Turn with me then to Matthew's
Gospel, chapter 20. Continuing our look at some of
the parables. And I want to look at this parable
of the vineyard and the labourers. And the title is Service and
Reward. Service and Reward. Now, look
back in chapter 19 first of all. I just want you to look back
in chapter 19. Because there, starting from
verse 16, We have the account of how what is known as the person
who is known as the rich young ruler came to Christ and asked
him what he has to do to inherit eternal life. And the account
goes on and Christ reveals the young man's innate love of riches,
his covetousness. He loved riches and he went away
sorrowful. And Jesus then says that well-known
phrase, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God and
lots of people have tried to explain it away and say that
the eye of a needle was a pretty narrow gate in Jerusalem and
a camel is a pretty fat animal but if you got behind it with
a few men and you pushed very hard you could end up shoving
the fat camel through the eye of a needle gate. It's not that.
He means the eye of a needle, you know, the little thing that
the thread goes through. How impossible is it for a camel
to go through that? It's impossible. With men, such
things are impossible. But with God, he says, all things
are possible. With God, that which seems impossible
to man is possible because the disciples had said, who then
can be saved? Verse 25, who can be saved? It's
impossible. If it's so hard to get into the
kingdom of heaven, nobody can be saved. Ah, with God, it's
possible. By the grace of God, God saves
to the uttermost those who come to God by Christ. to the uttermost. It's not just possible. It's
utterly accomplished. It's utterly finished. He saves
his people from their sins. But you don't go into that kingdom
grasping onto riches, grasping onto things. And so the disciples
have got in mind this idea that the rewards that we get in getting
into heaven is all in proportion to how we've lived. And he says
in verse 27, he said to him, Behold, we've forsaken everything
and followed you. What are you going to give us
then? What's going to be our reward for forsaking everything? He'd forsaken his trade as a
fisherman. Others had forsaken their trades.
What are they going to have? And Jesus said, Oh well, for
certain. Those who followed Me in the generation of the Son
of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory. You will sit upon
the twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Everyone
who has forsaken houses, brethren, sisters, father, mother, or wife,
and 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. you see he's saying
there is a reward there is a reward for forsaking all and leaving
him don't be anxious Peter there is a reward for forsaking all
and leaving him and then he goes on to give this parable this
parable of the laborers a rich man had a vineyard he had a house
with a vineyard and it was harvest time grape harvest time and he
needed laborers so he goes to the marketplace early in the
morning six o'clock in the morning And he says, anybody want a job?
And he hires some laborers and he agrees with them. You come
and work in my vineyard and it doesn't sound much by today's
standards but believe me, it was a day's wages. You come and
work in my vineyard, you'll get a day's wages for it, a penny
a day. Doesn't sound much, does it? But that's what he offered
them and that's what they agreed to do and they came and they
toiled through the heat of the day. And they'd been going three
hours and he thought, I need some more. So, he went out and
hired some more. And then he went at the 6th hour and then
at the 9th hour and just to rub it in he even went at the 11th
hour. Just one hour of the day left. All the hard work's over,
it's just the clearing up bits. And he went and hired some more
and they came in. And then he calls the steward,
get them all together and let's pay the wages. And those that
came at the 11th hour, he gave them a penny. Now just imagine,
just imagine you've done your You've done your shift on the
checkout at Tesco's or wherever it is, yeah? And you're just
a casual labourer for the day. And you've been there since 8
o'clock in the morning and it's 6 o'clock at night and you're
going to get your day's wages. And somebody else was dragged
in off the street at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and he gets
his £10 and you get your £10. What would you think? This is
not fair. This is outrageous. Surely I
worked longer. I should have got more. Didn't
you agree for a day's wages at the start of the day? So, this
is all about service and reward. And there's a corollary to the
idea of Christian service and the reward for Christian service
and it's this. It's the judgment of believers
for how good a believer have you been? It's the judgment of
Christians. How good a Christian have you
been? Because you see, there is a teaching that we'll suffer
some loss for not being perfect Christians, you know? You must
all stand before that judgment seat of Christ. And you know
you're going to suffer loss for this. It's a prevalent and troubling
teaching. Isn't it? It troubles you. It
troubles my heart when people go on about that. It's a troubling
teaching to our hearts that that from the moment you're saved,
it's as if you're on probation against the law to live a sanctified
life and at the end of it you're going to be judged and you're
going to get rewards or you're going to suffer loss according
to how good a Christian you've been. But never mind, you'll
be saved by the skin of your teeth. You'll just and so get
in. Jesus said this to his disciples, let not your hearts be troubled. Do you know, what does Isaiah
chapter 40 verse 1 say? Lovely words. If you know the
the opening words of Handel's Messiah you'll know these words
Isaiah 40 verse 1 says this Comfort ye Comfort ye speaking to preachers
Comfort my people tell them that their warfare it doesn't say
as so many preachers in our day seem to think trouble ye trouble
ye my people make them worried make them anxious make them concerned
no comfort comfort my people Christ is the believer's basis
for consolation. He completely is our basis for
consolation concerning death, concerning judgment, concerning
eternity and eternal life. He alone, what was it? Marguerite
mentioned him the other day to me, Happy Jack, what did Happy
Jack say? That simple man, I'm a poor sinner and nothing, what's
your credibility? How good a Christian are you
Jack? Happy Jack, how good a Christian have you been? I'm a poor sinner
and nothing at all. But Jesus Christ, He's my all
in all. He's my consolation. He's my
hope. He's all of my confidence for
eternity. And so this parable is given
as an illustration of these things. It's an illustration. That's
what the parables are. Remember, we don't formulate
doctrine on the basis of the parables, but we look for the
obvious messages. Don't go looking for hidden messages.
Look for the obvious messages that are there. It's an illustration.
It's an analogy that Jesus gives to make the point about Christian
service and the rewards of that Christian service. Serving Christ
and the reward for it. Or we might say or the lack of
loss for doing so. You see, those that were hired
last, did they lose anything? No, they still got a day's wages,
a full day's wages. And the message of the parable
is this, it's summed up at the end of chapter 19 when he talks
about giving up all of these things and yet being rewarded
and in verse 16 of chapter 20, so the last shall be first and
the first last. Do you know, that's the message
of the parable. We tend to misinterpret what
that means in our use of language. You know, we imagine a race.
We imagine the 100 meters. And one guy crosses the line
first, and then somebody second, and so on. And somebody crosses
the line last, because they have to. And we sort of tend to make
that, say, they come in the other way around. So the one that was
last comes in first. No, what he means is they all
come in together. So who was first? They were all
first. Who was last? They were all last. They all
came in. equal absolutely together and that's it all true believers
are the servants of Christ equal in the eyes of God and shall
have an equal infinite fullness of reward in heaven without loss
without loss so I want to look at the service and then I want
to look at the reward and then I want to just say a word or
two about the judgment that is to come the service then we've
got the master We've got the vineyard, we've got the labourers. This is about the Kingdom of
God. The Kingdom of God, which is
the same as the Church of God. The Church of the Redeemed. It's
called the household of faith. God's people. Those for whom
Christ died. Chosen in Christ from before
the foundation of the world. brought to faith in Him in time,
because Christ came and represented them as their substitute, and
did everything, and established righteousness, pursue holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord, and we find it in Christ. I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ, He is my all in all. My faith's
in Him. My faith looks up to Thee, Thou
Lamb of Calvary, Saviour Divine. That's what true faith says.
I look to Him for everything. The Master is Christ, who is
our God and our Saviour. He is. He's our God and our Saviour. The labourers are all true believers. Hear me? All true believers. These labourers are not preachers
and missionaries and evangelists. They're all true believers. There's
a difference of roles in the church. There's a difference
of gifts, because God gives different gifts. But all true believers
are His laborers, are His servants, are serving Him in this world,
in this church. There's no such thing in the
Scriptures that you see in the established churches of the clergy
as one class of believer and the laity as a different class
of believer. And, you know, certain things
have to be certain status has to be bestowed upon a certain
group of people before they can do certain things and have certain
spiritual authority to say things and do things and give out blessings. Not true. Not true, my friend.
There's no such difference as clergy and laity in the true
Church of God. Different roles, but there's
no hierarchy of management. All true believers are Christ's
servants and serve Him. Mark 10 verse 44 says this, whosoever
you will be the chief, whosoever of you will be the chief. He's
speaking to the disciples who are thinking about how's it going
to be for them, you know, in the kingdom of heaven. Who's
going to sit closest to the throne? Who's going to be boss? He says,
whosoever of you shall be chief shall be servant of all. And
he demonstrated by washing the disciples' feet. You see, faith
in Christ involves complete surrender to Him. complete surrender to
Him. It involves losing my life that
I might gain it, not grasping onto it. Losing my life, giving
it over to Him and His service. Giving my thoughts and attitudes
and opinions, my direction in life, giving it over to Him.
Because without that surrender, you have to question whether
there's true faith or not. All true believers serve Christ. in his kingdom and all true believers
are those who have that faith which is the gift of God not
of yourselves it is the gift of God and the vineyard then
is the church it's the gathered company of God's people in this
world this is the vineyard the gathered company of God's people
now obviously there are situations and I think very much so in our
day where it's so difficult in so many places to find somebody
who is preaching the true gospel of sovereign grace in Christ,
who's preaching the true gospel of redemption accomplished in
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not preaching a works-based,
law-based religion, but is preaching sovereign grace in Christ. It's
difficult to find such places. It's a tremendous blessing when
a group of people can get together on the basis of that gospel.
and can enjoy the fellowship together in those things of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And so there are some people,
and we know some, who are in situations where they're very
lonely, but nevertheless, they're still Christ's servants, and
they still serve Him. They still bear a testimony to
Him. They still bear the fruit of
His Spirit in their attitude and the way they interact with
other people. There's service to be done. but there is what's
called a due order. If you read, don't turn to it
now, but if you read in the first book of Chronicles chapter 15
and verse 13, we read there David saying that things had gone wrong
because they didn't follow the due order and there is a due
order and the due order in our day is the church of God, the
gathered company of his people and that's where we should be
if at all possible. serving God in that situation
and our service for Christ let me give you some things what
should characterize the believers service for Christ You see, if
I ask you this morning, is your faith in Christ? Are you truly
trusting in Christ? Is your faith in Him alone? Are
you confident that you're saved for all eternity on the grounds
and the basis that when He died on that cross of Calvary, He
bore your sins in His body and He paid for them and there are
no more to be answered because He's paid for them. The justice
sheet is wiped clean. If that's the case, you want
to serve Him. Out of love, you want to serve
Him. Out of gratitude, you want to serve Him. You want to be
in His will. You want to follow Him. You want to take up that
cross daily and follow Him. And your service will be characterized
by these things. Now look at some scriptures with
me. Romans, first of all, chapter 12 and the first verse. And some of you already have
this verse echoing through your minds, I imagine. What's the
first characteristic of the believer's service for Christ? What can,
how can we describe it? I beseech you therefore brethren
by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice that serve Him, serve Him, holy, different from the
world, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service. Is it reasonable that you should
serve Christ? Has he paid so much to save you
from your sins? Has He given so much to give
you a hope of eternal glory, a confident hope, a certainty
of eternal glory? Then is it not a reasonable service
to be utterly devoted to Him? That He might direct everything
that you do, everything that you say, everything that you,
everywhere you want to go, the work you want to do, that it
all might be governed by Him. It's your reasonable service.
But then secondly, Our best service, our best service is tainted with
sin. We know that scripture, Isaiah
64 and verse 6, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Our very
best attempts are as filthy rags. But let's not despair because
look at 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5. He says, you also as lively stones
or as living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy
priesthood. He's talking to all believers.
You are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Yes, they'll be tainted with
sin. as long as we're in this flesh, but they're made acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Everything we do is washed in
the blood of Christ, is sanctified by the service of Christ. He
intercedes for us. All where we fall short, He intercedes
for us. Where we don't know how to pray
as we ought, the Spirit intercedes for us. We have an advocate with
the Father. And then the next thing about
these works of ours these are not just random things look at
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10 they're not just out of the blue
whatever happens you see he's already been talking about how
you are saved by grace through faith and not the faith is not
of yourselves it's the gift of God it's not of works lest any
man should boast you see that that nails it completely doesn't
it it's not you're not saved because of your works You're
not even saved because of a work of belief. You're saved because
of Christ. It's by faith of Jesus Christ
that you're saved. It's not faith in Jesus Christ
that saves you. It's the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ that saves you because He was faithful unto death. He
went to that cross. If you're His, He went to that
cross bearing your sins and He paid for them there. And then
in verse 10, for we, His people, His servants, are His workmanship,
God's workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works this is why unto good works which God has prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them God's foreordained that
we should walk in good works of service for Him our service
for Christ is reasonable although it's tainted by sin it's made
acceptable by Christ it's that which is ordained that we should
walk in and then James chapter 2 and verse 18 You don't need
to keep up with me with these verses. Don't worry about trying
to turn over the pages too quickly. But you know the section in James's
epistle which talks about the hallmark of true faith. A man
says, I have faith and another says, ah, but I have works. And
James says, I will show you my faith by my works. My works,
the fruit that I bear, is the hallmark. It's the mark of authenticity
of the faith. He says, you say you have faith
and I have works. Show me your faith without your
works and I will show you my faith by my works. You see that? It's the hallmark. This service
for Christ is the hallmark of true faith. And then, how is
it done? How is it offered? Well, Ephesians
6, verses 6 and 7 say this. How is this service offered to
Christ? Because you see, you know, were
so sinful, you know, pride of the eyes, lusts of the flesh
were so sinful that so often even our best thing, you know,
their filthy rags, our best attempts, and so often they're done with
eye service as men pleases, as the authorized version puts it,
But Paul writes to the Ephesians that when we do our works it's
not with eye service, it's not as we might say sucking up to
somebody important to try and seem impressive to them. It's
not as men please us but as the servants of Christ doing the
will of God from the heart with goodwill doing service as to
the Lord and not to men. It reminds me of a prayer that
the Church of England primary school that I went to all those
years ago, we used to have to learn all sorts of things and
one of the things was a prayer that had this line in it, some
of you might remember it, to labour and not to ask for any
reward save that of knowing that we do thy will. I can't remember
the rest of it but that sticks in my mind. You see, not as men-pleasers,
not with eye service, this is service for Christ. And then
finally, in this list of things I've got here, Our service for
Christ is of a length that is determined by Him. You know that
some were hired at the start of the day, some at the third
hour, then the sixth hour, then the ninth, some were hired at
the eleventh hour. It's of a length determined by
Him. There are those who are called
into His service, into His faithful service, when they're young.
It's the first words they hear, the gospel of grace. and they're
committed to Him all their lives and they serve right through
the heat of the day a long, long life and others are called on
their dying day there's that thief on the cross he was called
on his dying day we don't know how long he lived this life after
he was called but already in that time there was the fruit
of service do you not fear God seeing that we're in the same
condemnation? he said to the others round about
him do you not fear God? He bore witness and testimony
to His Lord. So service for Christ. This is
it, that all true believers are the servants of Christ and all
serve Him in that way. We fail, we fall short so many
times, but there is a desire to serve. It's a hallmark of
the fact that the faith is true, that there is a desire to serve
Him. Now then, what about reward? Because you see, this parable
teaches us about the rewards for service and we see that at
the end of the day, they all got paid exactly the same, irrespective
of how many hours they'd worked. And that doesn't seem right to
men and women, does it? To people, it doesn't seem right.
It doesn't seem fair. But you know, as Isaiah 55 says,
Isaiah 55, 8 and 9, it says this, God's ways are not our ways and
God's thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are so much higher,
His thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts. You see, we
have such a tendency to think of God like us. Psalm 50 verse
21, God is speaking in Psalm 50 verse 21 and He says to mankind,
He says to people, you thought I, God, was altogether like one
of you and He's not. God is not like us. His thoughts
are higher than our thoughts. He does things in completely
different ways. In fact, you can almost guarantee
that if you try and work out how things might be done, God
will do it differently. God will do it differently. And
the disciples thought like men. In Matthew 19, we saw, we've
given up everything, so what shall we have? Reward us, Peter
was saying, in proportion to what we've done. Reward us according
to what we've done. but each labourer in the parable,
which Jesus used to illustrate his point, they all received
the same. And so, what's it teaching us?
It's teaching us that in eternal things, in respect of heaven,
in respect of salvation, we're not rewarded according to the
time we spend serving. The reward of the thief on the
cross was exactly the same as the reward of the Apostle John.
who was called aside to Christ in his youth and served him right
throughout his life until he was an old man of 90 years old
or more on the Isle of Patmos. Not in proportion to the time
we spend serving. Secondly, it's not in proportion
to our ability or talents. You know there are some that
have great financial management ability. There are others that
have great powers of oratory. There are others that have fantastic
gifts of music and poetry and things of this nature. We're
not rewarded in proportion to our ability and talents, not
at all. Whoever is in Christ, from the
greatest to the least in human estimation, is counted the same
in Christ because we're in Him. You know, I've been saying a
lot recently, that expression, in Christ, what does it mean
to be in Christ? It means when it comes to judgment,
it means when it comes to rewards, it means you are counted as Christ
is counted. That when the Father looks on
His children and sees them in Christ, He sees them as Christ
and He judges and assesses them on that basis. So, it's not in
proportion to our ability and talent as people, nor is it in
proportion and this is a very important one to men's assessment
of people's worth you know there's a lot of that isn't there in
the Church of God men marking up and marking down those who
are good servants and those who are bad servants and those who
deserve more and those who deserve less you know I remember Henry
saying years ago Henry Mahan preaching and saying have you
noticed how whenever Whenever people talk about another guy,
you know, they'll say, there's this guy up in Pikeville, Kentucky. Oh, he's such a wonderful guy.
Oh, he's a marvelous guy. Oh, he says, you never hear anybody
say, have you heard about that so-and-so there? He's such a
sinner. What a sinner he is. What a terrible
sinner he is. We always put such a good spin
on things. Now, it's not according to man's
assessment of worth. It's according to what we are
in the Lord Jesus Christ and here's one for this is encouragement
for us this morning how many of us are there? 2, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9, 10 in here and another three or four out there right
it's not according to apparent success in this life it isn't
don't despair just be faithful to him just be faithful to him
think about Noah yeah think about Noah how big was his church?
8 He had his eight, just eight
there in the ark with him. He preached for a hundred and,
is it a hundred and twenty years? Something like that. It was a
long time. He preached grace. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord and he preached to that lost generation who ignored
him, who regarded him as an idiot. There he is in the middle of,
miles from any water and he's building this big ship and he's
loading animals into it. What a fool! And then God shut
the door and the storm of judgment came and as it was in the days
of Noah, So shall it be in these days. But Noah had his eight.
So we don't reward. God doesn't reward according
to what people might assess as the apparent success of a cause.
You know? So let's take courage from that.
I trust that when we go out with the Gospel, when we distribute
leaflets, when we have conversations with people, that there will
be some. God doesn't leave us alone. God
doesn't cause his word to return to him void. But let's not count
our success in terms of the numbers at all. There might be a hundred.
We might need to acquire great big premises and we might just
have a dozen for as long as any of us live. But never mind. It
doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
depend on how much we seem to give. Not at all. You know the
when they were at the temple and they were watching the Pharisees
bring their big elaborate gifts and making such a show of it
and Jesus looked at them and said to the disciples, see that
widow woman over there who put her mite, tiny little coin, that's
all she had. She put the coin and he said,
she's given the most. Do you know why? Do you know
what our gift is truly measured by? It's not measured by how
big the gift is. It's measured by the proportion
that you've got left at the end of it. And that woman had nothing
left at the end of it. She gave all. So it's not in
proportion to what we seem to be giving in the eyes of other
men and women. Not at all. God's the judge of
those things. And it's not even according to
our diligence and our hard work. Not at all. God rewards each
labourer the same in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's reward is
a matter of pure grace. The glory of heaven and the presence
of himself is the reward of all believers. What did God say to
Abram when he called him? Genesis 15 verse 1, Fear not,
Abram, I am your shield and your exceeding great reward. Was he
pointing at any other reward? What else is there? If you have
Christ, what else is there? What else do you need? We're
all equal in Christ. We're all judged in Christ, if
we're in Christ. We're all qualified in Him. Look
at a couple of scriptures. Look at John's Gospel, chapter
17. This is the prayer of Christ
before He goes to the cross. He's in the upper room and it's
just before they go out and He's arrested. And in John's Gospel,
chapter 17, we have the record of that prayer. And in verse
5, Jesus prays. The man, the Son of Man, prays
to the Father. And now, O Father, glorify me
with your own self, with the glory which I had with you before
the world was." So, there's a just prayer. The Son, the perfect,
holy Son of God is praying to His Father that He might have
that glory of eternity from before when He became a man and humbled
Himself and became obedient to the point of death. He's praying
that that glory be restored. Now look across at verse 22 of
the same chapter. And the glory which you gave
me I have given them. He's talking about the people
he's going to the cross for. The people that he's dying for.
The people that he's established righteousness for. That they
may be one even as we are one. That glory of Christ is our reward. It's our reward. I'll give you
another scripture. We don't need to turn to it.
Romans 8, 17. We are joint heirs with Christ. Is He qualified to inherit? Yes.
And we're joint His people. All His people are joint heirs
in Him. Christ, you see, is the great
leveller of all of His people. The place you need to be found
is in Him. Isn't that what Paul says? Philippians
3, verse 9. that I want to be found in Him,
in Christ. Not having my own righteousness
which is from the law, but that which is by faith in Him. So,
we all serve, if we're believers in Christ, by faith. But we're
all equally rewarded. Now, I just want to say before
we finish, a word about judgment. Because as we saw when we looked
at the epistle to the Galatians. In Galatians 1 and verse 7, there's
a verse there where Paul says to them, but there be some that
trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ and you
see what I'm talking about is this I'm talking about taking
verses like 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 10 which says we
must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ Romans 14 10 to
12 says more or less the same thing 1st Corinthians chapter
3 verses 14 and 15 talks about building on a solid foundation
the foundation of Christ and some build with wood and hay
and stubble and others with gold and silver and precious stones
but the fire will burn it up and it talks about them being
saved as it were by fire and then Matthew 12 and 36 says we
must give an account for every idle word that is spoken but
you know all of those texts I want to come back to them and cover
them at another time when we have time. But they're all taken
out of context. They're all taken out of their
immediate context of the Scripture that they're in and they're also
taken out of the context of what we know to be the truth in the
rest of the Scripture. And what they do is they bring
a threat of judgment on your life as a Christian. There's
this idea that you've been saved and now you're on probation under
the law of God and it's your responsibility to become sanctified
and to become more and progressively more holy as time goes on. Do
you know that's not what the Scriptures teach at all? Not
in the slightest. And they give threats of loss
and of shame so that you're going to stand there and you're going
to have to give an account of the way you fell down as a Christian.
Imagine David, King David We can all point because it's clear
the scripture doesn't try to hide it. So come that day, is
David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the shepherd boy, is
he going to stand there hanging his head in shame on that glorious
day of judgment because of his sin with Bathsheba? Not in the
slightest. It's hidden in Christ. It's covered
in Christ. Absolutely, you see? And then
they talk about those that have been very, very good Christians,
having lots of extra jewels in their crowns, and an exalted
place, and superiority to lesser believers who were saved, as
it were, by the skin of their teeth. And they all, we've mentioned
the thief on the cross, but they all point at the thief on the
cross and think, well at least I'm better off than him, at least,
you know, At least I'm more sanctified than him because he had no chance
to do anything. His hands and his feet were nailed to a cross
of wood the whole time he lived as a believer. At least I've
had an opportunity to do a few things." And they almost give
the impression that we'll all be ahead of him in this race. We'll all be better off than
the thief on the cross. He's right down there at the
back end, you know. He's right at the very end. He's
like the guy that very nearly missed the train. I was running
for a train at King's Cross a few weeks ago, and I put my ticket
through the barrier, and there was the train door, about where
that door is over there. And the bleep started to go.
You know, you go about five seconds. And I sprinted. It's probably
how I did my back, actually. And as I jumped on the train,
the train was packed, and so I smashed into a guy who fortunately
had plenty of cushioning, so he said, don't worry about it.
And as I jumped on, the doors closed behind me. You see, I
caught the train by the skin of my teeth. And they give this
impression. that you're saved by the skin of your teeth. There's
no such thing. How does Christ save? To the uttermost. Hebrews 7, 25. He saves to the
uttermost. That doctrine, I'm telling you,
is the equivalent of a Protestant doctrine of purgatory. And it's
just as erroneous as the Catholic doctrine of purgatory. Now, we'll
deal with those verses another time, but for now, I'm going
to close with this. Romans 8, verse 1. Romans 8,
verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. Did you hear that? Any shame?
No condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Colossians
2 verse 10, talking of Christ. For you are complete in Him. Nothing lacking. You are complete
in Him. Hebrews 10, you must turn this
one up. Hebrews 10 verses 12 to 17. But this man, speaking of Christ,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool, for by one offering he has perfected forever
them that are sanctified." Passive. They are… not those that have
been really good and have sanctified themselves, He has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And we'll finish for the sake
of time there. And finally, the one I mentioned last week. Jude.
The little epistle of Jude, verse 24. Let's just turn it up. It's often used as a benediction.
And so it's good that it's the last thing I'm going to say in
this message. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling
and to present you faultless. Present you faultless
before the presence of His glory. Can those false teachings about
judgment of believers and rewards and loss be right in the light
of these scriptures? Absolutely not. My friends, do
you want to sin because of that confidence? Of course not. Not
if you're Christ's? Not at all. You want to rejoice
in Him. You want to serve Him with gladness.
You want to do His will. You want to bear His fruit. But you'll receive the same reward
as every other fellow believer. That glory in Him. OK. We'll finish there. And we'll
sing our closing