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Is God Bound by Justice? · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I enjoyed, I I picked up on uh what m Matt was talking about with with cliches.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: And um I thought, well, that would be easy for me to like jump into that, grab onto that, and and and uh give you a couple of examples of uh cliches that have messed with me.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have uh uh have have ever like really believed strongly in a Christian cliche uh but as of now you don't believe that anymore?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like there was something that you really used to hear, you believed in, maybe you said it yourself, but then some changes were made and you see it differently, and so you don't you don't quite believe that anymore.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I back in 1984, I believe it was, I was asked to speak in the church that I was attending, and so I'm getting ready to speak this coming that coming week.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so you do what you do, you try to get inspiration, you try, you pray, you you try to hear God and and get a get a sermon.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so what I felt that I was inspired to preach on was about how God helps those who help themselves.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: See, you're you're you're see you're chuckling because you know you you think that's funny.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't think it was funny at the time.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was a truth.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was something I had heard, and I'd heard it uh many times, and I'd heard it in my church, and I had maybe I had said it before, and I assumed it was true.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I was I was um very young then, as I said, it was 1984, so I was like two years old.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And but but I uh I'm I'm looking for it in my Bible, and how many know that it's I couldn't find it because it's not in there, right?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I I really thought it was, and I was confused, and I got went to my reference materials, like I know it's in there, and it of course it turned out it wasn't in there, it was not a verse, it was a cliche.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um so you know, I thought, well, that that ruins that that sermon, so I prayed about it some more, and I changed it, and what I ended up preaching that week was God helps those who cannot help themselves.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a much, much, much better message.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: But that's an example of a cliche that I would have sworn was true, and it wasn't.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, another one was cleanliness is next to godliness.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: I just assumed it was a verse somewhere in the Bible.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like Proverbs to me, um, but it's not in there.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's not cleanliness is good, right?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just but it's just not as Matt would say, biblical.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's not biblical.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: But one of them I want to deal with, I want to deal with a cliche that I hear often uh when I'm discussing the things of God with people, uh, because I talk a lot about God's love.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'll hear people say things like, God is a God of love, but he's also a God of justice.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um as if they are polar opposites, or somehow they're, you know, they're two uh opposite ends of something, like, or they balance each out because they're beach that balance each other out because they're they're so different.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or they'll say it this way, they'll say, Um, God is a just God, he's a which I believe he is, but they'll say God is a just God, but the inference when it's used is that it's kind of like this that he he loves you, he's really good, and he he loves you, but because I'm just see, I I I love you, says the Lord, but because I'm just and you did this thing, uh, sorry.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I love you, but my hands are tied, see.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I can't bless you, even though I love you, even though my heart is good, even though I want to.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: I am bound by something higher than myself called justice.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I cannot bless you, or even worse, I may have to do something or uh or at least allow something horrible because I'm a God of justice, and even though I love you very much, justice says, I can't follow that right now, I have to do this.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of how I hear that in most cases when people bring that up.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they usually do mean something along those lines.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so let's look at that and let's see if God is bound by this thing called justice.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to start off by using um the parable that Jesus told in Matthew chapter 20.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I was talking to someone, I was talking to Glenda and some others this this morning about this very thing, and and and uh and and Glenda said what most people would say, what uh what I would say, what I say when I read this.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: That seems so unfair.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: This this story seems so unfair.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus told this this story on purpose because it does have a sense of unfairness in a certain degree, but but I think if we if you can follow me in this and we look at it, you'll see that it's it it is it actually is more fair than maybe we see on the surface.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll just start off by uh reading it uh real quickly here in verse one.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus telling this parable says, For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when he says the kingdom of heaven is like this, he's saying, he's he said, I'm introducing something to you.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's here's your thoughts and your here are your ways.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of heaven is something different.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know you know about the kingdom of this world, I know you know how it goes around here, but I'm not talking to you about this.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking to you about the kingdom of heaven, whose ways are higher than your ways, whose thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different realm, a different way of operation.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: While this is according to whatever it is that you believe and know and have figured out, this is according to God's ways, God's heart, his mind.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is according to heaven.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of heaven is like this.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Your way is like that, but the kingdom of heaven is like that.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Did I make the point about 20 times just now?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: He says, now, watch this.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, which is a day's wages, he sent them into his vineyard.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: I want to pause for just a second here.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And notice there in verse two again, he said that he agreed with the laborers for a denarius, a day's wages.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: He agreed with them.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: They made an agreement.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: They made an agreement, and this is like this is six in the morning, beginning of the day, and they're gonna work the day out, and they made an agreement that if you work the day, you will get a day's pay.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: What's more fair than that?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: An honest day's work for an honest day's pay.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Did they sign paper on it?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, maybe they shook hands, maybe they just said yes to it.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: They said, We will do that, but they made an agreement.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And verse 3 says, So he went out about the third hour, which is nine in the morning, and he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: So they went.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Again he went out at the sixth and the ninth hour, twelve o'clock, three o'clock.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: He did likewise.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And at the eleventh hour he went went and found others standing idle, said to them, What if why have you been standing here idle all day?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: He 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.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Did you see that with those that came later in the day, nine, twelve, three o'clock, five o'clock, did you see that he did not make the same deal with them that he did with those that he hired first?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: The first ones, they made an agreement that he would pay them a day's wages, one denarius.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: The other ones, when he hired them, he said, You go work in the vineyard, and whatever is right or just I will give you.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the first group, they know exactly what they're gonna do.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: They they made the deal that I think that I would want to make.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody says, Rick, I want you to do a job for me.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: I will always ask, find out, what am I gonna make here?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: How about you?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody else like that?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us, how many of you, if somebody says, I want you to do a job for me, and you say, How much am I gonna make?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: and they say, Well, I'm not gonna tell you, would you say, You bet I'm gonna do that?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us would say, How much am I gonna?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: We want to know if it's worth it.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the first group, they made a deal and they said it's worth it.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: A day's work for a day's pay.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: We'll do that.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: The other ones, he said he didn't tell them that he'd give them a day's pay.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't tell them how much he would give them.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I'll give you whatever's right.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, whatever I whatever I want to give you, basically.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how many of you would do that?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, if somebody tries to hire you, and you say, Well, will you give me this much?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And they'll say, I'll just give you whatever I feel like.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us wouldn't take that deal.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: We want to have a set amount, we want to we want to know really exactly what we're going to make.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: But he didn't do it with these guys.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And most people would not take that deal.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: If he says, You go work out work the day for me, and I'll just give you whatever's right.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: How much is that?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: You'll know, you'll know at the end of the day.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us would not take that deal unless, unless, for whatever reason, you believed that this man was good, that he would do right by you, that you could trust him.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you didn't think you could trust him, you'll say, huh, you're gonna walk away.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I would.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know you.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the way that you look, I don't I don't think I trust you.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: You don't look like the kind of guy that I don't know, no, thank you.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hire somebody else.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: That would be me.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Unless maybe I'd know him enough, or maybe I've heard of him, or maybe I just think he's sounds honest to me.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: I might do that.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: But for whatever reason, if I trust that he's not gonna just give me a dollar in today's wages for a day's work, if I trust that he's going to give me at least what I think is fair, if I trust him, I'll take the deal.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's grace.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's faith.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: You see that?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: The other one takes no grace, no faith.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: One of them, one of them, you've got a deal.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know exactly what's gonna happen.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a verse here in Romans chapter four that goes with this.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think it spells it out very well.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 4, verse 4 says, Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Pause.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So when those first people that came, when they worked, starting at 6, 6 o'clock in the evening, 12 hours later, they finished their work and they go to get their pay.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: The landowner owes them something.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because they fulfilled their part of the contract, right?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: They worked a day.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: So does the owner own the owe them money?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: He does.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's not grace, right?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's no grace in this.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's a debt.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: After they've worked a day, the landowner now owes them a day's pages, a day's wages.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's obligated to give a day's wages.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: But to him who does not work, but believes on him or trusts him, don't you have to trust the landowner that's not telling you the exact amount you're going to make?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: The landowner that just says, I'll give you what I want to give you.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you have to?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He that does not work but believes on him that justifies the ungodly.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's really good.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: His faith is counted for righteousness.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, I'm seeing so many things here.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: The things that I was taught led me to feel and believe that if I were to do certain things, that God was more or less obligated to honor that.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: If I said the right things and did not say the wrong things, if I obeyed certain commands, if I tithed, not only tith, but gave offerings, not only gave offerings, because then they said it's not tithes and offerings.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: They show me that there's also alms.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: You give tithes, offerings, and alms.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Then somebody wrote a book on first fruits, and so it's not, you're not, so I, you know, I'm like, am I giving enough?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's tithes, offerings, alms, and first fruits.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I did all of those things.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got all these, I'm worshiping, I'm doing all these things, and I've got my bases covered.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I feel like I've got confidence that God is going to grant me what I'm looking for.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to answer my prayer because I more or less have covered all my bases, and God is now in a corner.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: He has to bless me, he has to answer my prayer.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's actually, the word sometimes was used, he's obligated because of his justice, because I have fulfilled my part.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: He owes me something.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no grace in that, there's no real faith in that.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: We called it faith, but it was of debt.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was based on my ability to do what I did.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: The contract that was made with these people that started at six in the morning, it was all based.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Every bit of it, none of it was based upon the goodness of the landowner.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was all based on the ability of the workers to fulfill their part.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: They made an agreement.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's there's law involved in that.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, an agreement.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So also known, Jesus is telling a parable here.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he's telling a parable that's that does reveal two different ways of doing that.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: There is, you know, the Old Testament was essentially an agreement.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's called the Old Covenant.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: An agreement.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now here is the agreement in a nutshell.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: In Exodus chapter 20, so it was, it was, God told Moses, here's what he told them first.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, on the third, he says, I'm going to come down on this mountain.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and I want, he says, tell the people to come up because I want them to hear what I say.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now he says, now set a border around it.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: He said, they can't pass that.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but tell them to get themselves ready for on the third day.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm going to come down on that mountain.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet blast, tell the people to come up.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want to talk and I want them to hear and I want to make them a kingdom of priests.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Exodus 20 says that they they they said, Moses, when it on that third day when it happened, there was smoke and there was thunder and quaking and lightning and fire, and they were so intimidated by it.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: They were so afraid, they said, No, we don't want to go up.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Moses, you go.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: You get the instructions and come back and tell us what to do, and we will do it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: An agreement is now being made.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Watch this.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the law's given.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So there's the law, we know there's lots and lots and lots of commands, right?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hundreds.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Also, at the end of this whole thing in Deuteronomy 28, here's what it says.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Half of you get on this mountain, half you get on the other one.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: This one, say, blessed is the one if you keep all the commands.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: That I've commanded you in this.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you keep all, not half of them, not 90% of them, but if you keep all of them, right, here's all this good stuff that's going to happen.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you work from six to six in the evening, here's what you're going to get paid.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you keep all these commands, because you said you would, then blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed coming in, blessed going out, blessed in the basket, blessed in the store, blessed are your kids, blessed are your cattle, blessed are your crops, blessed, blessed, blessed, bless, blessed.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: I should have been a singer.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Ha ha ha.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, but, right?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: But if you don't cursed in the city, cursed in the field, cursed coming in, cursed going out, cursed in the basket, cursed in the store, cursed are your cattle, cursed are your kids, cursed are cursed, curse, cursed, curse.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't, if you curse, if you do them all, here's the pay.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what you get.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we go to the New Testament.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: What's Paul say about the breaking of the law?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, James even said it.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: People say James is much more legalistic.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: James said, if you break one, you're guilty of breaking all of it.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because the pay's off, the good stuff's off.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't do all, right?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we know that.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: But that was the agreement.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting, just to throw this out there, when you read through all the bad stuff that'll happen if they don't do it all, then it ends up with talking about really, I think it's describing what happened in the generation of Jesus with the destruction that happened because he said, What's going to happen is a people strong and mighty that you had not known.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to come and they're going to besiege all your cities round about, and you're going to starve, and the famine's going to be so bad that you're going to eat each other.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: And history says that they actually did that.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So there was that kind of fulfillment of the law or the agreement also.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you got those that made an agreement, those that had come earlier, old covenant, made an agreement, don't get that pay.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what about all these other ones?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Those that came last.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, because many are last shall be first.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is go they're going to get something better.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we know what happens.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: They get a full day's pay.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, on the face of that, most of us, myself included, I look at that, and it says that those who were, when they watched the pay being dished out, and they saw those that came at five o'clock getting a full day's pay, also those at three o'clock and so on, then they they thought they start talking among them.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, wow, if they're getting that much, just think of what we're gonna get.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they come and they get their pay, right?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they get a denarius, one day's pay.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, and they complained against the landowner, right?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I on the surface there we get that.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like I there, me, if I'm in that story, and I don't know any better, I'm complaining because I'm like, wait a minute.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: They said, we have worked all day and borne the burden and the heat of the sun, and you made them equal to us.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of sounds like that older brother in the prodigal son story.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: You've made them equal to us.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And and and we got to go to what the answer of the landowner, who's a type of the Lord Himself, right?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Down there in verse 12.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: They said, 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.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: But he answered one of them and he said, Friend, I am doing you no wrong.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not being unjust here.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Did you not agree for that much?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Take what's yours and go your way.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Watch this.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things, or is your eye evil because I'm good?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Are you mad at me?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Are you jealous because I'm good?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: So the last will be first and the first will be last.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, he says, Is it not lawful for me?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: So he's not breaking any claims of justice here.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's higher than that.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because with this grace and faith thing that we're in, there is no limit to his goodness in it.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: So called justice does not bind his hands from being good.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: See, because this is based upon his heart.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: The landowner says, Can I not do what I want?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: I own the land.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: I can do Anything I want.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: The limits are off.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I can be free to be good to them.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not bound by what you did according to your works.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's where bondage is.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: But in grace and Christ and faith, it's like even God is set free with this in a sense.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: We were talking about these things.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking about these things with a group of people after a church service some years ago at lunch.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I got a revelation while we were talking.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: It just lit up and I thought, ah, and it changed how I was going to operate in a certain way.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what it was was had to do with my the way I tip servers in a restaurant.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because I always thought that I was a pretty good tipper.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I always gave something, even if it was horrible.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if it was good, then I I gave more.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds right.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but I think, but whenever I ask, most people say, that's what I do.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm generous.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'll always give something.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you like to give no no money, but you like to give like a gospel tract or something for a tip?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good old church joke, right?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I got this light turned on, and I just said, I'm not going to do that anymore.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know what?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've just decided from now on, I'm not going to tip the server on how good they have done.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to start tipping on how good I am.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Rather than God giving to us on based on how good we have done performance, He can give according to how good He is.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we see happening here.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so now I believe I always tip more than what most people would say is a great tip, according to those percentages that they give you, you know.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I and this thing is so good, it actually got me a wife.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: So me and Judy, after we had just started dating, this was like our second dinner date out at a restaurant, third date.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we had had a everything has been magical.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Our first date, magical.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: We were floating on clouds and staring into each other's eyes and eating and talking, and it was magical, really.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Next night, next date, it was wonderful.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the third dinner date.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're at a restaurant.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not magical.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: The server is not having a good night.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Server is messing up our orders.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: The magic is just keeps getting broken.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: And after we'd eaten, I paid and I tipped the girl and wrote her a little note.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Then we're leaving the restaurant and we're out there in the lobby.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Judy turns around.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: She hugs me really, really tight and whispers into my ear, You're such a good man.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, what?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, I can read upside down.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: I saw what you did.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And she was she was impressed, she liked, because she'd been a server before.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: And she knows that as a server, you can have a bad day.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, I think you even said you were you were a little irritated by it, right?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: To say the least, right?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because she was breaking the magic.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been a server, and I know you don't do that, and you don't do this.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And she was not having a good night.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I tipped her, not based on how good she was.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: I tipped her based on how good I could be.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that sound more like daddy?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I wrote her a note encouraging her.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds more like daddy.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, and things like that.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: When I get little revelations like that, I get a little happy inside.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I see this.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Daddy, I'm I'm starting to act a little more like you.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: I I I see it now, I'm getting it.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm growing, Daddy.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, maybe some of you think it wasn't fair.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of the other servers who had done good jobs at their tables and saw this server might not have thought it was fair that that server got what she got.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it was still lawful for me to give that.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: It might not have been standard, because I think we have standard in our mind of what what we should do and what's right, what's right, what's just.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: See, and that's the whole thing about this, is we have what's right and what's just.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have a standard of that in our own minds about what it is.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it's often not based upon the kingdom of heaven's justice, it's based on our own idea of justice, usually based on what we've been taught about what's right and what's wrong and what's deserved and what's not deserved.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, that's fine and dandy in that world, but there's the kingdom of heaven that's like this.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you how this world is, I'm telling you how the kingdom of heaven is.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: You Paul, uh Paul, I'm sure he was talking about himself in in uh in 2 Corinthians 12 when he said, I knew a man in Christ caught up to the third heaven, and he says he gets caught up in the third heaven and he heard things, right?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: And what did he hear?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: He heard things that were not lawful for man to utter.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: What's that mean?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: So the Pharisees would come to Jesus.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why must you do that which is not lawful?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not lawful, Jesus.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Not lawful, Jesus.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're doing this on the Sabbath, you're doing that, you're forgiving sins, you're you're you're a woman caught red-handed, letting her go, you're doing all this, not other things that the disciples saw him do.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Going to the gatherings, stepping out on the way, walking around among the tombs with this guy, touching this guy, touching these people, doing all that.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Why must you do that which is unlawful, Jesus?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing what I see my father do, I'm hearing what I say my father say.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hearing things that are not lawful, right, or just for you to say, according to your way of thinking.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Paul said, I heard things in heaven.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: If it was in heaven, it was right.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: If it was being said in heaven, because the will of God is that it would be on earth like it is in heaven, so that's the good one.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: My ways are higher than your ways.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: My way, my thoughts are not your thoughts.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: So let the man of iniquity forsake his thoughts and come.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing, Jesus?
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Doing what I see the Father do, hearing what I see my father say.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Things that are not lawful on earth are very lawful in heaven.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: What's lawful in heaven?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: A woman caught in adultery, I do not condemn you.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's lawful in heaven.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let a paralytic down the first thing I say is, your sins are forgiven.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Who can for you can't forgive sin?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's lawful in heaven.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're eating with sinners.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's lawful in heaven.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're showing respect to them.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what's lawful in heaven.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: You're giving them more than they deserve.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's totally lawful in heaven, that's why.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing me?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we're talking about when we talk about grace, faith, and love.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm about to wrap this up.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 55, down in verse 8, he says that, My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways, says the Lord.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: And just to mention, if you just read this short chapter here, everything about it that leads up to this, when he's talking, he's talking about his ways and his thoughts, what is he talking about?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: He starts off by saying, Everybody that's thirsty, come without money, come and get it.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Wine and milk without money.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Grace.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: He talks about come and and get the sure mercies.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Mercies.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: What's that?
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's his thoughts, his ways, mercy.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: And his mercy endures forever.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's another question we deal with in our own minds.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: And how long does that mercy last?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Does it really endure forever?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: But we've got all these other things.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: But what about this?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: What about that and all that?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's something that will outlast all of that.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Come and be filled with my abundance.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts, and God will abundantly pardon.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: See, many of them.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Come.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 31 said it this way.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the covenant that I'm going to make with the house of Israel.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is verse 33.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put my law in their minds.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'll write my law in their hearts.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be their God.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: They'll be my people.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Someone says, Well, see, he put the Ten Commandments in our heart.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: He put his ways, his laws, his character, his nature.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: They abide within us, and his ways are higher than that agreement that was made with those first people.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Verse 34.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: And no more will every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: I love the picture of this.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Can you see it?
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Can you embrace this?
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Can you embrace the time, the place, and the day where no man will have to teach his neighbor saying, Know the Lord, know the Lord.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're gonna know me.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful to me.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: I have the vision for it.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea how long this will take, but ultimately thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: They will know me from the worst to the best.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'll forgive their iniquity, but their sin I will remember no more.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'll be good to them.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have a sense of fairness that's based upon the balancing scales of some kind of a deal we think we have with God.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: God, if I be good, then I get good.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I be bad, then I get bad.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's the deal that I think that this is the deal that I operate in, then I certainly want it for that guy and that guy.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that one, he deserves really bad.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's done bad.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm counting on it.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is a facetious prayer of mine.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm counting on it, Lord, because you're a God of justice and I know he's gonna get his in the end.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to see it in this lifetime, but if not, I take solace in knowing that he's gonna get it somehow, some way.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: Or there's the lawfulness of heaven.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: Which can do such a love work, a restorative work, a a changing, internal changing work.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's called Apocytostasis, the restoration of all things.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: That somehow renders good to the sinner.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow renders good to the one that only worked one hour and did not deserve that much abundance, goodness and pay.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's called grace and love, and it is based on something.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's all based on what I try to convey virtually every time.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's all based on the goodness of the landowner.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's based on the one who loves me in spite of my shortcomings, in spite of my ignorance, in spite of so many things that I could list.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: We trust him.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not based on our ability to finish the day out, but based on his ability to be good to us.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's an old song by the newsboys, I think it was the newsboys.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, an old song that said, When you don't get what you deserve, it's a real good thing.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: But when you get what you don't deserve, it's a real good thing.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I got I go a little step further and say he loves his children.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: And because he loves his children, just because you're his child, you really deserve love.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you deserve goodness.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the place we get it is from him who is really just.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: But not that low kind of, not that unrighteous judgment.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: For he would come with righteous judgment.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's Isaiah 11.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: He will not judge according to the sight of his eyes or the hearing of his ears.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's external judgment.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's judgment based on what you do.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: But he would judge righteously.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: In John 5, he said, My justice is my justice is just, it's right.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because I seek the will of my Father and not my own.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because if it weren't that way, then he hangs on that cross and he could say to hell with all of them.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: But he sought the will of the Father, the justice of heaven.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: God's justice said, Forgive them.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know their right hand from their left.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's just.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, God is just.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Bible says He is faithful and just to forgive our sins.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Would you all stand?
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for the blessing, Father.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: The blessing of your goodness, the blessing of your love upon each and every one of us.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: I thank everyone as I thank you that as everyone goes out today, the goodness and love and the favor of their Father rests upon them.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you that they truly are more than blessed coming in, and they shall be blessed going out.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I thank you, Father, for all this in the wonderful name of Jesus.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Have a wonderful day.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful outside.