Stewardship is a matter of honoring God with our possessions, not merely a financial transaction but a demonstration of love and trust. The sermon illustrates this through the story of the Hebrew slave who chose to remain with his master out of love, and the parable of the widow's mite, emphasizing that God desires our first and best. It further explores the concept of the 'mammon of unrighteousness,' suggesting that wealth is often misused by those who did not earn it, contrasting with the faithful stewardship of believers. Ultimately, the message encourages a heart-centered giving, where God's portion is set aside first, leading to His blessing and faithfulness, and reminds us that God will complete His work regardless of our individual contributions, but our participation brings satisfaction.
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You know, I'm in a real quandary. I just don't know exactly what to do if I was in the meeting at this point. But I'm going to do something. And the first thing is I was thinking that when we all get to glory and we look at the Lord Jesus, I think there will be three groups, if you can call it, single individual, a group looking at him. And there will be God himself. And there will be the church. And there will be a group. And there will be every individual that's there.
And like that story of the Hebrew slave. So far as I know, and if my brethren can tell me or my sisters, I know of no instance where it ever took place. Yet God gave us a beautiful picture. And I wonder if it had taken place, if the servant would have said it, as God said, he should say it. And that was he was to tell that he loved and his master would be first. Normally, naturally, no, that would not have been the way.
He would have chosen to say it. I'm a man and I know. I would have said, I love my wife, I love my children, and I love you, Master, too. I'll not go out free. But God didn't give us that order. He gave us the order, as her brother has pointed out to us, and I think it's precious. Because one, the first reason why the Lord Jesus Christ died was because he loved his father. That's chapter and verse for that. The last verse of chapter fourteen in John, that the world may know that I love my father, I go ahead.
How do you think God felt when he looked down at Golgotha and saw his only son pinning to that tree with those nails? He looked at him, and we as the bride, for have Christ loved the church, gave himself for it. And each one of us as an individual, as the dear apostle said, he loved me and gave himself for me. I was thinking of our brother Don's message in the matter of giving. And it is a subject that the preachers... usually stay away from, and I think as has been said, generally speaking, because they are in the Lord's work and it would suggest begging.
But I don't think that I know one servant of the Lord as we speak among ourselves, I don't think in my forty odd years as a servant of the Lord that I ever met one. that I could say would have been guilty of taking up the subject of stewardship with personal gratification in mind. And so for that reason I think we have been rather backward, but I thought you might like to know something of how some of the Lord's people feel about this matter of stewardship, because sometimes this question is asked us How should we give?
And what should we give? Today I received a gift through the mail from a brother in Canada. And when I looked at his name on the paper, my mind went back to a story that he told me many, many years ago. He came to this country from the Highlands of Scotland. many years ago. His father, who was a farmer, said to him, Archie bald, you're going to a new country, and mind you, you may fall in hard times, and if you do, you just send me a wire or a letter, and I'll send you your fare to bring you home.
Archie, with stubborn scotch pride, said to himself, that will be the day. Well, he came to Canada unsaved. He went to live in Kingston, Ontario, and God graciously saved them in the twenties. Some of you are too young to know anything about the term the twenties, but they were hard years, generally speaking, from the point of view of industry. So he had a job, and as a Scudiscotch man, he knew how to save his money. and Archie was thrift day. But that little stock dwindled and dwindled and dwindled as he walked the streets looking for the job.
Finally, the day came when he didn't like to have to admit it, but he'd have to write that letter to his father and get the check or the cash for the ticket home. And Sunday morning came... And he had in his possession all told a large sum of twelve cents, a dime and two pennies. I don't think you know this story, Albert. And so Albert whispered to his wife, well, speak up. Is that what you mean? Anyway, he didn't enjoy that break in the bread meeting because he argued with himself the whole way through the meeting.
What will it do when the box comes round? He had figured that two cents would pay the stamp. That's all it took at that time. And that would bring the money over. Then he had a dime left and he wasn't without money. And he could still put his hand in his pocket and fill the wee silver coin. So therefore if he's going to spend two cents on the stamp and have ten cents in his pocket till the dad's check comes through, he can't put anything in the box. Well, the meeting's going on and he says to himself, oh, but that's miserable. I can't let the box or the bag go by me. I'll have to put something in.
If I put in the two cents, I'll have the dime, but then I'll have to break the dime to get the stamp. If I put the dime in, I should put the dime in. I really should. But then I've only got two cents. And if I put that in, I haven't. And that's how he was going through the breaking of bread. I mean, that's the reason I said, I don't think he remembered the Lord much that morning. But anyway, I want to tell you this. When the time came for the bag or the box to be put before him, he closed his eyes and he dropped in, they're dying. I was all then he had left the two cents to buy the stamp. And he made for the door and was going out when... one of the brethren who was the correspondent of the assembly and a doctor and a high position in the hospital in Kingston came after him.
He says, Archie, just a moment before you go, the brethren want me to give you this. You haven't got a job yet. No, sir. He said, you tried. I've been walking the streets, he says, and I can't get a job. Well, we heard that, and so you take this, will you, and I'll take you over maybe till you get something. And they handed them ten one dollar bills. So then the doctor says, Archie, he said, if I got you a job in the hospital in the laundry room, would you take it? Sir, he says, I'd take anything. So Archie went down to the next day to the hospital, and he got the job in the laundry room, and finally he rose to have all, complete charge of all the laundry of that big hospital.
He retired a few years ago and we met him just a few weeks ago. We were on driving in that part of the country. Well, he says, David, I'm just about to write you. He finally caught up and he wrote and I got his letter today. Anyway, he said we're going overseas next month for a trip. The Lord blessed him and he never went back as he had intended to do. You know, I don't know any other story just like that story. I don't know what I would have done. but actually honoured the Lord and God honoured him in return. Now then, another incident in connection with this is a young man gets saved in our area down in Sterling, Ontario.
If you know where that is, it doesn't matter. And when he got saved, he was a very bright case. So sometime after he was received into fellowship, he said to me, I wonder would you come down and supper with us some night. Well, yes, we did. And after supper, he said, I really wanted to talk to you about something. He said, can you tell me how I am to equip myself of my stewardship? Meaning, he said, how am I supposed to give to the work of the Lord? Well, I said, Leon, his name was Leon Wilson. I said, Leon, that's the question that...
We're never too happy about that. You've asked me, so I would say this. Well, wait a minute. He said, wait a minute now. Before you say anything, just let me tell you this. Do you know since I've come into the assembly for some reason or other, I've given more in the month or two that have been in the assembly than I gave the whole year I was in the church with my father? Oh, my. Well, let's show you something, he said. And away he went and brought in a paper. I didn't know they did this, but I've never been associated with so-called churches. I'm number five generations of our family, and all we've ever known is being gathered to the name of the Lord.
So I don't know too much outside that. However, he brought me this paper, and here was the name of every member of the church. And in each column a little bit given to this, it may have been even something to the pastor's salary, something to the flowers for somebody's wedding or something like that. But it all totaled up to a certain sum. And when it was added, it was fifty-two dollars versus the three highest. He and his father and another man. And in the course of the year, they gave fifty-two dollars to what we would say the Lord's worth. I said that a dollar a week, that's what it amounts to. Well, I said, Leon, now you've asked me a rather embarrassing question. Now, Scripture does not tell us in the New Testament that we are to give the tithe.
That is the tent. We're not told that we should give that, and yet I would suggest to you, since you've asked me, that you get exercised about this, and give the Lord a tent. Lay aside the ten. Now, don't say you have to do that. Don't put yourself in bondage. You just want a room, don't you? You want a suggestion. Well, listen, that's all it is. A suggestion. And if you say to me, oh, well, no, I couldn't do that at twenty. Well, that's all right. But the point is you've asked me for a suggestion. Now, he said, wait a minute, but. You mean when I get my receipts for my sale, get my sale, my sale returns?
Or when I pay my bills and the balance I've left. Well, no, no, no, no. I say, when the check comes in for the money, you've brought something, you sold. Oh. I might have been able to do it the other way, he said, after I got everything paid up, then give maybe a tenth of that. Well, now I said, now you're not under bondage, so don't you do it because David Kirk told you to do it. You must not drag me into this. I'm just making suggestions. Well, anyway, that was all. We left. And we sailed to the old country and were gone for fourteen months. And when we came back, we came back to that same village, but we had no home there. And we came up to Hamilton to live a hundred miles further west.
He said, I want to drive you over to Hamilton. I want to talk to you. So when we were driving over to Hamilton, he said, you know something? You remember you were listening before you went over to Ireland? I said, of course I remember that. He says, you know something? This last year's been the most prosperous year in my life. Well, I said, Leon, I'm really not surprised. Now, I want to ask you another question. You know what I was thinking? That maybe I should increase my giving percentage. And instead of giving ten percent, give fifteen percent. I said, no, don't do that. He said, I didn't think you'd say that.
Well, I said, maybe I wouldn't have said it if you hadn't said it the way you said it. You said you give ten percent's been your best year. Give fifteen percent and it'll be a better year. Oh no, don't do it for that. And that's exactly what apparently was in his mind. Look at the money I got this year. Let's give more and get more. Oh no, no, no. Well, don't give to the Lord that way. Go away. Even if we gave ten percent and were a poor at the end of the year, we'd still feel exercise, wouldn't we? To give the ten. No, I said, Leon, don't do that. What I mean by that is, let me qualify what I said. But the way you said it, you'd almost suggest you're going to try and get more money out of it. That that wouldn't be the right thing to do. But now I said, wait a minute, stretch your heart before the Lord and ask him to guide you.
And if he burdens you with increasing your portion, well then you do it and God will do it. I think God did. Not very many men retire in their forties, but Leon has retired in his forties and apparently is all the money he needs to take care of him. through the rest of His life. Now, I'm not saying that you leave and start that and, oh no, God may disappoint you. You must never give to get. Oh, no, no, no, no. But brethren and sisters, it's a law I believe that as we give, we get. Amen. And I have yet to meet a Christian in my life who ever said it was a sad day for me, the day I decided to lay aside a portion for the Lord.
You know, isn't it interesting what God says about mammon? He doesn't say very nice things. Now, he says in one passage of our Bible, and he calls it filthy lucre. Well, when you think of it, forget it. I needn't say any word, Nina. Just let go of that. But then, when you think of this word, the mammon of unrighteousness... And when you think of the money that the Lord's saints are spending in the service of the Lord, and let me tell you, if I'm going to think of a group of Christians, I do believe we so-called brethren as a whole have learned to give. Anyway, having said that, let me say this, why would it be called the mammon of unrighteousness?
What's not right about mammon? Now, I read in First Timothy, First Timothy six, there are two rich men. There's one who is rich. And there's one who wants to be rich. Now you check me in that. I think it's verses fourteen and seventeen or verses nine and seventeen. Now then, Paul has something to say to each of them. And to the man who is rich, he says, Well, don't run around as though there's a feather in your cap. You're not the big cheese because you've got money. You just forget that. And that's not what it says. It is, Charge them that are rich that they be not, I minded. what three is. Get the point, don't you?
Just don't think we're alive. Now then, when he writes to the second man about money, he says, they would be rich fall into temptation and then the hurtful snare. Now it is a fact, brethren and sisters, that God is blessed. And many, many bread and sisters I know. And God has blessed them in material things. And for the majority of them, as I know them, I thank God there is an exercise as to how they use their substance. But why is it called the mammon of unrighteousness? Well, now, would this be the reason? I'm not saying it is.
I'm only throwing it out as a suggestion. It doesn't seem right. that generally speaking, those who make the money never spend it. And those who spend it never made it. They didn't get that, I don't think. Here's a man and he leaves ten thousand, twenty thousand dollars to his children. And they'll make it go. They'll make it fly. I know a man in Hamilton and he died not too long ago. And here's how niggardly he could be. He would get the paper on Friday night and study the grocery ads. And here's two cans of peas for thirty-three cents in the A and P.
And here's two cans thirty-one in the Dominion. My, they're two cents. It's save if you bought them in the other store. That's how niggardly he was. And sometimes I ask him, could I give him a little money to buy a suit? He never wore a decent suit of clothes. Well, he died and left thousands. And the family got it. I tell you, it flew. Isn't it so that there's so many of the Lord's dear people, and oh, what money they leave behind. They made it, they earned it, but they didn't spend it. And then very often those who get it are those who never earned it. O brethren, may the Lord guide us in the matter of our stewardship.
Having said that, then I got thinking about the widow we've been hearing about already, Elijah's widow. And you remember when Elijah came on the scene, I'm going to say it wrongly. Now do what I tell you. and make a little cake for you and your son and give me a bite of it too. No, he didn't say that. In fact, he wasn't a gentleman, as the world calls gentlemen. He says, make me a little cake first. Oh, now, wait a minute, Elijah. What about the poor woman? No, he says, make me a little cake first. Now, God is that in for a certain reason, has it?
Of course, because what is Matthew chapter six? Seek your first. And all these things shall be added. And what is the story of the tribute money? That he can give for me and thee. So it must be God first. So I do believe, brethren and sisters, that where we as Christian individuals do lay aside what God has given to us and lay aside his portion first, I believe will go to heaven. Looking back over the life we've lived and say our God was Jehovah Jireh, he was faithful. Another little thing and then I'm done. Now, you remember in the tabernacle, the story of the children of Israel and the building of the tabernacle.
It's rather interesting to find that gold was used in two different ways. Gold was used to build a golden calf or golden calves. And then gold was used in some parts of the tabernacle. And do you remember that when the gold went into the golden cave, Moses stamped it, and it was washed away in the stream. Now, beloved friend, there is idolatry. And where my heart is wrapped in my treasure, this is idolatry, and the final analysis will be washed away and away forever.
but some gave gold to Moses. And they said, we'd like this to be used in the building of the tabernacle. And though they may never be allowed to see inside that tabernacle and see those golden vessels, yet they had the satisfaction of knowing my gold went into the building of a house for God. The last reference to the children of Israel is, and my mind goes back to Some of the older folks here will remember a preacher called W.J. McClure. I believe Mr. McClure was the greatest preacher ever I listened to in my life. There were twelve assemblies in the city of Belfast.
Today there are over thirty. That's the city that's in the news today. Some assemblies have a hundred and some have several hundred. I think maybe for the size of it. It's the greatest place for so-called New Testament assembly testimony that I know of in the world. They're only twelve at that time, and they rented the YMCA. They cut out their Bible reading and prayer meetings for three weeks and brought McClure to the YMCA to minister on the tabernacle. Hundreds were turned away. Some thousand or so got two thousand or so got in. I got there night after night.
I never missed the night. I still have my notebook, nineteen twenty-seven, W.J. McClure and the tabernacle teaching. That's where I got my taste for tabernacle ministry. I remember the night he spoke on the building of the tabernacle, and as he spoke on the building of that tabernacle, he drew a vivid picture. The children of Israel were allowed to bring of the spoils of Egypt to build a tabernacle. And then the two men in charge came to Moses and said, I don't know what we're going to do with the stuff. We can't handle it. All right, says Moses, we'll take care of that.
So he caused a proclamation to be made throughout the camp. Bring no more stuff. Bring no more stuff. Bring no more stuff. And MacLeary had a vivid sense of imagination. He imagined an Israelite hearing that. And he hurried home to his little tent as fast as he could. And he called his wife, Mary, Mary, you'd grab that little piece of lace that you had. Grab it. And so he went over to little corn and fished out a little piece of gold he had. Come on, let's get down to the tabernacle quickly. And they got down. Out of breath he had them, after running. Up to Moses they go.
And here's my little gift. And here's mine, Moses. Moses said, I don't want it. But wait a minute, we brought this out. I know where it came from. I know all about it. But it's just we don't need it. What more than we can use. So John and Mary go home and do what you like with it. But we just don't want it. And then we'll go. Thirteen months later the tabernacle is built. And oh, the cloud, the shekinah glory comes down and dwells on the western end of the tabernacle. And as Mary and John look at that cloud descending on the tabernacle, the symbol of the holy presence of God.
Mary says to John, John, they built it without my little bit. Yes, Mary, and they built it without my little bit. And the great lesson we learned was God will complete his work. Whether we give or whether we don't, God will fulfill His purposes, but, oh, beloved saints of God, when they see the Savior. When we see Him face to face, many and many a time, I get thinking about that.
Looking into His face. I don't know if this thought would come into my mind. But it is now. Lord, is there anything I can do, Father? Is there anything I can give to you? Not now, David. Not now. All that is gone. Tomorrow morning we'll sit down around the table. Will you be there? Will you be there? And Lord's day morning, and when it's not conference, are you off to the cottage? Are you down to see some of the children? The Lord sits at the table.
She's not here this morning. He's not here this morning. How do you do it? How do saints do that? Frankly, I don't understand. This too, in remembrance of me. And when Lord's day morning comes, if I am able, God expects me to be there. Oh, may the Lord bless his word and search our hearts. And grant that indeed this conference will be remembered as a time when God really spoke to our hearts.