Transcript

We’re going to Luke. Back to Luke. Luke 16 this morning. The Lord continues to do teaching by parables. A parable is a story that’s laid down alongside a spiritual truth to illustrate and give understanding and in Luke 16 we have the parable of the unfaithful manager. There is some real neat principles I think that come out here that help us to discern between things that the world would say are wise and good things to do as far as charity and helping but the Lord sort of corrects that and shows us the real true wisdom in some of these things. But let’s look at it together. Luke 16, verses 1-9.

1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, [could say steward but I like manager because that’s the word we use today] and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 ‘I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ 5 And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. 9 And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

Now, here we have a manager who is put over a wealthy man’s business and it comes to the attention of the owner, the wealthy man, that this manager has been derelict in his responsibilities. He calls him in and says, “Alright, I’m removing you from this position. You’re fired.” And the manager says, “Well, what in the world am I going to do,” and he’s talking to himself, that’s what he’s doing. He’s talking, “What am I going to do? I’m not of able body to dig.” It probably just meant that he was too lazy. Then he said, “I’m too ashamed to beg.” Then he thought, he crafted a very devious, shrewd plan. He said, “Here’s what I’ll do, I’ll go out and find my master’s debtors and I’ll decrease the debts they owe. I’ll just lie and we’ll deceive together and decrease their debts and then when I’m fired officially, they’ll owe me and they’ll welcome me into their household, at least give me a job or take care of me for a while.” Then Jesus says, “That very owner, master, at least praised this manager because at least he had the understanding and the initiative to take care of himself in this world according to how this world works.” But then he gives a parallel. Jesus says in effect, “Isn’t it interesting that worldlings know how to get ahead in this world but my children who are of a better kingdom and a higher world, don’t know how to use this world to get ahead in that world.” Worldly people know how to gain this world but spiritual people seem to be retarded, if you will. I don’t mean that humorously but hindered or held back or they find difficulty in advancing the spiritual kingdom. His point was: and which one is more important? Certainly the spiritual kingdom.

Well, let’s look at it one aspect at a time. Three points. First point, notice the derelict manager and, of course, as we go through this though this is a parable there are truths that speak to us about our management of what God has given to us. The derelict manager or he’s derelict in his management. Look at verse 1 again, “Now He was also saying to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions.'” So what we have here in this parable is a clearly taught, simple truth that we need to be reminded of and that is that we are but stewards or managers of another’s property. That’s one of the points the Lord is pointing out here. You don’t have anything you own. You think you own it but you don’t really own it. Every man on the earth is a steward or manager of another’s property and that man, that person rather, is God and we are bound to be faithful in our duties to all that we possess and all that’s put in our responsibility.

I think it would be good for us on this Sunday morning though you stayed up late not preparing your minds for the service but watching ball games. It might not be sin but it might be when it keeps you from getting ready for the things of God on Sunday. I don’t think we grasp in our nation or even in our churches what we mean by we have a duty to God. You have a duty to perform to God. A concept of duty implies a moral or a legal obligation. It would do us well to have a personal revival concerning our duties that we have to perform to our God. He is the one who made us. He is the one who sustains us. He is the one who redeems us. And yes, he will be the one who will judge us.

You know, we have a duty to God because he’s God. We have a duty to perform. Now, this duty involves no real consideration of our preference. Oh my goodness, we live in a day of all kinds of warped, perverse ideas of what Christianity is and it ends up being all about us and all about us being blessed and all about us being helped and all about us having a blessed, enjoyable, entertaining time if we come to the service and that just goes on and on and you see it everywhere but nobody wants to talk about what’s our duty to God? It really doesn’t have anything to do with your preferences or your comforts or your prejudices or what blesses you even though by performing your duty to God, there are many blessings. That’s not the point. He’s God and we have a duty to him to perform. I think that jumps out at us as Jesus just simply says, “Here is a story. A wealthy man had a manager and he called that manager to account. Have you been performing your duty?” Have you? Have I? Have we been performing our duty?

You see, all that is is his and all that is exists for his pleasure and for his glory. Correspondingly then, we have a duty to him first and really to him alone because all other duties we perform in this world: we have duties to our husbands, to our wives, to our families, to our employers; to the civil authorities and on and on we can go but all of these duties are ultimately unto him who prescribed these lower obligations and he prescribed the way in which we are to carry out these lower obligations. So even in preforming the duties we have in this life, they are to be done unto him. He thought them all up to start with.

Now, we just a few weeks ago when we let off in Luke talked about the prodigal son and he comes home and he returned from his life of rebellion and we know there’s this giant party going on, this great reception and joy going on. The prodigal has returned but understand the prodigal son didn’t come home for a continual party. After the party, he aligned himself back up to the duties of his father’s house and to the responsibilities therein. Proverbs 6:6 tells us, “Go to the ant,” a-n-t, “O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise.” The writer of Proverbs, Solomon, in his wisdom is simply saying, “Look at the diligence and the duty of the ant.” We ought to be the same way. Of course, the greatest of all duties that I believe exists on planet earth is that of pastors because if I don’t, if pastors don’t do their duty properly, then the men of the church are not properly led and edified and built up. They cannot properly lead their wives or their children or their grandchildren. That’s why Satan works overtime to get pastors to shrink back in their duties in the pastorate because the domino effect is overwhelming. By the way, God has no Plan B. You can meet with all the discipleship groups you want on Thursday morning and that’s wonderful but God has ordained to accomplish his work and save souls primarily through his local churches and primarily through the preaching of the word through God-called pastors. It has nothing to do with me personally. That was true before I pastored and it will be true after I pastor. Now, we can think arrogantly and think, “Well, since the pastors are weak today and the families are weak today and the churches are weak today, we’ll start a little study on the side.” Well, that’s good and I thank God for that but it will not replace God’s primary means. He has no Plan B. Our goal is to have a true church. That’s the plan, for the glory of God.

1 Peter 4:10 says that we are stewards or managers of the manifold grace of God. Now, think about that. Pastors are managers of the manifold grace of God. That is a staggering responsibility. You do understand that the only way your soul is going to be saved is the grace of God. And God has ordained in his sovereignty that the grace that saves you is not dependent upon a man but he has chosen to use men in the implementation of it. That’s why Paul could say, “We are ambassadors for Christ.” I suppose he could have written the doctrines of grace in the clouds or on the sides of the mountains but he’s ordained that it’s in his word and is to be proclaimed through his word. What a staggering duty this is. I don’t want to belabor that too much but I want to put it out there because like this last week in Florida where I talked to three pastors this week who are in one form or another in partnership with Anchored in Truth Missions and I love their hearts and I saw the seriousness and how they care about the glory of God and being biblically sound in their work. By the way, you are having an impact on them. Don’t ever diminish that. Be humble about it but you’re having an impact. I thought of how weighty the duty is and how difficult it is and how thankful I was for men like that.

But here’s Jesus, let’s continue on with our parable. It talks about this rich man who brought his manager in and he says to him, “I’ve heard,” look at verse 1, chapter 16, “I heard you’ve been squandering my possessions.” Squandering there has the idea of scattering; it just means wasting. In other words, “You did not utilize my possessions wisely,” and the parallel for us is: are we wasting the provisions God has put in our care? Are we squandering God’s possessions that are put in our management? You know, the entire world is upside down. The times are out of joint. The whole world’s conduct, the whole world’s system and what they do with their possessions is but a squandering and a wasting of what God has given men that ought to be used for his glory in the building of his kingdom.

Now, let me give you an example of how clever Satan is on this. We might look out in the world and we find a very disciplined and a very thrifty man and we think, “Well, he’s not wasteful. He’s not squandering. Look how responsible and how disciplined. He saves right. He doesn’t overspend in areas and he’s just so disciplined and thrifty and he’s gathering, he’s not wasteful.” But I’m telling you, it’s a deception because if he’s only living in this world and for this world, as thrifty and as disciplined as he is, he’s saving in a bankrupt bank. He’s putting his possessions in a broken system. You see, only the one that spends or scatters for Christ is actually gathering anything that’s true treasure that lasts for eternity and, therefore, only the one that scatters and gives for Christ’s sake is the one who is actually doing his duty unto God. Do you realize there are going to be untold scores of men who spent their lives giving to charitable causes only to find at the Judgment Seat of Christ that they wasted everything? This world isn’t so we can help mankind, this world is so that we might glorify the God who made us. Don’t misunderstand me: be balanced. We are to do good things for all people but it ought to be out of a heart that loves Christ and it ought to be in a motive to honor Christ because if it’s not Christ-centered in what you do, in the end it always ends up congratulating you, the giver. Are you hearing me? Wouldn’t you like to do some great things on your own rather than giving it to a congregation so the congregation does the great thing and, therefore, you’re not known about? It is more appealing to the flesh to do it directly, is it not? But our duty is to do what God called us to do God’s way for God’s glory. That’s the duty we have.

Well, here’s a man who was called in and Jesus says, “He was squandering his management,” and I think that’s a challenge to us. Are we squandering the management God gives to us? And we can even have so-called good motives and things that look like generous and helpful deeds but are they for the glory of God? Verse 2, continuing in the parable, “And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.'” So here we have, again, a reminder that God is sovereign over all the actions of all men yet his sovereignty does not remove but rather includes our responsibility and accountability to him. Now, some of you men have done very well and I thank God for you and I applaud you. You built some businesses and you’ve done good stuff but just as I told you, it’s a challenging responsibility to think about my stewardship, you ought to tremble some too over your stewardship. There ought to be something in you that says, “Oh God, am I managing well what you have entrusted to me?” “Pastor, I don’t want to come to church where I’m made uncomfortable like this.” I’m helping you, is what I’m doing. The responsibility to the accountability is there whether or not your pastor reminds you of it or not. This life is a privileged season of grace for which we will all give an account. We all will die and we all will give account of our management. This is a simple story the Lord is telling but it gives us good reminders of our responsibilities.

Well, this was a derelict manager. The dereliction in his management, he was not faithful, he was not true at all, if you will, to the man who employed him. Number 2: notice he’s devious also. II. He’s devious in his management. You see this beginning in verse 6. “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am too ashamed to beg.'” In his wasteful, unfaithful management, he thought he was advancing himself. Is that not always true? This guy thought, “Ah, I’m doing a pretty good job. I’ll never get found out. I’m really going to help myself here.” But you always get found out. He thought he was advancing himself in his crooked ways but he was hurting himself. You know, 100% of those who are in this world and wastefully neglect to manage what God has entrusted to them, they are doing this thinking they are getting ahead and 100% of the time, they are wrong.

Notice the serious character deficiencies in this guy. He gets caught basically stealing by not being faithful in the management of another man’s property that he was employed to manage. Then when he gets caught, he says in verse 3, “What shall I do?” Not, “How shall I respond?” Not, “What is the right thing to do now?” Not, “What are my Christian principles requiring of me to make this right?” You all can make mistakes and you get it right in repentance. That’s not what he’s saying, he goes deeper in his devious ploys and plots and says, “Now, how can I cover this thing up and get out of it?” Oh my goodness, sin weaves a wicked web that you always ultimately entangle yourselves in.

So he doesn’t say, “How shall I respond correctly?” But, “What shall I do?” He’s not thinking about his rightful duty in these circumstances, he only wants to get out of it. Then he says, I am to proud to beg, too weak to dig rather, and too proud to beg.” I think the point is that he thinks he’s too good for honorable work. Listen, there’s nothing wrong, there is nothing dishonorable at all about a man making his living with his hands. God bless those men who faithfully fulfill their duty to God with the gifts God has given them whether it’s a digging a ditch or laying a line or erecting a house or whatever you do with your hands. This man thought he was too good for that.

You see, sin is nothing more or nothing less than being an unfaithful manager under God. You see, God has called you to manage your mind. Sir, what do you allow into your mind? What do you allow to be taught to your children? I’m astonished sometimes at the things that men place their families in. I’m talking particularly about church environments and don’t realize they’ll be giving an account one day for what they allowed to be taught to their children’s minds. You have a management, a stewardship over your heart. You have a stewardship over your behavior. Here we see the specific application: we have a management, a stewardship, that we’ll be accountable for of our possessions. Then finally there is a management of your souls and that is ultimately what the Lord is getting to here. Your eternal soul.

Now, when confronted with our unfaithfulness and, by the way, we all are because we’ve all been unfaithful to God and we’re all sinners, amen? There is an unfaithfulness in all of us concerning our management before God but there’s only one of two responses. When you are either convicted by your natural conscience, the Bible says, “The law of God is written in our hearts.” Or, the word of God is taught or read and preached and you’re convicted, “I see that I’m not whole before my God and I’m owing to him.” There are only two responses when you realize you’ve been an unfaithful manager before God. Number 1: you can beg God for mercy in repentance and in faith and put your faith in the provision he offers through his Son, Jesus Christ. That’s one response. The other response is kind of what this guy is doing: in your pride and in your unfaithfulness, in your devious spirit, plunge yourself in deeper ruin by looking even more deeply into this bankrupt world to somehow patch up the problem which is what he’s doing. He’s going to develop a devious plot to kind of fix something. He’s in trouble for being in the world and loving the world and now he’s going to try and look to the world to fix the problem. You can’t look to this world to fix your problem, there’s another world you have to look to. He’s not going to do that.

Now look at verse 4, if you will. “I know what I shall do,” notice the devious character of this guy, “so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.” So here he is, never pausing to think how his actions please God or the God of heaven, with his focus wholly and only on this world, he sets up himself to provide a comfortable conclusion to the matter out of this world but he, like all sinners, will not remain in this earth because this earth is temporal.

Look at verse 5, “And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?'” So he’s got it figured out. He said, “I’ll go to these guys, other wealthy men who owe my master great amounts and we’ll have a devious plot whereby we’ll change the bill amount and I’ll save them a ton of money and then when I’m fired, I’ll call in the favor. They’ll give me a job. They’ll welcome me into their households.”

Look at verse 6, so here’s what he does, “And he said to the first guy, ‘How much do you owe?’ and the guy says, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'” Now, the scholars tell us that this translates to 450 gallons of oil. That would have been a great amount of wealth in that day. So he just by one signature on a piece of paper, signs off and steals from his master, if you will, 450 gallons of oil. Under the table kind of thing. So by deceptively forgiving the debtor, half of the bill that he owed, he hopes he’ll endear himself to this man so that when he is fired and thrown out of his master’s home, this guy will take him into his home.

You know, there’s a parallel to men’s worldly notions of gaining a heavenly home here. Men are made aware of their unfaithfulness to the one true God and then they look again to their own devices, their own strength and their earthly solutions and they’re just more devious doings, if you will, that deepens their sin and their guilt. Do you realize that when you realize that you’re a sinner before a holy God and a holy God must judge sin, when that concept comes to your heart and mind and it comes to all men’s hearts and minds either through general revelation, the law of God written on their hearts or by the external truth of the word of God, it comes to all men’s minds. When you start doing this and that, cleaning up your life, putting on morality, ethically changing things in your life, joining a church, doing the sacraments, going through religious motions, all you’re doing is just building more guilt. You’re of the world. You’re in the world. The world is cursed. The world is in sin and then you go further into this world and its sinful system to cure yourself before a holy God. It can’t work. It never works.

So he goes to the second guy, “How much do you owe?” Verse 7 is where I’m looking, “And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.'” So again, that’s a fantastic amount of wheat that he’s just writing off the books here, stealing from his master, thinking only of himself. It’s kind of interesting that there is no indication in the parable that these men who owe this great amount to this manager’s master have any problem with taking the bill being lessened like this. Have you ever noticed sinners love company? You know why? Because we always feel a little bit guilty and we always feel like it helps the prick of our conscience to know that somebody else is in it with me. Somebody else is in it with me. If I go down, they are going down too. Well, the truth is, yeah, you’re all going down. A holy God will not tolerate unforgiven, unrepented of sin.

So here this guy, by the way, I’ve just got to throw this out there because I just think it’s so, is not this manager the quintessential socialist? I’m going to take somebody else’s wealth and give it to you and then that’s going to advance me in power and position later on. That’s what socialism is. You give away other people’s money and in the end exalt yourself. I just thought I’d throw that in close to election time.

III. Not only this guy’s dereliction in his management and the devious deceptive crookedness going on here, stealing from his master right before his fired, writing off these bills of debt so that these men will take him in; he’s going to call in the favors later on. But Jesus is using this all as a lesson for his disciples. All of that was kind of foundation stone. I won’t spend long here but if you will, III. Look at the lesson for his disciples. We begin in verse 8, “And his master,” that’s the wealthy man, “praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly.” Now, when it says “his master,” he doesn’t mean our master Jesus Christ. Jesus is saying “that manager’s master.” He’s saying, “You are a doggone rascal but you’re pretty doggone clever. You’re a thief but I’ll give you this much, you know how to get it done. You’re devious and you’re deviant and you’re crooked but you know how to make the system work for you, don’t you?” That’s what he’s doing here.

So he praised the unrighteous manager and I think some translations might say that he acted wisely. That’s not a real good translation. In the biblical sense, wisdom is only connected to those things that have moral goodness associated with them. It really means that you acted cleverly or deceptively or shrewdly. If you can call this a wisdom, it’s the wisdom of the lower world, not the true wisdom of the heavenly world. James 3:15 talks about that wisdom which does not come down from above but is earthly and natural and demonic. You can talk to people in the world and they’ll think, “I think this is the best approach. I think this is wisdom,” and you get to thinking about it if you know the word very well and you realize, “Well, they’ve got a twist on things a little bit.” That’s what’s very hard, heads of household, listen you pastors, that’s what’s really hard as you’re raising your children and your grandchildren is to see through and to see that they are putting a spin on this thing, a twist on this thing. It looks like it’s good Christian principles but it’s not. There is a wisdom, but it’s not heavenly wisdom. It has the appearance of goodness but it’s evil.

And then the last part of verse 8, here’s the point Jesus is making. Jesus is speaking this and he says, “for the sons of this age,” he means those that are not true believers in Christ, those who live of the world and for the world and view this world as the end of what they’re about. He says they “are more shrewd in relation to their own kind,” you could say their own generation or they’re more shrewd in relation to the world they live in and the world they are of, “than the sons of light.” So the Lord is saying here, “Worldly men seem to be more diligent and innovative in worldly things than spiritual men are diligent and innovative in spiritual things.” He says, “Why is it that the men of the world who love the world seem to know how to get ahead in the world but my children seem to be so hesitant and so slow and so negligent in getting ahead in the real world that matters, the spiritual world, the heavenly kingdom I’ve made them a part of it?” While these worldly men look only to this world, they seem to out-work true believers who are citizens of a higher world. Now, these earthly, worldly men may be working in the mud of this earth yet they seem to work harder to get more mud than God’s children who have been made managers of the pure gold of the heavenly kingdom. That’s what Jesus is saying.

I thought about this, meditating on this text last week, why is this? I believe it’s because with the human eye and with the human ear and with the human mind and our human senses, we can see the earth. It’s all around us and the worldly values are all around us. There is stuff we can feel it, we can taste it, we can touch it and so worldly men are, therefore, fully convinced of what is important to them. Now, they are in truth badly deceived because what they’re living for is going to judge them one day but that’s what they see and that’s what they believe. Believers are enabled by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit to see and plug into a different kingdom but right now it’s a spiritual kingdom and it’s not on the earth. Now, we preached about the return of Christ. It’s coming to the earth but right now we can’t see it with the human eye and we can’t hear it with the human ear and you can’t touch it with the human hand. We sense it spiritually as the word of God teaches us about it but that’s difficult at times and so very often we vacillate and we digress and doubts concerning the words of the kingdom of which we are now citizens, that heavenly kingdom. And so it is true that the world is often better served by its servants than Christ is served by his servants.

Nevertheless, though the unsaved are diligent in gaining this world, they are not wise, they are fools. They may put us sometimes to shame in their diligence and shrewdness of how they get ahead in this world but they have no true wisdom. True wisdom consists in seeing and using all that we have to gain heaven and advance God’s kingdom. 1 Corinthians 3:18 says, “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age,” did you hear that? “If any man thinks he’s wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise.” Here’s what he’s saying: you’ll get saved and all of a sudden you say, “Man, I’m the sharpest lawyer in town. I’m the most creative businessman in town. Well, I’m this and I’m that.” He says, “Wait a minute, that in itself is not bad but if that’s your hope and if that’s your heart and if that’s what you’re living for, then you’re not wise but you’re a fool.” God may give good, true Christian men great abilities to gain in this world but you must stop at that point and say, “I have this ability given by God now, O God, give me grace to use it for your glory so that I will not be a squanderer and wasteful of that which you have entrusted to me.”

One clear shaming illustration of how the worldlings are more diligent than the true Christians very often, do you realize that when Jesus went into the garden of Gethsemane he was praying and the agony of the cross is so heavy on him he perspires drops of blood. He brings Peter, James and John on into the garden with him and he pleads with them, “Pray for me. Pray for me.” And while Jesus is kneeling praying in the garden, Peter, James and John fall asleep like some of you sleep when I preach on Sunday morning. If I were to call your name and put your picture on the screen, would that help you stay awake? Peter, James and John are asleep. Do you know what was happening at the exact hour that they’re sleeping instead of praying for the Lord? Judas is busy betraying Jesus for 30 pieces of the world’s silver. Judas was diligent to gain the world while the true disciples were lazy and negligent about building the other kingdom. ‘Fess up, we’re not much better sometimes, are we? It’s because we’re blinded. It’s hard to see it sometimes.

Look at verse 9, Jesus said, “I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.” This unfaithful manager may call in some favors after he’s deceived his master and stolen and changed their bills that they only owed half of what they really owed or so, he might be helped by doing all of that in this world but here’s the interesting thing: those very men he deceived with, those very men he stole with, will testify against him on the day of judgment because everything will be made known that was hidden. Is that not interesting? He thinks he’s getting ahead and he’s really not. But the child of God labors not for this world, not first for riches and not first for houses and not first for lands. God may give us some of that but our heart of hearts is, “O God, we may have these things but may my heart be for your kingdom and for souls for the eternal kingdom.”

Now, when Jesus says he’s turning it now to his true believers and he says, “Alright now, you need to make use of this world, the unrighteousness of this world.” He calls it unrighteous because everything in this world is tainted, it’s judged, it’s temporal. Now, it in itself it was not inherently evil, it’s sin that has entered the world that’s made it evil so he says, “It has no lasting, true, eternal value but you can use it to gain eternal value.” So he says, “Use these things of the world, the money, the riches, the possessions, the gifts, whatever it is to build the eternal kingdom of God.” “Well Pastor, how do we do that?” The Scripture makes it very clear, it’s just not hard: by uniting yourself with a sound local church and get in on the business of winning souls and doing missions and planting churches for the glory of God. In other words, let that be the end all of where you end up. Listen friend, one day you’re going to be sick and infirm and unable to do 90% of what you presently do and it’s not going to matter what kind of kingdoms we built on the earth unless the end of building what we built was, “O God, may it be used to advance your kingdom and your glory.” That’s what he’s saying.

Now, there is a key insight here: we do not just perform good deeds or deeds of charity, I talked about this a little bit earlier, but these must be kingdom deeds that glorify Christ. You’re not going to get to heaven because you did charitable things for needy people though God would lead all Christians to be open and aware and involved in that as far as we can. I think it’s a great deception of Satan and we see it in the political realm where there is this obsession with “everybody’s got to be equal.” We’ve got to lift everybody up and there’s no concern for the souls of men. I believe there’s been a great Satanic takeover of many African-American churches that at one time preached the Gospel and now preach a social progressive liberalism instead of the Gospel. And it looks good but there’s an accounting day, there is a God to answer to, there is a soul that will give an eternal account. As Vance Havner used to say, “If there had been the social programs in the day of the Prodigal Son we have today, somebody would have given that boy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk and he’d never have gone home.” Why do people need to cry out to God when they’ve got social programs that solve every need? We have women today, single women primarily, all over our country and the government has become their surrogate husband that they look to for protection and care and guidance. It’s a vicious cycle that we’re on and it’s a downward spiral.

We have to be wise in these things. You see, charity works done with any other than a Christ-honoring motive, what the old Puritans would call “shining sins.” Shining sins, they look shiny and virtuous and wise but they’re not, they are counterfeits; they are false works and they are false charity. 1 Corinthians 13:3, this is a good cross-reference here, 1 Corinthians 13:3 says, “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” Now, what does he mean by that? You talk about an abused, perverted text of Scripture. 1 Corinthians 13, the whole chapter has been abused and perverted forever. Here is what he means by that: he means that if you’re not born again, if you do not possess the love that only the Holy Spirit can give you, the love of God, if you’re not functioning in that love and for that love’s purpose and what’s that love’s purpose? To glorify God by preaching the Gospel, to save souls, to build churches that you might save more souls and build more churches that God might get more glory. That’s what that love does because it loves what God wants and that’s what God wants. Jesus died for the church. So he says here, “You can be the most sacrificial, giving, charitable person in all the world and gain nothing because you are not God-centered and glory of God focused and you are not pleasing to God in the way and what you gave your energies to.”

Are you guys with me? Do you understand what the Scripture is telling us? Now, be balanced. I’m not suggesting and I’m sure our Lord is not suggesting that if you give something to a local charity to help somebody that that somehow is evil. I’m not saying that but I would say this: do your best if you do something like that to make it somehow attached to the glory of Christ. I don’t know how to do that. I don’t mean a little superstitious thing like attach the name J-e-s-u-s to everything. That might be a way to do it but I’m just saying understand the principle. When he says in 1 Corinthians 13, “If you do all these incredible things to help people but you’re not functioning from the agape love that comes from the new birth which wants to glorify Christ and please him and do things his way above all, then you’re not doing it by the love the Bible says is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” When does the Holy Spirit bring this love in? When we’re converted. At regeneration. And it’s a new kind of love. A new love for God and a new love for God’s glory and a new love for God’s church and a new love for God’s principles and purposes revealed in the Scripture. In other words, you no longer are the independent agent “doing good” according to your definition, you yield to God’s word and say, “God, how can I use my life and my possessions the way the word teaches that I might help others but primarily glorify you?” If I was giving for charitable things around the world, I’d look at Samaritan’s Purse or some organization that had a glory of God focused Christ-centered purpose.

Furthermore, the things of this world all have God’s name on the title deed. Did you hear that? Everything in this world has God’s name on the title deed and if you forget that, then you will be judged at either the Great White Throne Judgment or evaluated at the Judgment Seat of Christ for why you misused God’s property. The moment you forget that everything on earth has God’s name on the title deed and that what you have is simply a loan from God, then the moment you forget that, you become the slave of that wealth. We must remember that wealth is a creation of God, a blessed gift from him and the moment we forget this it becomes a curse.

Now, look at verse 9 again. Some of you are getting tired on me. You watched the ballgame so long that you’re getting weary on me. Listen, I believe one of the most clever things Satan has done is give us ballgames late on Saturday night. I’m not just talking. There’s nothing wrong with following your ball team. I don’t mean that. But it’s hard to get your heart and mind wrapped around eternal things when you’re talking about a silly ballgame all night and all Sunday morning. I’m not telling you to give up your ballgame, I watch my team get beat yesterday. I can tell you as God is my witness, this text was resonating in my heart the whole time and thanking God that I can enjoy a ballgame but thank God it’s not my joy. It’s not my purpose.

Look at verse 9, “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness,” we’ve talked about that, using the world to advance God’s kingdom, God’s glory, God’s way for God’s purposes. Now look, look, he said, “There’s something in it for you,” and that’s okay. There’s something in it for you. The last part of verse 9, “so that when it fails,” that is, when God finally burns up the world as we know it and destroys it all, it’s not going to last, “they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.” He said, “This unrighteous manager deviously stole from his master so that he might do favors for people who later he could call in those favors and they would welcome him into their homes.” He said, “But my children, the true children of God, are to use the world to invest in souls to the glory of God and one day when they get home, eternal souls, eternally grateful will welcome you into an eternal dwelling.” There’s something in it for you. Eternal blessings and eternal treasures wait for you on the other side.

Now, when he talks about they’re going to wait for you thankful, that’s your welcome into eternal dwellings. That world “dwellings” there is an interesting word. It means a habitation. It really has the idea of a temporal place like a tent. Usually these were made of skins and hair and cloth and they would pitch the tent in the morning and take it down at night. I think Jesus is using that particular Greek word because he wants you to be mindful that your life is very brief. You are born and you pitch a tent in this world and you die and your tent is taken down. Realize it’s temporal. There is a transient nature to this earthly present life. 2 Corinthians 5:1, “If the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” He says, “if it’s torn down,” the point is, it’s going to be torn down. Build something that lasts forever. You see, when you use this world to the end of God’s glory, to advance God’s kingdom to save lost souls for the glory of God and build true churches for the glory of God, then you built yourself, in a sense, an eternal welcome, an eternal dwelling, a safe shelter that will last forever and ever that’s never torn down because it’s not made with human hands, it’s made by God in heaven. That means you have the ultimate security, indeed, the ultimate eternal security. But those who only live in this world and only have this world as their goal and only look to this earth for their meaning and their satisfaction, their tents will be taken down. Their lives will end and they will find themselves shelterless for eternity.

Four real quick thoughts. Number 1: check out your misplaced priorities. Check out your misplaced priorities. Why aren’t you using this world’s possession for the kingdom of God? Sometimes it’s just misplaced priorities. Poor time management. Are you purposing to put God’s kingdom first? Now, on the outside things may look no different. You get up in the morning and you go to work and build your company and work for your employer, whatever it is but there might need to be a heart change. We say, “God, I’m doing this that somehow this might advance your kingdom and for your glory. It might just be my tithes and offerings at church, at least I can start there but somehow this is all for you.” Do you have a regular time, does it come up in your heart regularly, “O God, this is all yours. You have the title deed to everything that’s mine. Thank you for the management you’ve given me. Give me grace to use it to build eternal things,” because this world will fail.

A second thought is that I think sometimes we have an upside down view of common grace. An upside down view of common grace. You know what we mean by common grace, we talk about it a lot because I think there’s a lot of legalism out there that’s wrong. Enjoying a good supper, enjoying your family, enjoying nice clothes or enjoying nice transportation, whatever, the common grace is God gives all of it. We call them common graces because the lost and the saved, they are common to all but they’re all of grace. Sometimes we look at common graces and we think we praise God for these because he wants us to enjoys them but that’s really upside down. You see, you say, “God blesses me and wants to enjoy these period.” No, you’re incomplete. You’re not done yet. Yes, God gives you things to bless you with these to the end that it might cause you to think on God and praise him who gives everything and look how I can use what he has given me for his glory. He gives it, I’m thankful, I enjoy it, that pleases him but it must go another step and cause me to focus on him again. You see the reciprocal relationship. It keeps coming back to, “O God, you gave this to me and I praise you.” In my life, it’s almost consistent that when I am thankful for common graces, it immediately throws me over into redemptive grace. “God, you gave me this steak dinner, oh, but how I thank you for the meal, the feast I have of Jesus Christ,” and it’s all grace. You don’t just say, “God gave me this and I’m to enjoy it.” He says, “No, it’s a step further.” You’re upside down. It’s all to the end that we might praise him for them. Then the final thing, of course, we grow a little older, are you listening to your pastor? You grow a little wiser. The word of God becomes a little more clear. You become a little more sanctified. And all of a sudden Jesus becomes more of a joy than the stuff he’s been giving you. The state becomes more of a joy than Auburn football or Tennessee football or deer hunting. There’s nothing wrong with none of that but are you at the place where all these things just remind me of what the better joy is? Amen? Now, I’m not picking on brother Steve, I could have picked any of you out or me.

Number 3: weak or no accountability. You know, what did Jesus say? Jesus said, “Why is it that the worldlings are so diligent and innovative to get ahead in the world but my children who are of the eternal kingdom are not so diligent and innovative to get themselves ahead for the eternal kingdom? Why is that?” Jesus says. Because we’re just prone to wander. Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. We still see with these human eyes. We hear with human ears. We touch with human hands and we’re just pulled away from what really matters over and over. We need accountability. “Well Pastor, where do I find accountability? Do we recommend to coming together and meeting on Saturday morning?” I’m not saying that’s wrong but God has established the accountability group and it’s called a local church. A local church. Find a church where there is at least a strong enough group of truly saved people that want to do this and want to sharpen each other. I’m not talking about a harsh, real formal kind, I’m just talking about every day Christian life where we just kind of challenge each other to keep on going for God. In your small group are you not thankful for that? Doesn’t that happen in your small groups and isn’t that a blessing?

Number 4: on December 7th we have our Christmas offering. Would you pray and say, “God, what can I do this year?” God has allowed us to turn a corner in our finances to a degree but we’re trying to catch up on a bunch of stuff and we hope that we’re at a place now where everything given toward the debt goes directly on principle. What was it, eight or nine years ago we came to you as church elders and said, “We’re through with debt. We’re not borrowing again for anything,” and we’ve kept that. We’ve kept that commitment and kept that conviction. We’re through with debt. We’ve got a chance to really patch some things up and fix this drive and the gutters and the parking lot is a little concrete word, retaining wall and two or three things here and there and you know how it goes, 5000 becomes 10 and 20 and all of a sudden it’s 100 or 200 but if you’ll be generous this Christmas, we can take a real leap forward and get some things behind us and going on for the glory of God.

But here’s the neat thing: somehow in God’s grace, 26, 27 years ago, we voted together that our vision would be to be a biblical church God uses as a model for others and it’s an absolute fact beyond question that somehow in his grace, what we do here is having an impact out there. So when you bless here, you’re having a double impact. I can say that would be enough, God’s word teaches that, but God’s allowing us to be a blessing and an encouragement to just this last week three churches in Florida who are plugged into what we’re about and want to keep on that track with us. And we can go to the Philippines and we can go to Vietnam and we can go to Hong Kong and we can go to London, we can go to Canada and we can go up to Peru, we can go up to Columbia and on and on we can go. So please see it more as just fixing a parking lot. It’s to the end that we might be investing in eternal dwellings. Do you know that I’m convinced that when you get to heaven, there are going to be people from Vietnam and China and Peru and London and Columbia and on and on we can go who will say, “Because you guys very imperfectly but tried to do it right, you impacted us and there are more of us here now and we welcome you home.”

That’s what Jesus was saying. Be as innovative and diligent to build an eternal kingdom as worldly men who have no hope out of this world do for gaining in the world. Utilize the material things that will pass away to build the eternal kingdom. I don’t know where that is for you. I wouldn’t judge you in a million years for what you ought to drive and where you ought to live, that’s between you and God. Every time you start getting into that stuff, you get into legalism, Pharisaic stuff, that is wrong. What I’m interested in is the heart. The heart. If the heart is right, the dollars take care of themselves. The heart. Well, a lot of lessons here in the parable of the unfaithful manager.

Let’s stand together in prayer, alright?