Now, if you would, let's return
to Luke chapter 16. This morning we are going to
look into a parable, another parable. This is known as the
parable of the unjust or the unrighteous steward. And that
is the title, the unrighteous steward. This has been said to
be the most difficult parable in the Bible to find its meaning. And I really disagree. But I
want to show you why. We'll look at that in just a
moment. But let's just dive into this parable. And let's see what
the Lord has for us. I know this, that this is just
another of the many, many parables, these earthly stories that teach
heavenly truth, by which the Lord shows, reveals, and proves
that the only hope of salvation and eternal life and eternal
riches in heaven for any of us, any of us, the best of us, the
worst of us, we're all sinners, the only hope of eternal life
is in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. God's grace. God's mercy. And he uses this unjust steward,
this unrighteous steward, to prove that we cannot earn or
deserve our salvation, that we cannot do anything by any means
in any way to make ourselves righteous before God. We cannot
do anything by any means in any way to wash away one sin, let
alone a multitude of sins, which Romans 5 says that's our state,
where sin abounded. You see, when I look at myself,
and I hope when you look at yourself, by the power of the Holy Spirit
in conviction, we see how sin abounds. That literally means
overflows us like a flood, drowning in a sea of sin. And we cannot
swim our way out of it. We cannot wash our way out of
it. We have one hope, one way of salvation, Christ and him
crucified and risen again. And that's the ultimate lesson
of this parable, that it speaks of such things as stewardship. It says in verse 1, he said,
Christ speaking here. And he said unto his disciples,
now he had been speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees who
brought accusation against him. They were still here. We know
that by the end of the parable in verse 14, it says the Pharisees
also who were covetous, they were desirous of the things of
this world. So they were there too, but he
spoke some to them. And you remember, this is at
the end of the one long parable in three parts, the parable of
the Good Shepherd going after and finding, getting, obtaining
His sheep, which speaks of the redemptive work of Christ on
the cross to redeem His people from their sins. And then the
story of the woman and the lost coin, which speaks of the fruit
of His death, the Holy Spirit coming and calling His people
into the kingdom in the new birth, regenerating, converting by the
power of the Spirit from Christ. And then the father, the father
and the son, the prodigal son, the father receiving all whom
he chose, all whom Christ redeemed, all whom the Spirit calls into
the kingdom. He receives them graciously.
And he shows there, again, salvation is totally by the grace of God
and not based on or conditioned on the works of any sinner. And
now he turns to his disciples, now these are ones who claim
to follow him, disciples, they're followers of Christ. If they're
true disciples, they're sinners saved by the grace of God. But
we know that among his disciples at this time there were true
disciples and false disciples, false professors. One time when
the multitude who followed him turned away from him, He turned
to his true disciples, Peter and James and John. He said,
well, you go away also. And they said, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal life. We've got no place
else to go. And that's what I want us to see this morning. We don't
have anyone else to go to. No place to go but Christ. If
we go anywhere else, we're dead. As the old boy said, we're goners.
If we go anywhere else, our only hope is Christ. and him crucified
and risen again. And that's the ultimate goal
of this. But he speaks of stewardship
here. He said, there was a certain rich man, verse 1, which had
a steward. And the saying, that is, the
steward was accused unto him, unto the rich man, the master,
that he had wasted his goods. So here's the situation. Who
is this rich man? Well, the rich man here is the
Lord our God. That's who he symbolizes. God
is rich in all things, rich in himself, rich in his attributes,
and he owns this universe. He created this universe. It's
his by creation. Everything that you see ultimately
is owned by God. Now, here's a steward. What is
a steward? You know what a steward is. He's
somebody who's given a responsibility to take care of things that he
doesn't own. He's responsible to deal rightly
and justly and compassionately with the goods of his master.
He doesn't own anything, see. It's the master's goods. That's
what he's talking about here. This rich man had a steward,
that is, a servant who was given a higher responsibility, higher
than any other servant. He wasn't just a ditch digger. He wasn't a beggar. He was a
man who had a high position because of his master. And what his master
owned, he was responsible to deal with it, to use it in any way, whatever he could,
to make it right as far as the use of it. But now this steward
here messed up. It says he was accused that he'd
wasted his goods. Now, I don't know who accused
him. It doesn't say. That's not the issue here. And remember
now, you can't make every word of these parables into some doctrinal
position. That's not what these parables
are for. We don't get our doctrine from parables. We get our doctrine
from the clear statements of Scripture, and we interpret parables
in light of those clear statements of Scripture. So whatever a parable
says or whatever it doesn't say, I know this, it does not deny
or confuse the absolute grace, the sovereign grace of God in
salvation of a sinner by the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever it
says. It doesn't elevate a sinner above
what he is, what we are. And that is nothing in the sight
of God deserving of the worst, not the best, that God has to
give. And it doesn't deny the way of
salvation. So this steward here, he messed
up. He wasted his goods. Now, you know, in a sense, we're
all stewards of God. In a sense. And what I mean by
that is, as I said, a steward is a servant who's been entrusted
with a great wealth of his master. A steward does not own the goods,
but he's been entrusted with them. It's a great position of
great responsibility. He's going to tell him here in
verse two. Look at it. He called him and said unto him,
How is it that I hear this of thee that you wasted my goods? Give an account of thy stewardship.
For thou mayest no longer Be no longer steward. You're fired.
That's what he's saying to him. You're fired. But you give an
account of your stewardship. So in a sense, we're all stewards
because if you think about it now, we really don't own anything. It all belongs to God. The good
things that he's given us in this life, he owns them. I've talked about this before.
Whatever you have, whatever life you have, whatever time you have,
the air you breathe, the next breath you take is not your own.
You're just using it to live. Because God can take it away
just like that. How many times have you heard
of people you thought were healthy and they just dropped dead? A
lot, haven't we? And you're just shocked. And
that proves that That person didn't even own the air that
they breathed. It's God's. The time you have, the money
you have, the material goods you have, the family you have.
What did Job say? The Lord giveth, the Lord what?
Taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
You know what he was referring to? He was referring to everything
he had. His family, his possessions, his land, his riches. The Lord
giveth, the Lord taketh away. It belongs to God. And if you
really think you own it because your name's on a bank account
or a deed or a CD, just wait till you die. See how much you
own then. See, God takes it away. You say,
well, I worked hard for that. Well, who gave you the strength
and the desire and the drive to do that? He could take that
away. He could put you down on your
back where you can't work, even though you might want to. Who
gave you that job? Who put that factory that you
worked at? Or that office building? That
group that you work for and work in? Who put all that together? Did you do that? If you think
you did, you're wrong. You're just a steward. I'm just
a steward of it. Your children, your family. You're
just a steward. It all belongs to God. That's
what I'm saying. And so, here this steward messed
up. Well now, here's the first thing we need to see in this
parable. We're all just like this steward right here. By nature,
by practice, before a holy God. Ultimately, this is where it
comes to. If we don't see ourselves in the unjust steward, we're
going to miss this parable. You know why? It doesn't mean
that you don't have a good job, or you don't make a lot of money,
or you don't have a fine family. It just simply means this. You're
a sinner. I'm a sinner. That's what we
are. We've wasted, we've been entrusted
with the things of this world which we really don't own. God owns all things. We're all
in charge of something somewhere, somehow. We have choices that
we make every day. Now, that's not free willism.
That's just simply our responsibility. Everything we have belongs to
God. Our eyes belong to God. Our lives belong to God. Our
families belong to God. All of it. As I said, did you
earn your brain? Did you earn your strength and
your drive, the institutions, the factories, the earth, the
time? Time, they say, is the great leveler of all men. Do
you know that 60 minutes is exactly the same for the richest man
in the world as it is for the bum on the street? Exactly the
same. Doesn't change for either one
of them. And that's the issue. What did we receive, or what
do we have that we didn't receive ultimately? But my friend, we
have by nature wasted it. That's what he says he wasted.
He's accused that he wasted his goods. Just like the prodigal
son, that term wasted is only used one other time in the Bible
with the prodigal son. He wasted his inheritance. Wasted another person's money
and property. And this unjust steward represents
us all. God made man for one purpose,
to serve Him And to glorify Him, that's the ultimate end of all
things, to glorify God in everything we think, see, say, do, use,
whatever. Ultimately to glorify God. Now
that doesn't mean we all the time should be going around walking
on a cloud. And as one old writer said, it doesn't mean that we
should be so heavenly minded that we're no earthly good. But it means this, whatever we
do in our work, in our families, in our jobs, in our... Well,
the Bible says whether we eat or drink, do all unto the Lord. It's all ultimately for His glory.
And look here, here's what happened. We're going to see this fellow
here. He embezzled. What he did, he
embezzled his master's goods. And you know that's what we did
in Adam when we fell. You think about that. For in
Adam all die. We fail. We alienated ourselves
from God. We took the life and the good
things of this world that God gave us in Adam, and we fell
in Him. And when we're born, what happens? We're just like
Him. We live for ourselves, ultimately, by nature. That's all of it. Just as this
steward embezzled his master's goods. That's what he's saying. We've taken what God's given
us to use for his glory and his people and wasted it on ourselves.
And we see that in our fall from Adam, but not only that, we see
it in ourselves. And that's what the scripture
means when it says, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. That's not just a statement that
I'm less than perfect. That's a statement of total depravity. That's a statement of ultimate
deservedness of eternal punishment. That's what it is. The wages
of sin is death. And so, by nature and by practice,
we have been unjust stewards. Well, what was the unjust steward's
only hope? Well, look what he does now.
He says in verse 3, Then the steward said within himself,
What shall I do? For my Lord taketh away from
me the stewardship. I got fired. I cannot dig. Now the sense of the term there
is, he's saying I can't work, you know, I'm not used to that.
But he don't want to. I don't want to dig. I don't
want to go out there and dig ditches. I've been entrusted
with a high responsibility, a place of authority over much, much
good and riches. And he said, I don't want to
dig. And he says, to beg I'm ashamed. Think about it. What about manual labor? Well,
he won't work, and he's not able. What about begging? Well, he's
too proud to do that. That's us by nature, isn't it?
Huh? You think about it. You know,
men and women are willing to work for salvation according
to their terms. It's kind of like This fella
could say, well, I'll go out here and dig if I can set up
here and hire somebody else to do it for me. That's my terms. But you see, this man had embezzled
his master's goods. He didn't deserve anything better
than to be a ditch digger. Men and women are willing to
work for their salvation on their terms, but not on God's terms. Now, let me tell you what God's
terms are. Perfect. obedience. That's God's term. And Paul wrote that in Galatians
chapter 5. He was talking about men and
women trying to earn God's favor and God's blessings by certain
practices, certain works. The one in Galatians was circumcision.
The Jews said, well, you've got to be circumcised to be saved.
That's the work you've got to do. That's their term, you see.
Men and women, they're willing to do that. Say, well, OK. All
right. We'll do that. We'll be safe.
But that's not God's terms. And here's what Paul wrote to
him. He said, if you be circumcised for that reason, Christ will
profit you nothing. And you know why? Because if
you can work your way into righteousness, if you can work your way into
forgiveness, if you can work your way into God's favor and
blessings and rewards, you don't need Christ. But now, if you're like me, where
are you? He said this. He said, if you
do that, you're a debtor to do the whole law. Now, that's God's
terms. If you're going to work your way into God's favor, you're
a debtor to keep it all. For cursed is everyone that continues
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do.
That's God's terms. That's why Christ had to become
accursed for us on the cross. and take our sins upon himself
as the account was laid to him. And he became guilty by imputation
of our sins to him and died the death of a substitute for his
people to pay our debt in full. We couldn't pay it. God says
this, if you want to be saved by your works, if you want to
pay your own debt, if you pay one penny, you've got to pay
it all. And we can't do that. So man would work on his own
terms. But you see, our works aren't
good enough to save us. Our works aren't good enough
to make us righteous. Only Christ can do that. That's
why he's called the Lord our righteousness in the Scripture.
And then he says, today I'm ashamed. That's the mark of pride, isn't
it? Well, that's us by nature, too.
That's why, you know, the Scripture in the Old Testament uses that
term, and in the New Testament, some stiff net. You know what
stiff neck means? It means you won't bow. You won't
bend. It means you're too proud. Too
proud to be called a sinner, a real sinner, who doesn't deserve
salvation and cannot earn it by anything. who wants it on
his own terms, whatever it is. It might be baptism. There's
a denomination. They say you've got to be baptized
to be saved. Well, God says if you be baptized to be saved,
then you're a debtor to do it all. You've got to keep the whole
law. Because the waters of baptism will not wash away sin. It takes
the blood of Christ to wash away our sins. And that's the only
thing it will do. And when He does it, He does it what? Completely.
Past, present, future. Isn't that something? For by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves? It's
the gift of God, a gift of God. Do you hear that? A gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. And this fellow, he's going to
boast. I have to beg. I'm going to tell you something.
Brother Cecil Roach used to say this all the time. He used to
call himself, he said, I'm nothing but a mercy beggar. And that's what we are. That's
what saved sinners are, mercy beggars. We used to listen to
a song when I was a kid, rock and roll song. I know somebody
might get on me for that, but too bad. It's called Ain't Too
Proud to Beg. He's talking about a girl. Ain't
Too Proud to Beg. Well, I'll tell you something,
when God the Holy Spirit convinces us of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment, that's when we become, we ain't too proud
to beg. We like that publican over in
Luke 18 and that other parable, God be merciful to me the sinner. So we're like this unjust steward,
you see. Now this unjust steward, he was
a dishonest man. But look what happens. Now, look
at verse 4. He says, I'm resolved what to
do. Now, he's trying to figure out what he's going to do. He's
lost his job. He's lost all of his income. He's got no place
to go. He has no responsibility in the
use of these things that his master owned. And he said, I'm
resolved what to do. Now, I want you to listen to
this. He says that when I'm put out
of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
In other words, I'm resolved what to do. I'm trying to figure
out what to do, that when I'm fired and put out of my master's
house, is there going to be any place for me to go? Any place
for me to live? And the they that he's talking
about, look at verse 5. Here's what he does. He says,
so he called every one of his lord's debtors, that's the people
that owned the master money, or goods. And he says he called
every one of his lord's debtors unto him and said unto the first,
how much owest thou unto my lord? And verse 6, he said, and hundred
measures of oil. And he said unto him, take thy
bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. And what he says
there, now the fellow that owes the master the goods, he doesn't
know the stirrer's been fired, and so he's conniving here to
get half of what he owes the master for himself. So again,
he's embezzling money here. He's embezzling goods. He said,
write it out quickly, and write fifty percent of it, just half
of it. And he's going to take half of it. And then he says
in verse 7, Then he said to another, And how much owest thou? And
he said, A hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him,
Take five bill, and write four score. In other words, eighty
percent of it there. And he said, Write it quickly.
What a fellow. What a steward. Now here's where
the problem comes in with this parable that many see. It's in
verse 8. Now what did the fellow do? Well,
he embezzled from his master, and it was reported to him. The
master said, give an account, you're fired. And then he connived
his way out of it by going to the master's debtor and embezzling
50% of what they owed the master, and 80%. Doesn't sound like a
great example to follow here. Does it to you? But look at verse
8. And it says, And the Lord commended
the unjust steward, Because he had done wisely. Wait a minute. The Lord commended
this embezzler? He's found the parable this way.
It's the master whom he embezzled from commended him. Do you really
think that's going to happen? How many of you fellas? Or girls
who have a position of responsibility, people working under you, if
they embezzled money from you, would you go to them and say,
man, you did a great job there. I commend you. Well, you'd call
the law, wouldn't you? You'd fire them and put them
in jail. Well, see, this is a parable. And you know, when you look at
this, here's what you're kind of expecting. You know, there
was a parable back in Matthew 22 where the fellow showed up
at the wedding feast without the right garment on. And of
course, that's a picture of a person standing before God without the
blood and righteousness of Christ. And you know what the Lord said
to do, the Master said to do to that fellow? He said, bind
him hand and foot, cast him into outer darkness where there will
be wailing and gnashing of teeth. That's kind of what we would
expect to hear about this embezzler. Bind him hand and foot, cast
him in outer darkness. Because that's where he belongs.
That's what he deserves. He's a sinner. But that's not
what happens in this parable. It says the Lord commended the
unjust steward because he had done what? Now think about it. How can you
build any kind of spiritual principle on a man commending an unrighteous
steward, an embezzler? How can you get any kind of good
teaching out of such a bad example? How is that possible? And that's
what presents so much of a problem. I mean, our Lord said of others,
He said, cast them into outer darkness. Why not this fellow?
Eternal damnation is most certainly the plight of all the unrighteous
stewards. That's what we, by nature, deserve. And we're shocked that Christ
not only doesn't pronounce the sentence upon him, the sentence
of death, but commends him because he's done wisely. Now, let me
give you these four things about this parable. Number one, Christ
is using a method of teaching here that was popular among rabbis
in that day. It kind of throws you off center,
doesn't it? Kind of perks your mind up, makes you think. Hopefully,
if anybody is asleep this morning, it woke you up. Maybe that kind
of thing, you know. But it does, it kind of throws
you off. What he's doing here, he's doing this. He's illustrating
truth by using a method of going from the lesser to the greater. Now, that's common in our Lord's
teaching. We see it in the much mores of
Scripture. For example, back in Luke chapter
11 in a parable, he talked about a friend at midnight who had
some late night guests and didn't have enough to feed him, so he
went to a friend, knocked on the door, and the friend reluctantly
came to the door and gave him what he needed. That was Jewish
custom and social custom in that day. The friend reluctantly came
to the door. That's the lesser. The Lord's
point in that parable was how much more Will our Heavenly Father
open the door willingly and readily to any sinner who comes to Him
for salvation through Christ? In other words, if it is socially
acceptable and binding upon a person to even reluctantly come to the
door at midnight and give his neighbor what he needs, how much
more is your Heavenly Father willing to receive any sinner
who comes to Him knocking on the door? The door is Christ.
And he'll readily open. He's willing and ready to say
to the other. See, that's the lesser to the
greater. And this is also by way of contrast. There's a contrast
here that he's going to bring about. He's not telling us that
we have free gratis now to go out and embezzle. He doesn't
commend the unrighteous steward, the unjust steward, for his wickedness
and his sin and his selfishness. He's simply commending for acting
shrewdly and wisely. We'll see that in just a moment.
Here's the second thing. Always remember that these parables
are earthly illustrations of heavenly truths. We don't build
our doctrines on parables. I've said that before, but it
needs to be emphasized. We don't interpret the rest of
the Bible in light of the Lord's parables. We build our doctrine
upon the plain statements of Holy Scripture, and we interpret
the parables of our Lord in light of the whole of the Bible. And
parables must never be forced beyond their purpose. It's not
necessary to give every word and every thing and every way
a spiritual meaning. But now here's the third thing.
The Lord's parables are always stories that are part of a bigger
story. Here's a little story about a fellow who got in trouble
and got in more trouble and sinned. He's commended for his shrewdness.
And that's a little story here on earth. It's an earthly story.
But it's part of a bigger story. And the bigger story is redemptive
history. The story of redemption. God's
plan from the beginning of time to save His people in and by
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ entered this fallen, sinful
world to rescue His people from a day of reckoning. You know,
the master here said, give an account of your stewardship. That's a day of reckoning. You're
going to give an account. Day of reckoning is coming. Well,
Christ entered into this fallen sinful world to rescue his people
from that day of reckoning. That's right. An audit, you might
say. And how did he do it? By cheating
and conniving and stealing? Absolutely not. He did it by
his perfect obedience unto death. He kept the law perfectly. He
himself, you might say, was a steward, the perfect steward, the righteous
steward. You know, there's really only
one righteous steward, ultimately, and that's Christ. Because he
had his father's goods and he kept them all perfectly, and
he satisfied justice by his death on the cross and
redeemed his people. He paid the debt in full, our
debt, not his own, it became his by amputation, but it was
our debt, we ran it up. But that's what this story is
ultimately about. And then fourthly, again, emphasize this, he's not
commending this unrighteous steward's crookedness and his sin and his
embezzlement, but his shrewdness. And here's the main lesson of
this parable. It's that we who are stewards
of God, and especially, now listen to me, especially we who are
stewards of the grace of God. You see, we who are saved, we're
not only stewards of the material things that God's given us here
on earth. Money and time, families, homes, water, jobs. We're not
only stewards of that. We're stewards of eternal things. The grace of God. The Gospel. How's your stewardship over the
gospel of God's grace? And what he's saying here is
this. You and I should be wise and plan for what's coming. Not
in a sinful, selfish way as this fella did, but in the way of
light and truth. Look at it. Look at verse 8 again. He says, The Lord commended the
unjust steward because he had done wisely. Now, listen to what
he says. Four, the children of this world
are in their generation wiser than the children of life. Now,
who are the children of this world? That's the unrighteous.
That's the ungodly. That's the unregenerate. Who
are the children of life? That's the people of God. That's
the regenerate, the redeemed. Christ is our light. He's given
us the light of truth, the gospel, so that we know the score. We
know who God is. We know who we are. We know the
way of salvation. We know, not just by intellectual
knowledge, but we know in our hearts how God saves sinners,
that we're saved by the grace and mercy of God. We have a message
that is invaluable. You can't put a dollar value
on the message of the cross. The message of grace. We're talking
about eternal life here. And you think about it, now here's
the children of the world. If we were going to hold a rally
today on how to double your bank accounts and guarantee the outcome,
we would have, we'd have to, these walls would be busting
out. Isn't that right? If we were
having a rally today on how all cancer can be cured and guarantee
the outcome and prove it, how many people do you think would
be here this morning? That's the children of the world. And
the children of the world, they'll work hard, they'll put all their
time and their energy and their wisdom and their knowledge, their
resources, Into doing what? Into making
sure they have a good retirement. Providing for their heirs. That's
wisdom, isn't it? That's wisdom. The wisdom of
the world. But now let's bring it down to the greater. Or bring
it up to the greater. What about us? Who know the Lord?
Our time, our money, our wisdom, our resources. Huh? In promoting the glory of God.
And what he's teaching here is a truth that should make us ashamed.
It's not a parable that's meant to just beat us down. It's a
parable that's meant to encourage us to live our lives from the
perspective of eternity. How much more should we, who
do, deal in earthly stewardship? You all have jobs and you're
responsible not to embezzle, not to take advantage of your
employers, or you employers take advantage of your employers.
You're responsible for that. You have families, you have homes,
and you're to put your time and your energy and your wisdom.
But how much more are we to put our time and energy and money
and resources into glorifying God in the gospel? And what he's
saying is this. The children of the world, many
times, are wiser than the children of light in those areas. You
think about it. And what he's saying here, look
at it again. He says in verse 9, and I say
to you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. That's literally, literally,
literally, if I can get that out, friends out of the mammon
of unrighteousness. that when you fail, they may
receive you into everlasting habitation." What he's saying
there is this, use all that God has given you for the glory of
God in Christ and the good of others. That's what he's saying.
Why does he call it the mammon of unrighteousness? Now, mammon
is an old Aramaic term for riches, money, material goods. And why
is he called the mammon of unrighteousness or unrighteous mammon? He calls
it down in verse 11. Well, is everyone who has mammon,
are they all unrighteous? Well, the answer is no. In fact,
we know in the Bible, Job had mammon, Abraham had mammon, 2
Timothy instructs those who have riches, mammon, to use them for
the glory of God and not to be puffed up and selfish. So no, it's not that everyone
who has this mammon is unrighteous, but why is it unrighteous mammon? Well, many times it's obtained
unrighteously. We see that in the example of
this unrighteous steward. Many times it's obtained unrighteously. And consider this, many of his
disciples were or had been publicans who got their wealth unrighteously. And secondly, it's unrighteous
mammon because it's perishable. It's of the world. It belongs
to this passing, fallen world. It's not going to last forever.
You know that. Somebody says you, everybody
knows you can't take it with you, but you know everybody,
most people act like they can. Anyway, I guess they're hoping
things will change in the end. I don't know. If you think about
it, it's going to go. That's why Peter wrote, you know,
that the things of this world are passing, they're going away,
but the Word of the Lord abides forever. And then it's called
unrighteous mammon for this reason, too. It's the most valuable thing
to unrighteous men. Isn't it? I mean, it's everything
to unrighteous men. As I said, men will work hard
for it, plan for it, use all their time, knowledge, earthly
wisdom, and energy to gain, keep, and grow it. Even lie, cheat,
and steal to get it, like this unrighteous steward. Somebody
said, the world is full of people who are making a good living,
but live in poor lives. But here's what Christ is saying,
you use it, you who know better, you who are children of light,
not like unrighteous stewards in that sense. Listen, we're
not unrighteous stewards in Christ. Because He is our righteousness.
And that's why I read that psalm in Psalm 37, a little, that a
righteous man, who is a righteous man? Who is a righteous woman?
A sinner saved by the grace of God, washed in the blood of Christ,
clothed in His righteousness, given life by the Spirit to know
the value, the real value of all things. You know better,
He's saying. I know better. Now use it for
the glory of God and the salvation of sinners and the good of others.
He says, make friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness.
You can't buy friendship. That's not what he's saying.
You can't buy salvation. But we can use the goods that
God has given us to advance the gospel and to help people, especially
God's people. We're going to be looking at
a parable next week of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man
and Lazarus. If the rich man had helped Lazarus, he'd have
had a friend. But he didn't. No man can purchase an eternal
inheritance in heaven with money. Turn to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. Verse 18. He says, for as much as you know
that you were not redeemed with corruptible things. What's the
corruptible things? That's the mammon. silver and
gold from your vain conversation received by the tradition from
your fathers, but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God,
that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in God, not in mammon." not in mammon. The Lord in Sermon
on the Mount, Matthew chapter 6 and verse 19, He said, Lay
not up for yourselves treasures upon 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. When this fella up in New York,
I can't remember his name, Madoff, I saw him interviewing some of
the people that he had defrauded. And one woman said this, she
said, I have lost everything. Everything? Now, what did Job
say? When he lost what most people
see as everything, he said, blessed be the name of the Lord. He said,
I know my Redeemer liveth and stand, the latter does. If everything
was taken away, your bank account, your job, even your family, would
you say I've lost everything? Shouldn't, if you know Christ.
If you have Christ, you know what you have? Everything that's
valuable and real and eternal. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him, the Scripture
says. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. He that spared not his own Son,
but gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us what? All things, all things eternal,
all wisdom, all righteousness, all sanctification, all redemption. all glory, the unsearchable riches
of Christ. Isn't that it? The manifold riches. Look at
verse 10. He says, Luke 16, He that is
faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and
he that is unjust in least is unjust also in much. In other
words, what he's saying, we who are saved are not only stewards
of the material things of this world, but of the grace of God.
And it's not, listen, it's not how much you have or how little
you have that determines this. It's grace. If you're unfaithful
and little, you'll be unfaithful and much. If you're unfaithful
and much, you'll be unfaithful and little. Salvation is by grace. I imagine that felon, I think
he's in South Carolina, that won that Powerball, I imagine
he's probably been whipped pretty hard this morning by a lot of
preachers. You know, because when guys win that, you know,
we always wish we'd won it. But you know, we know it's not
going to do him any good. He's going to end up, you know, blowing it
all, or whatever. I don't know. But I know this.
Someday it's going to be gone. You know that. You know that. But look at verse 11. He says,
"...if therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous
mammon, who will commit to you your trust to the true riches?"
In other words, if these things that we have and own, if we don't
use them for the glory of God and the good of others, to promote
the glory of God and the salvation of sinners, how are we going
to be trusted with true riches? The real stuff. And he says in
verse 12, and if you have not been faithful in that which is
another man's, see, we don't own it, God does. Who shall give
you that which is your own? You see, these things here in
life that we deal with every day, it's not ours. It's going to be gone. God owns
it. But now, if you have life in Christ, that's yours forever
and forever and forever, and it will never be taken away. That's what he's saying. These
little piddly things that we put so much value and stock in
and time and all our energy, we don't own them. They're going
away, or we're going to go before them. But what about the true
riches? What about the real stuff of
eternity? What about the worship of God,
the glory of God, the word of God, the fellowship of His people?
The glory of Christ in Him crucified. So he says in verse 13, you see
a paragraph marked there in verse 13, that was added by the King
James translators, it wasn't in the original, but here's what
he says, 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. You cannot serve God and mammon.
That's plainly it. You can't have two masters. Either
Christ is your Lord and your Savior, or the world is. And
I'm going to pick up there next week as we go on into the next
parable. But that's the issue of this parable. He certainly
wasn't commending this man for being a an embezzler or anything
like that. But if a fellow like that, an
unrighteous man, is wise enough to plan for the future, then
we ought to plan for the future. We ought to prepare to meet God.
How are you going to do that? Run to Christ. Rest in Him. Come as a mercy beggar, begging
for mercy from God, and He'll give it to you in Christ.