The Distinguishing Generosity Of God - [Matthew 20:1-16]

I want you to go back in a time warp, if you would, for just a moment. When you first got saved and you sang

Amazing Grace, what went through your mind? I grew up singing

Amazing Grace as a kid. You watch Amazing Grace at football halftimes.

We all know Amazing Grace. But when you got saved and then you sang that for the first time as a redeemed person, as a regenerate person, as one forgiven by God, didn't you think grace was just amazing?

As I look at the hymnal, it says in John Newton's words, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. I remember in 1989 and I sang that song, really for the first time, with meaning, with appreciation.

And I thought, grace is amazing. I bet you did the same thing. But what happens as time goes on?

I mean, how amazing really is grace? For some, Amazing Grace has turned into kind of boring grace.

Same old, same old grace. Redundant grace, old hat grace, been -there -done -that grace.

How about you? Wouldn't you like to have that feeling of joy and that deep sense of appreciation unto

God where you say, I am saved by the grace of God. I deserved hell and I get heaven.

I should have paid for my sins, but Jesus paid for my sins. I remember when

I first got saved, I thought, the horrors of hell I have been rescued from.

And an eternity's worth of hell's punishment condensed down to three hours and dumped on Jesus because he died for me.

He cared for me. He loved me. That gets you excited. It makes me think, well, it's not so boring.

It's not so routine. Sometimes when on Sunday nights we pick our favorite hymns and someone picks

Amazing Grace, I think to myself, do I really think it's that amazing anymore? Do I really think this is mind -blowing?

This is mind -boggling? Well, today we're going to look at a passage designed by Jesus to increase your appreciation for grace, to make you say, you know, that is really amazing.

So turn your Bibles, if you would, to Matthew chapter 20. I couldn't get to 1 Corinthians 6 this week.

It's just been a rough health week. And so we're going to go to a passage that preaches itself, a passage that's by my favorite preacher on my favorite subject.

How about that? Jesus Christ preaching a parable that will rock your world.

I'll make a confession right now before we start. I preached this here eight years ago, and I will guarantee you this, if you were here eight years ago and you heard me preach this, you're still going to say to yourself, wow,

I can't get over that. Because when you read this and you go through Matthew chapter 20, it's one of those passages that really is designed by God in His omniscient wisdom to help you say it's no longer boring grace anymore.

To help you say, yes, it's all of God's sovereign grace. Not just a sovereign grace, but a distinguishing grace where God distinguishes in His application grace.

God says in Hosea chapter 14 verse 4, I love you freely.

Why does God pick us? Why does God love us? Why did God have His Son die for us? Because it's the mercy and the sovereign, distinguishing grace of God.

And so we're going to come to this passage, Matthew 20. You don't have points to the parable. Someone says, let me give you four points to these parables.

It's kind of like reading some wonderful poetry and say, I'm going to give you three points to this poem. It kind of wrecks the poem, doesn't it?

So there's not really three points. There's just one main point as we look at this master of the vineyard, master of the field, and we'll immediately say to ourselves, that's speaking of God.

That's how He deals with sinners. That's how He's dealt with me. Grace is amazing. This is one of those passages where really, if you're a kid, here's how

I'd like you to think about it. Have you ever gone to Six Flags? Where is it? Agawam? What kind of name is

Agawam? But anyway, somewhere out there, and you have to get on one of those rides, was it Superman or Batman, and you've got double protection.

You've got the thing that comes up over your shoulder, and then you have to buckle it down here, the seat belt, and you're just strapped in.

I mean, I kind of already think I'm claustrophobic. I'm buckled in. I'm at the mercy of some 16 -year -old summer temp person.

I'm locked in. But you just start getting that feeling like, this is going to be exciting because they're not having to double bolt me in.

It's that kind of passage. It's going to make you say, at least it's my prayer,

God, your grace is amazing that you would save a wretch like me.

Well, let's look at Matthew chapter 20. The first 16 verses will be our text, and I think we'll immediately get a glimpse of God, His heart,

His purpose, His mind, and you are going to be encouraged and convicted,

I trust. Let me say one other thing about a parable, maybe one or two. The way

Jesus tells this story, He's trying to bring you into the story. The way

Jesus tells a parable, and parables by design are trying to make you identify with someone.

So you'll say, yeah, I get that. It's like bringing you into the story where you feel like you're part of the audience.

Where you think, yeah, I know what they would feel. I know what I would do. By the way, in this passage, if I was one of the workers,

I know what I would say. I know how I would act. That's just the way Jesus does it.

Just a master storyteller. If anybody ever asks you who your favorite preacher is, for the love of God, don't say

John MacArthur, John Owen, John the Baptist, John the Apostle, or John Piper, or any other

John. You say, Jesus Christ is my favorite preacher. Because when you see this passage today, this is illustrative of Christ's preaching style, where you'll say, it's the beginning of the year,

I probably should read, I probably should study the Gospels again.

So if you're going to start off with Leviticus on January 1st, I'm going to say, forget that. Let's go right to Mark. Let's go right to Matthew.

Matthew chapter 20. This parable that we can understand God's grace, his distinguishing grace, and his generous grace.

Verse 1 of chapter 20. I know you're already ready to get into it. Quit telling me all this introductory stuff.

Some of you, I've been watching you reading ahead. You ought not to do that. For the kingdom of heaven,

Matthew 20 verse 1, is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

The kingdom of heaven, the way God does things. It's like this. Now, before I go any farther, texts have context.

So let's go back up to chapter 19 verse 16. You have to say to yourself, parables are given for a reason.

There's a context to parables. There's an occasion. There's a setting. There's a situation. Why did

Jesus give the parable? He just didn't walk up to the Sea of Galilee. Let me tell you a parable. There was a reason why parables were given, and the reason is found in chapter 19, rich young ruler.

Let's read some of those verses in Matthew 19, so you can better understand 20.

Matthew 19 .16. And behold, a man came up to him saying, teacher, what good deed must

I do to inherit eternal life or to have eternal life? He said to him, why do you ask me about what is good?

There's only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.

He said to him, which ones? Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbors yourself.

The young man said to him, all these I have kept. What do I still lack? Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.

When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Verse 23. And Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved?

They knew the utter impossibility of this salvation from man's perspective, but Jesus looked at him and said, with man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

And now, we start getting an eye towards 20. Peter said in reply, what do you think

Peter would say? Probably something bluntly, probably something maybe curtly,

Pastor Mikely, he might say. Peter said in reply, see, we have left everything and followed you.

What then will we have? You demand this from the rich young ruler?

You say Jesus, the rich young ruler, has to give it up all to come and follow you, and then you'll have treasure in heaven?

We have done that. We have done exactly what you've told him to do. See, Peter says, we've left it all and followed you.

Verse 28, Jesus said, truly I say to you, in the new world, when the

Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And now he expands it, not just to the apostles, but to everyone. And everyone who follows him, everyone who has left houses, our brothers, our sisters, our father, our mother, our children, our lands, for my sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

If you have come to me, Peter, and followed me, or anyone else who gives up anything else for me, they will have eternal life.

And then he says something very fascinatingly, verse 30, but many who are first will be last and the last first.

ESV says, but many who are first will be last and the last first. Look down in chapter 20, verse 16, doesn't he say the same thing?

What does 1930 mean? That's why he gives the parable, because it's tied in to chapter 20, verse 16.

So the last will be first and the first last. What does it mean, Jesus, that the last are first and the first are last?

Answer, Matthew chapter 20, one to 16 for the parable. So he's talking to Peter and the disciples, and he says the first will be last and the last will be first.

By the way, how can that happen? I'm going to have to tell you ahead of time, just so we'll catch it when we're there.

If there's a race and there are eight racers in the Olympic stadium, and the first are last and the last are first, how can that happen?

Slow motion, no. What? Say it out loud. Tie. Look to the neighbor to your left and say, it's a tie.

Oh, no, sorry, we don't do that here. It's a tie. And Jesus is going to explain in this parable that if you come to faith at 15 or 90, guess what?

You get the grace of God. If you're a child who believes like Timothy most likely was and lived his whole life for the

Lord through the Spirit's power, or you're the thief on the cross and you die at the last second trusting in Christ Jesus that repents, there's the generous grace of God.

And you don't get half forgiveness, you don't get half salvation, you don't get half of generosity, you don't get half imputed righteousness, you don't get half the benefits of the resurrection, you get it all.

You come to faith early, you come to faith late, you get everything. Why do some come early?

Some come late. We're going to answer that as well. You say to yourself, you know, I got saved. For me, I was 29.

Why did I get saved when I was 29? My life could have been so much better if I would have got saved earlier.

Why wasn't I saved earlier? We're going to find out in this parable because it's God's choice when we get saved.

It's in His plan. Maybe some people are saying to themselves, you know, I got saved when

I was 60. If I could have just gone back, changed it all, and believed when I was 14, my life would have wrecked, wrecked so much of my life and God has had to put it back together.

Why didn't I get saved earlier? Answer, grace is distinguishing, grace is sovereign, and God is the one who saves.

And so, we're going to go to Matthew chapter 20 now and find out how the first can be last as we see this generous grace of God, sovereignly and distinguishingly bestowed.

Now, let me read verse 1 again. For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house. By the way, this is very common.

They all knew what was going on. They didn't need a manners and customs book like we do. Went out early in the morning, literally at dawn in the

Greek, to hire laborers for his vineyard. Very typical.

Sun goes up, it's time to work, it's 6 a .m., we've got to hire some workers. Now, I spend a lot of time in California, both

Los Angeles and in Northern California, and here's what I see at 6 o 'clock when I drive past the

Home Depot and when I drive past Lowe's. When you drive past there at 6 o 'clock, what do you see in large cities?

Maybe even here in Worcester you see it, I don't know. I'm not that up that early to go, let's go to Lowe's at 6 a .m.

In California, at least, you see not dozens of people, but hundreds of people standing around by the entrance to the store.

Who are they? They're day laborers. They could be migrant workers.

They could be undocumented aliens. They could be illegal aliens. They could be all kinds of folks who say, you know what, we want to get hired for the day and we're hoping someone like Mike pulls up and says, you know, pay $10 under the table an hour to work all day to, you know, hoe in the backyard or help me put up these two -by -fours or whatever, hop in the car and off we go.

It happens today, doesn't it? Happened back then as well. That's the scenario.

Day laborers, you drive up, you find where the people are, in this particular case you don't drive up, but you go there and you find them and say, work for me.

We don't know what kind of work it is. There's a new vineyard, the old one's falling apart, we need to have fertilizing, we need to have some kind of preparing, pruning, we don't know exactly, but it's not significant.

And so, verse 2, after agreeing with the laborers for denarius, a day, which is a good wage, it's a day's wage, it's what people make for a day generally, it's what a soldier made for a day, they agreed for it, he sent him into his vineyard.

Once in a while I'm going to sprinkle in a little fact. Was it wrong for this master of the field to pick these but not everybody else?

Did he do these other people that he didn't pick any harm? Was he unfair for not picking them?

No, of course not. These guys, 6am, get a whole day's wage.

They're happy, desperate for work.

They were chosen, it's a privilege. Going out about the third hour, how do we calculate hours?

The zero hour is 6 in the morning, third hour would be what? 9am. So he goes out at the third hour, maybe he needed more work to be done, maybe the grapes were getting more, there's high sugar content, they all needed to be picked up, picked off, picked upon.

He needs more workers, that's the point. He saw others standing idle in the marketplace. This is where they stand, the marketplace is like the outside of Home Depot in L .A.

And he said to them, verse 4, you go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.

So we've gone from, you know, they make an agreement earlier on to now I'll just give you the right thing. The story starts to get condensed.

It starts kind of getting zip drive like where we're not getting all the information early, it's just taken for granted.

Here's the deal, here's the wage, here's what you do, it's a common thing, let's get paid, here we'll do the work. We're happy to have the work, thanks for picking us.

Pick some, he didn't pick others, he passed over others. We're going to trust the guy, he doesn't say he's trustworthy, he doesn't say he had a good reputation, but it's just the way things were done.

Verse 5, so they went, of course they did, it's great, the guy's generous, he chose them. Each group is happy.

Going out again about the sixth hour, what time would that be? If 6 a .m. is zero, 9 a .m.

is in the third hour, this is noon. At the sixth hour and the ninth hour, 3 p .m.,

he did the same. Needs more workers, drives back down to Home Depot, we need four or five more guys, hop on in.

No mention of the wages, he understood, they understood, the readers of Jesus understood, we understand.

And about at the eleventh hour, you didn't know this math class was going to be so hard today, did you? What hour was that?

5 p .m. They worked till 6 p .m., 6 a .m. to 6 p .m., at 5 p .m.

he went out and found others standing, you know, they're trying to figure out probably what they're going to go say to their wives when they get home, honey,

I didn't get picked and couldn't earn any money. And he said to them, verse 7, they said to him, rather, because no one has hired us.

He said to them, with distinguishing, sovereign, generous grace, you go into the vineyard too.

Now the next verse is very, very important, and you don't get the parable unless you get the next verse. Here's the drum roll, and when evening came, 6 p .m.

now, it's time to pay because Leviticus and Deuteronomy both say, pay wages at the end of the day because they're living day by day, they need the money, you can't say,

I'll pay on Friday, you get paid the first and the fifteenth. No, Leviticus 19, you shall not oppress your neighbor nor rob him, the wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning, pay them right away.

So 6 o 'clock, could be 6 .15 now, they're going to divvy up the money, and it's very important here, the vineyard owner said to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them their wages.

So far, so good, nothing that interesting to the story, but here is where it's amazing.

Beginning with the last, up to the first. By the way, does that sound familiar?

Last, first, last, first, 1930, 2016, last, first, first, last, does that sound familiar?

First, last, last, first, first, last? See? It does, doesn't it? Pay them those beginning with the last, up to the first.

If it was switched around, the parable is no longer a parable, it's a dud, it is boring.

Owner of the vineyard, Kurios, the Lord, said to the foreman, call the laborers, pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.

That's where the power is in this story, because we've got a surprise coming. If Jesus would have said in this parable, a foreman,

I want you to bring those who I hired at 6 a .m., and I'll give them a day's wage, then send them home, the story would have no power.

Have them come at the very ... You know, those who got here early, you worked all day, you get paid first. We're going to mess up the punchline of the story, but do you see the text?

That's not what's said here. Beginning with the last, those hired at 5 p .m.,

at 1700, and when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a full day's wage for one hour.

Anybody ever did that for you? Has anybody ever done that for you? You're for one hour. I haven't had too many jobs where I've had to punch in, but I've never punched in for one hour, and they said, here's a whole day's work for one hour.

Now, what are you thinking? If you were hired at 3 o 'clock in the afternoon,

I get three. I get three denarii. This guy's so generous.

What do you think if you were hired at noon? I get a week's worth of pay.

What happens to you if you're there and you're watching them give the one to the guy hired at 5, and you thought,

I get days' pay? What if you were the one hired at 6 o 'clock, you'd be saying to yourself what?

I am going to get how many days' pay for my one day's work? Based on what he did to this guy,

I'm getting 12 days' pay. This is going to be great.

I'll go buy an eye touch or something. This is going to rock. I'm going to just buy food is what these people are going to buy.

Verse 9, and when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now, when those hired first came, they, like you and like me, thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.

Where is Jay Sekulow when we need him? Where is

Johnny Cochran? I'm going to have to call up some kind of union representative,

ACLU, AFL -CIO, AFL -NFL. I'm calling somebody, for those of you old enough to remember that.

No one was ungraced. No one should have been picked at lows at the beginning, and yet they were.

They got what they bargained for. They got what they agreed upon. They got the normal thing for the day's work.

Some even got extra based on the good, sovereign, distinguishing pleasure of the Lord. What's the response?

Sadly, what's the response in evangelical churches to the sovereign, distinguishing grace of God, who saves some at 15, who saves some at 90, and who doesn't save some?

Verse 11, and on receiving it, the gift generously bestowed, yeah, they had to work for it, but he had to pick them to work for it, and on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house.

You know the word grumble there, right? You know the Greek word? We love Greek words here. We love

Greek words that sound like what they are. Here is gungismus. Gungismus, gungismus, gungismus, and it is an imperfect verb that means it was an ongoing muttering, whispering, complaining.

We will not tolerate this inequity. When they first got chosen out in front of Home Depot, they're happy.

And now they see some get extra based on the good will, good pleasure, free will of the owner, and now they're having a conniption fit, a conniption fit of like that I haven't seen since I've been to the grocery store that says eight items or less, and you see somebody in there with 22 items.

It's that kind of visceral reaction you get. Now here's what they said.

They complained, complained, complained, complained. Verse 12, saying, these last worked only one hour.

Now look at the intensity here with initiation, who's in charge, who bestows, who distinguishes.

These last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.

Literally, they call those scorching east winds burners.

There's a real scorcher out there, this dry east wind that comes in the Middle East. It was super hot. We worked all day.

You gave us only one day's wage, and you gave them 12 days' wages in essence.

You made them equal to us. Well, that part was right. Verse 13, but he replied to one of them, maybe the spokesperson, maybe the union steward, friend.

By the way, that's not super close best friend. We're close work associate, but it's got a little sting to it.

We know each other, but we're not best buddies. We have something in common, this work, but we're not going to go have dinner together.

Friend, I am doing you no wrong. I'm not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?

I, by my own good, free, distinguishing, sovereign pleasure, am generous.

So now you're going to get mad at me because I was generous to other people? That's not fair.

Fair, in case I forget, I'll say this. In salvation, you don't want fair.

Fair is justice, holy judgment. God gives us what we've earned.

The wages of sin is what? Death, eternal death. I was thinking about this the other day.

I had an MRI in my brain, and they put this kind of thing up on your face so you can't really move, and you go down in the tube.

I didn't really think I was that claustrophobic. They give you the little button, right, the panic button.

It does nothing. You just push it for your own good. It's like, what's that supposed to do?

It's like, you know, exercises on the airplane. Please wiggle your toes on the 19 -hour flight. It does nothing. And so I'm laying in there.

Things like this. I'm in the tube. I'm a bigger guy. I talk to the people, and they said, one out of five, bail.

You can get some Quaaludes if you want or some kind of tranquilizer or anything. I don't have any of those handy, and so I'm just in there.

I'm thinking, you know, I'm slowly becoming a Christian scientist. There's mind over matter.

There's no such thing as an MRI. I'm not in the silence of the lamb's mask. I mean, I'm just laying there going, okay.

And I absolutely, sounds.

And I thought, you know what?

I can get out. I can get out. I could have scooched down in there and got out, and I thought, no, but I wanted to see what's going on.

I could have got out. Then I thought, just for a brief moment, nobody knows the horrors of the damned and how bad hell is, but they are going to scream their heads off just for one second of,

I want out. If I could just get out for one second and to think, God, that's not fair.

We don't want fair because fair is myself included, everyone in here in hell now being tortured for their attitudes towards Jesus Christ, the only

God. We don't want fair. We want what? Generosity of God.

That's what we want. God, you're generous. God, you're gracious. Jonah knew that. Hey, how can you go over there,

God? I knew you were going to save those people because you're kind. You're loving. You have steadfast love. You're gracious.

And for all of us, including these people in the parable, including the listeners of Jesus, we live, eat, and breathe in a works righteousness world, don't we?

We are born Pelagian. We are born thinking, God is, I know, holy and he's lofty and he's up there, but if I'm just kind of good enough, it'll be okay.

And you know, bell curve, kind of, you know, I'll just be a little bit better than the next guy. Let me try to find somebody who's worse than I am.

Turn on the TV. That helps. I'm not so bad. But God doesn't grade on some human curve.

He grades on the curve of Christ Jesus, which is perfection. He doesn't grade on a curve.

And so when we live in this works righteousness world, it's easy for us to identify with these other people. Somehow they got robbed.

They didn't get what they're supposed to get. And so two shots come across the bow here as these people separate in Matthew 20 verse 15.

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Now the master of the field, the

Lord, he could do whatever he wanted with it. Hiring, firing, paying, right?

This is teaching us something about God too. Is this not true of God? Am I not allowed to do what

I choose with what belongs to me? God's created everyone. Can't he do what he wants with his creation?

Yes. He asked another question, verse 15, or do you begrudge my generosity?

Literally, why do you have an envious eye? Why do you give me the evil eye? No one's treated unfairly.

No fraud, no deception. Everybody gets the generosity of the landowner.

So hearkening back to chapter 19, some follow Jesus early, some follow

Jesus late. Some follow Jesus as a missionary for 80 years.

Some follow Jesus for two days. They're a cannibal for 80 years of their life and they get saved two days before they die.

And what happens to all of them when it comes to being recipients of full forgiveness and grace of God?

Matthew 20, 16 answers the question. That reverses chapter 19, verse 30.

19, 30 was first or last, last, first. Here it's reversed, Matthew 20, with the same meaning.

So the last will be first and the first last. When it comes to salvation, everyone, as MacArthur says, finishes in a dead heat.

If you've come to faith in Christ Jesus, you receive the same blessings of forgiveness, full forgiveness, that everybody else has.

This text is not talking about who gets what rewards. This has nothing to do with rewards. This has to do with salvation, the equity, the equality of God's generous salvation.

Every believer is part of the church, no matter when they come to faith. True? Yes. If you're a social rascal and get saved, or a pastor's kid and get saved, guess what?

Christ's righteousness for you. Full forgiveness for you. Slave or free, rich or poor,

Jew or Gentile, American or Indian, born in the first century, born in the 21st century. All believers get the crown of life.

All believers get the crown of righteousness. You say, yeah, but it doesn't make sense. I labored for 50 years.

That's the wrong question to ask, because what did you deserve? Labor for 50 years. You deserved hell, and God gave you forgiveness.

Every believer is a child of God and a fellow heir with Christ Jesus. Every believer has been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

By the way, if you've got an old relative, you've got a grandma or a mom or an aunt or a neighbor who's super old, and you think their heart is hardened, how can they ever come to faith?

If they get saved, they get full, free forgiveness.

I like that. Of course there are rewards, but this passage has nothing to do with rewards.

I don't have too much time left, so let me just ask you a couple questions. Matthew 20, verses 1 -16 stimulates my mind to ask questions, and so since I'm the pastor,

I will ask you the questions that haunt me. No, just kidding. Some are a reiteration, some are new.

One, does God owe people grace? Does God owe people grace?

We've answered that before, no. God didn't owe angels grace when they fell.

They fell, He gave them justice. God doesn't owe grace to anyone. Do you owe gifts to people? Sadly, during Christmas time, we think that way.

Somebody just gave me a gift, and I want to say almost to Kim, let's buy about six extra gifts this year.

Just wrap them up, and then if anybody gives us a gift, we didn't have one for them, we've got an extra one, and so they give us a gift, we give them a gift.

That's not grace. That's not the right way to look at it. The hymn says, Though justice be thy plea, consider this, that in the course of justice, none of us should see salvation.

God is rich in mercy. He gives what we don't deserve. St. Clair Ferguson, I think, was right when he said,

Grace is not unmerited favor, it's demerited favor. It stems and flows out of the mercy of God.

We are vessels of mercy. Let me ask you another question.

If God has graced you with salvation and full forgiveness, does He love you more when you obey?

If God has given you the righteousness of Christ, God has given you full forgiveness, confirmed by the resurrection of Jesus, does

He love you more when you obey, and does He love you less when you disobey? Because if you say yes, you haven't fully experienced what it means to know what grace is.

We are placed in Christ, and when God looks at us, do you know He loves you like He loves

Christ Jesus? God cannot love you more. God cannot love you less. God loves you in His Son.

And for us, we're thinking, you know what? I didn't have my daily devotion today. God's kind of really angry with me. Should we have devotions?

Please. But you don't become less of a son or more of a daughter because you do anything.

You're saved by grace, held by grace, and confirmed by grace. Listen to what Jesus said. Can you imagine this?

John 17. He's praying to the Father. I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that you did send me, and did love them even as you love me.

If you get distinguishing, sovereign, generous grace, you should say to yourself, yes, it's freely given by God.

Yes, I deserve hell, but I get heaven. And yes, if He does decide to love me, He'll love me forever, and He can't love me more.

Next question. We went into this the last two weeks, so I won't belabor it. When did

God determine to give you this sovereign, distinguishing grace? And the answer is found in Ephesians 1, verse 4, before the foundation of the world.

We love because He first what? Loved us. The love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God causes your salvation.

Did you get that? It's the cause of our salvation. What is the cause of your salvation? And friends, if you run to the day that you prayed the sinner's prayer, went on the altar call, asked

Jesus into your heart, that did not cause your salvation. I'm not mad at you. I just want to emphatically tell you,

A, it's wrong, and B, you're robbing God glory. Who causes salvation? Salvation is from the

Lord. It's God's generous, sovereign, distinguishing grace. And when God graces you, how do you respond?

Everybody that has been distinguishingly graced by God responds what way? I used to not like you,

God, but now I like you. I used to love sin, now I hate sin. I used to hate you, now I love you. And I believe.

I confess. But which one's first? Especially if we say, if salvation was determined in eternity past,

I was not there to believe, to repent, to exercise my free will, or do anything else back then.

Salvation was determined in eternity past by the Trinity. God is the prime mover.

God is the only mover. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was neutral.

Lost, the text says. The actor, the initiator, the active one in bestowing grace is God. Think about it.

I receive grace from God. If God gives me grace, then what do

I do to receive the gift? I can't do anything. God is the giver. Man is the recipient.

He's passive. My mother used to have on her car years ago, I remember driving to school.

I didn't live that far away. It was in Nebraska. And she would drive me to school, and on the radio, on the way there, we would listen to Jimmy Swagger, true story.

And on the way home, we'd listen to Chuck Swindoll. Now, of course, I'm not equating the false teacher with the very good teacher.

But I remember driving in the car. My mom wasn't even a Christian. And she put on the back of her bumper this sticker,

I found it. And what it was, it was a special kind of catchy motto, slogan, catchphrase, where people were supposed to say, oh, what'd you find?

Oh, I found it. Let me tell you about who Jesus was. Probably good motives, probably wonderful in that regard, but probably horribly awful in its theology.

Why? Because we didn't find anything. If you mean God found me and I responded to him with faith, then okay,

I get it. Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands.

Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? All for sins could not atone.

Thou must save and thou alone. How can we, dead in trespasses and sins as an unbeliever, begin to think to ourselves, you know what?

My unbelief is pretty sinful. My lifestyle is very rotten. I'm really bad.

I'm corrupt. I'm depraved. God should pour his wrath out on me. Yeah, yeah, I think that's the right way to think.

Who thinks that way? Nobody does until God has what? Illumined your mind to think that?

No one can come to me, Jesus said, unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

God chooses graciously. God chooses distinguishingly.

God loves freely. That is my hope this morning, by the way, if you're not a

Christian. I'll wrap it up this way. If you're not a Christian, here's my hope. Not that you will assess things properly today and by your own good works and your own kind of fortuitous mental deductions, what he says is true, what he says is right.

Jesus is the only Savior. I'm a sinner. I deserve to go to hell. I think that's a good thing to believe in. If my hope for you today was that, then we might as well just say, bar the doors, don't let unbelievers in because we can't help them.

So here's my hope. Wonderfully, strangely, mysteriously, God opens the minds of people through the preaching of the

Word, and the Holy Spirit of God sent by the Father applies the work of the

Son to change people like that, and God said, I promise that I will go and bring all my chosen ones home.

Spurgeon said, I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will, of his own free will, return to Christ.

My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my master will lay hold of some of them and say, you are mine and you shall be mine.

I claim you for myself. My hope arises from the freeness of grace and not the freedom of the will.

And once God graces you, that grace is irrevocable. So, I guess it would only be apropos if we changed the last song to Amazing Grace.

Can you imagine? T 'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.

How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed. But we're not going to sing it quite yet.

We're going to have the Lord's Supper and then we'll sing. Pray with me. Father in Heaven, you are a great

God. You're a God worthy to be praised, to be worshipped. You're a

God worthy to have our entire lives devoted to in service. Overseas, here, full -time, part -time.

Thank you, Father, for being so generous with your grace. That you would send your

Son and demonstrate very conspicuously that you love sinners.

Thank you for that. Thank you for all the redeemed people here at Bethlehem Bible Church. You put a song in our hearts to sing that you're amazing.

Now, Father, do a special work as we're reminded with elements like bread and with a cup.

That Jesus Christ was, in fact, a real human God -man. Who lived on this earth to die for our sins and was raised from the dead.