Address—Doug Buchanan
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We opened our meeting this afternoon with hymn #301.
I will just sing the first two and the last verses of this hymn of 301.
The rest is in heaven. Our rest is on here.
No matter what, I should withdraw more and tiles are near.
Near.
That can come much shorter than shorter.
And Hastings of homes.
With the script on.
Your nature.
Rapporteur Germont belongs.
Let's look to the Lord.
The burden of my heart this afternoon, the Lord put on it the last this past week, and I didn't know what we were going to be taking up here at the conference.
But the burden of my heart is to speak about the use of the things of this creation in the right way for the future.
We live as creatures that God has made.
In the beginning, he made us. He made us perfect. Good.
We have that verse. In fact, let's just go right straight to the first verse. I want to read in Genesis chapter one as introductory.
Genesis chapter one.
And verse.
20.
7 and 28.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him male and female created he them, God bless them. And God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over the.
Every living thing that move us upon the earth.
Our Creator God.
Has established an order and he put man, Adam and Eve and headship over His creation as the administrators of his this creation. That has not changed. We as human beings are responsible to our Creator God.
To use it.
To take it and to fulfill our Creator God's desires.
His plan?
I'll go over to First Second Peter chapter 3.
But we know that man has failed.
And the creation is in part.
Marred and destroyed because of sin.
Now the issue is how would God have us to use these things of this creation?
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What is our purpose?
Over the fish, the fowl, the animals.
Over the administration of government.
Between men and men, and so on.
It's a sad story, the history of man's responsibility.
In this creation.
So much so that God.
Had to send his son. It was his plan to redeem it. Turn over to second Peter chapter 3.
And verse.
7.
But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store, reserves unto fire against the day of judgment.
And perdition of ungodly men.
Verse 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
And then it goes on and gives us verses of hope.
Seeing them that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heaven shall being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Now we've gone in our scope here from the beginning of the creation to the end.
We live in between that time.
We live the time after our Lord Jesus came.
And, uh, he lived and died. He redeemed the people.
Now the challenge.
What I have before me is how do we use properly the administration of temporal material things here on earth in the right way?
I've been a farmer.
Most of my life serve the Lord.
In a way too along with it.
About 50 years ago when I started farming.
This issue came up before me.
Because farming was starting to change.
New technology was coming into existence.
I will remember when one of the first herbicides came out into use for corn.
It's a herbicide.
Does wonders.
You put it on the ground and it kills all the weeds and it lets the plants grow.
Well, that's a little exaggeration, but.
I can well remember looking out in the field where we put it on a band of a cornrow.
There was these beautiful plants of corn standing there and not a weed in the band where the herbicide was on in the middle of the row where there's no herbicide. It was full of fox tail.
But the issue came up.
Does God approve of herbicides?
Should we as Christians use this to get better corn yields?
To keep weeds out.
It's a complex issue.
And I didn't.
I didn't see the whole picture at that time, but I made some choices as a farmer.
And while some of my neighbors would complain.
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And use the old technology and the old ways of cultivation and so on.
And here I was, tempted this new thing.
Was this a part? Was this good for God's creation? Should I use it or should I know?
Now there's a lot of things that come out in the world today.
Herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, all kinds of sides.
Do we as Christians use them? Is that a good use?
In God's creation and the issue of the harmful effects, is it healthier? Is it not healthy?
Now we wanna turn to Luke's Gospel, chapter 16.
This chapter.
The whole chapter has been a great help to me on this subject.
And I'm going to try to.
In my simple way presenting it to you to have.
What I believe the Lord gives the right perspective of the use of the things of this life, of this created world, this.
Material.
Existence that we have at our disposal.
As responsible beings before our creator God.
So if you'll turn to Luke 16, we're gonna read the 1St 18 verses of this chapter.
This this chapter is divided into three parts. We're gonna just touch on the first two parts, but for time's sake, we can't get to the last part, which talks about the rich man and Lazarus and the change between this world and when they passed into the coming world.
This is the issue before us. How to use the things of this world in the right perspective?
First one.
And he said also unto his disciples, This is the Lord Jesus speaking. It was a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him, that he had wasted his goods.
And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear of the, uh, this of the.
Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward.
Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? For my Lord takes taketh away from me the stewardship.
I cannot dig to beg. I'm ashamed.
I'm resolved what to do when I'm put out of the stewardship, They may receive me into their houses. so-called every one of his Lords debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much oest thou unto my Lord? And he said, 100 measures of oil. He said unto him, Take thy bill, sit down quickly and write 50.
Then said he to another.
And how much are we sell? And he said, 100 measures a week. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write for score or 80.
The Lord commended the unjust steward, because He had done wisely, For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
Now we have the Lord given His interpretation.
And I say unto you, Make to yourselves, friends of the mammon, of an unrighteousness, that when ye or it should read, and when it fails, they may receive you into the everlasting habitations. 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.
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If therefore, you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to you, to your trust, the true riches, And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
No servant can serve 2 masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon.
And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided him. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John.
Since that time.
The Kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than one title of the law to fail. Whosoever puteth away his wife and marieth another committeth adultery, and whosoever marieth her, that is put away from her husband.
Committeth adultery?
It's very interesting here to see the application that the Lord Jesus makes of this rich man and his steward.
And we must distinguish between which part is.
The story about the rich man and his steward and how the steward behaved and the application that the Lord takes from it and applies to us. And I believe this application that the Lord takes on this this story.
Is a direct indication for us as how we should apply ourselves in the stewardship of the material things of this life.
It's very clear instruction.
First of all, notice.
The rich man told the steward.
That his stewardship was going to be taken away from him. It was not a question of if, it was only a question of when.
Beloved Christians.
The things of this life are going to be taken from us. Every one of us is going to give it up sooner or later. This first creation is not going to go on forever.
People used to think that through the preaching of the gospel.
The world would believe, get saved, The Lord would come back and make us live forever.
That's not gonna happen.
The Lord has a different plan.
Christian.
We have to look beyond this world.
Our California Our meetings have been about the future world.
We have noticed in Hebrew, Hebrews, how the Lord Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, he came and He was then rejected. He could and He was announced to introduce the Kingdom then and there, and if they hadn't received Him, He could well have introduced His Kingdom.
And brought in peace.
Emptied all the hospitals.
Raise the Dead and all the cemeteries introduced the Kingdom of Peace.
And everyone have lived happily ever after.
But it did not happen that way.
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And God knew it before him.
Because God had another plan.
A backup plan that was began in God's council even before, and that was heaven.
And that's what we we. That's where our hopes are centered. I hope so. If you are just here as a mere Christian to improve this world and to set things right in this life here and now, and you have nothing beyond this life.
You are missing out on what Christianity is all about.
What?
We're still here, we still have jobs, we still have to feed our families, we still preach the gospel. We're waiting still for the Lord to come. And until that happens, there's something for us to do.
Now the issue is.
What is your purpose of living and using these things of this creation?
Do you have a good job? Have a nice paycheck?
What's the purpose of that money?
How you gonna spend it?
Well, Miss Stewart.
He was a he was a prudent, wise, or.
And he realizing that he was gonna be deposed of his job as steward.
Now some of us had a hang up with this.
This this story.
Of the rich man.
And maybe some of you have had the problem that I had. It didn't look like it was righteous.
Was the Lord condoning in faithfulness?
Was it right? Does the Lord condone cheating the your master, the owner?
No, I don't think this is what it's about.
The story is not about righteousness. The story is about stewardship.
Now there are farmers that are put in charge of farms.
And I know a little bit about what that's about.
And you're given a certain latitude of how to farm and how to conduct your business. The bottom line really comes down is at the end of the year when everything's done, how much money or how many goods you have to turn over to the owner.
If you favor one person and say Oh well, I'll.
Give me $0.80 on the dollar anyway.
That's a latitude. That was right, that was OK.
And so on.
It's about stewardship.
So this.
Wise, even though he had been unfaithful, he had failed in what was put in his charge. And brethren, since Adam.
Mankind has failed in the stewardship of the goods of this world.
Are you going to stand up and say I can do better than my fellow men with what's been put in my trust? Be careful.
4000 years God tried man in that way.
This trial was about to be over here right now.
In fact, this is what the Lord is announcing.
This whole story is about how we should live now after the Lord Jesus has been rejected.
And cast out he came, he healed the sick.
Open the eyes of the blind.
I enjoyed it this morning.
Bernie, when you when we sang that song.
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There once was a wild little donkey.
That story of the donkey teaches us who Jesus is.
That obedient donkey recognized his Creator God.
And Jesus had total control.
And when he wanted to introduce the Kingdom, they said no.
That's the end of the trial of man as far as the stewardship of the world's goods.
It's no longer put out for Christians today, the option of trying again.
Let us as Christians recognize.
Total failure of mankind.
Our hope must center in the one who could do the job and the one who will put things right.
He's given every evidence that he's able to put things right into this world, and there is nothing that man has done since Adam and Eve that the Lord Jesus is not able.
To remedy and put back in order and he's going to do it.
Now today, we're living in a world in an enlightened society, educated society, and science and technology have come a long way.
The boys that are harvesting the corn and I could pull out my cell phone here and show you which fields they have picked and how much the yield was.
And every.
Little quadrant of every field.
And yields have.
Grown marvellously.
We were commenting the other day.
Corn yields are double.
What they were when I started farming.
And they're talking about it increasing.
In the last 10 years, it increased about 4% every year.
Soybeans is more like 1 or 2% every year. The science and technology Ernie knows what we're talking about. He deals with that issue.
Now.
Why? How should we do these things and use it?
It's not just enough for something to be good and better yields.
What I believe the Lord, this parable or not parable, the story teaches us and the interpretation that the Lord gives us from it.
We our perspective must be.
How it relates to our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the future worth that he has promised and opened up.
Heaven.
In particular.
What is God doing right now since.
Our Savior died and rose again.
Is he forming a Kingdom that's to go on and live here on earth and get better and double yields every 20 years? Is that what Christianity is about?
You know the answer is no.
It's not.
The answer is.
The same as what Abraham looked for a city.
Whose builder and maker is God A heavenly city?
Our perspective should be to use the things of this world with a view of how they will affect our Savior.
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And how he.
Has a plan.
And what our destiny is.
So that this man that was a steward.
When he saw that he was stewardship was going to be taken from him, he thought ahead.
And he made he tried to make some friends. Maybe they would hire him. You know, it says he he he he couldn't dig and he he was ashamed to beg. That's that worries only two options today gets to work. It's like the law.
To beg is to apply, solicit the good graces of somebody unknown.
To favor you and help you.
Well, we know that the grace of God has favored us. There's no uncertainty about it.
We come before the throne of grace. We have that before us. God is disposed to bless us today because of Jesus Christ. We can count heavily on that.
We can trust the future world because what has been revealed to us about.
Life after this world.
Why did the Lord say into this chapter tell us the story of these two men that died?
One of the most marvelous stories for the Gospel it tells US1 lived his life in reference to God, his creator God.
And owned him. The other lived his life selfishly for himself only for this life.
And their two destinies were opposites.
So.
The The rich man commended that steward for what he did.
The Lord takes it up.
And you applies it for us today.
And.
We can take it.
As a guiding principle as to how we live our lives.
In this pers I believe we are being.
Tested on this.
At this late date in North America.
There are lots of movements going on today.
These are more recent things of movements to restore our Earth.
Global warming.
Animal Rights.
And you know the things that I'm referring to, a great emphasis is being put on these things.
Some of them are almost laughable as to what the attempts are are.
The goals are.
I believe that.
Well, let me see it.
The Lord has told us already.
He has a plan.
That plan is one part of it is this world is going to be destroyed as it is, as it exists.
God's gonna.
Bernadette or destroy it. I'm not not quite clear on how much of it's the beginning of the Millennium and how much is at the end of the Millennium, but plain and simple.
The Lord is not asking us as Christians to make this world a better place to live. He's calling us out of this world.
To be a heavenly people with Christ.
That's the view that we have to do, they have to take. That's how we are like this steward.
Who was told he was going to be removed from his stewardship, but he was still given time to finish his job.
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How many years are left for you to, to and stewardship of this world?
I'm getting up there in years, not very many more.
Hope the Lord will come. That's my hope.
And so.
What? How should I look?
Or what kind of a farmer to be?
Why should I try to grow bread or corn?
Is it to make this world a better place?
Or is it to serve my savior?
The answer is simple.
So this this Stewart used it so that after he was taken away, the stewardship.
He would have a friendly people to meet him. Now the fact that the Lord Jesus takes this up and uses it to me.
Is a confirmation.
That the Lord is saying.
You you need to bank ahead.
You need to live the and use the things of this life.
For the heavenly people.
And for that goal?
The object is not to get things back in order here now that trial is already over. Don't waste your life trying to do that. Doesn't mean that these people that uh.
That follow these causes of earthly mindedness and improving this world. I'm not talking about abusing the world that God created.
It's sad to me to go down the road and drive and see see cornfields that are poorly managed.
To me, it's a dishonor to our creator God to not do a good job.
But why do I do a good job?
Is it so that I look better than my neighbors? Is it so?
I can brag about how good a farmer I am.
Or is it to serve my savior?
So the Lord tells.
And he goes on and gives us instructions.
About being faithful in that which is least and that which is another's.
It's interesting, you know, most of us think of our earthly possessions as ours. I have a car, I have a truck and so on. And we commonly say that's my truck, that's my car.
According to scripture, that's really just loan to me.
For a time until I leave this world, and I'm not gonna take it with me.
I remember the reading this story about this rich man, this millionaire that had this Cadillac he loved so much. And he loved it so much he requested that he be buried in his Cadillac Cadillac. And I suppose that's what happened. And we look at that and say ridiculous.
But that's the way some people live.
Like the bumper sticker, he that dies with the most toys wins. Ridiculous.
Is that all we have?
We have a better world.
The wonder.
Being able to.
Sit with our Savior when He comes back to reign and He associate us with Him as those who went life through life serving Him for the coming world, will we be losers?
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Will it not be worth it to sit down with him there?
It will be to his praise and glory we will be able to say, Lord, this is yours, you deserve it.
Now's the time to spend.
Those material things for him.
Then you'll get what is really your own, and you'll never lose it.
Everything now you've got in the bank or in the in your in your garage or in your house, you're going to leave it behind.
Even the food we ate.
How well we eat.
Life is not just about eating well. I enjoy a good meal.
But if the Lord Jesus is not before us, and if we don't give thanks for our food to Him, we're missing something.
Bring him into the picture. He deserves it not only as the creator God, He's the Redeemer one. He's the one who who who bought it back again and then says now you go ahead and use it, you Christians, till I come back and serve me and honor me and then when I come back, I'll make it up to you.
So it says if you've been faithful, and that was at least.
The Lord will give you that which is much and then others and so on. Well, I didn't want to necessarily go through the D in detail. Then it goes on and it talks about no man can serve 2 masters.
These things are contrary. You can't serve the Lord and the the governing.
System of how this world operates, whether it's the monetary or the, uh, the, the system of, uh, the, the carries on this world. We live in a society, even though it's so-called a Christian nation, it has its own way of progressing and carrying on man. It's called mammon, the mammon of unrighteousness.
That is because it's unrighteous, because it's not really fair in life if there's anybody who thinks life is fair.
You got another thing coming, because this world isn't fair.
As far as just men administering the Lord's fair, yes, he's fair. He's righteous. Adjust. Not a single, not even a cup of cold water given in His name will lose its reward. He'll never overlook and miss anything that's done for him and the use of the things of this world.
Material, food, dog, money, goods, time, all of these things.
So we have to have the right perspective.
Living for the Lord.
That's the problem with these movements today that are so-called to make this world better place.
It would be just fine if they bring the Lord into it and say the Lord deserves this, let's do this in his name. But the Lord has told us that He's going to wait to set the world right if the Lord started administering righteousness in the world today and cutting off everybody who didn't live right and do right.
The gospel of the grace could not be preached. God has a purpose in why He's waiting now.
And not judging those who do administer the things of this life in a wrong way.
Now Christians don't get away with things. He has his governmental dealings and, uh.
Like one brother said, you know my neighbor, every time he go he he speeds down the highway every week and he never gets caught. The first time I go do it the the policeman stops me. Why is that? Because the Lord is over that.
And he cares about his children.
He wants to teach us.
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Now I want to I want to touch on this second part of the story about the Pharisees.
You know.
In the Gos in the in the book of Romans we have a comparison. I believe it's the 7th chapter.
Where going back from grace to law is compared to adultery.
But where the husband is has died, then it's not adultery.
We have a similar thing in this chapter.
That verse, that last verse that we read seems strange there.
That has spoken strongly to me and I want to try to explain it.
Because I believe what those Pharisees were doing was the equivalent of divorce.
For God, they were leaving the Lord Jesus out. They were rejecting Him.
He was there.
And when the Lord Jesus would heal a person on the Sabbath day, they would find fault with him and say you did it on the Sabbath day, it's wrong. And they would elevate the keeping of their Sabbath day above the welfare of a poor human being that was stricken with some ailment.
Is that the way God looks at things in this life?
Why is it that God ceased to rest on the Sabbath day? Why is it that the Lord Jesus said My Father worketh and I work? Could the Lord Jesus?
Sit up in heaven and rest, or down here on earth, Rest when he saw the misery and the injustice and the needs of his creatures here.
Could he?
Discard all that you know.
When we moved from.
Peru to Brazil back in the late 70s we moved from a poor country to a.
Relatively well to do country.
And we invited our much appreciated brother Raval Rama.
That was a dear man of God, an evangelist who cared for souls. Hundreds were saved through him in Lima, Peru, than elsewhere.
At that time in Peru, there were.
Still under the remnants of the.
Communist regimes that were similar to Fidel Castro.
And they took away in the agrarian reform, which was.
I I'm I'm an administrative way of taking away all the lands of the wealthy rich people and dividing it among the people equally.
The result of that which happened back in the 70s was.
The people didn't know how to administrate those farms well and instead of reproducing the livestock as they should and maintaining food.
A scarcity of beef came into the country.
Because they didn't know how to administer.
There was a shortage of beef.
We lived there. It was against the law. They passed the law.
The 1St 15 days of the month, no fees.
We lived in that, couldn't buy hamburger during those days.
It was a failure.
The whole thing to try to administer.
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That way.
Well, Brother Alvarama came over to visit us in Brazil.
It's a good country to visit. I encourage you to go there. We have some dear brethren there.
By the way, beef is cheap in Brazil and in Argentina, and it's customary there to serve two or three kinds of meat on the table for my for a main meal.
We have two or three vegetables here and usually one meat, one meat there. They have two or three meats.
Abundance.
Our dear brother Raul Valderrama.
I can still remember it. He sat down there. He saw all this abundance of meat.
And he lost his appetite, He said. How can I eat all this beef?
With my dear brethren in Peru would only eat that much in a whole year.
The Lord cares for His people.
We should care for.
It was wrong for the Jews to carry on an attempt of righteousness with the law and deprive God.
Of a right relationship with his people.
That's equivalent to putting way.
Hawaii.
They hinder those who would enter in.
It's a serious thing.
So the first part of that 18th, uh, the 17th verse, whosoever put it away, his wife marries another, committeth adultery. I believe that was a direct application to the Jews. Then who would reject the Lord Jesus?
Who wanted to set things right and bless people and they would hinder it. And so God, it was a hindrance.
Now the last part of the verse, I believe, speaks to us today.
Whosoever marieth her that is put away from her husband, committeth adultery.
For a Christian to go back.
From a heavenly calling.
And to make earth the destiny of the people of God today is to rob God.
Of a heavenly bride in Christ for Christ.
That's what's going on in Christendom today.
A movement.
To occupy Christians with this this life.
Those of us who have been gathered through the Lord's name have a great privilege of ministry.
Of knowing our relationship with the Lord and of the hope of the rapture and of being called up to glory. It's very clearly been presented.
And many Christians.
In this world have been exposed to that doctrine.
God in His grace recovered that.
In the last 200 years, unless.
In some of my research and my early genealogy here in this country.
I've gone back and I've seen some very godly souls.
And their zeal.
And their dedication for the Lord and the Word of God. But they did not understand what we understand about the hope of the Lord's coming and of the heavenly calling.
For us now to receive that doctrine and go back.
And make Christianity all about.
This creation and not the new creation.
Is what the Lord warns about.
Marrying her that had been put away.
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It's a serious thing.
Thank God.
That He has made known to us these truths, the great privilege to have the hope of the Lord's coming.
So many Christians thought that those verses in Thessalonians about the rapture just referred to when somebody died then then that that was the how they were ushered in to the presence of the law. Well that's true. A believer that dies is with this with the Lord, but only in his soul and spirit, not in his body. The 1St Thessalonians 4 talks about a bodily resurrection and the changing of those who are living.
That time and to be caught up to with the Lord. This is our hope and this is the heavenly calling.
May the Lord help us to use the things of this world, our money, our time, and everything, with that in view. And that is what makes it right.
That's great.