Thank you. Luke chapter 20. Luke chapter 20. Don't you love
being here? What we're doing. Oh, love thy kingdom, Lord, and
God's people. Don't you love seeing them come
through that door with their faces? Glad to see the brethren. They're glad to see us. What
a blessing. What a blessing. This is a parable the Lord told
about his vineyard. The Lord was preaching and teaching
chapter 19, verse 47. Chapter 19, verse 47, he taught
daily in the temple, but the chief priests and scribes and
chief people, chief of the people, sought to destroy him. It's amazing,
isn't it? He's the truth personified
and meek and lowly and wonderful. They taught to destroy him. That's
amazing. Chapter 20, verse 1, it came to pass on one of those
days as he taught the people in the temple and preached the
gospel, the chief priests and scribes came upon him with the
elders. They ganged up on him. He taught and preached the gospel. That's what he did. That was
his vocation. That's what he came to do. He
said, I've come to preach the gospel. And that's what all of
his This was the Son of God sent by God to preach first and then
to die. But to preach, to teach, and
so do all of those sent by God. That's how you know them. That's
what they do. They teach God's Word and they preach the gospel. That's what they're sent to do.
That's how salvation cometh. Well, these scribes and Pharisees
who were supposed to be teaching and preaching the gospel, who
were not. They came upon him, and verse
2, they spake unto him, and you hear their indignation, their
righteous, self-righteous indignation, saying, Tell us, by what authority
doest thou these things? Who is he that gave thee this
authority? Who do you think you are? Who
gave you this permission, this authority? Where are your credentials?
Tell us where you came from. Who sent you? Who authorized
you? Who recognized you? Who sent
you? Show us your degree. Show us
your Master of Divinity. Show us your doctorate. They said the same thing to John
the Baptist, remember? Who are you? Where are you from?
And he wouldn't tell them. He wouldn't tell them. I'm just
a voice. And neither does our Lord here.
He doesn't tell them. Where'd you go to school? Where'd you go to school? Who
gave you this license to preach? You know, there was one man in
Scripture that had formal religious training. You know that? One
man. Saul. Tarsus. Paul. You know what he said about it?
garbage. No, he said it was a waste of
time. He had to renounce it, threw it all away. All he learned
was error. As God's preachers, like God's
Son, are taught of God and sent by God and blessed by His Spirit
and And they preach, Paul said, a demonstration of the Spirit
and the power of God. Little did these hypocrites know,
and that's what they were. They were pretenders. They were
self-appointed priests and scribes and all, self-appointed. or somebody
in a seminary recognize them and put them where
they put them. That's not the ministry. You
don't do that. It's not of men. Paul said that
in Galatians 1. He said, my apostleship, my ministry
is not of men. It's of God. Little did these
little hypocrites realize, but this was the Lord God of heaven
who gave them permission to be where they were. They were the
ones trespassing, unsent by God. They were the ones. And they
were only doing this by His permission. They were allowed to continue
by His permission. Same today. Our Lord said this,
he said in the last day, many false prophets shall arise, didn't
they? They go out into the world, many,
he said that, it's a sign of the time. And in Israel of old,
they had true prophets, but as in this story, they despised
them, Israel despised them, they killed them all. So what did
God do? He allowed false prophets to
rise up, and the place was full of false prophets. And it started
with Jeroboam over when Solomon's wives took his heart away, and
God divided the kingdom. So they feared the Lord and worshipped
idols. They didn't fear the Lord, but
they said they did. So there was a mixture. So there were
more and more false prophets because people rejected the truth. So God, and the same Paul said
in 1 Timothy, turn away their ears from the truth unto fables,
and heap to themselves, heap up, teachers having itching ears. There's going to be more and
more and more and more. And that's why there's a so-called church
on every corner in town. You can find just whatever people
want to hear, you can find somebody to tell them. But the truth is rare, the truth
is precious, and those who preach it are rare. Few and far between,
hard to find. As he said, many false prophets
and many false churches, but they're only allowed to continue,
as John said, he who letteth. Antichrists, there are many antichrists,
John said. Only he who now letteth shall
live. So he's the one. And they said,
who let you do this? They should have. The question
is, he's one. Who let you, who sent you? And
men ask questions, you know, that they can't be answered.
They make demands of God. They make this demand of Christ.
Later, they ask him all sorts of questions. And he answered
them wisely. And then he asked them one question.
You remember? He said, I'm going to ask you
a question. And nobody could answer it. But men think, men think so highly
of themselves, their wisdom and their, that they think they can
stump God. They think they can refute the
truth. I love the story of Stephen in
Acts chapter 7. Stephen was a deacon. That means
that he waited tables. That wasn't a high office. It
was to God, a servant, but it wasn't like a high priest. It
was just a table waiter. They just served tables. That's
what a deacon was. Stephen was a deacon. How about
the Lord? Blessed him greatly. Like Philip. Philip was a deacon,
but oh, the Lord blessed him to preach, didn't He? Everywhere.
Well, Stephen, it says of Stephen, they could not resist. The scribes,
pharisees, the lawyers, they could not resist the wisdom that
he had or the spirit by which he spoke. They couldn't do it.
Nor can men today, the so-called wisest of men, could not resist
a refute or could not get in a real debate of God's Word with
a man sent by God. Can't do it. They just don't
know the truth. It would be refuted. They would
be embarrassed. All right? Verses 4 through 8. Verse 3. He answered them. Verse
3. I'll ask you one thing, and you
answer me. The baptism of John, was it from
heaven or of men? And they're raising it. Let's
get together. The truth is written in God's
hearts. Wisdom is justified over children.
God's people know. He's a man sent from God or he's
not. And if he's not, don't listen to him. How do you know him?
He preaches one thing. He does one thing. clear to us,
but they had to confer with one another. They reasoned with themselves. If we say John's ministry was
from heaven, he'll say, why then believe him not? Why don't you
hear him? Why don't you believe him? If God sent him, you better
listen to him. And they didn't. They rejected
John. If we say he's a man, he's just
sent by men, the people will stone us. They're persuaded that
John was a prophet. They're persuaded that God sent
him. And then we'll lose some of our people. And so they answered. They answered that they could
not tell whence it was. No, they just refused to answer. It's like I remember hearing
a preacher years ago saying, It's not that people can't understand
the truth like election. It's not that. That's not it.
It's easy to understand. God chose this one. He didn't
choose this one. What's hard to understand about
that? Huh? What is it then? They don't like
it. So they refuse to answer. I don't understand election.
What's hard to understand about it? God who saved us because
God saved, chose them. They won't be saved unless God
chose them. What's hard to understand about that? It's not hard to understand. They
just don't like it. So they said, we don't know.
So our Lord said, neither tell I you by what authority I do
these things. And then He began to speak to
the people this parable of the vineyard. Now, one more thought
on this. We could all learn a lesson from
our Lord's wisdom here. I thought about this. Our Lord
was truly a man of few words. He only spoke with wisdom and
patience and power, with patience and even compassion, but anger
wasn't necessary. But he was a man of few words.
Scripture tells us to be slow to speak, slow to answer. A wise
man studieth to answer. If you can't get an answer from
God's Word, it's just an opinion. And our Lord in Proverbs says,
Answer not a fool according to his father, lest ye be like him.
Don't get in a debate. Don't argue with fools, with
unbelievers. We're not We're not set to debate
with unbelievers. We're not out to prove God. You
know that? We declare Him. We're not trying
to prove God. We can't convince anybody of
anything. But when God, like Saul of Tarsus,
when God came to Saul, who was one of these scribes and one
of these Pharisees, it's all clear then when he met the Sovereign
Lord. So we're not out to prove God,
and so let's not debate with and argue with unbelievers. Our
Lord didn't do it. One time, I love this, the disciples
came to Him, and they were impressed with these Pharisees. They looked
the part of holy men, and the disciples were just vigilant.
And that flesh in it, they were impressed with these fellows.
And they came to Him and said, Lord, the Pharisees were offended.
You offended them. He said, leave them alone. They're blind leaders. Don't
argue. Don't be impressed with it. Don't
argue with those fellows. They're blind. Leave them alone. He didn't come for them. He came
for the common people. All right. The Lord told this
parable of the vineyard. And this parable of the vineyard
is a story of Israel, the Jews. God's chosen people, the vineyard,
that's the vineyard, all right, and how corrupt it became and
how the owner of it, God, sent his prophets and they abused
them and finally sent the Son and they killed Him. So the Lord
of the vineyard and the Lord God of heaven was angry, angry
with Israel. There have been races of people
down through the years that have been greatly abused, none more
so than the Jews. No one has suffered down through
the years like the Jewish nation. Why? God did it. Judgment, condemnation, and therefore
rejecting God's truth, God's prophets. And then finally, they
killed God's Son. So, and then it says in the parable
that he took it away from them and gave it to some others, and
that's him giving it to the Gentiles. Remember Paul? They finally ended
up killing Paul. And he said, and they rejected
him, and he said, I'm going to the Gentiles. Remember? Okay. He said, I'm going to the Gentiles. And he did. And we're the Gentiles. Alright? A couple thousand years
later, it's corrupt again. Isn't it? It's all corrupted
again. But God had a remnant. In Israel, God had one tribe
out of twelve, Judah. He had an elect people. He had
a remnant, didn't he? Not all Israel's of Israel. And
here is he, a Jew, which is one outward, but inward. God had
a chosen people, a remnant. And even today, there's just
a remnant, though millions and millions and millions, if not
billions, claim to be Christians. It's so corrupt. You know it
is. It's so corrupt. But God has a remnant. God has
an elect people. And I believe there are many
of those in this room this morning. Thank God. A vineyard. Why did he choose a vineyard?
Let's read some of it. He began to speak a parable,
verse 9. A certain man planted a vineyard
and led it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for
a long time. At the season he sent a servant
to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit
of the vineyard. But the husbandmen beat him and
sent him away empty, and again he sent another servant. to gather
fruit from the vineyard, and they beat him also and entreated
him shamefully, sent him away empty, no fruit. And again he
sent a third for fruit from the vineyard, and they wounded him
also and cast him out. Then said the Lord of the vineyard,
What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be they will reverence
him when they see him. But when the husbandmen saw him,
the keepers of the vineyard, They reasoned among themselves,
saying, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the
inheritance may be ours. So they cast him out of the vineyard
and killed him. What therefore shall the lord
of the vineyard do unto them? He shall come and destroy these
husbandmen and shall give the vineyard to others. And when
the people, he was speaking to the people now, when they heard
it, they said, God forbid that that should happen. Oh, God,
don't let that happen. Well, it did. Why did he use
a vineyard? Why did the Lord speak of a vineyard?
Isaiah 5, go over to Isaiah chapter 5, okay? The Lord used a vineyard
because of one thing. There was one fruit in the vineyard,
a true vineyard. It was grapes, okay? What was
produced from grapes? One thing. That vineyard was for one thing,
the blood of those grapes. And that's the fruit, that's
the produce, that was what was to be coming out of that vineyard
to the glory of the one who owned it, who planted the vine. And
for the gladness of the hearts of the people, for feasts, for
marriages, wine that makes glad the heart of man. And there was
no wine flowing in Israel. No blood. No blood. The blood, the blood,
the blood. This book is a river that runs
red with blood. From Genesis 3, when God first
killed the first substitute, until Revelation, when everyone
says unto Him who washed us from our sins in His own blood. This book is a river that runs
red with the blood of God's Son. But religion, like the Jews of
old, there's no blood in it. Remember Abraham taking Isaac
up on the mountain? And this is a picture of religion
today. Isaac was taught of God as a
young child. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. It is the blood that maketh the
tomb of the soul. been. Corresponding a little
bit with a Jew and Orthodox Jew. Can't wait to start bringing
up some of these scriptures. Blood, blood, where's the blood?
Where's the blood in Jewish religion today? Where's the blood? Where
are the lambs? If Christ didn't come, then they still need to
be sacrificing lamb. Why did they ever stop sacrificing
lamb? They weren't doing it when Christ was here. You see, any
mention of the high priests when Christ was here, of them sacrificing
life? Zero. None. Well, it's the blood, it's the
blood, it's the blood. Isaiah 5, look at that. Now when
I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard.
My well-beloved hath a vineyard and a very fruitful hill. That's
a hill called Mount Zion. He fenced it and gathered out
the stone, fenced it, hedged it about, gathered out the stones
thereof, planted it with the choicest vine. Didn't Christ
say, I'm the vine? And built a tower in the midst
of it to look at and made a wine press, that's where the fat,
the grapes are gathered. And he looked that it should
bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. It brought
something in that didn't belong there. It planted. The husband
hadn't planted. The vineyard owner hadn't planted.
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, men of Judah, judge, I pray you,
betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more
to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Paul one time said,
what advantage hath the Jews? Much, every way. To them were
given the oracles and the prophets and the law and it all pointed
to Christ. It was all about the blood. Everything
God gave to the Jews was for the sacrifice of a lamb, of an
offering to God, wasn't it? It was all about Jewish religion
was centered around the blood, which is Christ, crucified. There's salvation no other way,
but by substitution, satisfaction. God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. No blood, no mercy. No blood,
no salvation. No blood, you can't come to God,
you can't worship God. So he goes on to say, verse 5,
Now go to, I'll tell you what I'll do to my vineyard, I'll
take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up. and
break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down,
and I'll lay it waste, and it shall not be pruned or digged,
and come up briars and thorns. I'll command the clouds that
they don't rain, for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house
of Israel. The men of Judah, his pleasant
plant, they look for judgment, they hold oppression for righteousness,
they hold a cry." So these husbandmen, these Levites,
these priests, were supposed to be caretakers. And go back
to Luke 20. And they were supposed to be
caretakers. And it degenerated. And then when our Lord came,
it was totally corrupt. And you know, Matthew, Mark,
and we read there how the Lord hedged it about. Israel was so
protected, weren't they? They were so protected. They
were hedged about. They went through the wilderness for 40
years and God kept them. They were unarmed. And all of
these powerful nations, they could not. And Israel today still
stands by order of God amazingly. And the whole world wants Israel
wiped out. There's some nations that have
nuclear bombs. Why can't they just drop one on Israel? Because
God says they can't. There's still a symbol of his
absolute authority. And we don't know. We just don't
know. Paul wrote about this in Romans
11. We just don't know. He just might reveal himself
to many Jews. I believe he has. He just might. Yeah. There's still a symbol
of God's absolute authority and sovereignty. over that nation,
over his people. They were hedged about. But the
Lord took down the hedge and invading nations destroyed. And
our Lord said that. There's not going to be one stone
left standing on another. They're going to come in and
they're going to wipe it out. The temple's going to be torn down. And then
look at verse 9. It said, A certain man planted
a vineyard And Matthew and Margaret says
there was a hedge about it, and says there was a wine press. It doesn't say it here at Luke,
but there was a wine press where the fat was gathered. In other words, it was a place
where they gathered the grapes, and back then they still got
in that vat. Wouldn't that be fun? Oh, Margaret,
it would be too. Your feet will clean up. I've done it. I gathered about
15 gallons of grapes one year, and I put them in a great big
old tub I got in at Barefoot. That was so much fun. That was
dancing. You know what I was thinking
then? Oh, it's so much fun. Don't you know they all had a
good time? You've seen these movies where people do that?
They're having a good time. Why? The fat! Listen to Isaiah 25. It says, In this mountain shall
the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things,
a feast of wine on the leaves, fat things full of marrow, wine
on the leaves, well refined. Brothers and sisters, that's
what we're doing right here this morning. We're feasting on fat things.
What's fat? What's fat? It's Christ, His blood, His righteousness,
His gospel. It's a feast of fat things. We're
just getting fatter and fatter spiritually. And so there was a wine vat or
a press or a place where the fat was gathered in the vineyard,
but it wasn't there anymore. They weren't gathering any further.
There was no wine press. And it says there was a tower,
that the owner of the place built a tower. What was that for? Go
to Isaiah 56 with me, Isaiah 56. The tower was for watchmen to
go up in that tower and keep watch over the vineyard. For the enemy to come in and
take, you know, the steel and kill and destroy. There were
watchmen, supposed to be watchmen. There's a wolf, enemy approaching,
right? And we know what is no time.
And when a watchman. Look at Isaiah 56 verse 10. This is Isaiah. Now was 100 years
before Israel was destroyed. Isaiah prophesied all this 100
years before Israel was was destroyed. The temple. All right. We're
taking captive. And here's what he said, this
happened, verse 10, his watchmen are blind. They're all ignorant. They're all dumb dogs. They cannot
bark. They're not barking. What good
is a dog that won't bark? Huh? Isn't a dog supposed to
be a watchdog? Well, a dog that won't bark,
what good is it? Lady, dog lover, come on now. He says, these men don't bark.
They cannot bark. They wouldn't offend anybody
for anything. They wouldn't call sin, sin. They wouldn't call
anybody a false prophet. They wouldn't dare do it. Sleeping,
lying down, loving to slumber. Greedy dogs. Can't get enough. Shepherds that cannot understand.
They look to their own way. Everyone for his own gain. Now, dumb dogs, it said, Ralph
Barnard said, that's where that D.D. came from behind men's name,
D.D. It's not Doctor of Divinity,
it's a dumb dog, wasn't it? He said, Barnard said this too,
he said, they need to put a fiddle in front of that. Fiddle D.D. And that's right. They're useless,
worthless. Dumb dogs. Supposed to be a watchman. Watchman? What of the night?
Watchman. His watchmen are blind like dumb
dogs. They won't bark, and they're
sleeping, and they're greedy. That sound familiar? Well, in
our text now, read these verses. They killed servants, and that's
the prophets sent by God. I killed them, and then the Lord
sent, the owner sent his son, said they should reverence him.
And no, they killed the son. They killed the son. And what
therefore shall the Lord of the vineyard do unto them? Oh, what has been done to to
the Jewish nation, and what is the Lord doing all over the world
still that rejects God's truth and God's prophets and God's
preacher and God's son? The wrath of God, Romans, Paul
wrote this in the last day, the wrath of God revealed from heaven
against all unrighteousness. And men reject the truth. The
wrath of God is everywhere, it's everywhere to be seen. It says
in verse 16, he shall come and destroy these husbands. People said, oh, God forbid. Well, they were the very ones
that said crucify him later. And then I like this, verse 17
and 18, and he beheld them. He's looking on them. And again, I say, most of the
people said, God forbid that this should happen. Later on,
they were crying out for our Lord's crucifixion. May He be
helped. He beholds us. Who's true? Who's not? Who's on the Lord's
side? He says, What is this then that
is written? What is this that is written?
A stone which the builders rejected the same has become a head of
the corner. And that's Psalm 118. And the
next verse that says, this is the Lord's doing. It's marvelous
in our eyes. There's a place out on 220 in
that building where you used to sell flowers. All right? That's their slogan. This is
the Lord's doing. It's marvelous in our eyes. Psalm
118, 23. But before that, now they're
not talking about the rejection of the stone. Christ said that. This is what this is. This is
marvelous in our eyes. At the stone which the builders
rejected, the stain has become head of the corn. This is marvelous
in our eyes that they reject Him, but God accepted Him. And
this is marvelous in our eyes, marvelous grace of our loving
Lord that we don't reject Him. It's sovereign mercy. It's sovereign
electing grace that we don't reject Him. All these people
did. The whole nation of Israel did. The whole world basically
is now rejecting Him. Why not us? God said, Have not
I chosen you? A chosen generation. And that's
the next message. A chosen generation. That's what's marvelous in our
eyes. People out there talking about
their little clubhouse. What's marvelous in our eyes
is Jesus Christ, the stone, the stumbling, the rock of the pen.
And he said, don't you love this, verse 18, he said, Whosoever
shall fall on that stone shall be broken, brokenhearted, but
he'll heal them. But on whomsoever it shall fall,
he'll grind him to powder. It doesn't sound like a Jesus.
Man, believe today. Would you turn to one more scripture
before we close? Hebrews 10. Hebrews chapter 10. It goes well with it. Hebrews
10. We're talking about a winepress
and the blood, okay? And this is powerful. This is weighty. Hebrews 10. This is fearful, because the
fear of the Lord is wisdom. Hebrews 10, and it says in verse
29, Verse 27, Hebrews 10, 27, is
a fearful looking for judgment. Those who forsake the assembly,
those who sin willfully, meaning they leave, and devour the adversary. Verse 28, he that despised Moses'
law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. How much
sore punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who
hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the
blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, supposed to
be redeemed by an unholy thing, done despite unto the Spirit
of grace. You know him that hath said,
Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the
Lord. Again, the Lord shall judge his people. And the time has
come of judgment against the house of God. It's a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Fall on him. Follow Him. You don't want Him
to fall on you. And He won't fall on you if you
call on Him. He won't fall on you. You'll
have mercy on you if you worship Him and rejoice in His Son. Lord have mercy on us all.