Jesus' encounters with his critics, as recorded in Matthew 22, demonstrate how his wisdom and truth left them speechless. The sermon explores the reasons for this silence, which can stem from being found out by God, being overwhelmed by His presence, or a new glimpse of Christ's glory. Ultimately, the message emphasizes that God calls us to think and respond to His claims, using the parable of the two sons in Matthew 21 to illustrate that obedience, not mere words or intentions, is what truly honors God. The sermon concludes by urging listeners to surrender their will to God's plan, recognizing that His claims are reasonable, unbending, and urgent for every believer, regardless of age.
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eight o'clock and I'm going to finish a little late tonight but you won't worry about that you're not going any place are you now before we turn to the reading for the evening the book story is open and I picked up three books that I thought you might be interested in I didn't manage to count the shopping days to Christmas but this is a good way to buy your Christmas presents early and one of our coming speakers is Laman Strauss. Jack Woodson, when he was announcing him, used to call him Laman Straws, but you get anything from Jack.
This is called in God's Waiting Room. Now those of you who were here when Laman Strauss was with us will remember his wife in her wheelchair and I think his very first chapter in this book is Great Moments in Marriage and then suddenly his wide ministry was brought to a screeching halt with the severe stroke suffered by his wife he still takes care of her twenty-four hours a day when he goes away to preach he takes her with him so that he can minister to her personally and along with his ministry to the Lord's people he has a very special ministry to her but he preacher though he was wide experience had lessons to learn and he learned them in God's waiting room now this is four ninety five and it's a very very fine book I began to read it and I couldn't put it down the best of Harry Ironside this also I
think is four ninety five And I don't know how they've managed to sort out the best of H. A. Ironside. Because all of his writings are so good, and they could never get the best in a book that size. But I suppose they've done their best to sort out the best so that you might get the best. And here it is, and this is, as I said, four ninety-five. And then T. Ernest Wilson, one of our preachers of the past, mystery doctrines of the New Testament God's sacred secrets how many of you have read that book one two three four of us have good news for you it's only two dollars and fifty cents and you will get a blessing theologically as well as spiritually out of that book about the mysteries in the New Testament.
And I took almost three minutes for that commercial. How many of you, I wonder, were watching the news tonight on Channel Four? Anybody watching the news on Channel Four? I was very, very struck, and I wonder whether it struck you. A little boy in the zoo in London fell into the gorilla pit. And there was a photograph of him lying unconscious on the floor in the gorilla pit.
And as the camera ran, a huge gorilla came up and bent over. And yes, I believe it was. tenderly touched that little boy. You know who I thought about? The Good Samaritan. The other two fellas who passed by weren't even as good as the gorilla. But I was very struck with that because the way that animal touched that little boy was actually not just a touch of curiosity but I'm sure a touch of tenderness.
When the little boy stirred, then the gorilla scampered away. They rescued him safely and he wasn't badly hurt. I just took the other two minutes of my first five. Now let's turn to Matthew chapter twenty-one, shall we? In fact, I think we'll be perverse tonight and we'll turn to twenty-two instead. The Lord Jesus often confronted his enemies, his detractors, his critics. Now this twenty-second chapter to which we'll come back in just a moment or two is a very striking chapter for a number of reasons, but I just want to point out four little verses or just a part of four little verses that I think are really significant.
Look at the end of verse twelve of chapter twenty-two, will you? And he was speechless. Now look at verse twenty-two. And when they had heard these words, they marveled him, marveled, and left him, and went their way. Without a word. It was without a word. Look at verse thirty four. When the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
Look at the end of the verse, the end of the chapter, verse forty-six. And no man was able to answer him a word. Not one. with all of their scheming and with all of their plotting and planning and getting together when they confronted the Lord Jesus or rather when he confronted them every one of them was put to silence that's a very striking thing when you think of some of these learned some of these educated some of these Theologically well-taught men.
Not a word to say. Now sometimes when God confronts His own people, they find themselves in exactly that same condition. Not for the same reason, perhaps. But not able to utter a word in His presence. speechless. Sometimes it is because God they know has found them out and they have no excuse. Sometimes it is because their tears are flowing and they come to God crying out why and God in His own quiet fashion ministers to their hearts.
and suddenly they don't have anything to say and sometimes it is because the Spirit of God had worked in their hearts they get a new glimpse of the Lord Jesus they get wholly taken up with him and they become literally awestruck in their adoration and again they can say absolutely nothing. No man is ever left the same as he was when he's confronted with the Lord Jesus, when God stands before him and challenges him.
I want you to go back to chapter seventeen of this gospel. Chapter seventeen of Matthew There is a question here, and it is asked of a man named Simon. The Lord afterwards called him Peter, a little stone. But he comes in very worried fashion to the Lord Jesus and says the tax-gatherers are on our track.
Everybody's scared of the IRS man and Peter was quite scared. And he came to the Lord and the Lord said to him, What thinkest thou? Now turn over to chapter eighteen, will you? This time it's quite different. The Lord Jesus has a large company of people and he's going to tell them the story of the lost sheep. Verse twelve, see how it begins. How think ye. Look at chapter twenty one.
Verse twenty eight. I'm going to read this story to you because I want to talk about it. A certain man had two sons. and he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard, and he answered and said, I will not. But afterwards he repented and went. And he came to the second and said, Likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir, and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father, asks the Lord Jesus. They say unto him the first, Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
For John came unto you, in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not. For the publicans and the harlots believed him, and ye, when ye have seen it, repented not afterward that ye might believe, or believe him. But he prefaces this story again with the question. What? Think ye." Go to chapter twenty-two. And look at verse seventeen. And here it's the story about the tribute. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar? And Jesus, perceiving their wickedness, said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites, show me the tribute money.
And they brought him a penny, and he said to them, Whose is this image and superscription? They said it's Caesar's. Then he said, render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's. Now that was a thing that made them marvel and leave him without a word. But again he prefaces it with this question. What thinkest thou? Now God is asking in each of these cases for an opinion because God wants people to think.
There are people who suggest that since God knew in advance that man was going to sin, there was no logical reason why he should have made man in the first place. But of course there was. Had God made man incapable of sinning, without a will of his own, he would have made a creature incapable of loving too. He would have made a robot, but instead he gave to man a free will so that a man could yield that will in love to him so that he, God, might have his way.
He wants us to think. Now some of us may be getting to the place where we think we're not capable of it anymore. Not capable of it anymore. But the fact that we think that shows that we're still able to think anyhow and it really isn't true. You know basically it isn't true. You're still able to put two and two together or you say, well, two and two make four. But you better think again, because that's only if you add them. If you put them side by side, then they make twenty-two. So you have to think. Now God, in many ways in his word, seeks to stimulate our thoughts.
The reason why the Lord Jesus spoke using parables was very simple. He wanted people to scratch their heads and say, Now, what is he getting at? What is he trying to tell us? What lesson is he seeking to put across? He must have told a story for a reason. What's the reason? Do you ever read adverts where suddenly there's one line upside down? What do you immediately do? You turn the magazine around so you can read the upside down line. Sneaky thing it is. It's just to make sure that you don't treat it like all the other adverts, but that you think, turning it upside down and then finding out the gist of the matter.
Now, the Lord Jesus told a story here about a certain man who had two sons and who said to the first and then to the second, son, go work today in my vineyard. Now I think the Lord Jesus was seeking to get across to thinking people and is still seeking through this story to get across to his thinking people the thought that God makes claims. Now we talk these days about our rights, these rights, those rights, the other rights.
When believers talk about rights, they're not on very secure ground. Because the moment you receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior and your Lord, you gave up your rights and you don't have any rights. The Apostle Paul referred to himself as a bond slave of Jesus Christ. So when God makes some claim of you, God does that very reasonably. He has a right to make whatever claim He will.
Did you notice this word, son? It was because there was a special relationship between these men that the one was able to say to the other, son. go work today in my vineyard and when God approaches you he calls you my child and because you're his child that very special relationship gives to him a claim upon you and no claim that he can make upon you or upon your life is an unreasonable claim.
Now there are those who have been called to lay down their lives for the Lord Jesus. I made a reference to five of them yesterday. And some of us can remember reading that story about the Stams, a young couple who laid down their lives in China many years ago but whose story is still a very challenging story. whose little girl was hidden and rescued. You'll have to read the story for yourself, but there have been many martyrs and God claimed from them their lives. And even in that he was not unreasonable.
There was a Scotsman who had had too much whiskey who was walking, not very steadily, down through the streets of a large Scottish city. And there was an open-air meeting in progress. And all Scotsmen of a past generation were brought up in God-fearing homes. Maybe that's a little extravagant. but every one of them had some kind of godly influence brought to bear on his life. I'm sure it's not so today, but Scotsmen are far better off than Englishmen as far as that is concerned.
When he found the man standing there was holding up a Bible, Because he had been prayed for at his mother's knee, she'd read the Bible to him, he'd been to Sunday school, of course. He was a Scotsman from a past generation. That goes without saying. And so he sort of wobbled up to the open-air meeting, and he stood there not very steadily listening to the preacher and not able to see him clearly, but he heard him speak of Jesus. And the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. And it's more than he could stand. He pushed his way through the crowd and stood swaying before the preacher.
And he said, I would die for Jesus Christ. The preacher looked at him and stopped his message and said, Sir, he hasn't asked you to die for him. He's asked you to trust him and live for him. And you don't seem to be doing a very good job of it. I doubt that God will ask any one of us here at this point in our lives to lay down our lives for him as martyrs. But who knows, it could happen.
But he has asked every one of us, in fact he has claimed from us the life that he doesn't ask in martyrdom. to be yielded to him in total obedience and that claim is not unreasonable if the Lord Jesus gave his life for you then you should be prepared to give your life in its totality whatever it may cost you to him those claims are unbending claims because when God makes a claim upon you he doesn't back off.
In the first place it would be unnecessary because he made this claim for your good and for his glory. And again to back off would be unwise because any other course for you but to discover and to fit into his plan for your life make sure life a lost cause. God doesn't bend. The Word of God doesn't bend. His claims do not bend, and He does not back off from them. And they are very clear in His Word. Speaking of His own death, He said, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
And then he said, if any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily and follow me. And a cross is not something to wear in your lapel or hang around your neck. A cross is something to die on. What did Paul say? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And that's the claim that God makes upon the life of the preacher and the life of every member of the congregation.
It's both reasonable and unbending. It's what God expects of us. But these claims are also urgent because God expects us to hear His voice now as He speaks and now to make our decision as to whether or not our will is going to be surrendered to his will. Now there are people who would say, I should be preaching this message to teenagers, to young couples and not to folk like you who are fifty and maybe a little more.
But the fact is that the claim is still the same whether you're seventeen or one hundred. You'll notice that God's claims are very fair. This man had two sons. He said to the first and he said to the second. He didn't treat them any differently, the one from the other. Now God's will for you may be very different from God's will for someone else. In fact, it surely will be. Because you have a different personality, he made you a little different, he fitted you for a special spot in his plan, and he fitted them for another little spot in his plan.
But for each to fill that place calls for a complete and day by day, hour by hour, surrender to him. And no man gets too old. to come back to the Lord Jesus constantly and say, Lord Jesus, it's not worth very much but I know you want it. So again, as I did previously, I want to put my life into your hands because I want you to have your way with me. Do you know God has sometimes transformed men after their seventieth birthday and they may have been Christians for fifty years it happens believe me it happens God not only makes claims he weighs actions a certain man had two sons he came to the verse and said son go work today in my vineyard now there's the relationship And there is his claim upon the boy, upon the young man,
and there is the urgency today in my vineyard. One says, I will not. My, that sounds like a teenager, doesn't it? I can see him with his long hair tossing it and saying, I'm not going to do that. You go pick your grapes yourself. I can, you know, young people are very rebellious sometimes. Never happens to an older person, does it? Don't you believe it? I will not. But the Lord Jesus weighed his action.
And he said, He repented later and went. The other fellow said, I go, sir. But he didn't go. I've often wondered why he didn't go. I wonder what it was that interfered. You know, God is not impressed at all by that which is just vocal. You can know all of the phrases with which to pray. You can talk very volubly and very easily in the presence of God. You can very readily make promises to God and not keep them.
God doesn't listen to words only. One said, I go, sir. Notice how respectful he was, how polite he was. He called him sir, and he said, I go, but he didn't go. Now the Lord Jesus weighs his actions. These two men, and he says, which of these two did the will of his father? and they say unto him the first. That was the impolite one. That was the rebellious one. That was the one who tossed his head and said no. But later on thought better of it and said, He's my dad.
There's a lot of work that somebody's got to do. I better go after all and he goes and finds his brother isn't there. But however, he's the one that is commended. You see, God is not impressed by that which is just vocal. You can say, I go, sir, I go, sir. You can say it a thousand times, but if you don't go, it doesn't impress God. Another thing, God is not swayed by good intentions. You can say, I go, sir, and mean to go. Or you mean it when you say it, but something happens. Maybe you just don't have the time because suddenly you get stuck with this or stuck with that or stuck with the other and might you say, I'll have to put it up a little while.
I can't go just now. Or maybe the voice of the Father just becomes a little less audible and it fades away and your interest dies with it and you lose interest. Or maybe when you said it in the first place, you really didn't intend to do it. But even if you did, the fact you didn't go shows that you didn't have your priorities in the right place. This son certainly did not.
God was no more swayed by his good intentions when he said, I go, sir, than he was impressed by his vocality. But you'll notice something else here. God is not discouraged by hesitation. Somebody says, no, I'm not going to go. Why should God make this demand of me? Why should God make this claim upon me? Why should God at this time when things are going so well in this direction suddenly say, go in that direction? God does that sometimes, you know.
And so you say, no. But then the Spirit of God that we were talking about this morning means the needle. You know, he begins to... put the point of the knife in and then worse he begins to turn it a little and you start to get very very uncomfortable I said no to God how can anybody say no to God what right had I to say I will not do it I will not go there you find somebody else God wouldn't have asked you if there was anybody who could have fitted into that spot quite as well as you he fitted you for it not too late to repent and say I said no but Lord I didn't mean it I realize how stupid I would be I just I really want to go where you want me to go and to be what you want me to be and to do what you want me to do although you hesitated, although
for a little time you said no and you argued with God. Can you recall any of those arguments you had with the Lord? Some of those things and you said, no, please no, Lord, not this. I can remember the story of a man who decided he had to give his life to the Lord to be a missionary. And she told the Lord so, but he said, Please, Lord, don't send me where there are snakes. I'm scared of snakes. Do you ever say yes to the Lord with a reservation? It's just like saying no, you know. Just like saying no. Now, God uses also specifics.
He says, Go, work, today in my vineyard. Now his initial command is go, and his second is work, and his third is today. My, that's very, very specific. See what God is doing here, he's indicating a direction, and he's saying, put all you've got into it, it's work, and don't put it off. It's amazing how many mundane things, really mundane things can become really divine missions.
I know a man who very recently came out to see what he could do to help one morning with work in the park. And the gardener got hold of him and said, Can you ride a mower? Eight o'clock in the morning he was on the job and on the mower and mowing your grass. Now something like that may seem to be very mundane. But you know, when it's a ministry for God, when God has said, Now look, you could do that. You could do that. You go and do it.
It's as important as going to the mission field. I don't think that all the able-bodied people in the park do as much for God at the park as they could do. I'm not pleading for volunteers, but I hope some of you get convicted because there's a lot of maintenance and a lot of work I'm just trying to point out to you while being a little sly about it that this is as important to God as going out to Africa as a missionary if it's what God wants you to do.
If it's something that you're doing for him because he called you to do it. God uses specifics. Go. Work. Today in my vineyard. and his final analysis is this. One who said, no, but went, and one who said, I go and didn't went, the Lord said, you know which one did the will of the Father. Don't be a yes man, or a yes woman.
unless you are prepared to back up that affirmative for God with your actions, whatever it may be. You know, I'm excited tonight because I have a brand new granddaughter on her way from Korea due to arrive at eleven o'clock tonight, if the Lord will, in Des Moines, Iowa. a little child who's called a child with special needs because she has a hole in her heart and another problem and is unadoptable but my son and my daughter-in-law she's a registered nurse before God said there's something that we can do for this child we will adopt her.
Now I've told you, put her on your prayer list and pray for her. They have given the two grammars, paid them a great compliment by giving her both of their names. Her name, if you please, is Joy Elizabeth. But I was very, very delighted that for God's sake, they should have assumed a heavy burden like that because they said we can do it and that child has no one else to do it and I believe God will bless them for it and I'm not saying this to boast in my children as many a time that son I'm sure has said no to God and he'd be the first one to tell you but in this I believe he has said yes to God and they are following through.
It's just an illustration. But, you know, in our own lives, we can find the message that God, the Spirit, is trying to get through to us when He says, go, work today in my vineyard, because there is still something we can do. There are people, and I travel around, not so much as I used to, who say to me, I know by the way that God has been working on my behalf that the people at the Park of the Palms are praying.
Isn't that a wonderful reputation to have? That's a reputation that you have. And I've heard it in a number of places. Make sure that you deserve it. Praying is the greatest thing in the world. And it's a thing that we first of all neglect and a ministry in which we fail. But you know, these are the things that God uses to mold characters. He does it by asserting His control after there has been a willingness to surrender to it. And He does it by allowing one's choice. You will let him, or you will not let him.
This message was given to men to whom the Lord Jesus said ye repented not and would not believe. We read the New Testament through, we'll find places where the people of God was said to have repented. We think only the sinner has to repent. But no, the believer has to repent too. When he finds evidences of disobedience in his life. When he finds evidences of unwillingness to do what God wants him to do. When he finds himself guilty of the sin of prayerlessness.
And that is a sin, you know. One of the old said... God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. You sat too still. I've gone ten minutes over my time. We'd better pray. Our Heavenly Father, We want every one of us to admit in thy presence the fact that you have a right to claim from us whatever you will, and we have no right to say no.