Matthew 20: 1-16 Marvelous Grace

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Pastor Mike Abendroth, Matthew 20: 1-16 Marvelous Grace

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Well, by the grace of God, I will show you Christ today in your
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Bibles. It's interesting. Most churches have doctrinal statements that include the
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Lord Jesus in it. But some, like Graham Goldworthy, say it's not an operational gospel.
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It's not found over and over and over in the sermons, in the songs, in the Sunday schools. So I rejoice that I get to be your pastor, because I know you want to hear about the
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Lord Jesus. I have a few questions this morning to start. Not 20, but a few. What does
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God owe you? Does God owe everyone grace?
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Has God been fair to you? Has He been fair to everyone? Has God ever been unfair to anyone?
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Why are some people saved and other people are lost? Does God love you more when you obey and love you less when you disobey?
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Is God's grace to you boring, or is it amazing? Good questions.
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I hope there are answers to the questions. And matter of fact, there are. Found in our passage today, take your
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Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 20. We this morning are going to talk about the grace of the triune
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God. We've been in the gospel of Jesus according to Luke, but I've been gone for a little while and I thought
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I would preach Matthew chapter 20. I know I'm going to call it Luke 20 sometime, so turn your
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Bible to Luke 20. Let's just get it over with. We've been in Luke so much, it's been so rich. But today,
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Matthew chapter 20, something again today about the grace of God. It warmed my heart as I studied it this week.
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I think it'll warm yours as well. Specifically, as we learn about God's grace, two things
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I'm kind of driving toward. Part of the passage is driving toward this.
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Is it worth serving God your whole life? On that day when you get to heaven, either the
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Lord comes back or we die, will it be worth the toil? Will it be worth the stress?
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Will it be worth the trials, serving the Lord with your whole life? Will it be worth it on that day? I think we know the answer.
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And secondly, as we learn about grace, I want to say that if you would like to transform every relationship in your life, it has to do with grace.
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As Ephesians says, if God has so graced you in Christ and he has Christian, how are you to act to other people like your spouse, like your children, like your friends?
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It's graciously. So today, Matthew chapter 20 verses 1 through 16, as we look at this essential, crucial doctrine that drives our relationships and drives praise and drives good work for the kingdom as Christians, it's the doctrine of grace.
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One writer said, what distinguishes Christianity from every other system, every other religion is the doctrine of grace.
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It was back in the 30s some theologians were arguing about Christianity and is it unique or not.
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And one man said, it's the most unique religion in all the world because of the resurrection of Jesus.
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That's true. But another one said, another man said, what's the rumpus all about?
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Quote, the most unique thing about Christianity, the man said, oh, that's easy. It's grace.
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And so today we are going to learn about the grace of God from Matthew chapter 20 verses 1 to 16.
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This is a parable and the way we'll work the outline for today, because parables don't really have outlines.
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The outline is simple. We're going to go through the parable. That's outline point one, if you will.
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And then we'll have some takeaway reminders about grace in the form of questions.
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So first let's go through the parable. Then there'll be some takeaways when it comes to grace.
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And by the way, this is an exciting passage. There's plot twists, there's unexpected things that happen. And by the way, one of the keys to preaching is just preach a good text, right?
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If you're ever on vacation for a while and you're kind of rusty, you preach a passage that just preaches itself. And so that's basically what
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I'm doing today because Jesus, the master teacher, there's no teacher like Jesus, the way he talks, the way he frames things.
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This parable is designed for you to get pulled into it and you're going to think you're there and you're going to respond just like some of the people respond.
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And that's the design of the parable. I mean, 2 ,000 years ago, Jesus is teaching this, but you're going to think because of God's living and active word, this is for today.
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Oh, I needed that. In the old days, I'd listen to a sermon and maybe sit next to Steve Cooley or my wife and then you kind of give them the elbow to the ribs.
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Well, Steve for the ribs. I just kind of tap my wife a little. Men, don't elbow your wife in the ribs.
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You're like, this is so good for them. This is, this is good for that person sitting next to me.
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They needed to hear that. But today we all need to hear about this.
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And that's the doctrine of grace. So let's go through verses 1 through 16, work through the parable by the most wonderful teacher that ever walked on this earth.
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And he's talking about grace. And so we come to verse 1 of chapter 20, for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
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And of course, dear Bethlehem Bible Church, you know, as well as I do, that the first word is going to help us.
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What if it's therefore, or what if it's for, like it is right here, for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a house.
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Oh, that means there's something before this that we would need to know. I mean, if you pick up a book, you start from the beginning and work through it.
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And so if we pick up Matthew, we'd start realizing the book of Matthew is about Jesus, the great king.
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And not everybody likes the king. The king has a manifesto, it's called the Sermon on the Mount.
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The king has power, he heals people, he raises people from the dead. And now we come to this teaching time, but we realize 20 must be connected to something beforehand.
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And it in fact is. It's connected to the rich young ruler. So let's go back to chapter 19 of Matthew, verse 16 and following describes for us what the for is for of Matthew 20, verse 1.
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And to get context is everything. And the context is eternal life.
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How do you get eternal life? Matthew chapter 19, verse 16, and behold, it's kind of sudden.
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Man comes up to Jesus, teacher, what must, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?
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Law questions get law answers. And he said to him, why do you ask me about what is good? There's only one who is good.
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By the way, you're standing in his presence. If you would enter the life, the life eternal, as Jesus saying, if you'd enter life, keep the commandments, all you have to do is perfectly obey
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God. Why would he ever judge you? If you perfectly obey the creator of which ones,
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Jesus said, you shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You should not steal. You should not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.
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You shall love your neighbors yourself. And the young man said, I'm such a sinner. I'm lacking.
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I've heard you're merciful. Please have mercy on me. Of course, sin blinds.
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And he said, all these I have kept. What do
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I still lack? I don't lack anything. I obey perfectly. If you'd be perfect,
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Jesus said, verse 21, go sell what you possess, give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.
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And when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. And so this man knows that Jesus has the answers.
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He asked the right question. I like to inherit eternal life. He asked a law question. And the law question is, if you want to get to heaven, just perfectly obey the law.
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There's a faith question as well that says, I can't perfectly obey, but you're perfectly obeying and I want to trust in you.
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I want to have faith in you. And Jesus now explains some more to his disciples.
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Verse 23, truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.
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Right? They trust in their own resources. Some rich make it, Job, Abraham, but it's hard.
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There's difficult things that happen for a rich person. Again, verse 24, I tell you, it's easier for a camel, a literal camel to go through the literal eye of a sewing needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
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And when the disciples heard this, they're greatly astonished. Who could be saved? I mean, camels don't go through the eyes of a needle.
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Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.
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And the next verse unlocks chapter 20, verses 1 to 16. Without this next verse, we don't know why
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Jesus gave the parable. Remember, Jesus gives parables to address certain things, to address questions, to address the crowd.
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Parables have settings. They have circumstances. And here's the circumstance.
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Why is chapter 20 written? First word in 20, verse 1 is for. It's because of the next verse,
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Matthew 19, 27. Then Peter said in reply, see, we've left everything and followed you.
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What then will we have? We have trusted you.
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We have believed in you. We have then followed you. And if we have, since we have, what's for us?
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Will we get eternal life? Will it be worth it? What about us? We've left everything.
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Verse 28, Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, ESV says, in the new world, literally it's the word regeneration or renewal, not personal regeneration, but the renewal of the end time world.
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When the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
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Wow, the disciples who had followed him, that's what they look forward to getting.
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I mean, Peter's going to cost him his life. Many of the other apostles are going to die. I wonder if it's going to be worth following Jesus.
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And Jesus says, absolutely, it's worth it. Well, yeah, but I'm not an apostle and neither are you.
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By the way, if you ever meet someone that says they are, you ought to run. You ought to ask them a very difficult
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Bible question, by the way, if you ever meet an apostle. Ask them a real hard Bible question because they should know, right?
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What about us? We've believed and now we're following. Is it going to be worth it?
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Verse 29, and everyone who has left houses, our brothers, our sisters, our father, our mother, our children, our farms for my namesake shall receive many times as much and shall inherit eternal life.
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It is going to be worth it. If you're Peter and James and John and the apostles and the disciples and you follow
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Jesus, you walk away from your tax job like Levi. You walk away from fishing and your father and you say,
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I'm going to follow Jesus. Will it be worth it? The answer is yes. But what if I'm not an apostle? Will it be worth it?
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The answer is yes. Verse 30, but many who are first will be last and the last first.
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By the way, do you see the book end of chapter 20 verse 16? So the last will be first and the first last.
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Is it going to be worth following Jesus? The answer is found in chapter 20 verses one to 16 for the kingdom of heaven,
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Jesus says verse one of chapter 20 is like the master of a house. That's God who went out early in the morning to hire labors for his vineyard.
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And so literally the text is at dawn at 6 a .m. he goes out. We don't know why.
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Is it time to harvest the crops? Is it? Are there weeds? We don't know anything that's going on, but we know he goes out early and probably it happens around here too, but especially when
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I've been in California, if I go to home depot at 6 a .m., what do I see at home depot at 6 a .m.?
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What will you probably see at Lowe's in Lemonster at 6 a .m.? Probably day laborers standing there, migrant kind of workers, day workers, and they're hovering around the entrance to home depot or home cheapo as some call it.
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When your wife works at Lowe's, come on. They're probably undocumented and so they stand there and you say,
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I need you for the day we're going to work on the garden. And so the same thing would happen back in those days. There'd be a marketplace and if you need some day laborers, you need some help working, you go there and say, come work for me.
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That's what's happening. That's part of the story. And they do it for money. Verse 2, after agreeing with the laborers for denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
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So the crop happens to be grapes and he's sending them to work and they get a denarius a day. By the way, that's good pay.
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That's what a soldier makes in a day. This is going to take care of my family that I have to provide for for a day.
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This is good work. This is not minimum wage. I think when I was 16, my buddies went to work for Burger King and I think they made $3 .25
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an hour. That was minimum wage. I think California now is like 20 an hour or something.
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What is minimum wage here in Massachusetts? Nobody knows, but at least you're listening to the sermon.
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He chooses some, he doesn't choose others. He doesn't choose others. Well something happened, he needs more workers because he goes out about the third hour and he sees others standing idle in the marketplace.
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So 6 a .m. is when the clock starts, it's like 0, 0, 0, 0. And so if you go out to the third hour, we're at 9 a .m.
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So at 9 a .m. he goes out, central square, and he says, you go in the vineyard too and whatever's right
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I'll give you. So they went, verse 5, going out again about the sixth hour, that's noon, because we have zero at 6 a .m.
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and now add six hours, so that's at noon, we need some more. And at the ninth hour, 3 p .m. verse 5, he did the same.
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I don't know why he needs so much help, maybe Sabbath is tomorrow, we've got to get all these things harvested.
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And about the eleventh hour, what hour would that be if we start at 6 and we make that zero hour and now we have eleventh hour, what is that?
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5 p .m. The day work goes from 6 a .m. to 6 p .m. and now at 5 p .m.
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one hour to go. We need some more help. He found others standing and he said to them, why do you stand here idle all day?
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They said to him, because no one's hired us. He said to them, go into the vineyard too. And then now is when we have the master teacher.
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Now is when the teacher, the Lord Jesus, who's helping everyone who reads the
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Rich Young Ruler passage and helping Peter saying, is it going to be worth it when I serve the Lord? Even 2 ,000 years later, is it worth it?
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Verse 8, here's the drum roll. And when evening came, 6 p .m.,
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the owner of the vineyard, the kurios of the vineyard, the Lord of the vineyard, said to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them their wages.
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Now, if the verse stopped there, no big deal. You have the people that started at 6 and you give them a denarius and you give the start of the people that have at 9 o 'clock and you pay them.
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But beginning with the last up to the first, call the laborers, pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first, beginning with the eschaton and up to the proton.
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With the last to the first. By the way, both
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Leviticus and Deuteronomy said if you hire day laborers, you have to pay them at the end of the day because they need to eat.
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You don't wait. It's a sin to deny somebody their wages for the day laborer.
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What makes the parable so powerful is this verse right here. Beginning with the last,
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Jesus, the master storyteller, says next in verse 9, when those hired about the 11th hour, 5 p .m.,
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they're getting paid first. Everybody else is watching. I got there at 6 a .m. I'm watching. 9 a .m. I'm watching.
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Noon I'm watching. 3 a .m. I'm watching. What are they going to get paid? Each of them received a denarius.
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What would you be thinking if you got hired at 6 a .m. and the guy that worked an hour got a denarius and you worked 12 hours?
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I think you'd be multiplying by 12, wouldn't you? What if you started at 9 a .m.?
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I think you'd be multiplying by 9. What if you started at noon? I think you'd be multiplying by 6. What if it was 3 p .m.?
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Verse 10, now when those hired first came, the ones that started at 6 a .m.,
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they thought they would receive more. So wouldn't you? Is that proper
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New England speech? So don't I. They thought they would receive more.
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I mean, we're pulled in. I would. They paid. They paid those. One hour got a denarius. I've been in the blazing hot
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Sirocco sun all day. I'm going to get more for sure. But each of them also received a denarius.
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I mean, let's call the AFL -CIO. Let's call the ACLU. Let's call, I don't know,
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Johnny Cochran, somebody. J -Seculo Live needs a phone call.
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I mean, this is unfair. I'm not happy. I'm disappointed. I'm not pleased. And what do they do in receiving it?
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What they signed up for. They grumbled at the master of the house.
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Asher Crane, what's the Greek word for grumble? There you go. Gungusmus. It sounds like what it is.
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Gungusmus. Gungusmus. Gungusmus. They're complaining. They signed up,
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I thought, for one denarius. And so they voiced their opinion.
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The last worked only one hour. You have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.
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Some say it would get so hot in some of the areas of Israel that your nose would be just parched.
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Your nostrils would be hurting, hard to breathe. And what does the owner, the kurios, the master, what does
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God say to them? Well, the SV says, friend, it's not quite nice friend.
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It's more like pal. Hey, pal. Friend, I'm doing you no wrong.
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Did he do him any wrong? He said, I'm going to pay you one day's wage for 12 hours of work. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?
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Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you, whether you're first, whether you're last.
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I choose. I'm the sovereign. I'm the owner. I'm in charge. Now, we're thinking the vineyard owner, but of course we're realizing this is a story about who
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God is and what he does. And Jesus is so keen and so insightful because we all live in a works world.
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You work, you get paid. You sleep like I do, eat and live works.
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And now Jesus has two shots across the bow as they part. Devastating words. Devastating questions rather.
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The verse 15, am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?
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Are, do you begrudge my generosity? That's the
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ESV. Uh, another translation said, should be jealous. Are you jealous because I'm kind to others are literally with King James or new
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American standard. Is your eye envious because I'm generous? What are you giving me the evil eye for?
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You should not be giving me the evil eye if I do what I want to do. And now we have the end of the chapter, verse 19, verse 30.
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We have it flipped around chapter 20, verse 16. So the last will be first and the first last.
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Now I don't know about you, but in the old days I thought it was fine to manipulate the Bible just to get my kids to obey.
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I didn't know any better at the time because I would say to the kids, if somebody wanted first place in the car or first place of a cake or something like that,
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I'm first. And then I would say, and then all the kids parroted me, the first will be last. Uh, that's a good doctrine by the way, but that's found in Philippians chapter two.
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That's not found here because the first or last in the last first, how can that actually happen where the first or last in the last first,
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I was watching the 30 minute reviews of each of the 21 stages of the tour de
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France. How can the first be last in the first last, the last first and first last?
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And the answer is what? It's a tie. That's the only way it works.
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It is a dead heat where the first or last and the last or first, it's a tie. This has nothing to do with preference.
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This has to do with, it's a tie. What in the world is going on here? What's Jesus trying to teach us?
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Peter says, we followed you. The rich young ruler didn't, but we did. Will there be a good payoff?
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Let me just give you a little hint. We've been with you for many, many years.
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Could it be true that the thief on the cross dies and gets the same salvation? Could it be true you get saved at a homeschool girl at 14 years old and serve the
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Lord Jesus for 80 years and then die? And then someone else on their deathbed truly believes in the
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Lord Jesus after living a life of heinous, vile sin? Do they get the same salvation that that homeschool girl gets?
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Answer? The answer is yes. Because the last will be first and the first last.
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And here this great generous God gives, we know,
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His Son. And if you get the Son, you get everything because the Son has you. So every single person gets heaven that believes in the
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Lord Jesus. Every single person that believes on the Lord Jesus gets eternal life. Gets to be in the presence of God.
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Gets to be a co -heir with Christ. Has no condemnation. Gets the perfect righteousness of Jesus credited to their account.
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And so when you get to heaven, you get Christ there visibly.
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And He has you. And you could say to yourself, the only reason
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I got here is because God is gracious. That's the point of the parable.
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God is gracious. And is it worth serving the Lord? Let me rephrase it.
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Is it worth serving a God of all grace? Is it worth serving a God who is so gracious at the cost of His own
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Son that you get eternal life? That's the point of the parable.
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But to flesh it out a little bit more. To make what was implicit explicit. Let me give you a few questions to help us understand this better.
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Question one. And this deals with the text. Is grace earned? Is grace earned?
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And of course the answer is no. Look back at verse 14 of Matthew 20. Take what belongs to you and go.
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I choose to give. Grace is gracious. It's a gift. To this last work as I give to you.
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I give. I give. True or false? God helps those that help themselves. Are you sure?
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Good. False. We think in terms of merit and grace is not earned.
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Some say people think it's kind of a quid pro quo status of our relationship with God.
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Quid pro quo. Prid. Prid.
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I've been taking Latin on my Duolingo but it's not helping. This for that. Something similar.
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Reciprocal. Transactional. We often think if I do this then
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God does that. As unbelievers we thought that. More good deeds than bad deeds and that's how
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God responds. Some kind of curve. Some kind of transactional thing. But we think the same thing as Christians.
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If I do this then God has more favor toward me. Is that right?
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Should you please God? The answer is yes. The desire to please God, yes. But the desire to please
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God so He has more favor on you when you're already in Christ. There's no extra favor that you get when you don't do anything.
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Because favor is unmerited favor. Demerited favor. Grace the acronym.
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God's riches at Christ's expense. So if I please God I'm not getting any more favor from Him.
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I'm just desiring to please Him for what He's done in my life. I think there's a little paradigm that some at the church have learned.
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Guilt in Adam. Grace in Christ Jesus, the last Adam. And what's the following? Gratitude.
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I mean so often we think of salvation.
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And then even our own lives after we're saved as some mathematical deal. Some arithmetic.
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And if this and that and then there's a sum. And then we've got this on the equal sign. And this has to add up to that.
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That's not how it works in God's kingdom. Did you know the Bible says that grace is great, rich, manifold, sufficient, abundant, glorious, sovereign, and exceeding.
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But it never says in the Bible that grace is earned. It's a gift.
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Now I like advertising slogans because advertising is kind of this fascinating thing to me.
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Because advertisement is trying to create discontent in you so you buy something else.
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So if you want to be discontent just watch a lot of advertising stuff. And there's some advertising for banking over the years.
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And I found my three favorite slogans. EF Hutton. When EF Hutton talks people listen.
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American Express. Don't leave home without it. You guys must watch a lot of TV.
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And my favorite one is we make money the old fashioned way.
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We earn it. Smith Barney.
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But what does a Christian really earn? What does an unbeliever earn?
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The wages of sin is death. If we want to talk about earning the earning category has to do with sin.
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And if we want fair then we're going to get God's justice. There's a little poem that says,
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Though justice by thy plea consider this. That in the course of justice none of us should see salvation.
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Romans 6 goes on to say for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
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Lord. And by the way everyone gets that same eternal life because everyone gets Jesus. Because Jesus has purchased every person that the
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Father has given him. God owes us nothing. Salvation is a gracious gift.
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R .C. Sproul had a mentor his name was John Gershner. And I like John Gershner because he had this gravelly voice.
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If you think Sproul did Gershner all the more. Could God help us possibly? God? That's the most preposterous appeal of all.
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It's against Him that we've done all the sinning. It was His law we violated. It was His commands we disobeyed.
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It was His image we ruined. It was His purposes we were seeking to frustrate. It was under His wrath we are now.
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It was His awful judgment from which we were seeking escape. Why would God ever rescue us from the judgment in which
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He placed us? If He's a just God we must fear. There is no hope for us.
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But God's a God of grace. Peter calls Him the God of all grace.
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And even when we're Christians He's the God of all grace. Remember 1 Peter 5? It talks about the
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God of all grace. I wonder if Peter knew a little bit about the grace of God. When He takes out the sword and cuts off Malchus' ear.
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And that was the wrong thing to do. When Jesus says to Peter. When Peter says let's not do the suffering let's go straight to glory.
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Let's go straight not to the cross but to the crown. And then Jesus says to Peter get thee behind me.
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Satan. How many times did Peter have to say even to small girls. I don't know that man.
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And yet Peter is a grace by God. So much so that 1 Peter 5
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Peter says. God is the God of all grace. Because He knew it personally and He knew it biblically.
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Question 2. Is grace generous? The parable is about the grace of God that's unearned.
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It's a gift. The parable is also about a generous grace. Look at verse 15 again. Am I not allowed to do what
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I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? If I want to be generous.
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If I want to be magnanimous. If I want to pay people who only worked an hour. And I want to pay them 10 hours worth, 12 hours worth or more.
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Can't I do that? And the answer is yes you can. 100 times as much. Do you see it right there in your text?
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If you want to do percentage wise that's 10 ,000%. If you could invest in a stock.
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In the stock market and get a 10 ,000 % return. Would you do it? I want to make a crypto comment but I'm not.
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Boundless. Generous. A 10 ,000%. And more. Just the biggest numbers we can think of.
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The generosity of God. If you sit and think about your salvation. I didn't earn it.
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I actually earned justice and He gave me grace. And by the way I was rich in my sins.
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I was extravagant in my perversity. I lived it up.
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I worshiped myself with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. And I have earned
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His disfavor. And now I get His favor. But the favor doesn't seem like it's just a little bit of favor.
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It seems like generous favor. It seems over the top. Grace greater than all my sins to quote the hymn writer.
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One man said, Grace is God's utter generosity, spontaneous generosity, which acts wholly out of a loving concern for the sinner's need.
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I wonder if you could say, God thank you for gracing me in Christ. And it was so generous of you.
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My mom was dying of cancer. She worked for Warren Buffett for a long time. The Buffetts don't give money to people.
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They give it to organizations and other things. And so my mom called me and she said, I got a check in the mail. And I thought it was, she said,
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I thought it was a junk mail, Wells Fargo. And I opened it up. And it was a $100 ,000 check, tax -free.
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And it was from the Buffett Foundation. So I didn't have to spend my money on the cancer drugs that were somehow $3 ,000 a pill.
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Did Warren Buffett give money according to his riches or out of his riches? Out of his riches.
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Because when I saw that, I thought it just as easily could have had one more zero there. What would
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Buffett think? There's a million. Mom dies, I have to split the $100 ,000 three ways. What if it's a million?
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What if it's 10 million? God doesn't give out of,
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He gives according to. And if you think the riches found in Christ Jesus are rich, He gives them to you.
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I'd say that's pretty generous. I think you just read the Bible a little bit and go back to even when
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Adam and Eve fell, it could have just been only justice. The justice was meted out on the animals that God killed, and then
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He covered them graciously with the skins of the animals. Listen to Ephesians chapter 1.
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In Jesus we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which
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He lavished upon us. If you trust in the
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Lord Jesus, early in life or late in life, you still get Jesus. If you're a rascal or a pastor's kid, or both sometimes.
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If you're weak or immature, born in the first century, the 21st century, American, Indian, Jew, Gentile, probably the backdrop of some of this was, hey, we
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Jews for a long time, Jesus, are trying to follow you, and now you mean to tell me the Gentiles get in?
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They just get in? Yeah, by faith. Rich or poor.
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Old or young. Slave or free. The equality of salvation. Remember the rich young ruler.
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I'm talking about eternal life. And they say, yes, He didn't want to give up things. We believed and gave up things.
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Is it going to be worth it? Is following Jesus worth it? Dear Christian, you will receive,
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James 1, the crown of life. You, Christian, will receive the crown of righteousness.
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You are the bride of Christ. You are heirs also, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ.
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You have received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And whether you're the tax collector or Nicodemus, salvation is full and free.
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It reminds me of who God is when I read Ephesians 3. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.
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To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Question 3, still found in the text.
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Is grace sovereign? Is grace sovereign? Look at verse 14.
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Take what belongs to you and go, I choose to give. Verse 15, am
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I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? One man used to say, grace is sovereign.
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It's a sovereign grace. And he said, that's a redundancy because grace is sovereign. But he said, it's a blessed redundancy.
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Sovereign grace. True or false, no one can come to Jesus unless the
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Father who sent Him draws him. True. That's John chapter 6.
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The dominant figure in this parable is the master of the house. He's the one that goes to the marketplace.
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He's the one that hires. He's the one that notices, I need more workers. He's the one that does the wages.
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He's the one that says, this is how you're going to get paid. Everything is of the sovereign employer. And sometimes this is hard for us.
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Because if God chooses some to be generous to and gives them eternal life, what about those that He passes over?
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Is it wrong for God to pass over people and judge them in their sins? I hope you say it's not wrong.
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Romans 9, just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What should we say then?
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There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be. For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom
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I have mercy, and I have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
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Do babies bear themselves? Kind of crawl out a little bit, take a look,
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I think I'll just come out. I mean, we say, I was born on May 12th.
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Because, or I say that, because I don't say, I bore myself on May 12th.
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Who would bear themselves on Mother's Day? Ruins your whole birthday. It's passive.
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It's done to you. You watch a baby come out of the mother, come out of the birth canal, and you realize
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God has so designed it, so that baby is going to be born, but they're passive. They don't contribute anything.
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It's done to them. And so the sovereignty of God teaches us, the sovereign grace teaches us, that people are in heaven because God sovereignly chose them,
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Ephesians 1, before the foundation of the world. And we must not go off and say, well, that means
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God didn't choose other people, and somehow I'm mad at God, how could God do that? Friends, the
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God who chooses is the God of the Bible. And I don't want to be rude or somehow uncouth, but that's the
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God with whom you have to deal, who made you. And whether you like it or not, God is sovereign. And the sooner you submit to God's sovereignty, the better it is, because then it turns into praise.
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You mean to tell me you chose me? And you didn't choose someone else, but you chose me?
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What explains God you choosing me? And the answer is only found in God's mind. Why did
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God choose Israel, Deuteronomy chapter 7? They were stronger, they were mightier, they were wiser, they had more spears, and they had more horses.
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No. It says God chose to love them because He chose to love them. And when you read language like this in Colossians chapter 2,
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He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our command. It's a statement.
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You have to be born again, yes, but I can't bear myself. So the sovereign God has to do it. James Boyce said when people say,
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I could never love a God like that, fair enough, he says, but that is the
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God, the God of the Bible. Question 4, we're almost done.
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Was grace planned? The answer is yes, in eternity. Grace was planned in eternity.
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2 Timothy 1 -9 who saved us and called us with the holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.
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God's love is the cause of your salvation, not a response to what you might have done.
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And finally question 5, should grace be separated from God, especially the incarnate
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Jesus? In other words, let's not think about grace as a thing. Let's not think about grace as like the
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Roman Catholics would think, that it's something, it's a liquid, it's something to be infused, and you're driving down the toll roads of life and you're running low on petrol, on benzene, on gas, on diesel, so you stop off at the pump and fill up.
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And you get a sacrament and then you get filled up. Grace is not a thing, it's not a substance.
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Grace is found in a person. Grace incarnate, Titus chapter 2, the Lord Jesus.
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Listen to some of these verses that have Jesus and grace tied together.
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And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory. Glory is the only son of the
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Father. This is Jesus full of grace and truth. John 1, 16, from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
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For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Almost every
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New Testament epistle you hear something like this, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And what
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God does, he doesn't undo. And so if I gave you a little PS, grace is irrevocable, not to be returned.
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I mean, you buy something on Amazon and you think, I'll just give it a try because if it's no good I'll take it to Staples and return it.
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Which line do you go in by the way when you're at Staples? The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable, so when
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God graces you, I think last I checked, Philippians 11 says, if God started a good work in you, he's going to what?
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Be faithful to complete it. And you say, yes, but I sin. And if you say to me,
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I'm stuck in a sin, I'll say, repent and I'll say to you, and remember that God is a God of grace.
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You say, well, my husband keeps sinning the same thing over and over and over.
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And I would say to you, he should repent and I want you to know
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God's a God of all grace. And I'm sure there's something that you could be confessing as well.
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The grace of God, you get everything, and therefore the psalmist says, give thanks to the
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Lord for he is good, his loving kindness is everlasting. Will some people get part of glory?
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Part of salvation? Part of heaven? No, everybody gets everything because they all get Jesus because Jesus has them.
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My last little PS comment because Pastor Steve and I talk about this regularly. For those that have trouble in their marriages, why don't you go get a book about the grace of God?
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Like, yeah, well, I'm trying to deal with my spouse. How does grace help? For that, rewind 44 minutes and listen to this again.
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You become like what you worship. You worship money, you're going to become very miserly.
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You worship sex and you're going to become very disgusting. And when you worship
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God, you begin to be like him. And you see God is so gracious to you.
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How could you not be gracious to someone else? I wonder, husbands, do you grace your wife?
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Or if she stumbles, do you say, Ephesians 4 talks about forgiveness.
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And forgiveness usually is, I just let it go. I hope you do that in your marriage. I'm just going to let that one go.
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But Ephesians 4 says, when your spouse sins, you grace them.
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If our God is a God of grace, shouldn't we be gracious people? Shouldn't we be gracing our spouses?
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Not unmerited favor, but demerited favor.
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Do you think by the Spirit's power when your spouse sins against you, you can favor them?
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By God's help, you can. Because the Spirit's real. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word.
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I, along with this congregation, want to see you more as a
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God of grace. And then would that transfer over into our homes and in our churches.