But this chapter, Matthew 20,
where Brad just read to us from, is not isolated from chapter
19. In chapter 19 of Matthew, I'm just looking at what it says
there. It shows there was an argument,
I'm not going to cover that, between the Pharisees and the
Lord silenced them about divorce. And then they brought little
children to the Lord Jesus Christ. His disciples didn't want them
to, but he said, no, let them come because these are like those
in the kingdom of God. And immediately after that, this
rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked him, what good thing
must I do to have eternal life? And there was an exchange between
Christ and this young man. And in that exchange, the man
claimed to have kept the law. Jesus said, then, you need to
go sell everything and give it to the poor and follow me. And
he couldn't do that, and he went away sorrowful. And Jesus told
his disciples, it's very, very hard for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples were amazed,
and they said, who then can be saved? And Jesus said, with men,
this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
And then, right then, in verse 27 of Matthew 19, Peter said
to Jesus, behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee. What shall
we have, therefore? So I mention this because it
leads into this chapter, chapter 20, where we're reading right
now. And it was at the end of 19 where it says in verse 30,
but many that are first shall be last and the last first. We
don't work that way. If you go to an entertainment
or a movie or something like that, you expect that if you're
first in line, you're gonna get in first. But Jesus said, no,
the last will be first in the kingdom of God and the first
will be last. That disturbs us and confuses
us. We don't know what it means. But this came on the heels of
what Peter had said, that they had forsaken all. The man who
was seeking eternal life by his works was sent away sorrowful.
And now Peter is wondering, well, we've forsaken all. What are
we going to have? And Jesus responds to that. But that's what led
into chapter 20. And in chapter 20, just to give
you the overview here, to see how it all fits together, the
first thing that happens is Jesus gives this parable. And in the
parable, the parable portrays the kingdom of God and those
who are in it, and he sets forth this principle that the last
shall be first and the first shall be last. And we're gonna
see how this parable is explained But then the Lord immediately
tells his disciples, I'm going to Jerusalem. And the scribes
and the chief priests are going to deliver me to the Gentiles.
They're going to condemn me to death and then they're going
to deliver me to the Gentiles who are going to mock me, scourge
me, and put me to death. And then on the third day I'll
rise again. So notice that this account that Jesus is telling
his disciples about immediately fits into this same context where
the first or last and the last first, because he's the one who
is preeminently seen as last and yet he's going to be first.
And so then it's set up to illustrate this first and preeminent place
that Christ has, and why he has it, in the request that James
and John's mother, made of Jesus, could you, when you come into
your kingdom, could you place James and John, one on your left
and one on your right hand, in your kingdom? And to that, Jesus
says, no. I'm not going, I don't, it's
not for me to give that. It's given to the ones whom the
Father has prepared it. That's in verse 23. He said,
I'm sorry, verse, yeah, it's 23. He says, to sit on my right hand, and
on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them
for whom it is prepared of my Father." So you see then that
those who are granted this privilege, this high privilege of being
on Christ, seated with Christ in His kingdom, it's already
established by God the Father. And the Lord Jesus Christ isn't
taking input for those who are trying to get into that position. He has come to the earth, he
came into the world to do what his father already had given
him to do for those his father had already given him. And so
that's what he's saying there. And so, the first and the last
are determined by the Lord, God the Father, and Christ simply
gives them that. And then, when the other ten
disciples heard what James and John, by their mother, had done,
they were indignant because they had the same desires, and James
and John were trying to put themselves in this hierarchy of importance
and nearness to Christ. because they were indignant,
they showed that they revealed what was in their heart. It was
exactly what was in James and John's heart. And so that's when
the Lord Jesus said, no, no, listen, Gentiles have a hierarchy
in their rulers. One rules over, has authority
over many, and that one has someone over him. That's not the way
it's going to be in the kingdom of God. And yet we have churches
where that is exactly the way it is. And so he emphasizes that
and he goes on, he says, it shall not, verse 26, it shall not be
so among you, but whoever will be great among you, let him be
your servant, your minister. And whoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant." And then he brings himself again. The message here is going to
be a message about him. And it makes him not only the
object of our faith and confidence and humbles us, but it also shows
in his own self as the master. He doesn't require of us what
he himself preeminently fulfills. So he says in verse 28, even
as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister
and to give his life a ransom for many. He's going to give
his life. And so then they departed from
Jericho, that city. Remember Jericho? Jericho was
that city that was surrounded by walls and it was unconquerable,
and yet Joshua, according to God's strict instructions, sent
the priests who would go around the city and blow the trumpet
one day, blow it once, second day, twice, up to the seventh
day, and then the walls fell down, and God gave complete victory
over the people of Jericho to Israel under the rule of Joshua,
and Joshua cursed the person, the man who would set up that
city again. And so this place of Jericho
is the city of curse, of destruction. Do you see that? And so when
they departed from this city of destruction by a great multitude
following Christ, that's when these two blind men are heard,
and they cry out of their blind condition, which led them into
a poverty so that all they could do to have food and life was
to beg. And so they were there begging
in their blindness, and they heard that Jesus was coming,
and that's when they called out, Lord, Son of David, which means
Lord, Sovereign Lord, and Christ, have mercy upon us. And he stops. And he asked them, well, first
the crowd tells them, be quiet, it's not right for you to do
that. Because the crowd was hearing
them as sinners calling on Christ as the Savior. And they couldn't
tolerate that, that sinners would be so untameable in their cry
to the Lord as the only Savior. And they were not able to quiet
these two blind men. And so they kept crying out even
more when they were told to be quiet. And the Lord stops. And he asked them, what do you
want me to do? And they said, Lord. They didn't
ask for alms. They said, Lord, that our eyes
may be opened. And so these men are granted
not only sight, but they're given to follow the Lord Jesus Christ,
to which Jesus said that those who follow me will be given houses
and lands and eternal life and brethren a hundredfold in chapter
19. So these last, these blind men
were last and they are made first. And so you see here, the whole
chapter hangs together and flows from the chapter before it. But
I want to focus on this particular section of this chapter today
on the first shall be last and the last shall be first. And
so I've entitled this message, The Last Shall Be First. Now, if you recall what Brad
read to us, it says in verse 20, He says in chapter 20 verse
1, for the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a
householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers. So he goes out at the very beginning
of the day. at the very first break of daylight,
which in the Jewish time, their clock was based on a 6 a.m. starting of the day. And Jesus
somewhere else said there's 12 hours in a day because from 6
a.m. to 6 p.m. is 12 hours. And so
he starts at the beginning of the day, goes out, the landowner,
the goodman of the house, who represents Christ, by the way,
the householder, and it says in verse 2, and when he had agreed,
with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his
vineyard, his vineyard. And he went out about the third
hour, which would have been 9 a.m., and saw others standing idle
in the marketplace, and said to them, Go ye also into the
vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you, because the
Lord Jesus always gives what is right. And they went their
way. And again, he went out about the sixth hour, 12 p.m., and
the ninth hour, 3 p.m., and did likewise in about the 11th hour,
5 p.m. He went out and found others
standing idle and said to them, why stand ye here all the day
idle? They say, because no man has
hired us. And he said, go ye also into
the vineyard, and notice, and whatsoever is right, that shall
you receive. Whatever is right. So when evening
was come, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward, call the
laborers and give them their hire, beginning from the last
to the first. So he starts with those who worked
one hour. And when they came that were
hired about the 11th hour, 5 p.m., they received every man a penny.
Well, those who had started at the beginning of the day saw
that. And when the first came, they supposed that they should
have received more, and they likewise received every man a
penny, which was a day's wages. And when they had received it,
they murmured against the good men of the house, saying, these
last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal
to us, which have borne the burden and the heat of the day. But
he answered one of them and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong, didst
not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that, thine is, and go thy
way. I will give unto this last, even
as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do
what I will with mine own? Now notice this, is thine eye
evil? because I am good, so the last
shall be first and the first last, for many be called, but
few chosen. All right, so that's the parable
that teach this lesson that the last shall be first and the first
last. Now, in this parable, there are
those who appear to themselves to be the least likely to be
saved. And they appear that way to others.
Remember the blind men, the least likely. They're obviously blind. They must be blind reasons, the
natural man, because of their sin. I'm not blind, hence I'm
not as sinful as they are. And this is the way we think.
We are naturally measuring ourselves compared to others and drawing
incorrect conclusions. So the first are those who appear
to men and think themselves to be the most unlikely, I'm sorry,
the first are those who appear to men and think themselves to
be the most likely to receive God's favor. Those who labored
all day, we should receive more. But in the parable, the Lord
Jesus humbles man's pride and shows us that in ourselves, in
our natural way of thinking, We think evil of the Lord Jesus
Christ because he's gracious to undeserving sinners. We naturally
think that he should not be equal to those who are more sinful
than me, and he should give me more because I am not like they
are. That's like the Pharisee in Luke
18, isn't it? And at the same time, the Lord
here in this parable comforts trembling believers who are sinners
too. And he reveals that in his kingdom,
the least likely to be saved are those chosen and effectually
called to eternal salvation, and they are blessed with every
grace for Christ's sake alone. Now, that's the overarching explanation
of this parable, but I want to look at these details of the
parable. First of all, the good man of
the household is also the Lord of the vineyard, and that is
the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter three, it
says about the Lord Jesus, whose household are we if we hold fast
the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end? So the Lord Jesus is the son
over his own house. And hence, this household and
this vineyard are His. Christ is the Son, believers
are His household, He is the Lord, He is the true vine, they
are the branches, and they are His vineyard. Okay? So that's the first thing
to realize. The good men of the house, of
this household in the parable, is the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the household over which he is the Lord are his people. Now, the vineyard, as I said,
are the church of God. Paul told the Corinthians, you
are God's husbandry. His field, his vineyard, his
harvest. That's the church. God is the
husbandman over his vineyard, and his vineyard are his people.
They are the elect of God, those chosen by God. Now, in the parable,
also, there are laborers. The laborers in this parable
represent everyone who hears the gospel. Everyone who hears
the gospel, in fact, it includes everyone in the world. And we know that the laborers
are those who hear the gospel because at the end of this parable,
Jesus sums the matter up by saying, many are called, but few are
chosen, in verse 16. Many are called, but out of all
those who are called, not everyone is saved, only those who are
chosen. That's what it means. All the
laborers in the parable were called, but only some of those
who were called actually received grace. They represent those who
are eternally chosen by Christ to salvation. As the Lord of
the vineyard called the laborers to work in his vineyard here,
so the Lord Jesus Christ, by the preaching of the gospel,
calls his elect to believe him. And because he calls his elect
with this effectual, life-giving call by his spirit, they therefore
believe on him. And the work that the laborers
do in this parable is attributed to them on the basis of one of
two ways. The first laborers who were called
and went to work at the beginning of the day, their work is attributed
to them as a labor of work, and they're rewarded according to
their works. But those who are called at the
end of the day, who are given the same amount, even though
they only work part of the day, their work is a work, I mean,
a reward of grace. And it's important that we understand
this. A work of faith, a labor of love, and this is attributed
to those who are the elect of God. They're like the 11th hour
laborers. Either it's a work of debt or
it's a work of a reward of grace. Now, the day in the parable is
a period of time in which work is done. Do you see that? From
the beginning of the day, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. is the only time when
work is done. And so the day in this parable
represents what God requires of us. The work we must do, like
the rich young ruler asked Jesus, what must I do to have eternal
life? Well, keep the law. Do this, do that. And he says,
I've done it. Well, then sell everything and
follow me, give it to the poor. I can't do that. Okay, so the
work here is the work God requires of us. And the day is that period
of time when that work may be done. So therefore, this is what
that day represents, is all that God requires of us. And the end
of the day, When the Lord calls the laborers to himself is the
time when he gives an accounting. It's the day of reckoning, the
time of reckoning and the day of judgment and every man is
going to receive a reward on that day. Do you see how these
things are illustrated by the parable? Now the penny in the
parable is compensation. It's compensation made to laborers. This is a reward. It's the reward
for a full day's work. If someone fulfills God's requirements,
he's rewarded with life according to the law. Do this and do it
continually and do it without fail and you shall live. That's
what the law says. So men naturally think they do
all that God requires and therefore they have a right to eternal
life. But to these, God pays them in
justice as those who agreed to labor a full day. They agreed
with the Lord. And you say, well, I didn't ever
agree with the Lord. I didn't make... Ah, yes, but
in our mind, you see. We have this inbred natural agreement
with God that says, if I do this, God will do this. And we come
to God on the basis naturally that he will reward us according
to our work. Therefore, we know that if we
do good, we'll be rewarded with life. And if we don't, then we
will receive compensation of justice. And we don't want that,
so we have this attitude in our minds, I have to avoid the punishment
of justice. I have to therefore do something
to avoid that punishment. Or I want the reward of life,
I therefore have to do something to obtain that life. And so we
have this agreement in our mind with God, which is the agreement
represented that these men who first started in the day made.
In the parable, therefore, the agreement made by the full day's
laborers represents the condition on man's personal obedience in
the covenant of works. And their agreement to work to
obtain God's blessings and eternal life by doing what he requires
is that agreement they hold in their hearts. And they can't
think any other way. This is the way we think naturally.
But the 11th hour workers were told they would be given what
was right, remember? And so what is this attitude? If you were hired at the beginning
of the day and said, now if you come and work for me all day
long, I'll give you a penny. And you say, that sounds good
to me. seems fair. I'll do the work, you give me
the penny, therefore it's a debt. The one who is hiring you is
going to owe you a debt, a reward of work performed, right? Isn't that what that means? But
those who come at the eleventh hour, when the Lord said, I'll
give you what's right, they recognized The Lord must be good because
even though there's only one hour left in the day, He promised
to give us what was right. So they trusted themselves to
the goodness of the good men of the house, the Lord of the
vineyard. And so they already were looking
to Him according to grace when they heard His word. All right. So there's many lessons now,
given this fact that this is how the parable is laid out and
what it has to do with. There's many lessons that we
need to draw from this. First of all, the Lord alone
makes the difference. Jesus summed up the parable by
saying, many be called, but few are chosen. You see, all of us
by nature can only interact with God in this agreement of our
natural thinking that we can meet what God requires. In Romans
chapter 4, he says this in verse 5. Let me read this to you. He
says, Now to him that worketh is the reward, the payment, not
reckoned of grace, but of debt. You see? It's a reward, it's
a payment, a compensation for work performed. And so the Lord must make the
difference because we all come to Him with His attitude that
we're going to do something in order to avoid punishment or
to obtain a reward of life and blessings. But no, because those
who came that way, what did they do when they saw the Lord giving
grace to the undeserving? They took issue with it. They complained. They murmured
against the good men of the house. We should receive more. Why are
you giving these an equal portion with us? And so they had this
arrogance, this attitude of self-righteousness. They had an equity they considered
better than the Lord's equity, His justice. And so they accused
Him in their minds. And so this is the way we all
are by nature. And the only way that we can
escape this, if the Lord has chosen us to salvation, so that
we learn from this parable that the Lord makes the difference,
and if you and I are saved, we will only be saved if the Lord
has chosen us to an eternal salvation by grace alone. Now, when we
hear that, our first reaction is, that leaves it out of my
hands. It doesn't seem fair. But if
we recognize ourselves to be like the blind men in this chapter,
we realize that I have nothing I can do to earn that full day's
wages, because the requirements God has for me are way beyond
my ability. I'm a sinner. I cannot bring
any righteousness from my works, and I can't take away my failures,
my sins. Therefore, something has to be
done by the good men of the house, the Lord of the vineyard. And
what God does is that he makes salvation. God has done this
so that he alone will get the glory, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he does that in the beginning by making salvation depend on
an election of grace. In Romans chapter 11, he says
this. Romans 11, he says, even so then
at this present time, there is a remnant, not everyone, but
a remnant, a portion, a small portion, according to the election
of grace. God's choice chosen by grace. And in Romans chapter 9 and verse
11, he says, for the children being not yet born, Jacob and
Esau, when they were in the womb of their mother, It says, neither
having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according
to election, might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. You see, salvation, if we're
ever saved, it will be because God chose us to salvation. He chose us to eternal life,
and He made that choice of us in the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 4.7, it says,
who makes you to differ from another? What do you have that
you didn't receive? And if you received it, why do
you glory? Why do you boast as if you didn't
receive it, but earned it? So when we learn that our salvation
depends on God's choice and not our decision, and His will and
not our will, our initial reaction may be a reaction of anxiety,
because we naturally think God's blessings depend on us, and we
don't have any control. So being out of control, we feel
uneasy, and that uneasiness is evidence of the fact that we
don't trust Christ alone, you see? That uneasiness and God
being sovereign in salvation is evidence of our natural mind
that we would rather be the laborers who began the day and finished
it with their own labor. But these who came at the eleventh
hour show the blessedness of God's way of salvation, that
they were given compensation for a full day's work, every
requirement met, even though they themselves were only in
the field for one hour. Okay? So our anxiety is quieted
when we realize that if anything were left to us in salvation,
we would be utterly lost, hopelessly and helplessly. This is what
God's law is meant to teach us. That's why the rich young ruler
went away sorrowful, because he only had the law. as his trust,
and with only the law as our trust, when the requirements
of God's Word come to us, what do we do? We reach for something
stable, and we find ourselves to be lacking, and so we may
try to prop up and shore up in our own conscience that what
we've done wasn't that bad. Or what we do is pretty good,
and all of that is just a defense mechanism to keep ourselves from
facing God in the nakedness of our sin and unrighteousness.
And so we need to learn, but we cannot learn in ourselves
that God saves by His grace alone, in Christ alone. And so therefore,
what do we need? Well, we need the Lord to give
us His grace. To give us His grace that it's
Him. That if we're not saved by Him,
we won't be saved at all. And so this puts us in an attitude
then, doesn't it? of depending upon the Lord Jesus
Christ like these two blind men did. We have no one else who
could do it. No one else who would. The crowd
would reject us. The little children in chapter
19 would have been cast out by the disciples and prevented from
coming to Christ. But the Lord Jesus says, no,
these are the ones who represent what those in the kingdom are
like. They have no potential. They
can do nothing to benefit the king. They're recipients of his
grace only. And God has to give them everything,
and bring them, and cuddle them, and hold them, and comfort them,
and keep them, and defend them. This is what the Lord's people,
this is how he saves them. Now, the answer to these questions. Do you want your salvation to
depend on something that you do? Or would you rather have
it depend on the Lord? Would you rather stand before
God in Christ's obedience and His righteousness or your own? Would we rather be in our sin
or the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Would we rather hold
our faith and our love as something we would take confidence in and
find assurance in? Or would we rather have the Lord's
faithfulness and His love and power as our only source of comfort? Is our answer in judgment the
one that we rely on to give Christ an answer for ourselves? Or do
we ask the Lord of Glory to answer with Himself for us? Do we bring
through some cogitations in our memory our works for recognition
to the Lord that He would consider what we've done? Or would we
hide in Christ so that only what He has done is seen by God? Do
we want glory? Do we want something we can boast
in? Or do we want Christ to receive all of the glory, you see? The answer to these questions,
if you are the Lord's, is that you look to him only and you
flee to him for refuge. As the psalmist says in Psalm
62, truly my soul waiteth upon God. From him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation,
my defense. I shall not be greatly moved.
Now, the second lesson. in this parable is this, God
does give rewards. Psalm 58 verse 11 says, Verily
there is a reward for the righteous. God does give rewards. Verily
there is a reward for the righteous. But those in the parable who
labored for a reward, the ones who came at the beginning of
the day, they were paid out of justice. according to the agreement
they made when they were hired. The Apostle Paul, as I just read
to you in Romans 4 verse 4, now to him that worketh is the reward
not reckoned of grace, but of debt. If we work for a reward
from God, our reward cannot be a reward of grace. You can't
have it both ways. You can't come to God by expecting
him to compensate you for what you've done or reward you for
what you haven't done. and also receive grace. He doesn't
deal with us by partial works and partial grace. It's either
all of works or it's all of grace. Romans 11.6 says, if it's of
grace, then it's no more of works. And if it's of work, it's no
more of grace. It's either one or the other.
They're mutually exclusive. If we work for a reward from
God, our work cannot be rewarded out of grace. If we work for
it, it can only be compensation for work performed, compensation
from God for what he owes us, for what we've agreed, what he
agreed as our due, our wages, but all such payment from God
must end in death because all we do, even our very best, is
nothing more than filthy rags in God's sight. And we think,
well, now if I had someone at my table and I fixed them a meal
and they were homeless and they were filthy and they were rude
and they were impolite and they ate like a pig and I was thinking,
how could I allow this person at my table? They're so obnoxious. And yet the Lord allows us to
come to his table and take of Christ. We have to get rid of
this attitude that we're something that God can accept, don't we?
If we think to get God to bless us or reward us or save us by
what we do, we imagine in our arrogance that God is our debtor. We think we can do something
that God must recognize and reward us for, but all such thinking
actually increases our indebtedness to God by our sin. God can't
be any man's debtor. He gives us all we have. Solomon
said, In 1 Chronicles 29, 14, of thine own have we given thee,
of thine own. In other words, we're like children
who bring something to their father from what their father
had already provided them. Look, daddy. Well, that's very
nice. That's very nice. I'm glad you
wanted me to recognize you for that. But we had already given
them that. So the Lord gives us everything.
And the Spirit of God, to humble, high-minded man, says this, who
has first given to Him, in Romans 11, who has first given to Him,
and it shall be recompensed to Him again. Who? Who is there
in all of creation who has first given to God, and it shall be
paid back again? For of Him, and through Him,
and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Yes, that's
the way it is, isn't it? That's truly the way it is. What
do we give God but what He has first given to us? Life and breath
and all things. God doesn't need anything from
us, does He? He made all things. He gives
life and breath to every man. No one ever gives to God but
what God has first given. If I work expecting God to repay
my labor, then I will be rewarded according to God's justice and
not according to His grace. And justice will discover me.
to be God's debtor, not him mine, and he will repay me with the
wages of sin, which is death. And if I work to earn a reward
from God and I attempt to make myself God's creditor and make
him my debtor, what kind of arrogance is that? It's the arrogance of
an ignorant, blind, sinful man who thinks he can elevate himself
even above God and subject God to him as a debtor to his thoughts
and to his actions. Isn't that true? But if God blesses
us, if He blesses any, He's going to bless us out of His pure grace. Not a reward or a repayment for
what we do, but it will be a reward of grace or it will not be given. If we think to receive salvation
or blessings by our work, then God must deal with us on the
basis of his law. And we can't have it both ways.
It's either by grace alone or it's by our work alone. And if
it's by work, then we will be given the just reward of damnation. Now in this parable, those who
were hired by grace were rewarded according to grace. There was
only one hour in the day left over when the good men hired
them, and they were compensated for a full day's work. And here
we see that God reveals the principles of his grace. He says this in
Romans 4, 5, to him that worketh not, But believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
It doesn't mean that God rewards our act of faith as if it were
righteousness. It means He rewards the one we
believe, the object of our faith, as our righteousness. Be it unto
you according to your faith, according to the one you believe.
The one who is all salvation, who is all things. That's the
reward of faith. It's the reward of the one we
trust. That God would reward a man for
grace that he gives, this grace of faith in Christ, is entirely
contrary to our natural thinking. God's reward to a believer is
never a reward for work, but a reward for His grace. And that stupefies us, doesn't
it? It makes us, we see a poor sinner
and we think, how could God give him that? He didn't give me that. Don't we? We compare ourselves
to them. We think, that doesn't seem fair.
No, it's not fair. It's not fair if you consider
the man, but it's fair if you consider God's grace. And this
is why in this chapter, the Lord Jesus Christ tells his disciples,
I'm going to Jerusalem. The scribes and the chief priests
are going to condemn me to death and turn me over to the Gentiles
to mock and scourge and put me to death, then I'll rise again.
And I didn't come to be served, but to serve and give my life
a ransom for many. He's showing us that it's out
of pure grace on the basis of Christ's work. And so the Lord
Jesus says this. to those who are his, who have
been called by his grace, who are the 11th hour workers who
are given this reward of a full day's work on the merit of his
ransom. He says, blessed are the poor
in spirit. And no one is poor in spirit,
but those made poor by the operation of his own spirit. And what a
blessing it is when I'm enabled to realize in my conscience that
I do not have one thing, I'm like the beggar, the blind beggar.
All that God requires of me, I have nothing. I'm poor. I'm
bankrupt before God. I have a great debt. I have nothing
to pay my debt with. I owe God perfect obedience.
I owe Him justice, satisfaction to His justice. I can't do one
thing of all that He requires. And my soul is hungry and thirsty,
and I've spent all my labor on things that are not profitable,
wasted my money, and I can't satisfy myself even, let alone
God, but the bread and the milk of the gospel of salvation in
Christ must be given to me. So therefore, we see here that
all rewards that God gives are on the basis of grace, even to
believers, even to believers. And doesn't that shock us? I'm
a believer now. Nevertheless, your faith is a
gift of grace. Remember in Ephesians 2 verse
4, when we were dead in sins, God for his great love, wherewith
he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive
with Christ, for by grace you are saved. Some people argue,
well, Ephesians 2, 8 says, by grace you are saved through faith
and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God." And they want
to argue over, well, does that mean salvation or does that mean
faith? And the commentators will pull
out their Greek grammar and they'll try to dissect that verse. But
what about the verses that come before. You were dead in trespasses
and sins, and when you were dead, God, who is rich in mercy for
his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead, he
underscores it, hath quickened us together with Christ, for
by grace you are saved. Enough said, right? That shuts
down all arguments. So when I'm enabled by God's
grace to realize in myself, I am a sinful man, I have nothing,
I can do nothing to fulfill God's requirements, and all that I
need to satisfy the hunger and thirst of my soul, God must give. Even that hunger, even that thirst,
and especially that faith, to see the depravity of my sinfulness
and Christ's all-sufficiency, And therefore God gives rewards
out of grace. God gives believers all the rewards
of grace. I can't earn one thing, can I?
Doesn't he say in Acts 5.31, God has exalted his son to his
right hand to be a prince and savior for to give repentance
to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. Even repentance has
to be given to us. Forgiveness has to be given to
us. Life has to be given to us. Righteousness, the basis of our
life, has to be given. Everything. Christ has to be
given to us. Can we earn eternal life? Can we earn the gift of God's
Son? Or the gift of His Holy Spirit?
Or that God would choose us? Can we earn anything of God?
Most especially nothing in salvation, can we? What a wonderful grace
this is. The Lord gives, another thing
to point out here is that the Lord gives what belongs to Him.
He gives to whom He will as it pleases Him. Jesus asked those
who opposed His grace to the 11th hour workers. He says, isn't
it lawful for me to do what I will with my own? Isn't, is your eye
evil because I am good? You know what I find? I find
that the answer to his question is, yes, my eye is evil because
he is good. And I oppose him in my natural
self. And yet I find, like John Newton
in the first song we sang, do I love the Lord or no? Lord,
if I didn't love you before, make me love you now. The psalmist
in Psalm 119 says it over and over. Let not any iniquity have
dominion over me. Make me to go in the path of
your commandments. And so it is. We need the Lord
to give us what belongs to Him only. And it is right for Him
to give grace to whom He will. Isn't it? Isn't it right for
God to give grace to the undeserving, to lavish kindness and favor
on the sinful? Yes, it is, because His grace
is based on His justice satisfied in Christ. It's never grace apart
from righteousness, it's grace because of righteousness. It's
gracious and it's a gift and it's based on a righteousness
because the Lord provided both the gift of grace and Christ
who makes that gift of grace a righteous gift. It's right
for the Lord to be gracious. And then also this, the Lord
gives abundantly above all that we ask or think. Remember Ephesians
3 and verse 20, let me turn this, read this to you. In Ephesians
3 verse 20, the apostle Paul says, now unto him, that is able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that works in us. To him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end." God
not only makes it right to give us grace, but what he does is
surprising to us, isn't it? It surprises us. It's beyond
what we could ask or think. A full day's wage for one hour
of work? That's so much grace unexpected.
Everyone thought it was too much. It's too much. You shouldn't
do it. No. God's grace loves to give abundantly. Remember Romans 5 20? He says,
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And Jesus said,
I am come, the good shepherd, that they might have life and
that they might have it more abundantly. abundance of grace,
more than we could ask, more than we could think. Never think
that God is limited by your imagination. God is not limited by you. If
He were, you would never have lived, never know Him, never
believe Him, never know His grace. If we could have kept the law
perfectly, which we couldn't, then we would at most receive
a compensation according to our work. But God gives us a compensation
according to Christ's work. If there had been a law which
could have given life, then God would have given righteousness
by that law. But there wasn't. There was no
scheme in God's infinite mind and the exact justice of his
character and righteousness. There was no way that we could
be given eternal life except by the righteousness of Christ. That's what he says in Galatians
3.21. Nothing, and God would never
have offered up his son if we could have done something to
justify ourselves before him. But he did offer his son, therefore
his son did justify us in the offering of himself, and therefore
we can do nothing because Christ was required to do it. God is
holy. We're sinners. Sin must be punished. We cannot satisfy the smallest
part. We're ignorant of all spiritual
things. We're blind like the beggars. But Jesus said in the end of
John 9, if you were blind, then you would have no sin. Remember? But if you say, we see, your
sin remains. You see, that's a last that was
made first. These last were made first because
of the grace of God. Now, another thing. Notice how
that these that came at the beginning of the day, they said, We have
borne the labor, the heat, and the labor of the whole day. This is the way that a person
who serves out of reward, this attitude of reward, thinks. I've
done a lot. I've suffered a lot. How dare
you take away that credit? No, no. How dare you claim that
credit? Jesus says in Luke chapter 17,
the disciples said, Lord, increase our faith. And he says, well,
let me tell you, when you've done all, say this, I am an unprofitable
servant. I've only done what was required
of me. So we can never earn this. And
these first hour, these labors that came in the beginning of
the day, they thought they did. There's nothing more honorable
than to serve Christ for nothing. But you can't. You can't serve
Christ for nothing because he gives everything by grace. I
heard this story about the queen asking this man to go and serve
in the service of the army, who was a landowner. And the man,
in that request that the queen had made, said, well, I've got
all this land. And the queen's response was,
if you take care of the queen's business, she'll take care of
your business. You see, we can never out-give
the Lord, nor do we want to. We don't want Him to consider
anything that we do. So there's nothing more liberating
than to know as a sinner I've been given all things in Christ,
and therefore we can serve Christ for nothing. We don't have to
seek a reward, do we? Because we know He gives exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think for Christ's sake. And so we're free from the law
and that's what gives us power over sin. You're not under the
law, you're under grace. And so then we look to Him, we
come to Him for the very faith we need to live, the life and
everything. And it's also true on the other
hand that those who hate God's grace hate the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it? Take that thine is,
the Lord said to them, and go your way. I don't want to go
my way, do you? I don't want to go depending
on my work to gain what God gives by his grace. And so he says,
many be called, few are chosen. Few are chosen, even though many
are called. It shall be given to them, he
says in verse 23, according as it was prepared for them of my
father. You see, whatever God does, He
did before time. We can't change it. And yet He
puts it in our heart to do what? He gives us the example here,
the blind man. What did they do? Lord, Son of
David, have mercy upon me. That's what they said. Even though
it was God's eternal will, whatever happens will happen. Yet, by
that same eternal will, he has ordained the means by which his
people are saved in their experience. He applies his grace in such
a way that we have no other one to call on, no other one to trust. except the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so like these blind men, we call on him, Lord, hear, Lord,
come, Lord, open my eyes. And so we find that the will
of God is fulfilled in us when we find ourselves without anything
to do what God requires and needing Him to do everything in Christ. And then we realize that not
only did the Lord Jesus Christ stop and open the eyes of these
blind men, but that also was given to Him to do by His Father
from before the foundation of the world, because it was God's
eternal will to make the last first, those chosen who were
last, First, and here we are today, in history, and here we
are receiving the message of the gospel as those who have
not labored. Those prophets of old were killed.
Those fathers in the Old Testament were persecuted and killed. Abel was killed by his brother
Cain, and we could go down the line, and yet all these men who
suffered so much, and here we are in the lap of luxury, as
it were, hearing the gospel. We're the last. But by God's
grace, he makes us in our heart hungry and thirsty, and unable
to provide what we need. And then he shows us everything
is done in Christ. It's only by grace. And so we
call upon him and we come to him saying, Lord, you must save
me. And we trust his sovereign will.
We hope in his grace, don't we? And day by day, continually,
we go on hoping that the Lord will save us and knowing that
only if he does can we be saved. But we know he has power to do
it and he will do it according to God's eternal will. So many
hear the gospel and they're not saved, but many are chosen to
salvation by grace. And this is the message of this.
God is pleased to save his people from their sins, even though
in themselves they have nothing. And what a delightful thing that
is. The called. How do we know then if we've
been called by the Lord? Those called and chosen to salvation. Well, in 1 Corinthians chapter
2, he says this. I just want to read this verse
and then we'll close. Actually, I'll read two verses to you.
1 Corinthians chapter 2. He says in verse, 1 Corinthians
2 verse 2, he says, To the church of God which is at Corinth, to
them that are sanctified in Christ, called saints. In other words, God has put his
name on you. You're holy. God has done this. He separated you in Christ with
all that in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, their Lord and ours. Jesus Christ, our Lord, both
theirs and ours. How do I know I've been called?
by Christ, by God, because we call. We call on Him. And this
is the other verse I want to read to you in Psalm 50. And
this will be the last one in Psalm 50 and verse 15. He says
this. Call upon me, the Lord says,
in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee. and thou
shalt glorify me." You see? How does the Lord glorify himself?
By delivering those who call on him. The righteous cry. And
that's the blessing of God's gospel is that the righteous
cry. Let's pray. Lord, thank you that you have
made a way to bring us to Christ, a way of grace to give us all
that Christ earned. And we repudiate and find nauseating
any thought of our own to take glory or boast in ourselves or
claim credit or a reward for anything about us. And we forsake
all that we might be and could be in ourselves for all that
Christ is in himself. Help us not to trust another
and help us to find all reason from your word to find complete
confidence in his all-sufficiency. All by grace, nothing by what
we do, but all given freely according to your eternal purpose to glorify
Him in our salvation. In His name we pray, amen.