Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. I've been looking at this passage
of scripture and mulling it over in my mind for a while now. And I've come to realize that
truly, I don't know a lot. I don't know a lot. But I'm so
thankful for His Word here, His instructions here that He has
given us, the things that we do know. And this is what I want
to preach to you is what God has given me for you. I don't
want to preach to you what I don't know. I want to preach to you
what I do know. And as we go through this text
tonight, I pray that God will bless every one of us here. Let's
look at this text together. In chapter 16, verse 1, And Scripture says, And he said,
And Jesus said unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man
which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that
he had wasted his goods. And he called him and said unto
him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy
stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward. Then the
steward said within himself, What shall I do? For my Lord
taketh away from me the stewardship. I cannot dig to beg, I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that
when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their
houses. 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, A hundred measures
of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy
bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another,
How much owest thou? And he said unto him, A hundred
measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and
write down fourscore, or seventy. And the Lord commended the unjust
steward, because he had done wisely. For the children of this
world in their generation are in their generation wiser than
the children of light. Now here in Luke, in verses 1
through 8, we have what is commonly referred to as the parable of
the unjust steward. Now, whether this parable was
an actual history or not, I'm not fully convinced either way. I don't know. It could have been
an actual history, or it could be just a parable that the Lord
used. But either way, the Lord Jesus
Christ has meant it for our learning, has meant it for our understanding,
our spiritual good. And as we look at this account
as a parable this evening, I must caution us that every parable
is not to be pushed to its extreme, is not to be pushed out of measure
of its context. So as we look at this parable,
we're going to see some things that don't sound correct. They
are, but this is not the full measure. Now, what is a parable? Remember, a parable is an earthly
story or history that teaches us a very spiritual truth, a
spiritual truth. Now, in this parable And as we
can see quickly, there are some things that are going to pop
up here that just don't make sense right off the bat. First
of all, this certain rich man, this certain rich man, he is
a type or a picture of our God. He's a type and picture of God.
Now we know that this rich man, if you look down in verse 8,
you see that this rich man, this Lord, commended his steward for
his unjust actions. Now we know that that's not going
to be pushed on God. So we don't push the parable
to the full extreme and say that God would commend someone for
being sinful or wicked. But this is just a shadow, a
picture here. And the Lord here is, in this
picture, the rich man. In other words, all things belong
to God. He is the richest of all because
He owns all things. In Psalm 50 and verse 12, the
Scripture tells us, God says, if I were hungry, would I tell
you? He said, for the world is mine
and the fullness thereof. Everything belongs to God. So
then God, it is God who gives to all men the things of this
world. Everything that we have, consider
this, everything that you own, everything that you possess is
a gift of God to you. God has given men life, If you
are breathing tonight, it is because God has given you your
breath. If you have any health or wealth
or joy, All of these are gifts of God on loan to you. Isn't that correct? Because these
things are not eternal. These things that we have in
this world are all temporal. They are on loan. In other words,
you and I, the world, men are the stewards in this parable. Men are stewards of what God
has given to them. And so all men, whatsoever God
has given them, must then give an account to God. As a steward, a steward was a
person that kept all of his master's bank accounts, all of his master's
goods, and he kept a log of all that went out and all that went
in. So when his master said, I want to see what's in my bank,
the steward would have to give over the books. But this guy,
he was unjust. He was an unfaithful steward
in the gifts that God has given him. God has required of all men to
worship Him with everything they have. This is not an option. This is not an opinion of mine.
The Scriptures are very clear. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength,
and with all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. This is not an opinion. This
is a fact. This is what God requires of
every man. Of every man. To be faithful
in all things concerning God. And so this steward by picture
represents all men. All men are stewards of the gifts
and talents that God has given us. All of us are. And just like
a steward, we are accountable unto God for all that He has
given us. And next, look at this, an accusation
is made. It says in verse 1, there was
a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused
unto him that he wasted his goods. And he called him and said unto
him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy
stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward. As the accusation of the unjust
steward came to the ears of his Lord, even so has the accusation
come to the ears of our God that we have been unjust stewards
in the things that God has given us. Man has been guilty of sin
against God. Against God. The Scriptures are
very clear in this. Again, I'm not giving you opinions.
I'm giving you what's true. This is true of all men. It says, there is none righteous,
no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Therefore, Paul concludes this
in Romans 3, By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. This evening when I told you
That you should love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your body,
with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Who was
not convicted? Who was not accused? Which one
of us has done that to the full extent of everything that God
has given us in this life? Have you with every breath, every
thought, every word, every deed, loved God and your neighbor? You see, this accusation comes
in. And what does it do? It convicts
us of sin. The law has a purpose, my friend.
And it is not to save us. The law has a purpose. It is
to convict us of sin. It is to point out our sin. It's never meant to redeem us.
It only shows us our guilt. So what does the law do? The
law accuses us. before our Maker. The law accuses
us that we are only worthy of the wages of sin. What is the wages of sin? Death. Death. That's what our sins deserve. Death. Hell forever. And notice this, he said, give
an account. This reminds us that there is
coming a day of accountability. There is coming a day of judgment. As this day was appointed to
the unjust steward to give himself an account to his Lord, even
so it is appointed to us. that there will be a day we will
all stand before God and be judged. Do you suppose then that there
is any sin that will not be judged of our God? In Jeremiah 17 verse 10 it says,
I the Lord search the heart, try the reins, even to give every
man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doing. In
Ecclesiastes 12, 14, it says, For God shall bring every work
into judgment, and every secret thing, whether good or bad. I tell you, there are sins that
you and I are ashamed of to even think of. much less mention. We all have these secrets that
we would want no one to know of. But I tell you, God already knows. God already knows your secrets,
and He's already accounted them. Jesus speaking to those religious
false teachers of works and free will religion in Revelation chapter
2. The ones He calls Jezebel. Those who have committed spiritual
idolatry with her. He says in Revelation 2 and verse
23, I will kill her children. Did you hear that? Now that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I will kill her children
with death. And all the churches shall know
that I am He which searcheth the reins and the heart. And I will give every man according
to his work. Seeing then, it is appointed
unto men once to die. And after that, what? The judgment. The judgment. There's no escaping death, friends.
There's no escaping. Do you realize this, that your
day of your death has already been set? It's already determined. Now
a man could try to prolong his life as long as he wants to,
but Jesus said you can't add one cubit to your stature, you
can't add one day to your life. Our day is set and there's no
escape. There's no escape. You try to be as careful as you
want to, but death is coming. Matter of fact, it's appointed
and after that's the judgment. What then was the response of
the natural man? What's the response of the natural
man to such a word as this? I've given you a heavy word,
haven't I? It's a heavy word. Judgment is coming. God looks
on the heart. He doesn't just look on your
actions that everybody else is fooled by. He's not fooled by
our actions. God looks on the heart. He's
coming in judgment. You and I have been unjust stewards
with the things that God has given us. What then is the result
of this to the natural man? Well, look at the unjust steward
here, what he did. He said in verse 3, Then the
steward said within himself, What shall I do? What shall I
do? This is the same thing the rich
young ruler said when he came to Jesus. What must I do to inherit
eternal life? And even so does the natural
man when he is confronted with judgment. He says, O preacher,
I've been unjust before God. What can I do now to merit? What
can I do to make it right? Listen to me. You want to know
what you can do to make it right with God? Nothing. That's what
you can do. Jesus told that rich man, He
said, You know the law. Go do that. And the Lord convinced him that
he wasn't what he thought he was. He thought he was doing
pretty good. People feel all the conviction
and guilt, and then they start feeling, you know, the severity
of hell. And then they start looking around,
trying to find something to do. I'll tell you what you can do.
You can do nothing. You can do nothing. There's nothing you
can do to make it right. You can't start going to church
and make it right. You can't just be baptized and
make it right. You can't just eat the Lord's
Supper and make it right. I'll tell you what, not even
consenting to the truths of Jesus Christ will make it right. What men are asking is what they're
desiring to know is what kind of moral standards do I need
to live by? The natural man, like this unjust
steward. Look what he does. This unjust
steward, he says, you know, I can't dig. I can't dig. I'm too lazy to dig. This old
boy was being honest with himself, wasn't he? He just said, I just
don't want to dig. I don't want to work. And then
he said, well, and I'm too proud to beg. So what am I going to
do? Look what he does. He said, I'm
resolved what to do. I know what to do. And so he
goes to these people that also owed money to his Lord. And if you'll notice, he didn't
go to his Lord and beg for mercy, did he? No. Too proud for that. Can't do
that. What'd he do? He went and grabbed all these
people. And he said, what do you owe my master? And he began
to cut their rate of what they owed him. He began to change
the books. He forged. He forged it. Believers, listen to me. We know
this to be true, that no man can come unto Christ except the
Father draw him. We know that. We know that the
natural man is at enmity against God, for the natural man is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And I know that
this is offensive to the carnal mind of man, that you can't come
to Christ by your own will or desire, and that is because this
is a mortal blow to man's pride. But man's free will is not free.
I can't say that enough. In this religious generation,
this is the God of this religious generation is man's free will. And I'll tell you what, you try
to take that from somebody and see how mad they get at you. Man's will is not free but bound. Because he's spiritually dead,
he cannot work, he cannot and will not beg God for mercy. Therefore, he cannot work to
merit God's favor, and he will not beg God for mercy. So what
does he do? What does he do? Verses 4 through
7, he says, I know what to do. And so he calls, this is called
the compromise of false religion. When a man's convicted, a natural
man's convicted, this is what he does. He compromises. This
unjust man called in all his Lord's debtors and he took their
bills and caused them to forge their documents and show that
they owed less than they actually owed. Is this not works religion? Is this not works religion how
they take the law and they sit down together and they start
scratching out things that they can't do or won't do, and then
they compile together a list of things they think they can
do, and they say, OK, we'll do this. God said they made a covenant
of lies, a refuge of lies. They made a covenant with death
and hell. And one day, God says that covenant
will be disannulled. These false religious people,
they try to appeal to men of like mind who owe a debt to God
they cannot pay. And they heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears, and try to bypass and usurp the law of
God. See what Jesus says about this
in Mark. Go over to Mark. See what Jesus
says about these who try to usurp the law by their traditions.
In Mark chapter 7 and verse 6, they were upset because they
didn't wash their hands. That was a Pharisee tradition.
You had to wash your hands before you eat, otherwise you were breaking
the law. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, Well, hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites? As it is written,
this people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. Howbeit in vain they do worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment
of God, you hold the traditions of men as washing of pots and
cups and many other such like things you do. What they have
done is they've said, okay, what do you owe God? Well, let's sit
down and scratch off part of this. Let's make this easier
for you to get into heaven. They try to bypass the law with
their traditions, and Jesus calls them hypocrites. The law of God
is not carnal actions, but it is looks, faults, motives. motives of the heart, and it
cannot be bent or bribed. Now, man can scratch off all
he wants to of the law, but I tell you, on judgment day, God has
none of his scratched off. God is not mocked. Whosoever continueth not in all
things written in the book of the law to do them is cursed. Where then is there any hope? for man. Where then is there
any hope for man? We all by nature are unjust stewards. When I say these things, I look
at myself. I'm not looking at you. I'm looking
at me. When I look into this man, I
see myself. I see my own nature. I see my
own sin nature. We are all by nature unjust stewards. And we have failed to obey God
and we have sinned against God. Where then is the hope? The hope is only found in the
distinction that Christ makes in verse 8. He says in verse
8, And the Lord commended the unjust steward. because He had
done wisely. For the children of this world
are in their generation wiser than the children of light. You see the Lord made a distinction
there? The Lord made a distinction between the children of this
world and the children of light. You see, salvation is something
God makes, something God does. It's a distinction that God has
made between men. It's not something we make for
ourselves. Now this Lord, He commended this
unjust steward because He had wisely done so. And I tell you,
it is commendable if men are preparing for the future. If
men are preparing for their understanding is enlightened to know that they
are going to be judged of God. It's wise for you to look into
these things. It's wise for men to look ahead
and see and prepare for judgment. But the Lord may commend them
for recognizing this, but this is not salvation. Just to recognize
that there's judgment, to recognize there's hell, to recognize you,
O God, that's not salvation. What is? You must be a child
of light. has to do with understanding,
doesn't it? If this room were dark, you would
not know where everything is. You would be tripping over yourself.
You wouldn't have any understanding of where the furniture was. But
when the lights come on, you understand, you're aware. And
how does a man's light come on? How does he become a child of
light? That's something that God does. That's salvation. Children of this world, they're
wise in religion. And I tell you, the Lord here
is teaching us a lesson. If you are a believer in Christ,
isn't it so that the lost religious world are more zealous than we
are? Isn't that so? They're zealous, man. They are
zealous. They're more zealous than we
are. And it's in this that the Lord
reveals the difference between the unjust stewards and those
who are faithful stewards. These faithful stewards are the
ones who are children of light. In other words, you have been
born again. Have you been born again? Jesus
Christ said, you must be born again. If you are ever to see
the Kingdom of God, if you are ever to see and know Christ as
your only hope and salvation, this is something God must do
for you. Has God given you that? Have
you been born again of the Spirit of God? Have you believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ as all your hope? We by nature are no
different than the unjust, Stuart. We were sinners trying to merit
God's favor, but God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. Where? Where did you find the
glory of God? Where do you know the glory of
God is? It's in the face of Jesus Christ. We have sinned and come short
of what? The glory of God. But we who
have been born of the Spirit of God see that we've come short. We see that we're unjust by nature. And then we are made to look
to Jesus Christ as all our righteousness, all our hope. The light of the gospel shined
in our hearts, exposed our sin that to be complete, and that
we by no way could escape or merit our Lord's favor. In this poem, Newton says this,
He made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let all the powers
of hell assault my soul in every part. He crossed all my fair
designs I schemed, blasted my gorge and laid me low. Has He done that to you? Has
He shown you what you are? And then it was the gospel of
Jesus Christ that came to my soul. It was the gospel of God's
grace, His free grace, for unjust stewards, was made known to my
heart. by the glorious gospel of light,
by the Holy Spirit and power of God. Behold the Lamb of God,
Jesus' blood that taketh away the sin of the world. This was
the message that came to this unjust steward. And I believed. And God gave me faith to believe. I recognized that all my faith,
all my life comes from Him. It is a gift of God. Behold my faith, by faith, the
perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, and all who come to Him
God will pardon. Is this not what you need? I'll
tell you, this is what people who have been given light know
they need. I need absolute free pardon. I don't need conditional pardon,
do you? You need conditional pardon?
Well, you'll be pardoned if you do this and this, and I don't
need that. There's no hope in that. I need
total, absolute, unconditional pardon. I'm guilty. I need mercy. I need mercy. And all who are
called to life in Jesus Christ, we are made the children of light. And so then seeing that this
great grace has given to you, what then is our duty? Look at this in verse 9. And
I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. that when you fail, they may
receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful
in that which is least is faithful also in much. He that is unjust
in least is unjust in much. If therefore you have not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust
the true riches? And if you have not been faithful
in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which
is your own? No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and
love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Consider this. Consider how zealous
the unrighteous stewards are to their masters of lust. Consider
how their faithfulness to their self-righteousness and the applause
of men. Should not those who are children
of light be more zealous for the glory of God? Believer, Jesus says, make friends
of the Mammon of unrighteousness. What is he talking about? What
is he saying to you? Is he telling you that you should
be friends with the world? We know that's not true because
the scripture says, he that is a friend with the world is an
enemy of God. Is he saying compromise? with
those who are false teachers. And no, that's not what he's
saying at all. We know this. Paul said, let
them be accursed if they preach another gospel. That's not what
he's saying. What he's saying is this. Be
faithful with what God has given you for the glory of God. That's
what he's telling us. Whatever things you have, do it all for the glory of God. You cannot serve mammon and God. But I tell you, you can make
use of it for the glory of God. You can make use of it. That's
what He's telling them. He's telling His disciples, make
use of what God gives you. Don't serve it. But make use
of it for the glory of God. I'll tell you what, that is,
that's about as practical as you can get to it. What do you
have? Well, truly you have nothing.
All things belong to God anyway. But, whatever God has put into
your hands, use that. Don't serve it. There are some
men who are deceived. Some men are deceived by riches.
Don't be deceived by riches. Don't serve them. But make them
serve God. Make them serve God. And that
could be your money, it could be your time, it could be your
effort, it could be anything that God has given you. Whatsoever
you find in your hands to do, do it with all your heart as
unto who? Unto God. And then, how do you consider
yourself? What are you to consider yourself when you've done it? When you've done that, when you've
obeyed your Master, He just told you what you should do. Anybody
not understand that? Is that above anyone? No. We
all understand that. What are we to say when we've
done all that we can do? Jesus later in another instance,
He tells His disciples, He said, if a master has a slave, and
he's been working hard in the field all day, is the master
going to come in and say, oh servant, won't you sit down and
eat? You should eat first. You've been working out in the
field all day for me." No, that's not what a master is going to
say. A master is going to say, you go get me my food, you bring
me my food, and when you're done serving me, then you can sit
down and you can eat. Does the master thank the servant
for all he's done? No. But when you've done all
you can do, say this, we are unprofitable servants. You give all you have, and you
know what you've profited? You've profited God? Nothing. Nothing. We've just done what we're supposed
to. May God give us grace to see
what we've come from. We were worthy of hell, worthy
of death, and God in mercy has given us life and peace and joy. Is it not then reasonable to
give God all that we have? Matter of fact, if you don't,
you cannot be his disciple. You cannot serve God and this
world. Are you a child of this world
or are you a child of light? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Trust Him and give all the glory to God. And Stan will be dismissed
in prayer.