All right, take your Bibles once again and turn to Matthew chapter 20.
Matthew chapter 20. I mean, this chapter begins with a parable
about the man in his vineyard and getting his servants to come and work in his vineyard.
And some people find this one a bit challenging to understand. And I, you know, to be honest,
as a young believer, I was going reading through my Bible, I always found this parable one of the
hardest to interpret. Okay, so, you know, I hope you, you know, maybe you're asking the questions,
hopefully I can give you some answers to this story here. But look at Matthew chapter 20 verse
15. Let's start off with verse 15. Matthew chapter 20 verse 15. The Bible says, Is it not lawful for
me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good? So who's asking this
question? We know that for this parable, this is the Lord God asking this question. And the Lord
God is saying, because I am good. Okay, the title for the sermon tonight is the Lord is good. Okay,
the Lord is good. But let's pick it up there from verse number one, Matthew chapter 20,
verse number one. So Jesus given a parable here about the kingdom of heaven says for the kingdom
of heaven is like, okay, so as soon as Jesus starts saying these words is like this, you know,
we get into a parable, we get into an illustration, a story, okay. Now what's interesting about this
is, this is one of these parables that Jesus does not give us what he means, like in the Bible,
in itself, okay. He doesn't just, you know, finish the parable and tell us what he's talking about,
okay. And so you've got to look at that, you really need to think about it, meditate it,
look at the context that it's said within and come to your conclusions, okay. But it says here,
for the king of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the
morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. So this man has a vineyard, right, he's an employer,
and he needs employees, he needs workers to come and work into his vineyard. And the first thing
you notice, he goes out early, he goes out early in the day looking for workers. And you'll soon
gather, you want, I mean, it's not clear in this verse, but you'll soon see with the other verses
that the time of day that this employer is looking for workers is 6 a.m. in the morning,
okay, 6 a.m. in the morning. You know, to the Hebrew, when you read your Bible, you'll notice
that there are different hours of the day, okay. And the Bible often talks about there being 12
hours in a day. And the idea there is from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., or basically from sunrise to sunset,
you know, as far as not including the night, of course, but just looking at the day, that's the
time period that we're looking at. So very early in the morning, this is about 6 a.m. in the morning
that he's looking for employees, he's looking for workers, all right. And he finds some. Verse
number two, and when he agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard,
okay. So this gives an idea in the Bible what a penny is worth. Quite often, you'll find the word
penny or pennies in the Bible. And we see this employer or this man finding workers, and they
both agree, okay, do you see that? This is important that comes up later on. They agreed
on a penny a day. So this gives you an idea in the Bible how much a penny is worth. It's basically
worth a day's labor, okay. An unskilled worker that works the whole day gets paid a penny a day,
okay. It's not that the employer just wanted to pay that to him. This was an agreement between
the employer and the employees, a penny a day, and they were happy to go and work in that vineyard,
okay. And look at verse number three, verse number three, and he went out about the third
hour, okay, the third hour. Think about this. So if it's 6 a.m. early in the morning, and now we're
in the third hour, what time do you think this is? It's just three hours later, it's 9 a.m.,
okay. So it's still the morning, it's still pretty early, but it's later, okay, 9 a.m.,
and he says here, and so others stand in idle in the marketplace. So these people in the marketplace,
they got nothing to do, and he said unto them, verse four, go ye also into the vineyard,
and whatsoever is right, I will give you, and they went their way. Now what I want you to notice
about this group of people compared to the first group, the first group there was an agreement,
okay. You're going to pay me this much. This time the employer says, look, just go and work,
and whatever's right, I'll pay you. There was no agreement as to what that amount was going to be,
but they went and did their job. They went and worked in the vineyard. Verse number five,
again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did likewise. So the sixth hour would be 12
p.m., okay, about lunchtime, and the ninth hour would be 3 p.m. So we're getting much later
into the day. It says he did likewise. So he found other workers, other people to go and work
in the vineyard, and then it says, verse number six, and about the eleventh hour,
say what's the eleventh hour? This is now 5 p.m., okay, and work is wrapping up at 6 p.m.,
all right. So there's only one hour left of the day to work in the vineyard. This is the
eleventh hour, and about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle and safe
unto them. Why stand ye here all day idle, okay? What are you doing? You still got an hour. What
are you doing here? Idle, right? And verse number seven, they said unto him, because no man have
hired us. He saith unto them, go ye also to work into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right that
shall you receive. Once again, no agreement as to how much it is. Just go and work and I'll pay you
what's right, okay? That's what he says there. Verse number eight, so when even was come,
this is the evening, this is around 6 p.m., okay, so when even was come, the working day is over,
the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, call the laborers and give them their hire,
beginning from the last unto the first, okay? So the last being those that went at the eleventh
hour, those that went to work at 5 p.m. and only worked for one hour. Start with them and then work
your way back, is what he's saying, okay, and pay them accordingly. Verse number nine, and when they
came, they, sorry, and when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every
man, they received every man a penny, okay? So the guys that only worked for one hour, I mean,
how would you like it? If your employer calls you into work, just come in and work for one hour,
and he pays you a whole day's wage. It's pretty nice, pretty cool, all right? So, and I can
slightly imagine those that worked really early though, what are they thinking? Hey, we agreed
to work for a penny, and these guys that only worked for one hour, they get a penny.
So they're thinking, man, what are we going to get? This is awesome. We worked 12 hours,
you know, we're going to get 12 pennies is probably what's on their mind, right? We're
going to get like 12 working days of payment for one day. That's what's on their mind. You see soon
later on, that's the case. And verse number 10, but when the first came, so the first ones that
started at 6 a.m., they supposed that they should have received more. They did likewise received
every man a penny. So what's going on there? Those that work the longest, they got a penny
as well, as much as those that worked only for an hour. And when they had received it,
they murmured against the good men of the house, saying, these last have wrought by one hour,
and thou has made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. I mean,
how would you feel about that? Okay, I mean, we don't typically work 12 hours. I'm sure brother,
you've worked 12 hours a few times, you know, I'm sure we've all worked 12 hours a few, you know,
some of the working men, but more often than not, you know, we don't really work 12 hours.
But think about it like this, we work 12 months, don't we? A whole year, you know, we get an annual
pay, you know, we get, you know, your annual salary, whatever it is, you work 12 months.
Imagine working for a company for 12 months, okay, and you've got your set salary pay,
what let's say it's $60,000. Just throw it out there, right? Let's say $6,000. That's what you're
getting paid for the whole year. And some newcomer comes and only works the one month, and he gets
paid at the end of the year, the same amount, the same annual wage that you got paid for 12 months.
I mean, how would you feel about that? I mean, honestly, I'd be a bit disappointed. You know,
honestly, I'd be a bit bitter. I'd be, you know, a little bit envious as to why this person get paid
as much as I did. You know, I did so much more work than they did. I mean, I think that's natural
reaction. Okay. I mean, we all have our sinful fallen state. Don't tell me you wouldn't react
that way. I reckon you surely would. Okay, you'd be thinking this is not right. This isn't fair.
You'd be murmuring just like these guys that started at 6am. Okay. And they begin to complain
about their employer. All right. But look at verse 13. And he answered one of them. So the employer
answers, the Lord of the harvest answers and said, friend, I do the no wrong. This not thou agree
with me for a penny. Now remember, at the beginning of the parable, they agreed. You know,
he came said, Hey, come work for me in a vineyard. They agreed. Well, yeah, we'll work for a penny.
All right, that's fine. Come and work. So did the man of the harvest, the Lord of the harvest,
cheat them out of money? No, he did what's right. He calls them friends. Look, we agreed on this
amount. I'm paying you what we agreed on. I've not done you any evil. I've not done you any wrong.
Okay. And it's true. He's not done them any wrong. Verse 14, take that thine ears and go thy way.
I will give unto unto his last even as unto thee. All right, so, you know, this reminds me of a
story where I won't mention the company name, but I was working for a company and I was really I was
sort of a new employee at the time. You know, I just landed a full time job. I was really excited.
It was a very low paying job, but I was happy, you know, to have a job to be able to go to work
to get some income, even if it's low paying, who cares, you know, at least I'm getting something
coming in better than nothing. Right. And of course, when you sign, when you agree to
employment, usually you get a contract. Your contract says, hey, you know, we need you to
work these hours. We need you to do this job. This is how much we're going to pay you. This
is the agreement. And you sign and the employer signs. And that's your contract for employment.
Right. And, you know, no one's pointing a gun at your head when you sign that contract. When you
sign that contract, you're saying, hey, I agree to these terms. I will work for these terms. All
right. So there, I'm super happy about my new job. Low paying. Yes. Well, who cares? I'm over
the moon. I've got my job working hard. And then about a week into it, I've got the trade union
members come up to me. Okay. About a week until the trade union members come up to me and say,
hey, you know, you're, you're a new employee here. We need you to join the union. I was like,
oh, like, what for? What's the, what's the thing? Oh, it's going to cost you $12
a week or something like that. I was like, oh, I'm barely getting paid now. Like I'd rather not
waste $12. You know, it might not seem like much to you guys, but to me it was a lot back then.
Right. I don't really want to spend that because, oh, but you know, you got to join because,
you know, in a few months we're going to strike against the company because we're not getting paid
enough and we're going to make, you know, just make a strike. We're going to, you know, put our
demands forward. We're going to ask for more pay. Don't you want to get paid more? You know, I'm
just a young man. I'm thinking I agreed. Like I sat there to my employer. I appreciate what he's
given me. Yes. It's a low amount, but I was happy. I signed. I agreed to that. I'm not upset that I'm
getting paid that money. If I'm going to be upset with anyone, if I'm not happy with what I'm
earning, I'm not going to be upset with the employer because he's doing, he's paying me what
we agreed. I should be upset with me for signing the contract. I shouldn't have, if I, if that
wasn't going to be enough for me, then I should have just gone for another job, gone for other
interviews, gone from that place. And quite often what I found, uh, as I, as I sort of, uh, you know,
um, you know, uh, got into, uh, other positions in companies where I was employing people,
I'd have people come up to him and say, you know, I need a bit more money. Can you pay me more?
And many times you can't, you know, you're working within a budget, you've got a number of employees,
you can only pay people certain so much. It's like, well, you know, I'm paying you what we've
agreed, you know, and if this is not enough for you, then let me encourage you to resign and look
for work elsewhere. You know, I mean, if that's really, if you need more money, it's not that I
want to get rid of you. I want you to stay. I want you to work hard. I want you to continue,
you know, you're a great employee, but really, I mean, if you need more money, you really need
to look for work elsewhere. You know, instead of getting disappointed, discouraged and thinking,
we need more money. Look, once you made an agreement, you better see it through.
Okay. It's not like anything was done wrong to these people. They were getting paid exactly a
day's wage. They worked a day's wage. They got paid a day's wage. Okay. The Lord of the harvest
was fair to them. Okay. Now look at verse 15, Matthew chapter 20, verse 15. It says,
is it not lawful for me to do that what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am
good? What a question. And of course, the Lord of the harvest represents the Lord Jesus Christ,
represents the Lord God, you know, and sometimes this is what's going to happen in your life.
As you go through your Christian life, you're going to look at other brethren. You're going
to look at other brothers and sisters in the Lord, and they just seem to be succeeding in life.
They're doing really well. It's like the Lord is blessing them abundantly in this life.
And you might look at your own life and say, Lord, why is brother so-and-so doing so well?
Why is sister so-and-so doing so well? What about me, Lord? Why haven't you given me the amount or,
you know, what you've given to these other brethren? You know, but has the Lord done
anything wrong to you? You know, if you look back in your life, I'm sure you'll find many times
where the Lord has blessed you. I'm sure you'll find many times where your prayers were answered.
I'm sure you'll find many times, you know, when your needs were met. Maybe you thought, hey,
you know, I'm going to be without, but then the Lord has come through and delivered you from some
trial, some difficulty, you know. But sometimes we look at our brethren, we look at our brothers,
and we see the success. We see how great they're doing, and we start to get a bit envious.
Saying, well, but no, the Lord's not being evil, like you're being evil. The Lord is being good.
In fact, he's been good to you, and he's been extra good sometimes to your fellow brethren.
Okay, that's not a time to get upset. When you see your fellow brethren being blessed by the Lord,
hey, that's a time to rejoice. It's good to rejoice when our brothers and sisters in the
Lord are doing well. Hey, many times people might do better than what you were doing. I've had
people that I've had as my employees, I've trained them up, I've mentored them, you know, I've helped
them become great workers, and then they've been promoted above me. Hey, happy, rejoicing, because
I spent time with that person, and I'm glad to see that person do well. But I know there will
be other people that see people that were under them, you know, get promotions and get bitter
about that. Well, what about me? Well, you haven't been cheated at anything. We'll look at this soon.
We'll keep going. We'll keep going. Verse number 15. Oh, I didn't finish. Verse 16. So the last
shall be first, and the first last, for many be called, but few chosen. All right, so let's look
at the lessons. What's the lesson of this? Okay, so every worker, regardless of what time they
started, got the same penny. Okay, they got the same payment. I've heard this taught this way,
that because we're saved, okay, because we have the Lord Jesus Christ as our sacrifice, because
we have the imputed righteousness of Christ, we enter heaven through the same door. Okay,
we enter heaven for the same gospel. Then when we get to heaven, we're all equal. I've heard that
being taught out of this. Okay, but that's not the correct interpretation. Okay, because what's
happening here, this is not talking about a gift. This is not talking about someone else stepping in
and being a sacrifice for you. This is speaking about labourers. This is speaking about working.
This is speaking about rewards. Okay, about rewards. So how is it then? Is it that, you know,
those that work, that serve the Lord the longest, those that do the most soul winning, are they
going to get the same amount of reward as those that did hardly anything? You know, went soul
winning for one hour in their life, are they going to get the same reward as the person that served
the Lord their whole life? What's the lesson here? You know, and let me tell you now, the reason this
is about rewards, and this is not teaching that everyone is equal in heaven. This is what I don't
want you to understand this. Not everyone is equal in heaven. We're all going to have different
places of honour. We're all going to have different rewards. We're all going to have
different places of authority based on how well we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, this is
a teaching found throughout the whole Bible. Okay, the Bible, if you guys remember, like just even
given a cup of water in the name of Christ, the Bible says you will not lose your reward. I mean,
there's reward for service. There's reward for preaching the gospel. Okay, the more we do for
the Lord in this life, the more he's going to reward us in heaven. Now, just look back at verse
number one. Matthew chapter 20 verse one. This is where some people get confused because they
separate chapter 20 from chapter 19. But look at how verse number one begins. Matthew chapter 20
verse one, it says, for the kingdom of heaven. For. That word for is a conjunction. You know,
it's saying because, because the kingdom of heaven is like. Say, what do you mean? What's
the conjunction? Well, it's the lesson that we ended up in chapter 19. So we're going to have to
set our eyes back on Matthew chapter 19. I know it was two weeks ago, but hopefully you remember
Matthew chapter 19 verse 27. Matthew chapter 19 verse 27. Look at this. Then answered Peter and
said unto him, behold, we have forsaken all and follow thee. What shall we have therefore? What's
Peter saying? We've forsaken all. Remember that? And Jesus said unto them, verily I say unto you,
that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his
glory, you shall also sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel and everyone that have
forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my
namesake shall receive in a hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life. But many that
are first shall be last and the last shall be first. Okay. So that same phrase was used in
chapter 20. So what is Jesus saying at the end of chapter 19? Hey, if you had to forsake things for
the name of Christ, you're going to receive more than others. Okay. So, you know, we see that Jesus
Christ is speaking there. In fact, these 12 apostles would judge the 12 tribes of Israel.
They're going to be given great positions of authority. All right. And of course, the more you
do for the Lord, the greater positions the Lord's going to give you into eternal life. Okay. And so
we can't then get to Matthew chapter 20 and say, well, hold on, everyone's equal. No. All right.
Otherwise Jesus Christ is contradicting his own teaching at the end of Matthew chapter 19. Does
that make sense? Okay. If it doesn't make sense, ask me later on, but there are lessons. There are
lessons about this parable that we can get from. Okay. Let's look at the lessons. I've got a,
what do I have you one? I've got five lessons from this parable. Okay. Five lessons from this
parable. Number one, the first lesson is that God wants us to work in his vineyard by faith. Okay.
God wants us to work in his vineyard by faith. Now remember the first group, 6 AM. Okay. They
made an agreement with the Lord of the harvest. They said, yes, we'll work for this. Okay. And
this is sometimes what we want in the Christian life, you know, and we want the Lord to show us,
yes, if I serve you, Lord, if I walk in your ways, if I live according to the Bible, Lord,
how's my life going to be 20 years from now? You know, how successful am I going to be at the end
of my life? But one reality of Christianity, if you've not learned the lesson yet, is sometimes
you just don't know what's out there. You don't know the future, but the Lord will always shine a
light for that one step that you need to take. Many times you just have the light of God's word
and the Lord is saying, take a step in this direction. And you're looking into that direction
you say, well, it's dark, I can't see what's going on, Lord. But you know the Lord wants you
to take that step in life. Then you need to take that step. That's a step of faith. You don't know
where it's going to lead, but you know it's the Lord that's commanded you to do this. Okay. The
advantage that the other men had that started later in labor is they trusted the Lord. They
made no agreement as to what they were going to get paid. The Lord just said, go and work and I'll
pay you what's right. Hey, that requires faith. I mean, he could have not paid him anything.
Okay. But they said, look, we're going to get paid something. We're going to trust the word
that we're going to get paid right. And they went by faith. All right. Now, you know, I've had to
learn this lesson. I've had to learn this lesson. I, you know, just going to, moving your whole
family to Queensland, start a church with people you hardly know, you know, it takes faith, you
know? And I'm wondering, you know, when I'm first doing that, what's going to happen? You know,
what's going to result in this? So is there, you know, I'm going to be able to provide for
my family if I need to work. Am I going to find work out there if I need it? You know,
are we going to find a house? What's going to happen? Like, I don't know. But sometimes you
just need to take a step of faith with the light that God has shown you. All right. And trust him.
And when the Lord sees that faith in you, he will reward you. He will give you exactly what you need.
Okay. But don't you think serving the Lord will be so much easier if you knew exactly where your
life would be 20 years from now? You know, the Lord tells you to do something difficult today,
but you know, in 20 years, everything will be taken care of. It'll be so much easier to do that.
Okay. And sometimes, you know, the Lord may give you what you need,
but he could have given you so much more if you just did it by faith. Okay. So whatever you see
in the word of God, please take that as direction for life. Walk in his way, take steps by faith,
and the Lord will reward you what's right. And he'll reward you more than what he would have
rewarded you if you knew exactly what was going on, you know, every step of the way.
All right. That's lesson number one, that God wants us to work in his vineyard by faith.
Lesson number two is that God will never underpay you. The Lord will never underpay you. Now,
these guys that worked for a penny that started from the very beginning, they got exactly what
was coming to them. They got exactly what God had promised to them. The Lord did not underpay them.
The Lord did not cheat them out of money. The Lord did good to them. Okay. He did what was right to
them. And let me just tell you guys, when you serve the Lord, you will never get underpaid.
Whatever you do in the service of the Lord, in this church, out soul winning, you know,
serving the brethren, whatever it is that you do in the name of Christ, the Lord's going to reward
you for it. Okay. It's not a waste of time. You know, the Lord is looking down at you.
You go to your workplace, you work hard, you know, you in your mind, you say, Hey,
Jesus Christ is my employer. I'm going to work hard as though Jesus Christ is my employer.
The Lord is looking down at that. And he's going to reward you adequately. Okay. Now, whether in
this life, yes, some of his blessings, some of his rewards will come upon this life. But if you feel,
Hey, I don't know if I really got paid what I was deserving. If that's in your mind, Hey,
look, relax, because it's more important that your treasures are in heaven, that your treasures
are where you're going to spend the rest of eternity in. I'd rather lay up treasures in
heaven than lay up treasures here where moth corrupts, where the thief can break in and steal.
Why would I want treasures here when the Lord wants my sights on eternity? Hey, you might go,
you might have served the Lord with all your heart, you know, for your whole life. And you
might find, well, I didn't get much out of this here. Yeah, but you probably have stacks of
rewards in heaven. Okay. The Lord will never underpay you. So just keep that in mind. Okay.
The Lord will never underpay you. The third lesson that we can get out of this parable
is to rejoice instead of murmuring. I already covered that a little bit guys. Okay.
So sometimes, and I've seen this in the life of believers, and I would be lying if I said this,
never, I never felt this way. Okay. That sometimes you might be going through difficulties. You might
be going through hardships. You feel like you're doing everything right. You know, you're serving
the Lord, just doing the best you can with what you've been given. And you see other people who
maybe aren't serving the Lord, how they could or how they should, but they just seem to be doing
so well in life. Other believers, you know, and you ask those questions, well, why, why is that,
you know? But look, that's because you're self-centered. Okay. And you know, when I
felt that way, it's because I was self-centered. You know, the best thing to do when you see your
brethren, you see your brothers and sisters being blessed by the Lord, you see them having success
in life is to rejoice with them. Okay. I mean, I just wonder how these guys, how he could have
turned out for them if when they saw those that worked for one hour and got paid a penny,
you know, if instead of murmuring, I wonder if they just thought, well, good for them.
You know, wow. They did great. You know, what a blessing. They went to work. They only had one
hour to work, but they went out and they did the job anyway. Hey, praise God that they got paid
a penny. You know, praise God. You know, if they had that attitude, I don't know, maybe the Lord
of the harvest would have given these guys more than a penny. I don't know. You know, but if they
had the right attitude, you know, they would have a different outlook on life. And again, they
weren't cheated. They got exactly what was promised to them. Okay. And this is what I see that we need
to be thinking about guys is instead of looking at other people, instead of looking at other
Christian families, instead of looking at other brethren and criticizing and murmuring, Hey, when
people have great successes, when they're doing well, rejoice with them. Okay. Now you might be
a soul winner. You go out soul winning. You know, you knock those week in, week out. You're not
getting anybody saved. You feel like you're not getting any success, but you see brother so-and-so
you see sister so-and-so getting out there and they seem to be getting someone saved every week.
Hey, you can murmur about it to the Lord and say, well, Lord, I'm doing the work as well.
Or you can rejoice and say, praise God that brother so-and-so is doing so well. This,
you know, you know, he's on a run. He's doing so well. The Holy Spirit's working through him,
you know, praise God. You should have that attitude with your Christian brethren,
then murmuring and complaining. That's lesson number three, rejoice instead of murmuring.
Number four, the next lesson we get out of this parable is that it's never, it's never too late
to work in God's vineyard. It's never too late. Okay. It might be the 11th hour. You've only got
one hour left to work. You know, the man of the vineyard goes out and asks the question,
hey, you guys are idle. Look, God does not want us to be idle. Okay. He doesn't want us to be
just wasting our life, wasting our time. He wants us to use our time wisely. And even if you've
only got an hour left, he says, look, go and just work in my vineyard. You know, and you might say,
well, I've never, I've never gone soul winning. I've never served the Lord like that. You know,
the churches that I've been at, they've never challenged me to go and knock a door and give
the gospel. I've never done this. And now I'm in my, you know, I'm in my last years of life.
I'm retired now. You know, you know, the best of my years are behind me. You know,
I can't serve the Lord now. Hey, look, it's never too late. Okay. It's never too late. You can be
in your 11th hour of life and God's command to you is go work in my vineyard. Don't be idle.
Don't waste your time. Don't waste your life. Go and work in my vineyard. It's never too late.
Okay. And sometimes we might think, you know, maybe the elderly, you know, people have been,
you know, lived life, you know, they looked at, they look at the young people and say, man,
you guys should be serving the Lord, but really you shouldn't be serving the Lord. All of us
should be serving the Lord. All of us should be getting in and working in that vineyard. Okay.
It's never too late. And we see, even if you start late, you could get paid a penny. Okay. You could
get paid as much as someone else. If the Lord looks down at you, sees you, blesses you,
abundantly has his mercy upon you, you might get a great reward in the last hour of your life.
If you choose to serve him for that. And number five, the last lesson guys is see through to the
end of your commitment. See it through. Okay. See it through. You know, if you started out working
early, you started out as a young Christian, serving the Lord, your heart's been there to
serve the Lord, you know, and you see other believers, they're not doing it. They're not
doing the work. Okay. You're faithfully getting out there. You're preaching the gospel week in,
week out. You see other believers that they're not doing it. Why aren't they doing it? Look,
don't worry. You know, just focus on your work. Focus on your commitment. Focus on your contract
that you signed. You told the Lord, I'm going to get out there every week. I'm going to go
knock the doors. You know, don't get discouraged when people are standing idle. Okay. And that's
going to happen. That's the Christian life. You know, for those of you that have a heart,
a zeal to preach the gospel, sometimes you might get discouraged when you see other believers who
are able-bodied being idle. Hey, you look, you keep to your commitment. You see it for,
you work your 12 hours. Okay. You work till 6 PM and the Lord's going to reward you your penny.
Okay. And look, along your journey, as along your journey of Christian living, you know,
you might be working hard and then you see other people added to the harvest. Praise God. And you
see other believers getting in. Hey, it just might take others longer to get onto the soul
wean program. It might take others longer to get into the service of the Lord,
but when they get in, praise God, they're doing the Lord's work. Okay.
So the five lessons guys, just once again, out of this parable, number one is God wants us to
work in his vineyard by faith. Okay. By faith. Number two, God will never underpay you. Number
three, you should be rejoicing instead of murmuring. That's to other believers. Number
four, it's never too late to work in God's vineyard. And number five, see it through,
see it through to the end of your commitment. Okay. Don't get so discouraged about the idle
workers that you give up. Make sure you see it through. You see through the work that God has
given you to do. Verse 17, please. Matthew chapter 20, verse 17. Matthew chapter 20, verse 17.
And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the 12 disciples apart in the way and said unto them.
So he takes them sort of privately aside and says unto them, behold, we go up to Jerusalem. So we
know this is now toward the end of his ministry. They're heading to Jerusalem. And the son of man
shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes. And they shall condemn him to death
and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify him. And the third day
he shall rise again. So, you know, again, no surprise to Jesus. No surprise what his mission
is. Okay. To die on the cross, to be resurrected from the dead. All right. Verse number 20. Then
came to him the mother of Zebedee's children. So this is the mother of James and John. Okay. The
sons of Zebedee. So their mother comes to Jesus, you know, worshiping him and desiring a certain
thing of him. So she's, look, she loves the Lord. You can see that she comes and worships the Lord.
Okay. And but then she asked the Lord for a favor. She asked him for something. And verse number 21,
what does she ask for? It always interests me because sometimes in the Bible you're reading
these lessons that God's given. Like you see teachings of the Lord and then you see the
disciples just totally disregard the teaching. It's like it's gone over their heads or they've
already forgotten. And this is why so many times in the Bible, again, we're going to see how
important in this chapter humility is. How God wants us to be people of humility. You know,
people that are meek, people that esteem others. You know, God wants us to be people that serve
the brethren. And we'll see, you know, chapter after chapter after chapter the Lord teaching
this same principle over and over again. And when I see the Lord teaching the same thing over and
over again, I'm just, well, then we need to hear it over and over again. We need to be reminded
that we need to be humble people. You know, that we need to esteem the brethren above ourselves.
We need to look at others, you know, and try to serve our brethren, you know, as we would if we
had the Lord Jesus Christ before us. And so we get this lesson here. What does she ask him? What
does James and John's mother ask? Verse 21. And he said unto her, what will thou, she say unto him,
grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on the left in thy
kingdom. All right. So we see the same thing again, right? Jesus just finished saying, hey,
just do your work. Don't worry about, you know, how much you're getting paid. Just trust me.
You know, and the story he gave the penny to everybody kind of thing. And here we have the
mother of James and John saying, hey, can you make sure by the end of this, when you're resurrected
from the dead, when you come back in your kingdom, can you make sure my two sons sit at your side?
You know, that they get prominent positions in the kingdom. And look, I don't think she's,
she's not, obviously she's not a bad woman. Okay. Because she's come worshiping the Lord. She loves
the Lord. And you know what? I think she, her heart, her heart's in the right place.
You know, as parents, as parents, don't we want our children to serve the Lord? Don't we want our
children to be great in the kingdom of heaven? Don't we want our children to serve the Lord
and earn great rewards and do better than us and to be successful in life and to be successful
in eternity. I'm sure we want that, you know? And her, so the mother was, her heart's in the
right place. She just wants her sons to do great in the kingdom of heaven and to sit side by side
to Jesus, next to Jesus. And Jesus doesn't rebuke her for this, you know, because we should desire
to be great people in the kingdom of heaven. We should desire to have great rewards. We should
have our eyes set on eternity. Okay. Her eyes were definitely set on eternity. Okay. But verse 22,
but Jesus answered and said, you know not what you ask. You don't know what you're asking,
but it says, are ye able to drink of that cup that I shall drink of? So that cup that he's
going to drink of is his, you know, his arrest, his persecution, his torture. Can you drink of
that cup? And then it says, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am to be baptized with.
Remember what baptism means? It means immersion. Okay. So how is Jesus going to be baptized? It's
his death and it's going to be buried in the grave. So, you know, Jesus asked him, look,
you don't know what you're asking. I'm going to be tortured. I'm going to be arrested. I'm
persecuted. I'm going to be put to death. You know, this is, this is my, this is,
this is what I have in store. And it says, you know, are you able to do this? Are you able to,
you know, be part of this? And they said, and they say unto him, this is James and John,
they say unto him, we are able. Wow. What a commitment. They say, yeah, Lord, we can,
we can suffer how you suffered. Okay. We can suffer like that. Verse 23, verse 23,
and he's safe unto them. You shall drink indeed of my cup and shall be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand on, on my left is not mine to give,
but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my father. So Jesus says, actually,
yeah, you are, you are going to drink of this cup. You are going to be baptized with the same
baptism that I am baptized with. You know, if you don't know, what is this talking about?
Keep your finger there and turn to the book of Acts, please. Keep your finger there. Turn
to the book of Acts chapter 12. Acts chapter 12, verse 1. Acts chapter 12, verse 1. So of course,
the book of Acts is written after Christ was already resurrected, after He ascended up to
be on the right hand of the Father. And then here in Acts chapter 12, verse 1, it says,
Now about the time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to Vex, certain of the church,
and he killed James the brother of John with the sword. Okay, so we see that James here,
one of the brothers, was killed by the sword by Herod. Okay, he was persecuted. He was put to
death, you know, for the name of Christ. Okay, so I just want to show you that in the book of Acts.
So when Jesus says, actually, you will, you will be persecuted, you will go through
sufferings the way I have. He's referring to, of course, this death that we have recorded here
of James, but then obviously, John himself would have been put to death in a similar way. I assume
this. But let's go back there. I just want to show you that. So go back to Matthew chapter 20.
That's what Jesus is referring to when He says actually, yeah, you will suffer for My name,
you know, you will be persecuted for Me. But then it says in verse 23,
I don't want to keep beating this dead horse over and over again. Okay. But Jesus says,
in order for someone to sit on his right hand, and on his left is not his to give.
All right, it's not up to Jesus to decide who's going to sit on his right or on his left,
but whose decision isn't who's preparing that he says, the Father, the Father is preparing that
it's the Father's decision, who's going to be seated on the right side of Jesus, and on the
left. I shouldn't cover this, but just once again, guys, Jesus is not God, the Father. All right,
if Jesus says, you know, that's not for me to do, it's not my decision,
it says, but it's the Father's decision, then obviously, Jesus Christ is not God, the Father.
Okay, Jesus Christ is God, the Son, the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost,
three distinct persons, yet one God. Okay. And again, we go through the Bible, we see these
things again and again and again, you know, make sure please you don't confuse these things. Okay.
This is simple doctrine, this is simple things to absorb and understand. All right,
let's keep going, verse 24. And when the 10 heard it, so the other 10 disciples,
you know, heard James and John asking, hey, can we sit on your right and left? They were moved
with indignation against the two brethren. So indignation just means angry, they were extremely
angry at James and John, right. And this reminds me, this reminds me of the parable that we just
read. Okay. That, you know, they get angry about the request that's coming from James and John and
their mother. Okay. But remember the parable, the parable, how those that worked at 6am,
all right, got upset, started murmuring against the Lord of the harvest, right, when those that
only worked for the one hour got paid the same amount as those that started earlier.
It's the same kind of idea. These guys just want to serve the Lord. These guys just want to be
great in the kingdom of God. And we see fellow brethren getting angry, how dare you ask these
things? What about us? You know, that's right, that makes me laugh sometimes because we see
Jesus just teach on something. And then we see the disciples play out, you know, the mistakes,
you know, the teaching that they should have received. And I'm encouraged in a way, because
how many times do we have to learn the same things? How many times do we have to make mistakes
until we get it right? You know, I'm glad God doesn't just give us one chance, right,
of getting things right, that God gives us many chances to fix ourselves up, to walk in his ways.
And so we see the same thing play out that we saw sort of similar in the parable there.
And then verse number 25, verse number 25. And this is where Jesus teaches the lesson here.
But Jesus called them unto him and said, You know that the princes of the Gentiles
exercised dominion over them, and they that are great exercised authority upon them.
So Jesus says, look, the ways of the Gentiles, the ways of the heathen,
okay, those that are in positions of authority, has dominion over people, right, has dominion
over people, okay, and they exercise authority upon them. That's how you're great in the kingdom
of the Gentiles, is you're a man of power, you're a man of control, you know, and you take servants
and you allow them to serve you. That's what he's referring to as the way the heathen or
the Gentiles do things, you know, but in order for you to be great in the kingdom of heaven,
it's actually the opposite. We'll see what he says here. Verse number 26,
But it shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among you,
let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.
All right, how are we to be great in the kingdom of heaven? To be a servant, to be a minister to
the brethren. Instead of getting angry at our brothers and sisters in the Lord, Jesus Christ
says, look, just be a servant, be a minister, humble yourself, serve the brethren, love the
brethren. That's how you're going to be great in the kingdom of heaven. You know, yes, one way
is to go and work in the harvest, you know, go sowing, you know, go, you know, the laborers are
few, you know, get out there, preach the gospel to the works that God has given us. But another
way to be great in the kingdom, another way to earn rewards is just to serve one another.
I mean, when you look at this church and you look at, you know, your brothers and sisters,
I hope when you come to church, you set your mind to say, hey,
what can I do for my brother here? What can I do for my sister? How can I serve them? You know,
how can I serve this church? You know, not because I want to be seen of men. No,
I want to do it because I love the brethren. I want to serve the Lord by serving this body
of Christ. That's how our hearts should be. That's what Jesus is teaching about his kingdom,
about being great in his kingdom. And then verse 28, even, even, and so I love about Jesus,
he sets the example for us, right? Even as the son of man, as the son of man came not to be ministered
unto. He says, look, I didn't come to the earth. God manifest in the flesh, did not come to this
earth to be ministered unto. Okay. It says here, but to minister, I came so I can be a servant.
I came to minister to other people. And of course we know, it says here, and to give his life,
I ransom for many. He just finished talking about his death to come. He says, I've come to this
earth to die. Okay. To die, to be a minister. Okay. And he sets that example and that's how we should
be. We should be sacrificial. Sacrificially given ourselves to our brethren, to our church.
Verse 29, and as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. And behold, two
blind men sit in by the wayside. When they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out saying, have mercy
on us, O Lord, our son of David. And what I want to do with this last story here with the blind men,
okay, I just want you to think about what we've just covered, you know, in this chapter,
you know, as we get to this blind man. Okay. And just put yourself in the position of these blind
men. Okay. Because is it easy to be humble? Is it easy to be meek? Is it easy to look at our
brethren that we know have faults? You know, our brethren that have bad habits that we don't like?
Is it easy to say, you know what, I'm just going to esteem them better than myself. It's not easy.
Okay. It's not easy because we have this self-centered sinful flesh that we're battling
with all the time. Okay. It's not easy. Okay. And because it's not easy, I want you to just think
about this for a minute and think of yourself as these blind men. Okay. But they cry out there to
the Lord. They say, have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And I want you to, in your heart,
be thinking the same thing here. You know, if you find it hard to be a servant, if you find it hard
to exalt your brethren, encourage them, minister to them, ask the Lord to have mercy on you. Okay.
Ask the Lord, just the son of David, have mercy on us. Okay. Because all of us are blinded to
some extent. All of us have weaknesses. We all, all of us have sins. Yeah. We're not physically
blinded, but there's a lot, unless you're perfect, you've got problems that you need to fix in life.
Okay. And in this story, we just take the blindness of the men here. In verse 31,
and the multitude rebuke them because they should hold their peace. But they cried out the more
saying, have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And listen, guys, sometimes you're going
to call out to the Lord for help, to help you be a better believer, to be a, to love your brethren
more, to be more faithful in church. You're going to ask the Lord and sometimes you're just going
to have to call out even more. Okay. Because it's not done yet. You know, the Lord's working your
life, but it's not accomplished. And you need to call out once again for the Lord to have mercy on
you. Verse 32, and Jesus stood still and called them and said, what will ye that I should do unto
you? And they said unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. And so Jesus had compassion on them
and touched their eyes and immediately their eyes received sight and they followed him. Okay.
So what's the lesson here, guys? Ask the Lord to remove your blindness. Okay. I know too many
self-righteous Christians, too many, you know, I'm sick of self-righteous Christians.
And no doubt I've been self-righteous many times in my life. Many times I've probably said,
look at me, you know, I'm serving the Lord. I'm trying to live after the Lord. You know,
why aren't these believers like that? Why are these believers going out soul winning?
Why aren't they serving the Lord like me? You know, why aren't they trying to,
to, to follow off the commands of the Lord? Hey, that's the wrong attitude. The right attitude is
how can I be an encouragement to these brethren? How can I set an example to these brethren? Lord,
I'm blind by this. Please remove the blindness out of my eyes. Have mercy upon me and look,
relax because we all have blindness. We all have problems. Okay. And we need the Lord to
help take that blindness of our, of our eyes. Okay guys, I don't want you to be self-righteous,
you know, don't be self-righteous. I want you to, when you come to church,
I'm not saying there's a problem in this church, you know, hopefully this makes, makes sure there's
no problems in the church. Right. But when you come to church, just remember, Hey, this brother
and sister in the Lord, you know, I might not like them that much. I'm not, not have that much
in common with them. We don't seem to get along, but I'm just going to love that person. I'm just
going to serve that person. I'm going to treat them. Hey, they're saved. They're a child of God.
It's my brother and sister in the Lord. If I serve them, I'm serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the best mindset to have when you come to church. All right, let's leave it then. Let's pray.