The First Shall be Last and the Last Shall be First

Today we jump into Matthew 20, but actually we're going to start in chapter 19 verse 30, okay?

So it's easier to go to chapter 20 and move one verse back. So he says here in Matthew 19 verse 30, but many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, or a landowner, which went out early in the morning to hire labors into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labors for a penny or denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you.

And they went their way, again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. At about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here idle all the day idle? And they say unto him, Because no man hath hired us, he saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard said unto his servants, Call the labors, and give them their hire beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came, they were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny, or a denarii. And when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more, and they likewise received every man a penny.

And when they had received it, they murmured against the good men of the house, saying, These last have brought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and 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 thine that thine is, and go thy way. I will give unto the last, even as unto thee.

Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? Verse 16, if you'd read with me, So the last shall be first, and the first last, for many be called, but few chosen. Father, we again are so thankful for the glory of your Word, and I pray that as we study the Scriptures that you would open our hearts to receive this truth. Help us to be people of humility, that clothe ourselves with humility, to recognize that what you deem as great and good is different from the world standards. And may we live by a higher economy, may we live by a higher standard than what the world offers. Lord, be glorified in how we listen, in how we respond to the truths of your Scripture. We ask it in Christ's name, and God's people said, Seated.

Well, last Sunday, we preached on Matthew 19, 23 through 30, in a message that was entitled, The Inverted Kingdom. And we learned that God's economy is different than what the world's economy is. God views greatness very much different than what the world sees it as. What God sees is right, the world would see as wrong, and many times what the world sees as wrong, God would say is right. In John 9, 39, it says, Jesus said, For judgment am I come into the world, that they which see might, see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind.

Very intriguing. What Jesus is saying here in that statement is that those who are humble and confess that they need to receive sight, that they are those that are not spiritually okay, that those who are not good enough, in other words, to be made right in God's eyes, those who recognize that, who actually realize that they are blind, are the ones who see. But those who think they see, those who think they are wise in their own eyes, those who elevate themselves, are actually blind. And so Jesus said in Luke 5, 32, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. It's not that there are righteous, for there are none righteous, none out one, Romans 3, 10, Psalms 14 as well, verse 3. But what he's saying is that I didn't come to call righteous people because they won't come to repentance. The people who come to repentance are the self-recognized sinners.

You have to realize that you are unworthy to be saved. And what was shocking was that when Jesus came into the world, the perfect representation of God, the first people you would think would have accepted him, elevated him, and declared him to be the Messiah, would have been the religious crowd, yet they were the most blind. How fascinating is that? They were more blind than the pagan Gentiles.

And why? It was because either truth will humble you or make you more proud. If you sit under the Word of God, you get humbled by it or you get arrogant from it. I'm quiet for a reason.

It's not that I don't have a lot of things to say. There is a response that we make to what we hear. It should always be humility. Every time we hear the Word of God, it should cause us to be humbled. It should always cause us to take a step down. That's why when people say, you know what, that message laid heavy on me. I really felt humbled by those things.

Sometimes you'll leave feeling worse than when you came. There is a convicting work. There is a sanctifying work. There is a reproving work. There is a rebuking work before the admonishing, edifying, and building up work can take place.

To be lifted up, you must go down. And so the reason is, they were so blind, was because you can have the right truth and the reason you can grow in pride is because if that truth does not humble you as it should, you will think you can actually perform it successfully. So when the Word of God came, the law of God came to the Jews, it should have brought them to a point where they said, you know what, we are sinners.

We need to make sacrifices. They did throughout the Old Testament recognizing their sinfulness. The blood must be shed to cover their sin as Leviticus chapter 17, Hebrews chapter 9 goes on to talk about in chapter 7 as well. It should have brought them to humility, but instead they were so aggressive in obeying the commands, so diligent, it got to the point where their diligence turned into thinking they could do it.

Now instead of being humbled by it, they're like, now we can actually pull it off. Not only can we pull off obedience to the law of God, we're going to make extra commands to keep us from disobeying them. And then they begin to elevate those commands so that when Jesus came, they're like, you're a law breaker. We're so law abiding that the perfect Son of God is the actual law breaker.

And in fact, he's so much of a law breaker that instead of being the Messiah, he is Satan. That's how inverted religion caused them to be. So when you look in the world, people say, you know, all religions kind of lead to the same place and everybody's kind of going in the same direction.

No, they're not. Religion, man's religion, is running away from God. They're the furthest from God. Better to be an atheist than to be very religious and lost.

Better to have nothing. I mean, the guy who helped me start Lighthouse was a committed atheist before he got saved. Now he's on the mission field, right? So this is the paradox of what pride can do. When you come, when you hear the word of God that should bring you to humility, if it doesn't humble you, you will leave worse. You won't leave Lighthouse closer to God. You'll leave further away.

That's the amazing thing. Like if you know you need to be saved, you're like, yeah, I'm not going to do that. I think I'm okay. You just got worse. I did not help you.

I could have. The word of God could have, but when pride is applied to truth, it pushes you further away. And that is exactly what you got with the story of the rich man leading up to this story. The rich man asked for eternal life and he left without it. He came in verse 16, literally, according to Mark's Gospel, kneeling down saying, good master, what good thing could I have to do to have eternal life? Jesus takes him to the law, shows him the commandments. The reason he does that is because when you take someone to the law, the law will bring you to Christ.

But the man's like, oh, I can keep the law. And Jesus is like, oh really? So if you want to go through the path of perfection, then go and sell everything you have, give it to the poor and come and follow me. Fulfill the second command of loving your neighbor as yourself.

Let's see how that rolls. Can you imagine if he sold everything he had and lived with Jesus for a week? You don't have to live with Jesus too long to realize you ain't perfect.

Amen. Do you feel that when he's living on the inside of you? Imagine if you're living with him. You're sitting around the campfire, you're thinking something, you're sitting and all of a sudden you see his eyes gazing right at you.

You think your mom and dad has a look. There's a lot Jesus could say without a word, isn't there? And so the reason this man goes away sorrowful is not because he did not value Christ. He valued him enough to run to him, kneel down and ask him that.

He had enough humility to even ask that. But he felt the riches of the world were worth more than the riches of Christ. And the reason he did was because he was filled with pride.

He thought he could keep the commands. His whole idea was skewed. Again, in that ancient world, they believed that if you had riches, that was the hand of God on your life, man. They were prosperity preachers back then too. That if you're financially blessed, God's hands all over you. And Jesus said, it's in verse 23 and 24, Jesus said, it is impossible for those who have riches to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It was so shocking for the disciples to hear that, that in verse 25, they were exceedingly amazed saying, who can be saved? I mean, if the people with God's hand of blessing, obviously they're rich.

I mean, what else could you want? I mean, they're rich in the favor of God's on them and they're not even saved. And who can be saved? And Jesus responded with men, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. What man cannot produce, God can produce. God is able to do what man cannot.

Man cannot overcome the sin of his heart, but God can save and he can give you a new heart. I mean, you think about the story of Zacchaeus. Do you remember Zacchaeus? He was a wee little man, climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to.

Oh, we could roll with this. And so Jesus comes along and says, come down Zacchaeus, I'm going to eat with you today. And he comes home and dines with him. And you know what Zacchaeus said? Zacchaeus in Luke 19 verse 8 stood and said unto the Lord, behold, kurios, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. Did Jesus ask him to do that?

There's nowhere in scripture or history that he's ever told to do that. And if I have taken anything from anybody by false accusation, I'll pay him back fourfold. Anybody who got slighted by this guy's like, that was a great deal.

It's like me again. And Jesus said unto him, this day is salvation come to this house for as much as he is a son of Abraham, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. What happened was this. His giving stuff away was the evidence that he was saved. You don't give stuff away to be saved. That's why Jesus was showing the guy, you're not right with God. You have such a covetous clench on your stuff.

You couldn't do that. And he put his finger on the man's covetous sin, and the man went away holding the world and letting go of Christ. I wonder when the man was at his deathbed one day, looking back in his comfortable cushioned bed, and he's thinking, you know, I remember back when I was a young man, and that man from Galilee came to me, and I ran to him, and I asked him, and I forsook that.

Was that wrong? I wonder if at that point his riches began to corrupt himself in his eyes. Maybe not, but if you were asked the rich man today, wherever he's at, if he never did come to Christ and he is separated from God, he would have realized his earthly riches were cankered, and they became a testimony against him, as the book of James says. Now Jesus is asked a question by Peter after that whole scenario goes down in verse 27, and Peter says unto him, we have forsaken everything, and we have followed you.

What are we going to get? Verse 28, and Jesus said unto him, verily I say to you that you which followed me in the regeneration of the Son of Man. The regeneration is only used one other time. It's a Greek word that here is referring to the rebirth of everything. So when Jesus comes in the throne of his glory, sits on his kingdom, creates a new heaven, a new earth, this is Psalms, this is Revelation 21, and you will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. So you will be handsomely rewarded. But then he says this in verse 29, and everyone, everyone that has forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or fathers or mothers, and he goes on the list of everything, for my name's sake shall receive a hundredfold.

It's not just you that are going to be rewarded. Everyone's going to be rewarded and shall inherit what the rich man did not get, which is everlasting life. And he closes, he caps this off with this statement that's used in verse 30 as well as in 20 verse 16, but it's reversed. 2016 it's the last shall be first, 19 verse 30 is the first shall be last. But verse 30 he says, but many that are first shall be last, the last shall be first.

Now this is the principle of the inverted kingdom. Now there are many different views on this, and if you get down into really studying, and I spend a lot of hours, when I'm done preaching today, I'm already thinking and praying and reading and studying for what I'm preaching next Sunday. Since we don't have Wednesday, I get an extra time to study on that, so who knows what's coming next week.

But I'm diving into that, and most people don't understand like how much you can extract from these things. If you knew how much I'd cut out before I preached this morning, like I'm condensing everything because I know time is a problem, and this portion of scripture is very confused by people, and I think unnecessarily. There is one primary truth to this text with two specific applications, and you need to know this.

That's why I'm taking time to bring in the passage of last week. Now the primary meaning of this statement is a call from God to humility, to be humble, to recognize God's eternal spiritual economy is not like the world's. The first are not first and the last are not last.

God's economy reverses it. The primary meaning is to recognize that the front of God's line is actually the back of the line what the world would view, that God sees the top by looking at the bottom. It's not a fight for the top for the believer, it's a fight for the bottom. The exalted will be humbled, the humble will be exalted.

This is the primary meaning, but the application is twofold. It has both a salvific and a sanctifying effect. The first meaning has to do with salvation, and that's why I believe when they put in the chapters and verses which are not inspired, the chapters and verses were not, like when Matthew wrote this he didn't say there's a break right here, but I believe when they did that, verse 30, a lot of guys say that should be in chapter 20, but really I think it fits better in chapter 19 after spending a lot of hours in this passage. So verse number 30 is primarily dealing with salvation and speaking to the religious leaders who trust it in their works, in their culture, they look to be like the first in line. The Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, they look like they were the first to enter in. So Jesus said unless your righteousness is better than theirs you're not even entering, and they're like, what?

I mean they're at the front of the line. And you hear this in Luke 13 28, listen what he says, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and he's telling the religious leaders and those self-righteous Jews, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and west, north and south, sit down in the kingdom of God, and indeed there are at last who shall be first, and there are first who shall be last.

The principle is applied to salvation in that setting, and I think that's what it's applied to in verse 30 as well. According to Jesus, the final assessment will contain a shock. Those who think they're entering will be cast out. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, but haven't we prophesied in your name, and in your name done all these wonderful works?

He said, I never knew you. There'll be a shock. There will be preachers one day who stand before God and end up in hell. Now if you want to be first in line to enter the kingdom, you have to realize you're the least who deserve it.

Did you hear that? You are unworthy of the kingdom. If that offends you, God's word will either humble you or make you more proud. Oh, I just don't agree with him. I don't feel like I've, I mean I'm not some murderer and some sexual pervert. I'm not some, you know, I've not done all these bad things that I hear about people doing.

I feel like I'm a pretty good person. I'll never forget the guy I was talking to. I said, hey, you know, if you stood before God, he said, why should I let you into heaven? What would you say? He looked at me, said, let me tell you something. He said, and he was irritated by the question.

I always think that's amazing. If somebody asks you if they're concerned enough about your eternal soul and you get mad about that. So he said, you know, I've been going to church for 30, 40 years and if that's not good enough, I don't know what is. Oh, so you feel like you're going to stand before God and hand him your resume, right?

I didn't say it like that back, but there's a lot of things I wanted to say, but I shared with him humility to try to understand and he rejected it. You need to understand that the only way to enter the kingdom is to realize you are unworthy of his mercy. We are unworthy. We are unworthy of forgiveness. We don't earn it.

We don't deserve it. Going to church doesn't make you right in God's eyes, reading the Bible, praying, fasting, giving. None of that earns one ounce of favor with God to get you into heaven. Nothing. It's all by grace. It's all by mercy.

It's all unearned. It's all by the death, burial, resurrection of Christ, your faith in him. You go down so that you can come up. It's the only way in. That's why when Jesus points the man to the law, he should have said, no way could I keep that. He should have been devastated.

The people who go to heaven are the ones on earth who probably realize they are the ones who realize they aren't worthy of it, but oftentimes can struggle with even eternal security because they don't feel like they're ever good enough. Guess what? You're not.

That's the answer. You're not. You're never going to be. You won't stand before God and be like, hey. The ones entering the kingdom, they would be the most humble. Now, that's the first primary meaning of this. The second primary meaning is not only does grace save you, but grace rewards you. You're not only saved by grace, but you're rewarded by grace. The question Peter asks in verse 27 is what prompts this entire parable in verse 1 down to verse 16, causing him to repeat the statement in verse 16, but he does it in reverse. So he's applying verse 30 to the previous situation, the rich man who looked like he was the first to enter. He was a rich young ruler, probably a ruler of the synagogue, so he looked to be the first, but he's not even going to go in because the last are the ones who are going to be first in line. And Peter's like, well, what's our reward?

And he's like, well, I got a story for you too. So now verse 1 through 16 is talking to believers. This is the citizens of the kingdom, and let's jump into this parable.

That's all introduction, all right? Now look at verse 1. For the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that is an householder. Now Jesus here jumps into a parable. The word parable comes from the Greek word, hold your chair here, parabole, okay? It's pretty close, but it's a compound para, which means alongside, and bala, which means to lay down. It's a compound word, so it's the idea of laying one thing down next to the other for a comparison. So what Jesus would do is he would take the abstract, the things that were spiritual that you could not see, and lay them down next to something you could see so that you could make sense of it.

It was designed to allow that which is unknown to be elucidated by what is known. So Jesus gives parables. It was one of his favorite teaching devices. I mean, he just got done in Matthew 18 giving the parable of the king with the servant who would not forgive the other guy. Do you remember that?

We went through that for a couple weeks. So just a couple things. When you study parables, remember the parables are always about the kingdom. They are always designed to elucidate some spiritual meaning through a physical story. They always contain a shock element to it. There's always a gotcha moment, like a hook in it.

There's always something that you would be like, what? It would be flipped on its head. All the parables are like the inverted kingdom being placed into the world. What I mean by that is God's right side up truth placed into an upside down world looks like it's twisted in our eyes, but it's actually what's true. And parables are always designed to present one major truth. There's like one major thing it's trying to teach. So when you study parables, you must be careful not to take every nuance inside the parable and turn it into some kind of spiritual meaning.

It doesn't always fit. There's one major thing that God's trying to give. So Matthew 20 verse 1, it says, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that's a householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. Now, we don't have a ton of farmers in Xenia, but we do have some and we're very thankful for them. Jesus sets this in a community that farming and agriculture was a very big part of their economy.

They were very, very familiar with this. Farmers would have large vineyards. Grapes were a very important crop in that part of the world, so much so that God even called Israel his vineyard. In John 15, Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches, right?

This was a very common thing among them. So the big picture here or the picture here is during harvest time, and anybody that's in the farming business knows harvest time is never vacation time. Nobody goes on vacation during harvest time, right?

You go on vacation when it's like middle of winter or middle of summer, not in the spring nor in the fall. My grandfather was a farmer. My dad farmed for a time and I had a little bit of experience in that. But the parable speaks about this guy having a large vineyard, and they would have to gather the grapes usually by the end of September when it was still very hot in that region and before the rains would come in. Because according to William Barclay, great historian, he said if the harvest was not ingathered before the rains broke, it would be ruined.

And so to get the harvest was a frantic race against time. They would welcome as many workers as they could to get this done. If you're a hay farmer, any hay farmers, people who've ever baled hay, raise your hand in here.

Okay, some of you guys have. My uncle would bale a lot of hay, and I had been called more than once where he's like, hey, rain's coming, can you give me a hand? And I was like, you can't say no because you know it's like their livelihood. He's like, I'll pay you really good. I'm like, yeah, I've been burnt by him before, you know, you go out there and work, should be paid $500 an hour for that kind. I mean, we're out there running, like sprinting.

You can see the rain clouds coming. Because anything that's left out can be ruined. So I mean, you're in a frantic race, and it's like prepare for two a days, man. When I was in high school, it was a good thing. But anybody in that environment understands that reality. You've got to get it out of the rain.

You've got to get this in. Now, the landowner would go to the local towns and villages. There would be a common area known as a marketplace. And what would happen is their days would start at 6am. So the workers would show up at 6am, not knowing if they were going to work that day, but they would make themselves basically available in the marketplace as common laborers, like willing and ready to be hired, if there was anybody willing to hire them.

These kind of people were not beggars, but they were just above the beggars. They were people known as day laborers, and they had to work that day to eat that day. And they would get paid. And according to the Bible in the Old Testament, the Bible says you have to pay these guys the same day because that was their livelihood.

That was how they would live. And so they're out there hoping to get hired. They're at 6am in the morning, and the guy comes along, and he hires some guys.

And that's why it says in verse one, he went out early in the morning. Now, verse number two, they have agreed wages here. It says, and we had agreed with the laborers for a, it could be better translated as denarius.

Some translations have that penny, we think of penny, and it's like, well, these guys are getting gypped. Who works for a penny a day? That's like working for your uncle for almost free, right? So, but a penny, it's the idea that this was a day's wage, but it was a very fair day's wage.

This is what a Roman soldier made for a day. So this was a very, they would be very happy with this. This was a very, everybody's pleased with the agreed upon wages. And you have to understand, these guys didn't have a lot of bargaining room, right? I mean, they're like, we have to work, we can't be like, well, you need to pay me more than this. They're just like, will you hire us for anything?

And so the guy's a very fair guy, very just, and so he does that. Now, then they go out and they work in his vineyard. Verse three, and he went out about the third hour. Now the third hour of the day, because the day started at 6 a.m., the third hour was 9 a.m., and they saw others standing idle in the marketplace. Now these men either could have shown up late, maybe they missed the six o'clock hiring time. They could have also been less able-bodied, which was probably the case, because even later in verse seven, it says they were idle because no one would hire them. It's not that they're lazy, it's just nobody would hire them.

Maybe they physically were not as capable for different reasons. They could have also had another job in the early hours, and then they went out there to seek employment. But it says here that he saw them standing idle. The word idle is the Greek word argos, and it doesn't mean like they were being lazy, it's just it literally means they were without work.

They didn't have any work, is why they weren't doing anything there. So the landowner hires them, but here in verse four, he does not say what he's going to pay them. He says, go ye also into the heart vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you, and they went their way. So they're just trusting this as a fair man.

He said the other guys he's going to pay a denarius, they probably would have heard that. They go out, they work in the vineyard, trusting him to be fair. Verse five, and again he went out the sixth and ninth hour, did the same. He goes out, the sixth hour would be at noon, six hours from 6 a.m. you've got noon, the ninth hour would be 3 p.m. And then with just one hour of working time left, he goes back out at the 11th hour. What would the 11th hour be?

It would be 5 p.m., right? So he goes out and just shows you that this story's really stretching it for what, they'd have been like, man this guy, you know, must have had a lot to do and just didn't have enough guys, and this was pressing what would be logical for a guy to go that many times to keep hiring guys. There's a point to that later I'll mention. But here he goes out the 11th hour, 5 p.m., hires these guys, and they work. And the landowner hires these men and tells them in verse seven, whatever is right you will receive.

Again, he doesn't list what he will pay them, just that it'll be fair. Now what, the shock of the story begins to land in verse number eight. It says, so when even, that's when the day had come to an end, when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, this is the foreman, this is the guy who oversees their work, call the labors and give them their hire beginning, and this is where the shock happens, beginning from the last unto the first. So this is a, this is, you need to understand, this is a response to Peter's question in verse 27.

What shall we receive, Lord? So Jesus starts breaking this down. Now because they live day to day, they had to be paid that day, as I mentioned earlier, Leviticus 19, Deuteronomy 24 mentions this, and the first oddity is who first receives wages. And you can bet the first guys are frustrated, like they work 12 hours. I mean, they are ready to go get some food, take it home to their families, you know, and, and have the evening. And now they got to wait in line behind the guys who worked one hour.

Are you kidding me? We got, we got to wait for, any, you know, y'all see this and you're like, man, it just seems kind of raw. That seems a little off. Now, now you can bet they were, they were irritated.

But then verse nine changes some things. And when they came that were hired about the 11th hour, they received every man a denarius, being a penny. You can, you can be sure these guys were like, whoa, you talk about fair. I mean, they're all shouting, they're excited. They're, thank you, sir. Thank you for generosity. They're celebrating the kindness of the man. They could have even kneeled down and said, we are so grateful.

Thank you so much. This is, this is so much more we could ever ask. They would have been overwhelmed with gratitude, overwhelmed because grace got dumped on them and they recognized it. They didn't earn it.

They recognized it's all grace. They weren't like, yeah, we did work hard for an hour. What's our reward? Now, the, what probably would have happened is the irritation of the guys who worked first probably evaporated because they're like, whoa, well, if he's going to pay them a denarius, I mean, what are we going to get, right? I mean, we have borne the heat of the day. We have labored all along. So this guy, the first guys are like, this is a hundredfold blessing, man. This is dumping on us.

This is incredible. And then verse number 10, this brings the second major unexpected twist in the story. It says, but when the first came, and now the first hired could include, it would include the guys who were hired in the very first part of the day. It could also include some of the ones that were throughout the day in that first hired. But either case, the first who came, they suppose that they should have received more and they likewise received every man how much?

A penny. They get a denarii. Now you need to know when they received the statement, when they first were hired, you're going to receive a denarii, they would have been like, oh, thank you, sir.

Thank you. That's wonderful. And they agreed upon that. And they were so thankful. They would have been thankful at the beginning, but now when they see these other guys, they're like, what?

Well, this isn't fair. And so they were probably not expecting to receive 12 denarii, but they were thinking, surely we would get more than the guys who worked one hour. I mean, we can feel it, can't we?

I mean, we'd be like, this is just, doesn't seem balanced. And when they got to the foreman, they probably were like, what is our reward for all that we've done? For we have labored, what will our hands receive? In verse 11, and when they had received it, it says that they murmured against the good men of the house. It's interesting, the word murmured is an onomatopoeic word, which means it sounds like it's spelled, like these buzz, like they, it's a word, in the Greek, it's gagudzo. It's like, they're literally like saying that.

It's a mumbling, murmuring, under your breath, frustration, low tone complaining. They're so upset by this that they finally have to air their frustration in verse 12, saying, look what they say in verse 12. These have wrought or worked but one hour, and look what he says, thou hast made them equal unto us.

We've borne the burden and heat of the day. You know, little seems more unequal than the equal treatment of unequals. The landowner's response in verse 13, but he answered one of them and said, friend? Now, we think about the word friend as being like very gentle. This is, this would better be translated in my view as fellow. It's not, there's different Greek words for friend. This is heteros. It's not a term for like a close friend.

It would be like us saying, hey fella, or hey buddy, hey pal. That's, it was a firm, but yet a kind of a courteous way of rebuking someone. Hey pal, friend, I have done you no wrong. Did not thou agree with me for a penny or a denarius? Verse 14, take that is thine, go thy way. I will give unto the last, even as unto thee. Verse 15, is it not lawful?

Have I, have I done something illegal here? Is it wrong to be gracious? Can a man be more generous?

Because everybody in that culture knows that you need to make a decent living. You need to have enough to buy bread, and if I paid them one twelfth of what a denarius would be, they wouldn't have enough for their families. I gave them what they need. He says, take that is thine, go thy way. I'll give unto the last is thee.

It's lawful for me to do this. The landowner had a right. He says, and then he puts his finger on this, the problem was not with the landowner, the problem was with the hired men. He says, is your eye evil? Is thine eye evil because I am good?

The evil eye was an idiom in that culture for jealousy or envy. Because you're envious and jealous, because you didn't just, you didn't work just one day, are you? But do you know the guys who would have waited all day? Do you think they were having fun when you're sitting all day waiting, wanting to be hired, even to the 11th hour? Who waits 11 hours to get hired? The guy who is so desperate and miserable and doesn't want to go home and shame to his family.

It's the person who's like, I can't bear going home without something. The people literally working would have felt better than the guy standing idle, because they're like, hey, we know when we go home, we're going to have for our families. So, but see, they elevated their work, their effort, they're earning it. They don't like grace. Because either the word of God humbles you or it makes you more proud.

Because either you earn it, right? I've been going to church my whole life. I've been given, I've been singing, I've been reading.

I've had people say this through the years, you know, I've been growing more spiritually lately, and I don't know what God has against me, like all these hardships are coming into my life. Oh, so you feel like you deserve it now, right? You deserve all these good things. You want to be like the rich man?

Is that who you want to be? Is God not fair? Do you want him to be fair?

Do you know what fair looks like? You hear that? That's called grace. I got one more of those, right?

Hope I got a few more of those. Everything we have in life is grace. Now, what is the meaning of the parable? Verse 16, so the last shall be first and the first last, for many are called, but few chosen.

So let's break down some of the elements of this. The vineyard is the kingdom. The vineyard is the kingdom of God. This is a spiritual kingdom, spiritual reality here.

It's not talking about a physical thing. The landowner is God. The foreman is Jesus.

The laborers in the vineyard are believers who have been called by God. The penny is eternal life. It's the gift of everlasting life that he refers to in verse 29. They'll receive a hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life.

The evening is eternity. That's when you step into eternity. Now the meaning is captured in the first in the final verse.

The last shall be first, the first shall be last. The question I ask is what did the last receive for their labor? They received one denarii. What did the first receive for their labor?

A denarii. They've received the same amount. What does that mean? It means that all true disciples who are called and chosen by God to salvation and service will in the end receive the exact same reward of eternal life. All true disciples are equal in the eyes of God. Believing tax collectors, prostitutes, criminals, social outcasts will have the same heavenly residence as Paul, as Luther, as Wesley, as Spurgeon, as any pastor or preacher or Bible author or anyone.

There are no servants quarters or second class citizens in the kingdom. No one earns more eternal life than anyone else. The reward is the same. This connects back to Peter in verse 27. Behold what shall we have? We forsaken all and follow thee.

How much will we get? We're in the front of the line, Jesus. Bloomberg says there are no rankings in the kingdom of God. Nobody can claim deserved membership in the kingdom.

There is no place for personal pride, for contempt or jealousy of others. There is no ground for any question how this generous God handles the utterly undeserving. Jesus had to squeeze out the upside down thinking of the disciples. It was so ingrained in them in the culture that he could not call guys from the Bible Institute of the Jews if you would. He couldn't get the guys out of the synagogue. He had to go out into the country areas of Galilee and fishermen and get those guys who had not been corrupted by the religion of the day and still in them was religious pride. To the point when Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, they're like, which of us will be the greatest? He's like, have I not squeezed it out of you by now?

Do you want me to wash your feet again? I hope when we read this, we have somewhat been sanctified from religious pride. Strong preaching will suck it out of you after a while. You have to realize that we are unworthy of the least of his mercies. We're only recipients. When we come to God, we pull out our religious wallet and we have nothing to pay him for with. If there's anyone that's been taken, it's God. If anybody gets a raw deal in this thing, it ain't us.

We've only received and it's over a hundredfold for everybody. It just is dumped on us, lavished on us, given to us. There's no room for works to get into heaven and there's no room for pride and rewards. Pastor Josh has the same eternal life as the person who got saved yesterday. I won't get to heaven and be like, yeah, you know, just seeing all the people I had this minister to, you know, these guys.

I can't believe I wasn't whiter in here, you know, putting up with some of this stuff. Manuel, this rebellious kid from India, yeah. He's such a good young man.

I can say that because he's a good kid. So, now the reference to the men being called at different times could be those who get saved later in redemptive history. You know, the Jews maybe felt like they're at the front of the line, they end up being the last in some ways, and then the Gentiles in redemptive history, in many ways, become the first. But it could also be those who get saved later in life, the thief on the cross. The thief on the cross got saved on, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I forget, somebody told me one time, you're going to tell me these people who get saved on the death bed are going to go to the same heaven, have all this stuff the same as we will. You ever read Matthew 19 to 20? That kind of mindset is so off.

Who wants their loved one who gets saved on their deathbed to enter into everlasting life along with you? Right? I mean, who would think how the old people who could think that in a negative way would be a works-based thought? You think you earned it somehow? You think you deserved it, friend?

Really? We don't serve him to gain heaven, we serve him because we got heaven. It's not a reward of works, it's a joy of love for him. It's God, I get to do this. The parable is a rebuke to those who think that they're not saved. The parable is a rebuke to those who think they somehow have a greater claim on eternity than anyone else. Bloomberg rightly says, we are fools if we appeal to God for justice rather than grace, for in that case we're all damned.

He's right. Listen to what Paul said his reward would be one day in 1 Thessalonians 2. He said, for what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ?

It is coming. You're our glory and joy. You know what my joy is? Is to see people get saved and to know they're going to be in heaven one day with me. That's my joy.

What other reward do I need? We get Christ. Ephesians 1-3, we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. The riches are greater than anything you can even comprehend.

Paul said it this way in Romans 8-18. He said, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present life are not even worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. You have no idea how incredibly insanely awesome heaven will be in layman's terms. You cannot even comprehend it. Jesus said, if you knew how wonderful it was, you would be willing and glad to give up everything you had for that treasure.

So glad to do that. That would be the best deal of your eternity. And then he closes this by saying, many are called, but few are chosen. Many are called, but few are chosen. What does that mean?

That means this. God sends out the call of salvation to the world. The general call, he calls men to salvation, but few are called to be saved. Few are called the chosen.

I know some of that language can be unsettling to some people. You're like, I don't understand God's elective grace. Well, the Bible speaks about election. It speaks about being chosen by God. And we turn all that over into the sovereign plan of God and know that man is responsible to preach the gospel. Men are responsible to respond to the gospel, and men will stand before God accountable for that. So we preach Christ, we declare Christ, and God saves. Jesus calls the rich man to salvation.

Give up your riches and follow me. He's giving him a salvation call. Many are called. Well, who are the chosen? Peter, you're chosen of God.

This is Ephesians 1.4. According as he has predestinated us before the foundation of the world, that's actually verse five, but he has chosen us in Christ, the Bible says, before the foundation of the world. When did he choose us before the foundation of the world?

What did he choose us based upon? It says according to his own goodwill, according to his own purpose, which he purposed in Christ before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1, verse four. Ephesians 1, verse nine and 10.

It just goes on and on. And so this is God's design of salvation. Israel didn't choose God. God chose Israel.

Is that true? And so God saves. And so what he's saying here is, hey, hey, Peter, remember? You didn't come to me. I came to you. And I changed your heart.

And you've been chosen to serve me. And you're going to ask me, what's your reward? You sure you want to ask that?

You sure you want to ask that? Still need to rinse some of that Pharisaic Judaism out of yourself? Am I not enough? Yeah, I'm going to let you sit on a throne judging one of the 12 tribes of Israel. There's going to be eternal blessings. But you are no more in line of earning, deserving anything. That is a gift to you. You did not earn it.

Anything we receive. I'm not a pastor here because I'm better or more spiritual than anyone in this church. Many of you could be so much more spiritual than me. It's not Josh is the most spiritual guy at Lighthouse. No, it's a grace given to call me to preach in the other pastors of the church.

It's nothing we've earned, nothing we deserve. It's only by grace and anything produced out of my life is because God produced that, not because of me. That is absolutely true. Never put your pastor or any pastors here on some pedestal like they're so much more spiritual. No, that just means God's been so much more gracious to them.

Did I ever tell you how to move schools because I got in so much trouble? Okay, that's why I tell you those things. This is all of grace. We get to heaven, it's like everything we have is of grace. Just lavished upon us, gift upon gift. Now, let me close out with, I have 12 principles here. You know, I was actually going to preach this last Sunday along with last Sunday's sermon, but I said, I love you guys too much. Let me just give these to you very quickly. I'll see how many I can get through.

They're brief, very small. First of all, it is God who calls men into the kingdom. John 6, 44 and 45. Jesus says no one can come to the Father except He draws them, He goes out, He's calling men. Secondly, grace cannot be earned. Grace cannot be earned.

It's all a gift of God's grace. One of the most striking counterparts of this is the story of the prodigal son. Do you remember that story? The older brother's like, you're going to give him a party.

You know how many years I have served you? That's the Jewish mindset of the day. This self-righteous earning it. And the Father puts a ring on the son's finger. And you know who rejoiced in the Father? The older son hated the Father for it, evidenced he wasn't even a true believer.

And the younger son loved the Father. How do you respond to the grace of God? Self-righteous pride is irritated by it. It's irritated by it. You feel like they've earned something. Thirdly, God continues to call labors. Third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour, eleventh hour, what's that mean? God is constantly calling people into the kingdom. He's constantly saving. Listen, God has called you to be saved. You need to respond to him, humble yourself, repent, turn to Christ.

He calls you. Number four, all the called go into the field to work. Did you recognize no one sat around? No one sat around. Today in America's Christianity, people think, well, I'll get saved and then they don't do anything for God. There's no change in their life, no transformation.

The Bible's pretty clear. If there's no change, there is no salvation. All true faith is a working faith. That's why James 2 14 says, what does it profit my brethren though a man says, say he had faith and has not worked. Can faith save him? What he's saying is, can that kind of faith save him? Can a verbal only faith save somebody? James 2 17, even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead being alone. He says, you say you have faith without works. I'll show you my faith by my works.

Isn't that what Zacchaeus did? According to Jesus, according to James, a faith that does not work does not save because when salvation is the root, when salvation is the root, it will produce fruit from your life. Matthew Henry said, a man may go idle to hell, but he that will go to heaven must be diligent. Fifth, harvest time is now and it's now that we must labor. The harvest is now. We must go into the fields. We must work. There is one thing you can't do in heaven and it's you can't share the gospel in heaven.

Now is the time, friend. I ask this question often, but if Jesus answered all of your prayers this last week, would anyone be saved? If we aren't praying for the lost, I tell you, we're not telling them. Number six, seekers will be found. Even at the 11th hour, they position their life to be called to work.

They put themselves in a place where they could be brought in. And the Bible says in Jeremiah 29, 13, you shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. Zacchaeus was a seeker. Seventh, God's system of reward is based on humility, motive, and grace, not on pride and works. An eighth truth is God is more than just in all that he pays us in what we labor for.

He will dump more on us than we ever deserved. That's why he said back in chapter 19, verse 29, they will receive a hundredfold. The greatest return on anything you do in your eternity will be what you do for God. He will lavish upon you goodness. Ninth, before someone is saved, they are standing idle in life.

You need to understand that. If you're not saved, your life is in idle position. They were standing idle in the marketplace, idle in the marketplace. Matthew Henry captures this, till we are hired into the service of God, we are standing all the day idle, a sinful state, though a state of drudgery to Satan may be called a state of idleness. The marketplace is the world, and from that we are called by the gospel.

Don't waste your life. Give it to God. Number 10, anything you give up for God or do for the Lord will be rewarded more than you and I could ever deserve. This is the lavish grace of God poured out upon us.

And then lastly, Ephesians 2, 6, and 7 tells us that in the ages to come, he'll show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness. Number 11, comparing ourselves with one another is a very unwise thing to do. Do not compare yourself to others.

Don't make people your yardstick. And lastly, all will receive equal rewards of eternal life. This takes away the pride, doesn't it? We don't deserve it.

It's all given. Today's sermon should provoke some humility in us. And so I ask you as I finish, are you living with a last or first mentality in life? Do you feel you deserve the front of the line into heaven or do you recognize you are unworthy of heaven to humble yourself? The kingdom belongs to the poor in spirit.

Do you feel you deserve more than others? Humility not only brings entrance into the heaven but reward from God. Jesus said in Mark 9 35, if any man desire to be first, the same shall be last.

This is the inverted kingdom, friends, in the inverted parable. And let it humble us and let us, let it cause us to serve God with joy. Every one of us will be paid more from God, so much more than we could ever earn or deserve. We don't want God to be fair because if he was fair we wouldn't be saved. And so today we can rejoice in him. Amen. Let's leave all that stuff up to God and we can just be faithful to him. Let's all stand this morning.