the Gospel of Luke chapter 16. I'm sorry, I'm going to read
v. 13-15. It reads as follows. 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. And the Pharisees who were covetous
heard all these things and they derided him. He said unto them,
you are they which justify yourselves before men. But God knows your
hearts. For that which is highly esteemed
among men an abomination in the sight of God so the message reaches
the mailbox doesn't it this is what is meant by John 6 63 my
word is spirit and they are life and this is what is meant by
the Hebrew writer in chapter 4 verse 12 the Word of God is
alive and sharper than any two-edged sword and is able to divide and
asunder, soul and spirit, marrow and bone. And the Word of God
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Our
Master is still communicating from where we've left off for
the last three weeks In the parable of the prodigal son, we've had
three, what I hope are productive messages around the lessons that
were latent there. We are still in Luke 15, verse
one, where our master is surrounded by multitudes of people of every
hue, rich, poor, wise, fools, leaders, and notorious persons,
people who are thoroughly divulging everything that he says and then
there are those who are always there who only objectively criticize
the message. And now after our lord has given
a wonderful discourse On the nature and character of god the
father in his loving disposition towards sinners in the most magnanimous
way as he heads towards a body of truth, which we must not avoid
and that is the doctrine of eternal judgment The doctrine of hell,
that's where our Lord is going. This is where we're going also.
He actually bridges the gap. He's developing a bridge between
the favorable disposition of God the Father in calling sinners
to himself through Jesus Christ to the day of judgment where
every man must stand before God and give an account for his life. He's building a bridge between
these two extremes. The evangelical call of the gospel,
of which you and I as children of God are so wonderfully privileged
to be a part of, isn't it a joy to tell men and women about the
lovely Christ? Isn't it a privilege to expound
and teach and proclaim and point men to the Savior of sinners? It's a great joy to tell men
and women that Christ is the only Savior. But there's another
aspect of that privilege that you and I are called to, of which
in this present generation of which I live, most men are willing
to shun this and sadly to say even Christians would avoid this
reality. And that is there is a day of
judgment for which men must stand before God. We don't hear much
on the judgment of Christ, the judgment seat of Christ, the
judgment of God, the sure fact that God must judge men for their
sins in the day of judgment. We don't hear much about that,
but we will because our Master plans on giving the full counsel
of God to this group of people that are sitting before Him,
of which they will not escape. What Judgment Day renders to
every one of us. And that is an account of our
life. So I want to press something
on you as we begin to work through what I call the bridge between
the offer and call of the gospel and the consequences of those
who fail to respond. And the bridge is this. You and
I are accountable for our lives. The life we live now we are accountable
for. And the message that's before
us is really talking about Accountability. Accountability. I know sometimes
we think, and this is what the message is going to unfold for
us here in a moment, that God kind of like the stork, the mythical
stork that once the baby is born, it kind of flies over and just
drops him off somewhere. God kind of dropped you off somewhere
and left you in the world to kind of fence for yourself and
do whatever you want to do. Now, I know you don't say that,
but many of us act that way. You know how we act? Like we
never will have to face God and give an answer for what we do.
I'm just telling you the honest goodness truth. Do you act? Do
you really act and make decisions and choices based on the fact
that you've got to meet a holy God one day and give an account?
Do you really take into consideration the gravity of your life, the
gravity of your calling, the gravity of the gifts and resources
that God gives you? Do you really take it into consideration
upon every deliberation that you engage in on a day-to-day
basis? I would say that most of us are not as sensitive as
we ought to be with regards to the blessing of life and resources
and gifts and things that we have. Am I about accurate with
that? Can I get a witness? Some of
us know that we could probably do a little better job with the
life that we have. Is that true? I could do a little
bit better job of what my walk with Christ. I could actually
do a little bit better of a job in my relationship with God in
terms of the time that I have. I could probably do a much better
job as a calling with regards to pastorship and teacher. I
can do a much better job if God would grant me the grace to be
more diligent in my relationship with my family. I could probably
do even more a better job if he granted me grace with my resources,
my finances, and everything. And today's message is not about
money of a sort. So you can relax. Even though the context is going
to teach us some things about that. I want you to know I'm
not going to hijack you and get you to talking about tithing.
But I am going to get you to talking about giving. And I hope to persuade you that
you have things for which God has given you, for which you
must give an account. The parable before us that our
Lord is laying out is a parable concerning the stewardship of
every believer, the stewardship of the Church of God and the
stewardship, more particularly, of the ministers of the gospel.
And the ultimate target is the leadership of the church, for
which those of you who are aspiring to leadership, you must pay very
careful attention to what I'm going to talk about today. and
do your best to make personal application to these things.
But I don't want any of you who are breathing to think that you
will escape the whole idea and notion of stewardship. We all
must give an account before God. That's what the word of God says.
You do know that, right? Second Corinthians chapter five, verse
10 and following the apostle Paul says, knowing the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men for we must all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ and I've shared with you before we
must all stand is a strong Greek emphatic which means every one
of us will stand before God you will meet God I will meet God
we will meet God we'll meet him collectively we'll meet him individually
when we will meet God and have to stand before this great Lord
and and answer to our stewardship in this life. Be sure of that.
You'll meet God. You'll meet God. The Bible says
it again in Romans chapter 14. So then every one of us shall
give an account before God. I like the way Ecclesiastes puts
it in the book of Ecclesiastes, the last chapter. secret thing
shall be given account before God in the day of judgment Solomon
says to the young man to the young woman to the foolish child
or the individual that thinks that they can just and here is
one of the principles of which this parable is given they think
that they can just waste their time see that's why I entitled
the message the prodigal servant See, he hasn't really changed
an aspect of the theme. He dealt with the prodigal son.
He dealt with the prodigal's father. He dealt with the prodigal's
brother. And now he's dealing with the
prodigal servant. Do you see how he continues the
pearl the string of pearls as he lays down truth because no
truth is disconnected from any other truth when it's God's truth
and so now he's targeting us on that level of our calling
that has to do with our life Point number one in your outline
then we can work through this fairly succinctly every Christian
is is a steward. Do you guys believe that? The
Greek term is archonomos. I've shared it with you before.
Archonomos. If that sounds strange to you,
here's a better word. Economics. Write the word economics
down. That is your English transliteration
of the word archonomos. economics. And don't bind yourself
in the area of economics to merely money. Economics has to do with
the whole structure, the whole economy of our life. And it really
has to do with the term management. Management. How are you managing
your life? And so he's getting ready now
to lay down the concept of management. And you and I are going to have
a mirror raised up before us once again, of which the word
of God is a mirror. And to show us where we are,
we might be a little uncomfortable today, but if you obtain the
lessons, the moral of the story, you can escape your being uncomfortable
by evangelical obedience to the truth. So as we look at it, I
want to make sure you understand point number one. Every Christian
is a steward. Every Christian has gifts. Every
Christian has resources. Every Christian has received
into their hands God's economy. God has given you something,
child of God. Do you know that? God has given
you, in fact, a number of things by which you become, in a proxy
way, a manager for God in your life. You see, the parable before
you lays out the story of a rich man and his stewards. You see that term right there
in verse 1, right? The word can, in a very practical and contemporary
sense, mean manager or landlord. Manager or landlord. And the
idea is this, this manager or landlord doesn't own a thing.
Isn't that what our elders said in this prayer? All things come
from you. Our life, our health, our strength.
We do confess that we receive all things from God, don't we?
Now watch this. They are on loan from God for
a season. That's all. On loan. Be sure
of this. What you have is on loan from
God. And you have become a manager
of God. This is true, child of God, if you are single. Do you
know the single status is a gift? Do you know being, now I want
you to hear this now, being single is a gift. There are blessings
that come with being single. You are free from a huge amount
of burdens of which married people have to deal with. But being
single also is a responsibility because you are now more available
to manage God's goods in your life in a specific way. I hope
this comes home to you. As a single person you are obligated
then to make sure that you take God's resources which he has
given to you and assess and analyze yourself and ask the question,
here it is, am I wasting my time? You are the steward the manifold
blessings of God first Peter chapter 4 verse 10 and in Titus
chapter 1 verse 7 Titus addressing leaders in the church of which
next this next coming Saturday men we will have our leadership
class you are all welcome I want to say it now just in case you
don't read the bulletin or you pretend that you can read but
really because you went to government school you don't know how to
read at all here's what I want to say There's a sign-up sheet
in the back room, and I'm gonna say it one time and I'm done
here. If you don't sign up on that sheet, we will assume that
you're not gonna be there. Everybody, every one of you who've
said to me you're gonna be there, sign that sheet or we'll assume
that you won't be there for logistical purposes. But in Titus 1, verse
7, what Paul said to Titus as he was instructing Titus and
Timothy about the church of the living God is that bishops, Leaders
in the church elders in the church deacons in the church. They're
called officers They are stewards of the mysteries of the kingdom
of God stewards and the word steward there is to manage and
their job is to manage the things of God with regards to God's
church the term Oikos Nomos can be broken down in two words.
The first word is Oikos and it's literally translated house God
has a house And you know what that house is? The kingdom of
God. On a very visible level, it's the church of the living
God. And the word nomos is the term from which we get our phrase
law. You know what that means? There
is a law that governs God's house. And everyone has a copy of that
law called the word of God. by virtue of the law of God's
house are you and I to function and more particularly the leaders
this is what we're gonna see in our text point number two
this is something that has to be driven home too I know you
know it if you love God's Word but point number two tells us
that God has an expectation of profit from those who become
stewards in his household God expects a profit We are called
to be fruit bearing stewards. We are called to the concept
of multiplication, addition. This is a theme that runs through
the scripture because it depicts the glory of God. Keep your hand
here and go to John chapter 15. As Jesus is headed towards Calvary,
one of the things he wants to let his disciples understand
for sure is that they're calling as apostles. will be with the
objective of glorifying God and in the context of God being glorified,
Christ makes it clear and vivid through this metaphor of the
true vine of which he calls himself in verse 1, I am the true vine
and my father is the what? Husbandman. Every branch in me
that beareth not fruit, he does what? Takes away. Now I want
you to mark that, that's called a takeaway principle. Remember
we've talked about the takeaway principle and the principle of
addition when you are in God's favor He adds to you when you
are in disfavor with God He takes away that term is both Old Testament
and New Testament Obviously in the parable that's before us
the steward is in a takeaway principle, isn't he? The steward
is about to lose his stewardship He's standing before God on a
grounds of accountability. He has to answer for his stewardship
Here's what Jesus says in the parable of the true vine He says
in verse 3 now you are clean through the word which I've spoken
unto you Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot what
bear fruit of itself see the underlying supposition of the
metaphor of the vine tree is that it bears fruit and And the
inherent warning is if the branch does not produce fruit, it will
be cut off. The clarity that's given to us
in this parable is that the father is the husband man. God Almighty
is the one that tends his vine tree. That vine tree is Christ. It's another term for the kingdom
of God. It's another term for the church.
The church is Christ's body. He is the head of that church.
But there are many branches in that church on a corporate level
that if they do not appear to bear fruit, one might ask the
question, is the father tending to that branch? For which Jesus
says, if we do not bear fruit, we will be cut off. He says in
verse 5, verse 4, the remedy to making sure that that does
not happen is that we do what? Abide in Christ. He says, if
you abide in me and I abide in you, as the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you
except you abide in me. Isn't that what that prayer was,
as our elder recounted how important prayer was? All I can do is pray. Are you kidding? You better pray,
because without Him you can do nothing. And yet the promise
is through Christ, we can do all things because he what strengthens
us. Look at verse seven and eight.
Here it is. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you
shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Boy,
isn't that a powerful promise? That's a tremendously powerful
promise. And it fails in the life of men and women because
we don't rightly interpret it, nor do we understand the underlying
foundation of this promise. This is not about asking God
for whatever you want. This is about you corresponding
with God's truth and desiring for God's will to be done in
your life. Verse 7 tells us if we abide in him, if we abide
in him and his words abide in us, we can ask him what we will
and it shall be done unto us. Verse 8, herein is my father
what? Glorified that you bear much
fruit and in this way you will be my what? I want you to allow
verse 8 to penetrate your mind because it's important that you
understand that God called you by His grace, He saved you by
the death, burial, resurrection of Christ, and He quickened you
by the Holy Ghost, having planted you in Christ, in order that
you might be a fruit-bearing Christian to God. I want that
to penetrate your head. There is no option. There is
no option. There's no such thing as a fruitless
Christian. It's very important that you
know this. Where my burden comes in the message today as our Lord
is bridging the gap between that wonderful parable of how he saves
sinners to the uttermost who come to him by faith is the fact
that God so carefully warns you and I to be careful about what
we do with that which God gives us. And I am very much afraid
that this present generation does not take God seriously,
particularly the American Christian. I think we are careless Christians
today. And I want it to be driven home
that God expects for us to do what he has called us to do with
the things that he has given us. Again, the proposition is
God expects fruit here. It's because God will be glorified.
And what other motive might I have for wanting to honor God with
my life other than him being glorified? Do I need any other
motive? Do I need any other motive for
living my life in full dependence and service and sacrifice by
God's grace to Christ? Other than that, this glorifies
God. Why are you doing what you do? Because it glorifies God.
It glorifies God. So the expectation of profit
is critical. Go back to our text. Now watch how the text opens
up, Saints. The Lord Jesus says there was
a certain rich man, and you can mark down that this rich man
is God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, which had a steward. And
this steward, you can put your name there. And the same was
accused unto God that he had what? Wasted. His goods. Now we can examine ourselves. So what I meant my premise for
this discourse is for us to ask ourselves, do we waste God's
goods? Do you waste the talents that
God gives you? Do you waste the gifts that he gives you? Do you
waste the resources that he gives you? Now, here comes the the
rhetoric from some of you. I don't even know if I have any
gifts. I don't even know if I, I've been looking for my gifts
and my talent for years. Would somebody please tell me
where my gifts are? If I find my gifts, I might do
something. Okay. Well, really all that is,
is a form of escapism. It's a shallow sort of obfuscation
of the facts. You are gifted. You're gifted
with life. You're gifted with common sense.
You're gifted with stations. Here's one of the stations. You're
either gifted with being single or gifted with being married.
God gave you that gift. If you're married, you are gifted
with marriage. If you're a man, you're called to be a husband,
a father. And that gift requires a certain
sense of stewardship before God. If you are a woman, you're gifted
with being a wife. and a mother, and that requires
a certain stewardship of you. If you are children, young people
who believe the gospel, and we have many of them that do, and
you are preparing for whatever the future may hold for you,
you are gifted right now with a plethora of oversight and wisdom
and maturity that's above your head, meaning brothers and sisters,
mothers and fathers, those who love you and care about you,
and the eldership, the mothers and the sisters in the church
who have gone before you and have, Great wisdom that they
can actually give to you pour into your life to help you prepare
to serve God With his goods in a much more productive way. That's
the blessing that you have when you are a young man young men
Do not spurn being young Do not waste your time in your youth
and what I mean by that do not think that you cannot learn from
your elders Derive everything you can from them Make your ears
large to hear what they say. Store it in the back of your
mind even if you don't understand it. Because it will come back
in due season to keep you when you get in trouble. That's the
nature of wisdom. Wisdom is never interpreted immediately. It only shows up as truth when
you have made mistakes. Wisdom never shows up as wisdom
immediately. It always shows up later when
you get into such a dire strait that you recall what was said
to you and now all of a sudden it makes sense and you go, he
was right, she was right, they were right, but before it was
just nonsense to you while you were walking in your pride. Listen
to wisdom wisdom is the principal thing get wisdom and in all you're
getting get understanding wisdom Precipitates the fear of the
Lord it gets you ready for God. You need wisdom. I need wisdom,
too We all need wisdom don't spurn wisdom because to spurn
it young people is to make you a fool Don't do it. Don't do
it in the category of gifts God has given us many in the church
of the living God you know this is true every one of us are really
gifts to one another but particularly God has laid out gifts in the
church pastors teachers elders evangelists and what have you
in order for the work of the ministry to take place you know
that missionaries apostles prophets and then a long category of lists
in first Corinthians chapter 12 that lays out administration
this gets back into the eikonomos, the household work of the kingdom
of God. Now if we really were to take
1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 very seriously, then you and
I would understand that coming to church is not a social event
with which you decide to hang out with this person or that
person to the exclusion of others as if it was just some kind of
social club. You have totally minimized and
diminished the significance of the church of the living God
when it comes to its functional, practical, and spiritual benefit
in our life when you turn it into a social club. Please don't
do that. You will have wasted your time coming to church. You
know, you hear people often say, I don't even know why I go to
church. I waste my time going to church. Well, if it's a church
that's telling lies, you're wasting time. But if it's telling the
truth, the truth never wastes time. The only waste is in us
not hearing the truth. The steward here is called upon
by the rich man. Notice what it says in verse
two. Are you there? And he called him. See it? And he called. What had happened? There was
an accusation raised that this steward was wasting his master's
goods and he called him. Do you know that can happen to
any one of us? Do you know before you go home
tonight, God can call you. Remember the parable of the rich
man as Jesus is preaching. This is in the book of Luke couple
brothers all all Discombobulated because what I'm sitting there
saying and I really want my inheritance, but my older brother he has he
has lock on this and Jesus is preaching on spiritual things
and in the middle of his preaching this knucklehead stands up and
say master Will you tell my brother to give me my portion of the
inheritance? Now watch this you don't believe
it but money is has far more of a hold on people than we really
want to admit. And our Lord said to them, listen,
life does not consist in the abundance of the things which
we possess. And it's very important for us
to hear this. He called unto him and he said unto him, how
is it that I hear this of thee? This is God talking to you and
me. How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of your
what? Stewardship. for you may no longer
be stored. See, my proposition that God
expects profit is affirmed by verse two, isn't it? God expects,
with the resources that he gives us, that there is a multiplication,
a bearing of fruit, a profitableness in it, a productivity, an increase,
a flourishing. Now the historical context works
like this, if the picture is not real clear. The rich man
owns a lot of land. And on this land, he has houses
and he has farms and he has trees. We'll see this here in a moment
when the manager has to go to everyone and rectify his wastefulness
with them. But in the Middle East, and this
is true around the world today, it's been true in our culture
as well. Somebody owns the land you live on. Somebody owns the
house you live in. You say, well, I own the house.
Well, is it paid outright? No, well, you don't own the house.
The bank owns the house. Act a fool and not make that
payment and see who owns the house. You know how we get deluded,
don't we? I own my house. Did you pay for
it outright? No way, you don't own it. Try
not making that payment and see don't you get threatened with
being set on the curve right in front of the house you say
you own. See, and here's the thing, the
way God has set up life, the way he has set up life for you
and I is that there are very few things that you and I actually
own. Most of it is just borrowed.
It's on loan from God. And either we are wise and prudent
enough and walking in wisdom to do what's right with it, or
we actually are wasting those things. This man must give an
account to the owner. And I want you to notice the
glaring, glaring silence. Once the owner charges him with
wastefulness. He called unto him and he said
unto him, how is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account
of thy stewardship. You know what the term account
means? An answer. It's the Greek term logion from
the word logos. And what it means is I have to
answer for what I have in terms of the resources that God gives
me. For you may no longer be steward. Now notice in verse
three and four, he doesn't answer the master, He begins to deliberate
in his conscience what he's going to do because he knows he's guilty. Then the steward said, where?
Within himself. What shall I do? For my Lord
is taking away the stewardship from me. I cannot dig to beg
I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do. You
see how urgency often creates a dynamic that moves people to
do something. Here he is out of anxiety for
the fact that he's going to lose the stewardship. And see, he's
not deliberating with the master in terms of being able to keep
the stewardship because he's guilty. He's guilty. And I might even give a certain
redemptive truth concerning this. When you and I stand before God
on the last day, if you are not in Christ, guess what? You're
guilty. You're guilty. You're not going to be deliberating
with God. No plea bargains in judgment day. You're guilty.
The only thing that's going to happen is you're going to have
to serve out your sentence. And here in our account, it underscores
the seriousness of you and I making sure that we understand why God
gives us our resources. Point number three, the wastefulness
of the resources, the wastefulness of the resources. The reason
why I call this parable this account, the parable of the wasteful
steward is because our same word waste here is in chapter 15,
where the, the prodigal son wasted his father's goods as well. He wasted his father's goods. Same thing, that's verse 13.
And not many days after that, the younger son gathered together,
took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance
with riotous living. Just to help you a little bit
with just the grammar there, the idea of wasting means to
use in an indiscriminate way contrary to the purpose and design
for which it was made. To be wasteful with anything
is to use it in an indiscriminate way contrary to the purpose for
which it was designed. And if you and I are not living
for the glory of God, we are wasting our life. If the offices
to which we are called pastor, elder, deacon, a secular vocation
in the world, husband, wife, as I said, and we are not doing
what we do in our secular vocation, in our domestic vocation, watch
this, to the glory of God, we are wasting that gift. It will
be done indiscriminately, without care and contrary to the design
for which God gave it. Am I making some sense? A wasteful
steward has an assignment for which they do not care to execute
according to the plans. A wasteful steward has an assignment,
has an obligation of which they do not care to operate according
to the plan. It is important for you to know
you will have to answer for your stewardship. Now, it's important
also for us to understand that Jesus is dealing here with an
analogy. Point number four in our outline,
an analogy. The analogy of money to the gospel. The analogy of money to the gospel.
Why do I say that? Look over at verse 11. As Jesus
goes through the account and we read of what the man did in
terms of how he rectified it, and we'll touch on that here
in a moment, how he rectified his problem. We read over in
verse 10 and 11 these words. Let me actually, yeah, let me
start at 10 and 11. He that is faithful in that which is least
is faithful also in what? Much. he that is unjust in that
which is least is unjust also in much do you see that and so
what our Lord is getting ready to do is develop a sort of a
juxtaposition between inferior things and superior things carnal
things and spiritual things earthly things and heavenly things verse
11 if therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous
mammon who will commit to you to your trust the true and Riches
and here's an interesting statement if you have not been faithful
in that which is another Who shall give you that which is
yours? Have you ever read that passage and asked the question
what in the world does that mean? Have you ever asked that? Well,
I want to actually talk to you about that. I think as we are
unfolding this text, it will be clear to you, but I want you
to back up and understand some of the commendable things that
take place in this account. As the wasteful steward is finding
himself having to give account, what he does before he's removed
from his stewardship is given to us in verses three, verses
five through seven. So he called every one of his
Lord's debtors unto him. and said unto the first, how
much do you owe my Lord? He said, a hundred measures of
what? Oil. That's olive oil from olive
trees of which the people who were renting the houses, their
business was in olive oil. The tree was the owners, the
land was the owners and the house was the owners. And now they
have to render an account for what they have done with the
owners. The medium between the owner and the people who are
renting is the manager, right? The manager comes to them and
says, how much do you owe? And will you note, saints, that
the people who are running these businesses on the land are called
debtors. Debtors. Because as God owns
the cattle on a thousand hills, as he owns the universe, as he
owns everything, You and I are but debtors before God. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? And our job is to handle his
resources while here as debtors. Without a doubt, this is an allusion
to the spiritual condition of men and women outside of Christ.
As sinners, we are debtors before God. Every day the debt goes
up while as yet we are outside of Christ. Do you know every
moment that you sin against God in thought, in word, in deed,
in volition, in attitude, you are increasing your debt? Do
you know that? You are a debtor before God and the only remedy
for your debt is to stand in the righteousness of Christ who
has paid the debt for sinners in order that you might stand
before God debt-free. You know that, right? Outside
of Christ, there is no remedy for the daily accruing of debt
that you incur from your status before God. This is absolutely
true. Look at what he says to the other guy, or what he says
in verse six as a solution. The guy said, I owe him a hundred.
He says, take your bill and sit down and quickly write what?
50. Then he said to another, how much do you owe? And he said,
I owe a hundred measures of, here it is, wheat. And he said
to him, take your bill and write 80. Do you see that? Now, I'll
tell you, it was so strange to me when I read that years ago
and I said, wait a minute, this sounds like hook and crook through
and through to me. First of all, the owner has heard
that the manager has messed up. And the manager now is getting
ready to go do something what appears to me more unethical
and underhanded in order to position himself in a way to secure his
life later on. Do you guys see that? Some of
y'all crooks like me, y'all know what I'm talking about, right?
See, because some of you act like you're not crooks and don't
know how to do this, gotta cook the books. Did he cook the books?
Did he cook the books? Now watch this. You are wrong
when you cook the books. If you stand before God on the
last day, he gonna show you those cooked books and then you gonna
be cooked. Okay? Please understand that. Every
child of God here, there is no way that you can advance the
cause of Christ by lying on God or trying to cheat God. I just
want you to know that. It never works to sin that grace
may abound. It never works to sin that grace
may abound. It never works. God is not unrighteous
like that. God's not unrighteous like that.
He's not unrighteous. You will suffer for that if you
do that. What then is the commendable part? Because our Lord said over
in verse eight these words, and the Lord commended the unjust
steward because he had what? Done wisely. for the children
of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of life."
Where is the commendableness in this account? Well, I'll tell
you where it is. This here again is the prudent,
that's point number five, the inferior prudence of the ungodly
steward. the inferior prudence of the
ungodly steward. Sometimes God will allow the
earthly analogy to play its way out in the consistency of its
lesson in order for us to acquire the truth and yet not embrace
the principle of it or the practice of it as a spiritual ethic. He
wants us to understand the underlying aim. And here's the underlying
aim. The wisdom on the part of the
man who is about to be unemployed. The wisdom on the part of the
man who is about to be unemployed. Put your feet in the shoes for
a moment. And this is very practical to where you and I are today.
There are a lot of our brothers and sisters who are without work.
And I remember saying about three or four years ago, when the debt
crisis started hitting us, I said, you guys aren't going to fill
it yet. It's going to take a few years to fill it. Be very careful
that you don't sort of shirk or take lightly the fact that
our economy has shifted radically. See, it's one thing to have your
cabinets filled with food so that you feel pretty good for
a month or two or three. And in your presumption, go on
in life as normal. or in your arrogance presume
that you can predict what the outcome is going to be or how
you can change your scenario. But I've got several of my brothers
and sisters here today who will tell you that they lost their
job two years ago, three years ago, and have not been able to
recover yet. That they've done everything
they possibly could to recover what they lost and have not been
able to recover it. And what they had to learn was
they were going to have to change their whole approach to living
because the standard at which they lived four years ago is
no more possible. And if there is an equation between
now and our account, it's this, that the steward lived high on
the hog. He wasted his master's resources. He drove a nice car. He lived in an immaculate home. He had servants waiting on him
because he had the freedom to use his master's resources any
way he wanted to. This here is a depiction of false
religion, where the leadership in the church just pilfer the
congregation of the resources and live like kings and monarchs. and just great wealthy men thinking
that this is the way it's going to be forever. But these false
prophets and false teachers will stand before God and have to
give account to it. In our context, if we're dealing
with what we call a coveted model, Jesus is speaking directly to
the Pharisees and the leaders of the church, telling them,
you are getting ready to be removed from the stewardship. The kingdom
of God is being taken from you and given to a people bearing
the fruits thereof. The Pharisees who were secure
in their assumption that they were the leaders and will always
be the leaders. that they were the rulers and
always will be the rulers, that they were prominent, wealthy
and prosperous. Watch this, because this is what
the parable, this is what the lesson on hell is going to teach
us. Because I am wealthy, God has automatically blessed me.
Right? Because I'm wealthy. See, God
blesses. See, if you just obey God, you'll
be rich, you'll be well off, you'll be healthy, wealthy, wise
and famous. Just just obey God. Well, a lot
of us have been trying to obey God for a long time, but we're
still struggling. Am I telling the truth? Yeah, it's true. It's true. This is why the parable
that's coming before us that will deal with the doctrine of
hell, laying miserable Lazarus at the door of this opulent rich
man, is going to be a rebuke for all who hold such a wicked
attitude that rich equals right with God. And so our account
tells us that this wicked man, this slothful steward, at least
did one thing. He was prudent enough, and I
want to share with you before we go to our next two points
and close. He was prudent enough, ladies
and gentlemen, to have foresight. You know what he did? First,
he assessed that he was not a strong man. So he couldn't work. He didn't have the capacity to
go out and do physical labor. To dig, I cannot do it. Do you
guys see that? Now that's doing carpentry work
or construction work or heavy equipment operator. He must've
been a little scrawny dude. And most people that rip you
off are a little scrawny dude. He had the brain going 24 seven,
but he couldn't lift 50 pounds to save his life, right? So he
just... Man, if I go out there and try
to shovel, I'm gonna break my back. So that was that was out
of the question for him. And the other thing he said was
to beg. I'm not begging. So he was he
he the idea of him going and begging people was repugnant. And here's the reason why it
was repugnant. Are you ready? The proud don't
beg. The proud can I keep talking
to you? The proud don't beg. Here's what the Proverbs says.
Here's what the Proverbs says. The poor uses entreaties, but
the rich answereth roughly. Do you see how when you buy into
a false notion of self-security and prosperity and wealth, how
arrogant you can be at Providence? And yet the poor person uses
entreaties because he or she or they don't have anything.
They understand that they are at a place where begging is all
they can do. And may I make a gospel application
there? You will never find the favor
of God by answering roughly. The rich will never enter into
the kingdom of God. Are you hearing me? I'm not talking
about the rich monetarily. I'm talking about the rich in
your self-conceit, the rich in your self-righteousness, the
rich in your own wisdom, the rich in your own devices. You
who think you can get to God by whatever means you think you
can get to God will find yourself woefully surprised on the day
of judgment. God resists the proud. and he gives grace to the humble. You are on the path of salvation
when God brings you down. That's what our next parable
is gonna teach. Jesus is targeting the wealthy leaders of the church,
showing them and exposing them for being on a flawed premise
of assuming that they are all right with God and secure, and
they are not. But what did this steward do? Here's what he did
that I thought was commendable, and it's worth noting. What he
did was to go to those who were debtors to the owner, now watch
this, and relieve their debt significantly. Isn't that right? When he went to the one, he had
them chopped in half. Chop that debt in half. And then
when he went to the other, he had them to chop that debt by
20% or even more. Chunk the debt in such a significant way that
watch this the people who were his clients By that act became
his friend Because he actually was friendly towards them I want
to show you what I mean by this The benefit of which the prudence
the shrewd prudence prudence was exercised on the part of
this secular man was this He knew his job was lost He would
never regain the stewardship, but in the process of departure,
he could gain some friends. Listen, if you are the loan officer,
because that's the metaphor here, and people you know own houses
or property or businesses, and you are able to bring them in
and negotiate a significant cut on their loan, watch this, when
you're out of job, you can go work for them. Am I making some
sense? Listen, watch this. He wasn't
going to go and hang out on 7th Street or downtown Oakland and
put up the sign like a lot of these folks do, I will work for
money. You know, they're lying in the first place. You know
that, right? We'll work for money. Well, go to work then. Don't be standing on the corner
begging for money. You ought to straighten that
sign out and say, we'll beg for money. I'll give you some money
if you actually get the sign right. But don't tell me you're
going to work for money and then you're going to stand there and
beg. The man said he wasn't going to do that, but what he did do
was prepare himself to take a lower job. The other thing he did,
which was quite prudent, for which you must derive the lesson,
is that the owner of the business made that commendation. You see,
the steward didn't commend himself. It was the owner, the land, the
owner. He said that man has done something prudent. Isn't that
right? The owner said that. Now, why did the owner say that?
Well, for this reason, what that manager did saved face in the
relationship between the owner of the land and the clientele.
See, not only does the clientele, I'm getting ready to go to the
gospel, watch this, not only does the clientele now have favor
with the manager who's losing his job, but the clientele love
even more fully the owner who gave them the land and the resources
to work on. See, they have a greater favor
towards the owner. They have a much greater favor
towards the manager, even though it was at the manager's loss.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? So that now as the owner
makes his way traversing through the countryside, passing by people's
homes, passing by people's businesses, the people who are running those
businesses who are called debtors, they don't run inside anymore
and hide from the owner. That's how. Hey, how are you
doing? Hey, listen, man, we appreciate
you. We appreciate you. Is somebody
hearing what I'm saying? We appreciate you. Now, here
is the gospel. When the gospel comes in power,
it liberates people from their debt so that they don't run from
God, they run to God. The goal of gospel preaching
is to ease the burden of the sin debt by the sacrificial work
of Christ. That's the greater illusion here.
When we do the gospel right, sinners who are woefully out
of the will of God are given a view of God in the person of
Christ that allows them to come to Christ and thus come to the
Father. See, Christ is still seeking
to get the gospel straight among those people that are listening
to him. Am I making some sense? The gospel is such, ladies and
gentlemen, that it takes away all excuses. from you and me
not to come to God. The gospel is such that it takes
away all excuses from you and I not to come to God. Well, it's
important for me to get to my next couple of points because
this here is a salient warning in our account. Point number
six in our outline, are you there? Beware of covetousness. Beware of covetousness. Lord,
let this enter into everybody's heart. Verse 13. No servant can serve
two masters. Do you see it? You can't do it. Can I tell you what I see? I
see Christians everywhere doing exactly that. Yep, I see Christians everywhere
seeking to defy this principle. I see them wasting their time,
wasting their resources, wasting their energy, wasting their gifts,
clamoring after the things of this life in the name of Jesus,
and their lives are miserable, and their witness is wasted,
and their influence for the kingdom of God is of naught. Did you
guys hear what I just said? The wasteful management the people
of God lies under this one point we are covetous people we are
given to covetousness now what do you mean by covetousness pastor
idolatry idolatry that's the New Testament phrase for covetousness
it's idolatry Colossians chapter 3 Ephesians chapter 4 covetousness
is idolatry Can I expand for a moment before I get to my last
point? Please. If God were to come to you right
now and say, all right, let's see. Let's see what your closet
looks like, sisters. Let's see what your closet looks
like, right? See what you got in your closet.
And let's see if your closet depicts prudent, frugal, God-centered,
kingdom-oriented management. Is that a good way to look at
it? Fellas, let's take a look in your garage or your office,
okay? And see what we got. How the
resources that you have accrued to yourself whether or not they
speak to your priority with regards to the kingdom of God. Are you
guys hearing what I'm saying? See, I know that the Christian
church in America is guilty of wasting aimlessly, indiscriminately
dissipating the Lord's resources for his glory in a significant
way. And at the bottom of it is covetousness. There's way too much coveting
that goes on in the people of God today. And here our Lord
is operating as the great physician that he is. And you know all
he's saying? He's saying this, you just can't
get the job done that I'm calling you to while you're covetous. You can't do it. I want you to
know, I know you know deep down in your conscience you're not
doing my will. I know you know deep down in your conscience
that you're out of my will. I know you know deep down in
your conscience that you're in great conflict because you are
being pulled in directions that you know don't amount to the
will of God. But the root cause of it is covetousness. You are hoarding to yourself
way more than you need to get the job done. You are squandering
my time. You are squandering my gifts.
You are squandering my resources. And in the loving manner in which
he does it, because today is not judgment day. Today is self-analysis
day, is self-critiquing day, is self-affirmation day. It's
a day to confess our sins. It's a day to plead his blood.
It's a day to go to Calvary. It's a day to acknowledge our
error and seek his faith. That's what today is. And the
master by the Spirit of God will come to you and say, listen,
you're not at judgment day yet. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
It's not judgment day yet, except in your conscience. And it's
an opportunity for you to get it right with God. You cannot
serve me serve that at the same time. You can't do it. It can't be done. And this is
where the Pharisees blew a fuse. Do you understand? The top just
went off and they publicly derided him because he was poking at
the very idol that was strangling them and it's the idol of idolatry. They were covetous. And I am
afraid that's where we are today as well. Am I telling the truth?
Am I way off? Somebody can straighten me out
today if you want to. But am I way off? Am I way off? Are
we more in danger of being like the Pharisees who are on the
brink of going to hell? Going to hell? We can serve God
and mammon too. Am I telling the truth? the Pharisees
also who were covetous heard all these things and they derided
him. Beware of covetousness. It's
the root of every form of idolatry and it will cause you to mismanage
the Lord's resources in your life. First John chapter 2 verses
14 through 17. You don't have to go there. John
says, listen now, all that's in the world and there's nothing
else. All that's in the world is the
look of the eye. The look and the stinking pride of life. And it is not at all of the Father,
but of the world. The person that loves this world
has not the love of the Father in them. That's what it says,
doesn't it? You see how mutually exclusive
these passions are? and the gospel will mean nothing
to you so long as you are gripped by a love for this world. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees.
Didn't we learn last week? The father, he calls Pharisees
to himself like he calls prodigals. Isn't that right? But when God
calls the Pharisee, the person that's giving over to thinking
they're right with God because they're rich and wealthy and prominent, he's
telling them you got to drop that because listen, you are
going to wake up on that day on the other side of Lazarus.
is very important. Listen to it. And the Pharisees,
who also who were covetous, heard all these things and derided
him. Verse 15. We're almost at our last point.
And he said unto them, you are they which justify yourselves
before what? I got to talk about that for
a moment. This is sort of the psychological
gymnastics that people do. These are psychological gymnastics
that people do. they don't really fear God. You
know who they spend all their time trying to persuade that
they're right with God? Other men. Other men. They don't have any sense of
Coram Deo. They have no fear of God. Their objective is to
hoodwink you and try to get you to think they're all right with
God. What our master said was, you are they that justify yourself
before men, but God really knows your heart. Now, this is interesting
because religious folk are the quickest to say, well, God knows
my heart. Right. But here's the problem. Apparently, you don't. Apparently you don't because
you're trying to hook with God Now how you this is how you know,
can I can I I got you now? I know I may not see you next
week. So this this might be it This is this is can I help you
know, well pastor, how can I know I'm right with God Well, you
can know you're right with God when you're honest with his word You can know you're not right
with God when you're not honest with God's Word I When you jump
and skip and go around God's Word, you're not honest with
God. And you can blame this, that, them, they, those, it. But the reality is you have tried
to manipulate God in your life by getting around His Word. His
Word is right and all of His works are done in truth. It is
a light to our feet, a lamp upon our path. It sheds light on everything.
It tells us everything. And we can determine by what
the Word of God explicitly says where we stand. But if we are
pharisaical, we argue for a standing of righteousness before men and
not before God. And it's very important for us
to know that. Please understand that in the parable, our Lord
is warning against the thing that kills the productivity in
the life of the people of God. Beware of covetousness. It will
stifle your objective for the things of the kingdom And if
you don't believe that this issue is is prevalent Look the word
covetous up and see everywhere where our lord is laid out parable
after parable after parable On these things in luke chapter
12 the lord jesus warns about it and then he closes out with
this statement fear not little flock It is your father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom. Now with that word of exhortation,
what he's saying is the kingdom is yours, but it is at the expense
of you giving up covetousness and the cares of this life and
the agenda of this life and the approval of this world and the
people of this world who are not headed to glory. With you
be very careful point number seven. This one is easy. We can
wrap this up right here If you want a model, i'm not your model
So, you know you can you can disregard what i'm saying if
if i'm not your model You don't have to pay any attention to
me. You don't have to pay any attention to my elders You don't
have to pay any attention to the deacons You don't have to
pay any attention to any of the saints who have learned to live
lives where christ's kingdom is of a priority again, matthew
6 33 first first first First First You don't have to
pay any attention to us. You can find flaws in every one
of us. I Don't think that's gonna cause you to escape but you can
try it Right, you can try it but you won't escape because
the standard that God gives is Christ The standard that he gives
is the Son of God this is why the invisible God assumed the
human nature and Let me give you just a couple of examples.
When he took on a human nature and became like us, he did that
in order to accomplish eternal redemption for his elect by being
their substitute in surety. But he did it also because he
was the last Adam. And it was his privilege to model
for us what life in Christ should look like when we're born of
God. what life in Christ should look
like when we're born of God what a spirit field born again redeemed
sinner looks like who actually is called by God's grace to live
out and manage God's resources for him first When you think
about the Lord Jesus Christ and his calling as prophet, priest,
and king, the first thing you think about is he didn't waste
anybody's time. The one thing that we see about
Christ, once he made himself visible on the scene, he was
consciously driven by a desire to do his father's will. His
father's will was preeminent in his life. It dictated everything
that he did. It was the plumb line and it
was the goal and objective for every decision that he made.
Whether he visited people or not, whether he went to this
city or not, it was all predicated upon, is this my father's will? Remember that? I must be about
the will of him that sent me. and to finish the work that he
gave me to do. You notice you don't find in
the recorded accounts concerning the God-man any frivolous speech,
any wasteful conversations with men and women about things that
don't amount to a hill of beans. You notice that, right? The Holy
Ghost saw to it that he gave us a succinct description of
what it means to be men and women who are on a mission. When he
met men and women, he was able to talk to them where they were,
but never concede to their lifestyle or their culture. But to tell
them where you are, you need to leave. You need to get over
here where God is calling you. He was sober. He was gentle,
but he was direct, wasn't he? My goodness, think about the
parable that's in front of you. If he was a politician, like
a lot of preachers are, would he have moved so seamlessly from
the parable of the prodigal son to the parable of the prodigal
servant, knowing that a bunch of preachers were sitting on
the front row? Would he? Would he, if he was
a politician, like most of your prominent preachers? construct
a message where he's speaking directly in their faces about
what's in their heart and talking to them directly. You are they
who justify yourselves before men. Powerful, isn't it? You're
talking about being anointed. He wasn't anointed to clown. He was anointed to communicate
truth vitally and poignantly to men and women who needed it.
Who needed it? And so what we don't find our
Lord doing is wasting time. We don't find our Lord wasting
His words. He was very, very prudent in
the management of His time. And the only time He demonstrated
any sense of utter relief is when He said, It is finished. You got that? You got that? What is your life? It is but
a vapor. Here today and gone tomorrow.
Just a flickering light and it's gone. And gone. So let me give you three, four
points of application just because we need application. Pastor,
how do I do it? Point number one. Walk in the
spirit. you will never fulfill the lust
of the flesh because the two are mutually exclusive if you
are operating by the Spirit of God then spiritual things will
be a primary a primary thing for you and you will always make
decisions in relationship to the will of God walk in the Spirit
and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh what else pastor
See to it that with everything that you do, you redeem the time. What do you mean, pastor? The
days that you and I are living in are evil days. They are rotten
days. They are corpse-driven days. We live in contaminating days. These are the kind of days that
deteriorate the soul. They don't build you up. They
don't edify you. They don't give you clarity.
They don't give you definition or distinction of purpose. They
don't keep you on the right track. You and I are living in evil
days. We need to be careful about frivolously
wasting our time. Thirdly, promote the gospel in
everything you do. Seek to promote the glory of
God in everything you do. Everywhere you go, every situation
you are in, whether you are dealing with just the nominal things
in life, going to the store, going to work, dealing with your
relatives and your friends, your constituents out there, exercising,
whatever it is, always have a disposition in your soul and a desire and
communion with Christ to be a vehicle by which you can tell somebody
about Jesus. Don't get up to go anywhere without
saying, Lord, go with me and keep my mind and my heart in
Christ Jesus and open my mouth so that I can be ready to say
something to somebody about Christ. Don't let me go back home day
after day about Jesus. because idolatry will totally
destroy these objectives. Idolatry will totally destroy
walking in the spirit. It will totally destroy promoting
the gospel. It will totally destroy redeeming
the time. Idolatry will make it to where
you are unfruitful in your life. And brothers and sisters, I'm
here to tell you as your pastor, You will give an account for
it. You will give an account for it. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this message. We need it. We need it. And I ask that you not let one
here go, not one escape without the word penetrating their soul
and showing them the reward, the infinite reward of serving
you. what you promise for those who
seek you diligently. And that is the reward of eternal
life. We cannot do these things of
ourselves. We have no strength, no grace,
but you have made it to where that is no excuse either. And
so we come to you asking for mercy that we might not be wasteful
managers of your resources, but as we would look to Christ and
find comfort in him as our substitute, and our surety and representative
before you, we also look to him to give us every grace necessary
to do these things which are well pleasing in your sight.
Bless your church here, your church worldwide, who calls upon
your name out of a pure heart in these last and evil days with
walking in the spirit, we pray in Jesus name, amen.