Today we come to our final study in
the subject of discipleship, and I wonder if
we could turn to Luke chapter 16, please.
Sixteenth chapter of Luke, and if you can't
hear me at any time, feel free to
raise your hand and I'll know that I
should speak more loudly.
Luke chapter 16, beginning with verse 1.
And he said also unto his disciples, 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, or thou
mayest be no longer steward.
Then the steward said within himself, What shall
I do?
For my lord taketh away from me the
stewardship.
If I cannot dig, to beg I am
ashamed.
I am resolved what to do.
When I am put out of the 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 owest thou unto my lord?
And he said, A hundred measures of oil.
He said unto him, Take thy bill, and
sit down quickly, and write fifty.
Then said he to another, And how much
owest thou?
And he said, A hundred measures of wheat.
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 own generation wiser than the children of
life.
And I say unto you, Make to yourselves
friends of the manna of unrighteousness, that when
ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting
habitation.
He that is faithful in that which is
least is faithful also in much.
And he that is unjust in the least
is unjust also in much.
If therefore ye have not been faithful in
the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your
trust the true riches?
And if ye have not been faithful in
that which is another man's, who shall give
you that which is your own?
No servant can serve two masters, for either
he will hate the one and love the
other, or else he will hold to the
one and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Now this statement of the Lord Jesus spoken
to his disciples, verse one, is one of
the most perplexing and confusing portions of the
gospel.
Because it seems to commend dishonesty.
This steward was obviously a crook.
And yet he is commended in the passage,
there's no doubt in the world about that.
Well like so many other portions of the
word of God, when the key is found
and the portion is unlocked, we find that
it is rich with spiritual teaching for our
own souls.
Now you have this interesting story of a
steward, he was just simply an employee, that's
all.
He worked for a boss in some sort
of a business, probably agricultural.
And he was mismanaging his boss's property.
And the news came to his employer about
it, and he called him in and he
said, you're fired.
It says in the King James Version, thou
mayest no longer be steward.
That almost seems to indicate a little doubt.
Maybe you will and maybe you won't, but
that isn't what it means.
It really means thou canst no longer be
steward.
You're fired, I'm giving you your walking papers
right now.
So he said, what am I going to
do?
What am I going to do?
Well he said, I'm resolved what I'm going
to do.
I can't dig, I don't have the strength
left to dig in my age.
And he says, I'm ashamed to beg.
So he went around to the bin who
owed his boss money.
Said to the first one, how much do
you owe?
He says, oh I owe a hundred dollars,
in our language today perhaps.
Well he says, write it down to fifty
and just pay the fifty.
Said to the next, how much do you
owe?
He said, I owe a hundred dollars.
Well he said, write it down to eighty,
pay the eighty and we'll call it square.
And it says his lord, not really the
lord, but his lord commended the unjust steward.
He had done wisely.
It doesn't say yet how he had done
wisely, but he had done wisely.
And then it says the children of this
world are in their generation wiser than the
children of light.
That means ungodly people act with a wisdom
oftentimes greater than the wisdom of the children
of God.
Now let's just go back over it and
see if we can apply it to our
own hearts this morning and see what the
Lord has for us in it.
I think it's clear from the word of
God that each one of us is a
steward.
Now really a steward is someone who takes
care of the property and interests and affairs
of another.
Now that's exactly our position in the world.
We're not here on our own behalf.
We're not here in our own interest.
We're here as stewards of the Lord God
Almighty.
We're here to take care of his interest,
to take care of what he has entrusted
to us.
And everything we have is a stewardship from
the Lord.
You and I have a life that God
has given to us.
It's not our own.
It's not our own life to live the
way we want to live it.
And there's a day coming when we're going
to stand before God and give an account
as to how we live that life.
Every one of us has a certain amount
of possessions.
They're really not ours.
They belong to God.
We have a home.
We have children.
We have time committed to our trust.
All of those things are the Lord's, and
believe it or not, we're going to give
an account to him one day.
And I think this is a solemn part
of this portion of the Word of God
that it teaches that one day our stewardship
will end.
One hundred years from today, not one of
us here will still be here.
Fifty years from today, most of us will
have passed off the scene.
And within twenty years, or even ten years,
many of the people gathered here this morning
will have passed into the presence of Christ
and will give an account of his stewardship.
Someone has said, a fool is a man
all of whose plans end in time.
We all have the illusion that we're going
to be here forever.
We attend a funeral and we say, poor
fellow, it happened to him, but it couldn't
happen to me.
And we're quite unaware of the fact that
the same motions are working in our own
bodies and in our own lives, and the
dissolution will come sooner or later, and probably
sooner.
And really it's solemn to think about it,
how short our little lives are anyway.
Just pick up a grain of the dust,
or a grain of the sand, and that's
what your life and my life is in
reference to eternity.
Just a passing speck.
And it's of utmost importance that it be
lived in the light of eternity.
It's of utmost importance that we not let
it pass away dealing with things and not
with the important matters.
I always remember what Paul Little said one
day.
His mother was working in the living room
and Paul went into the living room and
he said to his mother, Mother, he said,
I'm so glad God has given me a
greater love for people than for things.
And what he meant was that he wanted
to spend his life dealing with that which
really counts and not with that which passes
away.
Well now I wonder, supposing you and I
had to give an account of our stewardship
today, what kind of an account would we
give?
The danger that we have is to compare
ourselves with others.
And if you compare yourself with others, you'll
always find there's someone lower on the totem
pole than you are.
But nowhere in the word of God are
we ever told that we're going to be
judged in reference to others.
The Lord Jesus Christ himself is our example,
our pattern, and our guide.
And we're going to be judged according to
the principles of the word of God.
Now, in our little parable before us this
morning, this unjust steward was commended.
And I think here we come to the
crux of the matter.
Why was he commended?
Well, first of all, we know absolutely he
wasn't commended because of his crookedness.
He wasn't commended because of his dishonesty and
because of his deceit.
There's one and only one reason why that
unjust steward was commended.
Do you know what it is?
Well, the reason that he was commended was
that he acted in the present in the
light of the future.
And that's the only reason why a word
of approbation was spoken concerning him.
He acted in the present in the light
of the future.
He didn't live for now, he lived for
then.
And the Lord Jesus says that in this
respect, the children of this world are wiser
than the children of life.
In their own generation, if you take the
two, the children of this generation are wiser
than the children of life.
Now, you must be very careful in your
thinking here.
What this passage of scripture teaches is that
the children of this world prepare for their
future in this world.
Now, the future of a child of God
is never said to be in this world.
There's nowhere indicated in the word of God
that a child of God should prepare for
his future in this world.
The child of God prepares for his future
in the world to come, or at least
he should.
But in this respect, the ungodly are wiser
than we are.
They prepare for their future here, we don't
prepare for our future there.
And that's the whole gist of this portion
of scripture before us.
You say, well, how do you know?
Because the verses that follow make it clear.
Notice verse 8 again, just by way of
connection, it says, His Lord, in the revised
version, commended the unjust steward because he had
done wisely.
How had he done wisely?
Well, he said, my game is up anyway.
My stewardship is gone.
And all I want to be sure is
that when I'm bereft of my job, I'll
be able to go and knock on the
door and have the door swing open and
have a friendly voice say to me, come
on in and have a cup of coffee
and a piece of coffee cake with us.
His 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.
Now here comes the Savior's commentary on it.
And I say unto you, make to yourselves
friends by means of the manner of unrighteousness,
that when ye fail, they may receive you
into everlasting habitation.
You see the picture switches.
Now he's speaking to a child of God.
He says, you so act that you'll provide
in a very real sense for your future.
Now it says, make to yourselves friends by
means of the manner of unrighteousness.
Now I think that we all know what
the manner of unrighteousness is.
It means material things.
It means money, if you will.
It says, make to yourselves friends by reason
of the manner of unrighteousness.
You know, it's an interesting thing, isn't it?
That that dollar bill could be converted into
precious, never-dying souls, one for the Lord
Jesus Christ for all eternity.
Could.
Could be converted into other things.
Could be converted into personal comfort.
Could be converted into pleasure.
Could be converted into display.
And a million and one other things.
But the thrill of this verse of Scripture
is it can be converted into souls.
You can make friends for yourself, and I
can too, with the manner of unrighteousness, by
means of a divine alchemy.
I can invest that in the service of
the Lord and meet souls in heaven as
a result of it.
And that's how you make friends of the
manner of unrighteousness.
You convert it into tracts.
You send it to the servants of the
Lord laboring in difficult places throughout the world.
Christian literature, whatever you will, somebody takes up
that tract, reads it, is converted to God
and becomes a worshipper of the Lord Jesus
Christ throughout all eternity.
Make to yourselves friends of the manner of
unrighteousness.
What?
It says that when ye fail, what does
that mean?
Well, just put it simply, when you die.
When you die.
What will happen?
They may receive you into everlasting habitation.
Who's the they?
The friends you made by means of the
manner of unrighteousness.
What is the verse saying?
The verse is saying that you can so
use the material things that God has given
you down here that you'll have a welcoming
committee when you get home to heaven.
The poet has said, and when in the
mansions above the saved all about me appear,
I want to hear somebody saying it was
you who invited me here.
Well, that's exactly what this portion of scripture
is saying.
God is saying, I put things at your
disposal, things that you can use in a
selfish way, for self-aggrandizement, for building yourself
up in the world, for pleasure, for luxury,
for ease, for comfort.
But those things can also be used to
see souls brought to the Lord Jesus Christ
and worshipping him forever and ever.
Make to yourselves friends of the manner of
unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they, those friends,
may receive you into everlasting habitation.
Now the portion of scripture goes on to
say, he that is faithful in that which
is least is faithful also in much, and
he that is unjust in the least is
unjust also in much.
And in this verse of scripture and the
verses that are following, God seems to take
material things and speak of them as that
which is least, that which is most unimportant
in this world.
We somehow seem to get our sights shifted,
and the things that we can see and
feel and touch and handle, well, they seem
to be the important things to us.
And the things of heaven and the things
of eternity somehow seem to lose their grip
upon our souls.
But this passage of scripture is telling us
that it's the things that are not seen
that are eternal.
And that if we're not faithful with the
little least things that God entrusts us with
down here, how can he entrust us with
greater things either here or then?
And it goes on to say in verse
11, And if therefore ye have not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit
to your trust the true riches?
Now that's a very incisive word of scripture,
isn't it?
If you haven't been faithful with the unrighteous
mammon, who will entrust to you the true
riches?
What are true riches?
Well, they would be spiritual riches right here
and now.
And this verse teaches us, first of all,
that if I'm not faithful in my stewardship
with the things that God has entrusted to
me, God will withhold true spiritual riches from
me.
For instance, if I'm not faithful with that
single dollar bill that's in my pocket, this
could result in the Bible being a closed
book to me.
And I believe that with all my heart.
I believe that the more devoted we are,
the more sacrificial we are with the things
of the Lord, the more he will open
this book and make it a real living
word to our souls.
People today complain about the difficulty that they
have with the word of God.
Well, it is a difficult book, but there
are ways in which God will open it
to us.
And I really believe that one of the
reasons why there's a famine of the word
of God in the United States today is
traceable in part to the fact we haven't
been faithful with that which is least.
If ye, therefore, have not been faithful in
the unrighteous manner, who will commit to your
trust the true riches?
And this not only refers to true riches
here, but it refers to true riches up
there, too.
It refers to the rewards that will be
given out at the judgment seat of Christ.
Then the next verse drives home the same
lesson.
If ye have not been faithful in that
which is another man's, who will give to
you that which is your own?
You know, everything we have down here is
another person's, God's.
We don't have a single thing that we
haven't received.
And yet there is a sense in which
there is to be something which is our
own.
And that something will be a reward that
will be given out at the judgment seat
of Christ.
That will be our own in a very
real sense.
It will be the reward for our faithful
stewardship down here.
And God is saying in his first scripture,
I have given you certain things.
Every one of you is a king or
a queen in his own realm.
Every human being, every sinner saved by grace
reigns over a certain empire.
And that's true.
And I've given certain things to you to
administer for me.
These don't belong to you.
They belong to me.
And if you haven't been faithful in that
which is another's, all that you have down
here, how can I give to you that
which is your own?
Who will give to you that which is
your own?
And then finally it says in verse 13,
no serpent 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.
Now we all know that this is true
in an earthly, material, physical sense.
Even in an organization where people are working,
it seldom works to have one person employed
by two bosses.
It seldom works to have a secretary working
for two department heads.
There's a whole matter of divided loyalty and
divided time.
And we know these things are true in
an earthly sense.
And those of us who have ever been
in business know that you don't frame a
business structure like that.
It isn't done in human organization.
Well, God is saying it shouldn't be done
in spiritual things either.
No man can serve two masters.
He'll love the one and hate the other,
or else hate the one and love the
other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
And this tells us that we must be
undivided in our loyalties to God.
Now the truth of this comes out, I
think, in our everyday conversation.
It's interesting as we even talk to notice
what spills out.
You say, perhaps you're inquiring about a young
Christian man and you say, how's he getting
along anyway?
And the answer is, my word, he's doing
well.
You know, he's working his way right up
to the top.
You say, well, he's making good money just
now.
Is he making good money?
He's up in the high brackets right now.
And doing well, he has a lovely home
in a palatial residential neighborhood.
You say, well, how's he doing spiritually?
Well, I can't say too much about that.
You know, he's kept so busy with his
business that I just can't say too much
about the spiritual side of life.
How did you say he was doing?
Oh, I said he was doing very well.
Yeah, well, that's just a giveaway, isn't it?
That's just a giveaway.
If we were really living in the light
of Luke chapter 16, we wouldn't say he
was doing very well.
We'd say he was doing very poorly.
We would say he's living for mammon and
not for God.
We'd say he's wasting his life.
But you know, I do believe that that's
one of the greatest tragedies of our day.
We emphasize the gospel.
We emphasize the salvation of the soul, and
that's important.
But I'd like to emphasize this morning.
It's possible for a person's soul to be
saved and for his life to be lost.
It's possible for a person's soul to be
saved and for his life to be lost.
Every one of us who poses today as
a disciple of Jesus Christ is going to
stand before him.
We're going to look into those eyes of
love.
We're going to see the marks of Calvary
on his hands and feet and upon his
brow.
And we're going to give an account.
The closing thought I'd like to leave with
you this morning, and the thing that burdens
my heart, especially as I work among young
people today, is this.
Only the life that's lived for God really
counts.
And these are the things that loom up
so important.
In the United States, they're not so important.
They're not so important.
And I beg you today in the name
of Jesus Christ, and as a servant of
him, make to yourselves friends of the man
of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may
receive you into everlasting habitation.
Don't go through life hugging the subordinate.
Don't go through life willing to be a
minor official in a transient enterprise.
Go through life living for that which will
count for all eternity.