Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. Turn with me, if you would, to
Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12. I have a message this morning
that I pray our Lord might cause to be a very sincere message
to the hearts of all of us. I don't want this to be just
a correct doctrinal outline. I don't want to just preach an
outline this morning. I pray this might reach our hearts.
I pray the Lord might truly impress something very urgent on us this
morning. There is a truth that God has
recorded here in Mark chapter 12, and every soul on this earth
needs to hear it. And I mean hear it, not just
with the ear, with the heart. We all need to hear it, we need
to understand it, we need to believe it, and we need to bow
to it. I need to bow to what our God
has declared here. Our Lord tells us this truth
through the simplicity of a parable. He spoke often in parables. He
said in one place without a parable he didn't speak to the people. A parable is an earthly story
with a heavenly meaning. There's an earthly story we're
about to read here, but it means something that has eternal spiritual
consequences. So I pray as we look at this,
the Lord might give us the eyes of faith to see the true message
here. Now Mark chapter 12 verse 1,
it says, and he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain
man planted a vineyard and set an hedge about it and digged
a place for the wine fat and built a tower, and led it out
to husbandmen, and went into a far country. This man owned
a piece of property, and he planted a vineyard, and he hired some
servants to work the vineyard. All right, now turn with me if
you would over to Genesis chapter two. In Genesis chapter 2, it says
in verse 1, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished,
and all the host of them. Who finished them? God did. It was God's heaven and God's
earth. He made them. He owned them.
He owns them. Verse 8 says, And the Lord God
planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there he put the man
whom he had formed. God planted a garden. It was God's garden. Verse 15 says, And the Lord God
took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it
and to keep it. He took Adam and then Eve, and
He put them in His garden to work it, to dress it, to keep
it, just like this Master did of this land back in our text. Now, if you'll go with me back
over to Mark 12, it says in verse 1, He began to speak unto them
by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard,
and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the wine fat,
and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into
a far country. And at the season he sent to
the husbandmen a servant that he might receive from the husbandmen
of the fruit of the vineyard." That's reasonable, isn't it?
It's his vineyard. He owns it. They work for him.
And when the time was come, he said, I'm ready for my fruit.
It's his vineyard, it's his fruit. Verse three that says, they caught
this servant that the landowner sent. They caught him and beat
him and sent him away empty. And again, he sent unto them
another servant. And at him they cast stones,
and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully
handled. And again he sent another, and
him they killed, and many others, beating some and killing some. Now this parable is about God
and man. This parable is about God's right,
God's ownership, God's lordship, and the sin of His servants against
Him. This parable is about the goodness
and the fairness of the Master. God put Adam in a beautiful garden. And He was so good to Adam, He
was so fair to Adam. He said of every tree in this
garden, you may freely eat. Just one of them though, just
one. Don't touch this one tree. Everything else is at your fingertips. But this one tree, this is my
commandment. And the servants of God, Adam
and Eve, willingly, and that's the key word, they willingly
sinned against Him. Willingly. Now every man or woman after
Adam and Eve can say, They can say, if it's in their
heart to say it, they can say, well, that's not fair. I wasn't
there. And physically speaking, that's
true. But every man and woman since Adam and Eve has done the
exact same thing Adam and Eve did. The exact same thing. God delivered Israel out of Egypt. He sent Moses after they were
in bondage 430 years and he delivered them out and then he gave them
10 commandments. And do you know what the first
one was? He said, thou shalt have no other
gods before me. Do you know what the children
of Israel were doing while Moses was up on that mountain receiving
those Ten Commandments? You know what they were doing
at that exact moment in time? They were melting all their gold
down so they could make a golden calf to bow down to that calf
and worship it. They were making them an idol,
another god. The Lord was so good to Israel. Everything He did was so good,
but Israel provoked Him and they kept provoking Him and kept provoking
Him. And God, in mercy and in kindness,
in long-suffering and patience, He sent prophets to them. You
know what they said in return? We're tired of your prophets.
We want our own king. We're tired of Samuel. Give us
Saul. And God in mercy kept sending
them prophets. He sent Isaiah, he sent Jeremiah,
he sent Ezekiel, Daniel. They rejected every single one
of them. And then God in mercy sent one
last servant. He cried, Behold My servant,
whom I uphold, Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth. He sent His own Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said in Isaiah 53, He shall
grow up before Me as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry
ground. And He's going to have compassion
on those wicked sinners. John 1 says, He came unto His
own, just like God the Father sent Him to do. He came unto
His own, but do you know what His own did? Received Him not. They received Him not. You talk about unfair. Unfair. Man cannot say that God's
wrath and judgment on sinners is unfair. What Christ had to
endure was unfair. God sent the innocent one, the
spotless one. He sent the Redeemer, the friend
of sinners. And every single one in His flesh
rejected Him. But amazingly, look at a few
verses here, Matthew chapter nine. If you're turning with
me, look over at Matthew nine, verse 35. It says, Jesus went
about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues
and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness
and every disease among the people. You talk about kindness and compassion. After the way they treated him,
here's how he returned the treatment to them. He went everywhere preaching
the gospel to them, preaching good news to them, healing every
sickness and every disease among the people. Every time they came
to him, he didn't turn anybody away. Verse 36 says, but when
he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them. because they fainted and were
scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. He was moved with
compassion on them. Over in Luke chapter 19, verse
41 says, And when He was come near, now here He is coming into
Jerusalem. And when He was come near, He
beheld the city and He wept over it. saying, If thou hadst known,
even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong
unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. For
the day shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast
a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in
on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and
thy children with thee. And they shall not leave in thee
one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of
thy visitation. Oh, he said, if you'd only known. if you only knew what was in
store for you. In Luke 13, verse 34 says, O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them
that are sent unto thee, How often would I have gathered thy
children together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings? And you would not. You would
not. It's amazing, isn't it? God so loved this world that
He gave His only begotten Son. And what did man do with him? When God sent his own son, what
did man do with him? We'll look back in our text in
Mark chapter 12, verse six. It says, having yet therefore
one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them
saying, they will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said
among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him,
and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him, and
killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. The Lord Jesus Christ said, Father,
forgive them, they know not what they do. And what did they say
to him in return? Crucify him. Crucify him. We will not have that man reign
over us. We hate him. Kill him. Kill him. Now how does that apply to us? How does that today, now 2,000
years later, how does that apply to us? We can argue the fact
that we were not physically there. If you want to speak on physical
terms, that's true. But I'll tell you this, every
time you and I deny His absolute deity, we're calling Him a liar. And we're hating Him in the heart. Every time we don't bow, every
time we do not acknowledge Him to be our King, what we're saying
is, He doesn't reign over me. And we hate Him. And we kill
Him. We crucify Him in our hearts. Every time we say His blood was
not enough to secure our salvation. And I'll tell you, men and women
say that every single day. Religion is full of it. Men talk
about the fact that somehow we must add something to His work
of redemption on the cross. We need to add something to what
He's done. It's not finished until we add
our own two cents. We got to add our part. And when we do that, we're denying
His accomplishment. That's what we're doing. We're
denying who He is and we're denying what He has done. And in our
hearts, we're crucifying Him. We're crucifying Him. Every man
and woman has crucified Him. Every single man and woman hated
Him in the heart. All of us are by nature at enmity
with God, the enemy of God. None are without excuse. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now verse 9
says right here in Mark 12, What shall therefore the Lord of the
vineyard do? What do servants like us deserve? What would be the fair and just
and right dealing with us? Verse 9 goes on to say, He will
come and destroy the husbandman and will give the vineyard unto
others. And have you not read this scripture?
The stone which the builders rejected has become the head
of the corner. The one that every person rejected
is now head of the corner. King of kings, Lord of lords. Verse 11 says, This was the Lord's
doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. And verse 12 says,
they sought to lay hold on him, they hated him, they still wanted
to kill him, but they feared the people for they knew that
he had spoken the parable against them. They knew. But they feared the people and
they left him and they went their way. Now God is telling us, this is
This is a dire warning. Oh, I pray the Lord might truly
impress this on our hearts. God is telling us that is exactly
what I'm going to do. That's what God is saying. This
is what I'm going to do to every man and woman who has rejected
my son, hated my son, denied my son, killed my son. This is what I'm going to do. But in spite of that, God in
His goodness and in His kindness, oh, He's so kind and good and
merciful. You know what He's done? He sent
messengers. He sent messengers to us sinners. I had a messenger come to me
and preach the gospel to me. And God's messengers, they never
beg men and women to do anything. Never. Never. Man is in a bad state with God,
naturally speaking. God is angry with the wicked
every day. And God's messengers come to sinners, but they never
come begging them to do anything. If you hear a messenger beg you
to do something for God, rest assured that's not God's messenger.
God's messengers never beg men and women to do anything. God's
message is not a negotiation. If a man comes saying he's a
messenger of God and he's telling you, now if you'll do this, God
will do this, we'll negotiate this thing out. This is not a
negotiation. God's message is a declaration
only. And in that declaration, God's
messengers are not begging men to do anything. What we do is, as the scripture
puts it, we plead to God. Not pleading to men, we plead
to God. Job said, as a man pleads for
his neighbor. Not to his neighbor, for his
neighbor. All the pleading and begging
is unto God. Oh, God be merciful on us. God be merciful on us. Over in
Hebrews chapter 5, this is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 5 verse 7 says, Who in the days of His flesh, when He
had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard
in that He feared. Though He were a Son, yet learned
He obedience by the things which He suffered. And being made perfect,
He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey Him." Now I started this message by saying I don't want
to just preach an outline. I want to preach a sincere message
to the hearts of men and women, to my own heart and your heart.
And right now, I plead to God on our behalf. I plead to God
on behalf of every single one of us as a man pleads for his
neighbor. And here's the reason why. The
stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.
That's just the way it is. That's a fact that cannot be
undone. The lamb slain has become the
lion of the tribe of Judah. The judged one, Christ on that
cross, has become the judge. And vengeance is His. And He
will repay. But in this parable, He has given
us the absolute truth of one hope. One hope. I'm as sincere as I can possibly
be right now. It would crush me to find out
that any of us left this world without this
one hope. I don't want to leave this world
without this one hope, and I don't want you to leave this world
without this one hope. I plead to God that He might
make this message clear and plain to every single one of us, okay? Let me show you this in Matthew's
account of the same parable. If you have your Bible, go with
me over to Matthew 21. And look with me at verse 37,
Matthew 21, verse 37, it says, But last of all, He sent unto
them His Son, saying, They will reverence My Son. But when the
husbandmen saw the Son, they said among themselves, This is
the heir, come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast
him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the Lord therefore
of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably
destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto
other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their
season. Jesus saith unto them, Did you
never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders
rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? This
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore
say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you,
and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And
whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken. but on
whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Now,
here is the truth. This is the absolute truth. This
chief cornerstone, the stone on which every other stone is
built, Christ Jesus the Lord, has been rejected by every single
one of us. And because of that, In His judgment
and in His wrath, He is going to fall on every soul and grind
him to powder. But this is His promise. Every
soul that falls on this stone Every soul that falls on the
Lord Jesus Christ, acknowledging the sin against Him, begging
Him for mercy, every soul who falls down before Him is going
to be broken. He said that hard, hateful heart
against the Son of God, I'll break it. I'll cause it to cry
out for forgiveness. I'll cause it to be truly sorry
over the sin it has committed. and a broken and a contrite heart,
I'll hear. I'll answer and I'll have mercy
on that heart. I'll take that heart of stone
out and I'll put in a heart of flesh. I'll put a heart in there
that loves God. I'll put a heart in there that
loves His Word and loves His messengers and most of all, loves
His Son. And that soul will bring forth
fruit unto God. Now, I don't know how much time
we have left in this vineyard that we call earth. I don't know
how much time we have before the Lord of the harvest comes
back, but here's what I want to say to every single one of
us. Before He does, we need to kiss the Son lest He be angry. We need to fall on our chief
cornerstone for mercy. Every soul who does will find
mercy. This is not a begging and a pleading
with men. This is a declaration of truth.
Fall on the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast yourself on Him for mercy. And every soul who does is going
to be spared from the wrath to come. That's wonderful news for
a guilty soul. Oh, may God cause us to fall.
Till next Sunday morning, may He bless His Word to our hearts.
You have been listening to a message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport
Sovereign Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like
a copy of this message or to hear other messages of Sovereign
Grace, you can write to our physical mailing address at 905 Yadkin
Street, Kingsport, Tennessee 37660 or log on to our website
at kingsportsovereigngracechurch.com. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 10.45 a.m. and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 7.30 p.m. Please tune in next Sunday morning
at 8.30 for another message of God's free and sovereign grace.