Luke 16:2 We are God's stewards our whole life long: each day of our lives, therefore, claims its own account; each year, as it passes, suggests to us naturally such reflections, since we reckon our life by years. To many thoughtful men their own birthdays have been days of solemn self-examination.... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:8 I. It is a remarkable story told by the poet Cowper of himself, that, when he was a young man, and living in London, where his companions were not only persons of profligate life, but of low and ungodly principles, they always had a great advantage over him when arguing upon the truth of C... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:8 The Unjust Steward. I. It is impossible to read this parable, and our Lord's remark upon it, without being struck by the broad assertion that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. The children of light are those who have been called to a know... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:9 The Earthly Life and Heavenly Training. I. Every circumstance of man's life may become a training for immortality. The tenth and eleventh verses of this chapter imply two great principles on which this possibility is founded: (1) The eternity of God's law; (2) the perpetuity of man's cha... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:10 Living to God in small Things. I. Notice how little we know concerning the relative importance of events and duties. We use the terms great and small in speaking of actions, occasions, or places, only in reference to the mere outward look and first impression. We are generally ignorant... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:10 This Life our Trial for Eternity. I. It is a great and awful thought which is put before us in these words by the Saviour and Guide of our souls; the great importance, namely, of every part of our behaviour here in this present world, seeing that, from beginning to end, we are here upon... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:14 Consider the conduct of the Pharisees, whose weak point had been touched by our Lord's teaching; they adopted the fool's course of mocking at that which they could not deny to be true, but whose truth they did not like to follow into its consequences, namely, into the practical result of... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:17 I. My text is true of the Bible as a Book divinely inspired. Since John wrote in his cell at Patmos, and Paul preached in his own hired house at Rome, the world has been turned upside down all old things have passed away, all things on earth have changed but one. Rivalling in its fixedne... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:19 I. It is very important to observe that, in this parable, we have not before us the entire character either of the rich man or Lazarus. The luxurious self-indulgent habit of living is the assumed scriptural characteristic of an unrenewed, worldly mind; and when it is associated with indif... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:23 Prayer to Saints, and Purgatory. These are two points of doctrine, upon which I think that we may regard this parable as throwing light, without straining its words to purposes for which they were not intended. I. The first doctrine to which I allude is that of prayer to saints. (1) I ob... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:25 Memory in Another World. "Son, remember." It is the voice, the first voice, the perpetual voice, which meets every man when he steps across the threshold of earth into the presence-chamber of eternity. All the future is so built upon and interwoven with the past, that for the saved and... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:27 I. The Scriptures distinctly reveal future punishment. II. In a future state punishment will completely arouse memory. "Son, remember." III. The punishment of hell will be regulated by the previous conduct and character of the punished. Hell is a grave in which God places what is not f... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:30 The Future Results of Present Indifference. I. Many read this parable, and are staggered at finding that so little is said against the rich man. What was it by which he so grievously offended? and which caused his being cast into that fire which shall never be quenched? We can only say,... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 16:31 Let us ask what was the cause which brought on the rich man so terrible a fate? It was not simply his wealth, and it was something from which an observance of the precepts of the Jewish religion would have saved him. What, then, is the character of the rich man as drawn in the parable? It... [ Continue Reading ]