Luke
16:1-31
Money is the method by which we human beings make
transactions or exchanges with one another for goods and services. Before the
fall in the Garden of Eden, there was no such thing as money because God
provided everything the man and woman needed freely. After the fall when man
began to multiply on the earth the means of exchange used was not coins or
paper money for these things had not yet been established but the people would
use livestock, salt, tea, tobacco, rice, beans, barley, meal, flour, or other
things to buy and sell from one another. It was referred to as bartering. History
tells us that metal objects were introduced as money around 5000 B.C. By 700
BC, the Lydians became the first in the Western world to make coins. As time
continued people developed different types of coins and assigned value to them.
People were not restricted by what value they would assign to their own coins
of their country and that’s why the money changers always would have so much
business because of the variety of coins throughout the many nations. So we see
that after the first metal coined was introduced around 5,000 B. C. man has
from that time until this very day been striving to amass as much of this thing
called money as he possibly could. It has been the cause for countries invading
another just to plunder their wealth and make it their own.
During the time our Lord came to the earth money
even then had become a bench mark of whether a person was in the favor of God
and being blessed by Him. We have already documented that the Pharisees,
Scribes, Sadducees, and other Jewish religious sects and their rulers all
looked on the poor as being poor materially because they were under God’s judgment
and not His blessing. Now after our Lord had finished telling the 3 parables of
the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son all directed squarely at those Jewish
religious rulers trying to get them to see their sinful condition, our Lord
immediately switches His story telling to zero in on money and man’s
relationship to money. Our Lord spoke directly to His disciples but He knew that
the Pharisees were close by listening in on His teachings as they always were
trying to find fault with Him or catch Him in some inconsistency in His
teaching or to accuse Him of not keeping the Law of Moses.
The first parable He spoke to His disciples was
about a greedy man that wasted his boss’s money. The man would be one who would
manipulate the company books so as to spend money for his own personal pleasure
and increase his own take home pay. It was his greed and love of money that
caused his actions. The man never figured on a day of accountability but that
day surely came. Like the man in this story every human being is going to give
an account of their life to Jesus Christ (see the article entitled “Give an
Account”, http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=91341
). Every dollar each person has on this earth is a gift from God and what we do
with our money no matter if we are millionaires or poor will be an open book
testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ of our heart/inner man condition. The man in
this parable was unjust and wicked in his dealings with another man’s money and
it revealed a covetous and greedy heart in love with money. Money was this man’s
master and because he loved his master money, he went about any unjust means to
obtain as much of it as he could. Our Lord said at the end of this story, Luke
16:13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he
will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and
despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” The man in this
parable was loyal only to money and that proved that it was his master.
Psalms
10:3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s
desire; He blesses the greedy and renounces the LORD. NKJV
Luke
16:1-13
This dramatic conclusion to the story was aimed
directly at the listening Pharisees and they knew it was pointing a finger at
them. The conscience is powerful in showing us whether our actions are right or
wrong, but it has no power to make us choose that which is right. Our Lord
Jesus is the only source of that strength to a soul. Once they heard these
words of serving money as a master they were angry and treated our Lord with
contempt, a man who only told them the truth. After they mocked our Lord by
speaking to Him with such disdain, disrespect, and derision, He said, Luke
16:15 “You are those who justify yourselves before men,
but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an
abomination in the sight of God.” These men actually believed in their
own warped minds that their indulgent, luxurious, and flamboyant lifestyle was
somehow not only pleasing to God but also ordained by God for them. Does this
sound familiar today? (Benny Hinn, Fred Price, Creflo Dollar, Leroy Thompson, Kenneth
Copeland, and others). There is a YouTube video clip of Creflo Dollar and Leroy
Thompson dancing on money to anoint it (see it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxeTjrckl0
). Listen, the Pharisee lovers of money are still in our midst today. Who, I
ask you, is their master? I assure you that the actions of these two men are an
abomination to God. The saddest thing for me in witnessing that video clip was
the people still walking up front while these men did this non-sense and kept
putting their money down. This is just one picture of what the love of money
will do to the hearts of men and women.
Luke
16:14-18
1
Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for
which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows. NKJV
Finally, our Lord tells a tragic story to illustrate
clearly for the Pharisees the ending eternal city their road will lead to. A
certain rich man that was admired by society and prominent in his community did
not wake up in Paradise but on the contrary his love for money led him to a
place of eternal torments and he found no rest from his torment nor was there
any way of escape for him (see the article entitled “And being in Torments in
Hell”, (http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=96222
). Our Lord told this story of the account of this rich man specifically for
the rich money loving Pharisees who thought they were right with God when they
were not. Our Lord even despite the derision from these men loved them and did
and said all that He could to warn them of the eternity that awaited them if
they did not lay aside their pride, greed, and love of money and press their
way into the Kingdom of God through Him alone.
At the end of this story the rich man pleaded to
have someone go from the dead to warn his 5 brothers (who were living in sinful
lust, greed, depravity, and love of money just as he did) to repent or change
their minds about God, death, judgment, hell, and turn from their sin to God
for forgiveness. What irony is the way the story ends by telling the rich man
that his 5 brothers had Moses and the Prophets to listen to and the Pharisees
already thought they obeyed the Law of Moses and understood all that the
Prophets had written when they just like the rich man in the story did not find
Jesus of Nazareth in the writings of Moses nor those of the Prophets. In their
ignorance, blindness, and hardness of heart they reviled, derided, abused,
hated, despised, mocked, laughed at, scorned, and ultimately killed the Prince
of Life the only source of Life that could forgive them, change them, free
them, love them, and keep them from this place of eternal torments.
Psalms
9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, And all the nations that
forget God. NKJV
Psalms
55:15 Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell, For wickedness is
in their dwellings and among them. NKJV
Luke
16:19-31
“We understand why in the Bible repentance precedes
faith. Before people find their need -- love met in God, they are looking to other things, often money, for satisfaction. So believing
in God has to involve a 180-degree turn away (that is, repentance) from the love of money to find contentment and
confidence for the future simply in knowing God and depending on His promises.”
Daniel Fuller
“A dreadful thing is the love of money! It disables both eyes and ears,
and makes men worse to deal with than a wild beast, allowing a man to consider
neither conscience nor friendship nor fellowship nor salvation.” John
Chrysostom
“The person who thinks the money he makes is meant
mainly to increase his comforts on earth is a fool, Jesus says. Wise people
know that all their money belongs to God and should be used to show that God,
and not money, is their treasure, their comfort, their joy, and their security.”
John Piper
“Water is useful to the ship and helps it to sail
better to the haven, but let the water get into the ship, if it is not pumped
out, it drowns the ship. So riches are useful and convenient for our passage.
We sail more comfortably with them through the troubles of this world; but if
the water gets into the ship, if love of riches gets into the heart, then we
are drowned by them.” Thomas Watson
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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