Let's turn back to Luke chapter
12. I've entitled this message, Who
is the wise and faithful steward? The Lord concluded a parable with these words in verse
40, Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at
an hour when you think not. Now this could refer to his second
advent. This could refer to death. But
the Son of Man is going to come. at an hour when you and I think
not. It may be tonight. It may be
death. It may be his second coming.
But he is coming. So he said in verse 40, Be ye
therefore ready. Now, what would make you ready? I know of only one thing that
will make me ready. Me being found in Christ. That's it. I love what Paul said. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in him. Who's looking for you, Paul?
God is. Oh, that I might be found in
him. That's what makes one ready. Now, Peter replied. Then Peter said unto him, Lord,
Speakest thou this parable unto us? Is this just to us twelve? Or even to all? Is everybody
to hear this message? And the Lord replies in verse
42 with a, I won't call it a vague
answer. He never spoke vaguely, but it
was not a direct answer. Look what he says. And the Lord
said, who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord
shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of
meat in due season? Who then is this faithful and
wise steward who gives those who he's responsible to feed
their portion of meat in due season? Now, I'm going to look
at this passage of Scripture from two points of view. One,
with regard to the ministry. Who then is that good and faithful
steward? And the other, to every believer. Because I believe that the Lord
is answering this, not just to the twelve. This is for all men. But the first application of
this is the ministry. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4,
1 and 2, let a man account of us as the ministers
of Christ, servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries
of God. Moreover, it's required in a
steward that a man be found faithful. Now, if you are dependent on
somebody to tell you the truth, You've got to hear this message
or you won't be saved. You've got to hear this message
as God said it. What would you want in that messenger?
Brilliance? Oratorical ability? A rhetorician? No, you'd want
faithfulness, wouldn't you? You'd want that man to deliver
the message that God had given. You wouldn't want it changed
in any way. What you desire is faithfulness. It's required in
a steward that a man be found faithful. Now, the ministry is
a stewardship of the mysteries of God. The things that we could
never have known unless God was pleased to make them known in
his word. Turn with me for a moment to
Ephesians chapter three. Hold your finger there in Luke 12,
we'll be back. But look what Paul said about this in Ephesians
chapter three. Verse one. For this cause, I,
Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you've heard
of the dispensation, and that word dispensation is the same
word stewardship. A steward is somebody who manages
somebody else's affairs and somebody else's property. That's what
a steward is. If I'm a steward, that means I'm responsible for
what doesn't belong to me but what belongs to somebody else.
Now Paul says, if you've heard of the stewardship of the grace
of God which is given me to you, how that by revelation he made
known unto me the mystery. as I wrote afore it a few words,
whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ." Now, God took Paul and brought him into
the third heavens and taught him the gospel directly. He made
known these mysteries. Now, mysteries are just something
we believe. We don't so much understand them
as believe them. Do I understand how that I'm eternally united
to Christ? This is a great mystery. I speak
concerning Christ and the church. Do I understand that? No. Do
I believe it with all my heart? Now, the ministry is a stewardship
of the mysteries of God. It's required in a steward that
a man be found faithful. Now, what is faithfulness? It's
really very simple. You believe and you can be believed. Simple as that. You believe and
you can be believed. For a preacher to be faithful,
he must believe the truth himself. And he must preach the truth. He must be faithful to preach
what God's word actually says. That's what success is. What
is a successful ministry? Telling the truth. That's it.
That's one of the things that's so different about the ministry
from other things. The only measure of success for
me, it doesn't have anything to do with the results. Doesn't
have anything to do with how many people I preach to or how
many people are converted or whatever. The only measure of
success is telling the truth. If I tell the truth, if I tell
what God's word actually says, I'm successful. It's required
in a steward that a man be found faithful. And that's why Paul
said to Timothy, preach me or preach the word. Whatever the
word says, that's what I am to preach. Preach the word. Now
you show me a faithful man and I'll show you a wise man. That's
wisdom, to be faithful. And you show me a wise man. a
man who has true spiritual wisdom, somebody that God has taught.
And I'll show you a faithful man. These two things go together. And what is he doing? He's giving
the church their portion of meat. Look what, back to our text in
Luke chapter 12. And who is that faithful and
wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household,
to give them their portion of meat in due season? Now that's
what we're doing right now. That's what the preaching of
the gospel is. It's to be fed. It's to be spiritually fed. I
need to hear the gospel. And that's what this steward
of the mysteries of the gospel, that's what his responsibility
is. It's to give everybody their portion of meat in due season. I'm to preach the gospel, and
that's my food, that's your food. And I know this, there's nothing
as pleasurable, there's no, I love to eat, there's no, I love a
good meal, but there's nothing in the earth as pleasurable as
when the Lord enables you to hear the gospel. Nothing like
it. And what a meal time that is. What a blessing that is. When the Lord enables you to
hear and you believe what's being said. And you know, when you
hear the gospel, you know you belong to the Lord. You know
you're one of His. You know He's speaking to you.
What a glorious thing. And the responsibility of the
preacher is to give the people their portion of meat in due
season. That's what my responsibility
is, is to preach the truth. And God's people will find that
to be their meal. Now look in verse 43. Blessed
is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so
doing. How blessed of God that man is
whom the Lord has enabled him to be present tense. So doing. Faithful in preaching the gospel. And that's what I want to be.
I want to be so doing. Preaching the gospel. Present
tense. Verse 44 of the truth. I say to you that he'll make
him ruler over all that he hath. But, and if that servant say
in his heart, my Lord delays his coming and shall begin to
beat the men servants and maid servants and to eat and drink
and to be drunken, the Lord of that servant will come in a day
when he looketh not for him and in an hour when he's not aware
and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion
with the unbelievers. Now, if that man is not faithful, If the information he has comes
from his own heart, not the word of God, but his own heart. This is what I think. This is
what I believe. He begins to say in his own heart,
my Lord delayeth his coming. Now, what's the last thing the
Lord said in the book of Revelation? Behold, I come quickly. And this fella says he's delaying
his coming. And he shall begin to beat the
men servants and maidservants. And I don't have any doubt that
that beating has something to do with whipping him with the
law. Whipping him with the law. Whip, whip, whip. Beating him,
putting him under law. But this is what is so interesting
about everybody who puts somebody under law Deep down, they're
lawless. They begin to eat and drink and
be drunken. They become overcome with the
things of this world. They eat, they drink, and they're
drunken. The Lord of that servant will
come, verse 46, in a day when he looketh not for him. and an
hour when he's not aware, and will cut him in sunder and will
appoint him his portion with the unbelievers." And in Matthew's
account, his portion is with the hypocrites. This man is a
hypocrite. This man is an unbeliever. He's
not being faithful. Now, this describes most preachers. They don't feed the sheep. They
beat the sheep. fleece the sheep, but they don't
feed the sheep. But how blessed is that one?
If he's faithful, God made him faithful. You know, Paul said,
he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. If I'm
faithful, if you're faithful, there's only one reason. It's
because the Lord has enabled us to be faithful. Now look what verse 47 says. And that servant, which knew
his Lord's will and prepared not, neither did according to his
will shall be beaten with many stripes. Now that servant, which
knew his Lord's will and prepared not, let's say in his preaching,
he didn't prepare. He didn't prepare. I hope by God's grace that's
never said of me. that I didn't give it my all
in bringing a message. I do. Do you know, I know that
I always do my best. I prepare. I don't come into
the pulpit unprepared. Shame on anyone that does. This
is too serious. to do anything haphazardly and
half-heartedly and flippantly and quickly. No, he prepares. But that servant which knew his
Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according
to his will, shall be beaten with many strife. Now, let's
say there's a preacher who knows the truth. He knows how God saves
sinners. He knows the truth of sovereign
grace, but he doesn't preach. for whatever reason, he doesn't
bring out the truth of the scripture. Really, he's not feeding the
sheep and doing that, but anyone who knows the truth, who knows
the master's will and doesn't do it, oh, the place he's gonna
have in hell will be indescribable. He'll be beaten with many stripes. Now, remember, the one responsibility
of the preacher is to tell the truth. Tell the truth what God
said. Leave the results in God's hand,
but tell the truth. And that one who knew the truth,
and for whatever reason hedged and didn't bring it out, he'll
be beaten with many stripes. Verse 48, but he that knew not,
and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with
few stripes. A man that didn't have the like
the other man had, He'll be beaten with few stripes. Now, there
are degrees of punishment in hell. There's no question about
that. There are degrees of punishment
in hell, depending on how much light you had and so on. Somebody
says, does that mean there's degrees of punishment in heaven?
Or degrees of glory in heaven? No, because salvation is by grace.
But hell is according to works. And so you will be punished.
If I go to hell, I'll be punished with regard to the light I had
and refused. Now, let's look at this in another
light. Peter said unto him, verse 41,
Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? Is this
for everybody? Is it just for us disciples,
us twelve apostles, or is this parable for everybody? And here's how the Lord answers
that question. He says, and the Lord said, who
then is that faithful and wise student? Do you know that that
describes every believer? A faithful and a wise steward. You see, if you're faithful,
you are wise. Only a faithful person is a wise person. And
if you have any true God-given wisdom, you're a faithful person. Now, remember that definition
of faithfulness. What does faithfulness mean?
It means you believe and you can be believed. You believe. That is what believers do. They
believe. I love the way that the Christian
is called in the Scriptures a believer. What is a non-Christian? An unbeliever. Believers believe. Now, we believe all that God
says. You can't believe what you've
never heard. The scripture says, faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. You couldn't believe that God
is one God and three distinct persons if you've never heard
it. But when you hear it from the word of God, you believe. You believe what God's Word says.
I do not intellectually grasp how God can be one God in three
distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but I believe. I don't understand how I can
be eternally united to Christ. This blows my mind to think that
I've always been known by the Lord. However old the Lord Jesus
Christ is, that's how old I am. Do I understand that remotely?
Of course not. To think that I've been eternally
united to Christ, always been accepted in the beloved. I don't
understand that, but I sure enough believe it. That's my hope being
found in Him. I can't see my justification
before God. I can't see how when God sees
me, right now, He sees me as someone without sin, not guilty,
perfect before His holy law. I can't see, I can't look at
myself and say, yep, I fit the bill. I can't see it, but I believe
it. I believe that He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. I cannot
see how when God sees me, He really sees me as holy and unblameable
and unreprovable because I feel anything but that as far as the
way I feel. I feel unholy and to be blamed and to be rebuked.
But the Word of God says I'm holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in the very sight of God. And God sees things as they really
are. Do I understand that? No. Do I believe it? Yes. Believers believe. I can't see how everything's
working together for my good. There's so many things that grieve
me and bring me down and distress me and just ruin my day. And
I don't see how everything's working together for my good.
But I believe everything is working together for my good. Now that's
what faithfulness is. Faithfulness believes. We believe
everything in the Word of God just as God said it. We believe
the Bible is the Word of God and we bow to what God says in
His Word and we believe what God says in His Word. I don't
understand how God can be absolutely sovereign And men can be completely
free in their actions. And yet God is sovereign over
their actions. Do you understand that? I don't
understand that, but I believe it. I believe what God says in
his word. I don't want to believe any beyond
that, do you? I want to believe what God says in his word. Let me tell you something else
about believers, faithful people. They can be believed. Does that mean they never lie?
No. Unfortunately, they do. And they
do all the time. All the time. You know, the man
that Paul described in Romans 7 is the only believable man
in the That man who said, when I would do good, evil was present
with me. What I hate, that's what I end
up doing. And what I want to do, I never
do it. How to do that which is good,
I find not. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man, but I see another law warring in my members, bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. I believe that man. I find the
same thing with myself. Somebody says, I've overcome
sin. I'm walking high on a different plane. That man is unbelievable
to me. Not at all. He's a liar. He's
a phony. He's a make-believe. You see,
someone who is faithful is someone who's honest before God. They're
not going to try to present themselves to be something they really aren't.
They see themselves for what they are, and they'll tell you
the truth regarding the gospel. They won't sugarcoat it. They'll
tell you the truth, and that's what we want, isn't it? Give
me the truth. That's why I want the truth.
I want the truth concerning the true character of God and the
truth concerning myself and the truth how somebody like me can
be saved. Give me the truth. Who then is
that faithful and wise steward? You find me somebody that's faithful
and I'll show you somebody who has true wisdom. And you show
me a wise man and I'll show you a faithful man. This is the one
who's truly wise unto salvation. Now look in verse 43. Blessed is that servant whom
his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. And this is so important. Blessed
is that servant who, when his Lord shall come, he'll find him
so doing. Now, if you're faithful and wise,
God made you so, you know that. By grace are you saved through
faith. Isn't that not of yourselves? It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. But here's the question I want
to ask you. What are you doing right now, present, tense. I'm not asking you about yesterday.
I'm not asking you about when you had that experience and you
felt so warm from a message and so moved from a message and you
decided everything is going to be different and you started
believing differently. You said, I'm not going to believe
that junk I used to believe. I'm not talking about how you
felt yesterday. I'm talking about right now. What are you doing right now? Who are you resting in right
now? You can answer that question.
What is the only hope you have right now? I'm not asking you how it used
to be. I'm asking you how it is right now. That is all that counts. Peter said, to whom coming. Not to whom you came, but to
whom coming. Right now, I'm coming to Christ
as an empty-handed sinner, knowing the only hope that I have is
Him. who he is and what he did. I'm coming that way right now. Now, when I first came, that's
the way I came, but I haven't changed a bit. I'm coming the
same way right now. Oh, one of the most dangerous
false refuges is yesterday. Blessed is that man to whom his
Lord will find so doing right now. Turn to Hebrews chapter
3. Hold your finger there in Luke 12 and turn to Hebrews chapter
3. You're believing right now. You're
believable right now. Now would this describe me? Would
this describe you? Whoever wrote Hebrew says in
Hebrews 3 verse 6, but Christ is a son over his own house,
whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing
of the hope. What's the confidence of the
hope? Christ died for me. That's the only hope I have.
Christ died for me. I don't have any other hope.
And that's what I, that's what I rejoice in. If you want me to rejoice, let
me know that Christ put away my sin. That is rejoicing. We are made partakers of Christ,
whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end. Verse 14 of the same chapter.
For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the, what? the beginning of our confidence. Now, I know what the beginning
of my confidence is. When I first had confidence,
I didn't have any experience to hold on to. Here was my only
confidence that God had favored toward me for Christ's sake.
That's it. We're to hold the beginning of
that confidence firm unto the end. I go back to our text, Luke
12. Blessed. Oh, how blessed is that
servant? What a blessing it is to now.
I want to grow in grace. I want to grow in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to grow in likeness
to him. I want to grow as a preacher.
I want to grow as a. Husband, I want to grow as a father, a
friend. I want to honor him in my life. Oh, I really do. I want
to grow in grace. I want to grow in graciousness.
I want to be a more merciful person. I want to be a more forgiving
person. I want to be a more lowly person. I want all that. I want
those things. That being said, what a blessing
it is to just be found looking to Christ. So doing. That's where I want to be. So
doing. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, oh may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness
alone, faultless to stand before God's holy throne. You know, this has something
to do with not leaving your first love. Richard and I were talking about
this the other day, and we were talking about first love. What
does it mean to lose your first love or go from your first love? And you know, we talked about
our relationship with our wives. We love our wives more than we
did. It's different. It's different, but we love our
wives more than we did. And I don't want to be someone
who loses my first love. Now, I think in your first love,
there's more whatever's involved with that. You all know what
I'm talking about. But to lose that joy of simply being saved
by him, by resting. It's a sad thing when somebody
when the gospel no longer ring somebody's bell and they've lost
their first love. What a sad, sad thing. May the Lord deliver us from
that. Now, he says regarding this person of a truth, I say
to you that he'll make him rule over all that he has. But. Now, we can also learn what a
wise and faithful steward is by contrasting him with this
bad servant. Verse 45, but and if that servant
say in his heart, he gets his information from his heart. That
scares me to death. You know, he that trusts his
heart is a fool. You know, the things you think, the things that come
up in your mind that you sit, watch out, watch out, watch out
that you don't get your information from your heart because it's
bad information. Let me assure you of that. It's bad. I don't
want to get my information from my heart. I don't want to say
in my heart, I want to get my information from the word of
God. But, and if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth
his coming. Like I said, the last thing the
Lord said is behold, I come quickly. He's coming quickly. He's coming quickly. Either by
taking us up in death or by his imminent second return. I don't
know, but he's coming quickly. This fella comes up in his heart
and he says, my Lord delays his coming. And what's he do? He
shall begin to beat the men servants and maid servants. He mistreats
them. He beats them with the law. He
knows nothing of grace or graciousness. Ain't nobody as mean as a religious
person. Beat. And he gives himself while he
holds people under this strict standard. He begins to eat and
drink and to be drunken. He knows nothing of sobriety. He knows nothing of temperance. He knows nothing of a sober attitude
about himself. I love that scripture where Paul
says, let's turn there in Romans chapter 12. Hold your finger
there. Romans chapter 12. Verse 2, he says, Be not conformed
to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. For I say through the grace given
unto me. Here's the first thing he says
when he talks about us proving the good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. For I say through the grace given
unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think. but to think soberly. Not to be drunk with high thoughts
of self, but to think soberly. Oh, what a blessing it is when
God gives us grace to think soberly. As God hath dealt to every man
the measure of faith. And look what it says in verse
46. The Lord of that servant will
come in a day when he looketh not for him. That bad servant
is someone who looketh not. Looketh not. Looking unto Jesus. That's the whole of the Christian
life. Looking unto Jesus. But this fella looks not. The Lord of that servant will
come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when
he is not aware, and he'll cut him in sunder and will appoint
him his portion with the unbelievers or the hypocrites. And that servant
which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither
did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. Now, How do I prepare myself? How am I prepared for the second
coming of the Lord? By being found in Christ. I've
already said that. That is my preparation. Simply
being found in Him. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in Him. Lord, let that be the place where
I'm at. In thy blessed Son. Now, the only way I can be in
Him is if God puts me in Him. Of Him are you in Christ, Jesus.
And Lord, put me in Christ. That is my way of being ready. Put me in Christ. What is it
to do His will? It's to believe. It's not just
to be religious. Remember that crowd that said,
Lord, Lord, have we not preached in your name? And in your name,
have we not cast out demons? And in your name, have we not
done many wonderful works? Oh, what a high opinion they
had of themselves. And then shall I say unto them,
depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. They
never did his will. Not everyone that sayeth to me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Now, what is it
to do his will? Well, listen to this scripture.
This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath
sent. That's God's work. That's God's
will. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's God's command to you.
That's what it is to do his will. It's to believe the gospel. Somebody
says, eh, There's other things. Okay. We'll find out on Judgment
Day, won't we? We'll find out. That person will
be beaten with many stripes. Verse 48, But he that knew not,
and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with
few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be
much required, and to whom men have committed much, of him will
they ask the more. To whom much is given, much is
required. Now, let me end with this thought. What then is required of me? Now, I believe myself to be somebody
to whom much has been given. Much, much, much. What's required of me? Do you
believe yourself to be somebody whom much has been given? Much grace, much privilege. Well, what's required of you?
Let's end by looking at Micah chapter 6. Micah, the sixth chapter. Verse eight. He has showed thee, O man, what
is good. And what doth the Lord require
of thee? And he gives three things, to
do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Now that part about doing justly, that can only be understood in
light of justification. If he's justified me, I do justly. It's not just some paper that
says he's justified, some kind of document that proves that
I am. No, I myself have actually done justly. That's how real
justification is. I'm going to hear God say to
me, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord. Now somebody says, I just can't
see God saying that to me. If you're justified, he will
say that to you. You have done justly. Were you saying it doesn't matter
whether we do the right thing? Of course I'm not saying that.
Do the right thing. But what that's talking about is rejoicing
in justification. It's not talking about, because
the only time you've never done, and I've never done anything
justly, you take it apart from Christ, it's not just, it's sin. It's not just. The only way I
do justly is being justified. And I love this next thing, to
love mercy. And you know I do love mercy,
don't you? I love being saved by the sheer mercy of God. I love His mercy. And I love being merciful and to walk humbly with thy God. Lowliness, humility before God
and before men. Now, what does God require of
thee? That you do justly, that you
love mercy, and that you walk humbly with your God. Now, to
whom much is given, much is required. And that's what he requires of
me and you. And I can't help but thinking while I'm looking
at this group of people, I see some faithful and wise stewards
made so by the grace of God. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we might be those faithful and wise stewards, that you would
find us so doing, looking to your Son and nowhere else. Lord, bless this message for
your glory and for our good. Lord, break the hard heart melt
the heart of stone at the hearing of thy gospel. Lord, I ask in Christ's name
that everybody in here might be a wise and a faithful
steward of the mysteries of thy gospel. Now bless us for the
Lord's sake, in his name we pray, amen. Paul, you got a closing
hand?