The sermon 'Receiving Likewise' by Jason Dohm examines the parable of the laborers in the vineyard from Matthew 20:1-16. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the words of Christ through the Spirit of God. The parable illustrates that all laborers, regardless of when they started working, receive the same wage, a denarius, highlighting the principle that 'the last will be first, and the first last.' The sermon connects this with the story of the rich young ruler, who, despite his advantages, is considered 'last' because he refuses to follow Jesus, unlike the disciples who left everything to follow Him. Six key teachings are derived from the parable: God as the landowner, time outside God's service as idle, God's fairness in rewarding what is right, humanity's tendency to complain, the landowner's right to do as he wishes, and the difference between being called and being chosen. The sermon also explores two interpretations of the parable: one relating to individual salvation, like the thief on the cross, and another relating to redemptive history, where the Gentiles are grafted into God's covenant. The speaker leans towards the latter, emphasizing the expansion of God's call to include Gentiles, illustrating God's mercy and generosity.

So today's text is going to be Matthew chapter 20 verses 1 through 16. Just as we read it, I ask that you consider the words of Christ from our memory verse. We pray that he would open our eyes and open our ears to the preaching of the word. Without the Spirit of God, we can't understand the words of Christ. So let's read together.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the labors for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you. So they went. Again, he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour and did likewise.

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle and said to them, Why have you been standing here idle all day? They said to him, because no one hired us. He said to them, You also go into the vineyard and whatever is right you will receive. So when evening was come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first. When those that were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius.

But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more, and they likewise received each a denarius. When they'd received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.' But he answered one of them and said, "'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for Daenerys? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.

Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good? So the last will be first and the first last, for many are called but few are chosen." Let's pray. Oh Heavenly Father, I pray that you'd pour your spirit upon us this morning that our eyes would be open to the word here that our ears would be opened so that we can understand and apply these words which Christ spake. Lord I pray that you would bless us with this.

I pray that you give Jason wisdom as he preaches in clear mind to be able to communicate the message that you had intended for your audience, Lord. In your name we pray, amen. Father, I thank you for your word. There are moments, God, where you give us the right perspective and we know how desperate we are to have access to your thoughts. Our thoughts are so inadequate about all these things and yet you have given us direct divine revelations so that we might know your thoughts in so many different categories.

Thank you, O God. God, I pray that you would help us to acquire wisdom from these things. God, mostly that we would learn to love what you love. The mind of Christ would be imparted to us today, so we would think a little more like Christ, be helped in these things. I pray that your Holy Spirit would fall upon us, O God, in Jesus' name, Amen.

The title of the sermon is, Receiving Likewise. That's really the punchline of the parable. Is that the different groups in the parable get the same thing. They receive likewise. The guys who show up and work one hour in the vineyard receive the same as those who begin their work day at 6 a.m.

And like the people in the parable, we'd be tempted to say, How can this be? How can this be? But it is. The last verse of our text last week. Matthew 19 verse 30.

Jesus says, But many who are first will be last, and the last first. And this is nothing but a summary of what we had just seen, which was that the rich young ruler had come. He had had every advantage. He was rich. He had wealth.

He was young. He was in the prime of his life. And he was a ruler. He had already achieved status in this life. He had all the advantages.

And furthermore, he was a good Jewish boy who could say, I haven't murdered, I haven't committed adultery, I've honored my father and mother, and I've loved my neighbor as myself, all this from my youth. But he will not follow Jesus, so in spite of all the advantages, In spite of being first in this category, and first in this category, and first in this category, Jesus says you're last. Because Jesus has put his finger on this man's idol, and this man will not follow Jesus, and so in spite of being first in so many ways, he's last. And then these disciples, these fishermen, this tax collector, this zealot, who have none of the advantages enjoyed by the rich young ruler, actually will follow Jesus. When Jesus comes and says, Leave your nets and follow me, they leave it right there.

When Jesus comes and says, Leave your father in the boat and come follow me, they'll follow him. When Jesus comes by the tax booth and says, Follow me, He stands up at his tax booth and he follows Jesus right then. So Peter says, since we've left everything and followed you, what shall we have? And Jesus tells them, these men who were last in so many categories, tells them in what ways they will be first. These twelve disciples will sit on twelve thrones and they will judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

And then he goes on to say, And everyone who leaves this or this or this or this will receive a hundredfold for it and eternal life. Now, our text this week is completely married to all that. There is not one beam of daylight. We have a very uninspired chapter break between chapter 19 and 20. Chapter 19 verse 16 through chapter 20 verse 16 is absolutely continuous with no break, no change in scenery.

It's a continuous dialogue. And so these things couldn't be more tightly connected. The parable is actually given by Jesus to explain the things we've been talking about in the last two weeks. And it explains it. It expands on it.

Now, here's a sad note. In Matthew 13, you have two hard parables. There are more parables in Matthew 13 than that, but there are two hard ones. For each of the hard ones in Matthew 13, Jesus follows up and says, here's what it means. This means that.

This means that. This means that. For both of these hard parables, the wheat and the tares, and the four soils. In Matthew 20, I think we have a hard parable before us today. At least there are some things that are difficult to understand, but Jesus doesn't come back and say, this means that, this means that.

So this will be an interesting sermon to preach and to hear because you're going to find me being more tentative than I would like to be and that I usually am. There are men who are wiser in the Scriptures than I am that come down in a variety of different places. You just have to study it hard, you have to pray a lot, and then you have to pick your one and do the best you can with it. Here's the good news. That's the sad note is that Jesus doesn't give a second section on the parable that really explains it and takes the mystery out of it.

The good news is that there's a set of things in this parable that are so clear that you can't wiggle out of no matter which interpretation you pick in the parable. They just must be lifted out of the parable and shown as the truth that they are. So if you pick option A or option B or option C as interpretations of the parable, even so you're left with this core group of things. So I want to propose that there are six of them, at least that's the six that I saw. And I just want to start there because I can talk with such confidence that this parable teaches these six things.

Here's the first one. The first is this. And by the way, these are on your handout. You've got some fill in the blanks there that will help you track with me. Here's the first one.

God is the landowner who brings people into His service. I don't think we want to just skim over the top of that and take it for granted. God is a land owner, a sovereign, a master, an owner, a possessor who is pleased to bring men and women and children into His service. Praise the Lord! God is willing and able to bring you into His service.

Now this is a privilege, it's not a need. A guy, a normal guy, you or me, if we own a vineyard, we're going to need people to work in the vineyard. That's not the point of this parable. God doesn't need me, He doesn't need you, He doesn't need our children. He's completely self-existent, self-sufficient.

In Psalm 50, he says, if I was hungry, I wouldn't even tell you. I wouldn't even tell you. I don't need people to come work in my vineyard. But it pleases Him. And man, is it good for us.

Man, do we need to be engaged by God and brought into His service. Here's what Paul says in Romans 9, unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been made like Gomorrah. What Paul's teaching there is, if God just leaves us alone, we're all destroyed. We'll just destroy ourselves.

Unless the Lord had left a remnant, had claimed some for Himself, had brought some into His servant, We'd all be destroyed. We'd just be like Sodom and Gomorrah. We'd get what we deserve, which is the judgment of God. But this parable teaches that God's willing, God's pleased to bring people into His service. That's what's happening here.

That's what it means that an agreement is made and people are brought to work in his vineyard. It means that he's bringing people into his service in this world. Number two, Every second spent outside the service of this landowner is an idle second. Every single second of life spent outside the service of God is just an idle Second. In verse 3, there's the third hour.

The landowner comes back to the marketplace in the third hour and he says, why are you standing here idle? In verse 6, it's the eleventh hour. The landowner comes back to the marketplace and he says, why have you been standing here idle all day long? This is a wasted day. Why have you been standing here idle till the eleventh hour?

Now think of all the things that man busies himself with. Men everywhere. Ungodly men, unregenerate men, men who are not born again, and They're busy. They're busy. They're doing things.

They're building a kingdom. They're heaping up things. Some of them are engaged every single minute of the day building their kingdom. God says, idle. That's what the whole book of Ecclesiastes is about.

Vanity, vanity. You're idle. Every second you're not in the service of this landowner, this king, this master, is an idle, vain, worthless moment. When there is a Master who is willing to have you serve him in his vineyard, a master like this, why would you be idle? That is the question.

Why have you been idle here all day? Why have you been idle? When there's a master who's this good, who's this generous, even to those who only work an hour a day, a master like this, why would you be idle and not be in his service for one single second. Number three, the servants of this landlord will receive whatever is right. It's said multiple times in the parable, The servants of this landlord, if you enter his service, you'll receive what's right without fail 100% of the time.

You'll never ever ever ever ever be cheated ever. You'll always receive what's right. Verse 4, the third hour again. You also go into the vineyard and whatever is right I'll give you. We've seen the end of the parable.

Did they get what was right? You betcha and more. Verse 7, the eleventh hour, you also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive. We've seen the end of the parable. Did those hired at the eleventh hour receive what was right and some and so much more.

For everyone who the landowner says that to in the parable, You'll receive what's right. They received more than they expected. Every single one that the landowner spoke to and says, You'll receive what's right. Just come serve me. Come serve me.

You'll receive what's right. Weren't told what it was, but every single one of them received more than was expected. This parable, if you haven't picked up on it yet, is fundamentally about the character and nature of God, how good He is, how generous He is. So that you find all these groups of people finding at the very end that they got more than they expected, that they got more than they deserved. Number four.

A tendency to complain against the landowner is bound up in the human heart. We ought to learn this from the parable. There's a bent towards complaining, grumbling, bound up in the human heart and it's on display in this parable. In verse 10, we see that because of the landowner's generosity towards those who were hired at the eleventh hour. They had an expectation that they would get paid more, so they are grumbling and complaining.

Listen to verse 12. These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, Who have borne the burden and the heat of the day. You've made them equal to us and they only worked one hour. They're grumbling against the landowner. They're complaining.

Here are the facts. They agreed to work one day for one denarius. They worked one day. They were paid one denarius. No one has been cheated here.

No one, though some have gotten more than they deserve, not one single soul has gotten less than they deserve. The landowner has met his obligations all the way around and he's been generous on top of it. No one's been cheated. Jesus explains this in verse 15. The landowner explains it in verse 15.

Their eyes are evil. Is your eye evil because I'm good? They have evil eyes. Now you've heard of rose colored glasses. It's these lenses that you look through that makes everything in the world look happy and good and beautiful.

It's good to have rose colored glasses. It's just a happy world. Everything rosy all the time. This is a different kind of glasses. Evil eyes.

Corruption. Black colored glasses. So when you look through things that are just, you start to complain about things that are just. Things that are fair. And you start to see them as if they're unfair.

That's what it means to have an evil eye. It's corruption. Go to Romans 1 and see what it says about the darkening of the heart. This is what is being portrayed here. Now we're back to an important point that we keep coming to in Matthew.

I am the Pharisee in the story. I'm not the hero, I'm not the landowner, I'm the Pharisee. You get way more out of these texts if you come to the text with that heart. Not the knucklehead is the Pharisee of the story and I'm the hero, but I'm the Pharisee in the story Because the seeds of all these things that we've been bumping into in Matthew are in every human heart. And so if we're going to squeeze the last drop of benefit out of these texts, we have to come to the text with this heart.

I am the Pharisee in the story. I am the one with the predisposition to have these glasses that are corrupted, that would cause me to see something that God says is fair, and really in our saner moments we would acknowledge your fair as being unfair and it would cause us to grumble and complain when every obligation to us has been met. Matthew Henry says this, it teaches us to be content with such things as we have. Instead of repining that we have no more, let us take what we have and be thankful. Yes, this parable would help us to take what we have and be thankful and not always be looking at something else that God out of His generosity has given to someone else and say, it's not fair.

God hasn't dealt justly with me, rightly with me, because He's been extra generous to them in this way or in that way. By the way, you might have some ways in which he's been extra generous to you, that you're completely passing over. Now here's an implication of this. Authorities are required to honor their agreements. That's what it means to act with integrity as an authority.

At least one of the things that means to act with integrity as authority is that you honor your agreements. Generosity is not required. By definition, generosity is above and beyond what's been agreed to. By definition it is. It's not required of authorities.

Equal treatment is not required. Now it's bad when an authority is keeping their agreements with someone and then violating their agreement with someone else. But when an authority has kept their agreements with everyone, then equal treatment is not required of an authority. Think of how you parent. Is generosity required?

Are you always required to offer more than is the deal with your children? Are you always required to treat them exactly the same in every circumstance? No, you do things and you do them for your own reasons and you don't feel like you owe your children an explanation of what you're doing, but you have your own reasons for them. God is no different. God is the same.

Only a lot, lot better. How many employees have been embittered when their boss has met every agreement with them? The employee thought they should have been more generous, or there was unequal treatment, even though their boss had done what was agreed, and so they're embittered. This is wrong. Christians have to stop thinking like that.

We know the unregenerate are going to think like that, but we can't think like that. We can't be embittered employees when our authorities, when our boss has met their agreement because he's been generous with someone else or because there's unequal treatment. How many tenants? How many tenants? How many tenants had been rankled because the landlord wasn't more generous or treated another tenant differently even though the agreement was satisfied, fulfilled?

How many children, children, how many children, have been embittered against their parents because of generosity, Even though their agreement with you has been met in every way, your parents have done what they said they would do, but they've been extra generous in this instance to a sibling, And there's been unequal treatment in that way and so you're bitter. This is wrong. This is thinking like someone who's unregenerate when that happens. We need to be cleansed of that and conformed to the mind of Christ. Number five.

The landowner does what he wishes with his own things. Probably if you get nothing else out of this parable, this ought to be the thing. The landowner does whatever he wishes with his own things. And this could not be more just. Couldn't be more just.

Think about the things that you own. You do what you want with the things that you own. And this landowner actually made The things that he owns. You didn't even create any of your own stuff and you do whatever you want to with it. This landowner made it all.

It is his stuff in the truest sense of the word. He's completely just to do whatever he wants to with his own things. Now in this case, he's bound himself to an agreement and he honors the agreement. And when you bind yourself to an agreement as the landowner has, you're obligated to fulfill the agreement. But within that, the landowner does what he wishes with his own things.

He wished to enter into an agreement. He wished to give the one who was hired at the eleventh hour the same as he agreed with the person who went to work at 6 a.m. By the way, the Jewish work day is divided into four parts, starting at 6 a.m., ending at 6 p.m. You like that work day? You want that work day?

So 6 a.m. To 9, 9 a.m. Would be the third hour. And then to noon would be the sixth hour. And to 3 o'clock in the afternoon would be the ninth hour.

So the eleventh hour here would be 5 o'clock in the afternoon when you're working until six. Some guys have been out there working since six a.m. And it's five p.m. Here come the newbies, fresh off the marketplace, not looking sweaty, not looking dirty. Here they come into the vineyard.

They get a denarius. But the landowner has the right to do whatever he wants with his own things and he's completely just. Now, this is a parable. It doesn't say who the landowner is, but we know who the landowner is. It's God.

And so in this case, you're His things. I'm his things. All these workers in the parable are his things in this case because the landowner is God. So there are some broad ranging implications here. God can do whatever he wants with his own things, and that includes me.

And that includes you. And Romans says that every mouth will be stopped. You'll not complain when the books are opened and all the records are there to be examined, no one will rail against God for doing what he wanted to do with his own things. Romans 9, 21, Does not the potter have the power over the clay? Paul makes the same argument in Romans 9.

Clay doesn't talk back to the potter. It conforms to his hands. That's what clay does. No talking back to the potter. Number six.

There is an eternal difference between only being called and being chosen. There is an eternal difference. Now those who are chosen are also called. That's why I said only being called without being chosen and being chosen. We saw this in verse 16, or We see this in verse 16.

So the last will be first and the first last. This is how the parable ends. This is how Jesus summarizes it. The last will be first and the first last, for many are called, but few are chosen. You know, it's good to be called.

It's a blessing to be called. It's not the same as being chosen. Faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by being called and hearing by the Word of God. It's good to be called.

It's a means for being chosen. But many are called and few are chosen. A comment, this is so key to understanding this parable, I believe anyway. Just because you see Kingdom of Heaven, that's how the parable starts. For the Kingdom of Heaven is like, are the first words of our text.

For the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Just because you see the words Kingdom of Heaven doesn't require that everyone in the parable is elect. It does not require that. It could be, but you can't just conclude that because you've heard the words, Kingdom of Heaven. In Matthew 13, you have the parable of the wheat and the tares.

And it started the same way. The kingdom of heaven is like. And then you've got wheat and tares growing together. And the farmer in that case says, don't Take up the tares, you'll get some wheat with it. In Matthew 13, there's a parable of the dragnet.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like, same starting, get all sorts of fish. They'll be sorted out at the end. Just because this parable begins with the Kingdom of Heaven is like, we shouldn't default and say, oh, then all the servants, all the laborers have to be elect, because that's not what Jesus has been teaching the kingdom of heaven is like in Matthew 13. Now, I'm going to give you two interpretations. There are more out there, but I think these are the two that are the soundest and the ones that fit best with the overall context.

I'll start with the one that I don't hold, But I can see it sort of. It's the dying thief. There's a dying thief on the cross. And he's lived his whole life for himself. He's lived his whole life outside the Kingdom of God.

And there he is. He's crucified feet away from Jesus. And he repents on that cross. And he is born again at the eleventh hour. If there ever was an eleventh hour, it was the dying thief on the cross.

Listen to this account in Luke 23, 39-43. Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Jesus saying, If you are the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other answering rebuked him saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation. And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward for our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong.

Then he said to Jesus, Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus said to him, Assuredly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Here is a man in the last hours of his life who humbles himself and repents and cries out to Jesus for help. And Jesus helps him. If that's the interpretation, then the work day is the span of a man's life. And in the last hour of life, you can call out, and if you have saving faith in the last hour of your life, you'll be saved.

This is a precious truth of the Gospel. That is so true. That is so true. And Luke 23 just gives us a demonstration of it. So Ryle talks about that interpretation, J.C.

Ryle does. But he wants us to guard against presuming upon God just because that's true. It is true that if you have saving faith in the last hour of your life that you will gain heaven and you'll enjoy the privileges of heaven just like someone who was saved when they were five years old. It is true. But J.C.

Ryle says, we're given one example of that, that we might hope, but not more than one that we would not presume. And J.C. Ryle is so concerned that we would take that interpretation and run with it and be careless with our souls as if we could just repent at the eleventh hour, as if we could just enjoy every pleasure of the world, just roll around in the mud all of our life long and then at the last hour repent and be saved. J.C. Ryle wants you to know it doesn't work that way.

It does not work that way. Generally speaking. Here are my objections. I have three objections to that. Maybe nothing insurmountable, but when I look at the parable I say, I don't think I have a hard time getting over these three things.

The first is salvation is not pay. Salvation is not pay. If that's the interpretation of the parable, then the denarius is salvation. And salvation is not pay. Listen to Paul in Romans 4, 1-5.

What then shall we say that Abraham our Father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but debt.

But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness." So to me that interpretation becomes problematic because particularly in light of the rich young ruler, this man who, it was so clear, had works based righteousness in his brain and Jesus worked so hard to part him from that, I can't imagine that this parable would revert to something that seemed like salvation was payment for service. Number two, understanding the mercy of God, which Christians do. Christians understand the mercy of God. Eleventh hour conversions are a source of rejoicing, not complaining. When you hear that, when you hear Luke 23 and that this thief in the last hours of his life could call out, could humble himself and repent and be saved.

Does that make you think, man he's lucky. Man God's unfair. Christians don't think like that. I don't think they do. Understanding the mercy of God, it's a cause for rejoicing that God is so full of mercy because we've experienced the mercy.

A final objection is that if that's the interpretation, then the last being first and the first being last totally doesn't fit. At least in my brain I can't make that connection. It makes it onerous to be saved young. It makes it onerous to be saved young. The lucky one is the guy who rolls around in the mud of the world all his life and then is saved at the eleventh hour.

That's not my experience. Praise God that He saved me young and saved me from all the self-inflicted wounds. I got plenty already. What would I have? What kind of scar tissue would I have from self-inflicted wounds had God not saved me young as He did.

It's a blessing to be saved young. Okay, here's the second interpretation. And here's what I think it is. As best as I can tell. And I think a good summary of it would be Hebrews 8 verse 6.

But now He, Christ, has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as He is also mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises. I think this is talking about Christ as the mediator. I think Christ the mediator is actually giving this parable of his better covenant established on his better promises. Now if you take that you've got to say what in the world does that have to do with the rich young ruler? I think that's the difficulty with that interpretation.

You've been talking about individuals, and now you're starting to talk about groups of people, and how do you reconcile those? Well, I think there are some good answers to that question. The first goes back to the last chapter, chapter 19 verse 29. Now coming into that, Jesus has just said, you'll have twelve thrones, you'll judge the twelve tribes of Israel. So so far in the chapter, it's been the rich young Jew comes and talks to the Jewish teacher and the Jewish learners want to know from the Jewish teacher what do we get Because we left everything to follow you, and the Jewish teacher responds to the Jewish learners.

You'll have 12 Jewish thrones, you'll judge the 12 Jewish tribes. And then in verse 29, there's a shift that is subtle to us, but I bet was not subtle to these twelve disciples, where Jesus says, and everyone who has left houses, or brothers or sisters, or mothers or fathers, or wives or children, or lands, for my sake will receive a hundred fold in eternal life. Excuse me? Everyone? Everyone?

Or Jewish everyone? Because the disciples are used to the Jews being the covenant people of God. The promises of God pertain to the Jews. They're ready for a Jewish kingdom with a Jewish king and Jewish subjects. And in verse 21, 9, Jesus says, everyone.

And I think in this parable he's saying, everyone, everyone. Everyone, everyone. Not just the rich young ruler if you'll follow me, but Everyone, everyone. If they leave to follow me, they'll receive a hundred fold. The Centurion?

Huh. The Syrophoenician woman? Huh. Everyone, everyone. And I think the rich young ruler has become the poster boy for the current state of the covenant people of God.

He can quote you the Ten Commandments, and He thinks He has obeyed them, and He is part of the covenant people of God. And He can say Abraham is my Father. But Jesus says, I can make children for Abraham out of these rocks. Don't say Abraham is your father and that that will be sufficient. There is a huge category of the New Covenant that Jesus up to chapter 20 hasn't hardly even talked about.

An enormous category. And it's that the whole world is the field for the Gospel. The whole world, every corner of it, the north and the south and the west and the east, The whole world is the field for the Gospel. But Jesus' ministry has largely been confined to Israel, the covenant people of God, and He hasn't been talking about it. Only a very little.

There's a couple of points where He either interacts with Gentiles, or in chapter 8 verse 21, he talks about the children of the kingdom being cast out, but many coming to eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the great feast. But other than that, there's not much. And so there's this enormous category related to the New Covenant, and Jesus is starting to talk about it. And it's somewhat subtle here in chapter 20, But he's going to lose all his subtlety in chapter 21 and chapter 22. We're coming to parables.

Very quickly we're coming to parables where Jesus says this kingdom is going to be ripped away from you, you unfaithful people, and it's going to be given to people you despise. And this is just what is going to cost Jesus' life. What gets Jesus in trouble for his life is claiming to be God and talking about Gentiles. It gets Paul in a lot of trouble too. If this interpretation is correct, then the day is redemptive history.

It's not the life of one man, it's redemptive history. And those hired early in the morning are the covenant people of God, all the way up until this time. 6 a.m. In the morning, the landowner goes out and he makes a deal with the people. I'll be your God and you'll be my people.

Deal? Deal. Listen to Exodus 24, 7-8. Exodus 24, verses 7 and 8. The giving of the Ten Commandments is Exodus 20.

This is just a couple of chapters later. The law has just been given. Then the Book of the Covenant, then he, Moses, took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people, and they said, All that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. And Moses took blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words. I think that, and the covenant that God made with Abraham, I think that is agreeing for a denarius.

Now within that, you're going to have believers and unbelievers. You have a covenant people, but not all of Israel is saved. You don't have to be an Old Testament scholar to know that. There is an external people who have said, we will obey the Lord, and some of them have saving faith and some of them do not have saving faith. Listen to Paul in Romans 3 verses 1 and 2.

What advantage then has the Jew? Or what is the prophet of circumcision? Much in every way. Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. Paul talks about the grace of God expressed in the New Covenant and he anticipates the question, well then what good is it to be a Jew?

What profit is circumcision? And Paul says there is a lot of prophets, prophets in every way. They were entrusted with the oracles of God. They were called. They were given the word of God so they knew what God required of them and they knew that God required repentance and a sacrifice.

The other people of the earth didn't know those things. The other people of The earth were not called by God in the way that the Jews were. They were not entrusted with the oracles of God. So this people, this nation, this family descended from Abraham would be called by God through His Word. They would know things that everybody else on the earth wouldn't know.

But not all of them were chosen. All of them were called as a people, but not all of them were chosen in that they were elect before the foundation of the world and would be given saving faith by God. Now turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 2. To me, Ephesians 2 explains what Jesus is talking about in this parable. Ephesians 2.

And I'll try to keep this to a minimum, but I am going to do a little running narrative to match things up as we go through. Ephesians 2 beginning in verse 11. Paul writing to the Ephesians. Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands. That at that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

This was the Gentiles prior to the New Covenant. Idle in the marketplace. Idle, idle, idle. Vanity. Verse 13, Now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for He Himself is our peace who has made both one, both what?

Both Jew and Gentile into one and has broken down the middle wall of separation. In Galatians 3.28, Paul says there is no Jew and no Gentile in the New Covenant. Both have been made one. And you go right to the parable, and you see about one party claiming that they have been made equal. You made them equal with us.

That's exactly what Paul says in Ephesians 2. Verse 15, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, That is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace." I think this is what it means when they say, we served you in the heat of the day. We just come here, we set up, we're ready to sing. They had a whole tribe of people assigned to the religious machinery of the Old Covenant. A whole tribe.

And a whole family in that tribe devoted just to making the sacrifices. Have you ever done any of that? Never. Now they were in covenant with God, and it was good, it was a blessing. You could be saved in that covenant through faith, but it was a lot harder to work.

They served God in the heat of the day. And by the way, it's not just the Jewish people. Think about some of our forefathers who have served the Lord during the heat of the day. The reformers did. The early church did.

They were losing their heads for Jesus Christ. They were being lit on fire in the streets of Rome for Jesus Christ. They served Him during the heat of the day. We just come and sing. We'll praise God that we do.

But many of our forefathers have served Him in the heat of the day. Verse 16. And that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Holy Spirit. Now we have how the Jews responded. How the Jews responded to the news of a new covenant that would graft in the Gentiles, their response to that is a matter of public record. We don't have to guess.

In Acts 10, Peter is on a housetop. He is praying. He is given a vision by God. A sheep comes down and it has all kinds of unclean animals in it. God tells Peter, Peter kill and eat.

Peter says, not so Lord, not so Lord. He's so Peter. Not so Lord. I've never touched anything unclean. And God says what God has cleansed you must not call common.

And the servants of Cornelia show up right at that moment and Peter goes with his friends and his friends aren't so sure about going into this uncircumcised man's house but they go in and this household is saved and the Holy Spirit falls upon them. And in Acts 10 verses 34 and 35 it says this, then Peter opened his mouth and said, in truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation, whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him." And then we see the reaction to this when Peter gets back home in the first verses of Acts 11. Listen to Acts 11, 1 through 3. Now the apostles and brethren, Christians, part of the church, now the apostles but Jews, Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.

And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, saying, You went in to circumcise men and ate with them. And then Peter tells the story of the sheep and the unclean animals and that the Holy Spirit had fallen on them. And here's how it ends in verse 18. When they had heard these things, they became silent. And they glorified God saying, then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.

But the initial reaction was not that. It took a vision from heaven to get there, even for Peter and for these brethren who were in Jerusalem. So what do you make of the third hour, and the sixth hour, and the ninth hour, and the eleventh hour? Matthew Poole says, that's the prophets. That's the prophets.

The People of God keep degenerating, keep apostatizing, but God keeps going back to the marketplace through His prophets to bring back people to serve Him, to bring back people into His vineyard. That is really strong. I like that. That's good. But I think maybe even J.C.

Ryle does one better. And J.C. Ryle says, no, no, no. You're likely to think that the Gentiles are the ones who come in at the eleventh hour. No, the Gentiles come in at the third hour.

They're the first ones who haven't agreed to work for a denarius. And so that first group was brought in at the third hour, but God keeps coming and calling out nations, and He keeps going back to the marketplace and calling out nations. Listen to J.C. Ryle. He calls the families of the earth into the visible church at his own time and in his own way.

We see the children of Israel called and chosen to be God's people in the very beginning of the day. We see some of the Gentiles called in the present age by the laborers of missionaries. We see others like the millions of Chinese and Hindus still standing idle because no man hath hired them. Why is all this? We cannot tell.

We only know that God loves to hide pride from the churches and to take away all occasion of boasting. He will never allow the older branches of his church to look contemptuously on the younger. So J.C. Ryle actually says, hey, we might be the sixth hour of the day, or we might be the ninth hour of the day. See all those God-hating, rebellious nations, all those Muslim nations that en masse reject Jesus Christ, all those Hindu nations that want nothing to do with the one true God?

Maybe they'll be the eleventh hour. Maybe he'll go out to the marketplace and for his own purposes, in his own timing, call them to work in his vineyard to serve him. May it be so. May J.C. Ryle be right about that.

I pray that we would see it with our own eyes. Nations, peoples that we never thought, they were just too hardened to be brought into the service of God. No, it's not true. If it wasn't true of you, it's not true of Pakistan. If it wasn't true of you, it's not true of Vietnam or Laos or you name the country.

You name the hardened people. God is able. Now What does this matter to us? It's interesting, but the Gentiles were grafted in a long time ago, so it's not particularly news. It would have been news to the disciples, so we get why it would be important to them.

What does it matter to us? Think about what it means. Gentile friends, Think about what it means. You Gentiles, for thousands of years of history, you and I would have been outside the call of God. We would not have been entrusted with the oracles of God.

We would never have been called by Him. And no one will call God unjust for that. He does whatever He wants with his own things. He does whatever he wants. Many have lived and died in this world and never heard what you heard or seen what you've seen.

Do you know the mercy of God upon you to live in this time when you are called, when the oracles of God are entrusted to you, when the mercy of God has been poured out not just on a nation, but on the nations? No one will ever be able to say to the landlord that he is unjust with his own things. No one will ever raise that objection and say you are unjust to the landlord. But many, many, many, many, many will say, you are so merciful. You have dealt with me so much better than I deserved.

Many will say that. This parable teaches that. No one will say that God is unjust, but many, many, many will say, will fall down on their faces and say, Thank you God, you have been so merciful with me. I had a right to expect this, but you gave me that. And I can't explain it, but I bless your name.

Let's pray. God, I thank you that you have expanded the call so broadly. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and now so many more people hear the word of God. We have so much hope that when more are called, more will be chosen. God, we thank you as Gentiles.

I think we're mostly, if not all Gentiles, that we're now included in redemptive history and your redemptive workings in the world. Man always had enough knowledge to condemn him. But now you've made the knowledge of salvation so readily available. Help us, O God, to be faithful in this hour that you've called us to come to your service. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.