As we're allowing the children and the children's workers to dismiss for Children's Church, just got to catch up on a few things that occurred to me while we were singing. Some serious, some humorous. One, serious, when I announced the Bouchac baby, Roman Pierre Bouchac, I don't think I actually said congratulations to Kirsten. Okay? And that, you know, oftentimes the pastor's wives, maybe in other contexts as well, tend to get overshadowed by those in front of you on a regular basis. But I'll tell you, the hardest job in ministry is the pastor's wife. Hardest job in the military is the military spouse. And then you fill in the blank, the hardest job in your area, it's usually the person that's supporting the person doing the things that are seen mostly out front. And so my appreciation and our prayers go out to Kirsten specifically, all right? As well as all moms. Secondly, appreciation. Thank you to all those who were involved in this, all right? It is nice to see Christmas decorations. Please, all right? I love this auditorium. I love the backdrop, but I love when things change, and it's very festive, and I'm very thankful for that. Now, another serious thing is, one, we did spend a week out in California, and we got to see our daughter, who's in the Navy, our son-in-law, who's in the Marines, and it reminds me that today is the first Sunday of the month, and I don't often say something. But we have a group of people that gather together immediately after the service, and I do mean immediately, all right? So if you have a desire to get together and pray for our military service members, right, right after the service, you can head out that back door. There'll be others heading that way as well. And as you go up the ramp there, the first door on your right, they'll be gathering in there for prayer, and we invite you to join them today if you are having the opportunity to do that. All right, say again? 12.05 is the time, no matter if I finish early. Oh, that's new. I know, I've never been accused of finishing early. I know, all right, but if I finish late, it's immediately after the service. No, okay, I don't think I've gone that long before, but maybe. Let's see, there's one other thing. Speaking of pastor's kids. And I'm not sure, is Valerie and Aaron, are they in the room or did they leave? They left, all right. I don't know if any of you saw it, but I think what I just witnessed was the first time we had worship dance within our church. You didn't get to see little Mio down here, but she was dancing to the music this morning, all right? What is she, all of one? Right, a little over one, one and a half? And it was cute as can be. I'm sorry we didn't film it, but there we go. Worship dance at Merrimack Valley Baptist Church. All right, it was beautiful. All right, so I need to get going, right? We need to do this thing called the preaching time, but we're gonna have a little bit of fun here too. I'm gonna quiz you. How many of you are younger than 21? All right, there's a few of it. This probably won't mean anything to you, or at least in the beginning, but I got a kind of a trivia question for you. What 1993 advertising campaign had a huge impact way beyond its intended audience? So you got to think about 1993, what was going on in 1993? There was an advertising campaign that went on, and it was, I mean, I tell you, it just took the world by storm, and it's still out there today. All right, anybody have a guess? Can you hear me now is a really good one. That's a really good one, but that's not it. Say it out loud, what? No, dancing raisins, no. Where's the beef is a good one, but that's not it. Just do it, no, great Nike commercial, bad theology. All right. All right, so here it goes. Now, someone may have said it, and I didn't hear you, but here we go. Ready? Got milk? And lest you don't remember this, I have the commercial. So hopefully this is going to work. If it doesn't, it doesn't, and we'll move on, all right? Random call with today's $10,000 question. It's a tough one. Who shot Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel? All right, let's go to the phones and see who's out there. Hello? Hello, for $10,000, who shot... Excuse me? Your time is almost up. I'm sorry. Maybe next time. Gut milk. OK, so I'm sorry. I don't remember that commercial. I remember all the other ones, but that is the one that is credited with starting the ad campaign of Got Milk. And now you know, there's all kinds of commercials out there, you know, got this, got that. And so you might know where I'm going today as we ask this question, what biblical doctrine has confounded people for centuries? There's a doctrine out there that people just do not understand, and it's this. Got grace? Now, I'm not original. I'm sure there's probably about 5,000 or 500,000 pastors that have actually used this illustration because that Got Milk ad campaign was so powerful and effective. You can put any word back there and then choose to explain it. So, got grace this morning? Do you understand? This is something, this is a biblical doctrine. The grace of God is a biblical doctrine. Without it, you are not saved. Without understanding it, you are really missing the essence of your salvation, the essence of the gospel. And so we're gonna talk about grace today, but it really has confounded people for centuries, this idea of grace. And let me just explain. Maybe there's a way that you don't understand grace. Grace is never mixed with any work. Grace is never earned. Grace is the antithesis of merit. Okay, so we'll look at this a little bit. So God, grace, and we need to describe it a little bit more. So I love the simple things in my Christian life, and I remember a brother in Christ years ago sharing this. He said, grace is receiving something that is not deserved or earned. So I'd like you to file that one away in your mind and heart and understanding of your understanding of grace. Receiving something, so that means you actually get to receive something that you do not deserve or earn. It's a good thing, right? But I thought for today, I'm also going to just help us to understand mercy. Mercy is not receiving something that is deserved or earned. When we talk about mercy and grace, we are talking about areas of our faith that should be really clearly understood. but embraced and rejoiced in and celebrated in our lives and the lives of others as we go through, as we mature in our faith day by day. So in Matthew 19, 16 through 30, that was the message I preached two weeks ago. We basically, I'm not gonna re-preach that one, but there is, this text that we're gonna look at today is very clearly tied to this particular text. We talked about two spiritual questions that were being asked. The first question was being asked by the rich young ruler, And he asked the question, what do I lack? You know, I sense I'm missing something, Jesus. There's something missing in my life, and I don't understand what it is. And Jesus said, what? He gave him, well, obey the commandments. He said, well, I've done all those. But he hadn't, because Jesus pointed out the one, and he said, well, go sell all you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me. It's a two-part. Sell everything and follow. And we talked about the truth that following Jesus is an all-encompassing, it's every aspect of our life. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, there's not one single area of our life that we hold to ourselves. It's all under the sovereignty and lordship of Jesus Christ. And so, we cannot compartmentalize, we cannot compartmentalize our lives. We must live it all to the glory of God. So, that particular question was the rich young ruler, and what we concluded is that that man lacked faith in Jesus. To not have faith in Jesus, he walked away. We talked about what he did right, what he was confused about, and what he did wrong. What he did wrong was he walked away. because he had so many things, right, so many belongings. So a lack of faith in Jesus is a rejection of God's grace, God's unmerited favor, right? God is bestowing favor upon us. We didn't earn it. God just gives it. And so this grace of God is available to you this morning. If you've never, if you don't, if you, if I ask you the question, God, grace, and you say, Nope. Don't know what that is, right? It's available to you. Don't walk away from it. Don't reject God's grace. The way you receive God's grace is by coming to faith in the person of his son, Jesus Christ, and what Jesus Christ did for you on that cross. He died in your place. to pay the payment for your sins, not His own. And so when someone lacks faith in Jesus, it is a rejection of God's grace for the forgiveness of sins. That's the bad news, and we don't want anybody to go through that bad news, do we? We want people to come to faith in Jesus Christ. We want people to enjoy the grace of God. The second question that was asked by the apostle Peter, and he's probably speaking on behalf of all apostles, and he basically says, what do we get? Kind of sounds selfish, and like I said, let's kind of have a break. He's Peter, he says a lot of dumb things, but he also says a lot of powerfully truthful things, and so I think that he's asking a legitimate question, because he says, He says, Peter answered Jesus and said, And Jesus replies to him, assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Now Jesus is speaking to his disciples, right? The apostles, we know them as. But then he goes on to say, and everyone, now this includes every believer of even today, Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, notice this is key, for my namesake. In other words, if you've left any of those things because it was God's will that you leave those things, right, you shall receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life. Now, I'm not going to go into all that again. But what we have to understand is when Peter asks this question, what do we get? We get grace. We get God's unmerited favor. To receive a hundredfold is the idea of way beyond anything we could imagine, right? And we get eternal life. And I don't know about you, but I never gave much thought to an eternal life until I was confronted with my sin. And I would ask you today to consider when's the last time you considered your sinfulness in front of a holy God? It's a sobering question. It's a sobering meditation of sorts. But if you have a desire to say, you know, I realize that my sin is evil in front of a holy God, then repent of it and come to faith in Jesus Christ and receive his grace of salvation and forgiveness, right? So, Grace explains how the last are first. I'm not going to go on a lot about this, but I'll say this is the way last week's, this is the way chapter 19 concludes and the way the sermon concluded, the text we covered two weeks ago. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. Now remember, in the context, we've got a lot going on here. We have a young man asking about what it means, how can he enter into eternal life. Then Peter comes on the scene and says that, you know, listen, we believe in you. What should we get, right, because we have left all. And Jesus says, those who are first will be last and the last first. We described it here. It's important for us to understand because I think there's a different, this is going to be used again in today's sermon, in today's text. And I think they're being used differently. We explained it last week, I explained it two weeks ago, that the first in this world, that's the context of that rich young ruler. He's first in the world. He has what he wants. He has wealth. He has comfort. He has probably position and title. But he did not come to faith in Jesus Christ. And we said first in this world is last in eternity. The idea of going to hell. They're enjoying everything here. But without faith in Jesus Christ, their eternal destiny is one of eternal torment. But last in this world, now in the last, those people who are last, we may not necessarily consider ourselves last in this world, but who are the last in this world? Well, those are the ones who are often despised, rejected, Kind of sounds like Jesus, right? The ones who are because of their faith in God are just trying to do right and don't necessarily have power, position, possessions, any of those things, right? But Jesus is saying, listen, when you are last in this world and you have faith in me, Citizens, you are a citizen of God's kingdom. And once a citizen of God's kingdom, you're always a citizen of God's kingdom. God never kicks you out of His kingdom. Just as if we use the analogy or the metaphor of a child, as a child of God, we are never removed from God our Father. We are always with Him. So that being said, as we go into chapter 20, verses one through 16, we've already had it read for us, and I do apologize for the slides. I don't know what happened there, and it was maybe hard for you to follow along. You're gonna see much of the same text, but I'm gonna move through it kinda quickly, because I think there's a couple, there's some parallels going on as we go through the text, and so we'll go through it again. But what I want us to understand today is that God's abundant grace It really only satisfies those who understand they don't deserve it. There are people that think that you can mix grace and merit, grace and works, grace and good deeds. I grew up thinking that way. I was taught as a youth that Jesus died to open the gates of heaven, but I had to earn my way to walk through. Anybody else been taught that as a youngster growing up? Right? It's not the gospel. It is a lie. And when I realized the truth, that it's all of grace, right? God, Jesus Christ died on that cross, not only to open the gates of heaven, but he ushers us through when we come to faith in him. He is the reason we can enter into that gate. It has nothing to do with our, I was a good kid. I've told you this before. Someone reminded me, I think I said it two weeks ago, compared to my brothers, I was a good kid, right? Maybe you were a good person too, but maybe you were a wicked person. It is by the grace of God through your faith in Jesus Christ that you can enter into heaven. And we're gonna just kind of review this truth as we go through this text, right? God's grace, first of all, is abundant, but it only satisfies those who understand that they don't deserve it. So I hope you understand that you don't deserve God's grace. But if you've received it, you ought to rejoice in it. So we must learn to be satisfied with God's grace in our life. And I hope that's what you'll do as we go through this text. So we should be satisfied first with God's grace because it is initiated by Him. This gets right into this particular, as we begin chapter 20, Jesus begins by saying, For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. So we are in the kingdom of heaven terminology again. Jesus is describing to his followers what the kingdom of heaven is like. And so please, we are part of the kingdom of heaven if you've come to faith in Jesus Christ. But it's not the fullness of the kingdom yet, right? It's not the fullness when Jesus Christ has returned. We learned about this in Sunday school today with an overview of Revelation. We understand there's a future coming. And every believer in Jesus Christ will be part of that future. And so Jesus says, for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner. This landowner, just for sake of simplicity, right? This is God, and we're talking about a landowner. This is representing God in this parable, who went out early in the morning. As we go through the text, this is where I'm gonna kinda go a little quicker. I want you to understand, God, the landowner, is always the initiator in every one of the things we're gonna see. God is the initiator. Jesus told us that no one comes to the Father except through the Son. No one comes to the Father unless the Father draws him or her. And so, as we go through this parable, please understand, when the landowner, God, went out early in the morning, it is the idea of God taking the initiative for our salvation. When we think about it, we can go, and I don't have this on the slide because it's just coming to me now, but we go to Hebrews chapter 1, right? In various times, in various ways, God's word came forth, right? I'm just going to turn to it because I'm going to mess it up. I usually can quote it, but I'm not doing so good today, so I'm just going to quote it for you this morning. In Hebrews 1. It says, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, right? God has been speaking. Since the Garden of Eden, God has been speaking to mankind. But it says, at various times and in various ways throughout the history of the world, God has spoken in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son. whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. So we have this truth, this reality that God has been communicating. And so as he goes out, this is a way of us understanding, he went out early. God has been sending his messengers out to his people to tell people about his character, to tell people about his plan. Ultimately, we see that fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ comes to proclaim the kingdom of God, to proclaim the good news of the gospel that God has bestowed, all right? But notice this, in this parable, it says, the landowner sent out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. So I want us to understand, the vineyard often represents Israel, right? So you have workers. I think we have a little bit more going on here with the vineyard. I think we have workers in the vineyard. This context, I believe, is speaking to believers, all right? We have workers who are believers going out into the vineyard, which is the world. And he says this, he says, now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into the vineyard. So we have this picture going on here, picture a small town, lots of farmland around, and maybe it's a larger town, but there's a center square where people market, or I think the, let's see, we'll see the reference to it in a minute, where If you want work, you show up at a certain place, and they pick you, and they send you out to go work. And they come through, and there may be five people, ten people, a hundred people, who knows? But who do you think are the first people to get picked? The strongest. Yes! Exactly! Right? The strongest, the most fit, the best workers, the ones who have credentials, the ones who have experience, right? The ones who can do a lot of work in a short period of time. Yeah. So we see that in this picture, in this town, you have all these laborers. Well, the landowner goes out and he agrees with this first group. There's going to be multiple groups here. They agree for a denarius a day. A denarius or denarius, however you want to pronounce it, is the appropriate one day's wage. If you work one day, you get this wage. Now, how many of you work an eight-hour day? Okay. How many of you work a 10-hour day? How many of you work 12 hours a day? There's a couple of you out there, right? I also probably see some fingers pointing, right? I know they do. I know he does. I know she does, right? These people, I'm going to call them the 12-hour people, right? These people are going to be out there for 12 hours, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. they're going to be out there. And they agreed with the landowner for the denarius, the acceptable wage for a 12-hour day, and he sent them into the vineyard. Good day's work, right? He went out on the third hour. Now, as you reconcile time in the Jewish, it was basically six o'clock in the morning was zero hour. Three hours would be six, nine, 12, three, six. That's the way it's divided up. So he went out the third hour, saw others standing in the marketplace, there's the word, right? Said to them, you also go into the vineyard and, what does he say? Whatever is right. Because the denarius is a full day's wage and they're going in for part of it. Listen, I'll do you right. Just go out into the fields and work. I will give you." So they went. They were very happy to get some pay, right? To get some work. Again, he went out the sixth, ninth hour, right? So he's going out there. There's a lot of work to be done apparently. And so he goes out there and he keeps finding people who need to get work. There's all kinds of speculations about what these people, why they're out there and all those things. And I'm listening. It's a parable. We don't need to know all the aspects of it. We just need to know that there are these people out there. And he did likewise, this idea of likewises, he agreed with them. I will do right by you. And then about the 11th hour, now let's put this in perspective here. You have the 12-hour people, then you have the nine, the six, and the three-hour people, we just talked about those. These are the one-hour people. It's five o'clock in the afternoon, our time. The end of the workday is six. This is the 11th hour. And about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing idle and said to them, why have you been standing here idle all day? Now, the idea of idle isn't that they have been negligent or lazy. That's not it. No one has picked them to work. Why have you been standing idle all day? They said to him, because no one hired us. And he said to them, you also go into the vineyard and whatever is right you will receive. The idea of this one-hour workday people is they are the dregs of society. They are the weak, the lame, the ones who can't do much work. They're the weak. The outcasts, they're the ones, now granted, this landowner is not the only person hiring people, as we understand the culture and the day. There were probably many people that were picking people to work. But these are the last. These are the last. And he says, whatever is right, you will receive. So at this point in the story, everybody is satisfied. I want you to understand that. There's a twist that's going to come, but at this point, everyone is satisfied. Every worker will receive payment for his work. It's a good day. Now, these one-hour people, I want you to understand, they have to provide for a family as well, right? They are weak, they are maybe lame, whatever it might be, but they still have to make a living. They still have to earn money for food and clothing. And so they're happy. If I can get one hour and get a fraction of a denarius, I'm happy because it might give me money for a few crumbs to feed my family. So we should be satisfied with God's grace because it is initiated by Him. Every one of these groups is the picture of God going out. Throughout history, God has been initiating salvation. He's been initiating relationships with us. Since the time of Genesis, when Adam and Eve fell into sin, God has been the great initiator seeking reconciliation, seeking restoration. And all he's doing right now up to this point, he's initiating it, but he will finalize it in Jesus. He's initiating, he's calling people to himself. And I wonder this morning, I remember the time God called me to himself, and I had been a religious person for 18 years. But I felt God's call of calling me to Him, to a relationship with Him that was not based on religion, it was based on faith and grace. Because I did not deserve salvation. But God gave it to me. Because I realized that Jesus is so much more than a religious figure. He's so much more than a reason to come and be in a room for an hour on a Sunday morning. Jesus, when you come to Jesus, it changes everything. And so, we should be satisfied. If you have grace this morning, we should be satisfied with God's grace because He's the one that initiated it. We didn't come to God on our own. But we should, so I ask you if you've got grace. I'm going to, poor timing, but it's a poor presentation, but it's the idea. I'm asking you now to realize, ask yourself, do you have this grace? Do you understand what God's grace is? So, because you either have God's grace or you do not. It's an all or nothing reality. You either have it or you don't. All right, he goes on to say, so when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last of the first. You'll see how this ties in with the previous chapter. It's a different teaching unit. It's building upon what came, but it's still in this context of last, first, first, last, and he says, listen, beginning with the last to the first. There's a point that's gonna be made in the text, and Jesus is making this point to those people on that day, but he's making it to us today. He says, with the last to the first, he says, and when those who came hired about the 11th hour, they each received a denarius. These one-hour workers received a 12-hours wage. And I really want you to pause here just for a minute, and I want to try and maybe express the joy that would be in these people's hearts at that particular time. These weak, maimed, outcast people who are just trying to scrape a living together so they can live one more day or allow their family to live one more day. They have worked one single hour and they received it all. They were paid as if they had worked a full day. Could you imagine what that would have meant for them? And then I ask you to consider, if you understand God's grace today, when's the last time you rejoiced in the grace that God has just abundantly placed into your life? We don't deserve it. We are the one-hour workers. We are the lowest in society, in one sense, because we're the sinners. and we recognize that sin is forgiven in Christ. And so I just ask you to consider, are you rejoicing in the salvation that you have in Christ? Are you rejoicing that you received so much more than you deserve? Because not everyone rejoices. Notice what happens next. Well, actually, yeah, let me make the point. So we should be satisfied with God's grace because he gives it generously. God, there is no depth, there is no, excuse me, let me think about that again. There is no end to God's grace. There is no sin that you could have committed that is outside the grace of God to forgive. And that's good news for many people, because some of us have done some wicked, wicked, wicked, wicked things, and the grace of God, right, has cleansed us from all sin because of the personal work of Jesus Christ. Now, we still may have to pay the consequences of our sins, but in eternity, we are seen as righteous because of Jesus Christ and what He's done in our life. God gives grace generously. He's got deep pockets when it comes to grace, some people say. And when those came to him who arrived by the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. So the twelve-hour people received a day's wage. They worked all twelve hours, they got the day's wage. But notice this. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more. Now let's be honest with ourselves. I think we would have thought the same thing. Have you ever been in a workplace or in a school situation or with friends or whatever where someone got something that just seemed like, wait a minute, I should have gotten more. If they got that, then I should have gotten more than I got. And I don't know what scenario you might find yourself in, but I will say we tend to look at others through our own glasses and we want to say, huh, I deserve more." Well, that's what was going on with these people. They had this expectation. Again, Proverbs 13, 12 says, hope deferred makes the heart sick, right? The idea of you have an expectation, a hope, and it's keep putting off and putting off and putting off, it makes you sick inside. That's what's going on here. They are no longer rejoicing in the grace of the denarius for a 12-hour day. They were totally happy with that until they saw someone else get blessed. Their hope has been deferred. They're like, oh, I expect that we're going to get more. And they likewise received each a denarius. They didn't get what their expectation was. All right? So they likewise receive. They receive the exact same as the one-hour worker. So to be satisfied with God's grace, if we're going to learn how to be satisfied with God's grace, then we must avoid self-centeredness. I'm going to say this is part of our human nature. In my marriage, usually pre-marriage counseling, but in marriages, certainly marriage counseling as well, if you're already married. If you want to destroy your marriage, act selfishly. Act in a way that's self-centered. Make it all about you and your home and you will have a home in chaos. You will not have a happy home if that home is only there to serve you. Right? We are supposed to be an other-centered group of people as believers of Jesus Christ. So to be satisfied with God's grace, we must avoid self-centeredness. And so we see, and when they had received it, they complained against the landowner. Notice, they didn't complain to him. They complained against him. They went to other people like, well, can you believe what he did? You know, we worked out there 12 hours. We're going to see. It says, saying, these last men worked only one hour, right, and had made them equal to us who had borne the burden of the heat of the day. So we see, they worked only an hour and they borne the burden. These people are disgruntled. They're dissatisfied. They're not content. They are angry towards this landowner, but notice they're not talking to the landowner. They're complaining against him. Obviously, he becomes aware of this because he addresses them directly. But notice, it's dealing with the length of the workday and the type of the workday. And so, Grace, I wanted to just say this because I think this could have been said more clearly two weeks ago. Grace has nothing to do with one's status or effort. The status here would be those who are strong versus those who are weak. The effort would be 12 hours versus one hour. When we understand the grace of God, we don't bring anything to the mix. It's all of God. And so grace has nothing to do with your status as an American, has no status as you as a wealthy person or a poor person. I should have said American or any nationality. It has nothing to do with anything but you as a sinful human being receiving the grace of God who is God, holy, righteous, sovereign. To be satisfied with God's grace, we must rejoice in the way he gives grace to others. I think this is one of the main point of this particular, I shouldn't say it's the main, but it is very close to the heartbeat of what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples, is if we're going to be satisfied with God's grace, then we must rejoice in the way he gives grace to others. Right, think back to that time where you felt like it was, it's not fair, it's not fair, he or she got this. And we always wanna blame that on the kids. The kids just don't know how to be quiet about it. We as adults are, oh, that's, but inside we're just like, that's not right, that's unfair. I don't have to preach that, I think you know that, all right? We are that way, but listen, if we're gonna be satisfied with God's grace, truly satisfied, truly able to rejoice in it, we can rejoice in the way He gives grace to others. When's the last time you praised God for the grace He bestowed on a coworker who got promoted before you? When's the last time you saw God's grace work out to where you were in second place and you were okay? I'm telling you, that shows you That shows you where you are in your maturing in the faith and understanding of grace, when you can rejoice in God's grace towards others in the same way that you'd rejoice if it was towards you. He says, but he answered one of them and said, friend, now it is interesting in this text, Jesus makes it personal now. Up to this point, it's been all about the story and talk, but now he says friend, the verb tense, everything goes to the singular. He says, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. We saw it, right? God initiated it. The landowner initiated it. There was an agreement. That agreement was fine. It was agreed upon. Be happy. You should be happy. You worked, you got your wage. Then Jesus says, the landowner, putting the words in the landowner's mouth, I wish to give to this last man the same as you. When we sense an inequity in our lives, when we sense things are not fair, let's pause and look for the grace of God on display and see if it's there because God just may be blessing someone generously. I wish to give to this last man the same as you. God desires to bless you. He desires to bless those around you. Rejoice in it. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? And in the context of God, God is the creator God. There is nothing outside of his sovereignty. He owns all things and he can do with those things whatever he chooses to do. Or is your eye evil because I am good? I think this is a major point of what Jesus is making, is that there are times when we are so self-centered, this evil eye, this is that idea, the evil eye. I had a friend of mine in Pennsylvania that came in one day with a ping pong ball with an eye drawn on it, a rubber band and a big hairy eyebrow on it, and she was dangling it and she said, it's the evil eye. Never forgot that one, right? I mean, it's like, ah! But this is the idea of Jesus looking in hearts and saying, listen, if you're not able to rejoice in the God's grace in the lives of others, is it because of your own jealousy? Just as Jesus pointed out the weakness in that rich young ruler. I have obeyed all the commandments since my youth. No, you haven't, because you are still dealing with greed, you're dealing with covetousness. Jesus is saying here to his disciples, listen, as you understand what it means to be in the kingdom of God, there's no room for jealousy. There's only room for rejoicing in what God has done. And if you find yourselves, even this morning, if you find yourselves being jealous of others because God has been good to someone else, repent. Acknowledge God's grace in your life and theirs and rejoice in it. Because a failure to appreciate God's grace in the lives of others reveals a selfish heart. So I want you, this is one of those statements, I'm just going to leave it up there for a second. I mean, this is one of those statements we all have to leave here thinking about. Because right now in this room, we're probably all good. But it's when we go out those doors that we start to realize, wait a minute, I'm not always content in my faithfulness. I'm not always content with God's grace. And when a failure to appreciate God's grace in the lives of others reveals a selfish heart, and I know I have that at times, and repent from that. Just repent from that. Turn from that. And then he goes on to say, he finishes off there with verse 16, he says, so the last will be first and the first last. Now we're going to pause there for a second because that's, notice it's the same words but in a different order. In Matthew 19 verse 30 it was, so the first will be last and the last first. Here it has the last will be first and the first last. It's just reversed. It's very much probably for just communication style to make things interesting. But in this particular parable, that's what happened. The last became first and the first last. In this context, we're going to say last in the kingdom is the idea of last to receive the rewards. First in the kingdom is first to receive the rewards. It's not dealing with salvation. Not everyone agrees on this, but I think what we're dealing with is the first one was dealing with the difference between believers and unbelievers. The first in this world who do not come to faith in Christ will spend eternity in hell. But the last in this world, the ones who are living by faith and seeking to do right and not trying to step on others as they go forward in this world, the last in this world are to become the citizens of the kingdom. But now, as citizens of the kingdom, we have to understand the rewards that are waiting for us. What rewards are we talking about? Well, Jesus already said, listen, you're going to have rewards and eternal life. That's the one we all get. We all get eternal life when we come to faith in Jesus Christ. We must have faith in Jesus Christ to receive eternity with God. to be in His presence forever. But there are other rewards that we get depending on who you are. And the last will receive them first. And so what are we supposed to think about that? Well, just for a moment, let me ask you to consider. When we get to heaven and rewards are being handed out, Again, those rewards are not merit for salvation. It's those things that God is graciously choosing to give to people. There are people who are going to be receiving some amazing reward from God at the judgment, right, at the judgment of believers, the Bema Seat judgment, where we're going to be like, who is that? Who's that person? Never heard of him. And then there's going to be others, and I'm not going to name names because you'll think I'm picking on people, but think about some famous Christians, and they're going to be at the end of the line, right? Because maybe they were still good people, they're still in the kingdom, but their rewards may not be as numerous or as generous as the ones that were given to the least. Because only God knows hearts, and only God knows what truly happens in each of our lives. Only God knows whether a preacher is self-centered or not, or whether someone who has a disability and struggles to even do ministry within a church will not receive tremendous rewards from God because of their faithfulness and prayer life and ability. We just don't know these things, but God does, and God chooses to bless those, grace those people from the least to the greatest. In one sense, the ground is level at the cross, and in one sense, we all receive salvation and eternal life. But there is this other aspect of the kingdom life where we will say, wow, isn't God amazing that he blessed those people the way he did? That last section there, it says, for many are called, but few are chosen. That's actually recited, it's actually said again in chapter 22. And it's all agreed upon that it's in chapter 22. If you have the ESV or another version, those words are not in your text in Matthew 20, 16. All right? So we'll deal with those verses when we get to chapter 22. I'm out of time for today to deal with this. But I want us to focus as we continue on here that God's grace is bestowed on all believers no matter when or how they came to faith in Jesus Christ. I can't tell you how many times I've had people put themselves down because of when they came to faith later in their life, how they came to faith. We think that we're horrible, broken people. Well, we are until we come to faith in Jesus Christ. and then God brings healing and he brings salvation. All believers, no matter who they are, how they are, where they've come from, what their life has been like, think about the thief on the cross. He had no opportunity to do any great work. He simply professed his faith in Jesus Christ and Jesus said, today you'll be with me in paradise. It's a glorious truth that we get to celebrate. So God's abundant grace only satisfies those who understand they don't deserve it. So I'll ask you this morning, yes, the idea of God's grace, right, that's the next slide, but let me just say this. God's abundant grace only satisfies those who understand they don't deserve it. I wonder if anyone's struggling with that today. If you've got grace this morning, then you have to evaluate, as I have to evaluate, am I satisfied not only with the grace God's putting in my life, but he's putting in the life of others? Am I satisfied, am I content with the way God is blessing my life? Am I satisfied with the provision he provides for work? Why are some people rich and wealthy and seem to have no cares, and I struggle putting meals on the table? God's graciousness is not in question any of those. His grace is his grace and he's bestowing it upon you and don't miss the ways that he may be blessing you, gracing you that you're not seeing. Open your eyes, ask God, God show me how you are just evidencing your grace to me as your child. But then again, it's the idea that if you do not know grace, if you do not have grace, then you might be under the fallacy that you deserve it. And God does not owe anyone anything. but he desires to give all things through Christ. And so, as we conclude today, I'd ask you, if you have grace, rejoice in it. If you need the grace of God to forgive you of your sins and to set you on a path of maturity where you would grow and learn more about Jesus, We would invite you to pray and confess your sin before God and come to Him in faith, professing Jesus Christ as God and Savior, and God will give you that grace that you so desperately need. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this morning, and we thank you for the opportunity to be in your Word and to just focus on this doctrine of grace for just a few minutes. and to understand that it is not something we're born with, it is something that must be received. Father, I pray for those who are children here this morning who have been born into Christian homes. Father, they hear the gospel, they read your word, they are studying, but Father, help them to understand they are still in need of your grace. No one comes to salvation through their parents. They must come to faith. They must come to you through faith, their own individual faith in who Jesus is and what he's done. So I pray for the children here this morning that they would recognize their need of your grace. Father, I pray for those who have had grace for decades. Father, are they able to rejoice in the grace that you're bestowing upon others? Is life getting difficult with finances or health or whatever it might be? Are there questions being asked within the minds and hearts of our older folks that may question your love for them, question the fairness? Why can someone be so healthy and I'm so sick? Whatever it might be, Father, I pray that for these believers that they would truly come to an understanding, a renewed understanding of your grace to them. And Father, for everyone in between, the little ones and our older ones, Father, we just pray that grace would be something that we seek to learn and characterize our life day in and day out. Lord, help us to not only appreciate your grace, help us to extend the free grace we have received to others. Help us to be other-centered people. to be putting not only others first in our home, but in our workplace, and in public, and in the grocery store, and at the parking garage, wherever it might be, Father, help us to put others first. Help us to freely give what we freely receive, which is grace. And Father, for those that do not know Jesus as Savior, and they do not know the grace that you have, I pray, Father, since you are the only one who can call people to yourself, I pray that you would call those who lack faith here this morning to yourself. Lord, may your Holy Spirit speak in such a way to these people that they understand they cannot do it out of their own merit. They must come to faith. in the finished work of Jesus Christ, your Son. Lord, call them to yourself, and may you use us, all of us, to help others understand the grace that you so freely give. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.