Once again while I have read the contents of all of Matthew chapter 20, my sermon specifically concerns the parable contained in verses 1 through 16.

The Puritans believed that a good Pastor was a physician of the Soul, he was able to accurately diagnose the spiritual diseases of an individual or a congregation and then apply the proper biblical remedy. A good pastor did not simply preach into a vacuum but was intimately familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of his congregants; he preached that which they vitally needed to hear.

Christ is of course the ultimate physician of the Soul, he is the archetype that all Pastors must seek to emulate, knowing of course that they will never be able to come close to the perfection of Christ’s earthly ministry.

In the parable of the workers in the vineyard which is presented to us in verses 1 – 16 of this chapter, Christ is once again acting as a physician of the soul to treat the problem of the Apostles and through these scriptures, every future generation of Christians until his return.

The key to understanding the problem Christ is here dealing with is to be found in the preceding Chapter. We see that in verse 27 of chapter 19, Peter has asked what reward he and the other disciples will receive from Christ – given that they have given up so much to follow him. In the way he asks his question, Peter links his final reward in heaven with the sacrifices that he and the other Apostles have made. He has linked the reward with their own efforts. Christ does assure Peter that everyone who has truly followed Him, will indeed receive an inheritance in heaven that will make anything that they have had to give up in this life pale into absolute insignificance. But at the same time he curiously points out that “many who are first will be last, and those who were last will be first”. In order to understand what he means when he says that, we need to look to the parable he immediately preaches, and we also need to understand why Christ preaches that parable.

Christ has the ability to perfectly perceive the true state of any human heart, and in Peter’s question he has perceived the fallen human tendency, which existed even amongst his disciples, towards pride. Here and elsewhere in the Bible, we see that Christ’s disciples are eager to assert their own accomplishments and sacrifices, in fact in Luke 22:24 on the verge of Christ’s crucifixion we see the disciples arguing about which of them is the greatest. Later on in this very chapter we have James and John asking for the foremost positions of honor in Christ’s kingdom, and then boasting that they are able to accomplish themselves what Christ is about to accomplish at so great a cost on behalf of his sheep – those whom the Father has given him. In effect they say, without even really knowing what it is that they are claiming to be able to do, that they too can be crucified to pay for the sins of the elect, and then be raised from the dead on the third day!  In hindsight, the ridiculousness of that claim is apparent. But Christ who loves even foolish children like us, tells them that although they don’t understand it, because they are united to Him through faith, because they are in Him; through His suffering, through His drinking of the cup of God’s wrath that they deserved, they will be justified, and become co-heirs with him.

 So in this parable we see that Christ, the great physician of the soul has been reading the hearts of the Apostles, just as he reads our hearts today, and in the manner of the physician of the Soul he is applying the spiritual medicine they, and we, require without delay. He checks and warns against the tendency towards pride in our accomplishments and instead teaches the humility that should come from a proper understanding of God’s incredible grace and mercy to people who do not, and cannot, deserve it.

So let us look to the parable, to the spiritual medicine, that Christ is prescribing for us.

In this parable we are told about a landowner who hires several different groups of laborers to work in his vineyard. He agrees with the first group to pay them a Denarius, a fair price for a days labor, and sends them into the vineyard. He later hires a second group to work in the vineyard, and then later in the day a third group, and then an hour before quitting time he hires a fourth group. When the time comes to pay the days wages, he gives each of the members of every group the same pay ? 1 Denarius. No one is cheated, but the first group, who have been in the vineyard the longest bitterly complain. Although they received exactly what they were promised, they feel it is unfair that people who only worked for 1 hour instead of the 12 which they worked are being given the same pay.  They are envious that those who were hired last, have been given the same reward as those who were first.

We can see two great primary lessons in this parable:

1st In the calling of nations and individuals to the knowledge of himself, God exercises free, sovereign, unconditional and unmerited grace. He calls in his own time, and in his own way.

Let me unpack what I mean by that.

In the history of redemption, first we read in the Bible about how Israel was called by God and set apart from all the other nations as his people, later in time after the coming of Christ, we see the gentiles of the Greek world also being added to the kingdom, and then later through the spread of the church and the diligent work of missionaries we saw the barbarians of the Europe being added to the number of God’s people and then Asia, Africa, and then gradually all the people groups of the world. At one point in time God’s visible church consisted only of the nation of Israel. But now, there is hardly a nation on earth that has not been reached by the Gospel.

Now let me ask you, in heaven will the Jews be the greatest because they were the first to be called? Will there be a ranking according to amount of time each nation has been working in the Vineyard? No by God’s grace, the newest convert from Nepal or New Guinea is no less saved than the mightiest patriarch of Israel.  By God’s grace all are equal, the newest convert will be as full a member of heaven as the oldest believer. And every individual who is destined for heaven, every member of the elect, will surely be converted, even if they are converted at the eleventh hour.

Now does that assurance that everyone who is destined for heaven will certainly be there on the last day mean that we don’t need to be about the business of spreading the gospel, or sending out missionaries like Michael and Pearl Oh, or the Halletts? Absolutely not! That great promise is the foundation for those very activities and without it we would have no hope of ever converting anyone. That assurance should motivate us to even greater activity as we contemplate the awesome truth that God has seen fit to use weak vessels like you, and me, and this church to accomplish his incredible plan of redemption. In fact, if you don’t  feel at all motivated to be involved in the work of spreading the gospel then friend you have good reason to be worried about your own redemption.

The 2nd great truth we see in this parable is that Salvation is not only according to God’s timetable, but it is through his unmerited grace. Our reward is entirely dependent upon God’s mercy and the completed work of Christ, not anything we do.

It means that the man who spends a long and productive life as a faithful Christian working in God’s vineyard, and the thief who was saved on the cross at the eleventh hour both are only saved because of God’s grace. They are both equally forgiven, equally washed, and clothed in Christ’s righteousness, equally justified, and equally God’s adopted sons.
 
That is because each one of them was equally unworthy of the salvation they received. Both were equally dead in their sins and trespasses, and equally destined for an eternity in hell.

This is a humbling doctrine, it’s a leveling doctrine. It leaves no room for self-righteousness, or boasting.

This doctrine confounds the wisdom of men. By our sinful nature we are proud. We despise charity. We want to be assured that we have earned our salvation by our moral lives and our good deeds. We hate the idea that someone who lived a life of sin and dissipation but who was brought to saving faith on the last day of their lives would be just as saved as someone who was raised as a covenant kid and can’t remember a day they didn’t believe in Jesus. But that is the radical nature of grace, and we should not be envious if God chooses to save people whose sins were greater than ours, who owed him an even greater debt than we did, especially when we consider that we owed him everything, and that our sins were more than sufficient to damn us as well.

Exactly how radical is this grace of God, exactly how much does it confound the supposed wisdom of men? Let me try to put it into some sort of perspective that begins to frame it for you. God’s grace is so awesome that there is no sin  that you have committed that through faith in Jesus Christ you cannot be forgiven of. But by the same token without it, there is no sin you can be forgiven of. God’s grace is so great that through faith in Jesus Christ a murderer can be forgiven and go to heaven, but without that grace the victim of that murderer will just as surely go to hell.

Turn with me to John chapter 3 in your bible, and hear the words of Christ speaking to Nicodemus in verses 14-18:

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, [6] that whoever believes in him shall not  perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.”

Do you still trust in the wisdom of men or your own ability to “live a good life according to God’s law”? Do you believe that you can earn your salvation through hard work?

Turn with me to Romans chapter 3 verse 9:

“What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.  As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’”

Now go to verse 19:

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may
be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.  But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”

If we are to be saved at all, we will be saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Our reward, which we don’t deserve, is exactly what he promises us: eternal life.

It is never too late in life to answer the call to faith in Christ, the call of God to work in His vineyard. But if you are trusting that you can wait until the eleventh hour to repent and come to faith in Christ, knowing that God is gracious and the reward will be the same, be warned, you will surely be called to judgment at ten o’clock. Answer that call now, that you might know the complete forgiveness and fatherly love of God, the owner of the vineyard.
 

As I conclude let me part with word of advice to those of you who are laboring in that vineyard already: We’ve already seen how foolish boasting of our works and sacrifices really is. But if ever you are tempted to feel envious of the redemption of the reward other Christians receive or are tempted to pride, consider
Individuals like Jerome Russell and Alexander Kennedy. Russell and Kennedy were Scottish Protestants who were sentenced to be burned at the stake  by the Catholic Archbishop in 1539 for their strong defense of  the Biblical faith.

As they were being led to the place appointed for them to suffer; Russell, noticed that his fellow-sufferer Kennedy, who was only 18, was beginning to look fearful. So he said to him: "Brother, fear not; greater is He that is in us, than He that is in the world. The pain that we are to suffer is short, and shall be light; but our joy and consolation shall never have an end. Let us, therefore, strive to enter into our Master and Savior's joy, by the same straight way which He hath taken before us. Death cannot hurt us, for it is already destroyed by Him, for whose sake we are now going to suffer."

They arrived at the spot and after kneeling  to pray, they were both burned to death. Stop and think for a moment about their labors in the vineyard, and then consider that by God’s amazing grace all Christians will receive the same reward.

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