruit which the Lord gives to us, that he makes in us, that fruitfulness.

Verse eight says, for if these things be in you and abound, They make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we want. We want Christ. That's laying up for yourselves treasure in heaven.

But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence, right? Like you see this world, they're giving diligence to dead things. You give diligence to make your calling and election sure.

For if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You'll be received into everlasting habitations, eternal habitations in and by Him.

And so, He's not saying that we buy our way into Heaven, not at all. What He's telling us is, take what is freely. given to you by almighty, sovereign God, and use those things. Serve him in the grace and blessing that he has given to you in his kingdom. Because that's how he draws his sheep to him. That's how he draws his sheep, which are true friends in the gospel, when he plucks them out of that death, of that ruin in this world.

Now our Lord adds in verses 10 through 12, he that is faithful in that which is least, or what is least here? This world's goods and riches. That is the least things. These are flimsy things that are failing and all passing away and going away quickly. That's least.

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, that is, in the greater things, the spiritual things. And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If you're hard to set on this world, you're going to be cold, dead, and empty in spiritual things.

If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, this world's things, who will commit to your trust the true riches? Why would God give us to understand?

If our heart is just inflamed with this world and this world's riches and lusts, why would God reveal to us the mystery of Christ? I mean, why would he show us these things and bless us and comfort us in Christ and give us that peace which he alone gives in the Lord Jesus Christ? If our heart is set on the world, we miss him. And Lord, don't pass me by. That's the heart that he gives us in him.

Verse 12, and if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? So what we have is given to us by the suffering redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. All that we have, that eternal treasure, is of Him. It's given to Him.

This world's riches, understand, whatever you have in this world, it's going to be another man's. Because it's God's. God gave it to you, and God will give it to someone else after you, as it pleases Him. It's another man's. It's not yours. It's not lasting. It's going away quickly.

But what He does say is the spiritual, eternal riches are yours forever. Your riches in Christ eternally will never diminish. They won't reduce. They'll never go down in value. They'll never reduce in beauty. They're eternal. They shall be yours forever, forever, unlike the riches here, which fluctuate and go down, get stolen, fall apart, have to be replaced, get ruined, get messed up. It all goes away.

That's what he's showing us. what is given to us, that is our own, shall be yours forever, brethren, forever. As our Lord said in Matthew 6, 19 through 20, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

All right, so it's Christ is the treasure. Seek Him. Whatever you've done, don't let that stop you. Stop whatever you're doing that's wasting and run to Christ. Look to Christ. Worship Him. Serve Him. Give everything to Him because what He's given you is eternal, lasting forever.

Verse 13, No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Whatever our Lord has given you, remember, no matter how hard you work for it, it's going away. It's going to be someone else's one day.

Rather, use what he's given you in service to his kingdom, in service to his kingdom, to the glory, praise, and honor of his name. Amen.