The Filthy and The Faithful (Luke 16, Jeff Kliewer)

Cornerstone Church

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Let's pray. Father, on this Mother's Day, we thank you,

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God, for the mothers. We ask that you continue to bless them and guide them through your word.

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We pray for all of us in this building today. As we now come to this part of the service where we open your word, we pray,

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Lord, that you would speak to our hearts. Teach us, Lord, what we need to hear. Thank you for your word to us.

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We open ourselves, Lord. We quiet our hearts before you now and ask that your word would be made plain to us.

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In Jesus' name, amen. I was at an event a couple weeks ago, and I noticed a woman.

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And afterwards, while this older lady who had had trouble sitting down, they had given her a chair.

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And afterwards, I was talking to somebody, and he said, hey, did you see that woman? And I said, oh, yeah.

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He said, did you know that she's worth $5 billion? I said, oh, you mean billion with a

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B, not million with an M? No, billion with a B. And I said, wow, that's a lot of money.

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And then he went on to tell about how people are always trying to get her money. People will call, and they know that this particular person is friends with her.

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And so he will get phone calls looking for access to her money. And you know what he says to them?

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He says, I'm not gonna ask her because there's a reason why we're friends with her. It's because we never ask her for her money.

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We're truly about her. We care about her. Looking at her from the outside. And so the strategy of the pastor was to announce that he himself was going to give $2 ,500 towards his plan over and above his time.

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Now, people criticize that because they said, well, you know, if I was him, don't let your money. But it wasn't his intention to draw glory to himself.

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His motivation was not to do that. He didn't want that attention. In fact, he'd rather not share what he went in order to spur the people on.

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That's a questionable situation, whether he should have done it. The result was that on that same

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Sunday where he announced that, the church gave 540, and the land was bought outright so that they could expand.

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The question that this raises is a difficult one. How do we use our money, and what does it mean to be shrewd in the use of money?

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We are about to go into Luke chapter 16, and Luke 16 has often been considered the most difficult to understand parable that Jesus tells.

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It's not easy on the first reading of it to know what he's getting at. But he talks about being shrewd with money.

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So it raises questions about the importance of money, and the main idea that I'd like to say is that money is faithful.

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I'm sorry, money is filthy. Do we value

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Christ more than the things of this earth, more than our money? So we will learn.

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It teaches us to be shrewd in how we use money, and we'll learn what that means from Luke 16, 1 -9.

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Turn with me there, if you will. The filthy and the faithful, regard to the money.

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Luke 16, verse 1 and following, he also said to his disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.

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He called him 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 my manager.

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Verse 3, and the manager said to himself, what shall I do? Since my master is taking the management away from me,

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I am not strong enough today, and I am ashamed of that. I have decided what to do, so that when

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I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master?

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He said, a hundred measures of oil. He said to him, take your bill, and he said to another, he said, a hundred measures of wheat.

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He said to him, take your bill. The dishonest manager, for his shrewdness in dealing with their own generation, than the sons of life.

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And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of money. They'll be weaker.

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So that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal.

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Okay, another chance for me to say goodbye. There's your lesson. You understand that the idea of a faithless manager, someone who is not doing a good job.

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But at the end, in verse 8, when he says to him, after this rampage of wastefulness, the master commended, catch that, he commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

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Why? For the sons of this world, this is now Jesus speaking about the parable, for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of life.

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And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth.

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So that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal wellness.

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This is the teaching of our Lord. So Christ himself gives the meaning of the parable.

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And as you're reading along, you're expecting for it to be just a flat out rebuke of the person's greediness and his dishonesty.

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You expect Jesus to just bring a slap down, but instead, in verse 8, there's a twist in the plot.

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What does this mean?

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Well, in their generation is a key term here.

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Notice it says in verse 8, the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of life.

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The first thing to notice is that in their generation locates this situation decisively in this world.

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The dishonest manager operates with regard to other people in his same situation, in this world.

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That's what Jesus is talking about. And notice the contrast between the sons of this world and who?

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So there are in this sons of this world who are shrewd in dealing with their own generation.

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How so? Have you noticed that there are many people in this world who are very shrewd about looking out for themselves, especially in how they make money.

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They work smart, they work hard, and they often can compile millions, if not billions of dollars.

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They're shrewd enough to make money. They look not just to today and what their money could buy them today, but rather lay up wealth for them.

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How they can take care of themselves and think wisely. Notice what the manager did. The shrewd manager, when he heard that he was getting fired, he immediately got the wheels turning, began to think, how can

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I take care of myself? How can I lay up some benefit for the future? And so he comes up with a scheme.

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What's a scheme? I'm going to go to my owner's, my manager, the owner of the property,

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I'm gonna take the ledger and bring in all the people who owe debts to him, and I'm gonna start marking them to win favor with the debtors.

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So he does this time and again, so that when he's fired, he's gonna have some friends that he can go stay with.

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Maybe he lives in his owner's home, maybe he's managing an estate, and now, by losing that, he's gonna be homeless.

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He says, I'm too, I'm not strong enough, I'm too weak to dig. Well, that excuse very well could mean, well,

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I'm too lazy to dig. And the second excuse, I'm too ashamed to beg.

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The issue there is his pride. It's not that he couldn't work, but he's thinking shrewdly of how to benefit himself.

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Now, notice what Jesus does in verse eight. The master commends the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, and Jesus points out that the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

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This is a rebuke against us, in a way. And verse nine is the key to understanding it.

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I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous love, so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternity.

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All that we have in this world, all of our money, I'm sure many of us here have billions.

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Everything that we have, no matter how much, gets left behind when we die. Maybe you came into the world and you go out the same way, with nothing, nothing to your name, nothing that you can take with you.

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The things in which you put your trust will inevitably fail.

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And here's the problem. We are sons of light, living for a kingdom that's beyond this life, and yet we often live as if this is all there is.

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Our treasure does not belong here, but there. And we often get distracted and sidetracked, and we're not shrewd in how we think about the resources with which we've been entrusted, and so we lay up treasure on earth.

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Where moth and rust destroy, and where Jesus is correcting us in how we think.

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Teaching us to think about the next world, and to be as shrewd as that manager was in laying up treasure for this generation, as we are to be in the next generation.

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The next world, children of light, pictures us looking forward to the kingdom, and laying up treasure for there.

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A summary of what's being taught here, I found in Matthew Henry. The great commentary, if you don't know what something is teaching,

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Matthew Henry usually pegs it just about right. He says, if you find in your notes, the children of light are commonly outdone by the children of this world.

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Not that the children of this world are truly wise. No, it's only in their generation, see.

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But in that, they are wiser than the children of light in theirs. We live as if we were to be here always, and as if there were not another life after this.

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Though as children of light, we cannot but see another world before us, yet we do not prepare for it, do not send our best effects, our best affections to them.

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He wrote this a long time ago. Old King James English, as we share here today. So the meaning of the parable is that we need to be more shrewd in how we lay up treasure for heaven, in how we hear it and navigate it.

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Well, if you just left it there, you would say this teaching is a bit odd, wouldn't you?

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That Jesus leaves us hanging, and it almost looks like Jesus would be happy with that management.

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One of the things that I love to do as a teacher, and it's one of the most important things that I've learned in seminary, from Dallas Seminary, I did a really big on this, it was the idea of following the train of thought of an author, so that interpretation is in context, and you see the larger flow and the thrust of the author's meaning, rather than proof texting.

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Proof texting is when we grab one verse here, and we grab another verse over here, and we string all these verses together to come up with what we want to think, and what we want to say.

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The opposite of proof texting is inductive biopsy. It's expositing the scripture to follow the author.

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And so if you proof text, you might come up with the verse like, and Judas went and hugged himself.

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And then you proof text, and you jump over here, where Jesus says, go and do likewise. String those together, and you're having problems with the biopsy.

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Judas hugged himself, go and do likewise. You don't wanna proof text. You want to continue and follow the train of thought.

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So notice, verse 10 is still in the train of thought. And you can't separate this, otherwise you miss the big idea.

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10 through 12. One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.

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And one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

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If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you?

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And if you have not been faithful, who will give you back what you owe? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the blind and love the other, or he will be devoted to the blind.

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You cannot serve God and money. And so yes, we have a teaching about shrewdness with our money, and laying out treasure in heaven, and how to think more strategically.

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But then there's the second thrust, and that is to abandon the

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God of this world, and to put your trust entirely in Christ, to so treasure him, to so value him, that you let go of your money.

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You invest it for the future, for the kingdom, not for this world, because you've made a break in your heart.

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The heart ties that you have for that God, which is money and possessions.

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You've made a break, and now we've served a true and living God. This is the meaning of the parable.

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The manager in the story, yes, he's commended for being shrewd, but only as an example of shrewdness, in all, he's rebuked, and he is an example of a faithless manager.

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Every one of us in this room has been given a certain number of days on this earth.

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Your time is entrusted to you by a different manager, by a different owner.

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You are the manager, the steward of something that was entrusted to you, your time.

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And all the talents that you have, and all the money, all the treasure, every resource that you have is a stewardship.

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The question is, will you recognize that? In that sense, money can be good. God is the provider of money.

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The issue is not the money itself, but where your heart is. How does the remaining part of this, 14 and following, how does that tie in?

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Verse 14 and following, the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, do you see the thread?

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We're now talking about the Pharisees, but it's the same subject that Luke is dealing with, and he'll continue that with another parable that also talks about a rich man and Lazarus, Lazarus.

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The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed them.

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And he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.

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For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were untold

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John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.

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But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law. So what do we know about the

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Pharisees? We know that they exalted themselves, and they were the religious leaders. They were experts in the law, and yet their hearts were hypocritical.

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They were far from the true God. They served themselves, and in many cases,

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Jesus has rebuked them for their greediness. In Luke 11, when he just unleashed that string, that flurry of criticisms, he pointed out their greed.

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And he would tell the story of a different parable that referred to the

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Pharisees often, where they were pictured as unfaithful and as greedy.

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And so now he comes back to this again and directly says in verse 14, notice, the Pharisees, who were, heard all these things, and they ridiculed them.

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Can you imagine, you hear a parable like this, which is deep, and profound, and true, and you scoff at it.

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The answer is, these are not children of light. The Pharisees here are the children of darkness.

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These are blind men. They don't interpret reality as it truly is.

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They see through a lens that clouds their judgment. They see things wrong.

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What's up to them is truly down, and what's down is up. They hear Jesus speaking, and they ridicule him.

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They're lovers of money. Verse 15, and he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts, for what is exalted among men is an abomination.

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What is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. In their view, the

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Pharisees saw themselves as prospering because God must be blessing them.

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They're the wealthy ones of Israel, not like anything we see. You'll have preachers who appear on TV who will be extremely wealthy, wealthy enough to buy the fanciest jet to fly around the world, all off the donations of poor people.

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And they're exalted in the sight of men as holy men of God, and yet they preach prosperity as if God is the one giving it, when in fact it's an abomination in the sight of God.

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An abomination. What's exalted among men, an abomination in the sight of God. The Pharisees were just like that.

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They looked the part. They looked like they belonged in the kingdom of God, but in truth, they were forcing their way into it.

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Externally, looking the part. So this is why it says in verse 16, the law and the prophets were unto

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John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.

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The crowds gather around Jesus. They want a part of that, and the Pharisees, by looking the part externally, they're part of the kingdom, they're part of Israel, but no, that prophet who wears camel hair and a leather belt, and he eats locusts, and honey, he has nothing.

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He lives out in the desert, proclaiming the kingdom of God, and identifying the Christ, that is the true prophet of God.

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John the Baptist is preaching the truth, and the Pharisees are, they look good, they have money, they're forcing their way into it, not legitimately belonging to the kingdom.

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Verse 17, but it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot on the wall.

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Boy, here are the Pharisees, the experts in the law, and yet they're missing the one thing.

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They're missing Christ, Christ in their midst. Jesus from Nazareth, standing in their midst is all they would ever need.

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He's the treasure, but their jars of clay have no room for him. They don't see him for who he is.

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All of the law points to Christ. John the Baptist is now proclaiming the

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Christ. They don't treasure the true and living Christ. What do you value?

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What's your treasure? What do you think about at night? And when you get a tax refund, or when you receive some extra money, or just with your standard paycheck, and you see that you have a resource entrusted to you, what's the first thought?

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For the Pharisees, I think it would be a nicer house, something else that they've always wanted. But the

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Christian, it's not wrong to provide for our families and to have the basic things of life. It's not wrong to enjoy the things of this life, but where's your heart in that?

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It's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dollar. All of it points to Christ.

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If your treasure is Christ himself, think that every dollar that you are entrusted with can be used for his kingdom, for the kingdom of God, which is right in the midst of the

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Pharisees while they miss it. How often do we need to build the church to advance the gospel?

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Then verse 18 seems to come out of nowhere. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband.

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Jesus here takes an example from the law, strengthens it, doubles down upon it, and applies it probably for the

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Pharisees. They would have questions. Is it all right for us to divorce our wives for any and every reason?

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According to their tradition, it was, but not according. So Jesus uses the law of God as a sword to reveal their hypocrisy.

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He picks this one example of divorce at this particular point to show that these experts in the law, these

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Pharisees, although they look the part externally and outwardly, because they're prospering, their hearts are proper, and they're violating the moral law of God.

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They're pretenders, they're hypocrites. They're divorcing their wives for any and every reason, as they see fit.

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So we have one last parable, and this one will be familiar to you. The rich man and Lazarus.

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But notice, it flows from this entire teaching on money, and where your treasure is, where your heart is.

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We have a counter -example here of who we are when we go to the rich man. Verse 19, there was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and who feasted sumptuously every day, and at his gate was laid over a man, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.

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Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.

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The rich man also died and was buried, and in heeding, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw

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Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, the end of this finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this land.

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But Abraham said, child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus, in like manner, that ends.

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But now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not believe, and none may cross from there to us.

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And he said, then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house, where I have five brothers, so that they may warn them, lest they also come to this place.

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But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, no, father

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Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. He said to him, they do not hear

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Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rob them. This is a truly terrifying parable, isn't it?

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You have a rich man, who looks great on the outside, he's prospering, so much so that surely all the

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Jews around him are considering him blessed by God. He's prospering because the hand of God's favor is on him.

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Here is a good, righteous, upstanding, moral guy, dressed in purple, verse 19, fine linen, and he feasts sumptuously every day.

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But notice the great reversal in this story. The rich man, who had everything, and dressed well, and ate well, ends up in anguish.

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And the poor man, who had nothing, dogs were licking his sores, ends up comforted with Abraham.

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A great chasm fixed between them. Verse 25, but Abraham said, child, remember that you and your wife, but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.

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You see that reversal? Everything that he had, all of his trust, was in the things of this world.

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It's all gone. Stripped away. Replaced by the anguish of the land.

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Here he is pictured. And then after the judgment, that lake of fire, we in fact don't even know if this is a parable.

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All we're told in verse 19, there was a rich man. This very well could refer to an actual rich man living outside of Jerusalem.

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And Jesus sees him in anguish, and knew about Lazarus, who actually was laid at his feet.

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We don't know that it's a parable, but the point is the same. There is a great reversal, whereby those who trusted in love, in the things of this world, and appeared to prosper in this life, will end up in eternal harmony.

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But those who trusted in God, believed the law and the prophets, enjoy eternal reward.

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Verse 29, how so? But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.

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Moses and the prophets there, pictured the word of God. God has sent his word into the world.

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The Old Testament, the entire Old Testament is the law. After that, then the

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New Testament was written, and that is sent into the world. It's enough for us to believe, and to be saved, to be spared from that flame.

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In hell, or in Hades at this point, the rich man wants something more.

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So he says, send a dead man, send Lazarus to rise from the dead, and go proclaim. Well, don't we know that God in fact, has caused someone to be risen from the dead?

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Verse 31, he said, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced, if someone should rise.

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Jesus rises from the dead, confirming that everything told in the law of the prophets is true.

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Jesus is the Messiah. He's risen from the dead, confirming the truth of it. And this message is to be preached to the ends of the earth.

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So the big idea in this passage is about those who trust in riches.

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Those who trust in what they have, rather than trusting in the truth, and living

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God. Notice that he feasted sumptuously, while Lazarus was at his gate.

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You have a man inside, feasting sumptuously, without paying any notice, or any attention, to the man who is at his gate.

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How does that apply to us? Is there anybody in our gate? Is there anybody living in Mount Laurel, that's not sitting in a church pew, this morning, but sitting home alone, crying?

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Maybe it's not even a financial ruin, but a poverty of spirit. A lostness.

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And how easy it is for us, to sit back and enjoy, the life that God provides, and forget about the loss, for any of us.

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What is a genuine

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Christian? It's one who's been justified by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.

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And that justification has nothing to do with the things that we do, but it's entirely a gift of God. And yet, being justified, our lives are changed.

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Completely transformed. So we become the hands and feet of Jesus. We begin to look at this world differently.

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Instead of seeing that paycheck that comes in, as ours, we say no, this is entirely

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His. And so, we give a tithe. A tithe, of course, just means a tenth.

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One tenth of all that God provides. We give that first fruits back to Him. In order to say, that the other 90%, belongs to Him as well.

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And we don't stop there. We notice those who are hurting. We notice people at our gate. We're not content to feast sumptuously, while all around us, are going to hell.

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We begin to use our resources, for the kingdom of God. That's the meaning of the parable.

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Genuine Christians are not like that, Richard and I are. Genuine Christians are concerned, for those who are hurting.

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Those who are dying. I just pictured a mom, in Africa, let's say.

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And she loves her children, as much as any mother in this room. And yet, there's a famine in her life.

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And for everything that she's done, to provide for this child, she has no way left to feed him.

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No resources left, nowhere to go. And all of a sudden, a helicopter comes flying by.

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And lands in that village. And it says, Samaritan's Curse on it. And it meets the needs, of that dying child.

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Where you picture a candidate, where there's a similar situation, just not that far. And there's this ministry called,

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Seeds of Hope, there. And a hopeless girl, who's being pressed into something, by a man, that she's afraid of.

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Here comes this ministry, and it's called, She Has a Name. And a woman comes alongside her, and rescues from that.

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Or IHM. When there's a homeless family, that's lost everything, and they want to do what's right, but they've lost their home, and where are they gonna sleep tonight?

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And here comes a ministry, that says, come sleep in this church. You can stay here for a week, and then we'll put you in another church.

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That's Christianity in Philadelphia. I want us to be about that, and that's what we are about.

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That's why we're in Philadelphia, trying to open a church there, in the inner city. Trying to help that. How much more?

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This isn't a guilt message. In conclusion, this is a joy message.

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This is a joyful message, because every dollar that you have, is a trust from your

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God. That you have an opportunity to use, to build His kingdom.

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Everything which you've been given, is an opportunity to say, to the Son of God, who died on the cross, and treasured you with His own blood.

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Paying the price for your salvation. And here's your opportunity to say,

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I love you. I worship you. All I have is yours. You're more valuable to me, than everything in my kingdom, or in my bank account.

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It's an opportunity to say, I love you. To worship Him, to treasure Him beyond. So what do we take away?

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We need to recognize that, He is more valuable, than everything that we have. Number two, notice that, with the, in the first parable, the manager who was unfaithful.

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Jesus calls it unrighteous love. Did you pick up on that? Didn't just say money,

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He said unrighteous love. Money itself is not evil.

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But it has a certain danger in this world. What God has made good, because of the fall, has the potential to twist on us, and become a source of temptation.

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We need to be careful. Read verse 76.

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In your notes, I have printed that part for you. Go back and read that later.

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That's written to Christians. That's written to us, who have made a break with the things of this world. And yet, money can become a source of temptation for us.

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We can very easily begin to think, that my life will be happier if I can get, and we can get a rush of ordering things.

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We can find our delight, that's just gonna make our life a little bit better.

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But Christian, it's a trap for us. Our hearts need to make a complete break with the things of this world, and begin to think differently, and recognize, money can sing the music of the night.

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You guys know that Phantom of the Opera song? The song that we tempt into, money sings that song.

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Money can pull you in, and before you notice it, you're chasing after the wrong guy.

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Be weary of money, without falling into the trap, of the social gospel, and prosperity, opposite of prosperity, theology, which would make money itself evil, to have wealth wrong.

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No, you might have five billion dollars, but if you use that for the kingdom of God, you're faking it.

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Only a matter of how much God has entrusted to you for his sake, but be weary of that temptation.

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We need to be more shrewd. We need to think strategically. What steps can we take now, to use our money for future kingdom purposes?

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Think that way. Stay up at night thinking about, how better can I use these resources, to get another missionary to the field, to advance this church and this community?

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We need to be more shrewd. So we give a tithe, and we give over and above a tithe.

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Christ, hey young people, I was taught this when I was young, and therefore tithing has never been a problem for me, because it's something that was built in, so it was natural for me to tithe, because I started when

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I was young. But if you now begin to give $100 for a birthday, and you immediately spend it, without thinking of giving that $10, you'll notice when you're 30 something years old, and you have to make your mortgage payment, you gotta make ends meet, that you're never able to, and you're never able to set aside a tithe in the church.

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Why? Because you build a lifetime of habits, of spending everything that you get.

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But if from the very beginning, and we can all correct course no matter where we are, if we make it a decision that 10 % of what comes in, the first part, is always given to the

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Lord, then you live within those means. And there's even people who have become reverse tithers.

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I've heard people that give 90 % and live, the point is, you give

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God the first purpose. And then you live, you make wise and frugal decisions, because you're thinking kingdom first, not.

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So let's close with a word of prayer. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

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Godliness with contentment is great gain. Be satisfied in Christ.

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Father, it's never easy for us to talk about money. It's a very sensitive thing and a personal thing.

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And it's not for one of us to judge another, or try to look into the heart of another person.

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But your word penetrates our hearts, and you search us out, and you reveal where our priorities are, by the way we spend our money.

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You show us where our treasures are by our challenge. And I pray for us, each one of us, so prone to wanting.

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Lord, that we would treasure you far above each earthly thing. That this morning, again, we would be reminded to treasure you, to value you, to be satisfied in you, and not to search the things of this world for something.

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God, I pray that you make us to be a faithful people. Faithful with the things in which we have been entrusted.

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Managers of your resources, and handle them well. Never dishonestly, never selfishly, but rather with a kingdom mindset, and Lord, make us shrewd in how we spend as a people.

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To use these gifts that you have entrusted to the church, to advance the gospel here, and to the ends of the earth.

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Thank you again for your word. Thank you that it cuts us to pieces, because our hearts need it when you mend us back together, and conform us into the image of your love.