Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2747
“A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, Sir: and went not.” Matthew 21:28-30.
THE father had a right to the services of both his sons, for they were, according to the strict rendering of the word, children, or young men under age. They depended upon him for everything, so they were bound to obey his commands. He did not lay upon them any very heavy tax. He simply asked that they should set to work in his vineyard and go at once, seeing that, probably, there was need for the vines there and then to have their earnest attention. “Son,” he said to the first, “‘go work today in my vineyard’—do not toil for a stranger, nor for some master at a distance, but work in my vineyard. You are my son, you have a share in the fruit of the vineyard, so go at once, while your services will be the most valuable, and work in my vineyard.” The son replied, “I won’t,” for that expression, in its bluntness and brevity, gives more nearly the sense of the Greek than even our rendering, “I will not.” “I won’t.” That is a straight, positive, plain refusal. Notice that there is not even the word, “Sir,” to soften the reply. The second son said, “I go, Sir.” But this first one did not say, “I will not, Sir,” but just, “I won’t.” And that was the end of it. “But afterward,” though he had thus spoken so rudely, unkindly and willfully against his father, “he repented and went.” And I daresay, by his zeal and industry, he accomplished a good day’s work. Though the day began so badly, it ended all right.
Now, I feel persuaded that there are here some persons like this elder son, Here and there is one or another who has said, “I won’t,” as plainly and as rudely as they could. From their very childhood they cast off parental restraint and when they became more completely masters of themselves and the Gospel was preached to them, each of them very distinctly said, “I won’t.” Some said, “We won’t hear it.” They became Sabbath-breakers. Others, who heard it, said, “We won’t believe it.” They became hearers only—rejecters of what they heard. Conscience came and said to them, “You are very wrong in acting thus,” but they had, all the while, one short, straight answer which they did not stammer in giving. They said distinctly, “We won’t.” There are some here who used to say this by willful transgression. There was scarcely any sin which they did not attempt to commit if it ministered any pleasure to them. They were greedy after it and even when there was no pleasure apart from the sin of it, they found a pleasure in the very sinfulness of the sin! They said, “We won’t,” most plainly—there was no hypocrisy about them. There was no mincing the matter with them—they were as bold as brass against the Most High.
But it has happened to some of us that there has come an “afterward” as it did in the case of this elder son. Thought followed upon indifference. We were led to consider our ways and then we began to say to ourselves, “Have we treated our God rightly?” Then the Holy Spirit came—that blessed Spirit without whom there is no right consideration—to teach us reason and to make our hearts to be what hearts should be—not stony things, but hearts of flesh. And we said to ourselves, “This disobedience will never do. It is not just or right. Neither does standing idle minister any comfort to us and, moreover, Satan has already found some mischief for our idle hands to do.” We thought that we would probably slide from one sin to another and gradually grow worse and worse—and we were startled at such a thought, so we repented. By the gracious working of the Spirit of God, we were led to cry for mercy upon our stubborn hearts, and to ask
for Him to renew us, crying, “Turn us, O God, and we shall be turned!” And it came to pass that we “repented and went,” and happy was the day when that happened!
It is a good many years with some of us since we “repented and went,” but we have never repented of that repentance, nor ever wished that we had not entered the vineyard. We have begun to taste the clusters and we have been more than repaid for all the service that we have rendered by the sweetness of the fruit. And our prayer is that we may continue laboring in that vineyard till our Heavenly Father shall call us Home. We would like to have a long day of toil if it shall please Him. As long as we have any degree of strength, we wish to labor in His service, for it has become perfect freedom for us, now, and His yoke is easy, and even His burden is light! We have a sacred pleasure in His service and you may guess, therefore, what pleasure we shall have in His rest—
“If life is long, I will be glad That I may long obey. If short—yet why should I be sad To soar to endless day?”