A Good Lesson from a Bad Example B

The sons of this age live in indulgence, exploitation, selfishness, hoarding, conspicuous consumption, waste, etc., and think that it's all theirs.

We know better. The prophet Haggai says, the silver is mine, speaking for God, the gold is mine. Psalm 104, 24, the earth is full of your possessions. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You know, there are people in this world who have achieved power and fame and wealth, but because of the questionable ways they've reached their success, you would never think of them as examples to learn from, especially not any spiritual lessons. With that in mind, why does Jesus, in one of his parables, seem to praise a servant who outwits his master through scheming and dishonesty and really through criminal behavior? What are you supposed to take away from this tale? Consider that today on Grace to You as John MacArthur continues his compelling study called Stories with Purpose.

And now with the lesson, here's John. Let me encourage you to come to Luke 16. Keep in mind, there's nothing in this parable that's secret or hidden or allegorical or mystical. It's a simple story. But what bothers some people is Jesus commends the bad guy.

Listen to his closing. His master praised the unrighteous manager because he acted shrewdly. And then in verse 9, Jesus says, and I say, make friends for yourselves by the means of the wealth of unrighteousness.

Wow. Do what he did? It is a problem for some people to have Jesus saying, follow the behavior of a wasteful, profligate, prodigal, deceitful, thieving, selfish, conniving, unprincipled person. And by the way, this is placed here right after the story of the prodigal son because this is a prodigal manager. Prodigal means wasteful. The son wasted everything and didn't provide for his future. Here's a man who wasted the assets that he had control of but did provide for his futures.

Maybe that's the link. The ending is a shock, a surprise ending. Jesus is commending the guy? This is what has troubled some people.

Why? We would understand the manager, I mean the owner commending the manager, that's, you know, he's applauding his shrewdness. We get that. But why is Jesus commending this? He acted shrewdly.

Let's just make sure we get that. Phronomos is the word. It means providently, considerably. It was a well-devised scheme. He took careful advantage of an opportunity. He worked the situation to secure his future benefit, his future comfort. By reducing the debts, he indebted everybody to him. What did this guy do?

What did this manager do? He used what he had, his assets, the wealth of unrighteousness to purchase dwellings for his future, temporal future. That's what the perverted, wicked sons of this age have always done and always do.

You, he says, you need to be at least as shrewd as they are. And by the way, this is an old rabbinic approach, reasoning from the lesser to the greater. If the perverted, wicked sons of this age used every imaginable approach to secure their temporal future, shouldn't you be careful how you act in regard to your eternal future?

That's the point. Make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness. Again, this is a very classic rabbinical style of teaching from lesser to greater. Use your money, your possessions, your wealth, even though it's part of the unrighteous system. It's in the old English, the mammon of unrighteousness, kind of an ominous term. Unrighteous wealth is part of the passing world and he even says it. It will fail and when it fails, as stated in verse 9. So take money, wealth, which will fail. You can't take it with you. We all understand that and use that unrighteous wealth, that wealth that has in itself no virtue, no righteousness, and purchase friends with it who will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

Buy friends for heaven who will be standing at the gate welcoming you when you arrive. Earlier in the gospel of Luke, there's a very dramatic story that most people remember if they've heard it. It's in chapter 12. It's another parable. Verse 16, the land of a rich man was very productive and he began reasoning to himself saying, what shall I do since I have no place to store my crops? Then he said, this is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods and I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come.

Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, you fool, this very night your soul is required of you and now who will own what you have prepared? So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. You are a fool. You have all that money and you will die and leave every cent of it and every possession that you have.

You fool. But that's what the sons of this age do with the wealth of unrighteousness. They try to secure their temporal future and it can do that. It can secure a temporal future until they die, until they die and then it fails and it will fail. You cannot take it with you. It belongs to this temporal world. It is again the wealth of unrighteousness.

It doesn't go anywhere. And yet, in a most amazing and gracious and merciful manner, the Lord says you can take that wealth that isn't going with you and while you're here, you can make friends that will welcome you into heaven. How do you do that?

Pretty simple. You invest in kingdom enterprises that bring about the salvation of sinners. That's what you do. You use your money to purchase friends for eternity. This is exactly what our Lord was talking about in Matthew chapter 6 in the familiar statements in the Sermon on the Mount. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Anybody understand, have a problem understanding that? Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal.

And they could even be cyber thieves these days. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. How do you do that? Where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Or you can flip that. Where your heart is, that's where you'll put your treasure. But the question is, how can I put my treasure in heaven? How can I put my treasure in heaven? How can I take the wealth of unrighteousness and put it in heaven and purchase friends that will welcome me when I arrive? Answer, invest in what proclaims the gospel and brings people to salvation.

Invest in the kingdom enterprises. That's what you do with your money, with your wealth, so that you'll have a welcome when you get there. What an amazing, amazing thought, isn't it?

How good is God? Look, life's pretty short for me, you know. Eternity.

This thing is flown by in a blink in this world. And the longer I live, the less meaning anything has that is to be left there. And the more meaning everything has that purchases friends for eternity. What a gift the Lord has given us. You invest in the gospel. You invest in those who preach the gospel, those who teach people to preach the gospel. You invest in missionaries and those who send missionaries.

You invest in every gospel enterprise that multiplies teachers and preachers and evangelists and the spread of the Word and the spread of the truth around the world, and you are purchasing friends for eternity. Endless personal accumulation is meaningless. Life is short, and you don't know how short. You don't want to waste it. There isn't much you can send up. You can't send your house up. You'll have a better one. You can't send your car up.

You'll fly everywhere. You don't have anything you're going to send up. Whatever your little treasures are, they're staying here, and somebody else is going to figure out what to do with them. But there is one thing you can send up. Isn't that amazing? It is your wealth if it's invested in the proclamation of the gospel and in the preparation and training of those who proclaim the gospel.

And what an amazing thing to be a part of something like this, where we're all doing this, and what we could never do individually, we can do beyond our wildest imagination collectively. So you say, well, I don't give much, but I don't have much. If I had more, I'd give more. No, you wouldn't.

No, you wouldn't. If you had more, you wouldn't give anymore. You say, how do you know that?

You don't know me. Well, Jesus does, verse 10. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much, and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.

I told you. It's not about how much you have. It's about who you are. It's about what your priorities are.

It's about whether heaven is where your heart is, right? That's what it's about. This is what we call an axiom, or an axiomatic statement, a truism. It's self-evident. It's so self-evident that it doesn't have an explanation.

It doesn't have a defense. It is obvious that faithful people are faithful people whether they have little or much, and unfaithful people are unfaithful whether they have little or much. It's never a question of how much you have. If you are concerned about the advance of the kingdom, and you are committed to making friends for eternity, you will give what you have generously and joyfully.

You are right now exactly who you are. You're not all of a sudden going to get a whole lot of money, your old aunt. You know, you've got an old, old aunt, and she's near death's door, and you're praying the Lord will pull her through, you know. And she's got a lot of money, and you say, if my old aunt dies...some of you are just getting that.

If my old aunt dies, I'm going to give it all. If you're not faithful in a little, you're not going to be faithful in much. It's about faithfulness, about where your heart is. The amount you possess is not the issue. Your character is the issue. Your commitment is the issue. Your love for heaven is the issue. You're either unselfish, humble, generous, non-materialistic, committed to the kingdom with all your heart, or you're not, and it's not a question of an amount.

No, there's nothing to do with an amount. And Jesus isn't finished with us. He says in verse 11, so let's say you haven't been faithful. You're one of those who has been self-indulgent, accumulating, and spending all your money on things you're going to leave here. If you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, talking two sons of light, believers, disciples, who will entrust the true to you, literally the true to you, the true things to you? If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous, who, meaning God, is going to give you things that are spiritual and eternal? So what happens is, as you demonstrate unfaithfulness in the use of your unrighteous wealth, you forfeit spiritual and eternal blessings, both now and forever.

You may buy yourself endless stuff, creature comforts, all the shallow things, all the corrupting things, all the temporary things, all the stuff that burns up, but you will not receive the real riches, the things that will last forever. Do you remember Luke 6 38, given it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together, and running over? You can't out-give God so sparingly. Paul says to the Corinthians, Reap sparingly, sow bountifully.

What? Reap bountifully. You can't out-give God. And there's another sting about to come in verse 12, and if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? What do you mean, the use of what is another's? Well, he's been saying, talking about the wealth of unrighteousness, the use of unrighteous wealth in verse 11 corresponds to the use of that which is another's.

Guess what? The wealth you have isn't yours. Like that steward, right?

He was profligate with somebody else's resources. Say, wait a minute. What I have is mine. I earned it. I worked hard for it.

Well, that may be true. You worked hard for it, but it's not yours. The sons of this age live in indulgence, exploitation, selfishness, hoarding, conspicuous consumption, waste, etc., and think that it's all theirs.

We know better. But Haggai says, the silver is mine, speaking for God. The gold is mine, all mine. Psalm 104, 24, the earth is full of your possessions.

Do you remember? I'm sure you do if you've been around the Word of God very long. Do you remember David's blessing in 1 Chronicles 29? So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly, and David said, blessed are you, O Lord God of Israel, our Father forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. Indeed, everything that is in the heavens and the earth, yours is the dominion, O Lord, and you exalt yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you. You rule over all. In your hand is power and might, and it lies in your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank you.

Praise your glorious name. It's all yours. Psalmist says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. It's all His. You don't have anything that really is yours.

You really don't. As a believer, it's all a test of your devotion. It all belongs to Him. Everything we have is a stewardship. Remember the parable of Matthew 25 where the master doles out the talents, and they belong to Him, and all the servant can do is manage or fail to manage the privilege he's been given. So if you're squandering what is God's, and I'm not talking about a tenth of it is God's, it's all His. If you're squandering what is His, then He will not entrust the true riches to you.

What could that be? Things that have eternal significance fail the test of stewardship. You lose significance in the kingdom, and you lose eternal blessing, eternal reward. You waste your money on things that are going to perish. You waste God's money on things that are going to perish, accumulate things for yourself, and you're just inversely cutting into your spiritual blessings and eternal reward. And again, eternity is a very long time, very long time.

You might come to the conclusion that you could do without a whole lot for a few years. If you could have a vast eternal reward that would expand your joys everlastingly and allow you to worship Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit with a capacity that would be massive. What is eternal reward? It is a capacity to worship. Well, He's not done.

He boils it down to one statement in verse 13. No slave can serve two masters. You can't be bought and owned and obligated to two masters. You could work for two bosses. You could have two jobs. Some of you have ten bosses.

In fact, everybody around is your boss. That's not what it's saying. It's saying in a slave world you can only be owned by one person.

You have to decide. There are two possible owners that you can have. You can have God, or you can have wealth. If you do that, if you try to have two masters as a slave and you try to serve God and wealth, then you're going to hate one and love the other, or you're going to be devoted to one and despise the other. That is a very clear point to anybody in ancient times.

Fitting analogy. God wants single-minded, focused loyalty and fidelity and faithfulness to Him. And it isn't as if somehow it's a punishment that's offered here if we don't do that. It's a forfeiture of blessing and a forfeiture of reward. It isn't negative consequences that motivate us in this.

It's positive ones. Conflicting demand. I mean, if you're caught between money and God, you're a conflicted person. You're experiencing antagonism.

Some of you are feeling antagonistic right now with me talking to you. That's what happens in your life as this conflict goes on. I'm not saying you can't richly enjoy the things that the Lord has provided for you, but I'm saying you cannot be a slave to God and a slave to money. Being a slave to money is really a very serious condition. Listen to the words of the apostle Paul, 1 Timothy 6. We brought nothing into the world, so we can't take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

Wow. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of what? Evil. It's not money that's the root of evil.

It's the love of it, and you can have a whole lot of it and not love it, and you can have none of it and love it like crazy. Some people who have loved their money and been slaves to their wealth have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. You can't love God with a whole heart and love wealth with a whole heart.

The language is very strong and very clear. John Calvin said, where riches hold the dominion of the heart, God has lost His authority. Covetousness makes us the slaves of the devil. One of the writers who affected me a lot when I was young in ministry and doing some reading to try to orient my theology was Arthur Pink, and Pink writes this, and I think it's worth reading. He says, these orders are diametrically opposed. The one commands you to walk by faith, the other to walk by sight. The one to be humble, the other to be proud. The one to set your affections on things above, the other to set them on the things that are on the earth. The one to look at the things unseen and eternal, the other to look at the things seen and temporal.

The one to have your conversation in heaven, the other to cleave to the dust. The one to be careful for nothing, the other to be full of anxiety. The one to be content with such things as you have, the other to enlarge your desires. The one to be ready to distribute, the other to withhold. The one to look at the things of others, the other to look at one's own things. The one to seek happiness in the Creator, the other to see happiness in the creature.

Is it not plain? There is no serving to such masters. So the possession of wealth is a means God has employed for you to secure eternal reward and heavenly friends.

Pretty good offer? You're going to be there forever. Your capacity to worship, praise, and enjoy God and eternal glory is bound up in what you do with the wealth of unrighteousness. The world's people, hey, they're acting shrewdly, conniving to secure their temporal future, and they have none beyond that. What are you doing to secure your eternal future? You know these words, words by M. E. Byrne. Rich as I heed not, for man's empty praise, thou my inheritance, now and always, thou and thou only, first in my heart, High King of Heaven, my treasure, thou art. Let's pray. The wisdom, the grace, the mercy that is contained in this parable flowing out from the infinite mind of our blessed Savior has gripped us. And what is especially wondrous is that this is a parable of vast, infinite, everlasting promise, friends for eternity, eternal reward, eternal bliss, eternal joy, enlarged capacity to worship and praise and serve forever. Father, we thank You so for Your salvation granted to us in Christ. That would be one thing to just save us from hell.

We would go to any Spartan place just not to be there. But You have said, I'm giving You heaven and all its possessions, and I will give it to You in a measure related to Your stewardship of the things that You possess. Just an incredible offer. Lord, may we be faithful stewards who enter into the full joy that heaven promises. We pray in Christ's name.

Amen. You've been listening to the verse-by-verse Bible teaching of John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's message is part of an in-depth look at some of Jesus' most memorable parables.

It's a study called Stories with Purpose. Well, John, after digging into the various parables in this study, I'm wondering, what would you say is the best way to apply them, to put the truth of this study into action? I think the best way to apply them is just a standard issue approach to any biblical truth.

Once you understand the doctrine being conveyed, then you have the responsibility to put it into practice, to be obedient, with the promise, obviously, if you're a believer, that the Holy Spirit will empower that obedience. These stories are not just stories to generate emotion. They are stories to motivate spiritually correct, righteous behavior. In fact, that could be said of all the Bible. The whole point of Scripture is not just to understand. It's to understand to start with, and then it's to believe, and then it's to obey. You know, our Lord said, if you obey my word, you're my real disciple.

The parables make clear spiritual points to believers because our Lord explained them to us. Whether it's the sower and the seed, the good Samaritan, the great banquet, the dishonest manager, the murdered son, the rich fool, all these things that we've looked at, you need to know how to apply them. You know, it'd be good to listen to the series again.

It's available. Download these eight messages free on the Grace To You website. I would suggest to you that your application of these truths will be enriched if you go through the series again. You might even lead some other folks in listening in a Bible study format.

It's a great idea. These parables are some of the most treasured passages in Scripture, and yet they're often misunderstood. To be sure you're clear on why Christ told these timeless stories and how you can apply their lessons to your life, get a copy of John's study, Stories with Purpose. You can download the messages from our website or order it on CD when you contact us today. Stories with Purpose is available in an eight-CD album.

Chipping is free. It might make a helpful addition to your church library. To order, call 800-55-GRACE or visit our website GTY.org. And again, you can download all eight messages from John's study, Stories with Purpose, free of charge in MP3 and transcript format. Just go to our website.

The address there, GTY.org. And if you're looking to dig into more of the parables than what John covers in this study, or if you're wondering what Scripture has to say about church leadership or the end times or persevering in trials, pick up our flagship resource, the MacArthur Study Bible. It's an all-in-one theological library that is designed to help you understand God's Word and apply it to your life. To get the MacArthur Study Bible, call 800-55-GRACE or shop online at GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Tune in to Grace To You television this Sunday, and be here Monday as John answers the question, how could a loving God send anyone to hell? His study next week, Wicked World, Angry God. Be here for another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.