In the last few verses, the disciple
Simon Peter said, We have forsaken all and followed thee. What shall
we have? And the Lord, remember, He actually
commended them for forsaking houses and so forth. In verse 29, everyone, He said,
that had forsaken houses, or brethren, or sister, or father,
or mother, or wife, or children, sacrifice for him, the Lord says,
shall receive a hundredfold. You'll never give up anything.
You'll never lose anything. The Lord repays and shall inherit
everlasting life. You don't earn it, you inherit
it. And then he says in verse 30,
and this is a bad place for a chapter to end and another to begin,
He's talking about the same thing. Many that are first shall be
last, and the last shall be first. Now look down at chapter 20,
verse 16. So, he says, the last shall be
first, and the first last. So he's about to tell a parable
to this same purpose, to show how that the first or last, the
last first, all receive the same thing. There's no seniority in
heaven. There's no one more special than
anyone else. Abraham is no more special than
the thief on the cross. No one is saved differently.
This whole parable is about this, that there are no rewards in
heaven because everyone inherits it. They all get the same thing,
too. Christ. All saved the same way. by grace and you're saved. By
grace. And by hearing the gospel. From
Abraham to Zerubbabel. A to Z. From Jew to Gentile. All saved by sovereign electing
grace. It's a gift. Out of works. Any man should boast. Abraham
cannot boast. Boasting is excluded. All are
given the prize. Christ is the great prize. And all are servants. All are
laborers in his vineyard. Okay? Look at verse 1. It says,
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder,
which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. The kingdom of heaven. He's talking
about salvation. He's talking about eternal life.
He's talking about his people. He's talking about his kingdom. He's talking about his church.
The family of God. And he speaks of a man who is
a householder. What man is that? That's the
God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who is the holder
of his house. The householder. He's the one
who is greater than the house. Like the one who builds the house
is greater than the house. He's the householder. He's the
owner of the church. the Lord over all. It says he
went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. Early in the morning. Christ
is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. From the very beginning
of time. Before there was a sinner, Christ
was the Savior. In the garden, the first sinners,
Adam and Eve, Christ came walking, seeking and saving. the law.
He came walking to speak to them. He spoke to Enoch. He spoke to
Noah. He spoke to Abraham early in
the morning. Early in the beginning, Christ,
like Proverbs 8, speaks of how that his delights were with the
sons of men, rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth.
Even when there was one man and one woman, one sinner, this is
a faithful Christ came into the world with safe centers. And
He came into the garden. Isn't He merciful? One center. He'll go looking for one center.
He went out early, it's said, and went into His vineyard. His
vineyard. Alright, look at Psalm 80 real
quickly with me. His vineyard. This field of the
Lord. This vineyard where the vine
has been planted and fruit comes from that vine, and wine on the
leaves. What is this vineyard? There's
a winepress, there's fruit, there's wine. That's his church, and
Christ is the vine. Look at Psalm 80, verse 8, and
Scripture speaks very much of a vineyard. Psalm 80, verse 8. It says, Thou hast brought a
vine out of Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heathen,
and planted it." What is that vine? Christ said, I am the vine. I am the vine. Look down at verse
15. And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and
the branch, or the vine, the root, you made strong for yourself. That's the vineyard. Isaiah 5. There's another passage that
speaks of the vineyard. Isaiah chapter 5. It says this. I'll sing to my well-beloved
a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved
hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. He fenced it, hedged it
about, gathered out the stone, planted it with the choicest
vine, built a tower in the midst of it, made a winepress therein. And he looked, and it should
bring forth great." So the vineyard is his church, is his kingdom. Go back to the text. And Christ
came into his vineyard, came unto his own. And now this is,
and it says he hired laborers into his vineyard, verse 1. He
hired laborers into his vineyard. Now this is not talking about
works salvation. Everyone in here knows that.
Heard this enough to know that he's not talking about works
salvation. But he's talking about those
whom the Lord calls and puts into his vineyard, into his church,
and everyone whom he puts into his church, he puts them into
his service. They are his servants. They are
laborers together. Not just me. You too. Laborers together in his vineyard. And it's like the garden in the
beginning, this vineyard. was already planted, wasn't it?
This vineyard was already planted. He didn't send men to plant the
vine. It was already planted. Like
Adam, the Lord already made everything. It was all complete. He just
put him into dresses. Same thing with the church of
God. It's His work. It's His work. And He brings us into His church
and we're laborers together, except the Lord build the house. They labor in vain. And when
Paul said we plant, we water, that was figuratively speaking.
Every vine, every tree which the Lord hath not planted shall
be rooted up. He's the one that plants it. And he's the one that brings
in Christ. But he's talking about laborers
together with Christ in his church. in His service, the vocation
wherein we're called. Alright? And He puts us all into
His service, and this is showing us also how He calls us and how
He promises us the same reward. Not rewards. Nowhere in Scripture
does it say that we receive rewards. Nowhere. You find the plural. in reference to salvation. Rewards. No, it's singular. Reward. When
he came to Abraham, who is the father of the faithful, who is
the beginning, if you will, he said, I am thy shield and thy
seed. Generous. Great. Reward. Reward. You get me. You get me. I'm your reward. And so this
story is how he calls and promises this wonderful reward to all
he puts into his vineyard. Verse 2, so he agreed with the
laborers for a penny a day, and he sent them into his vineyard. He agreed. The word agreed means
covenant. He made an agreement with them.
He made a covenant with them. Now, he didn't ask them, what
do you think is right? He didn't ask them to receive
something. He made this covenant. He's the
one, the householder, the owner, is the one who made this agreement
and said, now this is what I'm going to do. And I've called
you, and this is what you're going to get. Okay? What did
they say? Fine. We're just glad to be here. We're just glad to be here. At
the time they did it. At the time they did it. They
murmured a little while later. But when he called them at first,
they thought, this is wonderful. We're just so glad that you've
come and called us and put us into your building. We don't
deserve it. A little while later, they thought,
we ought to get something more. Well, he agreed. Now, he agreed
with them. He made a covenant with them. The first laborer,
like Abraham, like I said, Abraham's the father of the faithful. He
was an idolater. He was 75 years old. And the
Lord God came to him. He's a picture, he's a type of
every single person that the Lord saved. Abraham was the first
Jew before he was circumcised. He was a Gentile. He was an Iraqi. The Lord made him a Jew. But
he was an idolater, 75 years old. Such a picture of how God
saves hopeless Impossible cases. An old man steeped in idolatry. Now Christ came to him, chose
him, called him, brought him, taught him, revealed to him his
covenant, promised everything to him, and led him and guided
him and saved him. This is salvation that's of the
Lord. The Lord came to him and promised Abraham blessing after
blessing after blessing. And you remember, Paul made a
note of this. He said, seed, seed, like this
penny, like this penny. The Lord promised Abraham a seed,
and Paul said, that seed is not seeds, but one seed, and that
seed is Christ. He's the great reward. He's the payment, if you will. So the Lord came to Abraham and
said, I am thy reward. And He promised these laborers,
like He did Abraham, a penny. A penny a day. Now a penny is
not a penny as we know it. It wasn't made of copper. In
fact, it was silver. It was silver. It was a silver
coin. And it was a very generous payment back then. That's why everyone jumped at
this. A penny. It was a whole day's wage. This householder is generous.
You're not going to be in his hire and not get a generous payment. The Lord loveth a cheerful giver,
and nobody has ever given more than he. So this penny, do not
mistake this as the penny that we have that's worthless. This
penny was of great value. A silver coin. It was a day's
pay. More than enough. A good, fair,
and just payment. A very generous payment. Able
to buy, able to purchase, able to provide everything they want
for that day. Food, rain, everything. What is this penny? Christ. It's no coincidence. The price
of redemption, every socket in every fence post was silver,
rested on silver. Every child of Israel was bought
with silver. Silver. Christ is that payment,
his precious blood. Christ is all, and he's in all
these things. He's the prize, he's the householder.
He's the penny, he's the householder. He's the payment, he's the reward.
And what a generous gift, an unspeakable gift. Very soon I'm
going to try to preach on that. An unspeakable gift. And also this penny represents
grace. Grace. God gives grace. And he gives grace for the day. Each day we need grace. These men went to work that day,
didn't they? Well, what about tomorrow? Well, they don't have
to go to work tomorrow, do they? They're going to need grace again tomorrow. And His grace is sufficient. Like the widow who reached down
in the barrel, and all she got, but it was enough, she got a
hand full. Her hand was full. As much as
she needed, she could grab. But she just got it for the day.
She had to go back the next day. and reach down. Was she going
to find it? Oh, yeah. It's never going to
run dry. That meal is never going to wet.
So this penny also represents the grace of God that we need
for every day. And it represents Christ who
is, oh, what a wonderful payment. Verse 3, He went out the third
hour. So He went out the first hour.
The Jewish clock was from 6 o'clock in the morning to 6 o'clock in
the evening. Okay, so the third hour was nine
o'clock in the morning when our Lord was crucified. About the
ninth hour, he cried. Three o'clock in the afternoon,
he cried. And then, so it says about the third hour, he went out and saw others standing
idle in the marketplace. About the third hour, he went
about. God's Word is so perfect. That's
how you know he wrote it. It says he went about the third
hour looking for others. And when Peter preached to Cornelius
and all his house, he preached Jesus Christ and he said, a man
who went about doing good. Calling out his people. That
just sent a shiver up my spine. went about doing good. He came
to seek and to save His own. The Lord came to seek and save
the lost. He came to call out His sheep.
And He said, other sheep I have which are not of this fold. It
would have been great mercy and grace if the Lord had just saved
Adam and Eve and said, that's it. Or if He had just saved Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob. But no, He said, I have a people
which no man can number. And for many, many years now,
he's been walking about, calling out his sheep through the preaching
of the gospel. He said, I must bring them. I
must bring them. Oh, I hope that there are other
sheep that are not yet in the fold that our Lord, through His
gospel, will find standing idle. Every one of these men were standing
idle. in the marketplace, weren't they? Someone who's idle is useless,
aren't they? They're worthless. God created
man for his glory. Oh, we've been idle at that end.
Worthless. Come far short of his glory.
He said, here it is the Father glorified that you bear much
fruit. It's so idle. So idle. Useless. Worthless. An idle person is
someone who is loitering. Loitering. They're cumbering
the ground. Like that fig tree. That's me. Why stand you here
idle all the time? And they're in the marketplace.
They're in the marketplace. What are they doing? I don't
know. Buying, selling. Remember if
they had anything. Coveting. Maybe they're just
looking. Window shopping. Am I guilty of that in the marketplace? No, I'm not. Gomer was on the auction block. She was the one that Christ came
to buy with. She was in the marketplace, and
she was up for sale. Thank God he came to her, standing
idle in the marketplace. Well, he came and called them,
too. and said unto them, verse 4, Go ye also into the vineyard,
and whatever is right will I give you. And they went their way. Go. He said unto them. He came to them. He called them. And they went, didn't they? Whoever
the Lord calls, they come. And whoever the Lord sends, they
go. Aren't you glad? You wouldn't have come here this
morning if he hadn't caught you. You wouldn't be here this morning
if he hadn't brought you. Thank God that you're here. And don't sit here idly. He said,
go. He went into his vineyard. Whatever's right, I will give
you. Down in verse 7, he kept saying
this. I like this. For whatever is
right, that ye shall receive. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Do we receive what we deserve? Do we receive, has the Lord dealt
with us after our sins? No, He has not. We receive with
the Lord's hand double for all our iniquities. Righteousness. Whatever is righteous, I'll give
it to you. I'll do it. I'll give it. I'll
provide it. They didn't earn this. Nobody
earned this. He said, I'm going to give it.
I'm going to give it. But go. Go. Verse 5 and 6. So he went out again the sixth
and ninth hour and did likewise about the eleventh hour. He went
out. The eleventh hour. It's almost
over. The harvest is almost over. And he went out the eleventh
hour and found others. What are they doing? Nothing. There's none of them worth anything.
The first ones he called weren't worth anything. If we ever lose sight of that,
this gospel won't mean a dying thing to us. From the first to the last. This is the lesson
our Lord is teaching the disciples. What do we get? What do you get? What do you mean, what do you
get? The Lord is so merciful to them, wasn't He? And he commended
them. He should have rebuked them strongly.
What do you get? I have saved you from yourself. Who do you think you are? Salmon? But no, he's so merciful. He's
so kind. He knows our frame. Why are you standing here, Riley? Went out the eleventh hour. The
first ones didn't deserve it, and the last ones didn't deserve
it. Nobody deserved this. Nobody deserved to be called. But they all were. Eleventh hour. He didn't have to call any. They
called many. What a high honor and privilege
to be called into his vineyard. At the eleventh hour, he went
out and found them idle, too. And he said, Why are you standing
here idle? Verse 7, They said unto him,
Because no man hath hired us. Again, the Lord's word is so
perfect. You remember the man at the pool
of Bethesda? He was waiting for the water
to move and the Lord came to him and the man said, I have
no man to put me in the pool. Remember the eulogy to Philip? Philip said, Do you understand
what you're reading? And he said, How can I except
some man show me? Bless God, he has used men and
still using men. to gather his people into the
vengeance. And they're just men, yes, but
these are the names he uses. Don't despise the mean. Don't
despise prophesying. Be thankful that the Lord does
still send men out to gather his people. I was gathered by
man. I was told by man. And that's
who he uses. No man hath hired us. But he
said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatever is
right, that shall you receive." Whatever is right. Verse 8 and
9. And the Lord is still calling
even at this eleventh hour. Isn't that mercy? Isn't that
grace? This church's door is still open.
That tells me that there must still be some sheep. Or at least
we're strengthening the things. That means you must be sheep.
When these doors close, there are no more sheep, but when this
fold is closed. Verse 8, So when evening 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. And when they came, they that
were hired about the eleventh hour, received every man a penny. Every man a penny. Now what did
they have before? Nothing. Now they have a day's wage. They're
rich. They had nothing before. Now
they are rich. Rich. They have everything they
need. Of His fullness have we received. Christ is all. We have all we need. We have
received this wonderful gift of God's Son, of salvation in
Him. But now, verse 10, when the first
came, they supposed that they should have received more. But they got a penny too. They
thought they were more deserving. But that's what the Lord agreed
on, wasn't it? And they didn't deserve the penny,
let alone more than that. And they murmured, verse 11,
they murmured against the good man of the house, saying, These
last have worked just one hour, and you've made them equal unto
us. We've borne the burden and heat
of the day. We've made all this sacrifice.
We've worked all these years. We've done all this all these
years. Surely we ought to get more than them. Well, they sure forgot where
they came from, didn't they? Like the church at Ephesus that
left their first love. Like the church at Laodicea who
were rich and increased with goods and hadn't eaten nothing
and had forgotten that they were wretched. Still wretched, miserable,
poor, blind and naked. You see your calling, brother?
Do you remember your calling? Where the Lord found you? Remember
the pit from which you were digged? How you had nothing when the
Lord came to you? And when you heard this gospel,
weak as it was from a weak man, a sinful man as he was, it was
the best thing you ever heard in your life. If a man just get
up and say, mercy, you would just say, amen. Is that same penny good enough? And the Lord said, and look at
His mercy. Would you look at His mercy to
these men? Verse 13, Friend, Friend, I do thee know, oh, how blessed
you are, Friend, that I call you Friend. I still call you
Friend. Jealous? Deserving? You were all penniless when I
found you, all worthless when I called you. That's why the Lord came down
so hard on the Jews. The Lord began to save the Gentiles,
and they didn't like it. Even Peter one time became You
know, Paul came to him. Peter disassembled with the Jews. Remember that? And Paul came
to him to his face. And he didn't humiliate him. Peter humiliated himself. And
Paul said, We're going to be saved like them, Peter. If we're
saved, it's going to be by the same sovereign grace that they
are. We're just as bad. Are we better
than they? No, in no wise. Simon Peter. I didn't plan these two messages
to go together, but they do. We're going to look at Luke 10
and the next message. I didn't plan it. I didn't realize
it until after it was over, really. It's amazing how they go together.
But talking about, we're going to look at the Good Samaritan. But real quickly, and let me
close with this. Go over to Romans chapter 3.
Romans chapter 3. And this is the explanation or
the declaration of this whole thing here. Romans chapter 3,
verse 1 says, What advantage hath the Jew? You have it? What
advantage hath the Jew? What profit is there if circumcised?
Well, every way. Unto them the oracles of God. Well, what if some didn't believe?
And he goes on to say how they're all, there's none righteous,
no, not one. Jew, Gentile, there's none good,
no, not one, whose mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.
Worthless. Whatsoever things, verse 19,
the law sayeth and sayeth to them that are under the law,
Jew, Gentile, those with law, those without law. All the world's
guilty before God. Worthless, idle in the marketplace,
sold unto sin. Verse 20, by the deeds of the
laws, not works, it's grace. But now the righteousness of
God. I'll give you what's right. The righteousness of God manifests. The righteousness of God, verse
22, by the faith of Jesus Christ, not something you do, something
He did. It's upon all, unto all, upon
all, given to, imputed to, them that believe, that do what? Work?
No, believe. No difference, all of sin justified
freely by His grace through the redemption of sin Christ Jesus,
who God set forth to make a bloody, a bloody sacrifice to declare His righteousness,
His righteousness. Not our works, not our knowledge,
not our deeds, not our anything, not even our faith, His righteousness,
His gift. Go down to chapter 4. What about
Abraham? What did he, pertaining to flesh,
what has he found? Was he justified by work? No.
Boasting is excluded. It's not to him that worketh
that is a reward, but grace. Nothing could be clearer. It's
all given. All been given. And down in verse 23, it says,
It is not written for his sake alone that it is imputed to him,
but to us also that it shall be imputed if we believe on him
who raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead, who was, he was
delivered from our offenses and raised for our justification,
past, present, and future. We are still sinners. This gospel
ought to still amaze us. We ought to be amazed. and so
thankful that we'd be chosen at all, let alone first or last
or wherever it was, just included in the kingdom. We ought to be
so thankful we're sitting here this morning listening to this,
so few people hear this, so few people even care. My, my, my. They got jealous, you know, they
got angry. Look, did the disciples learn
this? Who was listening to this? The
disciples. And look at this, did they learn
this? Down in verse 20 through 24 and following, well, they
got into an argument about who was the greatest. And verse 24, what it caused
was great indignation against two brethren, James and John.
Their mother wanted these two sons to be one on the right and
one on the left, and the rest of the disciples. What this did,
this thing of seniority or greatness or whatever, was cause nothing
but just strife and division among them. Whereas if we all felt like we're
worthless, non-deserving, less than the least, like Saul of
Tarsus. Paul, the apostle, he said, I'm
not fit to be called a disciple. You know what that kind of attitude
will make a man do? Lay down his life for his brethren. One time Paul was standing on
the steps, I think it was at Ephesus, I forget where it was,
one of those places, everywhere he went. But his eyes were swollen
shut, his mouth was bleeding from the very people who had
beaten him. And he stood on those stairs
and said, Brother, let me tell you the gospel. His heart went out to those who
were beating on him. And God made him the chief apostle. Made him the chief apostle. So the Lord said in verse 14,
verse 13, Friend, didn't I agree with thee for a penny? It's more
than you deserve. Take that thine is and go thy
way. Be thankful for it. And I'm going
to give unto this last. even as unto thee. Is it not
lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Did not our Lord
say in Romans 9, I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful? And
it's great mercy that's merciful to anybody. Let us never lose
sight or lose the amazement that the
Lord will show us. Mercy. We're going to have a falling
out. And maybe we're not one of His. Is your eye evil? The Lord said,
because I'm good. I've been so good to you, how
could you be evil? I've been so good to you, how
could you think evil? The last is going to be first.
And the first is going to be last. And if you really think
you're less than the least, you'll just be thankful to be one of
them. Oh, Lord, teach us all. Teach
us old people who have been around the gospel a while, that it's
of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. Because His compassions,
they fail not. This very morning, the reason
we're sitting here, Here in this blessed gospel is the mercy of
God. It doesn't have to keep this
place open. And it ain't going to stay open
forever. And I don't deserve to be standing here. And you
don't deserve to be sitting there. Goodness gracious, God help us
all. I believe this is the eleventh hour And bless his holy name,
I'll lay there some more sheep. And I ain't much of a preacher,
but he's put me in this vineyard.