Matthew 19, 16 through 30. And behold, a man came up to him saying, teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? And he said to him, why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments. He said to him, which ones? And 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 neighbor as 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 and 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. 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 God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. Then Peter said in reply, see, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? Jesus said to them, 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 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my namesake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. Matthew chapter 20. As we continue in our series of the parables of Christ, and we look particularly at the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. This is one of my favorite parables in all of the scriptures. And so I'm privileged to have the opportunity to preach from this passage this morning. Once again, it's a parable that just doesn't sit right. And so it sort of makes you uncomfortable. And I think as we read this, you'll definitely pick that up as we look at it together. Let's begin in verse number one. 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. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And to them, he said, you go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right, I will give you. So they went out, so they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing, and he said to them, Why do you stand here idle all day? They said to him, Because no one has hired us. He said to them, As soon as Siri's done, we'll continue with our scripture reading. Where were we? Verse eight. Verse seven, let's pick up there. They said to him, because no one has hired us, he said to them, you go into the vineyard too. And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first. And when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now, when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he replied to one of them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I gave to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?" So the last will be first, and the first will be last. For many of you who have children and grandchildren, you know that it does not take them long to learn this one particular phrase, and that is, That's not fair. You have never had to sit down and teach them that if little Johnny has a lollipop and they don't have a lollipop, then it's not fair. They understand this principle very naturally. They understand that at the dinner table, if they have more vegetables than their brother or sister, then it's not fair. Or if they have a smaller portion of dessert, then it's not fair. Often the first child in the home is required to go to bed at 7.45 each night, even in the summer. But then by the time the fourth or fifth kid rolls around, mom and dad just don't have the energy to parent this particular child like they did the others. And so that kid ends up going to bed at about 11.30 every night. The oldest child always cries, that's not fair. I grew up in a family of six kids, and my mom, bless her heart, she was the master of keeping all things fair. If there was a matter of fairness that we needed to discuss, we always went to my mom, because if we went to my dad, he would just say, well, life's not fair. But my mom, on the other hand, seemed genuinely concerned to uphold the scales of fairness in the home, and I can remember having strawberry shortcake. And with eight people in the house, she would divvy up the cake evenly between each of us. And then she would actually take a measuring cup and scoop the strawberries and level off the top. And so everybody got an equal portion of strawberry shortcake and strawberries. No one got more. No one got less. But I do remember the night that the scales of fairness were out of balance in our house. I was the cause. We had this family tradition where on Sunday nights, we would stop at Burger King and grab a 32-piece chicken tender. It's just like chicken nuggets, only Burger King called them chicken tenders. Why they sold them in a 32-piece, I have no idea, but we got that 30-piece chicken nugget. It was a tradition. We would come home, and mom would divvy them out between the family, and we would partake in hopes that would hold us over for a half hour while she could make something more substantial. Well, I remember one night being unusually hungry. As a child, whenever you're unusually hungry, it seems like it takes forever for everyone and everything to get in the house and to get to the table and to be prepared. And so I came in one night, alone, early, before everybody else, with the chicken tenders. Nobody was around, and I was hungry. So I decided that I would reach into the box, pull out a chicken tender, crawl under the table, and then partake of this particular goodness that God had provided. Now, this probably would not have been an issue, except for the fact that I didn't decide to tell anybody what I did. And so the family came around, and Mom, in her fair ways, began to divvy out the chicken tenders between everyone there. And to her horror, there were only 31 chicken tenders. And you could imagine the thought in the house. The world was coming to an end. And I can remember her complaining to my dad, Joe, you can't believe they only gave us 31 chicken tenders. To which I imagine my dad's response was, well, life's not fair, you know. My mom was dumbfounded. She always worked so hard to make sure everything was fair. But with 31 chicken tenders, fairness was just impossible. And when life's not fair, no one's happy. By the way, I never did tell my mom that story until college. And she didn't remember the story anyway whenever I told it to her. Now, we'd love to say that a desire for fairness only exists among children. But we'd have to admit that the same desire exists for us adults as well. You've probably heard a wife say to her husband, well, if you spend this much money on golf, then I get to spend this much money at the mall. Hypothetical situation, of course. Or maybe you've heard of the old you cut, I choose philosophy created by adults for adults to make sure that the dessert is fair for adults. See, we desire and we are concerned that things be fair. We want things to be fair. We want things to be fair in the home. We want things to be fair in our jobs. We want things to be fair with our taxes. We want our church to be fair. We want all of life to be fair. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are some gross injustices in the world, and we should be concerned to fight for those things to make sure that there is fairness. There can be a problem when this desire for fairness creeps its way into our relationship with God. Have you ever thought this way? Have you ever thought that because you did certain things, that God owes you something. We can develop this mindset of believers that if we make certain sacrifices, and if we do certain things for God, then He should award us appropriately, and people who do less for God should not be rewarded appropriately, or should be rewarded and equal for the portion that they do for the Lord. We've all done it. We've all put our expectations of fairness on God, and we've reasoned in our own minds that if we do certain things, then we are deserved certain blessings from Him. But what we see in this parable today is that any blessing that we receive from the good hand of God is not earned by our efforts or by our sacrifices, but it is given to us graciously and freely by our God. Now let's begin to look into this parable together. I want to begin by looking at the context of this parable. This parable that Jesus tells to His disciples, He's telling us this parable, and there's a certain line of thinking that sort of surrounds this parable. And the thinking goes like this, that if we do certain things for God, we should expect certain things from God. You'll notice back in chapter 19, verse 27, this is Peter's question. He says, See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? See, Peter had this mindset where he was looking at the scales of fairness and assuming that Jesus would reward him because he had made certain sacrifices for him. And he's right to an extent, isn't he? I mean, Jesus does say in verse 29 that all who leave houses or brothers or sisters or fathers or mothers or children or lands, for my sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But what Peter has in mind is that if he does certain things for God, that he can expect certain things from God. But this thinking is not correct. You even see this mindset later on in chapter 20, where the mother of James and John comes to Jesus and she says, Jesus, I'd like you to do something for me. And Jesus says, what is it? He says, I'd like you to, when you come into your kingdom, that my two sons, James and John, sit on the right hand and on your left hand of you and your glory. And she assumed that because James and John were special people and had made certain sacrifices for Christ, that they could be owed something by Christ. And so you see, all throughout this context, there's this mindset that if we do certain things for God, we can expect certain things from God. But what Jesus intends to teach us in this parable is that while followers will receive blessings from him, those blessings are not earned. They are given graciously and freely by God to whomever he wishes and whenever he wishes. And so this parable is not just an isolated teaching of Jesus. It fits within a context where the dominant thinking is, if you do certain things for God, you can expect certain things from God. And Jesus teaches this important lesson to counter that thinking, not only then, but to counter that thinking today. So let's look together at this parable of the laborers in the vineyard. The parable begins in verse one, and Jesus says this. For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house. And that word for right there at the beginning teaches us that this is not a new teaching by Jesus, but that we are actually dropping down in the middle of a discussion. In fact, there's another indicator to show us that this parable fits within the context. If you look back at chapter 19, verse 30, you see he says, Jesus says, but many who are first will be last, and the last first. And then look again at chapter 20, verse 16, as he finishes the parable, he makes this point again. So the last will be first, and the first will be last. And so Jesus is connecting these two contexts and teaching us something about life in relationship to God's kingdom. He says, for the kingdom of heaven, and we see that phrase, we should understand that as citizens of the kingdom or as believers, we should not be expecting the normal approach to fairness, but understand that God in his kingdom, the principles of fairness are turned on their head so that the last will be first and the first will be last. For citizens of the kingdom, we should understand that things are different in God's rule. And this leads us then to the story. We begin with the hiring of the laborers. The story begins by telling us about a master of the house, a wealthy man who owned lots of property. We learn that he owns a vineyard and he needed workers to work in his vineyard. He probably was around harvest time and he needed lots of workers so that he could finish this particular task quickly. And in order to find laborers, we see in verse 3 that he goes out into the marketplace. Now, the marketplace was the location where all type of business would take place, and there would be laborers there waiting to be hired for sort of a temp job. They could be hired for a day for a certain wage and not be committed long-term to this particular project. And the first set of workers are hired early in the morning. Verse 2 tells us that they agreed to work for a denarius. Now, a denarius was a day's wage. It was a little more than minimum wage. You wouldn't get wealthy on this particular wage, but it was fair enough. And so they agreed to work for this amount. The agreement is between the master and the agreement is between the workers that if they work all day, they can work and get paid a denarius. And this is key, because we need to remember this particular point before we continue on in the parable, because it's important for the end. So the first workers, early in the morning, they go into the field. Well, about three hours later, the master of the house is in the marketplace again, and he finds more workers. And he tells them, go into the field, and I will pay you what is right. And we can anticipate that these workers had in their mind that Jesus would pay, or not Jesus, the master would pay them a proportion of what was right according to a denarius for the amount of hours that they worked. And so they go into the vineyard as well. The text also goes on to tell us that he does this two more times. He does it at about the sixth hour, which would have been about noon, and he does it again at the ninth hour, which would have been about 3 p.m. He hires more laborers, and the assumption that we can take from this is that he agreed to pay them what is right, just as he did the laborers before them. But before the day ends, The master goes out again at the 11th hour, which means that there was one hour left of work. And we refer to these particular individuals as the 11th hour workers. The master goes out one more time and he finds these workers and he's surprised that they've been standing there all day and they haven't been doing anything. And he asks them, why do you stand here idle all day? And they respond, because no one has hired us. And so immediately he sends them out into the field to get as much work from them as he possibly can. You can imagine these men are happy, they are sitting there all day, faced with the possibility that they're going to walk home with absolutely nothing, and now they at least have an opportunity to go and make something, and they figure, well, something is better than nothing, and so they go rapidly out into the field to work the vineyard. The story moves on in verse 8 with the paying of the labors. As the evening comes, the time for the labors is to be paid, And the master instructs the foreman to give each one of them their wages or literally give them the wage. But he gives specific instructions with how to pay these individuals. He says, pay the 11th hour workers first and then pay the rest of these individuals. So those who worked only one hour come up first and they receive a denarius. a full day's wage for only working one hour. And you can imagine the joy that these guys had. They nearly went the entire day without receiving anything. They work one hour, and what does the master give them? Well, he gives them payment for an entire day's wage. These guys were probably ecstatic and thrilled to go home rejoicing. Now, the text doesn't tell us what happened to the third-hour workers or the sixth-hour workers and the ninth-hour workers, but we can assume that the master was similarly generous. And now it's time to pay the laborers who worked all day. Verse 10 tells us that they thought that they would receive more because they had borne the burden of the entire day. And so you can imagine these men seeing the generosity of the master, they come up and they're anticipating that they're going to receive even a larger portion than what was initially agreed on. You're probably standing in line, and they're already thinking in their minds about what they're going to spend this extra money on. Now, you receive a tax return, and before you even receive that tax return, you've already got it spent, and you haven't even received it yet. And that's probably what these individuals are doing. They're thinking, oh, this is going to be great. I'm going to spend this extra money on something that I've always desired. But when they walk up and they receive their payment, they too receive. a denarius, the same amount as those who only worked one hour. Now, you can imagine how slighted these men felt, partly because they had assumed they would receive more, but partly because the eleventh hour workers had only worked one hour, and they made the same amount. The master had made them equal to them. And so they complain, and they complain about two things. They complain, first of all, that that they had borne the burden of the day, and these last workers had only worked an hour, and not only that, they had borne the heat of the day. They worked in the scorching heat, and this just wasn't fair, that they be paid the same amount. You can imagine their frustration. When I was in college, I worked at a large landscaping company. It was a large company that would send out three or four crews per day, and we would mow some homes, but we also mowed some rather large manufacturing properties. And if you were new to the job at this particular landscaping company, you always started out on the weed whacker. If you came to the job, even with experience on how to run a commercial mower, it didn't matter, you started with a weed whacker. And usually by middle of the day, Thursday, we were on overtime. And so we worked long hours, Monday through Thursday. And so you started off new to the job with a weed whacker in your hand and probably weed whacked for 10 straight hours. Sometimes people would quit after the first week because they just couldn't handle it. The record time for the shortest amount of time work is we had one guy work 10 hours, then the next day he worked two hours, called his girlfriend and said, I'm going to be going home because I can't handle this anymore. So it was quite an interesting place to work. But there was this system of fairness that if you worked, you started out on the weed whacker. Now, if an employee had skipped the weed whacking and gone straight to the mowing, Everyone would have been upset. This is not how the system works. When you start out, you start out on the weed whacker, and you work your way up. Now, just imagine if there was a setting in which we're working, and it's the heat of the day, and it's scorching, and one guy shows up, and he does like one hour of mowing, and then at the end of the day, the boss decides to pay him the same amount of money. Every employee there would be outraged by this injustice. In fact, I'd be concerned that the guy who only worked one hour and got paid the same would actually make it off the property alive. It wouldn't be fair. When we hear this parable, it doesn't sit well with us, because we identify with the all-day workers, do we not? We look at their situation and we think to ourselves, well, this just isn't fair. Why should those who worked only one hour get the same pay as those who worked all day? This is how they felt. This is how we feel when we hear this story. But we have to remember that Jesus, when he tells a parable, he often sucks us in to identify what the wrong character is in the story. And he tells this story, and he gets us to identify with these, and he turns the story and makes a twist because he wants to drive home a point. And that's exactly what Jesus is doing here. He's not teaching us principles for how to pay our workers. He's not teaching us about unions and how things should work. No, he is teaching a principle and driving home a point. He's telling a fictitious story to teach us about the generosity of God. Well, this brings us to the point of the parable in verses 13 to 15. Let's read these verses again in verse 13 so we can see how this Let's see what the point is and see how this parable concludes. So after they complained, verse 13, he replied to one of them, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I gave to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? See, Jesus responds to him kindly, or the Master responds to him kindly. He calls him friend, showing he's not frustrated, but he also gives him a straightforward answer. In fact, he asks him three rhetorical questions. Question number one, he says, Did you not agree with me for a denarius? See, the Master did nothing wrong, and he did nothing unjust. They agreed for that amount, and that's what he paid them. He hasn't cheated them. He has kept his word. And the fact that he chose to be generous with these other workers gave these workers no new rights to demand more money. He asks them a second question. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Because he's the owner of the land and it's his payment to freely give, he's allowed to give as he wishes to give. He's not obligated to give according to their system of fairness. He's free to do what he wants with what is his. He asks a third rhetorical question. He says, do you begrudge my generosity? Now this phrase in verse 15, some of your translations may say, is your eye envious because I'm generous? There's an expression here that he uses, is your eye envious? In the Scriptures, when we see this phrase, evil eye, or is your eye envious? It's often used to speak of jealousy. Perhaps you remember in the Old Testament, the story about David and Saul, where David is gaining great popularity, and Saul is waning in his popularity, and the crowds are shouting, Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands. Well, the next verse tells us that Saul was very angry And Saul eyed David from that day on. That is, Saul was filled with jealousy. His eye was evil toward David. And so when the landowner asks these men if their eye is evil, he is asking them, must you be jealous because I am generous? And so we see that the master has done nothing unjust. Instead, he has been generous when he did not need to be. He has the right to do as he chooses with what is his. If he wants to be gracious with some, he is permitted to do so. So while some might call him the unfair master or the unfair landowner, when we examine his statements and the truth behind his statements, we see that he is actually the gracious landowner, giving more than men deserve. This is the point of our parable. This is the point that we must consider. Let's get into the meaning of this parable and start to bring it home and apply it to ourselves. As we look closely at this story, Jesus, as I said, intends to teach us a lesson. The reason he tells the story is because there were some who thought that if they did certain things for God, they could expect certain things from God. And so Jesus intends to teach us this point, that it's God's right to give out blessing freely as He chooses. He's not obligated to give fairly, or by our standard of fair, He's not obligated to give. We do not earn the gifts that God gives to us, but they are all gifts of grace that He gives. And so I want us to notice a few points this morning as we look at this parable and as we apply this particular point. Point number one. We are 11th hour workers. We are 11th hour workers. Now one of the reasons why this parable does not sit well with so many is because we identify with the wrong character in the story. We put ourselves in the shoes of the all-day laborers rather than in the shoes of the 11th hour workers. See, what we do is we look at our society around us. or we look at our church and we compare ourselves to other members, and by comparing ourselves to society or other members, we assume that we should be in line for blessing. After all, we do a lot more than that person does, or we make a lot more sacrifices than this person. That person barely even comes to church. Look how many things I do. The Lord certainly owes me something. I'm an all-day worker. This isn't how it works. Jerry Bridges tells a story about a conversation he had with a man whose mom was dying of a very painful form of cancer. She was a faithful servant of the Lord, and yet she was dying a difficult death. And the man said this, after all she's done for God, this is the thanks she gets? Such a statement sounds irreverent, but the man didn't mean it this way. He simply thought that God owed his mother a better life because of her sacrifice and faithfulness to God. He only verbalized what many of us think often. Perhaps you've had similar thoughts. Maybe you've thought that because you've made certain sacrifices, Rendered service to the Lord that he deserves you he deserves something or you deserve something from him When we think like this We are putting ourselves in the position of the all-day workers instead of the 11th hour workers We grumble about blessings not received Instead of being grateful for blessings that we act But here's the reality We are our workers. We may think we're deserving of God's blessing, but in reality, we deserve nothing. Everything we have is by the grace of God. Think about it. We were sinners. We were lost in darkness. We were enemies of God. We were hostile and rebellious against His sovereign rule. And in spite of all that, He graciously saved us and gave us every blessing in Jesus Christ. We did not deserve that blessing, but then he continues to pour on us even more blessings that we do not deserve. We are like those who showed up at the end of the day, put in a mere hour, and received the blessings of working all day without any of the labors for working. We are 11th hour workers. Point number two. Even if we live obedient lives for Christ, we must remember that we are still unworthy servants who have only done what is our duty. Suppose for a second that you did live a perfect life of obedience. Could you then demand blessing from God because of your obedience? The answer is still no. As the sovereign ruler of the universe, God has the right to require perfect obedience and at the same time not be obligated to give out blessings for that obedience. Imagine with me for a moment that you obeyed all the traffic laws of the state. You always obeyed the speed limit. You always stopped at the stop sign and never did a rolling stop. You never change lanes improperly. You always stayed in the proper lane and you always used your turn signal. Do you receive a reward for that? Not at all. All you did was what you were supposed to do. You've only done your duty. You don't, by perfect obedience, receive rewards for obeying the traffic law. We should only say, I've done my duty. Listen to what Jesus says in Luke chapter 17. He says, so you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, you should say, we are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty. And so even if we were to live a perfect life of obedience, or as close to perfect as we could be, and we follow Christ as best we can, at the end of the day, all we can say is all we did was what we were supposed to do. We don't deserve any extra blessings from God or any extra benefits for doing what we should have done. His blessings, even in our obedience, are still by grace alone. Thirdly, God has the freedom and the right to dispense blessing and grace as he so chooses. In this parable, God is like the owner of the vineyard. He is allowed to do as he wishes with what is his. When we consider this fact, we have to understand that God, as the creator of this world, He owns everything and is in sovereign control of all things. And He has the right to do with us as He pleases. We are the potter and He is the clay. And at no time can the thing created turn back around and say to what created it, why did you make me this way? Or why do you treat me in this way? We have no say in how God chooses to bless His children. That is entirely up to God. He has the right to do as he wishes with what is his, and we must acknowledge his complete sovereignty over all things. If God wants to give someone a long and prosperous life, that is entirely up to God. If God wants to take someone home early, that is entirely up to God. He has the right to do as he wishes. All things, and I mean all things, are under God's sovereign control, and he can do as he pleases. Fourthly, we must not begrudge the generosity of the Lord. You see how the story finishes up in verse 15, the master of the house asks these men, or do you begrudge my generosity? We must be careful not to begrudge or be jealous about the way in which God blesses. We must not be like the all-day workers who assume that we're owed something for what we've done. If God chooses to bless someone, that's great. If God chooses to bless someone with wealth, that's great. If he chooses to bless a family with children, if he chooses to bless with a nice house, or a nice car, or a kind spouse, or a great job, that's great. If God chooses to bless with athletic ability, or music ability, or leadership abilities, or academic abilities, that is entirely up to God, and we should not stand back with jealousy, begrudging the way God chooses to bless. When we are jealous and when we complain, We are complaining against God's sovereign right to do whatever he wishes with what is his. One commentator makes this observation about this parable, and I thought this was very, very helpful. He says this, listen carefully. Consider these two groups of laborers. As to the amount of money in their pockets, they are equal. But as to the amount of content in their spirits, there is great difference. The last, or the 11th hour workers, go home each with a penny in their pocket and an astonished, glad gratitude in their hearts. Their reward is a penny and more. But the first workers, on the contrary, go home each with a penny in his pocket and discontent in his heart. Their reward accordingly is less than a penny. When we begrudge the generosity of the Lord, we fail to recognize and appreciate that every blessing we have has been given to us by God. We must be willing to say that God has the right to do as he pleases with what is his, and we must happily rejoice when he does. Now, as we finish this parable, let me ask one question. Where does all this emphasis on the fact that God does not owe us anything, where does all this emphasis leave us? And I would submit to you this morning that when we talk about God not owing us anything, all of this conversation leaves us in the blessed position of 11th hour worship. It leaves us with contentment in our hearts. It leaves us thinking on these two truths, that number one, God does not owe us anything, and yet he has given us everything. My friend, this passage should produce within our hearts contentment at God's good blessings and remind us this morning that he has the privilege and the right to bless as he wishes, and we should rejoice that we have received anything from a gracious God. Let's pray.