A Bizarre Parable

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. I guess my name is Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday guy. I�ve been getting questions and emails, �When will the Saturday podcast be up, Tuesday guy On Saturday, that will happen soon.

Steve has been teaching an IBS class, Institute for Biblical Studies, and he�s been teaching an interesting topic. He�s reading and having the students read both The Potter�s Freedom by James White, aomin .org, and Norman Geisler�s Chosen but Free.

I�m trying to remember the subtitle for that book. I can�t remember. It was kind of neat last night. I was talking to someone out in the driveway to the church parking lot, and she is a neat lady. She�s, I would say, just a regular faithful congregant, and she would just be the average churchgoer here at Bethlehem Bible Church.

I don�t mean she�s average. She has a heart of evangelism, and she�s enthusiastic for that and wants to work hard and do the Lord. I mean, a neat lady. But she said to me that she just couldn�t believe how poorly Geisler�s book was written because she�s taking the class.

And I just told her how proud I was of her for studying, to look at the Scriptures to see what does 2 Timothy 3, 9 actually say? What does 1 Timothy 2, 4, and 6 actually say? What does, what�s the other passage, Matthew 22 or 23, verse 47, what does that actually say?

And so I was very glad for that. So if you are listening to No Compromise Radio and you like bbcchurch .org sermons, you can also go to bbcchurch .org and pull up the Biblical Institutes, New England Institute for Biblical Studies.

There�s all kinds of classes there, tons of classes that you can listen to for free. Actually so much so, you�re going to think this is interesting, at least I did. Just recently we�ve started a Bethlehem Bible Church Facebook page.

We, not meaning me, but the folks at the church, one of the No Compromise ministry guys, Bob Andrzejczyk. Well, Bob started that and I thought, well, I�m going to go in through my daughter�s porthole, Facebook porthole, and see what�s going on with Bethlehem Bible Church�s website.

Now after you type in your websites that you like once in a while, like regularly, that comes up to the top of the list. So if you type in �B� then Bethlehem Bible Church pulls up as long as it�s a regularly searched name.

Well, there�s a church in South Africa called Bethlehem Bible Church. They use our icon and it says that the pastor, I don�t know what the pastor�s name is, Sharif somebody, I don�t know what it is. He went to high school at Bethlehem Bible Church Institute, IBS, and he got his theological training at the Bethlehem Bible Church New England Institute for Biblical Studies.

And then there�s pictures of him and the church. And I think they�ve taken the name Bethlehem Bible Church in the Facebook thing as well as their real name. And so I did not know this. I kind of feel like the proud father who gets to plant churches.

You know, there�s a thousand Harvest Bible chapels all around and I get to be like the new headquarters man, not. Now I don�t really even like the name Bethlehem Bible Church or as we say in Midwest Bethlehem.

It�s funny, people can�t even spell Bethlehem anymore. When you�re trying to say to someone, when they ask you the question, �What�s your place of employment �Bethlehem Bible Church. �Can you please spell that Bethlehem

�That�s just bad to say. Et cetera. So anyway, there�s a church. I don�t know who it is. He�s never contacted us. Looks pretty charismatic and it�s all to justify and give a front that this guy�s got some training.

I don�t know what we do. This is getting the scam emails in your junk mailbox times a hundred. Pretty soon there�s going to be a no-compromise radio ministry there. He got his theological training at no-compromise radio ministry.

He�s listened to all 900 shows. Crazy. Today on No Compromise, I need to remind you to get your $300 check in. I don�t like to talk about money at No Compromise, but this is putting your money to good purposes, your purposes.

And that is if you�d like to go to Greece with us, leaving Boston, April 17th of next year you need to have your $300 deposit in by the end of November and we�ll find out who the play-as-a. We�ll see who really wants to go.

So we�d love to have you go. I don�t know how many are going to go, 15, 20, something like that. And so that would be fun to go read Romans, Revelation, excuse me, 4 and 5 at Patmos. That�s what I�m looking forward to doing the most, standing on the Isle of Patmos.

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager and the Call to Stewardship

Well, if you have your Bibles and you�re not driving, I�d like you to turn to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. It�s one of those wild parables, crazy parables. I was talking about this a little bit last Sunday from the pulpit, and so I wanted to give you, no-compromise listeners, a run for your proverbial money as well.

This is what�s known, at least here in the ESV Bible, the battle of the dishonor�the battle. What am I doing? The battle. The battle for the resurrection, Norm Geisler. How can that be a good book? Yes, this is ESV.

I have to use large print Bibles now. I can�t go anywhere without my reading glasses. And sorry to say I was happy that Pat Ebenroth, omahabiblechurch .org, he has to wear them now too. So, welcome to the club, young man.

ESV, the parable of the dishonest manager. The parable of the dishonest manager. And as S. Lewis Johnson would say, when Jesus talks about money, he doesn�t take an offering. Yeah, that�s true. I like that.

Let�s look at this passage, especially in light of our bodies that will be resurrected, especially in light of the Bema Seat judgment, judgment for the Christian, not for sins, transgressions, missing the mark.

That has all been taken care of when Jesus said, �It is finished. Christ made redemption. He made reconciliation. He propitiated the full wrath of God in our place for every single one of our sins, past, present, and future.

How about that for good news? That is great news. That�s such good news that God the Father said, �Amen by raising the son from the dead. But there is a judgment day for Christians called the Bema Seat, and you can go to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, where we will appear before God.

We receive the divine summons, and we will stand before God and give an account for what we�ve done in the body, deeds done in the body, whether good or worthless. Right motives, right intentions for what we�ve done with what God has given us, knowing we have this body to serve Him.

And He, of course, gives some more gifts than others, more talent than others, but what we have, our response should be faithfulness to serve God. And so this parable helps in regard to that, thinking long-term, thinking like there is a resurrection, and making sure we use our money and our material things wisely.

That�s what we want. We want to be wise stewards, living in light of that day, that judgment day. Martin Luther said there�s two days in his calendar, today and that day. It�s a good way to think about it.

Two days, today and that day, living in light of that day. So parable of the shrewd manager, and this is to teach a lesson. Now Luke 16 ties into Luke 15. It follows Luke 15. That�s a pretty brilliant thought, isn�t it?

Aren�t you glad you tuned in to No Compromise Radio today? Luke 16 follows Luke 15. Wow! That�s insightful. You probably want to put your hand up right now, like you�re charismatic, and say, �Mmm. If you�re a Reformed Baptist, you say, �Mmm.

Or if you�re just a regular Baptist, �Amen. Well remember the parables found in Luke 15, �lost, found, rejoiced, lost, found, rejoiced, lost, found, should have rejoiced but was mad as Jesus is putting his finger on the sternum of the false teachers, and they should be rejoicing when God saves.

There was a prodigal son, two prodigal sons actually, but the one prodigal son went out and wasted his father�s riches, wasted his inheritance, squandered. And if you remember that, it will help you to see the tie-in to Luke 16 when those words come up.

The Shrewd Manager’s Plan to Reduce Debts and Gain Favor

Luke 16, maybe the wildest parable in all the Bible. He also said to the disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting, squandering his possessions.

So the rich man hires a manager. Nothing odd about that, so the rich man does it because he can then go make more money while this steward, this manager, takes care of what he has in this particular regard.

And most of the time, especially in this setting, the rich man would have some land and people could rent some of that land and grow crops on that land and then give back some of their produce for payment.

And so charges were brought against the man, the manager, for wasting his possessions. And he, the rich man, called him, the manager who's unjust, and said to him, what is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.

You are what? Fired. You know, these days it's hard to say you're fired, you're downsized or reorganization. I've been on the receiving end of reorganizations. So we hate to tell you there's no longer a position for you.

And in my particular case, they either didn't like me or I didn't sell enough. This particular case, he's unjust. He is dishonest. Hence the parable of the dishonest manager. Turn in the account of your management, for you no longer can be manager.

You were supposed to be a good steward of my funds and our property, and you mismanaged it. You were supposed to oversee things with an office of trust and confidence, and you, instead of getting a reward for your fidelity, you're unfaithful, and so you're fired.

You wasted my goods. You wasted the resources. You squandered the possessions, just like the wasteful, prodigal son. Scattered it all over. You, dishonest manager, weren't really working for me. You were working for yourself.

Joseph, back in Genesis 37 to 50, was a good steward. This guy was a bad steward. Fraud, mismanagement, give me an account. You can no longer be steward. We want to see the books. I want to see the expenses.

Today is a day of reckoning. There's going to be a day of reckoning, and here it is. The manager said to himself, by the way, this is a grinch of an idea. This is an aha moment. This is what the man said to himself.

What shall I do? That's exactly what happens when you get fired. You don't say it out loud, or maybe you do, but the cloud thought of your mind over your mind says, what shall I do? Since my master's taking the management away from me, I'm not strong enough to dig and shame to beg.

If you're not going to be a steward of something, then you've got to go to manual labor, or I guess your other option is begging. This white-collar worker didn't want to do manual labor. That's too hard, and begging, too ashamed to do that.

I have decided what to do so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. This is a flash moment. I'm going to be a steward of these debts in such a way that they will be now indebted to me.

If I reduce the debts of the renters to my master, then that will increase the debt of the renters to me. That's the point. Reduce debts by increasing debt. Reduce debts to my master by increasing the debt of people to me.

This is wise. This is shrewd. This is calculating. This is conniving. This is keen. This is astute. This is a thesaurus. Oh, I couldn't say that on Sunday morning, but I can say it here. I know what I'll do so that when I'm removed from the management, people will welcome me in their homes.

16 .4. Obligation to me. That's what I need. A generation ago would have called this feathering the nest. So verse 5 of Luke 16 says, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master?

So it's a parable, of course, but it's like they're all lined up. And then you line yourself up and then go up to the table and do business. Now there's probably a bunch of them, but only two are mentioned here.

How much do you owe my master? Who knows? Maybe the books are gone with the firing, right? He doesn't even have the details, so he has to say to the person, how much do you owe my master? Because he doesn't know.

He's forgotten. He doesn't have the books because he got fired and the master took the books. We're not exactly sure. He said, verse 6, a measure, a hundred measures of oil. So the dishonest, shrewd, conniving, astute manager said to him, take your bill, sit down quickly, the guy's going to come back any minute, my master, the rich man, and write 50.

Quick, take your bill, sit down quickly and write 50, a hundred to 50. Wow. That's nice. Then he said to another, verse 7, and how much do you owe? He said, a hundred measures of wheat. He said to him, take your bill, write 80.

Now depends on how you look at this. We can't really know for sure, but it was not right to tax Jewish people, but maybe this guy did anyway. And so he's just deducting the taxes. He's deducting, excuse me, not the taxes, the interest.

It wasn't proper to take interest from the Jewish people. So maybe he's been adding interest dishonestly and fraudulently. And so he said, all right, I just don't want you to have to pay the interest anymore and takes that off.

That could be, or it could just be the guy owed a hundred and he cancels it down to 50, or in this particular case, verse 7, down to 80. Do it quickly. And if you were one of the people who was a tenant, a land renter, leaser, what would you think?

You would think that the rich man had authorized this. After all, this is the steward. This is the manager, and he has full confidence, allegedly, of the rich man. And so you'd think this would just be okay by the big boss man.

Take your bill and write 80. So how did Jesus interpret this? And here comes the moment, Luke 16, 8, the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. That's verse 8, commended. What do you think the master did?

He commended the dishonest manager, not for his dishonesty, not for his fraud, not for his lying, not for his sneaky dealings, not for anything, except his shrewdness. He was careful to plan ahead. Are you understanding the point so far, NoCo listeners?

NoCo a day keeps the confusion away. Why? Because this person was commended for long-term thinking, material things for future benefit, and in our particular case, using material things for future spiritual benefits.

This is a good lesson from a bad example, a believer's Bible knowledge commentary says. Jesus said in Luke 16, 8, for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

There's something to be learned from this dishonest man's shrewdness. Make good use of the opportunity. You've got one life to live, listener, and so make good use of it. Jesus commends this person for thinking that very thing.

Now certainly, the rich owner probably benefited from all this. Why? Because the renters would now think he's generous, he's kind, his name has increased in the community and so he probably got something good out of that as well.

Here basically Jesus is saying, when you lose the stewardship of one thing, that is giving away money, you gain something else. In this particular case, you gain people, winning people with money. Boy, doesn't that sound bad?

Use money to win people. If you're a believer, you can use your money, your filthy lucre as it were, to win unbelieving people. You could say, well I'm going to have a bunch of unbelievers to my house, have a big party and then use that as an advantage to preach the gospel.

I'm going to take money and invest it in gospel organizations so they can use it to preach the gospel and through the preaching of the gospel about the perfect life of Christ, his substitutionary death, his resurrection and the response of repentance and belief, God uses preaching to save people and so I'll invest in gospel ministries to have the gospel win people.

That's exactly what Jesus is talking about. Isn't that amazing? Looking ahead, thinking about money and in light of the resurrection and that day, don't just put all your eggs in today's basket, think about that day's basket, putting your eggs in that day's basket.

Maybe that's the title of the show. Jesus said in Luke 16, 9, I tell you, make friends for yourselves by the means of unrighteous wealth. Use wealth. Don't just store it up. Be a servant. Think shrewdly.

Think wisely. Think in light of the resurrection. Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. So, this guy in the parable in Luke 16 acted shrewdly.

He gets fired, but now he's been given a variety of other opportunities. Here's a place to stay, etc., etc. Oh yes, I caught myself. For himself because he invested wisely. Christian, believer, follower of Christ Jesus, use money for that very same purpose so that when you use your money for gospel-oriented things, there is a payoff for the master's glory and your particular benefit.

MacArthur said the unjust steward used his master's money to buy earthly friends. Believers are to use their master's money in a way that will accrue friends for eternity by investing in the gospel that brings sinners to salvation so that when they arrive in heaven, those sinners will be there to welcome them.

Luke 16 verse 10, one who is faithful in the very little thing is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in the very little is also dishonest in much. Money is a small thing, a little thing. There are bigger issues.

Luke 16, 11, if then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? What are true riches? Certainly not the little thing named money. Luke 16, 12, and if you have not been faithful in which is another's, who will give you which is your own, that which is your own?

No one can serve two masters, verse 13, for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be what? Luke 16 verse 13, he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Can't do it simultaneously. It's either or. It's alt tab on your computer or it's command tab on your Mac. No Compromise Radio, today we're talking about Luke 16. How do you use your money? You should use your money in a way that you win friends.

Win friends for heaven through money. That is shrewdness. You say, well, how does that specifically apply? The two general categories are, again, you can use money to influence your friends. Again, you can have a bunch of people over to your house and have a big party and get to know them.

I guess that's real friendship evangelism, isn't it? Eventually, of course, you know you have to open your mouth and people are saved through the message of Christ Jesus, Romans chapter 10. The other thing you can do is you can invest your money in eternal things.

Most of your money, I think, should be given to the local church. And when there's extra money, you want to invest in other ministries outside of that, above and beyond, then that would be shrewd living, wise living, proper living.

So today on No Compromise Radio, what do we have? We have Luke 16. Go home and read that tonight, especially if you're in the car. Read it tonight and think, Lord, I want to not be a master of—I don't want money to be my master.

I want to master money. And I want to master it in such a way where you're glorified, where more people are saved, and your sovereignty works through. And in light of my responsibility, probably said better, our responsibility is in light of the sovereignty of God.

And so, Lord, just help me be a good steward. Help me be a faithful steward. I don't want to be unjust. I want to take what you have given me, all my talents and all my skills and all my money, and use it for your glory.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.