Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2602
“And about the eleventh home he went out and found others standing idle.” Matthew 20:6.
WE have come to the end of another year. Better is the end of a year than the beginning thereof. A year is begun with fear and trembling—it closes with joy and thankfulness. In the beginning of the year, we are like the sailor when he leaves port, hoists his sails and goes out on the broad sea toward a distant country. At the end of the year, we are sometimes like that mariner when he casts his anchor overboard and lies still in the haven. We have come into harbor, now, at the end of the year and here we rest and gratefully review our voyage.
But, in coming to the end of another year, we have some solemn things to talk about, as well as some on which to congratulate ourselves. This is to be our subject and may God make it both solemn and profitable for the winding-up of the old year. “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle.” These words are taken from the parable of the householder who went out early and hired laborers into his vineyard. And who went out again at the third hour, and the sixth hour, and the ninth hour and, at last, went out at the eleventh hour and did the same. And when the laborers came to be paid, he gave to those who were hired at the eleventh hour the same pay as to those whom he had hired at the beginning of the day. We shall note, in our text, first, the Sovereignty of Divine Grace. Secondly, the mercy of God. And afterwards we will endeavor to make a solemn application of the passage to both old and young.
I. First, in our text, we have DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY VERY PROMINENT.
When we say Divine Sovereignty, we mean that God has the same rights which an absolute monarch has, that, just as a sovereign, under the old Jewish laws, or under the Medes and Persians, had a right to do entirely as he willed with his subjects, and there were none that could stop his hand, or say, “What are you doing?” even so, God, only in an infinitely higher and much more righteous sense, is absolute Monarch in this world and has undoubted right to do with everyone of us just whatever He pleases. The Apostle Paul wisely asked, “Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?” That Doctrine of Divine Sovereignty—alas, too much dis-carded—must be proclaimed, however men may bite their lips, and however angry they may be to hear themselves humbled in the dust and Jehovah God exalted as their Master!
This parable shows the Sovereignty of God with regard to the calling of certain persons. The householder went out early in the morning and called so many. He went out at the third hour and called more. He went out at the sixth, the ninth and the eleventh hours and still he found more persons unemployed. Did he find them expecting or seeking work? No. He found them “standing idle in the marketplace.” They were not working, nor doing anything. He found them standing idle and so, just as he pleased, he said to some of them, “Go and work in my vineyard.” There is such a thing as Divine Sovereignty with regard to the choice of persons who are to be saved. If one man is saved and not another, God has made the difference and God has the rightto make the difference. If my brother shall enter Heaven and I shall be sent to Hell, God has a right to save my brother and He would be righteous in my damnation, for I deserve it. And if my brother does not deserve to be saved—as he does not—yet God has a right to give salvation to him and to withhold it from me, if so it pleases Him. My soul falls down in abject submission at His feet! I have no rights when I come before the Almighty. I have no claims on Him. I have so sinned and so erred that if He had sent my soul to Hell, I should have richly deserved it. God has a right to do as He wills with His creatures and He exhibits this right in His choice of those whom He calls to work in His vineyard.
But, again, Divine Sovereignty is exhibited in the time when the householder called his people. Some were called early in the morning. Some at the third hour, some at the sixth, some at the ninth, some at the eleventh. The man who was called at the eleventh hour did not grumble and say, “Why did you not call me in the morning?” The man who was called in the morning, though it is said that he afterwards murmured because he did not have more pay than the last who were hired, yet, if he had been in his right mind, would have been thankful to the householder that he had given him the honor of working in his vineyard and had called him so early into it. It is a mercy to be effectually called by Grace at any time and we must not dictate to God when He shall give us His Grace. God exercises His Sovereignty in calling and converting sinners when He pleases. We have some in our churches who have been Christians ever since they were four or five years of age. And we have others who were not converted until they were 60 or seventy. God calls His people out of the world and from the service of sin and Satan at all periods of life—and thus He exhibits His Divine Sovereignty in saving men when He pleases.