Now we're at Luke's Gospel, Chapter 14, please.
The Gospel by Luke, and we're at Chapter
14.
Now this is something that comes up, and
it comes up very often.
Reading at verse 25, And there went great
multitudes with him, and he turned and said
unto them, The Lord Jesus is talking, and
I want you to take note right now
who he is talking to.
He is talking to the multitudes.
They're not saved yet, you know.
He's talking to a cloud of unsaved people,
these multitudes that followed him.
And he turned and said unto them, If
any man come to me, and hate not
his father, and mother, and wife, and children,
and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple.
You can see they were not disciples yet.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and
come after me, cannot be my disciple.
And the problem for us this evening, is
this word hate.
If any man come to me, and hate
not his father.
And then there's a figure of speech here
in the Greek, just to emphasize what he's
saying, watch how it's done.
If any man come to me, and hate
not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his
own life also.
That's not the way you talk in English.
When you've got a whole lot of things
to say, you say them and you put
the and in before the last one.
That's what they tried to teach me at
school anyway.
That's good English grammar.
But that's a figure of speech in the
Greek language there, where all the ands are
put in.
It's just to emphasize.
And, hate not his father, and mother, and
wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, and
so on.
And this is a question, about this hating,
that has puzzled and perplexed the finest Christians
in the world.
And may I humbly say, has also perplexed
the greatest Bible scholars in the world.
You just read the comments, and you'll find
out that they don't know a thing about
it.
O Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest preacher this
world have ever seen.
When the officers of the temple came to
take him, you remember they came away without
him, and when the Pharisees said, why have
ye not arrested him?
The officers said, never man speak like this
man.
Everything that he said was really wonderful.
I wrote a little book on the super
sayings of the Savior.
That's sort of taking something on, because everything
he said was special.
We should listen to every word.
But there were things that he said were
sort of super special.
And I wrote a booklet on the super
sayings of the Savior.
You see, our Lord said things that nobody
else could say, and nobody else dare say.
You know, he stood among the Jews one
day, looked up to heaven and he said,
I and the Father are one.
You wouldn't like to come up here and
say it, sure you wouldn't.
You wouldn't like to say you were co
-equal with God, would you?
I don't think there's anybody so daft as
that about him.
It's a sort of super saying.
When he was talking about the third person
of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit
of Truth, he said, I shall send him
onto you.
You wouldn't like to come up here and
tell this congregation that you'll go to heaven
tomorrow and send the Holy Ghost, would you?
Because we would have you locked up.
When he faced the whole multitude of baffled
and burdened and bewildered people, he looked at
this crowd and he said to them, Come
unto me and I will give you rest.
There's nobody but Jesus could say that.
If the greatest surgeon in the royal would
stand here tonight and say to all the
people in this town, all the baffled, burdened,
bewildered folks in the town tonight, say, Come
unto me, I will give you rest, you
would know he was a fool.
He couldn't do it.
Everything that our Lord Jesus said was special,
and among the special things there were sort
of super special things.
Not only did he say special things and
super things, but he said severe things.
I had the notion of following the booklet
up with some of the severe things.
And I think the severest thing he ever
said, just this one, If any man come
to me and hate not his father and
mother and so on, I think that's the
severest saying the Lord Jesus ever said.
Now a lot of folks who want to
try to get past this problem in an
easy way, they try to say that the
word hate here is not just the word
hate, I'm afraid, that's not being honest.
I shall tell you that right through the
New Testament there is only one, only one
Greek word for the word hate.
It's mizeo, m-i-z-e, and there
is a stroke above the o, mizeo.
It's translated every time in our New Testament
by the word hate.
And there is all sort of juggling about
with this, we'd better face it.
Have a look at John's Gospel, chapter 15
for a moment.
Gospel by John, chapter 15.
Our Lord Jesus is talking here.
He's on the way to Gethsemane.
Sunday morning taught us that he had stopped
at the temple gate and he was talking
to his own.
Way down the chapter at verse 23 he
said this, He that hateth me, hateth my
Father also.
That's a bit of a hard blow for
the Russellites.
Because they don't believe that there are personalities
in the Godhead.
They don't believe in God the Father and
God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.
They are not Trinitarians, they are Unitarians.
They don't believe that Jesus was God.
There are folks across the world tonight who
just believe oh there's only God and there
are no personalities in the Godhead.
Just look at the way he said this,
He that hateth me.
That's a person, yes.
He says, my Father also.
Let's get the also in now.
Because I'm sure that's another person.
If you don't get that, let's read on.
If I had not done among them the
works which none other man did, they had
not had sin.
But now they have both sin and hated
both me and my Father.
I asked a Unitarian one day what the
word both meant to him.
Both me and my Father.
Do you know what the word both meant?
He said to me, I don't know what
the word both means.
Clever fellow.
My, I tell you that's a cowardly way
of getting out of an argument.
I'm afraid the word both means both.
I don't think I would have any bother
fixing them with the Trinitarian doctrine.
But the Lord Jesus is saying they have
both sin and hated both me and my
Father.
And the word hated is the word that
we're using back there where we were.
Watch verse 25.
But this cometh to pass, that the word
might be fulfilled that is written in their
law, they hated me without a cause.
I want to ask you now, did the
Jews hate him?
Because this is written in their law.
And I want to get it over to
you that whatever way it meant hatred for
him, it means an inattack to might.
The same word.
Yes, they hated me without a cause.
I don't think you have any bother with
that.
Sure you do.
You like to open the Oxford Dictionary this
evening.
It says hatred means detestable dislike.
Mind you, the Jews with detestable dislike pulled
the hairs from his face and spat into
his countenance and yea did so many things
to him they hated him without a cause.
You know he had done nothing wrong.
If you trace his footsteps backwards, you'll find
that he gave cleansing to the leper.
You'll find he gave sight to the blind.
He gave hearing to the deaf.
He gave speech to the dumb.
He gave life to the dead.
He had done nothing amiss.
He was sinless and spotless and faultless and
crimeless.
Harmless, holy, harmless, undefined.
I want you to get this, but they
hated him.
That's the word we're working with now.
So I don't think we can dodge it.
Let's have another look at it.
Come to Hebrews.
Chapter 1.
Letter to the Hebrews.
And we're at the first chapter.
And I want you to get this.
This wonderful book begins with the word God.
God who at sundry times in diverse manners
spake.
God spake.
We've got a God who talks.
And you'll find him talking to his son
in this chapter.
Verse 8.
But on to the son he saith.
This is God talking to his son.
Two personalities again, of course.
Thy throne, O God.
He called him God.
Because he was God the son.
That settles his deity, doesn't it?
When he says thy throne is forever and
ever a scepter of righteousness, is the scepter
of thy kingdom.
When he says throne and scepter and kingdom,
he's talking about the royalty of the Lord
Jesus.
When he says God, he touches his deity.
When he says scepter and righteousness and kingdom
and throne, he's touching the loyalty.
Now when you come to verse 9, it's
God talking to him.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity.
That's the hatred we're talking about.
It's the same word.
Can I ask you?
Did Jesus hate iniquity?
Did the Jews hate Jesus?
I don't think you have any problems with
the word now.
It's the same word.
There is no throwing this up and juggling
with it and getting away from it.
No, you can see the sense in which
the word is here before us.
All the divine hatred that he had against
iniquity, it's in this word.
And all the unholy hatred that was against
him from the Jewish nation, that rejected him
and despised him, set him at naught, it's
in the word.
Now let's go back again to where we
were.
We were in Luke's gospel, chapter 14.
I want you to get this very carefully
because this is a tremendous argument, you know,
across the world, even at this moment.
Now we can see the word.
It's Messiah.
And we can see from these two paragraphs,
the deep sense of the word, the hatred
that was there.
Now when our Lord Jesus said, If any
man come to me and hate not his
father.
Now this sense is there in the word
because we are not changing the word.
But it's not used in the absolute literal
sense.
Want you to get that bit?
Because I'll tell you what you must do.
It's all right to see the depths of
a word.
But if you find out that the literal
absoluteness of the sense is going to contradict
with any other part of God's word, then
you'll have to be very careful.
You see, supposing I take this class back
to the book of Exodus, chapter 20.
You go back with me to Exodus and
we're at chapter 20.
Now this is where God gave Moses the
law.
The ten commandments, if you like.
And you ought to know the ten commandments.
Know the first commandment, do you?
It's in verse 3 of Exodus 20.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
And the second commandment is in verse 4.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image.
That's the second commandment.
And the third commandment is in verse 7.
Thou shalt not take the name of the
Lord thy God in vain.
And the fourth commandment is in verse 8.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
And the fifth commandment is in verse 12.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy
days may belong upon the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee.
And if you're going to take it in
a literal sense, then you're going to break
the fifth commandment.
And I don't think that's going to work.
There must be some other way.
It's the same word, all right.
So that's just pulling us up gently, isn't
it?
You see, that's the commandment.
Then you see, some of the expositors sort
of dodged that by saying, oh, that's true,
that's the Ten Commandments, that's the law that
was given by Moses, and that is only
applicable to Israel.
And that is true.
That is very true.
Oh, but I can tell you this, that
the law of the Ten Commandments, all but
one of them, nine of the ten are
reiterated in the New Testament under the teachings
of grace.
What the law said to Israel, grace says
to us.
There's no getting out of that.
Don't be trying to say that we are
not under law, we are under grace.
That won't work.
Let me take you over to Ephesians, and
we're at the sixth chapter.
Letter to the Ephesians, and we're at the
sixth chapter.
Now, this is not law at all, this
is the teachings of grace, and Paul's writing
to these saints.
And in the assembly, you know, there were
children who were saved.
Sometimes I wonder how we divide them up
at times.
I assure you that Paul wrote to the
whole crowd at once.
I'll tell you this, when the epistles are
here and the letters are here, he wrote
to the men and women and fathers and
mothers and kids.
That's why they should be here.
Or we fiddle about with them, we think
we're smart.
You just have your nose in the book
now, and you're not as clever as you
think you are.
Because I assure you how Paul did it.
Yes, he's been writing to the servants, and
he's been writing to the fathers, and he's
been writing to a whole lot.
Now, he's writing to the children in the
assembly now.
Is this letter to the assembly?
Of course it is.
And he's writing, Children, obey your parents in
the Lord.
Let's get a little bit in the Lord.
Because, you see, he wanted them to know
that if their parents were in the Lord
and in the meeting, then they would be
guiding them right.
And they ought to obey their parents in
the Lord, for this is right.
And he calls the whole law, honor thy
father and mother, which is the first commandment
with promise, that it may be well with
thee, that thou mayest live long in the
earth.
And he talks to the fathers, and ye
fathers provoke not.
And he talks to the servants, and so
on.
Because the whole assembly needs to be talked
to at once.
I want you to get this.
You see, this is a very important word
for young believers.
Obey your parents in the Lord.
This is right.
And honor your father and mother, and that's
not teaching you to hate them.
And that's the teachings of grace.
You see, a young girl came to me
once, and her mother wasn't saved.
Sorry to have to say this, but I
need to say it.
Her mother was a harlot, who went out
at night to meet men at the corner
of the street.
And the wee girl was saved.
She might have been only fourteen.
She says to me, my mummy's no right.
She wants me to go down and stand
at the corner of the street with her.
And she says to me, you too, obey
your parents.
I said, don't you listen to that clap
-clap.
I said, she's not even acting as a
mother.
When she acts as a mother, OK.
See the government, bless them.
They make laws.
Set thirty miles speed limit.
Sometimes I break it.
And I could get summonsed, you know.
And there's some of the bobbies here who
would summons me.
But they never catch me.
And I'm guilty, and if I was summonsed,
I would be in the wrong.
But if the government, like the Russian government
tonight, these communists, if our government made a
law that I shouldn't come to this place
again and open this book and teach this
book anymore, I would be a rebel tomorrow.
Of course I would be put in prison,
wouldn't I?
I shall obey the law while they don't
interfere with the truth of God.
I will obey my mother and father when
they act like mother and father.
It's not a mother that takes a kid
down to the corner of the street to
see her meet an unclean man, surely.
Now this is the teachings of grace, and
this is not teaching you to hate your
mother, is it?
So we've got to be careful.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, let's go back to
John's Gospel, chapter 19.
And in chapter 19, our Lord Jesus Christ
is on the cross.
And I cannot explain to you the pain
and the agony and the ignominy that was
his just then.
But spread-eagled on the cross, he looked
down.
Verse 26, we're at John 19, 26.
When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the
disciples standing by whom he loved, and that's
John.
He's looking down from the cross, and he's
in pain and agony.
He can see his mother, and he can
see John, whom he loved.
Turned his head, it's all he could turn,
he was nailed to the cross.
He saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy
son.
And he turned his head towards John and
sort of nodded.
Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy
mother.
And John got the message, and from that
hour, that disciple took her unto his own
home.
He wasn't hating his mother here, was he?
He's setting us an example.
And an example that we would need to
follow in his steps.
And I hope some of you haven't forgotten
your own mother.
I hope not.
No matter who she is, or what she
is, or what she knows, or what she
doesn't know.
I hope you haven't forgotten her.
So you see that while we're honest with
the word, it means hatred, mind you.
Yet we can see now, because of the
law in the Old Testament, and because of
the teachings of grace, and because of the
example of our Lord Jesus, that it cannot
be expanded in a literal fashion.
Cannot be.
Let's go just one more, let's go to
1st John.
1st John, 1st John, chapter 2.
See verse 9, I think that will do
us.
He that says he is in the light,
and hateth his brother, and that's the same
word, is in darkness even until now.
You see, I think that we're getting something
that's making it more difficult for us.
This word, misio, is here, and it means
hatred like the Jews hated the Lord Jesus,
and it means hatred like the Lord Jesus
hated iniquity, and yet the book tells us
that the law, the fifth commandment, forbids us
to treat it literally.
And the example of the Lord Jesus, and
the teachings of grace, and this word from
1st John.
All right, if it's there, and it's still
there, and we haven't dealt with it, and
we're not to take it literally, how are
we to take it?
Now, I'll tell you what all the commentaries
does, or the most of them.
They say you're to take it comparatively, not
literally, you're to take it comparatively, if you
look up the commentaries, and that just means
this, it means that we are to love
the Lord Jesus with so warm and intense
and fervent love that it's so wonderful and
glowing and great that in comparison to our
love for our mother and father, it's like
hate.
That wouldn't do for me at all.
I shall not accept that.
That's what they all say, it's just taking
it comparatively, that I love the Lord Jesus
so wonderfully that even my love for my
children is just like hate.
I don't think that's right.
I am not accepting that.
That's why you young students coming up, you
don't need to swallow everything that you find
in the commentary, you'll need to sit down
and I think the Holy Ghost will help
you.
Oh no, I don't think that will do
at all.
Because I think this, that if we loved
the Lord Jesus with all the fervency that
we should, I think we would love our
children and our mothers and fathers more than
we've ever done before.
I'm positively sure of that.
Secondly, I want you to get this, that
he's talking to a crowd here and they're
not saved.
And if they're going to wait until they
love him with such a love that their
love for their children seems as hate, they'll
never get saved.
They may put it to the whole meeting.
Is that the way you loved him when
you came?
Why, when I came to the Lord, I
scarcely knew him.
I just knew that God's Son had come
from heaven to save me and died on
the cross, that he loved me.
And I was glad to meet him.
But don't talk to me about loving him
so much that love towards my children seemed
like hatred.
If it has to be like that, I
don't think folk will get saved at all.
I don't think that would work.
Now, I'm afraid they've missed the whole thing.
Missed it terribly.
I don't think it's literal.
And I don't think it's comparatively either.
I think it's ostensibly.
Now, that's a big word, and I'll tell
you the meaning of it in a minute.
Don't get it worrying you a bit at
all.
It's the only one I can get to
follow on with literally and comparatively, ostensibly.
It actually means something that I shall show
you rather than tell you.
You see, we must get the circumstances right
when he was talking.
Let's get the crowd, the multitude.
And let's find this out, that he not
only said, if any man come to me
and heed not his father and mother and
wife and children and brethren and others and
sisters and his own life also, let's get
up with him.
Because am I going to love him so
much that I hate my own life also?
If you're going to take it in the
comparative side.
Because he went on to say, and whosoever
doth not bear his cross.
Ah, that's where it comes in.
You see, in those days, to come to
Christ and to take Christ and to accept
him and to follow him.
It might well have meant death for you.
And you'd better see the cross, because that
meant death.
I think you could see it, couldn't you?
If we went to Russia tonight.
And a young Russian hears the gospel.
And he sort of gets the light of
the gospel into his soul.
And he sort of knows, that if he
stands up and is counted, and declares boldly
his profession of faith in the Lord Jesus,
and that he loves Christ more than the
state.
He might find himself in the back of
Siberia tomorrow, or he might find himself in
an old dungeon, or he might find himself
being put to death.
Now, it goes a little bit further than
that.
I think I can show you the whole
thing, if I go back to the Roman
Inquisition.
I don't want to give the Romans too
much, because there's quite a number of Roman
Catholics here, and I'm not trying to take
it out on you.
But there was a time in this world's
history, and it's not so very far back,
when the Reformation came, and Roman Catholics professed
faith in Christ.
And they were finished with banking on myrrh.
And they didn't believe anymore in purgatory.
And they were not going to pay anymore,
for having their sins put away.
You see, there was an Inquisition set up.
The Pope and a few of his princes,
could come to a town like this, take
the town hall over there, and they could
call me to this inquiry.
And they could say to me, you not
believe in myrrh anymore, not in the way
you do, would be my answer.
And you're not accepting the infallibility of the
Pope, by no means.
And you're not going to pay for indulgences?
No sir, I've got forgiveness of sins already.
You know, they had power in those days
to take my life.
And they burned at the stake, thousands and
thousands and thousands, of the best men and
women that walked in shoelaces.
Now, let me show you this ostensibly.
Can I take an example in this meeting?
Anne is at my elbow here.
I didn't tell her to sit there, but
she came and sat there.
It's all right.
You can come up here if you like.
Anne is a converted Roman Catholic, and her
brother Jim is a converted Roman Catholic.
Now they will bear me out in this.
And I tell them every time that I'm
talking to them, to love their father and
mother.
The only way they'll ever get the light
of the gospel over to them.
They've got a dear old father and mother
out there, and they're in the dark yet,
in Rome.
And I tell them, you love them.
Make sure you love them.
But supposing, supposing, let's get this over now.
Supposing that Rome had the power they used
to have, and could come to this town
and set up an inquisition.
And these two were arrested, or about to
be arrested.
Priests come into the house.
And they're going to be burned if they
don't recount what they have taken on.
They love the Lord with all their hearts,
you know.
You know what the old mother would do?
She'd put her arms around Anne and say,
look Anne, don't go on with it dear.
Please don't go on with it.
Think of me.
Think of what you're going to do to
our home.
And the father would put his arms around
the boy and hug him.
Dear my son, what does it matter?
Leave the Baptists, don't have any more bother
with them.
You know what it would be?
And they stand still.
And they're going on with it.
And there's going to be no turning back.
And the old mother would say, you know
you've come to hate us.
It is not true, but it looks like
it.
She doesn't know.
Because that's exactly what it was.
You'll have to do it that way.
Because they would think, these dear old souls
would think, you know you've turned to hate
us.
And you're letting us down and you're going
to break our hearts.
Are you sure you could give it up?
No, you love the Lord Jesus.
And the word ostensibly means it seems like.
And that's the way it's used.
It seems like.
We got the hold of that now.
All right, let's get on to the second
one.
For a moment or two I'd almost given
up.
Never mind, we'll try the second one.
Let's look at this very carefully.
This is Luke's Gospel and it's chapter 16.
I've got to read a little bit there
to get the full story over to you
because it's a story the Lord Jesus told.
Now watch again, verse 1.
Not talking to the multitude now.
And he said also unto his disciples, Please
always get who's talking and who is talking
to them.
Then we might get what he's talking about.
So he's telling them this story.
There was a certain rich man which had
a steward and the same was accused unto
him that he had wasted his goods.
And he called him and said unto him,
How is it that I hear this of
thee?
Give an account of thy stewardship for thou
mayest be no longer steward.
Then the steward said within himself, he's talking
to himself, What shall I do?
For my Lord taketh away from me this
stewardship.
I cannot dig to beg, I am ashamed.
I am resolved what to do that when
I am put out of this stewardship they
may receive me into their houses.
So he called every one of his Lord's
debtors unto him and said unto the first,
How much o'st thou unto my Lord?
And he said, A hundred measures of oil.
And he said unto him, Take thy bill
and sit down quickly and write fifty.
Then said he to another, And how much
o'st thou?
And he said, A hundred measures of wheat.
And he said unto him, Take thy bill
and write four score.
And the Lord commended the unjust steward because
he had done wisely.
For the children of this world are in
their generation wiser than the children of life.
I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends
of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye
fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
He that is faithful in that which is
least is faithful also in that which is
much.
And he that is unjust in the least
is unjust also in the much.
And so on and so on.
Can it serve God and mammon?
When I was in Canada, an old argumentative
doctor from the university came up and opened
this up and said, This is the story
of the unjust steward.
That's right.
He says, Verse 8 says, And the Lord
commended the unjust steward.
He says, How can our Lord commend unjustness?
And I said, I don't think you're able
to see right.
Because the word Lord there happens to be
a small l.
That's not our Lord at all.
Read the story over.
See there was a certain rich man.
He had a steward.
Verse 3, Then the steward said within himself,
What shall I do for my Lord taketh
away from me?
He's talking about his master.
He's talking about an earthly boss.
It doesn't matter to me what an earthly
boss says.
So don't read it wrong and then ask
stupid questions.
Now that bit's easily solved.
Because that was the rich man who owned
this wonderful estate.
And he commended, mind you, the unjust steward
because he had done wisely.
But I think it was our Lord Jesus
that put the end to that.
He said, For the children of this world
are in their generation wiser than the children
of life.
And I say unto you, and there are
no mistakes about that bit.
It was the Lord Jesus that was talking
now.
Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of
unrighteousness.
Now that's where the problem comes in, isn't
it?
Why can our Lord say, Make to yourselves
friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when
you fail they may receive you and everlasting
habitations.
You see, I think you've got to see
the whole picture here.
You've got to see this whole eastern homestead,
this rich estate.
And in some of these great estates in
the far east, they were very rich.
I think they may have had thousands of
cattle.
Well, at least I do know that Job
had 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels.
I know about that.
And I know that when Lot and Abraham
was moving together, that the land was not
able to bear for them both.
They had so many cattle.
And I can work it out for you
tonight that some of these rich farms, these
great estates, whatever you like to call it,
they made barrels and barrels of oil and
they could make it.
And I know that they stored wheat by
the ton, and only it wasn't measured in
tons in those days.
That wasn't the measurement.
They had it in garners.
You know, the rich man said, I will
pull down my barns and build greater.
Well, over this whole great, vast, rich, wealthy
estate, they sometimes put a manager.
They didn't use the word manager, of course.
He was called steward.
He was the overseer over all.
Now this is something we don't know, and
this is something we'll have to know if
we're going to get this story right.
That he was allowed to not only sell
whatever cattle he wanted to sell, and oil,
and wheat, and so on, but he was
the one who bought in for the whole
household.
He kept the household right too.
Now if he could buy in under the
market price, then whatever he bought in under
the market price, that money was his.
He could put it in his own pocket.
He was allowed to do that.
And if he could sell out over the
market price, then he could also keep that.
That's how he made money.
He sold as high as he could.
He bought as low as he could.
But the money that he would make from
the ordinary market price would be his, his
own.
And so when he called these people, and
said write fifty, he wasn't taking any of
the boss's money away, you know, he was
giving them a bit of his own.
He'd got that in his pocket.
I was talking to a businessman the other
day, who has a big business, who comes
to the class sometimes, and I said, how
are you getting on?
Well, he said, you know, just to get
customers in for this last two or three
weeks, we're sort of giving things away.
We're not making money, but we're making friends.
See, if you sell things cheap, you'll make
friends.
Are you listening down there?
Two butchers in the front seat, you know.
All right, all right, we get our meat
from them, and it's very good.
Yes.
Now, this is the point, you see.
This is the point.
That he was doing something here.
He was giving them a half back.
It was out of his own pocket.
But it was just a wise move.
Because if the boss was going to bring
them up for wasting something, it was reported
he was wasting things, then the friends would
look after him when he was out of
a job.
And the Lord Jesus said, the children of
this world are in their generation wiser than
the children of life.
And then he said this to them.
He said, make to yourselves friends of the
mammon of unrighteousness.
Now, we must stop at this word mammon.
You see, when we were going through Genesis,
and when I did some of the Bible
readings on the tabernacle, I told you about
the gods that were in the land of
Palestine when Moses brought the children of Israel,
and Joshua eventually brought them in.
Of course, I think you know this, that
the Philistines had a god called Dagon.
Remember that.
And when the Philistines overthrew the Israelites, and
they brought the Ark of the Covenant in
before Dagon.
Now, the Canaanites, Canaanites were in the land
too, and the Hivites, and the Gashites, and
there's a whole crowd of little companies there.
Now, the Canaanites had a god called Mammon.
I want you to get that.
And it's a word for wealth.
He was the god of wealth.
I want you to get that.
Because that's the word that's used here.
It's the old Canaanitish word for their god.
Now, the Lord Jesus is saying, make to
yourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness.
Now, what did he mean when he called
this god, the god of unrighteousness?
You know, there's a tremendous study to be
done if we would go back to Eden's
garden just before the fall.
And I believe, you see, that if Adam
hadn't transgressed, because it was by that one
transgression that sin entered into the world.
Oh, it was a terrible moment, but don't
let's get taken up too much with it.
But just before it entered, you know, we
wouldn't have needed any policemen or anything had
Adam not failed.
And what's more, we wouldn't have needed any
doctors, nor hospitals, nor tablets.
And I could go into a whole string
of things we wouldn't have needed.
I'm going to tell you this bit, and
this is the bit I want to get
over.
We wouldn't have needed money.
Oh no, not at all.
And it's the product of sin.
And it's called the wealth of unrighteousness.
That's what it is.
Now, somebody said to me once, when I
said this somewhere, I think in the Faroe
Isles, He said, you know, we'd be better
to do without this money.
You just have a go at doing without
it now, and you're going to find out
you're not going to exist at all.
We can't do without it now.
We're just cornered now.
You might as well tell me we could
do without the policemen, and we could do
without the hospitals, and we could do without
the tablets.
I'm afraid there's some of us here hanging
on just because of tablets.
No, we have to put up with it,
but it is the moment of unrighteousness, you
know.
But you know, if God gives us some
of it, we should use it in the
right way, in a wise way.
You see, you could take your money, or
some of it at least, and you could
do something for fallen creatures in another part
of the world, couldn't you?
I know someone in this meeting just now,
and they're anxious, all night and day they're
anxious about these two gospel ships that are
sailing round the world now, and calling in
to ports.
And they're getting great crowds on board, and
people are getting said, right, left and centre,
and they're giving their money.
And I'll tell you this, if you can
take this thing that's called the mammon, or
the wealth of unrighteousness, just because it's here
because of sin, and you can use it
when the day dawns, and the shadows flee
away, and you've got to leave the job
you're at, and you're going into heaven, there
might be folks who'll meet you there, and
shake your hand, and say, you know, if
you hadn't have given those few pounds, I
would never have got saved.
Do you see what the Lord Jesus is
at now?
There's nothing wrong with it, you know.
It's quite a wonderful thing.
Now don't forget that we've got big problems
on for next Tuesday.
Let's bow together.
Lord, we bow at thy feet.
Thank thee for thy holy word.
Thank thee, Lord, that this book is inspired,
there are no contradictions.
This is not only the truth, but this
is the whole truth, and this is nothing
but the truth.
And we have the spirit of truth to
guide us into all truth.
Bless thy people.
Take us to our homes in safety.
Part us in thy fear, and with thy
blessing, for thy name's sake.
Amen.