That our lives are lived and die for the Lord, and we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of ourselves. It explores the parable of the laborers in the vineyard to illustrate God's incomparable grace, where recompense is not based on merit but on His loving heart, and all who serve faithfully will receive the same reward. The parable of the talents highlights that while abilities differ, faithful stewardship within one's capacity leads to the commendation, "Enter into the joy of your Lord," underscoring the importance of using our God-given lives for His service rather than wasting them.
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Now probably this evening we'll briefly give our formal farewell, but this morning with friends here we've known for such a long time, we want to tell you it has been a blessing to be back at the park. We've come so many times and yet I do not really know all the names. But I saw something down at the Hollywood Bible Chapel. We were down there for some meetings and every Sunday morning when they come in they all put in on a little badge with their name. Now, I don't know why they do that, but for people my age, it's a great blessing. You go up and say, good morning, John, it's good to see you or good morning, Margaret.
If the names weren't there, we might not know them by name, but we do know them through friendship over many years. Well, Grace and I go down to the Boca Rattone Bible Chapel for meeting starting on Sunday, then the Boulevard Bible Chapel, and the Seventh Street Spanish-speaking congregation in Miami. And then up to Georgia, to Atlanta. Now, Atlanta is special, and the friends here will bear with me. We've known the friends in the American congregation for a long time, but there is a thriving Spanish congregation in Atlanta. And then in God's good grace, over the years we've had contact with the African American, the Caribbean American congregation at Decatur Bible Chapel.
So for a couple of weeks we will live in a world of three cultures and two languages, and it is always a special blessing. We finish up in Toronto for the Easter Conference. Let me mention this morning, August and September, we'll be in New York. This is the first time since September eleventh. There will be activities in New Jersey. I would like to share with you today that there are nine Spanish-speaking Christian brethren congregations in New York City, and most of them are filled with Dominicans, and it's always a joy to be with them. And then we have some activities in the fall.
We end up in the Dominican Republic for six weeks. with teaching commitments in the capital city of Santo Domingo. So now and then remember the old Cochran's in their travels as you pray in your daily prayer session. Now we've been talking about walking with God just a few brief thoughts this week. I would like to raise an issue this morning that is of importance I'm going to take you to Romans chapter fourteen and verse seven. I would like to read this portion and just take out one very special thought.
Romans fourteen, verse seven. For none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore. but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cost of fall in our brother's way. Now, the phrase that I would like you to remember is at the end of verse twelve, or really all of verse twelve, each of us shall give account of himself to God.
Now, that's a very personal individual matter. I know we look out at our brothers and sisters and sometimes we make our appraisals. We see their strengths and their weaknesses. But there is a day coming when every one of us will stand in the presence of God. We've been walking with him. We've been talking with him in prayer. We have been reading his word. The opinions of others are not really important. Each person. will give an account to God of his or her own life. And that's a very sobering thought.
I'm going to ask the question, why do we walk with God? And there are some embarrassing things in the scriptures that you read them and you almost cringe. Now listen to Peter. Then Peter answered and said to the Lord Jesus, see, we have left all. and followed you. Therefore, what shall we have? Now let's put that in contemporary English. We've left everything to follow you. What are we going to get out of this? Now most of us would not want to ask a question like that. Peter embarrasses us by being so forceful in asking the question, but he does not seem to embarrass the Lord Jesus.
For the Lord Jesus answered, Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life. So the Lord is not embarrassed, and he certainly speaks about honors, laurels, about a day when prizes will be given, and yet we go back and look at ourselves, and we do ask the question, what motivates us?
Why are we serving the Lord? What is the right motive? Well, the Lord Jesus, as I've mentioned, He makes it very clear there are bright and glorious things awaiting His followers. How does that knowledge affect the way we live? What are the guidelines to help us live and walk with God as we should? I'd like to take you briefly this morning, and because the stories are so long, we cannot read them. but most of you will be familiar with the stories.
The first story is about people in a small community where there's a man who has a large vineyard. Now if you live in a community like that two thousand years ago, please remember there are no unions, there are no social security benefits for workers, when there's a lack of work that means in your family there's going to be hunger and even despair so you're the father the husband you're upright and early where do you go to the little town square and you stand there with others you're hoping that somebody's going to come that day and offer you a job for the day I'm going to take for granted that you are there early in the morning And around six a.m., the owner of the vineyard comes into the square, and he sees you, and he hires you.
And he tells you, I'm going to give you a denarius. Now, that was the going rate for a day's work. You're not being underpaid. You're not being overpaid. That is a just wage. And so you're happy. You're starting early in the morning. And the way you go out into the fields and you work in the vineyard... About three hours later, nine o'clock in the morning, the owner comes back to the square, and other men are there, and he asks them why, and they're looking for work, so he offers them work. And he says to them, he will give them whatever is right, and they're happy, and the way they go, and they work.
Now, at nine o'clock in the morning for my country, in the rural areas, The men have been up, they've gone out to their small farms, they've been working for two or three hours around nine o'clock, they come back for their very hearty breakfast. And then after their breakfast and their coffee, they go out and they continue again to work. Well, we're looking at men that started at six a.m. and then others at nine a.m., this man goes back into the square around twelve noon. Now half the working day is gone. Here are other men standing and he offers them work and they take it.
He says, I will pay you what is right and the way they go. He comes back again at three o'clock. Now there's not much left in the working day at three o'clock. They're given a job. I'm going to pay you what is right and the way they go. It's remarkable that five o'clock, you've only got about one hour left now in the Middle East to work, he's back there and there's still others there. He offers them work and they go, they're going to receive what is right. It's around six o'clock that all the workers finish their work and they come together and they're going to receive their wage.
Now what happened is startling. And you know the story. they all received the same amount of money. There was no difference according to the length of time they had worked. If it happened today in our society, there would be great shouts about injustice. It is wrong. It is not right. But this man, out of the goodness of his heart, he paid them all exactly the same amounts. Now, what is the main lesson that comes out of that? And I would like to suggest to you this morning, it is the incomparable grace of God.
And when it comes to recompense, when it comes to payment, that's a harsh word. For anything we have done in the service of God, please remember, behind everything He will give us on that coming day, is not related so much to what we merit. It comes out of that heart that is filled with love and grace. I know that the hearers of this story, when the Lord Jesus came to that last part, they would be astounded. They never heard of any man who owned a vineyard who would do something like that.
But as the Lord Jesus so often does in the stories he tells, He's not really talking about an earthly owner of a vineyard. He's talking about the house of God. Now, let me just for a moment make one or two comments about this. On that coming day, when we stand in the presence of God, honors will far exceed anything that we think we should receive. I don't think we should underestimate that. And that coming day we've walked with God. We stand in His presence. An account must be given.
We'll stand there. And with justice and with love, He will look at us. The recompenses will come flowing out of His grace. And I repeat, they will far exceed what we might think we should receive. We walk with Him day by day. Let's look at this just a little bit more carefully. Peter and John, as far as we know, they lived very long lives, especially John. Many scholars believe he probably died in his nineties, the only of the apostles who died a natural death. Peter, we believe, was crucified upside down in Rome, but these men lived long lives.
In a sense, They went in at six o'clock in the morning. But then there are two men, one we speak about often, Stephen and then James, the brother of John. I would like to have known Stephen. He must have been a brilliant man. Tremendous insight into the Old Testament and in many ways Paul takes those seeds that he gave in his defense and they explode in the writings of Paul. And yet he's the first martyr on the day when he gave that beautiful defense of the Christian faith.
That was the day they stoned him to death. In a sense, he went in at five o'clock in the afternoon, just a very short period. James, we don't know too much about James, the brother of John, after the resurrection. But Herod raised his hand against the church, and this man, James, was killed by the sword. So you've two men of very short periods of service. What we know of them, they were faithful and committed to the Lord Jesus. So were Peter and John. If we go back to the story, the impression is given on that coming day, the recompense will be the same.
They took advantage of the opportunity they had. I would like to ask you about that this morning because some of us have been around for a long time. As you know, many years ago, five young men were martyred in the jungles of South America. I was in the Dominican Republic, a very young man. Those young men and I, most of us from the Northwest, we belong to the same generation. And they went down and they served with enthusiasm and love and did almost the impossible. And in that great work, they all died as martyrs.
And I've had the privilege for over half a century of serving in the Dominican Republic, when I go to this story, when it's all over, there is no difference. They took advantage. They did their best in their circumstances, and they lived a very short time. I have lived a long time, and on that coming day where there has been faithfulness and love to the Lord, out of His heart, out of His grace, the recompense is the same. faithfulness, dedication, and commitment to the Lord Jesus. In other words, your walk with God isn't something you do light-heartedly.
It's not something that you do now and then. You walk with Him day by day. And I like the message of this story. On that day, the recompense is the same. The other story I would like to share with you is about the man who traveled into a far country and he chose three of his trusted servants. Now we're dealing here with a lot of money and this man looked at round, these are the three key people, I'm going to commit to them all of my goods and they will administer them. And then he went into a far country.
Now, Bible teachers can spend a long time there. The far country, they'll tell you, it refers to the Lord Jesus, who went up to heaven, and there he is. And in the meantime, he's given his goods to his followers. They are to administer them. They're to do his work during his absence. But please notice that these individuals receive the talents according to his own ability. Now there, there's a difference. There's one man among the three, and he's so brilliant and outstanding, he's given five.
And then there's another man, and this man, well, he's very competent also, and he was given two talents. Some translations read, bag of gold. So he received two bags of gold. We're talking about a lot of money. And there was one, apparently, of more limited ability, but he must have been a trusted servant. He was given one. And this man, he went away into this far country, and after a long time, he came back again. This may be one of the few indications that the Lord's return would not be immediate.
It's after a long time that He came back. Well, we know that abilities differ one to the other. As you know, we've had in the grace of God the privilege of serving as a missionary, to use the old-fashioned term, overseas for a long time. That involved learning another language. I was greatly helped by Dominicans, to the point where I've had the privilege of writing books in the Spanish language that circulate in the Spanish world today. One language. Daniel Crawford, who came from our church circles in Scotland a long time ago and died the year before I was born, he went to Africa.
And in Africa, so we understand, this man could speak ten African languages, and he knew had a knowledge of other dialects and languages. Now, I struggled in a sense with one language. This man knew fluently ten plus other languages and dialects. There is a difference in ability. And because of that, sometimes the door is open to jealousy. It happened in the case of Moses. Aaron and his sister Miriam, they looked at Moses and they were displeased, they were jealous, and they complained.
And I like the way the Lord comes down and he says, Is there a prophet among you? Or if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. Not so with my servant Moses. I speak with him face to face. And whatever lies behind those words, I have the idea. Here was a man of great stature. It wasn't done through visions and so on. God just came down and he spoke to Moses the way a friend speaks to his friend face to face. The other two were jealous.
Paul deals about that in the Christian situation, talks about the human body. There are different members. Some members are more prominent. Others are not. And there can be jealousy. Sometimes you have some and they would like to be others. The I cannot say to the hand, Paul says, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet. I have no need of you. He goes on to tell us, all the members are necessary but they are different in function so in the Christian congregation we find those differences when we think about this story it's interesting that when the man who received five talents he came back when the man came back he brought his five talents and he said and here are five talents more now if they're right the talent represents a bag of gold.
You've got ten bags of gold. And He gives these back to the man, and then you have these words, Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Now that is a very beautiful commendation. and especially the latter part, enter into the joy of your Lord. I sometimes wonder in that situation for that servant, what was the most important thought?
That he was going to be put over many things, or he was going to enter into the joy of his Lord. And I would suggest to you that the most important thing was to enter into the joy of his Lord. That's taking the walk with God right into eternity. You're going to share fully his joy, what he is doing. In the meantime, we only do it in a certain way, but in that day we will do it fully beautifully. Then the other servant comes, he's got the two bags of gold, he's got two more. And listen to the words, well done, good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. There is not one little difference in the commendation to the man who had five bags of gold and to the man who only had two. They were serving within their ability. I don't know if you've heard or not, but I've seen it in my life. We had a man come to the Dominican Republic from Venezuela, a good man, Francisco Lievano. This is years ago. He was a young man, a good evangelist.
And in our churches in Santo Domingo, he preached and people were converted. I still have friends who were converted under his ministry. He left us, went back to Venezuela again. And I remember it was rather comical that when some of the young men were invited to speak in the congregations, they would stand up, and you know they were imitating Francisco Leavon. They wanted to be like him. Well, of course, when you do something like that, there's sort of a hollow ring to it. God doesn't ask us to do that. Whatever gifts Whatever ability we have within that sphere, we serve Him.
We walk with Him. We do His will. There's no doubt so many people more gifted than we are, more talented, with far greater ability. That doesn't make any difference. They serve within their sphere. We serve within our limited sphere. This good man said to both of them exactly the same thing. Now the last story I would like to share with you this morning is one of these portions that in a sense I think it makes us think about prizes and recompenses just a little bit more carefully.
We have to think of this man and he has servants and he's going to give them some of his goods and they're going to administer them. The word that is used is mina, and I understand it means probably ten pounds of silver. Now, there are a number of servants, and it's interesting that each one receives exactly the same thing. Now, in the other story, they receive different quantities of wealth according to their ability to administer this for the master.
they're all given exactly the same thing. Now, what does that mean? Well, I've read over the years many, many suggestions. I think the best suggestion that I have read and probably the most common suggestion is that the Mina simply represents the life that God has given to us, the life of the human being. That we all have in common. you may have more ability than I have, that's another issue. You may have a shorter time to serve the Lord than I've had, that's another issue.
But here, we're all on common ground. We all receive exactly the same thing. And that is one life. It's only one. When you get to our age, sometimes you say to yourself, I wish I was young again. I would do things differently. I would do things better. Well, maybe we would. Maybe we wouldn't. But it's a vain thought. You only have one life. And when you think about that, the Lord Jesus is bringing into focus through this story, the life that we have is very precious. And you can use it for God.
You can walk with Him. Or, on the other hand, you can waste that life now i'm sure that men like paul who would know this story it would be told to him this particular story may be behind some of the portions that you have in paul's writings to the corinthians he talks about us we have to stand there before the lord he's going to look at us and he is going to make the evaluation He will know if we've used our life in His service or if we have used it primarily for other things.
I don't mean to be harsh this morning. I'm speaking to myself first and then to you. I don't have to make that judgment about you. You don't have to make that judgment about me. We stand before God and He is going to make that particular appraisal. I don't feel in my heart a great fear about that, because I know the one who stands there, the one we know and love, and I think of the Lord Jesus, His love is so great. I like Faber's words. There's a wideness in His mercy, like the wideness of the sea. You're not looking at a harsh judge, but He is going to look at us.
And the man who had one talent, and He brought back I think it was ten, he's going to be put over ten cities. And you have one with a smaller amount, he's given a smaller. Now there are differences in what comes out to those who belong to God and who have worked with him. The third thing is there was one man and he didn't do anything with his life. For instance, I don't believe he was malicious. I do not believe he was stealing from the master. He's not a prodigal servant who was misusing and wasting the master's money.
He had it safely kept, but he never used it for the master. One scholar of a previous generation has said that this suggests lack of imagination and he failed in courage. Now I like that. Don't ever take the position that you are so lowly or so insignificant that you really don't count in the great things that God is doing. Every one of us count. Every one of us is precious in the eyes of the Lord. When Paul deals about this, he talks about the man who wasted his life and he says, but he shall be saved so as by fire.
And you wonder about that. Come with me to the Dominican Republic along the northern coast where we lived for many years, right down on the beach. And down there, there are lots of very simple people, you might call them from North American, North American point of view, poor people, but they have their little farm and their little shack. Here's a man, he's a widower. His son is up in New York. He has a very small home. You can put it right here on the platform. There probably be some room left over made of that bark that comes off of some of the palm trees. And over time, it dries right out.
It's like tinder. He comes home from a hard day's work out in the field. And right outside the door, there's a little circle of stones. And that's where he builds this fire. He puts on there a large pot. and he peels a couple of plantains and puts them in and he sets down and waits till they boil. And when they're ready, he takes them out and that's his simple supper. And when it's over, he sits on his little chair, takes out his pipe and he has his evening smoke. And then around nine o'clock, he looks at the fire and really there doesn't seem to be anything there, just a few embers. So he goes into his home.
Now this home is small. just a little cot. There's a nail in one corner. That's his only jacket. It hangs there for any special occasion. In the other corner he puts his tools. Under the bed there's a suitcase. And in the suitcase there are the treasures of his life. The picture of his deceased wife, letters from his son in New York, other things of importance in his life. They're all kept there safely. He lies down and immediately he's sound asleep. He's worked hard. Now, when you live close to the beach, you can have a breeze come up, a strong breeze.
And let's take for granted that happened. In a moment, those embers are flames of fire. And with the breeze, they hit the sign of that shack. And in a moment, just a moment, it is engulfed in flames. And that's when he wakes up. He hasn't got time to look for his jacket and his tools or the suitcase. Almost naked, he runs through the fire outside. He's saved. He turned around and is light because that little house represented his life. It is gone. Absolutely gone. You have the invitation to walk with God and you walk with him on that coming day.
This is going to be silver. and there's going to be gold and precious stones, things that go right through the fire into the presence of God. Don't forget, the door is open to take luggage to heaven. You read in the book of the Revelation, and His works go with Him. Those are the works that we've done in fellowship with God. They'll never be lost. They go right with us into the presence of God. But if we've not walked closely with Him, then we may have that sad experience, your life is gone. You only had one life. You never really used it for the Lord.
It's gone, and there you are in His presence. You're saved. You will be there. But the life which is the only opportunity you have in this world to say thank you to God, you never used that opportunity, and it is gone. Let's go back then where we began this morning. I don't know when you were converted, maybe just a year or two ago. You have a short time. Some of us have had many years. That doesn't make any difference. If you're walking with the Lord in His incomparable grace, He's going to bless us in the same way.
We've taken advantage of the opportunity we have had. On the other hand, If we have greater abilities than others, we ought never to boast. And if we have lesser abilities than others, let us not be envious. Let's serve God within our abilities. From the story, the rewards are the same. And you're going to hear those beautiful words enter into the joy of your Lord. Then if we use our lives wisely, then on that coming day there may be differences some may in God's grace do more than we do they'll receive more some of us may only do a mediocre type of job there'll be something for us God forbid that any of us have hidden our life away and not used it in the service of God now to him who's able to keep us from stumbling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
To God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.