The Mammon of Unrighteousness (Luke 16:13-17)

I’m going to attempt to speak tonight on a subject I have never spoken on before. When you have something that is totally brand new to you, it can be a challenge to you. It can be exciting or it can be a challenge in a different way. I will be in Chapter 16 tonight. Right away you will recognize the story of the rich man and Lazarus, but there is a good bit that goes on before the rich man and Lazarus. The chapter has to deal mainly with what the Lord calls “The Mammon of Unrighteousness.” Did you ever look at that closely to understand exactly what is the mammon of unrighteousness? I want to talk to you about “The Mammon of Unrighteousness.”

 

In this chapter 16 Jesus talks a good deal about the mammon of unrighteous. He is referring literally to money and possessions. The question really comes in what He is describing here as to whether or not mammon or riches and possessions really possess us and we become enslaved to them, or whether we possess them and they become our servants for us to honor God and to do His will with.

 

What we will see in this chapter are three examples of people who have become enslaved to riches. They are bound by them. They live according to this mammon. They are literally enslaved and they serve mammon. I want us to look at these three tonight. One of them is called an unjust steward. Another example is the Pharisees that I mentioned. And then the third one is the story of the rich man that we’ve heard so much about. I want to look at all three of these because they are tremendous examples of people who have become enslaved to the mammon of unrighteousness. We see the outcome of their lives. We see the judgment that comes upon them because they turn from God, the Creator and the Giver of all things and they worship and serve the things of this world. They are looking at only this world and not the world to come. Christ is coming back to this earth to rule and reign. And all of us gathered here tonight have the hope of leaving everything in this world one day. Leaving everything and going to be with our Lord in heaven forever and ever.

 

I’m not preaching this sermon tonight because I think anybody really needs it. I feel like I am talking to people long ago settled in their own hearts and lives whose servant they are and who is their Master, and it is not this world. It is not the mammon of unrighteousness who is our Master. We have opened up our hearts and our lives and made decisions long ago that the Lord Jesus Christ would be our only Lord and Master. We would not be enslaved to any other or to any other thing.

 

Let’s talk about these three examples. First of all, the unjust steward. Here is a man who wasted the money of his master and literally spent a lot on himself and did all kinds of things and simply wasted his master’s goods. Contrary to the story in chapter 15 of the prodigal son who wasted  his inheritance and came to himself and went back to the father’s house, this story is much the same thing. Here is a man who wasted all the goods of his master, but then we see the philosophy that he operates under. We see what governs him. He is called in by the master to give an account of the way he has managed this business. That’s what a steward is. A steward is someone who manages someone else’s property. That makes me think of a beautiful concept in I Peter 4 where he tells us to be good stewards of the righteousness of God, to be good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Which means that God gives to us the ability, and calls upon us to manage His property, the manifold grace. We have within our power to bring grace to bear upon the lives of people. We have in our prayers and in our worship and in our lives the ability to manage God’s grace and to bring it to bear upon the lives of people as good stewards.

 

Well, here is a steward who is unjust. He had to give an account for the way he had done and the way he had wasted the goods of his master. When his master saw and heard the evidence in the case, he straightway fired him. He said ‘You are not going to be my steward anymore.’ So the man began to think ‘I’m going to be fired. I won’t have a good job. I won’t be able to take in money for myself like I have been doing.’ So he plotted a scheme whereby he could take care of himself. He decided he would go to all the debtors that his master had. He went to them and he asked ‘How much oil do you owe?’ The man answered ‘A hundred measures,’ and the steward told the man to take his bill and destroy it, write another one and put down 50 measures. The man thought it was wonderful that his debt had been cut in half. The steward went to another man and asked how much wheat he owed. He decreased the debt by 20%. He went around to the various debtors doing that. Everyone thought this was a great deal, but he was scheming. He said ‘Now when I get put out of my job, when I’m fired, I can’t go to work. I can’t dig. To beg, I am ashamed.’ So he puts his crooked mind to work and he schemes knowing that one day when he starts calling in these favors from all these people, they receive me into their house and they will take care of me and feed me. This should last for a good while and I’ve got a good deal going! Well, here is an example of a person who was a slave to material things. He was a slave to the mammon of unrighteousness. He is the kind of person who schemes and does anything, even cheating his master even further. He is going to cause his master to lose a lot more money that what he has already robbed him of and squandered. The master doesn’t even call the law on him and put him in prison or debtor’s prison. The master seems to be of the same tone in his life because he admires his scheming ability, even though he does nothing about it. Here is one person who is going to go into the household of friends for awhile. It won’t take them long to figure him out. Can you imagine having this person come stay with you for awhile? He wouldn’t be there very long before he would cheat you out of your house and home if you would let him.

 

Then, here are the Pharisees. They are hearing Jesus teach about this man and about mammon and about riches and the love of money. They are absolutely disturbed. They start deriding him. They are making fun of Him. They are railing upon him and badgering Him because of this very strict teaching that Jesus is doing when He is calling on people to be honest and sincere, to serve God and to put God first before anything else. Look at these covetous Pharisees. That means that they love money and are greedy. They will do anything to put money in their pockets. They go about making public their gifts in public places. They bestow their gifts here and there, but only in public, never private. They have to receive the glory and be looked upon as generous, good-hearted people who love humanity who try to help the poor and others. Jesus said ‘You are trying to justify yourselves in your attitude in the way you do.’  I want you to know that God knows what is on the inside of your heart. If you read the gospels you will never find any stronger words coming out of the mouth of Jesus than those that come out when He is talking to the scribes and Pharisees and refers to them as hypocrites. He refers to them as coffins full of dead men’s bones. He refers to them as people who are trying to fool everybody, but really are fooling nobody – certainly not God. They brag on themselves, even in their public prayers. Most of their prayers are bragging on themselves.

 

He is showing us here that these are the kind of people who do not really serve God even though they are religious. They are serving the mammon of unrighteousness because they will live lives of hypocrisy. They will put on a front and a show as being good when really inside, they are greedy and grasping for every dime they can get, so to speak. So they poke fun at Him.

 

In studying the gospels, it is very difficult to preach everything that Jesus teaches and apply it to your own life. Jesus looks on the heart and He knows what is there. He told these people that if you really serve God you would pay attention to the Law and the prophets. You haven’t paid any attention to them. They speak of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is come. There is a change that has come to this world through the preaching of John the Baptist and through the ministry of Jesus. He said the Law and prophets were until John, but since then, people press their way into the kingdom and you have not recognized the kingdom of God that John preached and you have not recognized me as bringing in the kingdom of God. You have ignored the Law and the prophets. But He said the very Word that you have ignored, it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one jot or tittle of the law to fail. Do you know what a tittle is? In the Hebrew language that the Old Testament was written in, a letter might have just a slight little projection point sticking out here, just a tiny little thing. That is a tittle. He said it is easier for heaven and earth pass away than for a jot or one tittle, a tiny little particle of one letter of the Law and the prophets to fail.

 

It’s great to know that the Word of God is fixed and it stands and the Word of God cannot be changed. There are some loose interpretations of the Word these days. People are looking to religion and churches to preach whatever they like. With all the corruption and evil in our world today, everyone is seeking for approval to their lifestyle. They are afraid to come back to the Law and the prophets and the Word and actually look at it. They will say don’t bring the Bible into this! Don’t bring the Bible into this! And they go on to justify and find human reasoning to try to justify living in sin, corruption and evil. I’m glad that whether and I like it and believe it or not, or whether we interpret it properly or preach it right or not, it does not change. Jesus said not even one jot or tittle will change from the Law and the prophets and the Word of God. It will stand when the world is on fire. It will stand in judgment and people who have served mammon and have turned away from God and have loved this world will be judged by this Word, not by somebody’s opinions, not by somebody’s book that he wrote. We will all be judged by this book.

 

I thank God for the Word of God. The Pharisees, regardless of how they interpret it, and regardless of how many different rulings they add on in interpretations, Jesus stood them face-to-face and told them they were not really serving His Father. On one occasion, He even told them ‘You are of your father, the devil, who was a liar from the beginning.’

 

Let me move on to talk about this last example of a person who is totally given over to the spirit of this world. He has never looked above for anything. You know the story of the rich man who fared sumptuously every day. He was clothed in purple and fine linen. He was rich in every sense of the word. We are told in the same story that there was a beggar named Lazarus who was laid at his gate and he desired even crumbs that might come from the rich man’s table. We are told that the rich man died and Lazarus died. Jesus said that the angels came and carried the beggar to Abraham’s bosom. You need to understand that the beggar didn’t go to heaven carried by angels because he was poor. If that was the case, wouldn’t it be wonderful to know that all the poor people would be saved? There must have been something in this man’s life that caused him to fear God and to believe in God. He must have been important even though he was a beggar for the angels to come. I have known of saints who died and gave their testimony that loved ones came to greet them and welcome them. Some said angels came. Some left this world hearing angels sing. What a glorious prospect that is!

 

The rich man died and was buried. We don’t know what kind of burial Lazarus had, but the rich man died and was buried. In hell, he lifted up his eyes, being tormented in flames. I don’t know that we preach about hell very much, but I do know this: it is a place that nobody wants to go. I hate to think about anybody losing their opportunity for eternal life and joy and having to be lost forever and being in torment forever. A lot of things happened to this rich man in his thinking. When he saw across the gulf and saw Lazarus comforted in Abraham’s bosom, I guess he thought ‘I’ve seen him and heard of him many, many times and I never stopped to do one thing for him.’ I don’t know what all he thought, but from what he said, we can get an idea for what it’s like for a person who has been enslaved to riches and to this world and has shut God out; here’s what it is like to be in eternity after living a life like that, a life that never calls on God and never looks up to heaven or looks beyond this world. He asked Abraham ‘Would you just have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame?’

 

I suppose that if he could have gotten just one tiny request answered, what a difference that would have been and I guess he would have asked many, many more. But Father Abraham says to him ‘Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime received thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou art tormented.’ 

I remember stories from my childhood that my parents and grandparents told of people who died when they were lost. They would say things like it took four strong men to hold him on the bed when he died. One man in our community had dared to come and tempt the people of God bringing a rattlesnake and tempting them to handle it. A few days later his leg swelled up and he went to the doctor. The doctor asked him why he waited so long to come to him. He told him he had been bitten by a snake. The man died screaming for them to keep him from slipping into the flames of hell.

 

My heart goes out to anybody who is lost and who has no hope of being comforted. Thank God for the hope we have of being comforted after this life, to be in the presence of the Lord. For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That is our hope and we live by that. Praise God! We live by that every day.

 

And now, here’s that poor man – I know he is called a rich man, but now he is a poor man because he is in torment and Abraham tells him that ‘There is a great gulf between us now and there is no way for anybody to pass to where you are now. You are isolated.’ Then he begins to pray. He gets a vision of his home and his brothers and his people back home. He prays and says ‘Send him to my father’s house. If you can’t send him here to give me comfort, then please send him back to my father’s house and to my brothers and let him testify to them lest they come to this place of torment.’

 

But he said – and here comes that same thought again – they’ve got Moses and the prophets. You see, people have the opportunity to take this Word to believe it or not, to accept it or not, they have this and if they won’t believe this, then they wouldn’t believe even if a person rose from the dead and went back. As a matter of fact, the gospel of John tells us about a man named Lazarus who was raised from the dead and he gave his testimony and you know what people tried to do to him, especially the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees? They took counsel together to kill him because they wanted to destroy the evidence of the ministry of Jesus Christ. So Father Abraham said they wouldn’t believe somebody who rose from the dead. They would just say that you had never died, you are just making up this story.

 

There was a man named Lazarus who was raised from the dead. John tells us that a lot of people did believe because of that. But these people who are totally given over to the flesh and to this world tried to destroy him. When Lazarus was raised from the dead, it was not what we call resurrection. Resurrection means you are transformed into a supernatural body. You have a perfect resurrected body like our Lord’s body. Lazarus was raised from the dead. He would die again. I’m sure he would never fear death again. They tell me that Christian people who die for a few minutes come back fussing! They want you to leave them alone and let them go on!

 

To serve the mammon of unrighteousness is to ignore God, leave God’s direction out, leave God’s principles of His Word out of your life, to be totally independent, to worship and serve things in this world. The end reward of that is to reap an eternity of torment. But to serve God is to use whatever things you have wisely for good and for the glory of God to help people and to help God’s work and the rewards for that is an eternity of comfort and joy.

 

Let me make a confession to you tonight in closing. I did come face-to-face with my mortality in a way I have never done before. I’ve done funerals and told about hope and all. But I don’t think I’ve ever thought as deeply about death even in all those funerals as I did when facing my own mortality. It did something to my heart and to my life. I am a lot more conscious of close I may be to the end of my journey and to my reward and I would like to tighten up a few things in several places in my life so that the grace and love of God would fill in a more perfect way in my life. How about you tonight? Do you feel like there is a place or two in your own heart that you would like to empty out and get full with God and His love more than you’ve ever experienced?

 

Please stand and let’s pray in closing.