If you will, turn with me to
the book of Luke, chapter 9. We're going to be looking at verses
51 through 56. Luke chapter 9. And my subject is going to be
the steward of time. Let's read these verses together. Luke chapter 9, verse 51. And it came to pass when the
time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly
set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers before
his face, and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans
to make ready for him. And they did not receive him
because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And
when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord,
wilt thou that we should command fire to come down from heaven
and consume them even as Elias did? But he turned and rebuked
them and said, you know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man is not come
to destroy men's lives, but to save them. and they went to another
village. Now let me begin in verse 51
on the subject that I titled the lesson, The Steward of Time. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
one. In Ephesians chapter one, he
uses the word dispensation. That word dispensation appears
four times in the scriptures, and in each instance, it means
Stewardship. What is stewardship? Stewardship
is something committed to a man's trust. One commits this to another's
trust. And the one thing required of
him to whom these things are trusted is faithfulness. He must
be faithful. That's what Paul said. In 1 Corinthians
9.17, just hold your place there in Ephesians. It's called a dispensation
of the gospel. A dispensation, the stewardship
of the gospel was given to Paul. In Ephesians 3, 2, it's called
the dispensation of the grace of God. The grace of God was
trusted to a man to preach. The grace of God. And especially
toward the Gentiles. In Colossians 1.25, it's called
the dispensation of God as he put Paul into the ministry. And so Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians
4.1, let a man so account of us as ministers of Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of God. He was a steward. In every
occasion, these verses mean stewardship. And it's the exact same word
in all four of these verses. And especially in this one here
in Ephesians 1, 9, he says, having made known unto us the mystery
of his will according to his good pleasure, which he hath
purposed in himself, that in the dispensation, the stewardship
of the fullness of time, He might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven, which are in earth, even
in him. Everything that was trusted to
him is going to be gathered. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated. According to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ. He gave Christ this stewardship. He trusted him with all things. Jesus Christ is God's mediatorial
king and he alone has been trusted or made steward over all God's
house. And the first thing I see in
his stewardship here is the stewardship of time. There are no accidents. There's a time, time. Time is
relative to whatever God's doing, whatever God's redemptive purpose
is, time is relative to that. It's not relative to God. God's
not a creature of time. He said, I'm the first and the
last. I declare the end from the beginning. God's an eternal
being. Time is not relative to God, but it is to us and it is
to God's redemptive purpose. And our time is divided into
two sections, isn't it? Before the appearance of Christ
and after his death. All time. He's the steward of
time. Time is made for Him. It's not only made by Him, but
it's made for Him. Everything in time. He's the reason for time. John said in Revelations 10,
5, as this vision he has of the closing of all things and the
end of time, he said in the angel, which I saw stand upon the sea
and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and swore
by him that liveth forever, who created heaven, and the things
that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are,
and the sea, and the things that are therein. Now listen, that
there should be time no longer. They're coming in the end of
this thing called time. Time is something God created
to accomplish his redemptive purpose. And when that purpose
is fulfilled, time will disappear. It'll disappear. And there's
one great purpose in time, that is to manifest God's glory and
the salvation of a people through the person and work of Jesus
Christ. In Ecclesiastes 3.1 it says to everything there is a
season and a time to every purpose under heaven. There's a time.
There's a time. Most of you know Russell's younger
sister died very unexpectedly. She died. And been a lot of talk
about the time. It was before her time. No, it
was exactly her time. Exactly her time. There's a time
to everything, every purpose under heaven. There's a time
to be born and a time to die. Now who's steward of that time?
Christ is. He that liveth, we live unto
the Lord. And even so, those who die, they die unto the Lord.
We are the Lord's. We belong to him, he's the steward
of time. If we have tomorrow, the Lord
gave it to us. Why would he give you? Because
that time is for God's purpose. And that's why he's giving you
tomorrow and giving you the day after. And every day we need
to live unto the Lord. Unto the Lord. He said there's
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
There's a time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down
and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to
laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to cast away
stones and a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace and
a time to refrain from embracing. A time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to
cast away. Everything purposed in time has
a time and Jesus Christ our Lord is steward of that time. And
so here in Luke 9.51, it came to pass when the time was come.
What time? His time. You remember in that
one city, they despised him. He just exposed them for what
they were, point blank, and they hated him, they despised him,
and they took him out on the brow of this big cliff and was
gonna throw him off. And he turned and passed through
their midst. Do you remember why? His time was not yet. They couldn't touch Him. They
couldn't touch Him. When the time was come that He
should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. That's why He came into the world,
isn't it? To go to the cross. And concerning Jesus Christ coming
into this world, Paul said, when the fullness of the time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive
the adoption of sons. Over in Hebrews chapter three,
over and over and over, he said, today, today, not tomorrow, there
is no tomorrow, today, if you'll hear his voice. Ain't that why
we gathered here today, to hear from God? If you'll hear his
voice, harden not your hearts. Don't harden your heart. Don't
resist what he's telling you. Listen, listen. If you hear his
voice, there's a time for hearing. Most philosophers over on Mars
Hill, Paul preached to them. I don't know how long, but quite
a while he preached to them at their invitation. And when they
heard of the resurrection, some of them said, that's, hang on,
hang on. We'll hear you again in a more
convenient season. No, no you won't. No you won't. You've done heard him and they
never heard again. Time for Christ our substitute
to go to Jerusalem and be offered up to God. He's the steward of
time. And then secondly, I want us
to see a ready substitute. Jesus Christ had nothing in Him
worthy of death. From the time He was born to
the time that He gave up the ghost on the cross, there was
nothing in Him. Satan came and found nothing
in Him. There was no corruption in Him. There was nothing for Him to
stir up, nothing for Him to use. He was the spotless, sinless
Son of God. He had nothing in him worthy
of judgment of God except our sin, our sin. The scripture says he bore our
sin in his own body on the tree. He was wounded, Isaiah said,
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
and the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray,
we've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people, he was stricken. He was stricken. He had our sins
charged to him. and it was now time to pay the
debt. And he set his face to go to
Jerusalem, no hesitation, no second thoughts, no being sidetracked. My whole generation since Jesus
before the people of some poor defeated reformer is one who
was scared to go to the cross, who trembled before the cross,
who tried to get out of going to the cross. What a blasphemous
lie they set before the people. Not even the devils in hell could
keep him from going to Jerusalem. He said his faith steadfastly
to do what God sent him to do. He was faithful, faithful unto
death, even the death of the cross. And this was his reason
for becoming one with our flesh and blood. It was the reason
why he was made of a woman and made under the law. He came here
to redeem. To redeem. And he looked at that day approaching and he looked
far beyond it to the glory that was to follow. And to that numberless
multitude that he would save by his death. And he looked forward
to the glory it would bring to his father. My friend Jesus Christ
looked on his death as a thing desired. He desired to go to
the cross. It was his desire because he
knew what his death was gonna accomplish. It says, for the
joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despised
the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Brother Don
said one time, may God give us grace to look upon death as a
welcome friend. Boy, we just look at it like,
oh no, we're losing everything. You're losing everything you
don't need. It's a welcome friend. A welcome
friend. A thing desired and not something
to dread. And then thirdly, I want us to
see a capital crime. The one and only savior of sinners
was on his way to the cross. See this ready, faithful substitute. He set his face like flint. He
was going to Jerusalem, going to the cross, going to do what
God sent him here to do. And he sent his disciples out
before him. It was a long journey. And they
were going to go into a city and find some folks there that
would put him up and feed him and let him spend the night.
And he went in there and they said, oh, he said, Christ is
coming. Yeah, he's coming. He's coming
to see us. No, actually he's going to Jerusalem. He's just going to spend the
night here. He's going to Jerusalem. And when they saw his determination
to go to Jerusalem and not to come to them, but just temporary,
they said, no, he ain't staying here. He ain't staying here. And they would not receive him
because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. Let
me tell you something. There's no salvation except he
go to Jerusalem. Everything God has for sinners
is bound to that one act on that cross. If he don't go to Jerusalem
and die on that cross, and God don't raise him from the dead
being satisfied with his death, there is no salvation. And they had zero understanding
about God and Christ. You remember he told the Samaritan
woman, she told him, said, well, we worship here in these mountains,
us Samaritans do. And y'all go down to Jerusalem
and worship. And our Lord said, you worship
you know not what. That was the trouble, they didn't
know God. They didn't know who Christ was.
And how can you worship apart from that? That's where God's
glory is revealed. They had zero understanding about
God and Christ. And no doubt his messengers told
him that he was going to Jerusalem. But that's our message, isn't
it? Christ and him crucified. This world don't want Christ
crucified. They want you to talk to them
about living a better life. They want you to talk to them
about godly habits. They want you to tell them stories
and soothe their consciences. and then preach the gospel in
such a way that it's universal and it's sittin' on the shelf
and all they have to do is take it. That's what this world wants. But that's not the gospel. The
gospel's Christ crucified. Christ crucified. He must of
necessity go to Jerusalem. He told his disciples back in
verse 22 of Luke 9, he said the Son of Man must must suffer many
things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be slain and raised the third day. He must. This to me is a demonstration
of man's obstinate unbelief. By the gospel they preached,
they asked these men to receive the Lord and because of where
he was going, They refuse to have anything to do with Him. And to me, the reason why the
vast majority of men and women refuse to receive the Christ
we preach is because of particular redemption and absolute sovereign
grace. The issue is over the cross. And then I want us to see this,
fourthly. I want us to see these disciples. They got angry. They got angry. They couldn't see that unbelief
in them, but they saw it in them Samaritans. They couldn't see
willful rebellion in themselves, but they could see it in those
Samaritans. And it's easy for us to look around at each other
and say, boy, look at that, look at that. Believers wouldn't do
like that. Then why did you? Oh, you did
the same thing. These disciples got angry. They
wanted to burn the whole village. They wanted to burn everybody.
Men, women, children, babies. Call fire down from heaven like
Elijah and burn the whole mess up. Kill them all. Kill them
all. And the Lord rebuked them. And
he said, you don't know anything about that spirit that's in you. You're totally ignorant. Totally
ignorant. Son of man's not come to destroy
men's lives, verse 56, but to save them, to save them. In John 3, 17, it says this. For God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world. That's not why he came. The world was condemned already. God didn't have to leave his
throne and condescend to become a man to judge this world. He judged this world in Adam
way back yonder in the garden. He made preparation for man's
fall before he ever made the first man. We're not waiting on condemnation. We're condemned already. By the
offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. We're already condemned. God didn't have to come down
to this world to judge it. Now watch this, John 3, 18. He that believeth on him, he
that trusteth in Christ, believes on him, called on his name, fell
down at his feet, submitted to his rule. He that believeth on
him is not condemned. He's not condemned. How do I
know that? Because God gave him that gift
of faith and he laid hold of Christ. He's not condemned, but
he that believeth not, now watch this, is condemned already. He's condemned already because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And he said, this is the condemnation.
Light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light. Why do they do that? Because
their deeds are evil, that's why. But he said, even so, by the
righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification
of life. That is, all that were represented
in him. And we preach to warn men of
the wrath to come, but our joy is to see men saved in Christ.
Everything stated in the book of God states clearly that Jesus
saves. Look unto me, all ye ends of
the earth, and be ye saved. Be ye saved. When I think of
this world, I think of a prison. Prisoners shackled in chains
of darkness. And when I preach to you, I want
in my mind to think that God has set you free. That God may be saving you and
me. You come and you hear and you
seem to rejoice, and why shouldn't I think this of you? Christ came
not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And what of them that believe
not? They were condemned already.
I didn't add anything to it. They were condemned already.
But you ain't gonna be saved without hearing and believing. God's not gonna believe for you.
You gonna believe. He has to give you that faith,
but when he does, you will believe, you will repent, you will submit,
just as though he didn't. May the Lord use these studies
to help each one of us know and understand what's going on in
these last days. Thank you.