The Eleventh Hour

Read: Matthew 20:1–16

The stirring of the Spirit of God which is going on upon the earth at this hour has one thing about it which makes it different from any revival or move of the Spirit that has gone before.

This revival is coming with a message heard universally by saints everywhere. The message that this is it! This is the last time around. After this visitation of grace, night will fall when no man can work – judgment will begin!

Somewhere over our heads we hear the clock strike eleven and we know that there is only one hour left.

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, "Why do you stand here idle all day?" They said to him, "Because no one has hired us." He said to them, "You go into the vineyard too."

Now this crowd which is still standing idle in the market place at the eleventh hour is not exactly good looking. It's the seediest outfit the householder has seen all day. The promising types were there early in the morning. These dudes are hard and bleary-eyed and lazy. They were freaked out all night – never got up till the day was half over. They're not expecting anyone to hire them. They're just standing around – killing time.

Then it happens. The miracle! The Son of God comes into the market place and wakes them from their walking death!

This part of the parable has a special application to the hour in which you and I live. The eleventh-hour hiring is taking place

before our eyes. We are part of it.

I don't care whether you've been a good little church mouse all your life – or whether you've been a wino or a junkie for the last five years. Your life is a waste until Jesus hires you.

– You may have been busy going around in those circles.

– You may have been important in other peoples' eyes.

– You may have had power over other men.

– You may have been the most religious person on the

street where you live,

but your life was a waste until you got linked up with Jesus. And if you're not linked up with Jesus at this moment, your life is still a waste.

If your life is not truly rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, you might as well lie down and be a punk 'cause that's what you are beneath your mask – and God knows it, and you know it! You may spout off beautiful ideals with your mouth but there's nothing inside you.

I'm talking to church people, I'm talking to street people. I'm talking to the Bible-toting Christians.

If your life is not rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ –

If your life is not crucified with His on that Cross –

If your life is not 100 percent given to walking in those footsteps – church or no church, your life is a waste!

Jesus is speaking to you, "Why do you stand here idle all day?" Don't argue with Him. Don't say, "What do you mean idle?"

Admit it!

Admit that you've never really been hired.

Admit that you've never given yourself over to anything but your own self-indulgence and your own pet causes.

Jesus Christ is calling people to leave their wasted lives behind them and come with Him.

– Get up and leave that half-baked piety.

– Get up and leave your dried-up pleasure.

"It's eleven o'clock. There's only one hour left. Come with me into the life I have chosen for you to live since before the foundations of the world."

Now when you begin to try to live this new life, your past rises up and says to you, "Where do you think you're going?" "Why I'm going to follow Jesus." "O yeah?" Suddenly you discover that you have 500 chains hooked into your mind and body that bind you to your past – to the life you've been living.

You want to break clear but your body wants that old habit to go on.

You want to make a fresh start but your mind keeps accusing you of the things you've done.

Your guilt – how can you follow Jesus when you're chained to that load of guilt?

You want to be a different person but you're chained to that mess you've made of yourself – to that person you've been for so long.

0 wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Romans 7:24

There is only one substance on earth which can dissolve those chains: The blood of the Lamb. I don't understand how it works – but it works! Of all the mysteries in God's universe this is the most wonderful.

How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the

living God. Hebrews 9:14

When you kneel down before the Cross of the Son of God and confess those things that have you bound to your past, a crimson river flows out from Him to you – touches those chains and they are gone; you are free!

Free from that guilt.

Free from that sick dependency.

Free from the fear of death.

Free from the claims the Evil One has placed upon your life.

If any man is in Christ he is a new creation. Old things are passed away and behold all things have become new. II Corinthians 5:17

The householder does not walk down the line of laborers in the market place and say, "You are good enough to work in my vineyard, but you are not!" Not one laborer is worthy to enter the Service of the Master.

Yet all are made worthy by his own shed blood. All are set free from what they were – all are made new.

– If you are still struggling today to pull yourself free from

those chains that have bound you to your past,

– If you are still in bondage – come to the Cross now and

confess these things and let them be washed away forever

in the Lamb's blood.

These are the men and women who are going to be walking free!

One more thing to notice about this eleventh-hour hiring into which every one of us is being called. Jesus is not merely calling us to "be saved" as they say. He is calling us to work. He didn't come into the market place to invite us to come to church. He came to give us a job to do.

My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. And every one who follows me works. He that gathereth not with me scattereth. Mark 12:30

You may think of yourself as innocent – sitting there and being good, sitting there and staying out of trouble, having good clean fun and good clean entertainment and never drinking anything but milk.

But all the time you're sitting there being respectable,

– you are hindering the redemptive purposes of God!

– you are obstructing the holy thing which God is doing on

the earth at this hour!

– you're getting in His way!

There's a harvest to be brought in and the laborers are all too few.

Pray the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers into His harvest (Luke 10:2) – and who can pray that prayer but those who are already laborers? How can you say, "Lord, send forth laborers into the harvest", while you keep lying under the tree having your tea and crackers?

People have to hear this gospel – not from some famous evangelist but from you! From somebody they see every day. Somebody they can reach out and touch. Somebody real. Somebody down to earth. Somebody who ain't gonna ask for a donation.

Those lost sheep have to be sought out and cared for and loved.

– Those sick have to be visited.

– Those hungry have to be fed.

– Those strangers have to be welcomed.

They have to see the love of Jesus and experience the power of His forgiveness in their lives not just on the T.V. screen – through down-to-earth flesh-and-blood disciples like you.

We have a lot of believers who think they're red-hot disciples

because they go to fellowship three times a week.

Going to fellowships is lovely.

Sitting around and getting blessed is lovely.

Waving your hands in the air and shouting, "Praise the Lord" is very nice.

But if these things aren't equipping you for work – if these things aren't driving you out into the vineyard,

– they're doing you more harm than good,

– they're a cop-out.

Anything that doesn't get you on with the work is a cop-out.

Now all the work in the Kingdom begins and ends on your knees.

– Prayer is the basic work.

– Prayer is the labor that moves the mountains and opens

the doors and prepares the way.

– Prayer is the place where we are put into shape to carry

that shining grace of God out to the world.

And don't ever let anyone tell you that prayer is easy or that it's effortless, or that it's just a matter of "letting go and letting God", or that it's fun.

Prayer is work! The apostles weren't copping out when they told the believers to pick out seven deacons to take care of the social work.

"But we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word." Acts 6:4

They were committing themselves to very very difficult work. And the only way you learn how to do this work is do it. Pray!.... Pray! .... Pray!

And then we get up from our knees and we go out and seek the lost, and preach good news to the poor, and proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, and set at liberty those who are oppressed. And we don't waste any time. Because this is the last harvest. The clock has struck the eleventh-hour. Night comes when no man can work.

We may be the moteliest crew that He ever hired. But oh the things that are going to be done in this final harvest…

– the things that you and I are privileged now to see!

– the power the living God places in our hands!

And we haven't even scratched the surface – we haven't even begun. God help us to go out and really labor in that Vineyard.

There are people out there who are going to be touched by the finger of God – through us.

There are people out there who are going to taste the first true hope they have known in all their lives as Jesus speaks to them – through us.

Prisoners are going to come out of their cells. Blind men are going to receive their sight. Hungry souls are going to be fed.

The power of the living God is going to flow forth from the Body of His Son and a harvest is going to come into His Kingdom such as you and I have never seen before.