The Called and the Chosen

Good morning. Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Matthew. We'll be in chapter 20. We're going to look at a parable that is pretty well known. A parable is just a short story told by the Lord Jesus Christ to illustrate a lesson. And so we'll look here at the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. Let's just read through it one time first. Starting there in verse one. For 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.

And when he agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace and said unto them, go ye also into the vineyard and whatsoever's right I'll give you.

And they went their way. Again, he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that ye shall receive. 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. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more. And they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the good man of the house. saying, these last have wrought but one hour, and now has made them equal unto 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? Is thine eye evil because I'm good?

So the last shall be first, and the first last. For many be called, but few chosen. That's the title for this message, The Called and the Chosen. We have an illustration here of two groups of laborers, those that were hired first in the day and those that were hired last in the day. I'm going to make nine points and I'll keep them short, but there was just nine things that I kind of noticed as I was reading this text. Those points are that two different covenants were made with the laborers, between the laborers and the householder. Second point, The first laborers were focused on what the other laborers got. Third point, their reaction to the grace shown by the householder was one of discontentment. Fourth point, their discontentment comes because they overvalued their contribution.

The last laborers were silent. God always fulfills his promise. God has the right to distribute rewards as he sees fit. And then the last two points are just kind of focusing in on that final verse. The last shall be first, the first last, and many be called, but few be chosen.

Before I get into the substance of the message, we should take a look at why the Lord gives this parable. For that, we need to look back into chapter 19. The Lord has just previously finished telling the parable of the rich young ruler, whom he tells to go and sell all that thou hast and come and follow me. Immediately after that, Look at what Peter asks in chapter 19, verse 27 through 30.

Then answered Peter and said unto him, behold, we forsaken all and followed thee. What shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. but many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. So we see the tie-in here to the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, and we know that the Lord loved Peter, so this parable is a warning. It was a warning to Peter, and it's a warning for us here today.

So looking at these nine points. The first is that two covenants were made here. The Lord made a, the householder rather, made a covenant with those first laborers of the day and it says that he agreed that if they would go into his vineyard and work all day, he'd give them a penny. It's very specific. If any man worked all day out in his field, he would have been obligated by the law to give them a penny. That was the agreement. It's the old covenant of the law that the Lord gave. The second covenant that he made was with every other group of laborers who he hired in the third hour, the sixth hour, the ninth hour, the 11th hour. With each of them, he said, work in my vineyard and I'll pay you what is right.

What must they have been thinking? I know one thing for sure. They believed him that he would give them what was right. If they didn't believe him, they wouldn't have worked for him. The second covenant is the covenant of grace. And if the laborers hadn't had faith that he was going to give them what was right, they would have just gone home. For us, we read in God's word that he saves sinners freely, and by his grace, he makes us to believe that. The second point.

The first laborers of the day who worked 12 hours were looking at what those other laborers got. And when it came time to be paid, the first workers were watching, And I imagine they were doing some calculations in their head. I looked up just out of curiosity, what a penny might've been worth. Uh, I read that penny was about 75 bucks. So they were going to get 75 bucks for a day's worth of labor. And those last workers to show up were the first ones who got paid, who got their reward. So they got their penny and The first laborers were probably thinking, I worked 12 times as long, I should get 12 times the pay. That'd be about 900 bucks for a day's worth of work. Pretty good day, and I'm sure that their eyes were probably getting bigger and bigger. They were more interested in what was coming from the hand of the householder.

They didn't have love for him. They only cared about what he could give them. The problem with looking at others is that it causes you to look away from Christ. It's just like Peter when he was walking out on the water, and the water became turbulent, swells going on all around him, and he started looking at it, and you can't look at two things at the same time. So looking at those swells, that's when the sinking began, and he cried out, Lord, save me.

These first laborers of the day, they were taken in by what was going on around them. The third point, discontentment with grace. The last laborers were shown great grace by the householder. They received their penny. Not only did they do merely one hour of work, but when they showed up, the sun was already setting. The day was cool. They didn't have to work that long. They didn't have to work in hard conditions, but they still received a penny.

When you see the Lord blessing your brother spiritually or materially, do you rejoice with them? These 12-hour laborers were offended. They said, you've made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day. tells you something about their heart, those first laborers. And so, when God's free grace is preached, some men are gonna be offended. And when men are offended by grace, it tells you that you've stripped them of their hope and that they were counting on something other than Christ for their salvation. Their offense in this parable was that the householder had made them equal to those men who, and women, who worked one hour out in the field.

He said, your 12-hour contribution is of no more value to me than their one-hour contribution. They lost sight of the fact that he had given them work to do in the first place and that if they hadn't seen those one hour laborers get a penny, they would have been completely happy with the penny that they agreed to at the beginning of the day. Remember the prodigal son? We talk about him fairly often. I feel like he comes up. But he had a brother. Let's look at that story real quick. It's in Luke 15. We'll begin in verse 11. And he said, a certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.

And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him.

And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants.' And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this. My son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And the servant said unto him, thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because he received him safe and sound. And he was angry and would not go in. Therefore came his father out and entreated him.

And he answered, saying to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment. And yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.

Sounds a lot like the Pharisee to me. We'll look at him in a minute, but Many years I've served thee, never transgressed thee. Your other son was living with harlots. Isn't that the Pharisee saying, you know, I thank thee that I'm not as this man? I've done so much. I've tithed, I've fasted. And he says, you never gave me a feast. I deserve a feast. And I love the father's response to him. You're ever with me. I'm with you. And everything that I have is yours.

Isn't that true of our Heavenly Father? What do we have to be discontented about? How sinful it is to be discontented with anything the Father gives us and His dealings with us. and to act as if we don't have something when we have all things in Christ.

That brings me to the next point, which is that the last laborers of the day were silent. In this parable, we don't have a response from the last laborers of the day. If they said anything, it's not recorded. You ever been the recipient of something you didn't deserve?

Or in this case, given something that you didn't deserve in front of some people who probably did deserve it or at least thought that they deserved it. I have to imagine these laborers who showed up at the end of the day for one hour were amazed at the generosity of the householder. And they probably wanted to sing his praises. That might have been a little awkward for them in front of these other disgruntled, discontented laborers, but they probably wanted to thank him and sing his praises. Whatever they were thinking, they didn't murmur, as it says the first laborers did, because they knew that their contributions didn't earn them a full wage, um, you know, in, in the eyes of, you know, what was probably to be expected, uh, in terms of compensation. This, uh, this silence reminded me of the bond servant who loved his master. Um, you don't have to turn here. I'll just read this one, but Exodus 21, uh, If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master has given him a wife, and she's born him sons or daughters, the wife and children shall be the masters, and he shall go out by himself. But if the servant shall say plainly, I love my master, my wife, my children. I'll not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost and his master shall bore his ear through with an all and he shall serve him forever.

That's a great picture of Christ in that bond servant, but You know, these last laborers of the day, they probably would have worked for this man again, if I had to guess. This bond servant thinks to himself, my master's given me everything. My servitude does not equal all that he's given me, all that I have in him, and evidently, He believes that his servitude never will because he wants to remain in service to his master forever and not have the freedom outside of the master.

So these last laborers wouldn't murmur against the householder. They got more than what their labor was worth. So they remained silent. Next point. the overvaluation of the contribution from these first laborers. The offensive grace comes when you see your conditions, your works, your deeds as being worthy of something. The first laborers murmured because they saw that their effort, their sweat, their time was worth more than what, than the effort, sweat, and time of the last laborers. The one-hour laborers, they knew their contributions meant nothing. What they got was far better than what they had offered.

There was nothing to be offended about. But the laborers who worked all day supposed that their hours plus the conditions had merited to them something more. I'll tell you what, you can't be offended by the reward if you don't see your contribution as having any value, any merit, any worth in the first place. Nothing to be offended about.

So we'll look at the Pharisee and the Publican. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. The Pharisee believed that his fasting and tithing was of some spiritual value to God. that he'd be rewarded more than the publican.

This is the same overvaluation that we saw with Martha and Mary. We've looked at them once or twice in the last couple of weeks. We know Martha was really well-intentioned, I think. But she was busying herself about the house while the Lord visited them. She was cooking, cleaning, setting things in order. She thought that her service would earn her some kudos or that maybe the Lord would tell Mary to help her instead of sitting idle. But she murmured.

Just like these first laborers did, she murmured, and Jesus said, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. So Martha, just like Peter in chapter 19, fell into this iniquitous trap of assuming that there was some inherent good in her deed. And every believer can relate to that because we do it all the time and we hate it when we do it, but we do it all the same.

It's comforting to know that for God's elect, he uses these moments to teach them more of himself. God always fulfills his promise. The householder, who of course represents God the Father, says to the murmuring laborers, I do thee no wrong. He gave them exactly what they had agreed to. He fulfilled his promise and gave each of them a penny. I've heard some preachers say, God will meet you on the ground that you come to him on. And that's What he did, they arranged to get a penny if they worked all day, and they got a penny if they worked all day.

Now, this is representative of the law. If you want to meet God on the ground of the law, if you want to come to God and say, look what I've done, look how I've lived, look what I didn't do, I prayed these prayers, I made a decision. If you want to meet God on the terms of the law, he'll meet you there. But you better have kept the law perfectly.

And we know that we can't do that. So you'll get exactly what you earned. Nothing more, nothing less. What's recorded in this story is that the householder says to them, take that thine is, and go thy way. Sounds a lot to me like, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. Go thy way. Fortunately, we have his second promise, the promise of grace, and he fulfills this promise as well, doesn't he?

He told the last laborers, you shall receive whatsoever is right. And didn't he give them what was right? A penny? It's his to do with what he wants. God always gives his people that which is right. Absolutely he does. But does he give what he gives because it's right? or is what he gives right because that's what he gave? God gives what is right because he gave it, and it's his right to do so, which ties into the next point. God has the right to distribute rewards as he sees fit.

In my house, we have an easy saying that we say often, When someone is fixated on someone else's behavior, we just say, worry about yourself. It's our way of saying, let the parents do the parenting. Correction is ours to pass out. Mind your own business. In this passage, the householder says, I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? God has the right to save some. and others leave. He owes no explanation. He certainly isn't to be questioned. He says, I'll have mercy upon whom I'll have mercy. He says, hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel under honor and another under dishonor? All glory is God's.

I often hear people say, maybe more in the world of sports than anything else, but you might hear some athletes say, I have to give all the glory to God. I'm bothered by this expression. How can you give someone something that's already theirs? You'd have to steal it from them first. The glory is God's, it's not yours to give. He already possesses all glory.

Similarly, it's God's right to save those according to his will. Daniel chapter four, verse 35 says, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, what doest thou?

That's really talking about these first laborers, or it applies to these first laborers. None of them had the right to say, you've made them equal to us, how could you do this? The last shall be first and the first shall be last. These last phrases are the lesson that summarizes the parable that Christ gave the disciples here. He says, the last shall be first and the first last.

When I was growing up, I was the oldest child and I was able to do some things before my brothers. I had opportunities to do some things before my brothers. Um, and that gave me a certain sense of pride. And, uh, my mother used to repeat this, saying, you know, first will be last and the last will be first. She would say this to me and I always, I guess I always just thought she was trying to make sure that I knew that her love was equal amongst her boys. And this is a little more than that.

This is a lesson about humility. Those words first and last are interchangeable with the words lowest and highest. The last laborers to begin the day had the lowest expectations for himself, for his reward, as he had given the lowest contribution to the work. The first laborers of the day had high expectations for how the householder would regard their contribution. That's how it works in the world, but Christ is telling the disciples that spiritually it's backwards.

We looked, listened a moment ago to the Pharisee and the Publican, and I intentionally left out really the last verse of that story, Luke 18, 14. He's talking about the Publican. He says, I tell you, This man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. This is the first and last is used in this translation, but this is about position and You've heard before that the way up is down.

You can't preach God high enough or man low enough. And I'll certainly fail to do that today. But when a man finally sees that he's grass, he begins to rely on God as his only hope of salvation, elevating God as his one and only need. This is a phrase that's repeated throughout the Bible. And oftentimes it's pictured and not necessarily said verbatim.

But, you know, there's another example in Matthew 23. where the Lord is talking about the scribes and Pharisees, and they do all these things for the benefit of being seen by man. And he tells them that they do it to sit in the uppermost seats at feasts, the uppermost rooms in feasts, and to have the chiefest seats in the synagogue. And he begins telling the disciples, let no man call you rabbi, nor father, nor master. And he cautions them again here. He says in verse 12 of Matthew 23, whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

It's a lesson that is given over and over again. This is my last point. Many be called, but few be chosen. Christ expounds on that thought about the last and the first, saying many be called, but few be chosen. I want to be clear about this. God doesn't invite men to accept his son. He doesn't offer salvation if we choose it. God doesn't love all men. But God does command all men to come to Christ. All are commanded. That's the command, come to Christ. But they won't. They can't.

Remember the king who threw the wedding feast for his son? That's just a page over, if you care to reference it, Matthew 22. I'm not gonna read it, I'll just kind of summarize it, but he prepared everything. His son was being married, he prepared everything, made a guest list, food, arraignment for the guests in attendance, it was all prepared.

And then he sends forth his servants to call them that were bitten, but they wouldn't come. What did they do instead? Well, they mocked him and then says that they returned to their farms and to their merchandise. You know, farm is hard work. But they wanted to return to their work and merchandises, the things that they were buying and selling.

And beyond that, a few of them slew the servants that he sent to them. So the king, after destroying them with his armies, sends his servant, you know, a few more of his servants out into the highways to select new guests. And who do you think they found in the highways?

It was almost certainly all manner of beggars. The poor, the blind, lame, dirty, deaf. There's no doubt the king knew that none of them would turn away a feast of oxen and fatlings. They probably, many of them probably hadn't eaten all day. Maybe longer, I don't know. They had nowhere to go, nothing to eat, no shelter. And so what did they do? They went to the feast. That's grace. They weren't there because they deserved to be there. He chose them. That's what the believer loves. And so few be chosen. That word is elect.

No doubt the Holy Spirit makes the chosen to be the lowest, that God might make them first in his kingdom. So if you're a spiritual beggar, blind, deaf, leprous, if you're lowly, if you love God's right to save whom he wills, if God has made you believe that he will deliver that which he promised, if you know that your labor counts for nothing, if you love your master and cannot murmur against him or his sovereign will, if you find no offense in a gospel of God's free grace, if the Lord causes you to look to him and only him, for everything, but especially for your salvation. If a covenant of law offers you no peace, no comfort, I've got good news. God has chosen a people unto himself.

And he calls them last, but he makes them first. And to be in his presence is the prize. Not the reward in his hand. It's him. And I pray he'll bless this message to y'all. We'll close with hymn 509, 509, and the hardback timbrel. Let's all stand together. This music's not

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