Parable of the vineyard

Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 20, please. Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 20. Matthew, Chapter 20, but I will read a verse or two back in Chapter 19 that links with the parable the Lord teaches in Matthew, Chapter 20.

Chapter 19 and verse 27, Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all and have followed thee. Now here is his question, What shall we have therefore? Now, Chapter 20. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is in householder which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.

When he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard, and he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place. And said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.

Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle. And saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us.

He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, whatsoever is right that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the Lord of the vineyard saith unto the steward, Call the laborers, give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny, or a denarius as you know.

And when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more. And they likewise every received every man a penny. When they had received it, they murmured against the good man of the house, saying, These, notice how they termed those that had come at the eleventh hour, These last have wrought but one hour.

And thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. And he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst thou, didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that as thine, take that thine is, and go thy way.

I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I have with mine own? Is thine I evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last. Many are called, but few chosen.

I think as most are aware, there's three parables that are given to us in the synoptic Gospels that teach us some truths relative to our own Christian experience. Now I know that this is kingdom truth and relates obviously to a future day, but there's so much truth that it can be applied to us even today. In Matthew chapter 20, I would look at it like this, that it is the principle of time, that is time that is involved in the interest and the owner of the vineyard.

So it has to do with time, but really the principle is attitude. My attitude towards time that I feel that I have invested, hopefully I have invested, and the things of God are in testimony as we know it to be. So when it comes to Matthew, as we have read here, the emphasis too is not so much attitude, but notice it's when they started.

When they started, that's really what raises the questions here. So it has to do with our time. When we go to Matthew chapter 25, of course, it's the talents, and when we think not so much here of our time, but it is of the talents, that which is given.

It's not so much attitude, but it's aptitude, being able to use what God has given you or given me. And here, of course, it is not when they started, but it's what they started with. Remember that talents were given accordingly to them and it's what they started with.

You know, the truth of it is, brethren and sisters, that when it comes to gifts, when it comes to certain things in our Christian experience, we do understand very clearly from the teaching of the Word of God that we all had an equal start. But when it comes to talents, that is, if I can apply it that way, natural abilities that we can consecrate for God or given to the Lord, there is a difference. So it is what they started with.

When we get to Luke chapter 19, of course, there it is, as you are aware of, it is the thought of the pounds, so it is treasure. It's not so much time or talents, but it is the treasure as we find it with the pounds. And here, of course, is neither attitude nor aptitude, but really it is ingratitude.

Some that couldn't appreciate what they had been given. It is not here when they started, it's not here what they started with, but it is where they started. So, not that I take the time and go over those three passages, I'm just gonna go in and zero in, if you like, on the first one here that has to do with time, the principle of time.

That's why I read to you in chapter 19, to rightly grasp it, it is an answer to the question of Peter, and it is this, what shall we have? Now, I don't want to say really that Peter is saying, what's in it for me? But at the end of the day, that really was his question, like, where do we come in here? Okay, where do we come in here? You know, that's so true in our Christian experience. If you're to write a little phrase, I suppose, that is often used today over the passage, you would write fairness. I suppose those of us that have tried to raise children understand that one of the first little words they learned was the word, no.

No. One of the first phrases that they learned as a little older, we didn't have to teach them that, and it was this, it's not fair. You know, in Christian experience, there's a lot of thinking that can be that way.

It's not fair. And that was the thinking of these that had come, if you like, on the early invitation as workers, labors into this vineyard. It's not fair.

Who said it had to be? Did they forget they were on earth? Brethren and sisters, listen, there's a lot of things, and naturally speaking, they are not fair on a natural plane. But evidence in the grace of God is when people, brethren and sisters, can just accept it for what it is. I know there's a lot of injustices.

I know there are a lot of things that happen amongst us. It's not right, brethren. I'm not thinking of anything in particular, but there is a lot of things that we might say it's not fair.

But really what was being, well, who was being challenged here? Who was being questioned? It was the Lord of the vineyard. It was the Master. You say, well, I'd never think of questioning God.

Are you sure about that? Then you must be a lot better believer than some of the believers that we have in our Bibles. Because really Martha and Mary both did. They questioned the Lord.

If thou hadst been here. If thou hadst been here. Remember what Martha is saying? Don't you see my sister? Can't you speak to her? In other words, she is laying the blame really not so much at the sister, but at the Master.

At the Lord Himself. Doesn't Israel, the question is this, can God? Imagine them saying that. Can God really furnish for us a table in the wilderness? Questions, unfortunately, that can be very challenging and questions that we can or think we can at times call God into questions.

However, there's something I've just enjoyed this weekend looking at it and I'm applying it. And it's this. It is a lesson and it's something that we miss.

When we as maybe, I don't want to think of myself as an older laborer, but the older generation can kind of look with a little disdain upon the younger. And we just don't think they're doing what we did. And they don't have to do it the way that we did it.

Well, thank God they don't. And you know they're not really up to where we were. And the thing is falling apart because we're not able to do it and they're not doing it.

Now, if you were to take that thinking and just go through this passage, you'll see that's really what is in the back of their mind. You know, the parable really might offense what I would call our sense of fairness. And we do have that.

We have a sense of fairness. I'm not saying there's something wrong with that, but there is something wrong with it when I'm starting to challenge God because I think something in my lot in life has not been fair. What we must understand is that Christian testimony, assembly testimony, locally as we know it, does not operate under a labor code, if you like.

Okay, it operates, it functions on family principles. What do you mean by that? For example, I grew up on a farm and had a father that hired men. Now, they were always distinct from his sons.

There were times when he would ask us to do things he never asked the servants to do, if I could call them servants. There were times when he would ask them to do something that he wouldn't ask us to do. I don't remember ever questioning that, really.

But if I think of something like this, I remember that when it come to sweet corn season, that was a family effort. Didn't matter what you were doing. Nobody planned any vacation with any cousins or anywhere when it come to sweet corn season.

And we knew where we were going. We were going into those early morning long rows of wet, leafy corn that always seemed to slice those arms of ours, and we'd work away at it. And we worked away at it because we knew that at the end of the day, well, the pay may not have been that great, but usually it meant going to Pinafore Park, and it would go to Shaw's Ice Cream for a treat after.

And we'd work all day for that. Now, the younger ones in the family, interesting. They were in the same field.

They weren't picking any corn. In fact, they're running over it with their bikes. In fact, to be honest with you, and I don't think any of them are here right now, they're a bit of a nuisance.

They're a nuisance. But you know, when we got to Pinafore Park, we weren't saying, hey, wait a minute now. My turn on the dime board.

You weren't really working this afternoon. You aren't lifting corn. And just a minute at Shaw's Ice Cream, you don't get nothing here.

You see, it was functioning on family principles. Now, under a code of ethics according to the labor laws, they would even got to go. Now, that has to be sensed when it comes really to Matthew chapter 20 to understand that the Lord of the vineyard, this householder, is going to operate so not much on the principle of fairness, equality, but in grace.

In grace. So does he today. We have a great God, brethren and sisters.

We have a God that rewards us accordingly, even though they may not at this time thought of that. I will come to it later, but I want you to notice how they were rewarded. The laborers were rewarded compassionately.

Okay? Not comparatively. Compassionately. Anything that God gives us, it is out of compassion, isn't it? Wasn't that the plea of the one for compassion? Why, we have a loving God, but we have a compassionate God.

He rewarded them compassionately. More than that, he rewarded them completely. Okay? He owed nothing to nobody.

Okay? At the end of that day, there was nobody that he owed anything to. We are the debtors, brethren and sisters. Don't make God the debtor.

God does not owe me a thing. And I am very quick to tell you that I have many times confessed to him I'm the greatest debtor that he has. God has been so kind.

Yet I realize, as I'm speaking like that, I'm speaking to those that have not had the joys maybe I have had even in their family. Haven't maybe had the encouragement that we have experienced in the assembly. And yet, this man would reward as God will not only compassionately, completely, but competently.

It was his own. That's really when he comes to the end of the passage and he says, look, was it not with my own power to give it? It was mine. You know, we preach of the gospel and we tell people and rightly so that God doesn't owe heaven to anybody, does it? Because it happens to be the heaven belongs to him.

And everything associated with it belongs to him. He owes us absolutely nothing. You say, wait a minute now.

We wouldn't be having this conference if it wasn't for my faithfulness. Now I know that there may not be some thinking that way, but I recognize if there wasn't for the faithfulness of some here, there wouldn't be a conference. There wouldn't even be a testimony here.

That should be a note to all of us. But anybody that was involved in that faithfulness does not stretch themselves back and say, you know, if it wasn't for me. Now that's really the mentality of these.

Could I suggest to you that they felt overlooked, okay? They felt like they were the overlooked. They didn't come early in the day. They had been there.

And as they say, we born the burden and heat of the day. And I question that, but they say we are being overlooked. Ever feel overlooked, brother? Come on, be honest about it.

Preachers? Ever feel overlooked? Well, what do they invite him for? I'm here. Why do they have to have him? Ever feel overlooked, dear brother? You think, you know, hey listen, don't they realize I'm all of 40 years of age. I'm ready to help on the government of the assembly.

And they pick somebody. Him? Him? Overlooked. They felt overlooked.

You know, isn't that really the language of Jacob's daughters? Remember what they will say when Laban is on the hunt? They said, they say words like this, we are counted to our father as strangers. Strangers. Hey, you know, in truth, Jacob had an interest in boys that could help the farming operation and could expand that.

You know what he did? He forgot there's other members of the family too. Do we do that? Sister? Ever feel overlooked? You're the one they look to. You're the one that gets blamed.

You're the one that is sometimes asked to do the job and you get the job not because you wanted it. So when things go wrong in the kitchen, maybe even to the conference, you're the one that they come to. And yet for other things when you hope that maybe they would have asked you, you felt overlooked.

That's how they felt. They felt overlooked. You know, there's one that never overlooks us.

Thank God he didn't. In a day of salvation, he sure didn't overlook us. Thank God I do.

That ever the gospel came up that lame way, years before I was born, and a grandfather and grandmother on both sides of the family that would yield to it. Did God overlook us? Oh, he didn't overlook. Was he overlooked? Had he forgotten? Had this man here, this householder, had he forgotten these ones he'd earlier? No, he hadn't.

Now, naturally, we could take people for granted. There's another side to it. I could take very easily for granted people that maybe I've overlooked.

I've forgotten. Their faithfulness? God hasn't. God hasn't, brethren and sisters.

Not only that, but there was maybe kind of an overbearing thing here. Overbearing. In other words, okay, so we're hired, we go into the field, we worked, and we born this.

It's kind of been, you know, when it comes to service, when it comes to service, there's times almost when we feel like we're shoved into it. You feel like that? Like the brethren are pushing you. You ever feel like that? Maybe I used to feel like that when I used to stand at an open-air meeting, and there was people going by I went to high school with, and I thought, oh no, I'm not going to get up and preach in front of them.

They're going to make fun of me tomorrow at high school. Can't do that. And before I knew it, there's a brother behind me, and he was literally physically pushing me out.

You ever feel that you're shoved into the work? You ever feel that you're shamed into it? Like I've got to do this. If I don't do it, it doesn't look good. So rather than be shamed into it, I'll do it.

That never happens, does it? Oh, Luke 16, go to the passage of Luke 16. Well, what does that steward say? Listen, he says to beg, I'm ashamed. I got to do something.

I don't want to be shamed into doing something. And brethren and sisters, some of us maybe that are quote older, have to be careful that we're not shaming somebody into doing something. Don't want to shove them into it.

You know, it's nice when they're sent into it. They're sent into the work. We don't shame people into the job.

We don't shove them into it. Now, I know there are those that will see it differently than I do. I do not stand on a platform anywhere and make some clarion call for men to the work.

I do what the scripture tells me to do. I pray that the Lord will raise up those he will send forth. Overbearing.

You know, when it comes to that, let me give you a suggestion here. You know what these older ones did? They watched the clock. That's not a bad thing for a preacher to do now and then too.

The elder son, you know what he looked at? The calendar. So he got one look at the clock, one look at the calendar. What's the elder son say? He says, lo, these many years I've served thee.

Come on, Father, where are you? Did you fall asleep? Lo, these many years do I serve thee. It's interesting. They align themselves with the hired servants.

Sometimes, brothers and sisters, we can kind of look at the calendar. We think, you know, I'm kind of the oldest boy around here and I should be respected and I've got a little authority now and well, whatever. I know that I'm speaking for older men.

I tell some of these younger ones that I have the privilege of working with and I want to say, brethren, sisters, they may tell you different. I count it an honor and a privilege to work with younger men that God has gifted and given us. Let this passage speak to me that though they may preach circles around me, I'm never looking down upon them with any type of disdain or disenchantment.

But, you know, it's very quick, easy to kind of pull our shoulders back and say, no, wait a minute. You know, I have to admit to you one time, I did get kind of a, I wouldn't call it a nasty email, but it was a little rugged and this brother was accusing me of not respecting him or treating him as an elder. I wrote back and I said, well, no, there's very few years between us.

I think we're both grandfathers. Who's the elder you wanted to talk about? So basically, I guess you want to say, well, what you're saying is if I'm not a grandfather and I am 10 years older, you don't be talking to me. Not really what I'm saying.

Overbearing, watching the clock, watching the calendar. Do you know when it comes to salvation, what do we preach in salvation today? When it comes to laboring in a vineyard, when is it? Today. It's day by day service.

It's not the watching the clock or watching the calendar because I will become very, very disappointed and I will become very, very much to the point where it will no longer be willingness, but watchfulness. Not watching for the Lord or for his return, but watching the clock or watching the calendar. You see, that's the mentality of a work world today.

That's not ours, brethren and sisters. It's amazing when we're doing certain things that we're interested in. Notice, it's almost like the hymn says, time and sense appear no more.

It's never a problem. You know, you're at a farm auction sale. You're at some place.

Amazing how the clock goes by. But you're coming in and you're going to scrub the basement of the gospel hall because it's conference weekend and doing work. Oh, you know, I've been here two hours and where's so-and-so? That might be a good question, but it does not absolve us from single-eye service to the Lord of this vineyard.

The whole thrust of what I'm trying to put forth to you this morning is, brethren, is what's always been taught, a cup of cold water. What we might think to be so small and so insignificant never misses the notice of the Lord of the harvest. You know, watchfulness can lead to weariness if that is really all I'm interested in.

I can become very weary in it. It's amazing. It's amazing that sometimes a younger generation can wear out faster than the older one can.

Just can't keep up. I don't mean that in a physical way, but we become very weary in well-doing. And that's an exhortation given to us, of course, from the scriptures.

So there were those that were overlooked. There was the principle of maybe overbearing, and there was those that were kind of overrated. You know, they were kind of overrated as they thought.

You know, there is something that we must understand as believers, and it is this, brethren and sisters, that when it comes to the things of God and when it comes to our labor and our work for him, I really have nothing that God needs. Okay? I have nothing that God needs, nor do you. I have much that he can use, and so do you.

What do I mean when I say nothing that God needs? See, that again was the elder son. He was afraid that the father was going to take what he had, and he was afraid that because the prodigal had come back, junior had come back, that he was going to have to shell out a bit. Don't say it's the father.

It's all yours. I'm not going to touch it. And really what he was telling him, that it wasn't him that he needed, excuse me, it was not what he had that he needed, it was him.

Remember what the Lord says in Mark chapter 11 when it came to the colt? What were they to tell the owners of the colt? I need what this colt has. This colt has the ability to carry, to be a burden-bearing animal, and for that reason, I need what this colt can do. I didn't mention that.

Oh, you see, but he wrote on his back, he used it, and he uses the personal pronoun, he says him, I need of him. Yeah, he needed the colt, the unclean animal, and what the Lord would do from there on would be up to him. So it isn't that God needs something that I have, but he needs me.

And it is not so much that I don't have what he can use. You know as well as I do that when it comes to just a few small loaves and a few fish, he can use what I have. And I have plenty today, and so do you, that he can use.

He's not going to take anything from us. So there is a danger here, of course, of being overrated. The apostle reminds us that we are labors together with God.

Now I agree that I have nothing in the passage that tells me that this householder went into the field and he linked himself or yoked himself up with these servants, but God does. But God does. We are labors together with him.

Can God use you today? If he can use you, he can use what you have. He will not use what you have if he can't use you. Now am I making that clear? He wants first you.

Okay? There is, and let me repeat, it isn't that there is something that you are that God needs. He could have functioned, he could have carried on without any of us. But we all have plenty, plenty that we can give him that he can use.

So of course there was the principle of being overlooked, the thought of being overlooked, there was the overbearing, there was the overrate, but really what bothered them was the overpaid. They were overpaid. I sometimes tell people, I think I maybe use it as an illustration in the gospel, on wages, the first wage I ever received was from a neighbor.

And I'm not going to tell you what year it was, because we had in Canada then what I think they're printing in this country called a two dollar bill. And we had a neighbor who had a very lazy daughter. I might as well put it, she was very lazy, didn't do a thing.

And he called up and wanted to know if I would come down and cut his lawn. And I was no riding lawnmower. I wasn't very big then.

I remember one hand on the lower part of it, and it was one of those cast iron motors that sat on top of it that they built, iron horse motors built right over here in Wisconsin. I can remember seeing the name on it. I sweated it out.

I pushed that lawnmower, and I got the job done. I'll never forget, Mr. Carl Jones came out with a nice crisp two dollar bill. Oh, I tell you, brother, I thought it was the richest boy in the road.

Luckily it was. When I got home, my father said, where'd you get paid? I showed him. He said, that's too much.

I wish I would have known now. I would say, hey, I did the mowing, not you. I'm only glad he didn't give me two ones, or he'd have sent me back with one dollar.

He felt I had been overpaid. You ever feel like that? Well, I'm going to tell you, brethren, and I'm speaking, I'm sure for every servant here this morning, God's people are very, very kind. And there's plenty of times when we're overpaid.

Now, this was the issue. This is, everything was kind of tolerable until it comes to the end. And then suddenly things start to fall apart, because there's those here felt they had been overpaid.

You know, really the truth is they should have been shocked to realize what they had received. And who's to say what the task really was of those that later came into the scene? They couldn't help the hour by which they come. Nobody else had hired them.

The marketplaces where they went to get people to work, the man went there. You know, it tells me something else. It's never too late to start, brethren.

It's not so much a penalty for late starting, but those that quit early. Did this maybe happen? When they saw these others coming, did they start to quit? Don't quit, brethren and sisters, because others are coming. But you see, this man was very adamant about certain things, this householder.

He was adamant about where you worked. Notice what he says? In his vineyard. In his vineyard.

I want to remind you this morning, we serve a God that's very adamant about where you work. Where do you work? What labor do you really put into testimony, into the things of God? Not only was he adamant about where they worked, but it is when you weren't. He didn't forget when they came.

Dear brother, dear sister, he hasn't forgotten, and he's not going to penalize you because you're saved later in life. More than that, maybe I'm speaking to someone and you'd have to say, honestly, I really haven't kicked in. I haven't really been plugged in when it comes to the things of God.

I want to encourage you, it's never too late to start. Great start to start at the Stoke Conference and say, wait a minute, life's going by too fast. No, I'm speaking from people who have actually told me this.

Brethren that have woke up, that was their terms, not mine, and said, you know, really, I'm not giving what I could, and I know I'm not. And they've gone at it. And today they're changed men in the assembly.

Changed sisters, changed family, changed direction of their lives. Brethren, that's the purpose of a conference like this. Hope you know that.

I know that it can't all be exhortation. I know that we need teaching. I know we need ministry about Christ, the Lord of the vineyard.

But let's get right down to the truth of it today. Is that our problem? Feel we're overlooked? There's some overbearing that's going on? Some that we feel are overrated? And are we afraid that they are being overpaid? So he's not only concerned where you worked, when you worked. You know, most of all, what he's interested in is why.

Why you worked? Did they just work to get paid? Wasn't there something of privilege working in this man's vineyard? You know, that is the truth of it. I know that brethren sit down in the interview, those that want to come into the assembly fellowship, and they outline to them assembly privileges and responsibilities. Do you know how to treat it, brother, dear sister? Every responsibility the Lord could ever give me or the brethren give me is an absolute privilege to be associated with his name and laboring together in his vineyard.