Grace Bothers Us, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Are you envious? Does grace bother you? Does other people getting grace bother you? You see, that's what's happening here.

You were so happy to get the denarii for a day's wages, but not now. I'm bothered by this. This doesn't seem right to me. How can they get what I get? I've been pretty good morally. I attend a church. I showed up more than that guy ever did.

Shouldn't I get more? Since you don't understand grace at all, you have a completely different view of what life's like. Notice how he ends it.

So the last shall be first and the first last. It's the way grace works. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Go with me to Matthew chapter 19 and verse 27. Matthew 19 and verse 27. These verses at the end of 19 will set the stage for a parable that Jesus is about to teach. Here's how we think. We think a lot like Peter did. Verse 27 of Matthew 19. Then Peter said to Jesus, Behold, we have left everything and followed you.

What then will there be for us? I mean, after all, we gave up everything for you. I was a fisherman. We had a business. I gave it up for you.

What do I get? That's the way we think. Remember, this is Peter thinking. This isn't a Pharisee. This is Peter.

Shouldn't I get something for this? Some of you have amazing testimonies. What I mean by that is this. You may say to me, you know, I don't even remember a time in my life when I didn't trust Christ. I've always trusted him. So that means I've always loved the Lord and I've always kind of done the good things. You know, I never did really terrible things at all. I didn't run around with the worst crowd.

I never did any of that. What's in it for me? You see, what do I get for my sacrifice?

What do I get? Tell me. That's the way we think. So Jesus says this very kindly. He said, truly, truly, I say to you who have followed me in the regeneration, when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you shall receive you shall sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. You're an apostle. You're a disciple. You're going to sit on one of the 12 tribes when I come into my kingdom.

You think I wouldn't remember who you are? Then he says this. And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father or mother or children reforms for my namesake, will receive many times as much and will inherit eternal life. Here's another way of saying it. Don't tell me what you've given up for me.

Don't do that. You haven't given up anything. That you don't get back over and over and over and over again. Don't talk about what you gave up. See, that's the way we think.

We just think along those kind of lines. Look what I've done for you. He says there's no place for that. You're getting eternal life. Not only are you getting eternal life, but Paul says we're joint heirs with Christ and what does he inherit? Everything. So what else do you want?

Why are you even asking? We're asking because we have a different view of life than he has. We have a different view of people than he has. Jesus says, let me set the record straight. I'm going to make a statement now, teach a parable, make the statement again.

Here's the statement. But many who are first will be last and the last will be first. That's grace. Many who are first are going to be last and many who are last are going to be first.

That's grace. What do you think of that? And I think if you're honest, you'll say, I don't think I like it.

I don't think I like that. He said, let me teach you a parable. I'm going to try to teach a parable to you, Peter, and all of us.

Look, you have to be careful how you think. And so he teaches this wonderful parable in these 16 verses. He talks about the participants. He said, for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. A parable of Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven, almost every time you see a parable, by the way, there's two figures in the parable you need to figure out one. One of the figures is God.

The other figures you. That's kind of the way the parable works. Now, we know who the landowner is. It's God.

You see, we put it out there. That's God. God says, yeah, I'm going to tell Jesus. I'm going to tell you the parable. He said he is a landowner and he owns a vineyard. Now, what's interesting about that is when you own a vineyard, you need extra labor at a couple of times. Whenever you're clearing out new land, especially in hill country there, they have to terrace all the land to put the vineyards in. You need a lot of labor.

You need people to cut it out, take the stones out of the soil, then build walls and you sort of get this tapering effect down the step effect down the hillsides. The other time you really need laborers is at the harvest. You've got to have as many people to harvest as possible because you've got to harvest it all as soon as you can when it's ready to be harvested. That's the parable that Jesus is using here.

And he says here that he was in. He went early in the morning to hire laborers. This would be six a.m. You and I know what this is like.

Drive the Lowe's or Home Depot early in the morning. There are guys standing out there, right? All they're doing is standing there. What do they want? They just want to work.

Somebody has a contracting job. Here I am. Do you want I want I want to work. Give me a chance to work.

That's what happens here. These people are very unskilled. They're not skilled labor. They're unskilled labor, but they'll take a job. And if you want me to help harvest, I'd be glad to. So then it goes on and it says this. He then says when he agreed with the laborers for a Daenerys for the day, he sent them into the vineyard.

Now we read over that and don't even think about it much, but it's important to think about this. He tells all these unskilled workers, I'll give you a Daenerys. And if you think you're biblical and in a sense, understanding scripture, you go, we have that's a day's wages.

It is, but not for an unskilled labor. That's the day's wages of a Roman soldier. Every Roman soldier is paid a Daenerys a day. Unskilled labor is not paid anywhere near that. Jesus says to all these guys, I'll hire you and I'll give you a Daenerys.

Now, you've got to think if you're one of them. All right. I'm getting more money than I ever got for a day. He offered me a Daenerys. For a day's work.

Absolutely, I agree. That's what Jesus talks about here. He goes on and he says when he had agreed with the labors for the Daenerys for the day, he sent them into the vineyard and he went about on the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. Nine o'clock.

It's nine o'clock in the morning now. They're still there. It also tells you a little bit about the need of each group. They need to work. Those guys who stand at Lowe's, they need to work. That's why they're there.

They'll stand there a long time hoping someone will pick them up and give them a job. He says, and to those he said, you also go into the vineyard. Now watch. And whatever is right, I'll give you. He never said a Daenerys.

He just said whatever is right. Now, it's nine o'clock. Normally they come and get all the labor at six and then they leave.

You never see anyone left. But here comes a guy later. Nine o'clock. I'll work for you. Well, what are you going to pay us? He said whatever is right. I'm going to go with that.

Some of them may have said, you know what? I even heard the guys at six o'clock said they got a Daenerys. So what are we going to get at nine?

I think this is a good deal for us. He's not done. So ends up happening. He then says. In verse five, he says, and they went about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. Noon, three o'clock. So still guys are three o'clock and he says, would you want to work for me?

You can go into the vineyard. Think what? Yeah, I'll do what's right with you. I'll pay you fairly. All right. Three o'clock in the afternoon. I got three hours work.

This can be great. Then it says in six and about the 11th hour, he went out and fund others standing around. Tell me how desperate are these guys? They've been standing there probably since the morning. They might be old guys. You know, very unskilled. They may be guys with handicaps.

I have no idea. They're still there waiting all day. It's five o'clock.

Work ends at six. Jesus finds him. Notice, Jesus asked him and he says, why have you been standing idle all day long? They've been there the whole day. And they said to him, because no one's hired us. We want to work, but there's no one to hire us. So Jesus says, go into the vineyard, too.

What? Yeah, go ahead. If it takes you 10 minutes to get to the vineyard, 15 minutes, you only work in 45 minutes. He's going to pay us to go out for 15 minutes, for 15 minutes or 45 minutes. We're just going to go out there.

Why wouldn't this is great. So they all go out. Now, here's where the story turns just a little bit.

He says, when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to the foreman, call the laborers and pay their wages. Beginning with the last group first. Does that bother you? If you're in the first group, does that bother you? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Six o'clock in the morning. This guy was there. He's in there.

Forty five minutes he worked. You're paying him first. I don't think I like that. That's our nature.

That's how differently we see people than the Lord does. So he says, give it to him first. It says, then, when those hired about the 11th hour came. Here they come.

They have no idea what they're going to get. 45 minutes work. He says, pay him a denarius.

What? Pay him a denarius. That's 12 to 15, depending on how long they work.

12 to 15 times what a Roman soldier makes per hour. How great is that? See, if you're the recipient of grace, how great is grace? This is great. This is just great. You see, that's the way it sounds.

A denarius. By the way, that didn't even compare that when Christ said, if you trust me, I'll give you eternal life. All your sins will be forgiven because I'll pay for them all. That's a lot better than this. That you responded. You see, you said that's the way it's going to be. When those hired first came, they thought that they're going to receive more. You just love human beings here. Jesus is so clever.

But I love this. See, what did you know what they gave that guy? He worked 45 minutes. He got a denarius. What are we going to get? We were 12 hours. We're going to get a boatload of money.

This is going to be great. They're already talking because they're thinking the way we think. Well, he says each one of them also received a denarius. Does that bother you?

If you were part of that six o'clock group, does that bother you? So you've got to be honest here. He says when they received it, here's the word. They what? Got gods. Oh, God. Oh, I don't like this. I don't like this.

I hear early. I worked hard. Not right.

Not fair. They said the last men have worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat all the day. Come on. It was hot. It was really hot for us. You're out there begging for a job. A guy paid you more than you ever had before, but it was hot. Look what we did for you.

Human beings. He said he answered and he said to them, friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not agree to the denarius happily?

Did you not agree? Yeah, but it's not right. So you don't understand grace. You don't understand how God thinks about people at all. He said, take what is yours and go, but I wish to give this last man the same as you.

Because that's grace. He said it's not lawful for me. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own? Can't God make the rules of salvation God's rules? Does God have the right to say how we're saved? Of course he does. He's the only one that does.

It's only God. He said, I have the right. This is mine. I can do what I wish. And he says this in this time of our heart, or is your eye envious because I am generous? You see? Are you envious? Does grace bother you? Does other people getting grace bother you? You see, that's what's happening here.

You were so happy to get the denarius for a day's wages, but not now. I'm bothered by this. This doesn't seem right to me.

How can they get what I get? I mean, I've been I've been pretty good morally. I attend a church. I showed up more than that guy ever did.

Shouldn't I get more? Since you don't understand grace at all. You have a completely different view of what life's like. Notice how he ends it. So the last shall be first and the first last. I told you this. It's the way grace works.

Now, some applicational principles of what we looked at this morning. One, God always initiates salvation. Who found Zacchaeus? Jesus. You see, who went and found the laborers? The vineyard owner, God. How did God find you?

For God so loved you, he sent his son into the world and he found you. God always initiates salvation. Grace always seeks and saves.

That's what grace does. God alone establishes the terms of salvation. Not a religious organization.

No men. God alone determines this. Thirdly, God redeems everyone who is willing.

And what I mean by that, it's never too late. You can come at five o'clock and still receive the grace of God. You can be as despicable a human being as Zacchaeus and still receive the grace of God. Nothing in your past.

Nothing in your past life. No matter how old you are, God says, I offer grace to everybody. It's offered to everybody. All you have to do is receive it.

Are you going to receive it or not? And then lastly, God always gives us more than we deserve. Always. That's the grace of God. Now, these biblical stories are kind of easy for us to identify with. Pharisees and scribes are bad guys. That's a parable. I kind of understand it.

But let me talk to you about real life terms to see whether grace bothers you or not. Do you remember the story in the early 90s of Jeffrey Dahmer? Jeffrey Dahmer is a mass murder.

Probably maybe the worst in American history in the sense of what he did. He killed 17 boys and young men. He killed 17 of them. He chopped their bodies up into parts and he ate part of them.

He cannibalized part of them. That's who Jeffrey Dahmer is. He was given 17 life consecutive sentences to serve in a Wisconsin prison. OK, getting what he deserves, right?

Yes, justice. OK, I found this story in the Oklahoman newspaper. It says when Dahmer died, by the way, if it makes you happy, Dahmer was bludgeoned to death by another prisoner in prison at the age of 34. When Dahmer died, I was a staff writer for the Oklahoman. I'll never forget talking that day with Kurt Booth about his role in Dahmer's conversion. I know Jeffrey was ready, Booth said.

Today, all the angels in heaven are rejoicing because Jeffrey has come home. Booth said he had no doubt about the sincerity of Dahmer's conversion. He said on the Great Resurrection Day, I'm expecting to see him right along with Abraham and David and Isaac and James and John and all the saints who have lived right up to modern day, Booth said. Booth usually ministered to inmates at prisoners closer to home, but on April in April of 1994, he caught a glimpse of Dahmer on TV. And Dahmer mentioned that he wished he could find a little peace. And Booth said, look, he said, I sensed there was a need in Dahmer's eyes. And I thought, I know somebody who can give him peace.

His name is Jesus Christ. Booth sent Dahmer a Bible correspondence course teaching the steps of salvation. And Dahmer mailed back the answers and thanked Booth for the course. Now, you might say, yeah, but does a correspondence course really mean for sure that he's a believer?

Not necessarily, but I have a tendency to strongly believe that he is. You see, back at the same time this was all going on, I had a staff pastor in our church and his wife from Racine, Wisconsin. And the men in her church, including her father, had prison ministry. And they witnessed the Jeffrey Dahmer. And he assured his daughter that he was with Dahmer and that Dahmer had trusted Christ as his savior. Does that bother you? You see, does that bother you that Dahmer could be in heaven? You see, the reason I say that is this lady was the wife of the staff pastor in our church, said when her father and the other men of the church went back to their home church and in joy told the home church that Jeffrey Dahmer had come to Christ, the people were very upset. It bothered them. They didn't like it.

Why? Because grace upsets us. You see, when somebody does something that despicable, a Jeffrey Dahmer in Zacchaeus' world, Zacchaeus, then there's just no way you can apply grace to them.

The shortsightedness of that, people, is we're all Jeffrey Dahmers and we're all Zacchaeus'. God looks at us from his standard, not the comparative standard of which ones of us are better than the others. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

That's all of us. There's none righteous, no, not one. When we start talking about better people from God's perspective, there aren't any better people. There are just lost people and saved people.

And the difference between the two groups is the grace of God. So whatever you do, don't let grace bother you. Because if it does, it doesn't come from the Lord. It comes from our flesh.

Let's pray. Father, all of us have a little Pharisee inscribed in us. All of us, because of our own sense of justice and fair play, are bothered sometimes by the idea of grace. You go out of your way in the word of God to teach us not to do that. There is a thief who's being crucified for his crimes, and that day was with Christ in paradise. There are tax collectors like Matthew and Zacchaeus who are in affront of their people and have done terrible things. There's a woman caught in adultery.

There are prostitutes. All of the people that do things that we, as we see ourselves as good people, wouldn't do. But you go out of your way to bestow your grace upon them in the word of God so that we all understand that that's the way grace works. Grace paints all of us with the same brush. It offers all of us eternal life through Christ. And I just pray, Father, that we understand that if we are being bothered by this, it's not because of the word of God. It's because of our human flesh. I pray each of us come clean in our own heart and ask ourselves the question, do I simply love receiving the grace of God, but there are those I wish would never receive it?

Because if that comes from us, Father, it certainly doesn't come from you. You love all of us the same. He died for all the sins. We can all be redeemed. We can all be forgiven because of the finished work of your son, our Savior. In His name we pray.

Amen. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.