The lesson this morning will
be taken from the first 13 verses of Luke chapter 16. The first 13 verses of Luke chapter
16. And this is the parable of the
unjust steward. And I titled the study this morning,
An Evidence of Faith. because I believe that's what
he's talking about in that. Let's read these verses together.
Luke chapter 16 beginning with verse 1. And he said also to
his disciples. Now he just spoke a parable to
the Pharisees, to the scribes. And then he turns to his disciples
And he said to them, there was a certain rich man which had
a steward. What's a steward? That's one
entrusted to a portion of his affairs. He's a business manager
over this man's personal affairs. And the same was accused unto
him that he'd wasted his goods. And so the master of the house
called him. And he said unto him, how is
it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship,
or thou mayest no longer be steward. Then the steward said within
himself, he didn't say anything to the master, but he said to
himself, what shall I do? For my Lord taketh away from
me the stewardship. I cannot dig. To beg, I am ashamed. He's too proud to beg, too sorry
to work. I am resolved what to do, that
when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their
houses. He said, I've got an idea. I
know what I'm going to do. So he called every one of his
lord's debtors unto him, and he said to the first, how much
owest thou to my lord? How much is your debt? And he
said, 100 measures of oil. And he said unto him, take thy
bill, and sit down quickly, and write 50. Cut it in half. Then said he to another, and
how much owest thou? And he said, 100 measures of
wheat. And he said unto him, take thy
bill, and write full score. And the Lord, that is the master
of the house, 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. And
I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness,
that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. 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. If therefore ye have not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon, Who will commit to your trust
the true riches? And if you've 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,
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 man. Now again, our Lord puts forth
a parable, and this time he's speaking to his disciples, and
he's speaking against the Pharisees, but to his disciples. And yet, in that he speaks, he
speaks to us all. These parables are written not
just for that few that were gathered there that day. but for all those
that believe on him. So let's begin with the parable
itself. What is this parable all about? The parable sets before us a
wicked, self-serving, unjust steward. He was a steward over
the affairs of this man's house. He was a trusted man. He was
trusted to do this. The master didn't. come in every
day and check him out and make him present the books and all
this kind of stuff. He trusted him. He trusted him
over his affairs. But this man wasted the master's
goods. He was unfaithful. He was unfaithful. He was trusted over the affairs
of the master's house, and he wasted his master's goods. And somebody's seen it. Somebody caught him. And they accused him to the master.
And his master put him on notice that his stewardship would be
revoked. Now we're all guilty of misusing
the things freely given to us for ourselves. We use them for ourselves, don't
we? We don't even have a being for
ourselves. We're put into God's creation
to serve Him. We don't own anything that we
can say, this is mine. I earned it. I deserve it. It's
mine. No, it's a gift. It's a gift. And it's a gift of God. We're
put here to serve Him. Everything that we do, every
breath we breathe, our families, everything that we do, we do
as stewards. So this verse has an application
to everybody. Everybody put into this world,
but in particular, he's talking to his disciples. And he's talking
about those who have professed faith. God gave us our being, he put
us in his creation to serve him, but we've taken the master's
goods and used them for ourselves. In Hebrews 13 verse 17, and he's
talking here about preachers. Talking here about preachers.
And I'm talking to you on the point of this. We've wasted the
goods trusted to us. And he tells us about these preachers,
the Holy Ghost says, they watch for your souls as they that must
give account. The master told this unjust steward
he had to give account. We're going to give an account.
We're going to give an account. And he said, they watch for your
souls as they that must give account, not sometime way off in the future,
but right now. The master didn't let this go.
He didn't say, well, we're going to let things go. And in about
40 years, 50 years, he gets old and dies, then we're going to.
That's not what it says. He called that man in immediately. Immediately. And he did something
about it. He was accused and immediately
brought before his master. And many a person has been accused
and judged and even now suffering the wrath of God and are not
aware of it. How many thousands of men and
women has he found unjust stewards of those things trusted to him
and whose stewardship's been revoked and they're even now
suffering the wrath of God and not even aware of it? You see,
that's the thing about wrath. We always think about wrath and
hell and burning and suffering and all of these things way out
there somewhere. You can have the wrath of God
on you and not even know it. What could He do to you worse
than just pull His Spirit from you? Huh? Just turn you over to yourself.
Just let you think with what you have. Just leave you in your
sinful nature. Just leave you subject to this
world who don't know God. What could he do to you worse
than that? And he does it to thousands because
of what they do. And they're not even aware of
it. Not even aware. Demons. Huh? He was Paul's fellow laborer.
He preached for him. He was friends with him. He said,
Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. Was Demas aware of it? No. He
just wanted a nice home. He just wanted this. He just
wanted that. But he was willing to compromise,
the same as this unjust steward. First thing he did was compromise
all the debts that the master's debtors owed. Isn't that what
happens when men feel threatened in this world? Exactly what happens. As professing believers, we're
stewards of all we possess and all that comes under our hand
to serve our God's purpose and will. Am I doing that? Am I doing that? We must, as
faithful stewards, see that no part of our Lord's ministry suffers
while we ignore the needs of someone else in the ministry,
wherever it is, and take care of our own interests and pleasures.
You see what I'm saying? Well, I can't help him. Why not? Well, I just bought a new home.
I just bought a new car. I just did this. I just did that.
I want to do this. I want to do that. So I pray
the Lord helps you. Read in the Book of James what
he says about that. That's not faith. That's not
faith. We ignore the needs of others. And we do it to serve our own
interests and pleasures. And then thirdly, as soon as
the unjust steward realized his stewardship was revoked, he set
out by hook or crook to make friends with his master's debtors. Couldn't make friends with his
master. His master knew what he was. He couldn't make friends
with the man who told his master what he did. Well, who was he
going to make friends with? The debtors. The debtors. And how did he do it? He compromised
their debts. Professing believers, when they
feel threatened, are quick to compromise their stewardship.
Billy Graham was interviewed one time on national television,
and he was asked this question by the newsman who interviewed
him. He said, at one time, you were a Calvinist in your doctrine,
weren't you? And he said, yes, sir, I was.
But he said, you're not a Calvinist now. You don't hold to a Calvinistic
doctrine now. Oh, no, he said, I don't. Well,
he said, what happened? He said, I saw it was ruining
my ministry. He felt threatened, and he compromised
his master's debtors. And he said, you don't really
owe everything. Just give me a portion of it. What's being preached from the
average pulpit? Just give me a portion. Just walk that aisle. Just make that profession. Just
sign this card. Just do this. Just sit down quick
now. Make your decision quick. Oh,
my soul. Many a person has shucked their
stewardship because they felt threatened. And the unjust steward
lessened the debt of his master's debtors to provide security for
himself. And so it was with the Pharisee.
When they witnessed, you remember when kind of the crowning miracle
of Christ, I'm not talking about this is other than his death
on the cross and these things, but kind of the crowning miracle
that he did among people is when he raised Lazarus from the dead.
Everybody saw it. The Pharisees saw it. The scribes
saw it. The people of God saw it. His
own sisters saw it. Everybody saw it. And he raised
him from the dead. And he came out of that tomb
wrapped head to toe in grave clothes so he didn't walk out.
He just came out. I don't know how he did it. He
just floated out or however he did it. He came out of that tomb
and our Lord said, loose him and let him go. And the grave
clothes fell off of him. So they went and had a business
meeting. And here's what they said. What are we going to do?
If we let this guy go, everybody's going to believe on him. Everybody. You can't deny what he does.
His power's too great. His wisdom's too great. If we
leave him alone, everybody's going to believe on him. Well,
what's wrong with that? Here's what's wrong with it.
The Romans are going to come, and they're going to take away
our place. and they're going to take away
our nation. We're going to be just like everybody else. That's why they compromise. And then fourthly, the master
did what seemed so strange. I read this and it just threw
me for a loop. He did what seemed so strange,
he commended the unjust steward. I just read it to you. He commended
the unjust steward. Why would the master commend
a man who was a cheat, an embezzler, and an unjust man? Why would
he commend him? Well, he didn't commend his actions
or deeds. He commended his wisdom. His
wisdom, he didn't let a minute go by. As soon as he realized
his stewardship was revoked, he didn't have any more part
with the master of the master's house, he started making provision. With an eye to the future, he
started making provision for himself, for his security, for
his income, for himself. He commended him, he says here,
because he did wisely. With an eye for the future, he
made provision for himself. He took what he had control over
and he used it for that end. All right, here's the second
thing. That's the parable. That's what
he's talking about. Here's the second thing I see
in this parable. I see a lesson given to those
with a spiritual understanding. This, as all the parables, is
to be understood by those with God-given eyes and ears. Why
do you speak in parables? That's what his disciples said.
Why do you do that? Because it's given unto you to
know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Unto them it's not given. I'm giving you these parables,
and they're all twisted upside down with them, but you understand
them. You understand them. be understood by those with God-given
eyes and ears, eyes and ears of faith. He that hath ears to
hear, let him hear. How many times does our Lord
say that? And we see here our Lord talking to His disciples
of a short life and a long eternity. That's what He's... We just hear... Our life, James said, is but
a vapor. You know, I've known that since
I was little, but now I'm beginning to understand it. I'm beginning
to enter into it. Yesterday, I was 12. Today, I'm
73. Where did the middle go? It's
like a vapor. Like a vapor. I was looking at
this field on the right coming up this morning, and I remember
when they clear cut that grain. They clear cut, there wasn't
anything out there but stones. And now there's pine trees that
are almost as tall as this one growing out there. Boy, it don't
seem like it's been that long. He's talking to them about a
short life and a long eternity, and we see here the real master
pointing out our stewardship and how short-lived it is, how
foolish we are to neglect our future. We have eyes to see and
ears to hear and a heart to understand. Why will we neglect these things? Listen to what he says in verse
9. This will show you for another
look. And I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the
mammon of unrighteousness, that when you fail, they may receive
you into everlasting habitation. What is the mammon of unrighteousness
that he's talking about? Well, mammon basically means
money, riches. And he's talking about the things
of this world. He's talking about whatever advantage
that the Lord has given to you. And you're going to have to make
friends of these things. What's he talking about making
friends of these things? Well, these things are either
going to witness for you They're either going to be an evidence
for you, or they're going to be evidence of the prosecution.
Want to know? Want to know? We're stewards
of God. And he's everything. It's everything. in our life. Every opportunity,
your house, your job, your family, your car, your possessions, your
income, your attitude. We're stewards of God and we
must pay attention to what it is we're doing. Now I'm going
to read you something. I found this this morning over
in 1 Peter chapter 4 beginning with verse 7. He said, But the
end of all things is at hand. Do we know that? Are we aware we're living in
the last days? The Lord could come back any
second. At any second. The end of all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober. He ain't
talking about not drinking here. He's talking about being aware
of what's going on. Not in a daze, not daydreaming.
Be sober and watch unto prayer. And above all things, have perfect charity among yourselves,
for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one
to another without grudging. Now watch this. As every man
hath received the gift, whatever it is, Even so, minister the
same, one to another, how? As good stewards of the manifold
grace of God. Isn't that something? We're put
into God's creation to serve Him, not live for ourselves,
and we're called into God's kingdom to minister His grace and glory. And what we do in this world
will either stand as evidence of our salvation, or as I said,
it's going to be the witness of the prosecution. Our works
will either evidence our faith, or they're going to evidence
our condemnation. The Pharisees were unjust stewards,
misusing the things of God and compromising the things of God.
wasting the master's goods, and they were judged. And they weren't
aware of it. Our Lord judged them, and they
were unaware of it or unconcerned about it. Now hear what I'm saying. I'm not suggesting a work salvation
in any form or fashion. I'm talking about the fruit of
it, the evidence of it, the character of it. Our lives are a true and
undeniable witness of a heavenly work. Is that right? If there'd been no change in
me, there'd been no change. And I can profess all I want
to. Isn't that what he said over there in the book of John? profess faith in Him, what we're
talking about is being grafted into the vine, and whatever is
grafted into the vine is going to produce fruit. And if it don't
produce fruit, it was nothing but a profession. Our lives are a true and undeniable
witness of a heavenly work. We are bond slaves of Christ. The bond slave, his time was
up. And his master loved him. And he took care of him and he
provided for him and provided for his family. And the time
came to set him free. His debt was paid. He said, you're
free to go. He said, I don't want to go.
No, here's the door. Just get your stuff, you and
your family. No, he said, I don't want to
go. I don't want to go. All right, he said, you stand
here in the threshold. And he come up and took an oar
and bored his ear. I don't think they just left
a hole in his ear. I think they put a ring in it. All these bond
slaves and house servants that I ever seen or read about or
saw a picture, they all had a ring in their ear. But at any rate,
they took it off, bored his ear. And he had to stand there with
the blood dripping out of his ear and say, I love my master. I will not go out. I'm not going
out. I'm going to stay here and serve
Him forever. We're bond slaves. That's what
it is to be a believer. We're bond slaves. We don't want
to go out. You're free to go out. The door
opens the same way you come in. You can go out. Hundreds have. Why don't you? Why don't I? We don't want to go out. Where
are we going to go? That's the word of eternal life.
Where are we going to go? We stay with him because we will
not go out. And a true steward takes with
one hand what the master gives and dispenses with the other.
Huh? Sure he does. And he does what
he does for the glory of God and the good of his sheep. And
the message of this parable is about using all that our Lord
has committed to our trust to minister to chosen sinners. All
of this was an answer to the question that the scribes and
Pharisees asked him, why receiveth he sinners and eats with them? And he's telling them. I'm a model steward. That's why. That's why I do it. Now let me give you three plain
verses. I can't find them to read them
along with me that just jot them down or commit them to memory.
Here's three verses of scripture that ought to serve as commentaries
on this parable. That's how we understand things.
We compare spiritual things with spirit. And the first is in Ecclesiastes
chapter 11 and verse 1. He said, cast thy bread upon
the waters, For thou shalt find it after many days. After many
days. In Galatians chapter 6, verses
7 through 10, he said, Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life. everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint
not. And then the last verse is here
in 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 17 through 19. He said, charge
them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded. nor trust in uncertain riches,
but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy,
that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready
to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves
a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay
hold on eternal life. And then the third thing I want
us to see is the harsh reality recorded in these verses, verses
10 through 12 of our text here in Luke chapter 16. He that is
faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and
he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore you have not been
faithful, in the unrighteous manner, who will commit to your
trust the true riches? If you took worldly things and
just treated them any old way, and squandered the master's goods,
is the master going to come along now and entrust into your hands
the real riches? You see what he's saying? And
if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's,
Who shall give you that which is your own? Now the things of this world
are here called the least. Riches, money, jobs, whatever
it is, that's the least. That's the least. And natural
men think highly of riches. They think that riches are a
sign of greatness and brings ease and rest to their soul. That's what the man said. I'm
going to tear down my barn, I'm going to build bigger barns,
and then I'm going to save souls. Take thy knees. Don't work that
way. But our Lord here calls all these
things the least. True riches are spiritual riches. The riches of grace and mercy,
the riches of Christ, are here called much. He calls the riches
of this world unrighteous mammon because they're simply obtained. Where is the man who can say
he righteously obtained this or that? You can't. You can't
even look yourself in the mirror and say that. No matter what
I lay my hand to, it's polluted by my touch. And even my spiritual sacrifices,
Peter said, must be made acceptable by the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't
offer a prayer based on its own holiness. Can't do it. It's polluted. The minute it comes out of my
mouth, it's polluted. The harsh reality is that all
the riches of this world belong to another man. They are another
man's. You see that in the text? What
man? The Master. One mediator between
men and God, the Man, Christ Jesus. All things are His. They belong to Him. He created
them. They were made by Him and for Him. We're stewards and nothing more.
These things are ours to serve Him and to dispense these things
according to his will. And little things here are the
truest test of the true character of the steward. Somebody once
said a man that will steal a dime will rob a bank if he gets the
opportunity. If he'll reach out and steal
that dime, he'll reach out and rob the safe and a bank if he
had the opportunity. A woman that'll gossip about
you, somebody she says she loves. If she gossips about you, she'd
kill you if she had the opportunity. A person who's not faithful over
little things is not really faithful at all. Somebody else wrote, faithfulness
is not measured by acts, but by lives missed. My lives lived. I remember Caleb
was telling his daddy, asked the pastor down there one time,
he said, you believe I'm saved? He said, see me in about 20 years. About 20 years. Now hear what
I'm saying. If we love the world, we'll seek
to hold on to the things of the world and we'll hate God and
despise his grace. Our worship of, service to, and
faith in God will become subservient to our worldly interest. Everything
that has to do with God will take second place. It will become
subservient to our worldly interest. But if we love God, truly love
Him, We will serve him, his people, his purpose, and his son, and
we will make our lives, our businesses, and our worldly interests subservient
to the worship of, obedience to, and service of our Lord. That's what he's teaching in
this parable. The harsh reality is you cannot
serve God and mammon. Isn't that what our Lord says? You cannot have two masters,
for either you'll hate the one and love the other, or else you'll
hold to the one and despise the other. There's no middle ground.
Now let me close with just a few words from Mark chapter 8. Mark
8, 34. And when he called the people
to him, with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and
follow me. And whosoever will save his life shall lose it. And whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall
save it. For what shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? Or what shall
a man give in exchange for his soul? You cannot serve God and
man in one or the other. You can't have two masters. In
Romans 6, Paul said, don't you know that whosoever servant you
are, whatever it is you serve, that's your master? at your master. May the Lord give us all an understanding
of this parable. Thank you.