I want to talk about something
very practical this morning. You know, the longer a child
of God lives in this world, the greater desire he or she
has to be genuine. And the more evident it becomes
that hypocrisy of any kind to any degree is absolute vanity
and absolutely despicable before God. So what's the point to want people
to think you're something you're not? What good is it? What's
it worth? I knew a family years ago out
in the country, and there wasn't a whole lot to do for entertainment
in those days. And they had three or four old
musical instruments around the house. And I don't know, their
grandpa or uncle or somebody had left them all pretty much
broke up and strings missing. And none of them could play a
note. None of them could play a lick. But sometimes they'd take those
old instruments and pull up a chair and all gathered
around the front porch and sat down with those instruments. And they'd take the radio and hide it behind a chair and turn it to a bluegrass station,
high as the volume would go, wide open. And when a car would, it's summertime,
sitting out on the front porch, car would come by, they'd go
at it, you know. And it was summertime, people
had their windows rolled down, and they'd look and might near
run out of the road as they went by trying to see those people
making music. What they didn't know was that
people were only going through the motions. And of course, when
the car got by after a dirty wrecking, they'd all have a big
laugh about it, because people didn't know any better. But they
were going through the motions. They weren't making music. And I said all that to say this.
I don't want to just go through the motions. Do you? A lot of times people say, well,
you know, I believe a Christian ought to act like a Christian.
Well, that's the trouble now. Too many people acting like Christians. The Lord's children want to be
one. You see? Just be genuine. Just be genuine. I want to read five verses here
in Matthew 21, verses 28 through 32. and see a thought here this morning. Matthew 21, 28 through 32. Christ says, but what think ye?
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. Whether of them Twain did the
will of his father, they say unto him, the first. Jesus saith
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 you believed him not. But
the publicans and the harlots believed him, and ye, when ye
had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him. A certain man had two sons, Now
there are other scriptures in which we many times liken these
two sons to Adam and to Christ, but such is not the case here.
Neither of these sons represent the Lord Jesus Christ because
he always obeyed, immediately obeyed, perfectly obeyed. He said in John 8, 29, I do always
those things that please my father. So these two sons represent the
two classes of people in Adam's race, and there's only two. One of them very honorably professes
obedience from the start, but he fails to follow through, and
he makes his profession a lie. And the other, he blatantly refused
and said to his father, no, I will not. I'm not going. But later is brought to repentance. So the title of our message is
Two Sons, a Repenting Rebel and a Religious Reprobate. And that's
the only two classes of people there are in this world. And the first thing I notice
in this story is the authority of the father. He does not make
a suggestion to his sons that they go work in the vineyard.
He does not invite them to go work in the vineyard. He commands
them to go work in the vineyard. And he does not say if you feel
like it or when you feel like it. But he says today. Today. Son, go work today in my vineyard. To believe the gospel of Jesus
Christ is obedience to the command of God. You see, Bible language
is not Would you accept Jesus? Would you try Him? Would you give Him a chance?
Would you believe? No Bible language is in the form
of a command, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt
be saved. And of course it is something
greater than human ability when a person does believe. It is
something greater than so-called free will when a person does
obey the command. So we look at these two sons
and see which one you fit in with. You certainly fit with
one or the other. And we're going to look first at the second son
in this story, verse 30, and I'll not be too long this morning.
Came to the second and said likewise. He answered and said, I go, sir. And it went not. His profession
is most honorable. It is a profession of willingness
to obey. I'll go. It's a profession that's made
with a seeming respect for his father. He does not say, OK,
Pops, or OK, old man. He says, yes, sir. I go, sir. It's all so honorable until we
get to the last three words of verse 30, where it says, and
went not. He did exactly opposite of what
he told his father he'd do. Now, some have defended this
son by saying, that he never deliberately lied to his father.
He meant to go. He wanted to go. He just kept
getting hindered. Well, that sounds pretty good,
but it's not consistent with Christ's words later in verse
32, where the Lord likens this son to the religious leaders
he's talking to. He says in so many words, like
this son, Your religion is all talk. You give this beautiful profession
before men, implying obedience to the Lord, and you say, I go,
sir. I'm laboring in the vineyard.
But see, Christ knew their hearts. He knew their true motive for
their religion. It's all about the approval and
the praise of men. They never intended to follow
God. They pretended to, but they never
really intended to. They never believed on Him. And
He's saying to them, you guys haven't repented, and you never will. You don't think
you have anything to repent of. And it's the same today. There
are multitudes of folks all around us that think because
they made a mental decision for Christ, and they've never had a marriage
problem, and they've never had a wayward child, and they don't
drink liquor, and they don't cuss out loud, and they attend
church regularly, then they're in a position to look down on
most folks around them in the same deal with these Pharisees
and religious leaders. This is a vital point, folks,
about what's right in here. Paul said, for I know. He said, I'm not wondering about
it. I'm certain of it. I know that in me, that is in
my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. It's just not here. But now these folks didn't act
like that. Religious folks today don't act
like that. I remember one time years ago,
dear old brother Joe Parson, preaching one morning at the
camp meeting. And they would see young preachers coming in
from some school, you know, and they would march right down there
to the front seat. And they was all, hey, hey, hey,
amen, hallelujah, preach it, brother. You know all that stuff. And Brother Joe, in his calm
way, was preaching. He was talking about the very
thing I'm talking about. And he came down out of the pulpit
and he walked down there and he poked his finger into this
guy's face. And he said, I'll tell you what
you boys need to do. It's about four or five of them.
He said, y'all need to go out and
get drunk and fall flat on your back and puke in your face. So you'll have something to repent
of. You boys ain't never done nothing
wrong. That's your trouble. I hope there's nobody like that
here this morning. Well, there's not really. I hope there's nobody
that thinks like that. You see, this business of knowing
what's in here is important. It's important. People think
lip service, a little outward appearance of being a Christian.
is good enough and dislocked it. Dislocked it. Let the radio
do it. Let everybody think. Let everybody
think I'm something I'm not. No, that don't get it. You see, circumstances reveal
character. It has a way of coming out. Only the grace of God creates
character. Circumstances don't make us what
we are. Circumstances reveal what we
are. There's some people sitting here
this morning that's been through things this year that, but for
the grace of God, you wouldn't darken the door of a church and
you'd hate God with a passion. But because of grace, he's brought
circumstances in our lives to bring us to the end of ourselves, to humble us, to bring us to
cry to him, and to mold us and make us and mature us as his
children. If there's grace in the heart,
it'll be evident in difficult times. And if there's not grace
in the heart, it'll be evident. It'll come out. No matter how
nicely people say, I go, sir, I go, sir. No matter how much they say it
or how dogmatically one says it, without a change of heart,
which is the work of God, Any true obedience to the Lord is
out of the question. So very many have a head knowledge
religion. And of course, with a truckload
of denominations and religious ideas, everybody finds one they
like. And they can fit right in with
no grace in the heart and no love for the Lord in their It's
so sad. It is so sad. So many are so
deceived in this hour. I talked with a man this week, Watchtower, Jehovah's false witness. For about half an hour, I talked
to him. And I wasn't trying to hurt him.
I tried to be calm and I tried to be patient, and I tried to
be nice. I'm telling you, that's not easy
for me. I don't like people that are
messed up when it comes to this book. But I tried to be nice. And he was very well-dressed,
polite, a gentleman, and he wanted to give me a brochure. That's
the way it started out. And I said, would you have time
for me to ask you two questions? And he said, sure, ask me all
the questions you'd like. And I said, no, just two, just
two. And of course I knew the answers. I knew his answers before
I asked the question. And so I said, do you believe that Jesus
Christ is God? And with no hesitation, he said,
no. He's the son of God. He's not
God. And after I had a little round
with him, some scripture about that, and then I asked him again,
another question, do you believe there's a hell? And with no hesitation, the answer
was no. And I said, well, I have no more
questions. I just have a statement. You don't believe the Bible.
And he said, oh, yes, I believe the Bible. Well, see, you can't talk to
someone who says they believe the Bible and they don't believe
what the Bible teaches and says. It's just a. So I never got to
first base with him. He's deceived through and through. And, you know, unless the Lord somehow used it and would do
something on down the road, I considered it a wasted half hour. Nothing. And I'm not just picking on that
fella. There are multitudes of so-called Bible-believing people,
so-called Baptists, that say, I'm a good person. I'm a Christian. I believe the Bible. And then
they'll say, I'm doing the best I can to make it to heaven. Well, the gospel is not about
you doing the best you can to make it to heaven. The gospel
is about what God has done for us through His Son. Jesus Christ. So now this son and his kind,
they have their religion and their good profession. I go,
sir. I go, sir. And they'll ride that
horse, plumbing to hell. Somebody once said the road to
hell is paved with good intentions. Well, I don't even believe he
had any good intentions. It's just a profession. this profession. Let's look at the other son now.
Verse 29. He answered and said, this is
after the father had said, son, go work today in my vineyard.
He answered and said, I will not. You say, well, now that's
an awful way for a boy to talk to his dad. Well, at least he
was honest. He didn't want to go. He didn't
intend to go. And he told his father, so I'm
not going. Which is worse. I mean, that's not as awful as
the guy who never intended to go and said, oh, well. At least
he was honest. The other one had no conviction,
no conscience. And he had no problem saying,
yes, sir, I will. I go, sir, I go, sir, when he
didn't intend to go. He gives no thought at all. Just a little religion on the
surface, a little pretense. little Pharisee-ism. You know,
if what we hear nowadays is right, if what I hear, and I've heard
this many times through the years, if what I hear is right, there's
going to be a multitude of folk in heaven because their grandpa
was a preacher. There's going to be another multitude
there because they grew up in church. There's going to be another multitude
there because they were baptized. And there's going to be another
multitude because they did so many wonderful works. But none
of them is going to be there for those reasons. None, not
one. But now this, this other son,
he said, no, I'm not going. And he went his way. But he was brought to think soberly
about what he had said to his father and what he had done.
Now, I never said he started to think. I said he was brought
to think. It was a power bigger than him. that caused him to think, that
convicted him, that changed his heart. Our Lord many times expressed
the necessity of repentance, turning from the path of vain profession, of wrong,
of disobedience, of rebellion, The 13th chapter of Luke, our
Lord referred to a tower that fell on 18 people and killed
them. And obviously there was some talk around town about it.
And our Lord said to some folks, said, do you, do you think that
those were worse sinners than everybody else? Do you think
that's why it happened to them? And he said, I tell you, except
you repent, you'll all perish. You'll all perish. Repentance
is the issue. Unless the Lord quickens you to know and feel
the awfulness of your sin, you'll never give it a sober thought
and can't. Romans 3.11, there is none that
understand it. It's not an intellectual matter. There is none that seeketh after
God. It's not a free will matter.
No, no. The will of fallen man is in
bondage to sin and to Satan. And there is none that seeketh
after God. Isaiah 64, 7, There is none that
calleth upon thy name, none that stirreth up himself to take hold
of thee. What am I saying? When God leaves
you alone, you're certain to perish. Certain to perish. But He moved on this one boy's
heart to see and to feel and to know how awful his sin was
and his rebellion was. And he brought him to repentance. He never decided to repent. Nobody
does or can. Romans 2, 4, it is the goodness
of God that leadeth thee to repentance. That's the only way and the only
time anybody does and can. Oh, Dr. B.B. Caldwell had a sermon
on Psalm 888. I am shut up. I cannot come forth. I've thought about that a lot
of times. We're shut up to live in this flesh. We have to live in these sin-cursed
bodies. We're shut up to sin. We can't
rid ourselves of it. We're shut up to die. It's appointed unto us. King,
avoid death. And shut up to the judgment of
Almighty God. Fallen man's in an awful shape.
Paul said it clearly, Ephesians 2.12 to Gentiles, to us. Having
no hope. and without God in the world. That's where we all were until
the Lord came our way. And if you don't know him this
morning, that's where you still are. Having no hope and without God
in the world. What are you going to do about
it? Well, all you can do about it is maybe hoot about what you've
done about it, a little bit of religious stuff. You really hadn't
done anything about it. What's God done about it? That's
the issue. That's the question. Well, what's the evidence that
this boy was granted true repentance? We find it right here. The other
one, there was no change in his life, no change in his heart.
He just said, I go, sir. I go, sir. I go. So I go, sir. I go, sir. And he kept saying
that till he died. But the one who said no, the
beginning had a change of heart. The Lord convicted him and led
him to repentance. He was truly sorry for dishonoring
and disobeying his father. He went to work in the vineyard.
He was late getting there, but he got there. He got there. That's the evidence. When he
repented, he obeyed. He worked all the more diligently,
I believe, seeing what his disobedience and rebellion cost him. He does
not deny having been a rebel, but proves now by his obedience
that he's a repenting rebel. The other son, so religious with
a great profession, but never brought to repentance. He proves
to be a religious reprobate. certain to slide straight from
a church pew right into hell. Reprobate concerning the faith,
Paul said. Religious, yes, but a stranger
to grace. No conviction, no repentance,
no change. June and I, when we were married,
it's been a while back now. And even before we were married,
we went to a church where the gospel was preached. And the
preacher put a little sign out under the main church sign with
three words on it. It said, for sinners only. Well, where I worked, the boss
man was a religious fella, and he had He had to drive right
by there every day and he saw that. And it bugged him. And he came over to me one day
at work and he said, don't y'all want Christian people to come
to your church? He never understood it. He lived long, healthy and wealthy. But he never understood that
for sinners only. Christ died for sinners. And
unless the Holy Spirit teaches you, you'll never really understand
that you are one. You'll certainly never believe
that you're much of one. You live and die saying, I go,
sir. Consider it done, sir. I can
hypocrite with the best of them, but I don't want to go through
the motions. In Luke 15, the story of the
two sons, there was nothing wonderful about the hog pen, but what the
Lord did in that boy's heart at the hog pen, that was wonderful.
That was wonderful. There's nothing wonderful about
your sin or mine, not at all. It's very shameful, very bad. There's nothing wonderful about
that addiction or habit or lying or cheating. But if the Lord wakes you up,
shows you the shame of it, the awfulness of it, the dishonor
to our Lord, and leads you to repentance. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. A wonderful
thing. Now the question, verse 31. I
know our time's gone. No, it ain't quite gone. Verse
31. Whether of them Twain did the will of his father, they
say unto him, The first. See, he's really hanging these
feathers with this story. They give the right answer, but
it's nailing them. It's nailing them. And they say the one that said
no first, but his no was not final. God did a work. The other one
said, yes, but his yes was false. He's left to himself. And then
Jesus drops the hammer on these successful religious leaders
that everybody thinks is so wonderful. And he says, verily, that word
means surely, This is how it is. This is exactly how it is.
Verily, I say unto you that the publicans, those tax collectors
that you fellows hate, and the harlots that you guys
are so down on, they go into the kingdom of God before you. They heard of my mercy and grace
and forgiveness and believed, repented. And you've heard it
and haven't repented. The saddest thing in this world
this morning is not folks out yonder and over yonder who's
never heard. The saddest thing in this world
this morning is not those Al Jander saying no to God, he can
change that. The saddest thing on earth is
people sitting in churches all over this country, just like
this one, including this one, with the attitude, I can live
with it or without it. I go, sir. I can come once a
week or once a month or once a year. It makes no difference.
I can read the Bible and not read it. I can pray or not pray. I can hear preaching or not. It doesn't affect me either way. Saddest thing on earth. Saddest
thing on earth. To live and to die. in disobedience
to God concerning the gospel of His Son. To live and die that
way, oh, you'd be so much better off, so much better off to have
never seen or heard of this. With light comes responsibility,
and we've had lots of light around here. Oh, may God grant us repentance. Turning, not to profess only,
but to practice. One old writer said, I repent
daily of my inability to repent. That's what we all ought to do.
I repent daily of my inability. At the beginning of this story,
everybody would vote for the son that said, yes, I go, sir. And nobody would have voted for
the boy that said, no, I'm not going. But at the end of the story,
they said the one who did the father's will was the very one that made a
fool out of himself in the beginning. and said, no, I'm not going to
do it. But then by God's grace was brought to repentance and
had a change of heart and obeyed the command. Oh, may God help
us today. A repenting rebel and a religious
reprobate. The only two sides there is.
Let's stand together.