Labor Troubles

Chapter 20 contains another of our Lord's pictures. It's a story that is grossly abused, greatly misunderstood, and misapplied. Matthew 20: "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard." That would probably be about 5:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m. The laborers used to gather at the marketplace or the central square of a village and wait for someone to come and dip into the labor force.

"And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny," or a denarius, "a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour," 9:00 a.m., "and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said unto them, 'Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' And they went their way.

And again, he went out about the sixth and ninth hour," noon and 3:00, "and did the same. And about the 11th hour," now it's 5:00 p.m., almost time for quitting, "and about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing idle and saith unto them, 'Why stand ye here all the day idle?' They say unto him, 'Because no man hath hired us.' He saith unto them, 'Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatever is right, that shall ye receive.'

So, when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, 'Call the laborers and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.'" 

You must admit, that's a strange way to pay people.

"And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny," a denarius, which was a day's wages for doing 1 hour's work. "But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more, and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the householder, saying, 'These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us who have borne the burden and heat of the day.'

But he answered one of them and said, 'Friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine and go thy way. I will give unto this last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good?'" One translation reads, "Are you envious because I am generous?" "So," concludes our Lord, "the last shall be first, and the first last: for many are called, but few chosen," or choice.

It would be interesting to read this parable over in Detroit at a labor meeting. I can see someone jumping up and saying, "That's got to be heresy. There are no seniority rights." Somebody else will jump up and say, "Unfair wages. Here's a man who works for an hour and gets a day's wage." I see that happening all over the place.

When I was living in Chicago, we used to enjoy watching these crews out on the roads. Big sign that says, "Men working." I heard about a fellow who had a heart attack and died in one of those crews, and the doctor came and he examined five men before he found the corpse. Somebody else would say, "What kind of a contract is this? The boss is making all the decisions." You see, we don't like this story.

Somebody has defined a parable as a, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. It's a poor definition. Our Lord got into trouble because he told these stories. They wanted to kill him. These are not cute little illustrations that Jesus gave. Whenever our Lord gave a parable, he was holding up a mirror for people to see their faces, and they didn't like what they saw.

And the people were startled when our Lord gave this parable. When Jesus got to the climax when he said, "All right, pay the 11th hour people first," and they got exactly what the others got. People looked at each other and were startled. Our Lord did not give these stories as bedtime tales to put us to sleep. They are bugle calls to wake us up.

Now, as I said before, this story has been grossly abused. People have said, "Well, Jesus certainly didn't know what he was talking about." I think he did. Have you forgotten that our Lord was a carpenter? He knew something about the labor market. He knew something about wages. He knew something about hiring. Have you forgotten that our Lord Jesus is God, and he can see into the human heart? He's not talking about labor. He's talking about your heart and my heart.

A lady came to me with a manuscript one day. People do this frequently. I thank the Lord that the days I've been at this conference, nobody has brought me any manuscripts. Everybody who has a half a mind to write a book does. And they somehow have the idea that I can get it published for them, which I can't. But she came with this manuscript and said, "This is an exposition of this parable in Matthew 20. What do you think of it?" And so, I read it. And it was interpreted like this: people are saved at different stages in life. Some people are saved early in life as children, and some are saved at middle age, and some are even saved at the 11th hour.

Dear friends, this parable is not talking about salvation. That's pretty obvious, isn't it? You don't work for salvation. And if you did work for it and get it, you wouldn't complain about it. You'd thank God for it. Nobody complains about salvation. He's not talking about salvation.

Of course, many people say, "Well, if he's not talking about salvation, he's talking about rewards." He's not even talking about rewards. We're not all going to get the same reward. I've pastored three churches, and there are people in those churches who are going to get tremendous rewards from God. Do you mean to tell me that carnal, lazy, worldly Christian who doesn't read his Bible, doesn't pray, doesn't give, doesn't witness, couldn't care less is going to get the same reward as that dedicated, devoted, sacrificing, serving child of God? No way. We're not all going to get the same reward. We're told in 1 Corinthians 3:8, "Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor." He's not talking about rewards. Well, then what's he talking about? He's talking about attitudes in Christian service.

Now, in order to get the context, we have to go back to chapter 19. In Matthew 19:16, the young man that we call the rich young ruler shows up, and he wants to be saved, but he won't be saved on our Lord's terms. He wants to be saved on his own terms. Jesus said, "All right. Your problem really is covetousness. You don't realize this, but that's your problem. I want you to go out and sell everything and give to the poor."

Now, I didn't get saved that way. The Lord never said to me, "Sell everything you've got and give it to the poor." The Lord never said to me, "Follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men." He said that to some fishermen. He didn't say that to Matthew. Matthew was sitting there in his office, figuring out the taxes. Our Lord didn't say, "Follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men," because Matthew wasn't a fisherman. He was an accountant.

Our Lord deals with each case personally, individually, and he realized that this man's real problem was covetousness, so he said, "You go sell everything you've got and give it to the poor, and come and follow me, and you'll have eternal life." Now nobody gets saved that way, but if you've really trusted the Lord, that'll be an evidence that your heart has been changed.

Well, the fellow left. He wasn't happy about those conditions at all. And in Matthew 19:23, the Lord gave his little speech about how hard it is for rich people to enter into the kingdom of heaven, which was a shock to the Jews because the Jews thought that riches were an evidence of salvation. If you were poor, you had God's curse. If you were rich, you had God's blessing. And our Lord makes it very clear that rich people who depend on their riches have a difficult time because they're too proud, too self-sufficient.

In Matthew 19:25, the disciples said, "Who then can be saved? If rich people can't be saved, who in the world can be saved?" Jesus beheld them and said to them, "With men, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible."

Then, as to is to be expected, Peter spoke up. Then answered Peter and said unto him, "Behold, we 12 disciples—we have forsaken all and followed thee." The very thing that this rich young ruler had not done. You can just see the rich young ruler trudging away. His head's down. He's very sorrowful. He didn't want the Lord. He wanted to keep his riches. And Peter may have pointed and said, "Look, here we are. We've forsaken everything to follow you. Now, he didn't, but we did."

Notice the next question now: "What shall we have therefore?" Aha, there's the crux of the whole thing. Peter is saying, "What are we going to get? Now, he didn't forsake all. We did. He wouldn't follow. We've been following, now. What are we going to get?"

And Jesus said to them, "Verily I say unto you that ye who have followed me in the regeneration"—that means when he sets up his kingdom—"when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel." And you recall later on, James and John came and said, "Look, we'd like to have thrones, one on the right side, one on the left."

"And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake shall receive a hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life. But many"—not all—"many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. For the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a householder." And he moves into the parable.

What's he saying? He's saying, "Peter, I'm going to take care of you. One day, you will be on a throne. One day, you shall be rewarded for any sacrifice you've made for my name's sake. But, Peter, watch out. I don't like that attitude you're displaying: 'What am I going to get?'"

Now at this point, I am tempted to wax eloquent on a jeremiad on modern Christianity. We are living today in consumer Christianity. The spirit of consumerism and materialism has so gotten into the church that our big question is, "What am I going to get?"

You know, a church is something like a bank. You don't get anything out of it until you put something into it. And young people come and say, "Well, we're not going to live together anymore. We're going to get a divorce. I'm not getting anything out of this marriage." What are you putting into it? And the way people jump from job to job. I was taught that when you get a job, you stick with it, and you do your best until God picks you up and puts you someplace else.

What are we going to get? We come to meetings like that, don't we? We go to church on Sunday morning. We walk out and say, "Well, I didn't get anything out of that." I can tell you why we didn't get anything out of it. We slept. We stayed up too late Saturday night, slept too late Sunday morning, did not prepare our hearts or our minds or our bodies. We came in at the last minute, and we sat down, and we talked to everybody around us instead of looking to God for some spiritual help. And so, when the service did begin, we were unprepared. We got nothing out of it because we put nothing into it.

And so now, little by little, our services are shifting so that you don't have to put anything into it anymore. Just be a spectator. Just come and be. . . The Archbishop of Canterbury made the statement that the purpose of the church is not to entertain the goats, it's to edify the sheep. And I think he's right. We have moved into a consumer Christianity, an entertainment evangelicalism where we are becoming spectators instead of participants. And that's not what worship is.

Now we move into the parable. From this parable, our Lord issues several warnings. Three of them. He's talking to Peter, who said, "What am I going to get?" He's talking to the other disciples, who said, "Yeah, Peter. That's good. Good question. What are we going to get?" He's talking to you and me today. "All right, I'm a Christian. I tithe. I go to church. I do my best. What am I going to get?" And our Lord says that's a dangerous attitude to have. And he issues three warnings.

Number one, don't make bargains with God. Did you notice that there were two kinds of workers in this parable? Did you notice that? That's the key to the parable. Early in the morning the householder went out, and he found these men in the marketplace, and they must have been good workers to be up that early. And there they were.

He came up and he said, "I have some work to do in my vineyard." "What are you paying?" "Well, I'll give you what's right." "We don't work without a contract." "Okay, what do you want?" "We want a—a denarius a day, a penny a day." "Terrific." Matthew 20:2, "And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard."

Now the other group did not ask for a contract. Did you notice that? Matthew 20:4, "Whatever is right, I'll give it to you." Matthew 20:7, "Whatever is right, you'll receive it." Now, the crowd that made the contract was the unhappy crowd. When our Lord told this story, I think people must have smiled a little bit, because these people demanded a contract, and they made a bargain with their Lord, and they got exactly what they bargained for. I've met Christians like that. "Now, Lord, if you will do this, I will do this." He says, "All right, that's what you want, that's what you'll get." He gave them their request, and he sent leanness to their soul.

I've been reading in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers, these dear Jewish people on their way to the promised land. "Oh, we've got to have this." "Fine, you'll get it." They paid for it. "Oh, we must have that." God said, "Fine, you can have it." But they paid for it. Don't make bargains with God.

A book has been published, a year or two ago, that's become quite popular on college campuses. And in this book, we are told that God does not have a specific will for our lives. I believe God does have a specific will for our lives. I believe this biologically. When I was conceived and God put together my genetic structure, he put it together for exactly what he wanted me to do. He had not planned for me to be a musician, or a coach, or a mechanic, or a carpenter. I don't have that kind of genetic structure.

He gave me exactly what I needed to do the work he wanted me to do, and he gave my big brother the genetic structure he needed, and my other brother and my sister, and you. Psalm 139 tells us that. Psalm 139 tells us that when a little child is conceived and put together in the womb, God is in control. And he puts us together the way he wants us.

I believe he has a specific plan for our lives. I believe that not only biologically, but I've read enough biography to believe this. I have over a thousand volumes of biography in my library, and I've read them. When I read—I just read—just finished rereading the life of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. You can't tell me God didn't have a specific plan for Spurgeon's life. Now, according to this book that came out, Spurgeon could just as well have served God driving a coach in London, not being a pastor. I don't believe that. I think he would have been out of the will of God.

And I believe it biblically, for "it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." "We are his workmanship," says Ephesians 2:10, "created in Christ Jesus unto good works." What good works? "Unto good works which God has before prepared that we should walk in them." Walk in what? In the good works he has prepared for us.

And I am finding young people and young married people who are using this book as an excuse not to serve God. "I can serve God just as well doing this as that." I don't think so. If you've been born with talents, and if you were saved and God gave you gifts, you better put those talents and gifts together and do what God wants you to do or you're going to be in trouble at the judgment seat of Christ. Don't make bargains with God. Let him write the contract.

Some years ago, I was going through a difficult situation. We were in our first church and building a building, and I don't know anything about building buildings. I can't build birdhouses. I can't read blueprints, and it was a trying situation. And we'd gone off on vacation, and I was having a little pity party, feeling sorry for myself, and God gave me a lovely verse that I'd never seen before from Psalm 33:11. Look it up. Mark it someday.

Psalm 33:11. "The counsel of the Lord standeth forever." That's good Calvinism. "The thoughts of his heart to all generations." You know where God's will comes from? God's heart. You know why God has willed you to be the way you are? He loves you.

You say, "I don't understand that." I don't either. I used to say, "God, why didn't you make me a good athlete? Here I am striking out all the time. Why didn't you make me a good mechanic? I can't even open the glove compartment of my car. Why didn't you do these things for me?" But God did what he did for me because he loved me. Don't make bargains with God, warning number one. You'll always be the loser, always. Let God write the contract.

Warning number two, and some of you won't like this, don't watch other workers. You see, the lord of the vineyard deliberately reversed the pay order. Ordinarily, the men who had been working in the morning would have come first in line, gotten their penny, and gone off, and never known what happened. But, you see, the lord of the vineyard was not just interested in their labor. He was interested in their character.

By the way, did you know that God is more interested in your character than your work? God's more interested in the worker than he is the work. If all God wants to do is get work done, he could send angels down, and they'd do it just like that. They never argue, never fuss, never delay. They just do what he wants them to do. But he's concerned about the worker.

You know why God gives me work to do? He wants to build me. The work that he gives me to do is more of a blessing to me than the work is to others. That's why you have your children and your grandchildren do things. It's much easier for you to carry the garbage out, but that kid needs to learn how to work. Much easier for you to mow the lawn, but he needs to learn how to work. The rabbis used to say, "He who does not teach his son to work teaches him to steal." That's true. God is more concerned about the worker than he is the work because if the worker is what he or she ought to be, the work will be what it ought to be.

But don't watch other workers. Oh, there's a lot of that going on. People-watching is the chief indoor sport of Christians. They get their binoculars out, and they watch. We lived for 2 or 3 years across the street from a lady who sat on her front porch and watched the neighborhood through binoculars. We had to keep our front blinds closed because she'd look right in. She could tell you what you had for breakfast, you know. She had nothing else to do, and that was her hobby, I suppose. But Christians are this way. It's very easy for us to start watching other people in the family or in the church, and that's what happened.

So the lord of the vineyard lined everybody up backward. Here's a fellow who had worked for one hour. Now, he should have gotten 1/12 of a penny. He got a penny, and I can just see this crowd at the end of the line say, "Hey, did you see that? If he got one penny for one hour, and we've worked 12 hours, we're going to get 12 pennies." Boy, they had it all spent by the time that line was moving up.

The next bunch didn't get quite that much, but it was still pretty good, and the next bunch had worked for 6 hours. They got a penny. "Well, that must mean we're going to get at least two pennies, two days' wages." And they got up there, and he said, "Here's your penny." "Hey! That's not fair. You gave him—" "You keep your eyes off of him. He's my worker, not your worker. Didn't you agree for this?" "Yeah, I guess we did." "Here's the contract. Your committee signed it." "Yeah, here. Okay, all right." "Take what you asked for." And learn a lesson: keep your eyes off of other workers.

Paul writes about that over in Romans 14, doesn't he? I just wish that sometime you could read some of the mail that comes to Back to the Bible from people who have nothing else to do but watch the workers. Oh, the things that they can tell you. One of my favorite preachers is Joseph Parker. He was an arrogant preacher. He had a big church in London. Man came up to him after a message and said, "Dr. Parker, you made a grammatical error right here." And Parker looked at him and said, "And what else did you get out of the message?"

May I read to you what Paul has to say to all Christians who are people-watchers? "But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, 'As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.' So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God."

Now Peter needed to learn that, because Peter had a tendency to be a people-watcher. You remember when Peter got restored to discipleship, the Lord said, "Peter, follow me." John 21. Peter got up and began to follow the Lord, so thrilled he's restored now. He's back in our Lord's fellowship. He's a disciple now. Now he hears footsteps behind him, and so Peter turns and looks, and here comes John. And Peter says to our Lord Jesus, "Lord, what shall this man do?" And Jesus said to Peter, "What is that to thee? Follow thou me."

And you're all upset about something that God allowed somebody to do. You're watching some preacher, some Sunday school teacher, some other Christian, and you're saying, "Lord, what about this fellow? Look what he's doing." And the Lord just comes back and says, "What is that to you? He's not going to answer to you. He's going to answer to me."

Now this doesn't mean we shouldn't warn our fellow Christians. If I see somebody walking on the brink of disaster, I'm going to warn him. Doesn't mean we shouldn't lovingly speak the truth and try to help our fellow Christians. I appreciate good honest criticism.

A lady wrote me one day, she said, "You know, you know where you're going in your radio messages. We don't always know, and you give references too fast. Now when you give us a reference, give us time to find it." I said, "That's a good suggestion." I wrote back and said, "Thank you very much. I've only got 16 minutes to raise the dead, but I'll give you more time." I'll give you more time to find. Now, I appreciate that. I appreciate a good suggestion like that.

Don't make bargains with God, warning number one. Don't watch others. They belong to the Lord. Let him pay their wages. Let him hire them the way he wants to. Let him take care of all of these things. When you find yourself criticizing and coveting, watch out.

There's a third warning. Our Lord says, beware of being over-confident. "We've left everything to follow you. What are we going to get?" How do you know you're going to get anything? Now, I'm going to open my heart to you in this matter and maybe I need to be rebuked when the meeting is over, but I'll do it anyway. I have mixed feelings about the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, it's going to be wonderful to see our Lord. It's going to be wonderful to see our loved ones who have gone before. It's going to be wonderful to get rid of my collection of pills and have a body that's going to function with beauty and glory. Oh, so many wonderful things are going to happen when the Lord comes back, but I'm going to have to stand at the judgment seat of Christ.

Oh, but you say, "Brother Wiersbe, you're saved." Wait a minute. I'm going to have to stand at the judgment seat of Christ. And I've met some Christians who act like the judgment seat of Christ is going to be a Sunday school picnic. God's going to examine our motives. God's going to take all these books I've written and all these sermons I've preached, he's going to put them through the fire. And I fear there's going to be a pile of ashes left. If there's one fear I have in my heart, it's the fear that when I get before the Lord, I'm going to discover I didn't really serve him the way I should have.

You say, "Well, you shouldn't think about those things. You should think about the coming of the Lord as a great, delightful event." It will be delightful, it will be wonderful, but I'm going to have to stand before my Master and give an account. And I don't want to be like Peter was, "Lord, what am I going to get?" I think everybody will get something.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said, "And so shall every man have praise of God." I think even the weakest, sloppiest Christian will get something. Maybe not much, but something. But I want to have something to give to him. And you do, too. And the very best way not to have anything is to have this attitude, "What am I going to get?" If anybody's going to get anything, Peter's going to get it.

And I find myself, the older I get in age and in the Lord, I find myself occasionally thinking about the judgment seat of Christ. And the fact that all of my works are going to go through the fire. And friends, it frightens me. I'm not worried about getting into heaven. That's taken care of by the blood of the Lord Jesus. I'm not concerned about that. And I'm not even concerned about what you're going to say.

You know, we're going to be up there and somebody's going to say, "Boy, I thought Wiersbe'd get a lot more than that." No, I'm not worried about that. You'll have your own to take care of. You see, he loves me and he died for me and he gave his best for me and—and I don't want to stand there and say, "Well, Lord, I really could have done better. I know I should have studied harder, I know I should have been more careful and my motives should have been right, and I should have done it for your glory." And I think about that.

Wasn't it Amos who said to the Jewish people, "Woe unto you who say, 'The day of the Lord, the day of the Lord!'" Well, they wanted the day of the Lord to come. He said, "You don't know what you're talking about. It's going to be a day of fire and indignation." The danger of being overconfident, beware. I think this is what the Bible means by the fear of the Lord. To walk in the fear of the Lord, not to be so confident of our ministry, so experienced. "We've done this before, we know how to do it. We don't really need to be prepared, you know." Oh, to walk in the fear of the Lord.

Did you know that before Charles Haddon Spurgeon, probably the greatest preacher of modern times, stepped into a pulpit to preach, he was physically ill? The burden, the holy burden of preaching was so heavy upon him, the realization that he was standing between the living and the dead was so heavy upon him, he actually became physically ill. Until he started to preach and the Spirit of God gave him the power that he needed. We don't see much of that attitude today, a lot of flippancy, a lot of carelessness, a lot of ashes.

Here are three warnings that I need. Don't make bargains with God, and don't watch other workers, and don't get overconfident. Walk in the fear of the Lord, and you know what? He's going to give to every one of us exactly what is right. He'll not make one mistake and you're going to be happy. Each of us will get the reward that we deserve and we're going to be happy, and he's going to be glorified. But oh, that we might serve him as we should.

You know, Peter grew out of this, thank the Lord. I was reading over in Acts 3 where Peter said this to a beggar, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee." He's come a long way from, "What am I going to get?" to, "Whatever I've got, I'll give it to you." Because he'd seen the crucifixion of Christ and he'd heard the crowing of the cock and he'd experienced the coming of the Holy Spirit, and now he was no longer living, "What am I going to get?" but he was living, "How much can I give?" That's a good way to live.

Do you want to be sure that when you stand before the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ there will be a welcome and a reward and a good word? I think about this often when I get selfish. Let's just move out of "What am I going to get?" into "What can I give?" and the whole thing's taken care of. "Such as I have give I thee."

Gracious Father, help us not to be reservoirs that constantly receive, help us to be channels that give. May we realize we're going to give an answer for every sermon we've heard, every study we've experienced. We're going to be held accountable for our opportunities. Oh Lord, may we live to give and not to get. I pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.