Turn with me back to Romans chapter
9. Romans chapter 9. We'll begin
with verse 13. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. So it's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. but of God that showeth mercy. The scripture saith to Pharaoh,
even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might
show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Hath he mercy on whom he'll have
mercy? And whom he will, he hardeneth. Now in this passage of scripture,
we read of several examples of God's sovereignty on display
in the Old Testament. The first is Jacob. and Esau. Two boys, Jacob and Esau, they
had the same parents, same mom and dad. They were born at the
same time, they were twins. But the great distinction made
between these two brothers can only be traced to the sovereign
will of Almighty God. Jacob's an object of God's mercy. And this distinction was made
before the children were even born. That's plain in scripture,
isn't it? God's mercy was made on these
two boys before the world began. Paul, referring to God's elect,
said this. He said, we are bound to give
thanks to you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. This choice between Jacob
and Esau happened before either had done any good or evil. They had been born again. The choice was made according
to the purpose and will of Almighty God. This is the foundation of
all mercy, the sovereign will of Almighty God. We read, in
whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. In Malachi 1, we read of the
burden of the word of the Lord of Israel by Malachi, and he
said this, the burden of the word, he said, was not Esau Jacob's
brother, saith the Lord, yet, and what an amazing thing, yet
have I loved Jacob. I hated Esau, but I loved Jacob. You know, if the Lord would enable
us to just see something, to give us some understanding of
His holiness, who God is, and let us see something of our
own sinfulness, what we truly are by nature, I believe we could understand
why God would hate Not just Esau, but Jacob. In light of who he is. In light
of what we are. God acted in justice toward Esau. Gave him what he deserved. What we all deserve. The wages of sin is death. That's clear, isn't it? The wages of sin is death. And yet, he acted in mercy toward
Jacob, giving us what we do not deserve. God's love for Jacob as his love
for all of his elect can only be found in one, and that is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Outside of Christ, there is nothing
but wrath and judgment for sinners. Now I ask you, what's the natural
reaction to this passage of scripture? Jacob have I loved, and Esau
have I hated. Men will try to explain it away. They'll say, well, it means he
loved him less. If that's what you think, I'd
encourage you to go back and read the passage again. It says,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Some might say this,
you've probably heard this. Well, that's not fair. That's
not fair. Look at verse 14 of Romans 9. Is there unrighteousness with
God? Can God act in a way that's unrighteous? God forbid. God forbid. What did God tell Moses? We just
read it there. He said to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion upon whom
I will have compassion. Look at verse 19 of our text.
Maybe this is the objection. Thou wilt then say unto me, why
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? If God's sovereign and everything
is according to his will, well then why is it my fault? Who
hath resisted his will? Is that the argument? Well, I
can answer the question. because you are a sinner. There's no unrighteousness with
God. Verse 20, this is the title of
the message this morning. Who art thou? Who art thou that replies against
God? Shall the thing formed say unto
him that formed it, why have you made me thus? Almighty God is absolutely sovereign
in all things. We don't know much about monarchs,
but a monarch of old, They had the
right to do entirely as they willed to do. None can stay his hand. None
can say unto him, what doest thou? God is infinitely higher than
any monarch that has ever ruled in this world. The powers that be, they're ordained
of God. They look to Him. Well, they
may not look to Him, but that's where their power came from.
He rules over all things. What doest thou? God is, again, infinitely higher
than all, and He has the right Whether we agree with this or
not, God has the right to do with us whatsoever he will, whatsoever he pleases. Paul in verse 21 of Romans 9,
he asked, hath not the potter, he used this as an illustration,
hath not the potter power over the clay? the same lump. Maybe that's what we should figure
out. That's what we are. We're just a lump. Does he not have
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another vessel unto dishonor? Let me say it again. God is absolutely
sovereign. And men and women They refuse
to hear it in our day. They refuse to hear it in the
day when our Lord walked this earth. But that does not change
the fact that it's true. They disagree with it. They shake
their heads as to dispute it. And they do so to their own condemnation. Maybe that's one of the reasons
Malachi called it a burden. There's no joy, I'll say that. There's joy in proclaiming the
gospel. But it is a burden to proclaim
it knowing that men and women, there are some who will refuse
to hear it, refuse to believe it. It must be proclaimed. Men may try and disregard it.
They may get angry about it. They may try to argue with it. Downright refuse to listen. I
remember our boys when they were little, sometimes they didn't
want to hear something, they'd put their hands over their ears. I guess when
we get grown up, we don't do that. I mean, we still kind of
plug our ears, but we don't put our hands over them, right? But
listen, refuse to listen to it. Refuse to humble themselves.
Refuse to take our place in the dust. Refuse to acknowledge God
as who He is and exalt Him as King. Exalt Him as Master, bow
to Him as Lord of all." My friends, that's who He is.
He is Lord of all. And we're either going to bow
to Him now or we're going to bow to Him when He returns. And you can write that down.
Romans 14, 11 says, It is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every
knee shall bow to me, every tongue is going to confess to God. What
are we going to confess? Paul writing to the church at
Philippi said this, at the name of Jesus, at the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, every knee should bow of things of heaven,
of things in earth, of things under the earth, and every tongue
is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Wouldn't we be wise to quit arguing,
quit fussing, and just simply bow? Bow to Him as Lord. Our Lord taught this in Matthew
20. in a parable. Turn there with me quickly in
Matthew 20. I just want to look at a few
verses of scripture here. Here in this passage, we see
something of God's sovereignty in the calling of his people,
calling whom he will. Look at Matthew 20 verse 1. For the kingdom of heaven is
like unto a man that is a householder. A householder, that's the master
of the house. He went out early in the morning
to hire laborers, and that word laborer One of its meanings is
this, a servant of Christ. The master goes out and determines
who these servants are. Oh, that the Lord would make
us servants, servants. And take notice as we read that
these servants, you'll see what they're doing. They're standing
idle. They're doing nothing. Probably would consider them
unprofitable servants. That's us. We are all together
unprofitable servants. Jacob told Esau, he said, I'm
not worthy of the least. of all thy mercies." And it's truly mercy. That word, mercy. It's mercy
that God would seek out any. But I rejoice in this. He does. He does. He's going to seek and
save that which was lost. Verse 2. And when he had agreed
with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his
venue. I was thinking about that value. A penny is pretty much worthless,
right? I mean, that's the lowest value
you can put on anything at all. And you'll see that each of these
laborers that he seeks out, the wage, it's the same. Somebody's not going to get more
than the other. Somebody's not going to get less
than the other. It's all the same wage. No matter how much time they
labor, it's the same. I ask you, what's the believer's
reward? Whether he's called as a young
person, are called late, late in years. There are those that God has
used from the age of, you know, early age up until late in life. And there's some that he's called
late in life. What's the wage? It's Christ. God told Abraham in Genesis 5.15,
He said, Fear not, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. What's that reward? Again, it's
singular. It's one thing. God is our reward. Christ is our reward. You know,
I hear men talking and writing about all the glorious things,
right, and all the rewards that they're going to get as a result
of their labor. I don't know if it was Brother
Henry or John Chapman that said this. I wrote it down, but I
didn't write down who said it. But they said this, you can rest
assured of this, your mansion in glory, it's not
going to be built with any material that we send up. The Lord said, in my father's
house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare
a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there you may be also." It's going to be glory just to
be in his presence. I often think of all those questions.
I think, boy, I'd love to know the answer to this. Listen, in glory, we're going
to be taken up with one thing, Him. Not all those things of
this world that distract us and take up our mind. Him and Him
alone. Let's read on verse three. He
seeks these servants. Again, he finds them standing
idle in the marketplace and the Lord sends forth his messengers
with the word. Some he finds early. About the
third hour, look at verse three, went out about the third hour
and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. That's about
9 a.m. You know the Lord's pleased to
call some at an early age. We've seen that. We've seen that,
we've read about it. Paul writing to Timothy, he said
from a child, Timothy from a child, you've known the holy scriptures
which are able to make you wise unto salvation. Timothy, what
a blessing. Timothy had a faithful grandmother
and a faithful mother and they taught him the scriptures. I just have no doubt in my mind
on Sunday morning, they got Timothy up early and scrubbed him and
got his clothes on and got him to the worship service. What a blessing. I'll say this, I know that as
a young person it don't always seem like a blessing, right?
Truth be known, at times we'd rather be sleeping in on Sunday
morning. I've known some young people
even get upset with their parents and grandparents to bring them
to the gospel, bring them to the worship service. Don't do
that. Don't do that. It's, it's for
your good. You know, I didn't, I didn't
like it. I don't, I don't ever remember a time when my mom,
dad took me to the doctor. Um, I never remember a time I
enjoyed that, but I do know this is for my good. It was for my
good. And this is, well, this is far
beyond our earthly good. This is, we're talking about
our eternal good. I'm not sure I know of any greater
blessing for a young person than to have a faithful parent or
grandparent bring them to hear God's word. We read this, train
up a child in the way they should go. And when he's old, he'll
not depart from it. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
said this. He said, suffer the little children. The disciples were kind of shooing
him away. He said, suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for such is the
kingdom of heaven. Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations,
it's good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he
bear the yoke in his youth. Well, back to our text here in
Matthew 20. Look at verse 4. Some he called
early, verse 4. And he said to them, go ye also
into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I'll give you. And they went their way. He calls the laborers. He does. And you know what? They go. They go. When he calls, they
go. And the wage? He said, whatsoever
is right, I'll give you. Who could ever question what
he's paid? Again, interestingly enough,
it's a penny. There's certainly no associating
that with merit, is there? The gift of God. The gift of
God. Wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Again, verse 4, He said unto
them, Go ye also into the vineyard, whatsoever is right, I'll give
you, and then look. and they went their way." He
said, go and they go. Think about what happened when
the Lord called his disciples. Turn back a few pages to Matthew
4. Matthew 4, look at verse 18. Matthew 4 verse 18, And Jesus, walking by the Sea
of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew
his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men. What did they do? Verse
20, And they straightway left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he
saw two more brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John,
his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called them. Look at verse
22. And what did they do? They immediately
left the ship and their father and they followed Him. Turn with
me to another passage of Scripture. Turn to Matthew 9. Look at verse 9. As Jesus passed on from thence,
He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom. And he saith unto him, follow me, follow me. What did Matthew do? He arose
and followed him. Go ye into the vineyard. Whatsoever's
right I'll give you. And they went their way. Verse five, back in our text. Matthew 20. Again, he went out about the
sixth hour, the ninth hour, and he did likewise. About the eleventh
hour, he went out and found others standing idle, and he saith unto
them, Why stand ye here idle all the day? Third hour. Old writers believe there's reference
there to that's a young person. Then some in the sixth hour,
a little older. The ninth hour, maybe this is
a progression of age. Each time he goes out, but each
time he goes out he finds him in just the same condition. Idle. Doing nothing. And he asks. Why stand ye idle? And then the 11th hour. Getting late in the day, isn't
it? The 11th hour. Any hope for those? The 11th hour he went out and
found others standing idle. Why do you stand here idle all
the day? Verse 7, they say unto him, because
no man hath hired us, Let me ask you the same question, maybe
particular to those who have not confessed Christ. The Master's calling. Why stand
ye idle? And the best they could come
up with was this. Well, nobody hired us. Nobody hired us. Nobody come out and said, I want
to hire you. It's the eleventh hour. The day
is almost gone. Why do you stand here idle? The gospel, God's gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. He says to them, go ye into the
vineyard and whatsoever's right you'll receive. God's Word says this, my sheep
hear my voice. I know them, and they follow
me. Verse eight, so when even was
come, the Lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, call
the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last
unto the first. Again, some he calls early, some
he calls in old age. But I know this, as long as there is breath in
a man, there's still hope. There's still
hope, not in himself, but in Christ, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9, and when they came that
were hired, About the 11th hour, they received every man a penny.
Verse 10, but when the first came, they supposed that they
would have received more. That's how we think, isn't it?
And they likewise received every man a penny. And when they'd
received it, they murmured against the good man of the house. We're
prone to that too, aren't we? Saying, these last have wrought
but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have
borne the burden in the heat of the day. We open with Romans 9.20. Who art thou? That question could
be asked here, couldn't it? They agreed to the wage, didn't
they? And now they murmur, who art thou that replies against
God? Shall the thing formed say to
the thing that formed it, why have you made me thus? If one
man is saved and another isn't, who made the difference? God. God made the difference. And
none but God has the right to make that difference. If my brother enters into glory
and I'm sent to hell, God has the right to save my
brother and he would be righteous in condemning me. I deserve it. My brother doesn't deserve to
be saved. None do. But God has the right to give
salvation to whom he will, if it pleases, whatsoever it
pleases him. God told Moses, I will have mercy. on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion." Who are we to argue with God?
Who are these that would argue with this householder? Verse
13, but he answered. He answered one of them and he
said, friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst thou not agree with me
for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy
way, and I'll give this unto the last, even as unto thee. Is it, verse 15, is it not lawful
for me to do what I will with my own? Is thine eye evil, because I'm
good. We end up right here where we
started. God's divine sovereignty. When the householder called his
people, again, some called early, the third hour, some of the sixth,
some of the ninth, some of the eleventh. And the man who was
called at the eleventh hour, he didn't grumble, did he? He didn't say, why didn't you
call me earlier in the day? No. He's just happy to be called
and receive a wage, wasn't he? The man who was called in the
morning, though we read he murmured because he didn't have more pay
than the last that were hired. Yet if he'd been in his right
mind, he'd been thankful that that
householder called at all. Could have just left him out
in the street. He gave him the honor of working
in his vineyard. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed because His compassions, they fail not. It's purely mercy to be called
by His grace at any time. Oh, just to be called. And we don't dictate to God when
He's going to do anything. God exercises His sovereignty
in calling and saving sinners when He is pleased to do so. Paul, writing to the church at
Ephesus, he said, Are you saved? And that, not
of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any
man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus and two good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. The believer, is redeemed
from death and sin to life and glory. How? How? By the free and sovereign
grace of Almighty God. Election, redemption, calling,
repentance, faith, sanctification, eternal glory, all of these things
by the grace of our Lord, by His free and sovereign grace.
Listen, faith in Christ, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's
the way, it's the means, it's the instrument by which we receive
and enjoy salvation. And saving faith, even that,
it's not the product of man. We just read it, it's the gift
of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself, it's the gift of God. We receive
salvation by faith, and who gets the glory in that? Almighty God. Even any work of righteousness
that we might be able to come up with, listen, they're not
ours, but by the grace of Almighty God. God's sovereign. I can just sum
that up. God is absolutely sovereign. Men will, I don't know, they
seem to be okay with that when we talk about creation. And some will go as far to say
that He's sovereign in providence. And that's good because He is.
God is absolutely sovereign in the salvation of sinners. And
again, that leaves the sinner with but one thing to do. And that's fall at his feet and
beg mercy. Oh, I pray you're able to do
that. All right.