Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-05-06
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON FOR MAY %
LESSON DIVISIONS
BY Lee w. Ames :.
THE UNJUST STEWARD

Luke 10: 1-13. Golden Text-Luke
1870.
LESSON DIVISIONS
l. THE WISDOM OF THE UN-
JUST.
III. THE WISDOM OF THE JUST
The first eight verses contain the par
able, with our Lords comment in the
last part of verse eight. And He
said also unto His disciples" He ad-
dressed those who were following
Him: Others could hear, but the
words were for His own. There is a
great lesson here. We need to right
ly divide the Word of truth when
teaching and preaching the Word, or
when giving our testimony to an indi-
vidual. There are two great classes of
people in the world-the saved and
the lost in the sight of God. We may
not always be able to tell in which
class an individual belongs, but many
times we can be quite sure, and often
positive. Why tell the unsaved how
they ought to live, when they need to
be told the way to obtain life? Why
criticise the habits of the unbeliever,
when his soul is lost? The Bible
tells saints, saved ones, born again
ones, the children of God, how they
ought to live; but il tells the unsaved
how To get eternal life, which is their
first need The Scriptures tell the be-
lever how to walk, but the path is an
impossible one for the unbeliever to
tread. Faith in Christ must precede
faithfulness TO Christ. A person must
have 1.-The righteousness of God"
which is by faith in Christ before He
can be counted righteous before God
Let us stop telling the lost how to live
as saints, and begin telling them how
to become saints. And let us tell the
children of God how they ought to
walk in Christ. The parable is not
to be pressed in every detail" yet
there are some beautiful suggestions
here for us. Certain rich man"-our
Fathers riches. He is rich unto all
that call upon Him (Rom. 10:12);
though he was rich, yet for your
sakes He became poor" Cor. 500;
erich in mercy" (Eph. 2.4); riches OF
His goodness and forbearance and
long suffering" (Rom. 9:2D; riches
of His wisdom and knowledge (Rom.
G1:33); riches of His grace" (Eph.
I'D; 'the unsearchable riches of
Christ" (Eph. 3:S); riches Of His
glory (Phil. 4.19). He had a steward.
We too are stewards. Paul said that
he was a steward of the mysteries of
God q Cor. 4:), and followed this
with Moreover il is required in stew
ards, that a man be found faithful"
Again (Titus Id we are told through
the same instrument "a bishop must
be blameless, as the steward Of God"
Peter SAYS q Peter 400. GAS every
man hath received the gift. even so
minister the same one TO another, as
good stewards of the manifold grace
of God" All that we have belongs to
God Time, money, talents-we have
them through His grace. In verse / we
are told how the unjust steward made
poor use of the things committed to
him, and in verse 2 he must give an ac-
count. So we are facing an account
ing day, as stewards ofGod. We must
all stand be fore the judgement seat
of Christ (Rom. 1870, the place
where the believer is judged for re-
ward. Let this solemn truth mold
our lives. Facing judgment, the stew
ard made provision for it, herein
showing his wisdom. for which he
was commended: This was the wis
dom of the unjust. Let those who are
in Christ manifest the same wisdom
in their stewardship.
Next we note the wisdom of the
just Christ is the Holy one and the
Just (Acts 3.14),) and we in Him are
made just The kingdom of heaven
will be set up when our Lord returns
to earth with His saints. and we shall
then reign with Him. ut is i'm pro-
portion to our care, as to what place
we shall occupy in the kingdom of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ"
lie cannot surely trust us with the
eternal things of the heavenly king
dom if we have not been faithful to
Him i'm the mere temporal things here
and now, the things that are to pass
away soon. Would we seek high
place and have the reward there, and
great usefulness to Him then, we
must remember that IL depends upon
what we are doing with our Lords
gods here and now."-G. l.. Aldrich
i'm our Hope Magazine. Then too,
there are the true riches of His grace
things that lie reveals TO them who
obey Him, that can be trusted TO the
ones. Would you know the
deep things of God, the secret of the |
Lord? Then be faithful to Him. The
wisdom OF the Just one concerns |
stewards (9:12) and servants U8. |
In verse 10. He calls for singleness OF
heart in our service. Too many peo-