Let's take our Bibles this morning
and turn to Matthew chapter 20. 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. When he had agreed with the laborers
for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went
out about the third hour, and he saw others standing idle in
the marketplace. And he said unto them, go ye
also into the vineyard. And whatsoever is right, I will
give you. And they went their way. Again
he went out about the sixth hour, and the 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 day idle? They say unto him, Because no
man hath heard us. He saith unto them, Go ye also
into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that shall you receive. So when even was come, the Lord
of the vineyard saith unto the steward, Call the labors, and
give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. 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 received it, they
murmured against the good man of the house. Now, remember back
in the other chapter what he said about good. There's none
good but God. This is God's house. He's the
good man of this house. He owns the house, and he's good. Everything he does is good. But
they murmured against the good man of the house, saying, These
last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast 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'll give unto the last, even
as unto the first. This is going to be our lesson
this morning right here. Is it not lawful for me to do
what I will with my own? Is thine I evil because I am
good? So the last shall be first, and
the first last. For many are called, but few
are chosen. Now let me just recap some of
the events that led up to this parable. These Jews came out, and specifically
those of the Sanhedrin. And they always came to trick
him or trap him or tear him down or question his ministry. They saw him as an imposter. And so they did what they were
hired to do, what they were called to do and anointed to do, elected
to do by the high priest. And that was to go out and examine
these men who claimed to be the Christ and then according to
their own principles, judge him one way or the other. This is
the committee and council that's going to go out and find the
Christ elected of the Jews. And so they came out and you
remember back in chapter 19 how they came out and they tempted
him. They were enemies of Christ.
And they came out there and they started this big fuss over divorce. And so he dealt with this thing
of marriage and divorce and goes on down through there. And then
a rich young ruler came to it. And he was a good man, as men
go. He was outwardly moral. He obviously,
because of his success, was attentive to his business. He took care
of business and he did all these things. And this man had a lot
of potential. And you remember now that these
disciples did not yet understand anything at all about the spiritual
kingdom of God. They thought the kingdom was
going to be an earthly kingdom. And so when they saw Christ turn
this man away, who had everything in the world to offer to reestablish
that kingdom, to help him in his work to establish that kingdom,
they were really taken back by that. And when they watched him
walk away, they said, who then can be saved? And the Lord said,
with men, it is impossible. But the lesson didn't take. It
didn't take. And just a few minutes later,
they were talking about what they were going to be. Now, he
wouldn't sell out. He wouldn't give up everything
he had. And we watched Him go sorry way. But now we have. We
left our ships. We left our nets. We left our
family. We did sell out. And we did take
up the cross. And we did follow You. Now what's
in it for us? You see what I'm saying? The
lesson didn't take. It didn't take. And so now He
gives them this parable. Explaining something to them
about the sovereign grace of God. In the parable of the householder,
our Lord declares God's sovereign grace in the salvation of sinners. Now let's start here. The Bible
declares in no uncertain terms that the living God is absolutely
sovereign. That's not something we know
a lot about in a democratic society. But our God is an absolute He's
an absolute sovereign. Just let that sink in for a minute. That's how this book sets forth
the living God. And I dare say if the churches
in our day as a whole knew anything about this, they'd shut their
doors tomorrow morning. Because they don't project a
sovereign God. They don't preach a sovereign
God. And they don't preach salvation
by sovereign grace. God is sovereign. Everything
He does, He's sovereign. He sovereignly does everything. Uncontested, unrivaled, absolutely
sovereign. In Daniel 4.35, this old converted
Gentile monarch, he thought he was sovereign. And he stood there
and he looked down on Babylon. You remember the story. It's
not this great Babylon that I built by, you know, by the might of
my power, by my hand, by my wisdom. Look here what I've done. And
God took it away from him. And he took his majesty away
from him. And he took his wisdom away from him. And he sent him
out there and let him eat grass like a cow. and let his hair
grow like bird's feathers and his nails like bird's claws.
And then he said, when my reasoning returned unto me, he had a different
story. He had a different tale to tell
now. And here's what he tells you over there in Daniel 4.35,
this old converted Gentile monarch. He said, he doeth according to
his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand or even question what
he does." That's God. The converted man understands
that. This is God. He is absolutely
sovereign. Isaiah the prophet said by the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost over in chapter 46 in verses
9 and 10, after declaring God said, I am God. Beside me, there
is none other. Just one God. He said, I declare
the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I'll
do all my pleasure. Now, my friend, that's the God
of the Bible. He's sovereign. He's sovereign.
Try to imagine. everything that was involved
in the death of Christ. You've got a Roman government
who despised the Jews. You've got the Jews who despised
the Romans. These two didn't get along at
all. There was no love lost between them. The Roman armies, the Roman
government took them by force. Forced them again into captivity. And then you've got the Jews
who despised Christ. They didn't like Him. They didn't
like Him a little bit. They didn't try to warm up to
Him. They didn't try to do anything. They despised Him. And then you've
got all the political jostling going on and all the lies, the
lie and hypocrisy going on. And you've got all this behind
the back. And then you've got just the
old sinners out here and they loved Him. The people loved Him.
But now out there in the crowd, these Jews are out there whispering
in their ear and telling them all these things, and they turn
the people back again. You think of everything involved
in the death of Christ. And you know what Peter said
about all that? He said they all got together
to do what God's hand and God's counsel determined before to
be done. No one but a sovereign could
do that. No one but a sovereign. And then, what about creation? What are we going to do about
that? You're either going to have to explain it away somehow
with science. You're going to have to do away
with it, explain it away, which no man has ever been able to
do. Or you're going to have to bow to the living God who said
He created it by His word. He spoke it into existence in
one act. God declared and manifested his
sovereignty forever. And nothing in the Old Testament
that I've ever read is used more often than creation
to establish that very thing, his sovereignty. Over and over
and over, he says, is it not I that stretched out the heavens
like a tent? Who was my counselor when I laid
the foundations of the earth? Who gave me advice? I'm God. I created all that. I'm the creator. I'm sovereign. Over in Romans
1, verse 20, it says, For the invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen. These things that
you can't see. We can't see God. No man has
ever seen God. But we can see these invisible
things because He's declared them in His Word. We see these
invisible things from the creation of the world. They're clearly
seen, He said, being understood by the things that are made.
What is understood by the things that are made? His Godhead and
His eternal power. That's what Paul said. We understand
that. You understand God's sovereign
if you walk out and look up in the sky. No one but a sovereign
can guide that son. Hold this earth in its orbit.
Split these planets by a distance that can be calculated and hold
it there. You look at the manner, you look
at the order of creation, you have to bow down and say there's
a sovereign in control of creation. And over and over, he tells them.
And then in Romans chapter 9, he uses creation to those who
would question the sovereign grace of God. He said, Paul assumes,
he's been preaching long enough and had questions asked him long
enough, he could project some questions. And he said, here's
what you're going to say to me. I just told you that God chose
two sons before they were ever born, before they ever did any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. And then he said, I've told you
about Pharaoh, and I've told you what God said to Moses, that
he'll be gracious to whom he will be gracious. He'll be merciful.
And now here's what you're going to tell me. Why doth he yet find
fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replies against God? Now
watch this. Shall the thing formed? Where
does he go? He goes to creation. say unto
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Is that what
you're going to do? You're going to climb in that
dark closet one night and bow your head before God and say,
why, why, why, why? Is that what we're going to do?
We're going to stand before our maker and bring him into question? I don't think so. Hath not the
potter power over the clay to make of the same lump one vessel
unto honor and another to dishonor? Do you need more evidence than
that? What about providence? You reckon that flood back in
Noah's time just happened? You reckon that was a freak accident? Not what Peter called it. Peter
said that that world before the flood stood in the water and
out of the water by the Word of God. And he said, until he took that
away and caused the flood to come in and sweep them away.
And the same earth stands in and out of the water today, being
preserved by that same Word, the Word of the Sovereign, until
that great day. And you can go on and on. What
about Sodom and Gomorrah? What about the droughts? What
about the plagues down in Egypt? You reckon God rules over providence? And I'm telling you this, if
we really believed this, we wouldn't question God in this thing of
sovereignty over salvation. If He's sovereign enough to create
with the Word and sovereign enough to rule it and reign over it
and preserve it, sovereign enough to order things, to order these
disasters, to order these storms, If he's sovereign enough to do
that, he's sovereign enough to choose to save whom he will.
He's God. I'm telling you this. In Proverbs,
listen to this. I could go on and give you scripture
after scripture after scripture this morning, but just listen
to this. Solomon said in Proverbs 16.1 that the preparations of
the heart in men and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. He's so sovereign that He orders. He orders the preparation of
your heart. He interferes with your heart. He intervenes in your heart. And you better thank God that
He does. Our generation said God can't
do that. That violates man's will. I got
news for you. Man ain't on the throne. Christ
is on the throne. God sits on the throne, and He's
sovereign. He's sovereign. And those who
know God fear God. And the one unmistakable mark
of the unbeliever is that there is no fear of God before his
eyes. Our Lord turned to His disciples.
Brother Barnard said, if He spoke that way to His disciples, He
said, can you even imagine how he must have spoke to this world?
But he turned to his beloved disciples, and he said, fear
not man that can destroy the body, but fear him who can destroy
both soul and body in hell forever. Sovereign. But I tell you this, nowhere
does God glorify His sovereignty more than He does in Christ. Who is Christ and how is this
sovereignty manifested in Him? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one mediator between God and man. The man Christ Jesus. The one mediator. God from all
eternity took His complete redemptive will and gave it over into the
hands of Christ as a sovereign mediator over all things. He alone has been appointed to
mediate the sovereign will of God in salvation so that when
God created the world, He created the world through the mediator. Every one of the apostles were
very, very strict to put this forth before you. John said,
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. But he also said, without Him
was not anything created that was created. Why? Because He's the Sovereign Mediator. Let me show you something over
here in Colossians chapter 1. Here is what I am trying to get
across to you, and here is what our Lord was telling His disciples.
When you think about Christ, do you think about Him as a sovereign?
How do you think about Christ? When you think about the Lord
Jesus Christ, how do you picture Him? What are your thoughts toward
Him? What are your thoughts? This is what our Lord is telling
us. Now watch this, here in Colossians 1 verse 13. He said, I give thanks
to the Father. And then he gets down here in
verse 13, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness,
and hath translated us unto the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom
we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of
sins, who is the image of the invisible God, That is the manifestation
or revelation of the invisible God. He's the firstborn of all
creation, or every creature as it's worded here in the King
James. For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, that
are in earth, visible and invisible, thrones and dominions and principalities
and powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him, and He's before all things, and by Him all things
consist. He's the head of the body. Who
is? Who is the beginning? That's the head. He's the beginning. Beginning of what? The beginning.
Well, you mean the beginning of creation? I mean the beginning. He's the beginning. And He's
the head. He's the head. all powers given
into His hands. And in an act of absolute sovereignty,
the Son of God robed Himself in human flesh, came into this
world, and accomplished the redemptive will of God. And the devils in
hell fought against Him, and long-established fleshly religion
and traditional religion, legalistic religion, fought against Him.
Heathen idolaters fought against Him, but they couldn't defeat
Him. Even in His act of redemption and humiliation, they couldn't
defeat Him. They couldn't defeat Him. They could not defeat Him. Not
even death could hold Him. More than time was allotted. Have you ever thought about that?
Listen to how Peter preaches this. I never noticed this before,
but over in Acts chapter 2, In verse 23, it said, him being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken him by wicked hands, have crucified and slain,
whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death. Now listen
to this. Because it was not possible that
he should be holding of it. Why wasn't it possible? Because
he's sovereign. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I lay my life down, and I have
power to take it up again. He's sovereign. Sovereign. And now, having accomplished
the redemptive will of God, he sits upon the throne and rules
over all things to give eternal life to as many as the Father
has given him. The sovereignty of Christ is,
to believers, what sovereign grace is all about. It's the
grace of a sovereign. His throne is a throne of grace.
His crown is a crown of grace. His work is a work of grace.
Listen to what Paul says here. He said, God saved us and called
us with a holy calling. This is in 2 Timothy 1.9. Called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace. which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. As God reigned over Israel and
communed with them from above the mercy seat, so the sovereign
Christ reigns over His kingdom and communes with us from His
throne of grace. Cannot I do with my own what
I will? There's the question. Isn't that
the question? Isn't that what the dispute's
all about? When it all boils down, ain't that what it comes
to? Can the Lord Jesus Christ do with you and do with me what
He will? That's the question. Religion
says He can't. Religion says it's all up to
you. They say He can't violate your
will, your free will. They say He's done all He can
do. I'm trying to preach this morning to you what Christ was
teaching His disciples who were asking all these silly, foolish
questions. He said, cannot I do with my
own what I will? He basically in the parable said,
I own the farm. I hire whom I will. I fire whom
I will. I pay what I'll pay. I am sovereign. The grace of God is sovereign
grace. Sovereign grace is the only kind
of grace that God has ever manifested to men. Way back yonder in Psalm
chapter 2, he said, Why do the heathen rage, and the people
imagine a vain thing? Why do the kings and rulers gather
themselves against the Lord and His anointed, saying, Let's break
their bands. Let's get rid of these cords.
We are not going to be ruled by a sovereign. I don't have
to do what God says. I tell you, we live in a society,
Barnard said, that they won't. You say, well, Jesus Christ is
sovereign. And they say, so what? So what? So what? So what? No matter what
you tell them, so what? So what? You're going to find
out, so what? Yeah, you're not far from it
either. You're going to find out, so what? He's appointed
a day for that. But here's what they're saying.
They're running around here like a bunch of grasshoppers, and
they're saying, let's break his bands. Let's get rid of these
bands. Let's break their bands asunder and cast away their cords. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. He'll have them in derision,
public humiliation. He'll speak to them in wrath
and vex them in his sore displeasure. Now I taught this over in Wichita
Falls yesterday and I told them I looked that word vex up. That's
an interesting word to look up. Let me tell you what it means.
Vex means to irritate and aggravate with a constant, insistent demand. What do you think about that? Demands to repent. That's not
a suggestion. That's a command, isn't it? He
now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Believe. They've got faith now as an invitation. It's not an invitation. It's
a command. It's a command. And it's a command
from a servant. We're commanded to bow. Bow down. We're demanded to serve, demand
to obey, demands to please Him. And every time this world hears
His demands and His demands are pressed on them, they go into
a rage. They go into a rage. That's what
He said. The heathen raged. And the people imagined a vain
thing. But He said, yet have I set my
king. my sovereign King upon my holy
hill inside. And here's what you better do.
You better kiss the Son. You better kiss Him lest He be
angry and you perish from the way. Did you ever read that in
Psalm chapter 2? They're not just going to perish.
That's not what that says. It says they're going to perish
from the way. They're going to lose sight of
the way. He's going to give them over to strong delusion and cause
them to believe a lie and be damned for believing it. You'll
perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. He's God's sovereign king. God
established his rule in him. And he established his sovereignty
in his work. But here's what I want you to
see. Imagine such a power. Imagine
such majesty engaged entirely to save your worthless soul.
Think about that. Huh? That's why sovereignty don't
cause God's people to fly up into a rage. There's nothing
more assuring Nothing that generates more confidence in them than
God's absolute sovereignty, because they see His sovereignty in a
Savior. In a Savior. Can you see that? If you ever do, you'll find peace.
You'll find peace. You'll find comfort. And you'll
find hope.