True riches are found not in earthly possessions but in faithful stewardship of what God entrusts to us, whether it be His name, His word, His Spirit, or our talents and possessions. The sermon uses the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16) to illustrate the importance of shrewdness and foresight in managing resources, not for personal gain through dishonesty, but for eternal purposes. Christians are called to be as diligent and wise in pursuing spiritual goals as the world is in pursuing material wealth. Ultimately, faithfulness in stewardship, particularly in sharing the gospel and leading others to Christ, ensures an everlasting habitation and reward in God's kingdom.
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I don't go verse through. Luke, sixteen, before we return to our passage of the studying in First Corinthians. Luke, chapter sixteen, and verse one. The Lord is referring to a certain rich man and his steward here. In first two verses, you have what the rich man is saying. And he said unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man which had a steward. Same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods, and he called him.
Said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer a steward. Now you have the steward speaking to himself. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do, for my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship? I cannot dig, but vague, I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do. When I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their house. Now you have the steward talking to his customer.
So he called every one of his Lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much thou art thou unto my law? And he said, A hundred measures of oar. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write quickly. Then said he to another, And how much thou art? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat, thee. said unto him, Take thy bill and write eighty, take twenty percent off. The Lord commended the unjust steward. Now that's not the Lord Jesus Christ that commended him here.
It's the rich man, the boss of this unjust steward. The Lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely. Now the Lord Jesus. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of life. But I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail and fail ye will, 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 been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your cross the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one or love the other. or else she will hold to the one and despise the other, ye cannot serve God and man. And now our section, Corinthians chapter four, first Corinthians chapter four, the first two verses. Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
For it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. I want to speak on this subject every time you mention the word steward. That's why I didn't put it in the newspaper. People say, well, here goes another sermon on money. Because they think every time you speak of the word steward, you're going to preach on money. But being a steward, according to the Bible, is more than money. In other words, you read about being stewards of the manifold grace of God, and God brought us to share that grace that we've experienced. Also we're stewards of the mysteries of God or the word of God.
We're entrusted with these wonderful things. You read about a man being a steward of a vineyard. Herod had his steward. So you had to listen this remarkable case that I had brought before you in. Luke chapter sixteen, the unjust steward, the office that he held. He was the steward of a rich man, and the charge that was brought against him. He wasted his Lord's goods. In other words, he was engaged in some trickery, and the boss. And I want to see your records. I want to see the book. And you see his artful trickery. He did something that is quite common in the East. When he saw he was going to lose his job, he began to think, I've got to act and act quick.
And so he thought of some of the customers that his boss had, and they were good customers, and he calls one in. He said, how much do you owe the boss? Hundred measures of oil. She said, let's tear that up, that contract. Let's dispose of that. And buy a new one. You've only owned fifty. this ordinary. What do you owe the boss? I owe a hundred, there's a hundred measures of wheat. Well, just destroy that. Revive another bill. Take twenty percent off. Let's say you owe me. And this went on.
Why was he doing it? When the boss saw what this student had done, he didn't criticize it. In other words, he kind of got amused. He was impressed with the wit of this man. He was impressed with what he did. He had a quick mind. He was clever. He was shrewd in this. Because he thought, now, my job through the law of this, my Lord, I speak to the Lord, I speak to this boss that is not the capital letter. When my Lord lets me go and my door is shut here as to work and employment, I want to make some friends.
And this is the way I'm going to do it. I'm going to call in these customers and I'm going to say to the one man, cut your bill in half. Another take off twenty percent and so he went off. Because when I'm out of this employment, I want to make me some friends. They'll receive me into their homes, and maybe some of them will be able to give me a job. I don't want to be without money, and that means I'll be without friends. And friends, if you don't have money, you don't have many friends. And so this man realized it, and this was looked upon with favor even today in the Middle East. And for even a man like this, who was crooked, shrewd, the boss, commended him, not for his dishonesty, but because of his shrewdness and business.
And the Lord takes up the business. The Lord doesn't want any of his children to be dishonest. And he certainly didn't approve of what this man did. This is dishonest and trickling. But it's the principle behind it. Here is a man, and he knows the time is coming when he's going to be proved. with his job and his boss, and he's going to make friends, although he's going to do it in a crooked way, a subtle way, yet he's going to be sure that when he's still here, he's going to have some friends who are welcoming into their home, and maybe he'll be able to get involved.
The Lord said, I want you to see the prudence. The forethought of this steward, this unjust steward, For if Christians did this, of things like this, in an honest way, they'd be wondering, my, my people will be doing great things. And that's why he quoted that fact. The children of death were, the unsaved, who are shrewd in this, are wiser than the children of life, God's people. God said, To his own people, the world can teach you lessons. Well, a man's got something, or he has a gold set.
I'm going to be rich. I've got what it takes. I'm going to devote my time and my attention to develop my talent. And I'm going to be rich. The test world's good. And he gives all his time and all his talent, all his thought, all his energy. This is what he lives for night and day. to accumulate this word of good. Lord Jesus Christ says, if you, my children, who put the same time and use the pure talents with the same energy and forethought about spiritual things, eternally, then you'll be something.
I think sometimes I look around and see vain, unscathed men, and their wits and wisdom, He said, he's really crazy. Persons of men like that. I've envied men in this life with their personality, their natural ability, on how they work night, night, and day, giving everything they've lost. They've lost. He just lives for this life. Always that person would only get saved and turned his time and talent and pride into the things of God. what spirits of Zion. This man was thinking only of this life.
Friend, I want to say this. You can think of a man who has credibility. Naturally. He's got personality. He's got drive. He's got what it takes. He's in a hand. Yes, and he may go to the top. What that man does is not going to be looked upon or countenance nor rewarded by God. God does not have any reward in store for the worldly man who lives for this life shows almost Jesus. What he's done in this life, that man lives for this world, zero.
Nothing for him. No reward. These athletes that go in for trying to get these gold medals at the Olympics, I don't care how gifted that athlete is, what his qualities and abilities are, he may have, as one of them did a few years ago, say a gold medal. God doesn't pay a bit of a pay. There's no reward for him in heaven. But if that man became a Christian and turned himself into the things of God, what of a reward you get.
It just depends on what world you're living for. Christians born again with a little talent, with a little ability. If they seek to live for God and live for Christ, they have a reward coming. So it just depends. Oh, we should only look at the unscathed people and what they can do. And then it's all going to end up here, though, as far as he heard. They may have a tradition, but that's the end. A lost eternity before. But if Christ were all lived in the light of eternity, and worked for God, the way these men worked for this life, to become something, and for that something in this life.
Just think of how much could be done. And this man says, Why, when I've lost my job, when I have to walk out, forward, shut, I've made a lot of friends. He did it to you. And those friends are going to receive me into their home. And says the Lord Jesus, you do the same in an honest way. And when you're through with your stewardship, they shall receive you. into everlasting habitation, you made those friends. Are they friends to the court for some years?
What? Giving them the gospel, trying to be faithful to my stewardship and preaching the gospel of the grace of God. Whenever a person gets saved, that person did a thing. It may not be a new way of this world's wealth, this nation. But I may depend when I see a soul saved. When I look back to over forty-two years, I guess a hundred or more have gone on to be with the Lord. A hundred are still living. If you have the joy of leading to Christ, then my stewardship ends. And it's not the end.
Neither of my death will be coming with the Lord. Those whom I may tend to strike by leading to the Savior. shall receive me into everlasting habit. They've gone far ahead. Dare to welcome. Will there be anyone there to welcome you? Who will be on the other side to welcome you into everlasting habit? Have you led anyone to Christ? Don't take the fully evangelist of the soul then. Every Christian could be a soul, and a person cannot be filled with a skirt, unknocked in someone's criteria by the example, or by the effort in passing on the word of God.
In the Acts when the Christians, not the apostles, but the Christians, the rank and file Christians, when they were persecuted, they went everywhere. It came about. All to think of having someone on the other side, going to receive it. This is an everlasting habit. This is the lesson the Lord is teaching through his heart. He doesn't want us for any of his people to do. The duty of the king presents this because of the principle that the steward do. When his servant is about to be done with the thought, I'm going to make friends.
When I'm through him, I'll have people who will receive into their fold. There's a wonder. The plenitude sometimes drips my heart. Oh, to think to the Apostle Paul. How many there will be, we'll speak on that when we get on to the rewards that found for so that lovely reward. On the other side there are those. who you had a hand in, a link in the chain in bringing to Christ. That would be wonderful. This is the lesson.
Through this steward, he's entrusted with this Lord Brooks, like he was the accountant, manager of this man's business. You know what's a wonderful thing. This is a great text for those who like to preach on money all the time. If they preach the word of God like they preach on money, a lot of people will be blessed instead of bled, a lot of people will be fed instead of preached, a lot of people will be saved instead of sin. The Lord wants us to preach the law. Leave the other hand. There's a principle in the New Testament that it is.
If you bless people, fellowship, they'll take care of the abuse financially. all with material. And I give you text for that. Here's one over in Romans, fifteen, twenty-seven. It hath pleased them verily, and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is to minister unto them in carnage. First Corinthians, nine and eleven, if they have sown unto you spiritual things, is it not great, say a great thing that we shall read, Lord carnage. Now that's the principle of the Bible. You say, does it work?
It certainly does. If it didn't work, I wouldn't say what I said. But it worked in my life. It worked in the lives of thousands of others. When I came south forty-two years ago, the depression was on. The church that commended me to the south, I didn't do anybody down here, told me after one gift. They said the river on this side is dried up. We've got two million unemployed in the assembly of the church here. You'll have to look to the log. And here I was in Ashton, North Carolina. No supplies coming from Canada. Didn't know anybody down, sir. My father fell on boat.
It's hit only a couple of months after I went out. I had to look after it, ain't my parents. I'm praying for these forty-three years. I've never asked anybody for a time. I've never lived collection, I never have taken a salary. Who's done it? The Lord. The Lord Jesus sent his disciples out, saying, Take ye the person or ship, the labor's worthy of the fire. And although we've seen a lot of churches established, the churches have operated on the same basis. Look to the Lord. Those who know the Albany Gospel Chapel for twenty-some years with labor, You've never been begged for mine.
No suckers have been arranged or meals sold to give us money for to pay off our debts. We're tired of it. Yes, friends, it worked. And thousands of other churches throughout the world are missionaries and preachers just like me have proved that God takes care of those who are faithful stewards in preaching His word the way He wants. God will take care of his image. We'll have to be called on that Holy Spirit. Now we want to get to some of the things that God has made Christian stewards of. His name.
He says, I have given unto them my name. Do you know if you're a born-again Christian? You're the custodian, the steward, of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's quite a toss. Reveal that name. Shut up. I wouldn't want my name associated with a lot of guys that can't get evil, hotspots, picket joints. I don't want my name associated with a place like that. And I don't want my name associated with a modernistic church use.
I want my name associated with some of these criminals running around. No, no. Association with names and the reflection upon you. Could you have a better name to be associated with than the Lord Jesus Christ? What an honor to be a Christian. Should I have given them my name? A wonderful person to have his name and his name home. You're associated with him. that one who has that wonderful name of the honor of it. And he said, I've given them my word.
Are you honoring that word? Are you reading that word? Are you studying that word? Are you obeying that word? You approve of it. You think enough of his word. That will be your daily diet. You'll want to give it up. You are a steward of the Bible. I wish you were a student, but you are a steward. God has given you his work. Are you a faithful steward? What a treasure he has in the Bible. He's made a steward of the man of the Old Wisdom of God.
He's given us his Holy Spirit. Spirit of God dwells within us as Christians. Are we praising and yielding to the Holy Spirit? Or are we craving and uncrenching? God has given us to the Holy Spirit. We are stewards because God has entrusted to us the third person of the Trinity. And the light has given us light, eternal light. Are we using it? I was sharing it, or as it tucked away in our hearts, yet for ourselves personally and tightly, I teach this effect.
The Lord wants us to use that name that he's given us and that life that he's given us. Are we grateful, sir? This steward wasted his goods, his master's goods. Are we wasting our opportunities, wasting... Our goods that he's given us. His name, his word, his spirit. Are we wasting the life that he's given us? Eternal life? Talent? What about talent? He's given everybody a talent. What are we doing with our talent? In First Peter, verse ten, we read this, As many as every man hath received a gift, even so minister the same, one to another.
as good stewards of the manifold, grace of God, who are stewards of his work. That's what a trust is in our possession. That's the point in this passage in the sixteenth verse, our possession. What we have, the cause of trust is a trust of this. He wants us to use it in the light of eternity. Be a good steward. What is a trust to do? Listen to a car. My, that's a problem. With God giving you a car, you can use it. We have a sister here this morning who last Sunday brought eleven children from her community in that one car to the Sunday school.
If we had twenty Christians use that possession of an automobile to do the same thing, we wouldn't have enough teachers. Here is one, and she's faithful in her pursuit. That's true. Same means her home. God has entrusted you with a home. And he says, given the hospitality. Are we losing our home, our position for the glory of God? Of course, if God's given you money, he will entrust you with money. And that comes in under the heading of your position.
What are we doing with these things? I think of that lovely hymn. And David could say, Of thine own have be given thee. Of thine own he's given back to God that he gave up. Of thine own have be given thee. And this is the hymn of all who have loved him. I found a friend who struck a friend who loved me as I knew him. She drew me with the cords of love and dust. She found me to him. From my heart till post they quine those ties of nuns and feather. For I am his, and he is mine, forever and forever. I found a friend, though such a friend he bled, he died ashamed.
And not alone the gift of life that his own shelter gave me. Not that I have mine own, I'll call, I'll hold it for the giver. my heart, my strength, my life, my art, of his and his where I am. That's the book. He has given us the truth, and he's given us the cross, the suffering of the cross. Think of this text that you have over in First Corinthians, I've already read four, one and two. It is required in stewardship that a man be found faithful. How faithful our Lord Jesus Christ was!
What was committed to his strife? To go to the cross and suffer, and be beaten then, and he was faithful. Do you know that suffering is a plot? Something is. The Bible tells you that, though, in First Peter, through nineteen twenty. For this is thankworthy, if a man were conscious toward God endured grief, suffering wrongfully, for what glory is it when ye be buffeted? For your faults he shall take it patiently. But if when he do well and suffer for it, he take it patiently. This is acceptable to God. For even get unto where he called, because Christ also suffered for us.
Leading us an example that he should follow in his way. So God has called upon you the son of his name. It's a son. I won't Christian do. honored God and glorified God in their sufferers. The unsaved would look at them for the hour of the week, and in a maze of the way they held up, their strength where they did, their strength where did they get it, the Lord gave it to you, and the soft came, Lord was saved. Yes, it was God.
Here are all these things that God has given unto us. Soon God may say, as we have in our time, Given account of thy stewardship, for thou must there be no longer a sinner. A man, he was a wealthy man, and he was a Christian. Do you know what he was told? A propriety, just wanting money. for their activities, went to this man. This is what they said to him. We'd like you to make a donation toward our charitable institute.
He said, well, you know, the security is good, no doubt. Good, and the interest is very little. But I cannot give such long credit, meaning you mean to say I did something now, and I won't get paid for it until I hear after it. He said, I can't give such long credit. Poor man, he was dead in two weeks. Yes, God is going to say someday, give account of thy stewardship, for thou shalt be no longer saved. Are we faithful stewards? God has entrusted of you.
These are the questions. Everything we have, God has given to us. I'm going to get tricked me, too. I can't tell you all. I'd like to say this one. One time, a little fellow, ten years of age, left the notes on the table. And of course, this was a number of years ago, because this little fellow, on this note he has written to him on it, you owe me fifty cents. I fetch wood six times. And also, for going to the store... Twice you owe me twenty-five. They say they want five bucks. And also he said, Mother, I cleaned up the yard.
Twice! Fifty-cent total of dollar twenty-five. Mother wrote a note. What did Mother write down? You owe me for a happy old for ten years. Nothing. You owe me for food and clothes, nothing. You owe me for nursing you to a long illness, nothing. You owe me for loving you and being a good mother. Total, nothing. And the little fellow read that, who ran through his arms around his mother's neck, his mother's neck, all night.
What an ungrateful son I have. then how unfaithful you are when God has given us. Yes, that's the point. There's a tablet, the tablet still hanging on a certain wall in England, the St. Mary's, the Vistable Church in Moulnorth, England, and it contains this inscription, John Newton, clerk, once an infidel, a liberty, a cellar of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, pardoned, restored, and appointed the priest for faith he had long labored to destroy.
I don't know whether you, though, fondly, become with hymns, or any symbols. He's the one that wrote many beautiful hymns, and one was amazing, great, and sweet with sound. that save a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found to fly, but now I see. But the greatest hymn John Newton ever wrote is this one, and I love it, I've loved it all my life. Good and to meet it. He says in evil long I trip the delight unawed by shame of years, Turn logic, net my sights, and stop.
my violent ear. I saw one hanging on a tree in agony and slump, Who fixed his languid eyes on thee as near his cross, I should. Sure never till my latest death can I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his death, Though not a word, he spoke. My conscience fed the moon my guilt and plunged me in despair, I saw my sins, his blood had stripped, and hence the nail from there. Alas, I knew not what I did. But now my tears are vain.
Where shall my trembling soul be hid? For I, the Lord, have slain. A second look, he gave, and said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for thy ransom paid. I got our day of service. He realized that all he wanted, he wasted the most bright years, the most productive years of his life, he sandwiched a few years who were left writing beautiful and loveliness. So we have what God has given to us.
How much? I believe, sir. If you're not a Christian this long, your life's a total blank. Turn them up. All you've given God is unbelief. All you've given God is repentance. And all your righteousness are a temporary. Not all your wickedness, all your righteousness. There is root being for only filthy lies in the sight of God, if you're not born with it. And Newton knew that no efforts of Christianity, no powerful example of perfect manhood that is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, however human beings are saved.
No elaborate system of prayers or penance that saves on me. So he realized that. holy and crucified, dissoned and glorified, shamed as God's very hands, and shamed John Luke. And then he went, why are you saying, I didn't live a life like John Luke? He needed to be saved. You're going for the same hell as the most wicked sinner on earth, unless you're born again. God says there is some life with no not one. Would you dare to change that than say, all of unrighteousness in me.
God said, there's none righteous, no not one. I have sinned. And you have sinned. And if you've got one sin to your child, you'll never enter a house. Every sin has got to be gone and open. You've got to become a new creature in Christ Jesus. And you'll get that life and it takes a look The Lord Jesus Christ, that one hanging on the tree in agony of the flock. He was rich as laying with eyes on me as near the clock. I saw him. The ground around Calvary's cross as leather was round.
The vilest sinner than ever lived. And stand at one side of that clock. And God will save. Yet like the Lord Jesus, save that people. On the other side could stand Nicodemus, a creature, one of the most famous objects, the prophet of the Bible. There stand Nicodemus, he never swore, he never drank, he never stole, he never told a lie, the ground is leveled up. Friend, you're going to meet, and you've got to be saved by the grace of God. That's as much as a violent sinner that walks the face of you.
Here it is. Think of what God has given you. He's given you life. He's given you health and strength. He's given you intelligence. He's given you intelligence. He's given you many. All this, he says, have I done for thee? What have thou done for this? You've done nothing. until you own up you're a lost and different sinner and accept them as you are saved. After then you're like the Holy Spirit. This Spirit says, I cannot work. I cannot say, I'm too old to work, but I'm too proud to be made.
We've either been left after this week. He wasn't too old to do what he did. He wasn't too proud to change the record. Then the point of this, are you willing to admit this morning I'm an unjust fool. For the days coming when God says, Give an account of your life, but thou shalt be no longer a fool. And so much, what has your life amounted? you are not a born-again Christian with Christ abiding in your heart in the light of the Holy Spirit. For all your time of talent, the law, and even a person that doesn't know the alphabet will know how to spell it in, will go flying through the pearly gates.
He saw the trust of the product of Christ. And Christ said to that thief, that they shall fall deep with the academy. What can you do? You will see what will your answer be. God has you. You will shut the Lord Jesus Christ as one. And he said, shall we? Our Father in heaven in the name of our Lord Jesus is the name of thy brother. We ask thy blessing on thy precious holy birth. May it please be the youth of his death. The awakening and salvation... of some precious soul, oh God, whom can we look but unto thee, thou alone can say, may someone experience us, our nation this morning.