Luke 16

Luke 16:19-31

We have here, 1. The right use of worldly enjoyment represented in the parable of the unjust steward, ver. 1—1 p. 2. A reproof of the Pharisees for their covenants, ver. 14—18. 3. The danger of fitting our hearts on an earthly portion, illustrated in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, ver. 19—31.

1. AND he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wafted his goods. 2. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship: for thou mayest be no longer steward. 3. Then the steward laid within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig, to beg I am ashamed. 4. I am resolved what to do, that when I am put out of thy stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. 5. So he called every one of his lords debtors unto him, and he laid unto the first, How much owed thou unto my lord? 6. And he said, An hundred 7 mealures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and let down quickly, and write fifty. 7. Then said he to another, And how much owed thou? And he said, An hundred 8 mealures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourl’ore. 8. And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wifer than the children of light. 9. And I say unto you, ‘Make to yourselves friends of the 9 mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. 10. He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. 11. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your truth the true riches? 12. And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own? 13. 9. No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and have the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 14. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all their things: and they derided him. 15. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed amongst men, is abomination in the light of God. 16. The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man preefeth into it. 17. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one title of the law to fail. 18. Whoever puteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committed adultery: and whoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband, committed adultery.

2. 1—18. To direct us in the right improvement of worldly wealth, we have here.

3. The parable of the unjust steward. God is one matter and land; all who are intrusted with any of his gifts, are not stewards, and should impose them to his glory. This man was accused of wafting his mother’s goods; and how justly liable are we to the same charge! How often have we abused the

substance we have enjoyed, and the abilities we have been blest with, to God’s dishonour? In consequence of his ill management, he is called to an account, ordered to leave the service; and a terrible reckoning will that be for us, if, hurried away by death, we are called to God’s bar, cut off in the midst of our sins, and banished for ever from his presence. You may to dig for his maintenance, too proud to beg, he resolves, by deeper frauds, to secure for himself a maintenance, and calling privately his lord’s debtors, whose accounts were in his hands, he agreed with them to draw a new state of their debts, abating twenty measures of wheat to one, and fifty of oil to another; thus endeavouring to make them his friends, that, when he was disinclined from his lord’s service, he might have their houses to receive him. Note, (1.) One step in sin always tends to lead on to farther abominations. (2.) Pride and laxiness often drive men to the most wicked methods to supply their wants, unable to bear the labours of honest industry for a subsistence, or to submiss to all relief. (3.) They who trust too much to stewards, and seldom inspect their own accounts, will usually suffer for it.

2. The Lord commended the unjust steward’s conduct; not as truly laudable in itself, but as an instance of foresight, care, and contrivance, worthy imitation in a better way; for the children of this world, such as this man was, who place their happiness in earth and a portion here below, are in their generation usury, all more prudently, and show greater industry to secure worldly advantages, than the children do to obtain the infinitely more momentous acquisitions of grace and glory. Let us go to them, therefore, to learn, and be ashamed to see ourselves outdone in diligence by those who pursue a perishing world, when we have at stake the interest of an immortal soul and an awful eternity.

3. Christ applies the parable to his disciples. I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, employ your worldly goods in such a way, as shall be to your own advantage in the day of judgment; that when ye fail, and at death this perishing world is left behind with all its enjoyments, they may receive you into everlasting habitations; they who have received the comfort of your bounty, God’s poor saints, or Christ and God himself, who will reward such works of faith, and labours of love, with everlasting glory. Note, (1.) This world’s wealth is called the mammon of unrighteousness, or of deceit, because usually it is abused to the vilely purposes, and gotten by unjust and deceitful means. (2.) The only way of turning those riches to our advantage, which others abude to their ruin, is by employing them for the glory of God, and the good of our fellow-creatures, and then they will be blessings. (3.) At death all things fail us, nothing of our earthly affluence can go down with us to the grave; unless we have sent our treasures before us, they can then afford us no satisfaction. (4.) Our one great business here below is to secure for ourselves the everlasting habitations; and though no money can purchase a mansion in glory, yet will they, who have laid out their talents in God’s blessed service, find themselves hereafter repaid with the richest interest.

4. Our Lord enforces his exhortation by the following arguments, (1.) That the misimprovement of the gifts of God’s providence must effectually exclude them from the treasures of his grace; for as a servant who is faithful in a little matter, gains our confidence to be entrusted with none; so where he is unjust in trilies, no prudent matter would care to employ him in matters of greater importance. If therefore we are unfaithful in the abuse of worldly things, it cannot be thought we should make a better improvement of the nobler talents, the means of divine wisdom and grace; and therefore their true riches he will justly withhold from us, to 11. and if we have behaved as dishonest stewards in that which God hath entrusted us with, and which is not our own, but his, how can it be expected that we should possess that good part, the riches of grace, which most properly may be called our ruin, because none possessed, it shall never be taken from us? (2.) It is impossible to serve two masters, God and mammon, because their demands being opposite and contradictory, so far as we love and serve the world, we must hate and disobey God: and on the other hand, if we love and serve him, we must be dead to the world, and ready to forego all its honours, interests, pleasures, and esteem, whenever they stand in competition with his glory. God requires the heart, he cannot suffer a rival, nor will admit of an allowed partition: to attempt reconciling the inconsistent services of God and mammon, is all the devil afas to ensure our ruin.

5. The Pharises were highly offended with truths which touched them so nearly. Their character was drawn in this unjust steward, and their covetous, worldly-minded hearts, under all their most plausible guise of religion, were the slaves of insolation: they treated him therefore with the greatest disdain and contempt. Note, (1.) The inordinate love of this world in the bane of many a fair profession. (2.) When the word of God presses the conscience hard, the obfstrate sinner often affects us despise, and turn off with a laugh, what he feels himself unable to answer. (3.) If we are treated with insult and derision

derision by those to whom we minister the gospel, Jesus our master endured the like treatment before us.

6. Chrift sharply rebukes their hypocrisy and worldly-mindedness. He despised their reviling, yet warns them of their ruin, that they might yet repent of their sins before it was too late. Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, pretending the strictest piety and most scrupulous devotion; but God innueth your hearts, that they are full of deadly poison, of pride, envy, covetousness, falsehood, and oppression: for that which is highly esteemed among men, these pompous shews of exterior sanctity, is abominating in the light of God, who fires the vicious principles which actuate your whole conduct, and abhors all your pretended services. Nies, (1.) The most rigid services of formal religion, instead of justifying men before God, render them only the more abhorred. (2.) The opinion of the world is a very fallacious rule of judgment: usually the most admired characters in the eyes of men, are in his regards an abomination; and they who are for up as patterns of piety, will be found in fact a link of iniquity.

7. He turns to the poor publicans and sinners, whom the Pharisees despised, encouraging them to pride into that kingdom which his grace had opened to them. The Old Testament differentiation was now at an end, since the preaching of John the Baptist; the prophecies concerning the Meffah were about to receive their accomplishment, and the free grace of the gospel to be universally published through the world, when the distinction of Jew and Gentile should cease. Every man therefore, without exclusion of any sinners, whatever crimes he may have committed, is welcome to the Saviour, and sure to find mercy. And these glad tidings engaged the hearts of many, whom the self-righteous Pharisees despised, to press into it amidst all opposition. Nies, They must strive against the world who would enter into heaven.

8. He precludes an objection which his self-righteous enemies would be ready to flare, that he meant to invalidate the authority of the divine law. No. The frame of heaven and earth shall sooner be dissolved than one title of the law can fail; all the prophecies, types, and figures, must receive their accomplishment; the precepts, in their true spiritual meaning, were now more than ever explained by Chrift’s preaching, and magnified by his own obedience to them; and, far from admitting a laxer system of moral duty, this holy law must abide the unchangeable rule of righteousness; and conformity to it would now be enforced by the strongest motives: as for instance in the article of marriage: divorce under the law of Moses was permitted to prevent greater evils; but under the gospel it is entirely prohibited, and marriage restored to its primitive institution, nothing being admitted as a plea for its dissolution but unfaithfulness to the marriage bed. Whosoever therefore for any other cause puteth away his wife, and marries again, is an adulterer; as is he also who shall marry her who is divorced. The gospel, wherever it is truly received, strikes at the root of corrupt afflictions, and engages us to walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

9. ¶ There was a certain rich man * which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. 20. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, * which was laid at his gate full of fores, 21. And defining to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover, the dogs came and licked his fores. 22. And it came to pals that * the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: * the rich man also died, and was buried. 23. And in hell he left up his eyes, being in tormenta, and * Gerd Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, 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. 25. But Abraham said, Son, remember that * thou in thy life-time received thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 26. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pals from hence to you, cannot, neither can they pals to us, that would come from thence. 27. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: 28. For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29. Abraham saith unto him, * They have Moses and the prophets; let them bear them. 30. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, * neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

This parable seems to be particularly designed to rebuke the pride of the Jews, who, enriched with outward privileges, treated the poor Gentiles with disdain, as unworthy a place among the dogs of their flock; and yet there was grace in store for the poor diseased sinners whom they despised, whilst, through their unbelief and impenitence, they themselves would be rejected and ruined. It is also more generally applicable to what we see sadly verified every day, that rich sprinters wallow in luxury, whilst God’s dear children pine under want and hunger; whoever and will be as it is here represented; where the veil is taken off from the world to come, and we behold the glories of the one, and the unutterable miseries of the other.

1. The state of a rich wicked man is far before us. They wear a certain rich man, whose fortune enabled him to gratify every appetite: he appeared in the most splendid robes, equalizing the majesty of princes, slashed in purse and for favors; and his table was spread with every delicacy, he fared sumptuously every day. It may be said, Where is the harm of this? he was born to his estate, and the expence was no more than he could afford. Admit the fact. The harm was not in the use, but the abuse, of the creatures of God. He lived a life of mortality, and sat unconcerned about the miseries of others. And it is designed to teach us, (1.) That this world’s riches are often given to those who know not God, and that his love and favour are never to be judged of by outward things. (2.) That wealth and affluence are dangerous to the soul, and, affording the means to gratify men’s bestial appetites, often plunge them in perdition and delh suction.

2. The state of a poor godly man. He is called Lazarus; and to the miseries of poverty were added the more afflicting portion of a nauseous disease: wanting a morbid of bread, over-spread with ulcers, without even rags to cover them, unable to walk, he is carried to the rich man’s gate, and laid on the cold ground, desiring to be fed, if but with the crumbs which fell from the table. We hear no complaints, no matrimony at his condition: he was reduced to want, and not ashamed to beg; but, for what appears, he begged in vain; either his requests were refused, or, which amounted to the same thing, neglected and disregarded: but the dogs, possessed of more humanity than their master, came and licked his fores. Should here the condition of a dear saint of God, and learn of him, (1.) Not to estimate a man’s spiritual state by his afflictions: for it is often seen, that those whom the Lord most loveth he is pleased most bravery to exercise. (2.) Patient submission to God’s providential chafflements is a gracious proof of our adoption. (3.) The cries of the poor, which have been rejected or unnoticed, will by and by be remembered to the confusion of those who thus unkindly treated them. (4.) They will have a grievous account to answer for, who have spent more on their dogs than they ever gave to the necessities; and for them well fed, when many of their fellow-creatures are familiar.

3. Death at last came with friendly hand to remove at once all the poor beggar’s miseries. Emaciated with hunger and disease, when done with pain and misery, he closed his eyes, and bid adieu to human wretchedness; seeking a refuge in the grave, where the wicked cease from troubling. We hear of no burial given him: probably some hole was dug in remove the nuisance from the gate; and, buried with the burial of an ash, not a friend followed the bier, not a tear was dropped over the grave; but he rests in peace, and now his eternal triumphs begin: attending angels, who minister to the heirs of salvation, and hover round their dying beds, received the departing spirit, and, on their wings mounting to the fakes, shunted aloud, Lift up your heads ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, that an heir of glory may come in. Led to his fear on high, admitted to the richest entertainment of that kind world, he is placed next to Abraham, and receives that distinguished honour of leaning on the patriarch’s bosom. What a glorious prospect does this present? and all our present evil, how should such a hope support and comfort us! Death must be the farthest limits of a believer’s sufferings; beyond the grave, all is happiness eternal and bliss uninterrupted.

4. The rich man also died, and was buried. Probably his funeral was pompous, as his living was grand. A noble tomb received the corpse, and spices and perfumes made the clods of the valley sweet unto him, whilst perhaps charity wept on the monument, and the flattering marble proclaimed his munificence, liberality, and every virtue that ever yet adorned man. How vain this pageantry! to which the body is now incredible; and the soul, alas! whether is it fled? In hell he left up his eyes, being in torment, the just punishment of his abused affluence: and now how changed are circumstances! He sees, with astonishment, Abraham afar off, and Lazarus, the poor despised Lazarus, in his bosom, admitted to this state of highest honour and dignity. Nies, (1.) The misery of the wicked, and the happiness of the just, immediately commences at their death. (2.) Every sight in hell is aggravating; even the prospects of heaven before the demoral can only torment them with the views of that glory into which they must never enter.

5. In this fearful situation we have the rich man’s roguff. He cried, with eagerness and importunity, extorted by the pangs

he felt. How different from the fongs of riot that before echoed through his palace? Father Abraham, howe mercy to me: perhaps an his cups he had ridiculed the old story of Abraham; or it may be he had depended upon his outward privileges as defended from him, but now found how vain were his expectations. Note, Many, who have never prayed before, will pray loud enough in hell, but pray in vain. His request (term Small; Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and call my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame: how is his proud craft fallen? he who did not give this poor beggar a crumb from his table now would fain crave a drop of water at his hands. He little thought once he should be so natural. Oh, kree, (1.) His complaint, I am tormented in this flame. Damned sinners have nothing but wrath before them, that preys like fire upon their foals, as much as their bodies are tortured by the everlasting burnings. They who will not hear and fear, and do no more wickedly, in this day of mercy, well then feel, when every pang will be embittered with despair. (2.) The day is near, when they who deplod the people of God would be glad to receive from them the least favours.

6. Abraham’s answer is most confounding and upbraiding: for in hell no requets are granted, not even a drop of water to cool a flaming tongue. They who neglect the day of grace have nothing before them but misery, without disarmament, and without evil. Son, remember that thou as thy life-time received thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is employed, and thou art tormented. (1.) He addresses him as a sin, the remembrance of which relation aggravated the guilt of his degenerate conduct. Our abused privileges will increase the measure of our guilt. (2.) He bids him remember; for conscience then will be awake, and self-tormenting reflections embitter every pang. The sinner will remember every means of grace he hath trifled with, every call of God he hath sighted, every affliction which he hath mismopovered, every blessing he hath abused. (3.) He reminds him of the good things which he had received, and misapplied; unthankful for them; placing his happiness in them; profitating them to the faithful purposes of serving his lusts and pleasures; and, as he reckoned these during life his chief good, he had his all in hand, and nothing to expect after death but wrath to the uttermost. (4.) He leads him to reflect on the evil things Lazarus had received; which patiently he had born, though denied at his gate a crumb which fell from the table. (5.) He bids him now observe how the tables are turned: he is comforted; the miseries of a child of God, however sharp, are, comparatively speaking, light afflictions, which are but for a moment: death will put an end to every sorrow, and instantly his everlasting bliss will commence. But thou art tormented: the triumphing of the wicked is but for a moment; they can carry nothing with them into the grave; and the joys and delights, in which they wallowed before, will only make the change more terrible, when they are driven into the everlasting burnings, where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. (6.) He leaves him without hope of mercy, or pledged of the least relief: for, besides all this, because as and no there is a great guilt fixed, impassable on either side; so that they who would pay from hence to you cannot: if a glorified faint wished to affect the least relief to a damned sinner, it would be in vain: not that he will ever feel such a desire, but will approve and applaud the justice of God in their eternal torment. Neither can they pass to us that would come from thence: when once the pit of hell hath closed its mouth upon the miserable soul, despair fails up the door of mercy; no gleam of hope ever reaches that dire abode: the decree once gone forth is irreversible; as the tree fatheth it must lie. How awful! how awakening the thought! Sinner, hear and tremble. The door of mercy yet is not that against thee. Oh fine quickly thither. Cry mightily to God, if yet there may be hope, in a moment it will be too late to knock when the door is shut.

7. Again he prefers another request, but meets with a second repulse. Since he is doomed in despair to suffer himself, he cannot, without increasing horror, reflect on meeting his brethren in that place of torment, whom he probably had greatly been instrumental to ruin by his bad example and influence, and whose bitter upbraidings he wished to prevent: for not love of their souls, but desire to prevent an increase of his own misery, seems to have dictated the request. Earnestly therefore doth he intreat, that, if Lazarus may not come to him, he may go to them, and prevent their eternal ruin, if he may not alleviate his torment. Note, (1.) They who have been tempers to others, and companions in sin, will shortly become mutual tormentors. (2.) Even a tormented sinner in hell expresses a concern for the souls of his brethren, when thousands on earth never give themselves a thought about them.

Abraham denies the request: it is unnecessary as it is impossible. They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. They wanted not the means of conviction and conversion, if they did not obstinately harden their hearts. Note, The Scriptures are the ordinary means God employs to turn men’s hearts. They who neglect to attend to these sacred oxades are left to their own devices, and sealed up under wrath.

8. Once more he redoubles his plea, yet meets with no more Vol. II.

success. In hell no prayers are answered; it is here alone that prayers can profit us. He replied, Noy, father Abraham; tho’ they may pay no regard to Moses and the prophets, too long, it may be, accustomed to treat all revelation with contempt, yet, if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent: such a messenger must need a carry conviction along with him, and compel them to turn from the error of their ways. So ready are foolish men to be requiring evidence which God is not pleased to give, and which, should he comply with their request, would still be utterly ineffectual: for, as Abraham declares, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though on us from the dead. Indeed it is impossible they should. One from the dead could not speak with more authority and certainty than the Scriptures. We should have much more reason there to disjoice a delusion, than in the ouster of truth. And though we might perhaps be terrified with the apparition, our hearts could never be changed thereby, since that the power of God alone can effect. We should by degrees recover from the fright, or be laughed out of our fears, and our conceptions would soon get the better of our convictions. The word of God therefore is ordinarily the alone, and sufficient, means he is pleased to use: it is presumption in us to prescribe, and folly to define any other. If we harden our hearts against the warnings therein contained, visits from the dead, yea being dragged through the belly of hell itself, and then back again to earth, would be utterly ineffectual to convert our souls. To the law therefore and the testimony, Ila. viii. 19, 20.