Sermon 1338. Work For Jesus

(No. 1338)

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Son, go work today in My vineyard." Matthew 21:28.

I AM not going to confine myself to the connection of these words, nor to use them strictly after the manner in which theywere first spoken. I may, perhaps, explain the parable very briefly at the close, but I take leave to withdraw these wordsfrom their immediate context and use them as a voice which, I believe, sounds often in the ears of God's people, and sometimessounds in vain-"Son, go work today in My vineyard." It is certain that God still speaks to us. He has spoken to us in HisWord. There are His precepts and promises, His statutes and testimonies. He that has ears to hear let him hear these sacredoracles!

But beside this open Revelation there are counsels and rebukes more closely and personally addressed to the conscience. Voices-assoft, sometimes, as whispers-at other times loud as the thunders that pealed from Sinai. The Lord has a way of speaking tomen when, "He opens the ears of men and seals their instruction," as Elihu said. Thus He speaks when He calls them effectuallyby His Grace in conversion. So He once called, "Samuel, Samuel!" till the child answered. So He said, "Matthew, follow Me."So He called out, "Zacchaeus, come down!" So He cried out, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" So He bid some of us tillthe Divine accents were clear and irresistible.

In like manner we have, many of us, heard Him say, "Son, give Me Your heart," and we have given Him our hearts-we could notdo otherwise. That voice exerted such a charming spell and swayed us with such a Divine power that we were subdued by it andwe yielded our hearts to the God of Love. Since then, you who know the Lord, must often have heard a voice speaking to youand bidding you seek His face in prayer. Perhaps you have been busy with the world, but you found an impulse of a mysteriouskind coming over you and you have been glad to withdraw yourself for a few minutes to the closet that you might speak withGod.

You know how it has been when you have been meditating alone and yet not alone. One whose Presence you knew, whose face youcould not see, was with you! You felt as if you must pray. It has not been any effort on your part. The exercise has beenas easy as to breathe and as pleasant as to partake of your daily bread. You felt the Lord drawing you to the Mercy Seat andsaying in your soul, "My Son, ask what you will and it shall be done unto you." You must have been conscious of such a voiceas that. And have you not, at times, in the silence of your mind, heard the Lord call you to a closer communion with Himself?Has not the sense, if not the words, of the spouse in the canticle been heard in your soul-"Come, My Beloved, let us see ifthe vines flourish. Come with Me from Lebanon, My Spouse, with Me from

Lebanon"?

You have been up and away! You have gone into the secret places where Christ has shown you His love till you sat under Hisshadow with great delight-and His fruit has been sweet to your taste. Our experience makes us know that there are heavenlyvoices that invite prayer and call us to communion. And probably some of you have also been conscious of another voice whichI earnestly desire we may all hear tonight, namely, the more martial and stirring call to service for the Lord Jesus Christ!Some of you have been obedient to the call these many years, but it calls louder and louder and louder still! You have beenreaping and bearing the heat and burden of the day, but you cannot throw down your sickle, your hands cleave to it. Yes, ratherdo you take more gigantic strides and sweep down more of the precious corn at every stroke you take! You feel that you cannever cease from it till you do-

"Your body with your charge lay down, And cease at once to work and live."

A voice Divine seems to be calling you and saying, "Follow Me, and I will make you a fisher of men. Behold I have made youa chosen vessel to bear My name unto the Gentiles." You have heard that voice and you are striving to obey it more and more.Others either have never heard it, or hearing it, have forgotten it. There are none so deaf as those who

will not hear! And there are some who have a very deaf ear to any admonitions of this kind. They are like Issachar-a strongdonkey crouching down between two burdens, but yet lifting neither. I fear lest upon them should come the curse of Meroz,because they come not, "to the help of the Lord-to the help of the Lord against the mighty."

Now, perhaps this evening there are some Christian men or women here that shall feel as if the hand of the Crucified werelaid upon them and they will hear Him say to them," You are not your own. You are bought with a price. Why don't you glorifyGod in your bodies and in your spirits, which are His? Awake, you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall giveyou light." The text, I hope, may be blessed of God to be such a voice as that! Listening to it, we notice four things. First,the character under which it calls us, "Son." Secondly, the service to which it calls us, "go work." Thirdly, the time forwhich it calls us, "go work today." And fourthly, the place to which it directs us, "go work today in My vineyard."

I. First, then, THE CHARACTER UNDER WHICH IT CALLS US. It appears to me to be a very powerful selection of terms. "Son, gowork today in My vineyard." It puts work on a very gracious footing, when we are bid to work for the Lord, not as slaves,nor as mere servants, but as sons! Moses speaks to us, and he says, "Servant, go and work for your wages." But the Fatherin Christ speaks to us, and He says, "Son, go work today in My vineyard." No more as a servant, but as a son, shall you servethe Lord! The returning prodigal said, "Make me as one of your hired servants." That was not an evangelical prayer and wasnot answered. The father said, "This, my son, was dead, and is alive again," and so he received him, not as a hired servantat all, but as a son.

Oh, dear people of God, I trust you always draw the distinction very clearly between the Covenant of Works and the Covenantof Grace. When you work for God you do not work for life but from life. You do not try to serve Christ in order that you maybe saved, but because you are saved! You do not obey His commands that you may become His children, but because you are Hischildren and, therefore, are imitators of God as dear children! You say, "Abba, Father," because you feel the spirit of adoptionwithin you and you endeavor to obey the commands of your Father for the same reason. I do not, therefore, say to anyone here,"Go and work for God that you may be saved." I would not venture to put it on that footing!

"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." But turning to those who are saved, the Gospel exhortation isput after a Gospel sort-"Son, go work today in My vineyard." And it has all the more strength on this account, because, inaddressing us as sons, it reminds us of the great love which has made us what we are. We were by nature heirs of wrath evenas others, but, Beloved, "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons ofGod." Think of the love which chose us when we were still aliens and enemies! Think of the love which adopted us and put usinto the family-itself wondering while it did it-for the Lord is represented as saying, "How shall I put you among the children?"as if it were a strange thing that such as we are should ever be numbered among the children of God!

The love which adopted us did not stay there, but having given us the rights of children, it gave us the nature of children!We were regenerated-"Begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; born not of corruptibleseed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which lives and abides forever." Now, just think of election, adoption, regenerationand when the Lord addresses you by that term of, "Son," think of all that and say, "I owe to God an immeasurable debt of gratitudefor having enabled me to become His son! He, by His Grace, has given me power and privilege to become a child of God! Thereforedo I feel the claims of obligation and I would endeavor to work in the vineyard because I am His child, His son, His daughter,made so by His Grace."

This you see, dear Friends, engages us to work in the vineyard all the more convincingly, because we may reflect not onlyon the Grace which has made us sons, but on the privileges which that same Grace bestowed upon us in making us sons, for,if children of God, the Lord will provide for us, will clothe us, will heal us, will protect us, will guide us, will educateus, will make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light! Remember, too, that precious passage, "Ifchildren, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, if, indeed, we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorifiedtogether."

If heirs of God, how large is our inheritance! And if joint-heirs with Christ, how sure that inheritance is! And we have beenbrought now, Beloved, to such an estate as this that the angels, themselves, might envy us, for I venture to apply a passageof Scripture to this case-I hope without wresting it-"Unto which of the angels said He at any time,

You are My son?" But He speaks, thus, to us poor worms of the dust! And when He is bidding us serve Him, He comes to us underthis character and addresses us in this relationship! He says, "Son, Daughter, go work today in My vineyard. I have givenyou boundless privileges in making you My child. I have given you this world and world to come. Earth is your lodge and Heavenyour home. And therefore, because I have done all this for you-and what could I have done more for you than have made youMy child?-therefore I say, Go, work today in My vineyard."

In appealing, thus, to us under the name of Son, it is supposed that we have some feelings within us correspondent to thecondition to which our heavenly Father has called us. He says, "Son." If any of you, being a son, has a father, and if thatfather wished you to do something for him, and he addressed you as, "my Son," you would feel, at once, that whatever you coulddo you were bound to do because you were a son! It would awaken in you the filial feeling which is swift at once to yieldobedience and love.

And when the Lord looks upon you, my Brothers and Sisters, and says to you "Son," or, "Daughter," it is supposed that thereis, in your heart, a child's nature given, by His Grace, and that this filial instinct prompts the quick response, "My Father,what do You say to me? Speak, Lord, speak, Father, for Your son or daughter hears You. I long to do Your will. I delight init, for to me it is the greatest joy I know that you are my Father and my God. Therefore, Lord, my heart stands ready nowto listen to whatever You have to say, and my hand is ready to do it, as Your Grace shall enable me, only strengthen me inYour ways." "Son, Daughter, go work today in My vineyard."

By the use of that term "son," it is supposed, also, that you have something of the qualification that will fit you to dowhat He bids you. A man who has a vineyard naturally supposes that his son knows something about vineyards. The boy will havelearned something through his sire and you that know the Lord are the only people who can serve Him in His vineyard-that isto say, in winning souls for Christ none can do this but those who are won, themselves. If there is a lost child to be reclaimed,he shall be brought in by one of the children who has, himself, been found. Unto the wicked God says, "What have you to doto declare My statutes?" but to you who are His sons and daughters He entrusts the Gospel, putting you in trust with it thatyou may bear it to others and bring others to know and love His name.

Oh, dear Friends, it must be a dreadful thing to be trying to save the souls of others while you, yourselves, are lost! Andwhat an unhappy mortal must he be who has to preach the Gospel that he never knew-to tell of promises that he has never believed,and to preach a Christ in whom his soul has never trusted! But when the Lord speaks to you as His son and His daughter, thevery fact that you stand in that relationship to Him proves that you have some qualification for the service and, therefore,dear Brother or Sister, you must not back out of it. You must not wrap your talent in a napkin, for you have got some talentin the very fact of being a child of God-a son or daughter of the Most High!

Thus have I tried to open up the character to whom the Lord speaks, but I cannot do it so as to interest those who are notHis people. But I do say this to those of you who are a people near to Him, to whom He stands as a Father, that this facthas strong claims upon you. If I am a father, where is my honor? If you are my children, where is your fear? If, indeed, theLord has put you into His family, do you not owe to Him the obedience and the love of children? And what can be more naturalthat if there is household work to do-vineyard work to do-your Father should look to you to do it, and turn to you whom Hehas loved so long and loved so well, and say, "Son, Daughter, go work today in My vineyard"?

II. Well, now, secondly, let us turn to the next point, and that is, THE SERVICE TO WHICH THE LORD CALLS US-"Go work." I knowsome Christians who do not like the word, "work," and they look very black in the face if you say anything about duty. Asfor the matter of that, I do not mind how black they look, because there are some people who very much expose their own dispositionby black looks and sullen moods. And when they turn sour they only manifest what is in their own nature. He that quarrelswith the precept, quarrels with God! Let him remember that. And he that does not like the practical part of Christianity maydo what he likes with the doctrinal part of it, for he has neither part nor lot in this matter.

The language of the true child of God is, "I delight myself in Your precepts." And, as David put it, "Your precepts have beenmy song in the house of my pilgrimage." He would even sing about the precepts of the Gospel! And now the text says, "Go work."That is something practical, something real! Go work. He does not say, "My Son, go and think and speculate, and make curiousexperiments, and fetch out some new doctrines and astonish all your fellow creatures with whims and oddities of your own.""My Son, go work." And He does not, here, say, "My Son, go and attend

conferences, one after another all the year round and live in a perpetual maze of hearing different opinions and going fromone public meeting and one religious engagement to another-and so feed yourself on the fat things full of marrow."

All this is to be attended to in its proper proportion, but here it is, "Go work! Go work!" How many Christians there arethat seem to read, "Go plan." And they always figure in a way with some wonderful plan for the conversion of all the world,but they are never found laboring to convert a baby-never having a good word to say to the tiniest child in the Sunday school!They are always scheming and yet never effecting anything. But the text says, "My Son, go work." Oh, yes, but those who donot like to work, themselves, display the greatness of their talents in finding fault with those who do work, and a very clearperception they have of the mistakes and the crotchets of the very best of workers, whose zeal and industry are, alike, unflagging.

However, the text does not say, "My Son, go and criticize." What it distinctly says, is, "Go and work." I remember that whenAndrew Fuller had a very severe lecture from some Scottish Baptist Brethren about the discipline of the Church, he made thereply, "You say that your discipline is so much better than ours. Very well, but discipline is meant to make good soldiers.Now, my soldiers fight better than yours and I think, therefore, you ought not to say much about my discipline." So the realthing is not to be forever calculating about modes of Church government and methods of management and plans to be adoptedand rules to be laid down which it shall be accounted a serious breach to violate.

All well in their place, for order is good in its way. But come, now, let us go to work! Let us get something done! I believethe very best working for God is often done in a very irregular manner. I get more and more to feel like the old soldier ofWaterloo when he was examined about the best garment that could be worn by a soldier. The Duke of Wellington said to him,"If you had to fight Waterloo over again how would you like to be dressed?" The answer was, "Please, Sir, I should like tobe in my shirtsleeves." I think that is about the best! Get rid of everything superfluous and get at it and hack away!

I would to God that some Christians could do that, just strip to it, get rid of the superfluities of orderliness and propriety-andeverything else which hampers them in trying to get back poor souls. There they are, going down to Hell! And we are sticklingabout this mode, and that, and considering the best way not to do it-and appointing committees to consider and debate to adjournand to postpone-and to leave the work in abeyance! The best way is to arise and do it! Let the committee sit afterwards. Godgrant we may. My son, go work today. Let it be something practical, something real, something actually done! And by good workis meant something that will involve effort, toil, earnestness, self-denial-perhaps something that will need perseverance.

In right earnest you will need to stick to it. You will have heartily to yield yourself up to it and give up a good deal elsethat might hinder you in doing it. Oh, Christian men and women, you will not glorify God much unless you really put your strengthinto the ways of the Lord and throw your body, soul, and spirit-your entire manhood and womanhood-into the work of the LordJesus Christ! To do this you need not leave your families, or your shops, or your secular engagements. You can serve God inthese things! They will often be vantage grounds of opportunity for you, but you must throw yourself into it!

No one wins souls to Christ while they are half asleep! The battle that is to be fought for the Lord Jesus must be foughtby men and women who are wide awake and quickened by the Spirit of God. "My Son, My Daughter, go work today." Do not go andplay at teaching in Sunday schools. Do not go and play the preacher! Do not go and play at exhorting people at the cornersof streets, or even play at giving away tracts. "My Son, go work." Throw your soul into it! If it is worth doing, it is worthdoing well! And if it is worth doing well, it is worth doing better than you have ever done before! And even then it willbe worth doing better, still, for when you have done your best you have still to reach forward to a something far beyond-forthe best of the best is all too little for such a God and for such a service! "My Son, go work."

Well, now, such a claim as this may, perhaps, you think, sound rather hard. But I could tell you of many who would be veryglad, indeed, if the Lord would say that to them! I might tell you of some who seldom leave their couches! Some who can seldomsit upright through their weakness. Some to whom the nights are often full of pain and the days are spent in weariness. Theyhave learned, by God's teaching, to be content to suffer-but sometimes they cannot stifle an ardent wish-they wish the Lordwould let them serve Him! They do not envy, but yet there sometimes crosses over their

mind the shadow of something like envy when they remember what opportunities some of you have, who are full of health andstrength.

I have seen my Brother minister laid aside, the voice, perhaps, gone, the lungs feeble, the heart prone to palpitate, and,oh, how he has wished that he could preach again! With what fervor has he said, "Oh, if I had but those opportunities overagain, how I would try to use them better than when I was favored with them!" I tell you there are thousands of God's servantswho would kiss the dust of His feet if He would only say to them, "Go work." I remember reading of a minister who had beenlaboring in America till he had fairly broken down. He had to take a tour for his health. He had not been away many days beforehe wrote in his diary, "There may be some ministers who count it a pleasure to be relieved from the duty of preaching, butI count it a misery. I would sooner preach as I have done in my own pulpit continually than I would see all the kingdoms ofthe world."

And, indeed, there is no pleasure in the world like that of serving God! You will soon get tired if you have a vacation, butyou will never get tired of a Divine vocation, though you may sometimes grow tired in it. Now, think that the Lord might havesaid to you, "Now, go and lie on that bed for 10 years. Go and pine away in consumption. I have nothing much for you to do.You have got to bear My will." Are you not glad that you are full of strength, or that you have some share of it, and thatnow your heavenly Father says, "Son, go work. I have given you strength. Go work"? Lord, we thank You for so kind and gentlea command!

Besides, there is a great deal of honor in this work. You know how much your little boy wants to be a man. All boys do. Whenhe first wears stick-up collars he congratulates himself upon the sign of anything like being a man. How proud he is of it!And if you, being a father, were to say to your boy, "My Son, you are now of such an age that I can trust you to do some workfor me," see how the little man would begin to lift himself up! He is glad of it! And I am sure that if we look at it rightly,we who are the children of God ought to feel honored by our heavenly Father saying to us, "You may do something for Me."

We must be very humble, for, after all, we cannot do anything except as He works in us to will and to do! But it is reallyvery gratifying and ennobling to a poor mortal spirit to be allowed to do anything for God, yes, and to do what perfect saintsabove and holy angels cannot do, for oh, dear Brothers and Sisters, there is no glorified spirit that can go down that backstreet and up that blind alley, and up those staircases that seem as if they would tumble down under your feet! Go and talkto that dying woman about Christ! You have a privilege which honored Gabriel has not! Be thankful that you have it! Thereis no angel that can take that little child in the Sunday school class and tell it of "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," and carrythe little lamb for the Good Shepherd!

The Lord sends you to do it. And it should be a point of thankfulness with us all that He has counted us worthy and put usinto the ministry-into any part or parcel of that ministry-to do something for His name's sake. Well, we are always receiving-alwaysreceiving and it is very blessed-but still, in this, as in other things, it is more blessed to give than to receive! And whenwe can give back to God some little trifle of service, stained with our tears because it is no better than it is, oh, it isa happy and a blessed thing! How grateful you ought to be that the Lord says to you, "Son, go work today."

And remember, once more, on this point, that the work to which the Lord calls us is very varied, therefore there is a greatdeal of change in it. And, besides that, it suits the different temperaments, constitutions, dispositions and abilities ofHis people. He says, "My Son, go work today in My vineyard." But He does not give you to do my work, and He does not giveme to do your work. Dear Sister, you would like to do the work of such-and-such an excellent Christian woman, would you not?Yes, but that is naughty of you. Be satisfied to do your own! Suppose your housemaid always wanted to do the cook's work-thehouse would soon be in a mess! Better keep to your own place, dear Sister.

Ah, there is a Brother here who says, "I think I could preach if I only had such-and-such a congregation." Very likely, Brother,but you had better preach to your own and do what good you can, there. Very likely I should do better with my own congregationand you will do better with yours than I could. Every man had better keep to his own work in his own place. And how thankfulwe ought to be that if one can preach a sermon, yet another can offer a prayer-that if one can go and speak to thousands-yetanother can speak to ones and twos! There is work in the school. There is work in the family. There is work in the street.There is work in the workshop. There is work everywhere for Jesus if you will

but stretch out your hands to find it and follow Solomon's good advice, "Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all yourmight."

III. Now, THE TIME is the next thing. "My Son, go work today." That means directly-now. Brother, Sister, I will not say aword about what is your duty to do tomorrow. Let the morrow take care of itself. I will have nothing to say about what itwill be right for you to do in 10 years. If you are alive, Grace will be given to you for that. But what I have to say toyou, in God's name is, "Go work today," and as the sun has gone down, let it be, "Go work tonight in My vineyard," if thereis opportunity, even tonight, before another day's sun has dawned upon the world. "And why today?" Because, Brothers and Sisters,Your Father wants you to be at it at once.

"Why do you stand here, all the day, idle?" If you have done nothing for Christ, you have wasted enough time. Do not resttoday, but be at it now. He wants you to do it now because the vines are in a certain condition that require, just now, work.There is somebody in the world who is in a tender state of mind-to whom you may speak successfully. There is a mourner herewho wants comfort tonight. There is one struggling against his conscience who needs urging on tonight in the right way. Ifthe case is neglected, tonight, it will be like neglecting to trim the vines just at the proper time for taking away the superfluouswood.

Now you can do it. You cannot do it on any other day. Therefore, "go work today." "Today," because there are certain dangersto which those whom you are about to bless are just now exposed. The devil is tempting them-it is necessary that you go andhelp them against that temptation. They are just now in despair. It is necessary that you step in with the Word of comfortfrom your Master's mouth. They are, perhaps, this very night, before they go to their rest, about to commit a great sin. Perhapsthe Lord means you to interpose just now, before that sin is done. Son, Daughter, go work today-you are needed. There arevery few laborers just now-many of them have gone. Son, Daughter, go today, while the others have gone out for their recreation-whilethe others are asleep and grown idle.

There is a gap just now. It is at this very moment. Many a brave deed of valor owed its success to being done at once. IfHoratius had not kept the bridge just in that same moment when the enemy endeavored to pass over, we should never have heardof him, nor of the brave deeds of old. There is a time of dearth-of need-there is an urgency. Son, God says to you, "Hasten,even now, and go work today in My vineyard." "Today." Mark that. It means work all day-work as long as you live!

Son, if once you get into that vineyard, do not come home, again, until the day is done. I am always sorry when I hear ofChristian people beginning to give up some of their work before the infirmities of old age come on. Although I think thatmany a minister, when he gets old, had better give up a charge for which he is not equal and take one smaller for which hisstrength would prevail. But I know that some give up this work and that, and they say, "Let the young people come and taketheir turn." Yes, yes, but suppose the sun were to stop shining and say, "There is a star over there. Let him have a turnand shine instead of me"?

Suppose the moon were forever to give up shining in the night watches, and say that she has had enough of being out at night?And suppose the earth were to say it has had enough of yielding harvests? "Why should I yield any more? Let the sea take itsturn and grow corn." And so, dear Christian Friends, keep on as long as you can! Who can blame dear old John Newton? Whenhe got too feeble to get up the pulpit stairs of St. Mary Woolnoth, he was helped up and then, leaning on his pulpit Biblehe poured out his soul. A friend of his said to him, "Dear Mr. Newton, don't you think you ought to give up preaching?" "What?"he asked, "shall the old African blasphemer ever give up praising the Grace of God as long as there is breath in his body?Never!"

And so he went to his work again. Oh, for more of that spirit to persevere in the Master's service! Only there is this thought-itis only a day. "Son, go work today." It will only be a day. The longest life is no more and then the shadows of death willgather. But there will be no night, for instead, the day shall break and the shadows shall flee away-and then life's service,here below, will all be over. There will be no troublesome children to teach, no hard-hearted sinners to rebuke, no backsliding,lukewarm Christians to reprove, no deceivers to encounter, no skeptics to answer with the testimony that cannot be shaken,no scoffers to put up with, patiently bearing their contumely.

It will be all over, then! And then shall those who have served their Master behold Him gird Himself and sit down and servethem-and they shall feast at His table and enter into His joy! "My Son, Daughter, go work today," for you

shall rest tomorrow. Work on, for there is rest enough in Heaven! Work on, for eternity shall well repay you for the toilsof time!

IV. Then, as to THE PLACE WHERE THE LORD CALLS US TO THE WORK. "My Son, go work today in My vineyard." I like to think ofthis special sphere of labor because it must be a pleasure to work in our Father's vineyard. For everything that we do therewill be done for Him! I trim this vine-it is my Father's vine. I dig this trench-it is my Father's ground I turn. I gatherout these stones-it is my Father's vineyard that I am engaged in clearing. I repair this fence-it is my Father's soil thatI am thus hedging about. It is all done for Him! Who would not do all that he could for the dear Redeemer, dying Lamb andfor the blessed Father of our spirits? "Go work today in My vineyard."

Then what interesting work it is, for it is our own vineyard because it is our Father's vineyard! All that belongs to Himbelongs to us. We are sons working in our Father's vineyard, so we can say, "This vine? Why, I have an interest in it, forI am the heir of my Father's property. This ground that I endeavor to dig about and fertilize? It is my ground, it is my Father's.And this wall that I try to mend? It is mine, it is my Father's." It is always pleasant to work for ourselves, you know. And,in a blessed sense, when we are working for God we are working for ourselves. You are laborers, you are God's farmers, youare God's people-and when you are working for the Lord you are really taking shares with Him.

And what a work it is, too! "Go work today in My vineyard." One likes working in a vineyard because it pays. Working in adesert may be thankless toil, but working in a vineyard where there will be clusters is very different. One can already thinkof those juicy grapes that will be ready for the winepress! And for the festival, when the ruddy juice comes freely forth-whenthey make merry and joy in the vintage. And you will have the new wine and the wine on the lees well-refined. All sorts ofpleasures await the man who serves the Lord!

"Go work in My vineyard." Does it not mean that the work is plentiful? There is always something to be done in a vineyard.If you ask those who keep vines, they will tell you that there is much labor required. From one part of the year, right onto the end, there is something to be done, many dangers to be averted, and many enemies to be kept off the vines. So thereis plenty to do, Brothers and Sisters. Go work in the vineyard where there will be need of all your hands. It is close athand, hard by you, for the heavenly Father did not say, "Son, take a ship and go to Tarshish, or to Ophir." He said, "My Son,go work in My vineyard," and the vineyard was just out the back door there.

Now, your heavenly Father's vineyard is close to you. Those streets where you live-the very house in which you dwell, perhapsthe very chamber in which you sleep-is God's vineyard where you are to work for Him. It is your heavenly Father's own workto be done by you in your heavenly Father's own strength! Oh, if I might, tonight, by God's Grace, set one young man on firewith love to Christ I would be glad! If I could but be, by His Grace, the humble means of inspiring some Christian woman withthe high mission of being useful in her day and generation, how much would my soul rejoice!

There came into this Tabernacle one evening a young gentleman who was well known as being a great hand with his cricket bat.He was a Christian and full of earnestness in laying hold upon the great truths of Revelation! But he had never served hisGod. He thought it right to spend his leisure time in manly exercises and, in such pursuits, he sought recreation. But whileI spoke, a fire kindled within him and he went home to begin to preach the Gospel in the streets of the city where he lived!And now he is the pastor of a large and influential Church which he has gathered together. Since then he has preached morethan once, in this place, the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Oh, that some other Believer who may happen to be in that condition-someyoung man of ability who is spending all his strength on the world without going into anything grossly wrong, but simply wastinghis talent-might hear a voice saying to him tonight, as he goes down that aisle, "My Son, go work today in My vineyard"!

After dwelling so long upon the practical admonition, I have but little time left for that brief explanation of the parable,or more properly the parables of the vineyard with which, on the outset, I promised to close. The occasion on which they werespoken is memorable. Assailed "while He was teaching"-rudely interrupted by the legal Sanhedrim of the Jews with the HighPriest in the forefront-they confronted our Lord, as it were, with a warrant and propounded to Him two questions. One as tothe authority or title by which He acted-the other as to the source from which His authority was derived.

You all know how skillfully He evaded His unscrupulous antagonists. "I, also, will ask you one thing," He said. And He askedthem a question that left them in a ridiculous parley, for, "they reasoned among themselves," went aside to

whisper, and then drew back in sheer timidity declining an answer, for, "they feared the people." Or, as you may read it,"They were afraid of the mob!" The advantage our Lord thus gained, He quickly followed up with a parable-in fact, with theparable we have been talking about. He opened it thus-"What do you think"-putting a query about two sons. The one forwardin profession, yet utterly disobedient. The other sullen in appearance though afterwards penitent in spirit and diligent inlabor. The thing was so obvious that they answer without hesitation with a reply that nailed the censure to their own breasts!

"Which of these two did the will of his father?" They said unto Him, "the first." Read it, read the parable for yourselves.Realize the force of it if you can! The penitent harlot and the obdurate High Priest are put in the scales. "In the way ofrighteousness"-according to the truthful caricature-the chief priests and elders, themselves, admit that "the first" of thesetwo did the will of our heavenly Father! Digest this parable, I pray you! Almost without a break the vineyard supplied Himyet, again, with another parable which He insisted on their hearing-a parable that brought out the character of the dispensationand "the signs of the times" so distinctly that they could not fail to read it in the light of their own Prophets-and at thesame time exposed the treachery of their counsel and conspiracy that they recognized their own portrait at once and perceivedthat He spoke of them!

"The vineyard," you are all aware, was the constant symbol of the Jewish nation as a theocracy. The men that sat in Moses'seat were the stewards in charge of that vineyard which was Jehovah's special property. They, like the perverse rulers ofevery age, sought to shelter their evil designs under cover of syndicates and conferences. But the words and warning's ofJesus, His proverbs and parables, were keen enough to probe all their subtleties and leave them to stand abashed without anexcuse for the guile of their hearts or the guilt of their conduct!

Now remember that the kingdom of God was taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. To whatnation is it given? Is it not to the Church which is called "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiarpeople; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light"? The vineis the express symbol of our Christian life, as all Believers are incorporated with Christ. Well then, there is a vineyardof God's own planting-you believe that. He has let it out to farmers-you believe that. He will come seeking fruit of thisvineyard-you believe that. You are, dear Brothers and Sisters, the children of the farmers- you believe that, or else youwould not presume to sit at His table and drink of His cup. He says, therefore, to you, "Son, go work in My vineyard." Whatanswer do you give with your lips? What answer do you give with your life?

Thus far I have not been speaking to unconverted people. I have not said a word to them. To them, however, I have this wordto say, and I have done. I shall not ask you to work for Christ. I cannot exhort you to do anything for Him. You are not ina state of mind to do it! You must, first, believe in Him. Oh, let it be a sorrow to you, tonight, that you are incapableof serving Christ! Till you get a new heart and a right spirit you have no capacity to serve Him! You have first, to trustChrist and to prove in your own souls that this Gospel is the power of God to your salvation. Your eyes must be opened! Beforeyou can do anything for Him, you must be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that you may receiveforgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Jesus.

Then, not till then, will you be meet to be made witnesses both of those things which you shall have seen and of those thingsin which He will hereafter reveal to you. You must be born again, yourselves, before you can travail in birth for others,till Christ is formed in them. You cannot testify, those of you by whom the testimony of Christ has not been received andin whom it is not confirmed. Your unskilled labor would be mischievous. Hands off such holy work till those hands have beenwashed clean by Jesus Christ! Come to Him and trust Him! Come to Him and believe in Him, and when He has saved you, then Hewill say to you, "Son, go work today in My vineyard."