Well, good morning. If you could
open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Father, we bow before you in
awe and wonder Your majesty, your holiness, your justice,
your mercy, your grace, your love, and your pity, compassion
toward sinners. Father, we say with the songwriter,
I stand amazed, amazed, in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene.
I wonder how he could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. Father,
how we thank you for your mercy and your grace. And Father, I
beg of you this morning that you would show us your glory,
that you would reveal to us this morning in a powerful, clear
way, your glory and the redemption of your people through the sacrifice
of your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, teach us anew, apply
it to our hearts, that Christ is all. These are words that
we say, Father, cause us to believe it, that Christ is all. and to
rest in him. Well, we pray for ourselves.
Father, we pray for our children's classes. We pray for those who
meet all around the world this morning. Father, bless your word
where it's preached. Get glory to your name in our
day, we pray. First, in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, for his glory and his namesake, we pray.
Amen. Now, the title of our lesson
this morning is a question. Are there rewards in heaven? Now I'll tell you the answer
to that, and then we'll look and see if it's so from scripture.
The answer to that question, are there rewards in heaven?
The answer is yes. There is a reward, not plural. I should say no to rewards plural. There is a reward singular, and
the reward in heaven is a reward of grace. If it ever works, it's
a reward of grace. The reward in heaven will be
exactly the same for every believer. Every believer will all be exactly
the same. They'll be made just like Christ. That's the reward.
Being made just like him, being able to worship him face to face. No more through a glass darkly
like we do now, but face to face. No one in glory is going to have
a bigger mansion than somebody else. Nobody in glory is going
to have more crowns than somebody else. All. And I mean all of
the glory, both here and there. All of it belongs to Christ and
none of the glory is ours because we've been better than some of
our brethren. Now that's so. I want you to
take my word for it. Let's look at the scriptures
and see if that's what the scripture teaches. First, I'll tell you
a story from the Old Testament. David gave us a picture of this.
There are no rewards in heaven. Every believer is always exactly
equal. In 1 Samuel chapter 30, David
and his men had been out, and while they were gone, their headquarters
were in a town called Ziklag. And while they were gone, the
Amalekites came. They spoiled Ziklag. They took
the wives and the children of David and his men. They took
everything in the city, and what was left, they burned. And David
and his men got back. You can imagine how horrified
that they were. And David asked the Lord, should I pursue after
them? And the Lord said, you pursue. And David took his men. and went after the Amalekites.
And when he got near them, David left some of the men with the
stuff. He left some of them with the
stuff, and he took some of the men with him to battle. And David's
army destroyed the Amalekites, and they took everything back.
Everything that belonged to them, whatever else spoiled the Amalekites
and taken from somebody else, David and his army took it all.
Not one wife, not one child was missing. And David got back to
those men there that had stayed with the stuff. And the men that
went to battle thought, we'll give these men their families,
but none of the spoil. We went to the battle. We're
taking the spoil, all the stuff that's worth any financial gain. And David said, no, sir. The
spoil is divided equally. Those that went to the battle
get the same as those that stayed by the stuff. Now, that's a picture
that we're taught. There are no rewards in heaven.
And that's what our Lord is teaching us in this parable in Matthew
chapter 20 this morning. And the parable that the Lord
gives is an answer to a question that Peter asked back in chapter
19 verse 27. Then answered Peter and said
unto him, behold, we've forsaken all and followed thee. What should
we have there for? Peter saying, I want a reward
for that. We follow thee. What reward do we get for this?
And an answer to that question, the Lord gives this parable in
the, in the parable, The Lord teaches us what the kingdom of
heaven is like. How do you get into the kingdom
of heaven? What is it like to live in the kingdom of heaven?
In the parable, the householder is a picture of our Lord. The
vineyard's a picture of his kingdom, of heaven. And the laborers are
believers. Now we're talking about believers
here. There's not a difference between believers and unbelievers.
We're talking about God's sheep here. The laborers are all God's
people. Let's look at verse one, Matthew chapter 20. For the kingdom
of heaven is likened to a man that is a householder, which
went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.
And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he
sent them into his vineyard. Now the householder goes out
and he hires laborers. He's got a lot of work to be
done in his vineyard and he hires them. He went out at 6 a.m.,
hired these men to start working at 6 a.m. At that time they worked
from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., 12 hours. And he hired
them for a penny a day. Now that was a good wage for
a working man at that time. It was a right fair wage. He
agreed he's going to pay them that wage. Verse three, 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
the did likewise. And about the 11th hour he went
out and found other standing idle. And saith unto them, why
stand ye here idle all the day? Or stand ye here all the day
idle? And 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. Now through the day, the householder
must have seen he had a lot more work to be done in his vineyard
than those laborers could get done. So he went out at 9 AM. He went out at noon. He went
out at 3 PM. and 5 p.m. Remember they quit at 6. He even
went out at 5 p.m. and hired more workers. He had
so much work to get done and he told them all, you go work.
And whatever's right, that's what I'll give you. They said,
all right, they went to work. Now the end of the day has come.
It's time for the workers to collect their wages, verse eight.
So when even was come, the Lord of the vineyard saith unto his
steward, call the laborers and give them their hire, beginning
from the last unto the first. And when they came that were
hired about the 11th hour, they received every man a penny. Verse 11, and when they had received,
or verse 10, but when the first came, they supposed that they
should have received more, and they likewise received every
man a penny. And when they received it, they
murmured against the good men of the house, saying, these last
have robbed but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto
us, which have borne the burden of the heat of the day. And he
answered one of them and said, friend, I do thee no wrong. Does thou not agree with me for
a penny? Take that thine is and go thy way. And 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 I evil? Because mine
is good. So the last shall be first and
the first last. For many be called, but few chosen. Now the householder, He didn't
cheat those workers that worked all day, did he? He gave them
exactly what he promised to give them. He gave them exactly what
they earned. They were not cheated at all. The householder was generous. He was generous with those workers
that just worked one hour, wasn't he? He was generous. And he was
also fair. He was fair to those first ones
that worked 12 hours. He gave them exactly what they
earned, what he promised to give them. Now that's the parable. Now let's look at the gospel
in the parable. First thing I want us to see is this, the character
of our Lord. Our Lord is good. He's good. The householder, here's a picture
of our Lord, who went out and sought workers to work at his
vineyard. He got there probably 5, 5.30 in the morning. He found
a bunch of guys doing nothing. They're standing there around
the street corner just doing nothing. And he hired them to go work
at his vineyard. They never would have mounted anything, just standing
there in the corner. But he hired him to go work.
Our Lord is good. Our Lord is good in the election
of his people. And he's sovereign, isn't he?
He chooses whom he will. He passes by whom he will. But
our Lord sure is good when he chooses to save any sinner. Just
standing there on the street corner doing nothing never would
amount to anything. The only thing we'd ever be good
for is to fuel the fires of hell. But God chose a people to save
and said, come, work with my family. I'll put away your sin.
Come work in my vineyard. That's the goodness of our God.
Our God is good. He's good. And it would be good
for us to remember this. He's good in everything that
he does. Everything. Even when it hurts my flesh,
our God's good. He's good. Second, our Lord is
gracious, generous. That householder was generous
to pay those workers that just worked one hour The same as he
paid those workers that worked all 12 hours. He was very generous. And he wasn't unfair to that
first group, was he? No, he was just. He gave them
exactly what he promised to give them. Our Lord is generous. He's generous in his mercy and
his grace. He always gives mercy and grace
freely. And he gives it in abundance.
He doesn't give you just a little bit freely. He gives it to you
in abundance. He gives mercy to his people,
and then he keeps giving them. He keeps giving them mercy. He
keeps giving them grace. He keeps giving and keeps giving
and keeps giving. He never runs out of fresh supplies
of mercy and grace for his people. His mercies, they're new every
morning, aren't they? They're always new, they're always
free. He never holds anything back from his people because
he's generous to his people. God's elect could never have
earned the least of God's favor, the least. The only thing we
could earn from him is damnation. Yet our God is generous in giving
mercy and keep giving mercy and keep giving grace and keep giving
mercy, keep giving grace because he's generous. We can, every
person in this room can say with David, my cup runneth over, doesn't
it? Third, our Lord is always just.
The householder was just to pay all of his workers He gave them
exactly what he promised to give them. And some of them complained
about it. But when they did, the householder
said, my eye's just. I gave you what's right. I didn't
do anything unfair. He gave them exactly what he
promised, exactly what they earned. And you know, those first workers,
they thought, boy, a penny a day, that's a good wage. I'll take
that. He didn't hurt them any in giving those last workers
the same amount. He didn't hurt him at all. He
didn't take from them to give these other fellas. He was fair.
He was fair. His generosity did not make him
unjust. That's our God. Our God is always
just. Always. In judgment, he'll give
every human being exactly what they deserve. No more, no less. Exactly. He'll damn people. And he'll do it in justice because
that's what their works deserve. They wanted to come to him on
legal footing. They insisted on trusting in their own works
and coming before God in their own works and he let them and
he'll be just in damning them. But now we're not talking about
that this morning. I mean, that's true. That's not
what this parable is teaching. We're talking here about safe
people. We're talking here about God's elect. God's servants,
who he has called, who he's saved, who he's put to work in his vineyard. And in judgment, the Lord will
be strictly just with every one of them. Strictly. He'll give
them exactly what he promised. Which, by the way, is everything.
He'll give them exactly what Christ earned for them. And their
works are not gonna add to that in any way whatsoever. I'll get
to more of that in a minute. but he'll give them what Christ
earned for them. Not what Christ earned plus what I earned, what
Christ earned for his people. And Lord's generosity to his
people never violates his justice, never violates his justice because
he's given them what Christ earned in justice for them. That's the
character of our Lord. Number two, I want us to see
this. Look at Romans chapter 11. Salvation is by grace. The householder went out and
chose some workers to go to work in his vineyard. The Lord chose
some people out of Adam's fallen race to save. And the Lord's
choice of a people is an election. It's a choice. God made a choice.
He elected a people. And it's an election of grace.
It's not an election of works because he saw some people were
better than other people. He didn't choose some people
because he saw that they would believe on him and others wouldn't.
If that was the case, That would be God taking credit for what
you do already anyway. That's not God. God's election
is an election of grace. Look here at Romans 11 verse
five. Even so then at this present
time also, there's a remnant according to the election of
grace. It's an, it's an undeserved,
it's an election of grace. And if by grace, then it's no
more of works. Otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it'd be of works, then is it no more grace. Otherwise
work is no more work. And here's what, what those two
verses are telling us. God's gracious to choose anybody. God's gracious to choose anybody
to say, and their salvation is all of grace. Oh, it's all grace
or it's all works and the two can't be mixed. If there are
any works at all associated with this thing of salvation, then
salvation is all of works. But if it's all of grace, then
it's all of grace, and that means you and me don't contribute anything
to it. It's all of grace. And I would say everybody here
would call yourself a sovereign gracer, wouldn't you? Wouldn't
you say that? I hope we get this. I hope God
will apply it to our hearts, that we'll remember it, that
we'll believe it, that we'll live like it. Salvation is by
grace. It's by grace. And our works
do not make us ever more acceptable to God. Now, we ought to work
hard in his vineyard. We ought to work hard. Whatever
it is God put to your aim to do today, brother, do it. I mean,
do with everything you've got. But don't ever expect that to
make you more accepted than one of your brethren. Don't ever
expect it. With God is where? It's in Christ. Not by our works, in Christ.
And you know this. You know I'm not excusing our
sin, our failure, our lack of faith in any way. But that's where we live. Unfortunately,
that's what we live. Well, you take comfort. Salvation
is by grace. That means that our sin and our
failure doesn't make us less saved. We're not saved by works. We're saved by grace. Our works
don't enter into the equation whatsoever, except for this. Our works make it where we need
God to save us. That's the only way our works
enter into this thing. Salvation is by grace. And since salvation
is by God's grace, every believer is the same. Every believer is
equal. We can't make ourselves better by our works. And salvation
is by generous grace. Generous, I mean, grace by its
very definition is generous, it's undeserved. Wasn't it generous
to give those workers the same pay for one hour as those workers
who work for 12? Well, that's a picture of believers
being equal. We're equal in Christ. Every
believer has the exact same righteousness. One's not more righteous than
the other, because we all have the righteousness of Christ,
and we can't add to his to make it any better. Every believer
is all loved equally. Equally. We can't be loved one
more than another because we're loved in Christ. We're all accepted
in Christ. One believer can't be more accepted
than the other one because how are we accepted? In the beloved.
In the beloved. In who he is and what he's done.
Not what we've done. And isn't it pretty selfish?
Isn't it pretty selfish? to want to be more loved than
one of your brethren? Isn't it pretty selfish to want
to be more accepted than one of your brethren? That's contrary
to grace. That's contrary to love. No,
we don't even want to be equal in Christ. That's the glorious
thing of salvation by grace. There's nothing that we can do
to make ourselves better than we are in Christ, and there's
nothing we can do to ruin it. Nothing we can do to ruin it.
Every believer is equal in Christ. How long we've served, how long
we've served the Lord, and what capacity that we've served the
Lord makes absolutely no difference whatsoever, none. The one that
preaches this morning and the one that cleaned the building,
God sees that service as the same. They're equal, equal, because
Christ is the one that made the difference. Who makes the difference
between the saved and the lost? It's all Christ, isn't it? It's
all of the Lord. He's made all of his people to
be equally saved and equally righteous. What sayeth the scripture? We're holy, unblameable, and
unapprovable. How and where? Holy, unblameable,
and unapprovable in him, in him. So every believer has the exact
same exceeding great reward, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
God's generosity to sinners, that he give them his son, that
he put them in his son. Salvation is by grace. All right,
now thirdly, I want to point out some fallacies of this thought
that there could be rewards in heaven. First, if we think that
we can earn rewards in heaven, then you know what we're saying?
I'm saying I can do something to make God a debtor to me, that
he's going to give me this reward. That ought to end the conversation.
I can't think of anything more abhorrent than that, is to think
I could do something to make God a debtor to me. Nothing could
be more contrary to grace, salvation by pure grace alone, and nothing
could be more contrary to my deadness and my need of Christ.
No, I'm the debtor. I'm the debtor. And if we think
we can earn rewards in heaven, somehow we're saying, that the
flesh in glory is going to be able to boast about what I did
back here on earth. And I can promise you this, in
glory, we're not going to want anybody to mention what we did
back here. No, we want all that forgotten.
I want to put all under the blood of Christ. And the only thing
I want is to be seen in Christ. Let's talk about what he did.
Let's not talk about what I did. Scripture tells us to not boast
in our flesh now. What makes us think we're going
to do it there? Paul said this, he said, if you
think you've got where of to trust in the flesh, I more. And he's not whistling Dixie.
Whatever it is we think we've got that makes us righteous,
that makes us commendable to God, Saul of Tarsus would beat
us at it. You don't want to enter a competition
with that guy. And you know what he said about himself? In all
his works, in all his righteousness, in all his perfect, you know,
outward perfectness, you know what he said? I count it but
horse manure. That's what I count it. Horse manure. Paul told the church at Rome,
where's boasting then? Where's boasting then? It's excluded. It's forbidden. It can't be.
Why? By what law? Of works? No, no,
no, no. By the law of faith. By the law
of faith and trust in Christ, not my works. Look at Ephesians
chapter two. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. God is going to save his people
by grace in such a way that the only thing they can boast in
is his son. We're not going to boast in ourselves. We're not
going to get to glory and somehow be able to boast about how I
made God a debtor to give me more crowns than you. That's
absurd. Absurd. Second, look at Luke
chapter 17. If we think that we can earn
some rewards in heaven, we've forgotten what God's word says
about us as the servants of our Lord. Luke 17, verse seven. Which of you having a servant
plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he's
come from the field, go and sit down to me. It will not rather
say unto him, make ready wherewith I may sup and guard thyself and
serve me till I have eaten and drunken and afterward thou shalt
eat and drink. Does he thank that servant because
he did the things that were commanded in? I trow not, I think not. So likewise ye, when you shall
have done all these things which are commanded you, this is what
you say, we're unprofitable servants. We've done that which was our
duty to do. Now I told you earlier, whatever
it is God put to your hands today to do, do it. I mean, do it with
all you got. And at the end of the day, say
I'm an unprofitable servant. I just did what God gave me to
do. Look at Romans chapter 12. Romans 12 verse 1. I beseech you therefore brethren
by the mercies of God, not, not out of a mercenary, you know,
attitude. I'm trying to gain something
from God. That's the way a servant works, not a son. I beseech you
by the mercies of God because God's been so merciful to you
that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service. It's your reason. It's just reasonable. Serve God
in whatever capacity he's given you whatever God's given you
to do. It's just reasonable that we do it. It's just reasonable
Now an unprofitable servant is not looking for rewards You know
what an unprofitable servants looking for? grace Grace, I've
just done. What was my reasonable servant
service and I didn't do a very good job of that I'm depending
on God's grace today the same as when he first called That's
what an unprofitable servant says. Thirdly, if we think we
can earn some rewards in heaven, we've forgotten something very
important. Whatever gifts, whatever talents that we have to use in
the service of God's kingdom, God gave them to us. Wouldn't
have them if God didn't give them to us, would he? Well, then
God gets the credit, not us. We're not going to get a reward
for that. Everything, everything we have, God gave us. Then what
do you boast about? What do you boast about what
God gave you? Like you didn't receive it. No, no. Anything that we've ever been
able to do in the service of God that's worked out for His
glory and the good of His people, God did it. God did it. Fourthly,
if we think that we can earn some rewards in heaven, you know
what we're saying, we're saying there's going to be some sadness
in heaven. Scripture says there's no sadness,
there's no tears, there's no sorrow. But if we're saying there's
going to be rewards in heaven, then there's got to be some sadness.
Folks who are not as good as me, who they down here on earth,
they haven't been as good as me. They haven't served the Lord
as faithful as me. They haven't been as orthodox as me. Oh, they're
going to be happy to be in heaven now. Yes, they're going to be
happy to be in heaven, but they're going to be sad every time they
look at me because they're going to wish they were me. It's just absurd, isn't it? I mean, it's just absurd. Oh,
you could go on and on and on with that, but you see, there's
just a, there's a fallacy in that when you, when you compare
it to the scriptures. Here's the last thing. The blessings
of salvation are by grace. They're never by works. They're
never a reward of our works. You know, these fellas said,
We've borne the heat of the day, the burden and heat of the day.
We want more. God help us to never complain
about serving the Lord. They're complaining. That's a
legal argument. They're saying it's such a burden
to serve the Lord. I want a reward for it. What burden do you reckon the
Savior endured to save our sorry souls? Now, what burden you got,
huh? What burden do I have to serve
them? None. His burden is light and easy. They're complaining, saying that
they deserve more, we serve longer. Now, I grant you it's true that
some serve the Lord longer than others. That's absolutely true.
Some people are called when they're very young. Timothy, Calvary
is very young. Some are. Some do bear the heat
of the day. The martyrs, brother, they bore
the heat of the day. We got nothing to talk about
the heat of the day compared to them, do we? Some did bear
the heat of the day more. But to say that if I bore in
the heat of the day, I served longer than someone else, you
may as well say, well, it's better for me to sow my wild oats, to
live in sin, and just do that until right before I die, and
then trust on Christ, and believe on Christ, and leave this world
and go to glory, and just enjoy the pleasures of sin for as long
as I can, and then I'll make the sacrifice to give up the
pleasures of sin to trust Christ. That's awful. That's just awful.
Somebody that says that, they don't know Christ. I'm thankful,
I'm thankful that the Lord does save people at the 11th hour.
I'm thankful. Thief on the cross. Aren't you
thankful of the Lord's safety? Aren't you thankful? The dying
thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there may I,
though vile as he, wash all my sin away. I'm thankful. I'm thankful. It gives me hope. Gives me hope.
But I tell you what, it's a greater blessing if the Lord saves you
young and you serve the Lord longer. It really is. It's better
to live a life of faith in Christ longer. It's better. Isn't it
better? to live a life serving the Lord
longer than you serve the pleasures of sin for a season. Isn't that
better? Oh, it's better. And I tell you,
it's just fine with me that the last should be first. The Lord
blessing others, the Lord blessing that 11th hour believer, the
one he calls just on his deathbed, the Lord blessing him the same
as he blesses me, doesn't take any of God's blessings away from
me. You see that? The Lord is so rich in mercy.
Him giving mercy to somebody else doesn't take it away from
me. There's plenty to go around. And in that day, in glory, we'll
all have an equal thrill to be made just like Christ. I don't
want or need any more than that, do you? Hope God makes it that
way. Alright, the Lord bless you.