SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/12/2023 9:04 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-7 “Vindication
of Kingdom Equality”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
20:13-16
Message of the verses: “13 But he replied
to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for
a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last
worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what
belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first,
and the first last.’”
John MacArthur writes “From this parable flow many
spiritual principles that are closely related to the central truth that the
gift of eternal life is equal for all believers.” There are ten principles that he goes on to
mention and in the last SD I went over the first five, and in today’s SD I want
to go over the last five principles, and this will complete this entire
teaching on this parable that Jesus gave, which began in the last verse of
chapter nineteen and ends in verse 16 of chapter 20.
The
sixth principle is that all who come into the vineyard worked. It does not matter that they came late or
early they all worked. We have just
finished with what is called “Passion Week” which ended with the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave.
While He was on the cross He gave salvation to one of the thief’s who was
crucified with Him. This person died
within hours of receiving this most precious gift, this still testifies today
to the saving grace of God. This man was
just as saved and justified as one who became a believer in an early age and
served the Lord all of his life. In the
history of the church there have been many deathbed conversions. Now remember we are talking about salvation,
and not works that are done after salvation.
The
seventh principle is that God has the divine authority and ability to keep His
promises. In this parable we see that
the landowner went out at different hours of the day to hire workers and at the
end of the day he had the funds to pay all of them the same wage, as there was
no shortage of funds to pay all of them.
Now as we think about Christ’s sacrifice on the cross the same principle
applies as His death paid for all who come to Him for salvation, from the fall
of Adam and Eve until the Day of Judgment.
“If any person is not saved it is because he will not be saved. Man’s sin can never outstrip God’s grace,
because ‘where sin increases, grace increases all the more’ (Rom. 5:20).”
We move onto the eighth principle and that is just as
God always gives what He promised, He also always gives more than is
deserved. In the parable we see that the
ones who came at 6:00 AM and worked all day were paid as much as the ones who
came at 6:00 AM, and in the selfish view of those who worked all day, they
thought they deserved to be paid more.
However the landowner was no more obligated to hire the first workers than
the others. MacArthur writes that “He
would have been entirely justified to have passed them all by, and all of them
were paid more than they were worth. In
an infinitely greater way, no believer is qualified to receive God’s least
favor, much less salvation, and even the best person by human standards is
blessed immeasurably beyond what he could possibly deserve.” Here
is where I don’t understand something that has been bugging me, and that is
that when a person is saved on his deathbed, he has missed out his entire life
in serving the Lord. I suppose that I am
not looking at this correctly, but I have been serving the Lord a few months
past 49 years and I certainly do not have any quarrels with doing this as it
has all been a pleasure in serving the Lord.
I realize that this parable is about salvation and not service.
The
ninth principle, which is a corollary of the previous one” writes John
MacArthur, “is humility and a genuine sense of unworthiness is the only right
attitude in which a person may come to the Lord. Like the elder brother who was resentful when
the prodigal son returned home and was royally received by their father, the
early workers lost some of their humility at the end of the day because of
their jealously. But they had come to
the vineyard in the same attitude of submissiveness in which the others came.” "Remember your rewards will be greater than those accepting on their last breath! Be thankful they made it to glory!"
Now
we want to look at the tenth and last principle which is that of God’s
sovereign, overarching grace. From the
beginning to the end of this parable it pictures God’s divine, boundless
grace. “The men’s work had absolutely no
relationship to what they were paid.
Even less do men’s works of supposed righteousness have any relationship
to what they receive through faith in Jesus Christ. Just as sin is the great equalizer that causes
every man to “fall short of the glory of God’ (Rom. 3:23), God’s grace is the
great equalizer that removes sin and makes every believer equally acceptable to
Him in Christ.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful for the grace of God who
through His grace saved me a little over 49 years ago. I did not deserve it or could I have earned
it as His love, mercy and grace were bestowed on me on that warm January day
while visiting a friend in Casselberry Florida.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord to give me the words to say
to the old friends that I am to have breakfast with on Friday.
4/12/2023 9:56 AM
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