I did choose the Lord Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neiberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibert. In Luke chapter 13, beginning
in verse 29, we read these words from our Savior. And they shall
come from the east, and from the west, and from the north,
and from the south, and shall set down in the kingdom of God. What a blessing. I want to be
in that number who sets down in the kingdom of God. beholding
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ in righteousness, a place of
bliss. Being in His presence is heaven. And then the Lord makes this
statement, and behold, there are last which shall be first,
and there are first which shall be last. Now this is one of those paradoxical
statements by the Lord that serve to remind us that we don't think
right. Our way of thinking is wrong
and the problem behind this wrong thinking is not lack of IQ but
a bad heart. We're born into this world with
no true understanding of God or how he saves by his grace. Now, this was not the first time
he made this statement. We're going to look at some other
places where he made this statement. But I want you to think about
how different the Word of God is than our thoughts are. In our Lord's first sermon, on
the Sermon on the Mount, he began with these words, which are the
direct opposite of what we would think. We would think, blessed
are the rich, blessed are they who feel good about themselves,
blessed are they who don't have a sense of guilt over their head
because they're such good people. The Lord says, blessed are the
poor in spirit, those who have nothing, those who are dependent
upon the charity of God. We think blessed are the happy.
The Lord says, blessed are they that mourn. They mourn over their
sin. doesn't seem very blessed to
me. We think blessed are the go-getters, blessed are the aggressive. The Lord says blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit the earth. We think blessed are
they who feel righteous and feel holy. The Lord says, blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. And this
hunger and thirst is because of a conscious feeling of absence
of those things. When you're hungry, it's because
you don't have any food in your stomach, and you desperately
want it. We think blessed are the war heroes. He says blessed
are the peacemakers. We think blessed are those who
stand up for themselves. He says, blessed are the merciful
for they shall obtain mercy. We think blessed are the happy. He says, blessed are the pure
in heart. We think blessed is that person
who doesn't have any problems, who's unharassed. He says, blessed
are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake. He's
talking about his righteousness. He's not talking about doing
something good and giving something and then put your picture in
the paper. He's talking about that one who maintains that the
righteousness of Christ is the only righteousness there is,
and the only way a sinner can be justified before God is by
having nothing less than the righteousness of Christ becoming
his own personal righteousness, which is what the great doctrine
of justification states. And those who maintain this will
be persecuted. And the Lord says, blessed are
those people. You know, if you exalt yourself,
if you seek to be first, you're gonna be last. And if you humble
yourself and debase yourself, you're going to be first. You're
going to be exalted. If you take the highest room
in the feast, you're gonna be brought down to the lowest. you're
going to be last. But if you start last and you
take the lowest seat, you're going to be brought to the highest.
The first are last and the last are first. I couldn't help but
thinking of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee believed
himself to be first. He said, God, I thank Thee that
I'm not as other men are. And then he enumerates all the
things he's not and all the things he did, and he said, I'm not
like this poor publican. But the publican beat upon his
breast. He believed himself to be last.
He said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner, the worst man
to ever live. And who did Christ say was first? He said, I tell you, this man
went down to his house and justified. rather than the other. The one
who believed himself to be first was last, despised by God. The one who believed himself
to be last became first by the grace of God. We would say the
rich man who gave the most is first. The Lord said the widow
who gave her two mites gave more, and she is first. We say the
greatest is the great. The Lord says the greatest is
the least. We say when you grow, you get
bigger. That's what makes you first. No, when you grow, you
become smaller. Now, this is just the ways of
the Lord. The first shall be last, and
the last shall be first. I think of the church at Laodicea,
and they thought they were first. They said, we're rich, we're
increased with goods, we have need of nothing, we're first.
And the Lord testified of them, you don't know that you're poor
and wretched and miserable and naked and blind. And in reality,
you are last. I'm going to spew you out of
my mouth. Now we see the difference in
the Lord's thinking and the way we naturally think. The first
are last. and the last are first. Now,
if I would give a word that would summarize what that means, I
would use the word grace. Grace. Oh, I love the word grace. Now, on another occasion, The
Lord used this statement twice in the same message, and I believe
by that we'll understand what he meant when he said, the first
shall be last, and the last shall be first. And I tell you what,
that makes me want to be last, doesn't it to you? I want to
take my place as last, and that's the only way I'll be first. And
if I seek to be first, what I will end up being is last. Now in
Matthew 9, verse 27, we read, Then answered Peter, and said
unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee. What
shall we have therefore? What's in this for us? How are
we going to be benefited? And Jesus said unto them, Verily
I say unto you, that you which have followed me in the regeneration,
when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, You
also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands
for my namesake, shall receive an hundredfold. You can't be
the loser for following Christ. Now, this is not speaking of
a financial investment that if you give so much, God will give
you a hundredfold more in return. That would make good business
sense, but it's not what's being taught at all. You know, if I
lose my house, I've got a whole bunch of people who will take
me in, people who love me. This is what our Lord is referring
to. But he also says, they will receive a hundredfold and shall
inherit, not earn, but inherit eternal life, everlasting life.
But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be
first. And then he gives this parable
to explain to us what he meant. He says in verse one of Matthew
chapter 20, for the kingdom of heaven Now, anytime our Lord
says that, we ought to listen very carefully. Our Lord is telling
us what the kingdom of heaven is like, and it's not like you
thought it was. It's not like I thought it was,
and we'll see that as we read this passage of scripture. 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. He went out at six o'clock in
the morning to find out where those who wanted to work, what
they could do for him. And we read in verse two, and
when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them
into his vineyard. Now a penny was a fair day's
wages for a day's work, a penny a day. And they agreed with this.
They said, okay, we'll do that. We'll work 12 hours for that
penny. That was a fair wage that they agreed upon. Verse three,
And he went out about the third hour, 9 a.m., three hours later,
and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said
unto them, go, you also into the vineyard, and whatsoever
is right, I'll give you. I love that. He said, what is
right, that's what you'll have. And the Lord is always gonna
give that which is right, whatever he does. it's right. If he condemns
me, it's right. If he saves me, it's right, because
he did it in a way that exalted his rightness, his righteousness. And he says to these men who
had been standing idle for three hours, whatsoever is right, that
I'll give you. Verse 5, again, he went out about
the 6th hour, noon, and the 9th hour, 3, and did likewise. These men who just loitered around
the marketplace all day, he hired them into his vineyard and said,
I'm going to give you what is right. Verse 6, in about the
11th hour, 5 p.m., one hour before quitting time, he went out and
found others standing idle and saith unto them, why stand ye
here all the day idle? They said unto him, Because no
man hath hired us, he saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard,
and whatsoever is right you shall receive." Verse 8, now remember
they only worked an hour. These other fellows had worked
some 12, some 9, some 6, some 3, but all of these other fellows
had worked longer than these fellows who earned or worked
only one hour. Verse 8, so when evening was
come, 6 p.m., time to quit, The Lord of the vineyard saith unto
his steward, call the laborers and give them their hire beginning
from the last into the first. You give the fellows who worked
only one hour, you give them their hire first, all the way
to the fellows who worked 12 hours. Verse nine, and when they
came that were hired about the 11th hour, they received every
man a penny. Now, they received what the men
who agreed to work 12 hours, were to receive a penny. They
did one twelfth the work, and yet they were to receive the
same thing as the men who worked 12 long hours. Verse 10, but when they first
came, when the first came, the ones who'd worked 12 hours, they
supposed that they should have received more. And who wouldn't
make that supposition? If you work one hour and I work
12 hours, I will expect to receive more than you because I did more
than you and I worked harder than you. I should get 12 times
more." Now that is a reasonable supposition. They supposed that
they would get more, and they likewise received every man a
penny. Now, these men were shocked. They were dismayed. How can this
be right? We worked 12 times more than
these people, and they're given the same thing as us. Now, remember, it was a penny
what they originally agreed on. And the householder was not doing
them wrong. He was giving them what they
agreed to. But they didn't like this. They thought it's wrong.
He's made them equal with us. It's just not right. Here's another
scriptural example. Abraham and Lot. They were contemporaries. Abraham was the uncle of Lot.
Abraham was the father of the faithful. Abraham was a generous
man, a man who walked by faith. Abraham was willing to give up
his own son in obedience to God's command. What a special individual
Abraham was. Believers are called children
of Abraham. He's called the father of the faithful. And then you
look at Lot. Look at his life. He seemed so
disobedient. He seemed so worldly. He pitched
his tent towards Sodom. When the angels were going to
bring him out of Sodom, he lingered, and they had to grab him by the
hand and yank him out. Afterwards, he participated in
lewd and sinful behavior with his daughters and had illegitimate
children through his daughters. I mean, look at this man. And
you think, this man and Abraham? Surely Abraham will be rewarded
more greatly than Lot. Well, in their lifetime, I have
no doubt he was. Abraham was a happier man than
Lot was. You see, sin is always going
to have its consequences in that sense. Lot made himself miserable. The scripture says his soul was
vexed from day to day when he lived in Sodom. But do you know
in heaven, they're going to have the precise same thing? You say, how could that be fair?
It's fair. It's fair because we're saved
by one righteousness, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody
gets the same thing. Now, how did they respond to
this? We read in verse 11, and when they had received it, they
murmured against the good man of the house. They voiced their
displeasure under their breath. This is not right. They felt indignant. They felt
like they'd been mistreated. And then they said in verse 12
to the good man of the house, 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. We've done so much more,
and you've made them equal to us. Now, how in the world by
any standard can that be fair? you making the last first. Now, let me say a few things
about this statement that these men made in objection to their
receiving a penny and the one-hour workers receiving a penny. First,
did they not get what they agreed to? Yes. He said, you work for a penny
a day? They said, we'll do it. And we went out, and they went
out and worked all day, and they received exactly what they had
agreed upon. There was nothing unfair about
it at all. Secondly, these men demonstrate
what they really feel about serving the master. Notice it says, these
have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto
us which have borne the burden and the heat of the day. They
considered service to their master a burden, something they didn't
really enjoy doing it, but they were doing it for pay and for
no other reason. It was really a burden to them. And that would describe most
people's religion. It's really burdensome to them.
It's not something they love. It's something they find to be
a burden, not a joy. And the third thing I would point
out about this attitude is where is their love in this attitude? If I love you, I'm not going
to be upset that you have more. I'm going to be happy. That's
the truth about somebody who loves somebody, that you rejoice
in the prosperity of somebody you love. If they're given a
bonus, a much, you're happy. You're not jealous. You're happy.
You don't think, well, they ought to give some of it to me. No,
you're happy if you love that person. And that's the way it
is in the kingdom of heaven. You know, religious people talk
about rewards in heaven, like one's going to have a greater
reward than another. Listen, if you love that person, you
want them to be above you. And you certainly don't want
to be above them. You don't want to have a mansion while they
have a shack. While that stuff is so contrary to love, it's
so contrary to grace, that very idea. And in reality, that attitude
is against the grace of God. Now, I was talking about that
publican earlier. That man in the temple who by
his own confession was nothing but a sinner, the greatest of
sinners. He said, God be merciful to me, the sinner, the worst
man to ever live. You know what the Lord said to
that man? He said concerning that man, he went down to his
house justified. Now that word justified means
without guilt, without sin. When God looked at him, there
was nothing to condemn him for. Now here's my question. How did
that man get that way? Was there anything he did to
get that way? No, all he did was sin. It's
something God graciously did for him. He was justified freely
by the grace of God through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.
Now the only righteousness there is is the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. And all believers are saved the
same way by the righteousness of Christ. And there aren't any
good deeds that you can do to enhance that righteousness and
give you to where you're not equal to your brother, but you're
somewhat above him. Why, do you really have that
high opinion of your deeds? There are nothing but filthy
rags in God's sight to think we could add something to the
righteousness of Christ and make it better and make us have a
higher position in glory. Why, that is preposterous. You
know, there's only one place I want to be found. I want to
be found in Christ. I don't want God to judge me
for my preaching or for my love or for my prayers or for my witnessing.
I sure don't want him judging me according to my sins. No,
I simply want to be found in Christ. so that all God sees
at all times is Jesus Christ. Paul said, oh, that I may win
Christ and be found in him. Now that, you made him equal to us? Well,
I think that's what we would want. Now if I'm saved, I'm saved
by Christ's righteousness only. Now let's look at the owner's
answer to these people. But he answered one of them and
said, friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst thou not agree with me
for a penny? He sure did. He said, take that
thine is and go thy way. And I will give unto this last,
even as unto thee. Now he lets this man know something
about his authority. I'll give this one who only worked
an hour the same amount I gave to you. And if I want to, I can
give him more. I could give him 10 pennies.
I could give him a million pennies if I want to, because I do what
I want to do. I'm the master. Now look what
he says in verse 15. He says, is it not lawful for
me to do what I will with my own. Is thine I evil, because
I am good? Now this is a statement regarding
the absolute sovereignty of God in the dispensation of His grace.
He says, can I not do what I will with my own? Do I answer to you? Do I have to give an account
of my matters to you? Why, the Bible says, he doeth
according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand and say
unto him, what doest thou? Give an account of yourself.
He's God. Whatever he does is right. Now he's saying to these people,
because I'm generous to these 11th hour workers, because I'm
gracious toward them, are you going to charge me with being
unfair? When he gave these 11th hour workers a penny, it was
graciousness on his part. It was mercy on his part. And you're gonna call his graciousness
and his mercy unfair? Now remember, fair is hell. Hell is what God would be fair
in granting to me and you. God is just. And if God gives
us what is fair, He will send us to hell. Now, if you started
criticizing me for how much I gave to somebody, you know what I'd
say? I'd say it's none of your business. If I want to, I can
give everything to them. It's my money. I can do with
it what I want to do. If I want to give it all away,
I can give it all away, and you're not going to sit in judgment
and criticize me for what I do. God is sovereign. His grace is
sovereign grace. He has mercy on whom He will
have mercy, and whom He will, He hardens. Now, all men deserve
to be damned. Do you believe that? Well, it
doesn't matter whether you do or not, because it's still so,
but do you believe it? Do you believe you deserve to
be damned? Now that being the case, do I
count him unjust and unfair because he saves some and because he
has mercy on some and because he's gracious to some? Hath not
the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one
vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? Now if I'm opposed
to this, if I'm one of these 12-hour workers who says this
is not fair, when all the veneer has been stripped away What this
is, is enmity against God. God on the throne, God doing
as he will, God absolute, God unfettered and unchained, a God
I cannot control, manipulate, or understand. That God I do
not love is what I'm saying. But my friends, This is the God
of the Bible, the God who does as he will, who says, can I not
do what I will with my own? Is thine eye evil because I'm
good? Are you going to criticize me
for showing grace and mercy to whom I will show mercy? That's
a dangerous place to be. to all of a sudden be God's judge
and sit in judgment and criticism of Him. But you know who wasn't
complaining? The eleventh hour workers. There
wasn't one of them complaining. You see, people who get grace
never complain with grace. They love the grace of God. Now, the Lord ends this parable
with this statement in verse 16, so the last shall be first. These last, these one-hour workers,
they're first. And the first, last, four, many
be called, but few chosen. You know, the light of nature
calls every man to seek the Lord. Many are called. Everyone is
called, but only few are chosen. The number of God's elect compared
to the rest of mankind is always described as a remnant. Now,
in the end, it'll be 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands and thousands.
But anytime on the earth, it's always a comparatively small
amount of people. But let me tell you this. If
you're seeking to be first, you're going to be last. And if you
take your place as last, you will be first. That's God's way, and that way
is marvelous in the eye of everybody who's in last place. If you're
in last place, God has mercy and grace for sinners. If you
think yourself to be first, the best, the most deserving, God
will pass you by. Now we have this message on DVD
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