The Parable of the Two Sons

I was thinking how... I know I've got several different Bibles, and this one that I currently use is a New Revised Standard version. So it's a little different than what you may read commonly if you read a New King James or the King James, or whichever translation you might read.

But one of the disadvantages that I have felt regarding this particular Bible is that it's differently than from most of the others that I have. The New King James, and I believe all the King James that I have, they all have the words of Jesus written in red. That's pretty common that that happens. I think that... I always like... I don't like the fact that they don't have them in red here in this Bible, but they're all in black and white. And certainly Jesus said that His words are spirit, and they are life. And so I've always thought, that's good to have those highlighted in red. And of course it places an emphasis on what it was He said, how it was He addressed things, what it was He explained. We also see that Jesus said the parables that He spoke, and of course He gave quite a few. I think sometimes you can go through and you can try to enumerate all those parables. And some of them are very clear, some of them are maybe less defined as far as whether it's a parable or whether it's just a story He was telling at the time. But He said that the parables were given to conceal from most people. That was a part of why the parables were given, if you read in Matthew 13. The parables were given to conceal information from most, but to reveal understanding to those whose eyes and ears would be open. And understanding about God, about Jesus Christ, about the kingdom that's coming, and about how we can enter into the kingdom of God. We're not yet there. We're on our way, but it says we're not going to enter the kingdom of God until we're no longer flesh and blood. And so I think it's fabulous to realize that we can be in a special category of having spiritual understanding and perception as we read the words of the Bible. Because many people read the Bible, or at least they have a Bible, whether they read it or not. And they may feel, well, I've read that and I'm not needing to study it, but I believe most of you, and I certainly encourage all of us, to regularly study the Bible, to read the Bible. You have to first read, and then you can probably later, more intently, study what the Word of God says.

I want to focus on one of the parables of Jesus. This is actually a very short parable. It's in Matthew 21. And it's a parable of the two sons. Now, Jesus gave this parable. I'm not going to directly read it right now. If you turn over there, you'll see where it is.

And you might think, well, you know, that's pretty simple. It's actually pretty obvious what he is talking about. But I think the more that we look at this, the more we might be able to glean from these words of life, words of God.

Because that actually is, I think, what we should be thinking every time we read the pages of the Bible. Because this Bible gives us the way to eternal life. It gives us an understanding of what God wants us to do. It shows us who God is and what he's doing. It shows us who man is, how limited we are, what God's purpose for us is.

And it shows us how to have eternal life. You know, those are all important questions, very significant questions. I think it's important as we think about the parables of Jesus that we realize that often, to better understand the parable, you need to determine, well, who's he talking to?

Usually, he's either talking to his disciples, who he's given some clear instruction to, and possibly they're picking up on it, or he's talking to the crowd in general, or maybe he's talking to the religious leaders. You know, why would he be talking to them in parables? Well, for the most part, they didn't understand.

And yet, you can see in this particular area that I'm going to cover today, they actually did understand.

They understood he was talking about them. They realized, you know, and that infuriated them that he would have the gall to tell them, you know, their sins or tell them their flaws.

And yet, it's important, as we study the parables and you ask God for understanding, and not just understanding, because there's more to it than just being able to read and maybe understand what the parable is about and who's it talking about.

But more, and even beyond that, how does that motivate me? What does it cause me to do as a Christian?

I'd like for us to start with, you know, as I said, we want to be able to see who Jesus is addressing. We back up a few pages here in Matthew, Matthew chapter 18.

I can give you a couple of examples here, because again, you could probably pick these out of many of the different sections where you could read some parables.

But in Matthew chapter 18, you actually find, in Matthew 18 verse 21, that a question was asked of Jesus. It says, Peter came and said to Jesus, Lord, another member of the church sins against me, how often do I have to forgive them?

And of course, you know, he was wanting to know about forgiveness. He was wanting to understand the topic of how much do I need to be forgiving. And of course, Jesus' answer is clear as far as what he told him. But what we find in verse 23 is a parable.

A parable that Jesus taught about forgiveness. A parable that was directed pretty much to his disciples, because they were the ones who had asked this question, or at least Peter asked the question. You drop on down to chapter 19.

Chapter 19, verse 27, you see Peter asking another question.

Peter said in verse 27, look, we've left everything and we followed you. What are we going to have? You know, he wanted to know, since they were committing their lives to following Jesus Christ, well, what will we have? And of course, Jesus answers that question in the verses following. And in verse 30 or verse 29, it says you'll inherit eternal life.

But then you find, and so he answered the question, well, you will have eternal life. But in chapter 20, he goes ahead and talks this parable, gives this parable, chapter 20, primarily to the disciples. And this parable in chapter 20, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, now that's talking about doing the work of God. It's talking about working in a vineyard. And yet it's also maybe far more importantly talking about God's prerogative to determine who he is going to select, who he is going to bring into the work in the vineyard over time, over a lengthy period of time. You see this in one day, actually, in this description, as he does it throughout different times of the day. But he says I'm the one who determines timing. I'm the one who draws people and brings them to an awareness of their need to be involved in the work. And of course, the disciples were some of the early people. They were some of the earliest.

They were clearly involved in the New Testament church. They were involved in leading the thousands that we see starting there in the book of Acts, and later being more thousands, who were working in the vineyard proclaiming the message of the kingdom of God. So now let's go to chapter 21. Who's he talking to as we see this parable of the two sons, in verse 28. We actually see in chapter 21, we back up to verse 23. It says, when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching. And they said, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?

Here he was in the temple. He was with the religious leaders, the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the elders of the people as they're described here in verse 23. And actually you find Jesus interacting with them, and they ask him a question, and he asked them a question back, and since they couldn't answer it, he said, well, I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you by what authority I am teaching.

But, verse 28, here he gives a parable. And actually what we find is that in response to these religious leaders, he gives three different parables. He gives a parable of the two sons, which we're going to focus on today. He gives a parable of the wicked tenants. And of course, he was also directing that pretty much to them.

And even chapter 22, the parable of the wedding banquet. Now there's application clearly to all of us in every one of these, but who he was talking to, he was talking to the Pharisees. He was talking to the religious people. He was talking to the people who thought they had it made. He was talking to the people who were comfortable in their pursuit of religion.

And of course, we can realize that many people may either be indifferent or not really understand, or they may fully feel comfortable in whatever religious belief they have. But I think we can also think that, well, even though we want to be close to God, and we realize that God has drawn us to have that special relationship, we don't want to take that for granted. And we want to be sure that we are doing what God tells us to do in His work. So these parables, the parable of the two sons, and of the wicked tenants, and even of the wedding banquet, those are all pretty much directed to the religious leaders. Actually, here in chapter 21, verse 45, the last verse, or last two verses, in chapter 21, you can see clearly these were directed at these so-called good people. These were directed to the religious leaders at the time. When the chief priest and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was talking about them. And they wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds, because the crowds, of course, regarded Jesus as a prophet. They were afraid of the mob. They didn't want to cause a big to-do right then. But see, very clearly in verse 45, they at least understood he's talking about us. And of course, that is, I think, a key as we study and understand what it is that this first parable, this parable of the two sons, is talking about.

So let's back up to verse 28, because Jesus is just in an exchange with the religious leaders here prior to this. And he says in verse 28, what do you think? And so he's actually leading into what this little story is going to be, this parable he's going to give them.

He says a man had two sons, and he went to the first son, and he said, Son, go and work in the vineyard today.

And the son answered, verse 29, and says, I will not. I will not.

But it says later he changed his mind, and so he went.

And in verse 30, the father went to the second son and said to him, he said the same thing, I want you to go and work in the vineyard.

And the second son responded, well, I'm going. I go, sir.

But he didn't go.

Now, that's a total parable, rather short parable, as I told you, pretty simple. Pretty obvious, isn't it? What's going on? And of course, Jesus asked the Pharisees, verse 31, which of the two did the will of his father? And that, of course, was Jesus' point. In this little story, in this parable of these two sons and their response to the father, who told them, I want you to work in the vineyard today, go and work in the vineyard right now.

How they responded, what they did, he asked them, which of the two did the will of the father?

And, you know, they probably looked at each other. They said, well, the first. And then Jesus said to them, well, truly, I'm going to tell you, the tax collectors, the horrid tax collectors, the government workers, those who consort with the Romans or other authorities, the tax collectors and the harlots, are going to go into the kingdom of God ahead of you.

For he says, the reason why this is, is that John came to you in the way of righteousness. He's talking about John the Baptist coming to even the Pharisees and the people who lived in the land. He came to them in the way of righteousness and you didn't believe him. You didn't believe that he was preaching. You need to repent. That's primarily what John taught. He preached that you should repent of your sins. And he pointed to the one who's coming, the one that I am preceding, the one that you really need to know, Jesus Christ. He says, John came in the way of righteousness and you didn't believe him. He says, the tax collectors and the prostitutes, the sinners believed him. And even after you saw it, even after you saw that, you know, what it was that happened, how it was that John preached repentance and then I show up here on the scene and John said, he's the one that you really need to look to, even after you saw that, you didn't change your mind and you didn't believe what John taught. Now this was a clear indictment of the Jews, of the Jewish leaders, who refused to believe what Jesus, or what John clearly stated, and what Jesus was backing up in this encounter with them. And it was clearly a warning to the hard-heartedness, the stubbornness and the hypocrisy of those who felt so comfortable in their religion, those who felt so justified of their own work that they didn't want to look for anything else.

See, that's, again, like I said, a very short, somewhat easy parable to be able to read and to understand what Jesus was pointing out. He later elaborates more on this in this next parable, which I'm not going to deal with at all today.

But I'd like for us to think about what we can learn. And how can we apply this parable of Jesus in our lives? Let's go back. The Father comes to the first son, says in verse 28, I want you to go and work in the vineyard. This son says, I'm not going to do it. I don't want to do it. I'm going to go back to bed. I'm going to go to sleep.

I'm going to eat. I'm going to sit on the couch all day and watch TV. He says, I'm not going to go work in the vineyard. But of course, after he thought about that a little while, it says, later he changed his mind and he went in the vineyard and he worked. And so essentially he did the will of the Father. He did what the Father had wanted him to do. And of course, when the Father came to the second son, and he asked him to do the same, he said, I'm going to go. But of course, he didn't. Now it's real obvious that the first was the one who was doing the will of the Father. But what is it that we learn? We again can say, well, this is talking to the Jewish leaders and it was. But what can we learn? What do we learn that we could apply to ourselves today regarding this parable from Jesus?

It's these words of life. Well, I think a primary thing that we want to learn is that we can't just be hearers of the Word. We can't just be readers of the Word of God, but we need to be doers of God's Word. Now that's clearly what happened with the sons. The first son ultimately went and did. The second son made excuses, although actually he didn't even make an excuse. He just said, I'll do it. And he didn't. He was indifferent about his Father and about what his Father wanted. And so, you know, when we think about this we need to be hearers, or not hearers, but doers of God's Word. We're familiar with what it says in James. James chapter 1, and of course this is directly applicable to all of us because James has written to the general population of the church. But here in James 1, it says in verse 22, James 1 verse 22, But be doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who deceive yourselves. For if any hearers of the Word, if any are hearers of the Word, and not doers, then they're like those who look at themselves in a mirror, and they look at themselves and they go away immediately forgetting what they look like. Sometimes I want to do that. I look in the mirror, I want to go away and forget what I look like. And yet, of course, James is making an illustration that we need to look into the Word of God, and we need to be able to see ourselves in light of that Word, and then not ignore our response to God, but actually be doers, as he's going to go ahead and say. Verse 25, those who look into the perfect law of liberty and persevere, being not hearers who forget, but doers who act. They will be blessed in their doing.

And so it's very clear, whenever you think about the two sons, well, you know, the one had a slow start but he eventually got going. He repented and he went ahead and did the will of the Father. And the other son, even though he said he was going to do it, he didn't. He was simply a hearer. He heard what the Father said, but he ignored that directive.

He ignored that command. And I think it's great to be able to, as we see here, those who look into the perfect law of liberty and persevere not being hearers who forget, but doers who act, those are the ones who are going to be blessed. So if we want to be blessed in our actions, if we want to be blessed in our lives, then we want to be doers of the work of God, but doers of the will of God. And certainly we want to be impacted by the words of life. That's what I mentioned about reading the words of Jesus that often are in red in your Bible.

Those are very impactful. But of course, Jesus inspired the whole Bible. He inspired not only the Old but the New Testament to be written in a way that should impact us. We can actually jump up to verse 19. We want to see what is it that the word tells us to do? Well, it says in verse 19 you misunderstand this, brethren. Let everyone be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger.

See, there's some...that's not the way many people are. They're quick to speak. Maybe slow to think. And make a lot of mistakes because of their anger and wrath. We don't want to fall into that pattern. But it says be quick to listen. Slow to speak and slow to anger because your anger does not produce the righteousness of God. See, if we allow ourselves, again, you can look at pages and pages of instruction here but I'm only going to cover a little bit of it.

It just tells us don't say everything that pops into your head. Don't say everything that's in your heart! Don't have better control than that. Be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger. He says, therefore rid yourselves, in verse 21, of all sortiness and rank both of wickedness and welcome the meekness, or excuse me, welcome the with-meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your soul.

See, how important is it? How important is it that we study the Word of God with the desire to be transformed? That's really why we read the Word of God. It's not just something that I have to do. I need to set aside my alarm clock, put my 30 minutes on there, and say I'm going to read the Bible for a period of time. That may be a way we need to do it in order to get into a habit. But I hope that we all have the habit of reading the Word of God or reading about the Word of God, which we often do, I know, with literature and things that we use to help guide us in studying the Word of God, but to read the Word of God.

And the purpose of that is so that the implanted word will transform us. So that whatever Jesus said to the two sons, or about the two sons in their response to the Father, that that impacts us. See, of course, the point of the parable was that the first son did the will of the Father. Because that's what he could even ask the Pharisees, and they could say, yeah, it was him.

He's the one who did the will of the Father. So how do we do that? How do we do the will of God? How do we do the will of the Father in our lives? Well, I want to point out three things here that kind of tie together with the first son. Because he's the one who did the will of the Father. He's the one who got out in the vineyard and was working. And of course, that's what God tells us he wants us to do. But first of all, in knowing how to do the will of the Father or the will of God, we see about this first son of a very human tendency.

He resisted. He says, I'm not going to go. I won't do it! I refuse! I don't know how he said it to his father. He probably just said, I'm not going to do it. He says, I'm not going to go. He might have said that under his breath. I don't think I'll go. I don't want to go.

But see, what you see is that he resisted his...what we find after he did this, and he thought about it a little bit, and then he later changed his mind and he repented, and he went ahead and did the job. He went ahead and involved himself in the work. See, he resisted his initial desire or tendency and this ties together with what Hank was mentioning, even in his sermonette here earlier today. See, he resisted his initial tendency to do his own will and he yielded to doing the will of God, the will of his father.

His father had told him what he wanted. He initially rebelled. I'm not going to do it. But then later he thought about it and he saw, well, that's wrong, and I want to repent of that. I want to change, and then I want to do. I want to go involve myself in the work. And I think it's good for us to think about.

Do we resist our initial tendency, maybe of not doing what God tells us, or not doing what we read in the Bible, it tells us what to do, and yet there are so many things there, I can say, well, I don't think I'm doing all of those. I'd like to do many of them, but I can't say that I'm always doing them. See, and I think we have to think about, well, how do we do?

How do you do in this regard? As far as resisting your initial desire, or tendency to not to follow your own will, and then yield to the will of the Father. As we already read, Jesus' example was not my will, not my human desire, because he knew what he was facing, but he says, I want to do the will of the Father. I think it's good for us to think about that, whether we resist our own desire, our own will, and seek, even if we don't initially do it.

I mean, there's always recovery here, at least in this particular example, because he thought about it, he later changed his mind, and he repented, and he went ahead and did. And that, of course, is an example, you know, for us. But to know and do the will of God, you know, we've got to read the word of God to be transformed. That's why we should read the word of God.

I want to go through a section here. This is, in a sense, a real...it's a... maybe a sensitive section to many of us, because there's so much instruction here, and we can say, well, maybe we're doing some of it, but we certainly don't do all of it. And I can say, I certainly don't do all of it, even though I want to do it. I may not do it, and I may forget, or I may ignore.

But if you look over in Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians chapter 4 is one of the extensive lists of what Paul writes about the transformed life, the transformation that God makes possible and brings about in our lives as we are living Christian lives. And that's what God has called us to do. He's called us to be transformed and to live a Christian life, and to no longer just simply follow our own human first reaction. That's what the first son did.

He said, I'm not going to do it. Nobody thought about it and said, well, no, I'm wrong. And I need to yield to what my father's direction is, and so I want to do that. That is in my heart to do the will of the Father. And so he went ahead and, of course, did what God wanted him to do.

But here in Ephesians 4, in the little caption in my Bible, it says, Rules for the New Life. And, of course, you see this written in many of the instructions that Paul's giving to the churches because there were different problems in different of the churches, but they all seem pretty similar as far as what he says you need to do. So he says in verse 25, Putting away falsehood. Let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. You can go down this list, and yes, I'm sure all of us agree that we should tell the truth.

We should be truthful. We should keep the ninth commandment. But do I always do that? Well, as much as I would like to say I did, or do, that doesn't always turn out to be exact. I fudge too much. I shade the situation. And here, the word of God, to be transformed, it says, Putting away falsehood. Let all of us speak the truth to our neighbor. That's what we want to endeavor to do. It goes on and gets even worse.

Verse 26, Be angry, but do not sin. So here, it tells us, oh, it's okay to be angry! It's okay to get upset. Well, it does say, be angry, but that's okay. And there are things to be, and clearly you see examples, of course, primary Jesus stomping into the temple, and it would appear he may have been somewhat upset with what was going on in the temple and he's throwing the money changers and throwing the merchants out of the house of God in righteous indignation.

So that's the right kind of anger. I don't know that that's kind of anger I usually have. That's something that really has to be cultivated in our thinking.

But he actually goes on and explains this a little more. He says, be angry, but don't sin. He says, don't let the sun go down on your wrath, on your anger. I find that interesting because it tells us this is how you can deal with anger and upset in your life. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Solve whatever issue we might be upset about, whatever might have angered us, whether it was somebody else, whether it was something, something that happened, whatever it is, he just says, don't let it, don't hold a grudge longer than a day.

Because if we actually would do that, then we would find that God can transform us. He can remove whatever might have angered us, and we tend to hang on to stuff, and we actually want to keep that in the back of our head, and we might need that someday. We might want to use that against someone.

And unfortunately, that's the way we tend to do. Verse 27, he says, don't make room for the devil. Pretty clear statement. How do we do? If we're going to do the will of God, then we've got to yield to the will of God as He reveals it in His Bible. Don't give the devil room in your life. Don't give him time in your thoughts.

And of course, you know, there's numerous other verses you can go to that say essentially the same thing. Resist the devil, draw close to God. This instruction, His rules for Christian living, just don't make room for the devil. We've got to come to where we identify the way that Satan and his power is able to deceive us into thinking that whatever we thought is right instead of possibly wrong. And so, don't make room for the devil. Verse 28, Theives must give up stealing. Rather let them labor and work honestly with their hands so as to have something to share with the needy.

So, He says, each one of these things we would agree to, yes, that's what we ought to do. But are we, when we read that, are we allowing those words to transform our heart and our mind? Verse 29, let no evil talk come out of your mouth. But only what is useful for building up as there is need so that your words can give grace to those who hear. Here he's talking about how we interact with each other, how we build each other up, how we share the love of God and increase and encourage and uplift others.

Or, on the other hand, we can use our words to hurt, to dismiss, to discourage. Now, that's what he's telling us he wants us to do. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit, for you've been marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Don't neglect or don't ignore the fact.

And I know I pray this many times. I want to be led by the Holy Spirit. There's just too many times when I'm not so sure that's what's going on in my head. There's too many times I want to be led by the Spirit of God. I want to be guided by God's Word instead of just whatever I might be thinking about. And, of course, he tells us not to grieve or to neglect the Holy Spirit because it's made available to us.

It's sealed us for eternal life. But we've got to yield to it. We've got to be grateful that that power is available and that we want that power to rule our mind and heart. In verse 31, he says, put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander together with all malice. These are things that as I was thinking about this first son and his initial response, this is the way he was reacting. He was reacting in anger. He was reacting in, I don't want to do it, but he later thought about it and saw, well, I've got to yield to the will of the Father.

I can't just demand my own will, my own way, which I think would probably fall into the categories that we're reading here. But, of course, Paul continues to add in verse 32, not only do we want to resist those wrong things, but in verse 32, be kind to one another. Be kind to one another. Be tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. In there he says the things that we want to do, the things we want to have emblazoned.

See, if the law of God, if the words of God are going to be written in our heart and in our mind, then we want to not only read these words, we want them to have an impact on our outlook and on our interaction with each other and with other people that we come in contact with, what we actually represent. Jesus Christ. That's what he's called us to do. He's called us to follow his example. Perfect example as it is. So let's think, that's the first thing I want to mention, just about not following our own will, but following the will of the Father.

That's what the first son did. Obviously the second thing we see that he did, the first son, the one who did the will of the Father, what did he do? Well, even though he got a slow start, he did obey. He did go ahead and do it. He did go into the vineyard and work. And so of course we realize that we need to be obeying, and of course keeping the commandments of God is a basis for our life. That gives us an understanding of sin when we recognize the law, even as our song of love by thy law that we sang, we want to love that law.

We want to have that written in our heart and mind. And we want to obey. We want to keep the law turning from sin. But I want us to look in Luke 17 because, see, in essence, keeping the law, that's not, in a sense, the end product. That is our way of life. That is our duty toward God.

We desire to obey. We desire to get away from sin the way that sin is defined in the Bible and how it is that we are told that we can be forgiven of sin. And yet we want to obey. And that of course was a part of what this first son did. He obeyed his father's command. But here in Luke 17, Jesus says in verse 7, starting in verse 7, Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, come here at once and take your place at the table?

Would you not rather say to him, prepare supper for me and put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink, and later you may eat and drink?

He says in verse 9, do you think that the servant, or do you thank the servant for doing what was commanded? Doing what was expected? Doing what his duty was? Do you thank him for doing what he's required to do? What he's expected to do? What the minimum requirement would be? The way of life? That we've been called to live? He goes on in verse 10. So you, when you've done all that you were required to do, all that you were ordered to do, you should say, we are worthless servants.

We have done only what we ought to have done. There's more to it. There's more to it than simply obeying. We want to obey, and don't get me wrong, that's clearly what God expects and wants us to do. But what Jesus said here in verse 10 was that when we've done everything that we've been ordered or commanded to do, we need to still see well there's more to be done. There's more that I need to do than simply obey the law. I have a responsibility preaching the gospel. I have a responsibility toward other people in showing love to them, for them, toward them.

That's what we're asked to do. That's what we're required to do. So not only following in how the first son did the will of the father, not only did he resist his own will and then choose to follow the will of the father, he went ahead and obeyed.

You would assume he must have produced good fruit in the vineyard. That's my third point here. We want to abound in the fruit that God wants to grow in our lives. Abound in good works. You know, you can read about the fruit of the Spirit, and that's clearly a definition of the divine nature. Whenever you read the listing in Galatians 5, I think it's verse 23. I'll have to look it up here. Galatians 5 verse 22 and 23 I guess is where you see a listing of the fruit of the Spirit.

Those are fruits that we're expected to produce or we are expected to ask God to produce in us to produce love and joy and peace and long suffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and weakness and temperance. Those are not just listed because those are nice things to think about.

That is what God is wanting us to abound in. He wants us to have those fruits. And of course, there are many other ways that we can involve ourself in doing the good works that He wants us to do. Let's turn over to Titus. Titus chapter 3 gives a number of instructions here at the very end of this book. Of course, Paul is writing to Titus to say to him how he should live, but what he should look to in seeing others as he works with them in the congregations.

And in chapter 3 verse 1 he says, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work. And of course, he also goes into some of the same things he's already told us and we've already read. But what I point out is to be ready for every good work, to be ready to do the work that God opens up for us.

We drop down to verse 3 It's not because of our works that we would be saved or that in any way that we earn salvation. That's simply a gift from God. Eternal life is God's gift. But he says in verse 3, we ourselves were once foolish and disobedient and led astray and slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable and hating one another.

And he can lay it on real thick here. He can really describe the way human nature is. And if we see that in ourselves, if we see that we have been corrupted by the God of this world and how that he has caused these things to grow in our heart instead of the fruit of love and joy and peace, as I was just mentioning. It says in verse 4, but when the goodness and loving-kindness of God or Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any work of righteousness that we've done, but according to his mercy through the water of rebirth and renewal of his Holy Spirit.

He says in verse 8, this saying is sure I desire that you insist on these things, Paul was telling Titus, so that those who have come to believe in God, as all of us are, brethren, so that those who have come to believe in God may be careful to devote ourselves to good works.

These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. Here he's pointing out, he mentions it in verse 1, he says it more clearly in verse 8. Down in verse 14, he says, let people learn to devote themselves to good works in order to meet urgent needs so that they may not be unproductive. There are a lot of different chapters and verses I guess we could go to that would describe the doing of good works. Those good works are not what earn us salvation. Those are simply the outflowing of God and his Spirit working in us because we have, like the first son, chosen to do the will of the Father.

We wish to do the will of the Father, and even if we balk a little like that first son did, we realize that's wrong. We repent. We change our mind and then we do what the will of the Father is. And of course we do that following his commands but then abounding in good works. You can say in James, this is another verse that is directly telling us what kind of good works we ought to be doing. In James chapter 1, verse 27, it says, religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father is this.

It says the type of religion that he wants us to live is to care for the orphans and the widows and their distress and to keep yourself unspotted from the world, to care and love, looking out for the urgent needs, looking out for the need to nurture and care for and show respect to those who have need. That's a part of what we're expected to do. And of course, I guess we could fit that into the category of abounding in good work. So let's go back to Matthew 21, where we started with this parable. And certainly, even though Jesus was speaking this parable to the Pharisees, and he was pointing out how that their reluctance to repent and how that their indifference about following him or even recognizing who he was, he said, those who choose to repent, those who recognize their sins and repent are going to enter the kingdom of God before you.

He was clearly pointing that out to them. But I think we can also say that it has a significant message in this parable for us. He spoke this for everyone to hear. And it's amazing that that is the description. Actually, let's back up to chapter 7, because this also deals with Matthew chapter 7. This deals with doing the will of God. Here in Matthew chapter 7, starting in verse 21, Jesus, of course, was directing this to his disciples or to the crowd as he was talking to them on the mount.

He was telling everybody, and yet the disciples needed to hear this as well. He says in verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the ones who do the will of the Father. He says, the ones who are going to be recipients of the kingdom of God, who will enter the kingdom of God, who are going to be a part of that kingdom, are going to be the ones who do the will of the Father. In verse 24, he says, everyone who hears my words, who not only just hears them, but he goes on and says, and acts on them.

Those who hear the words of Jesus and act upon them is like a wise man who has built his house upon a rock. Clearly, referring to the fact that we are building our lives on a foundation that is absolutely solid, absolutely sound, and of course that is on Jesus Christ and on his words of life. So we want to be growing, knowing, and growing in what the words of the Bible tell us. Not just allow them to be something to do, something to read, but we want them to motivate us to act.

As we think about the parable of the two sons, one did the will, and one acted like he wanted to do the will, but he really didn't do the will, and so we could ask ourselves, which are the sons? Which of those two sons do we reflect?