Look upon it. Hear another parable. There was a certain householder
which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about, digged
a wine press in it, and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen
and went into a far country. When the time of fruit drew near,
he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits
of it. And the husbandmen took the servants,
and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, He
sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto
them likewise. 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 seize him and let
us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance. and they
caught him, 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 said unto him, He will miserably
destroy those wicked men, and let out his vineyard unto other
husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus said unto them, Did you
never read in the Scripture the stones which the builders rejected? The same is become the head of
the corner. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore say I unto you, The
kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and given to a
nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. Whosoever shall fall
on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder. I'd like to read verse 43 again,
and ultimately we come here. Therefore I say unto you, that
the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given unto a nation,
bringing forth the fruits thereof. Now, reading from the first three
Gospels, which are sometimes called the Synoptic Gospel, we
see that our Lord spoke often, frequently, again and again in
parables unto the people and in public. Often He taught them
by using a particular parable that He gave unto them. We read
the gospel, we begin to count, there are some 35 parables that
are recorded that were spoken by our Lord found in Matthew,
in Mark, and in Luke. Plus another dozen or so of what
commentators call similarities or similitudes that our Lord
spoke about. Now we read here in Matthew chapter,
rather we read back in Matthew chapter 13, there I believe it
is verse 34 and verse 35, that the Lord used parables in teaching
and the gospel said, in doing so, He fulfilled the prophecy
or the word of the prophet saying, I will utter open my mouth in
parables and utter things which are kept secret from the foundation
of the world." That's a quotation in Psalm chapter 78 and verse
2. Now you probably know that a
parable is a story A parable is a way of using natural things
by way of alluding to something that is spiritual in nature so
that a parable alludes to something that is spiritual and therefore
it is rather shadowy or not clearly brought forth. At the same time,
It hides some truth from some who do not have eyes to see and
ears to hear, but it is, or it has in it, a spiritual truth
that is couched in the kernel of the parable when it is opened. For example, the disciples would
often ask the Lord about the parables that He spoke when they
were alone and away from the crowd, such as Matthew 13 and
verse 36, declare unto us the parable of the tares they said
to the Lord. In Matthew 15 and 15, Peter said
to the Lord, declare unto us this parable. Mark 4 and verse
10, when they were alone they that were about him, and the
twelve, ask of him the parable." That is, the parable of the soil,
of the seed, and of the sower. And the Lord answered that that
is one of the most important parables of all." In Mark 7 and
17, when he had entered into the house and away from the people,
then again the disciples asked him concerning a particular parable
that he had given unto them. Now, we remember, do we not,
that the prophet Nathan in the Old Testament, 2 Samuel chapter
11, and used a parable to lay before David his great sin with
Bathsheba. He put forth a parable to the
king of Israel. He said, there were a pair of
men There were two men. One was rich and the other was
very poor. The rich man had great herds. The poor man had but one little
ewe lamb that he had raised up and that he loved very dearly.
And when the king or the rich man would entertain a traveler,
he did not go to his crop or flock to take one of his own.
But he took the only ewe lamb of the poor man, killed it, cooked
it, and set it upon his table. Whereby when David heard that
parable from the prophet of God, unwittingly condemned himself
and passed sentence upon himself, for he, says Nathan, is the guilty
man. Now we have that aspect in the
parable of the vineyard. The Lord's parable exposes the
sins of the Jews in general and their leaders in particular as
He opened up this parable. Their sin against the son of
the owner of the vineyard. Now as for the parable, it is
one of the Lord's parables that actually can be considered prophetic
in its nature, as was the parable of the ten virgins prophetic
in its nature. Now, our parable, and let's notice
the cast of characters that are in this parabolic drama that
plays out for us in these few verses. First of all, there is
what the writer calls a certain householder. A land owner, if
you would. A land master is the meaning
here. The master of the house. And he owned a parcel of land
and on that parcel of land he established or made or put a
very good vineyard. Then there were husbandmen in
this parable. These were given the care and
the oversight of the vineyard. Call them farmers, if you will.
Call them tillers of the ground. Call them vine dressers or whatever. The word seems to mean land doers,
those that worked the land and brought forth the fruit. It seems
to be plural, there were more than one of them. And then there
were the servants, of the householder, the servants of the landowner,
the servants of the sovereign. Then we read again, there was
the son of the landowner, the son of the owner of the vineyard. A dear and precious son was he,
and an only son, I believe another gospel will tell us. Now here
is the structure of the paramount. The landowner builds a vineyard,
and it is a good one, on his land. He supplied it with everything
needful that it might be a good vineyard. He left it out to the
husbandmen, tend it, dress it, keep it, watch it, protect it,
and gather the fruit in the time of harvest. And the fruit was
to be gathered, and then the landowner would send his servants
that they might receive the fruit, that they might bring them or
bear them to the owner of the land. Did you ever hear of sharecropper
in olden days? Kind of sharecroppers is what
they were here. And when the servants came, The
husbandmen beat them, stoned them, killed them. Well, the
landowner sent others, and to them they did the same. Finally,
the owner of the vineyard said, I will send my son unto them. Surely it will be that they will
reverence my son. But of him the husbandman said,
Look, this is the heir. If we be rid of him, then we
shall have the inheritance for ourselves. So the question becomes,
how will the proprietor deal with those wicked and rebellious
husbandmen who violated the trust that they had with the land owner? They misused their stewardship,
and that very badly. They had been unfaithful to their
commission, and have sought to usurp the right of the owner
of the land. So the question is, what judgment
will he visit them up on them? He will take the vineyard from
them, he will destroy them, He will give that vineyard over
to more faithful vine dressers who will yield unto Him the fruit
in its season or in the harvest. Now, such figures are clearly
set and are taken from the Old Testament and they are easily
identified and would be unto a Jew of that day. I was reading
the footnotes of the new Geneva Study Bible, the King James Version,
And they laid it out like this as to the character and their
respective position. The landowner or proprietor in
the parable is certainly God our Father. The vineyard is identified
down in verse 43 as the kingdom of God. Now, the tenants are the farmers,
or the vinedressers are the Jews, and particularly their leaders. The servants are the prophets
of God who were sent among the people from time to time. The Son, of course, is the Son
of the living God, the Lord Jesus. The killing of the Son is His
crucifixion and death upon the cross. The destruction of the
bind dresser and the judgment upon the Jew is that particularly
visited upon them in 70 AD. And the transfer of the vineyard
is from the care of the Jew unto the care of the Gentile. Then we ask another question. What is the design of this parable? Why did our Lord speak it? Why was it spoken? What subject
is it that is addressed in it? We know that every parable has
one particular message or lesson or main point. But not every
point in a parable needs to be made into a point of theology
because it'll break down at some point or the other. Benjamin
Keech, a Baptist preacher, wrote nearly 900 pages on the parables
of our Lord in the New Testament. And basically, Keech summed up
this particular parable in three points or in three headings. I give them quickly. Number one,
it speaks of the very high privileges bestowed upon the Jew as a nation. They were God's vineyard, a chosen
race, a nation separated unto God, and to them, Romans 9 and
verse 4, belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the
giving of the law, the service, and the promises of God. Not only so, but in Romans chapter
3 and verse 2, to them were committed the oracles of God. That is, the written inspired
Word of God was committed unto them. No nation was more blessed. Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse
7 and verse 8. God richly endowed them and richly
blessed them, piling on the privileges, if you will. Secondly, The parable
reveals the abominable wickedness of the Jew against their God
and his prophets and against their Christ, which eventually
culminated in their crucifixion of the Messiah. Not just the
prophets did they kill and did they stone, but the very Son
of God they put upon a cross in great shame and disgrace. And then thirdly, being a prophetical
parable, it foretells the rejection of the Jew, the heavy judgment
that will be visited upon them, and the bringing in of the Gentile
to oversee God's great vineyard. We'll see that later down in
verse 41 through verse 44. But let us notice something now.
That is that the Lord's parable definitely draws upon Old Testament
imagery. For the figure of a vineyard
and a vine is a familiar one throughout the Old Testament
as God likens himself to a vine dresser and likens Israel to
a vine or a vineyard. Now, there are two passages of
Scripture that come to mind that give us some more information,
so we'll constrict ourselves to those two passages of Scripture
this morning. They use images and figures in
both of them. We see the same three aspects
that we just mentioned in the parable of the vineyard. Now,
they are God's gracious dealing with a Jew. Richly bless them.
They're in gratitude for His mercy and judgment and chastisement. Keep those in mind. Now, let's
enter two of those passages of Scripture in mind. And I'd like
for you, if you'd like to turn and follow, Psalms 80 will be
the first passage that we will read from. chapter 80 and verse
8 through 11. And if you'd like to be prepared,
the second passage will be Isaiah chapter 5. But here in Psalms
80, verse 8 through verse 11, let us read it and notice very
carefully. Thou hast brought a vine out
of Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heathen
and planted it. Thou preparest room before it,
and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the
shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly
cedar. Now, the psalmist again is using
figurative language to implore God to shine His mercy and His
goodness upon them and visit them thereby. Now, flipping to
Isaiah, chapter 5, we have a much like text with a little bit different
slant upon it. Isaiah chapter 5, this time reading
the first seven verses of this chapter. Rather long, but it
is profitable, I believe, that we read it into the record. Isaiah
writes this, chapter 5, 1 through 7. Now I will sing to my well-beloved
a song of my well-beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved
hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it, he gathered
out the stones thereof, and he planted it with a choicest vine,
and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress
therein, and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and
it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem,
men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have done more to
my vineyard than I have done unto it? Wherefore, when I looked
that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes,
Go to now, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will
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 will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned or digged,
but there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also command
the clouds that they rain, no rain upon it. For the vineyard
of the house of the Lord is the house of Israel, and the men
of Judah His pleasant plant, and He looked for judgment, but
behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, a cry." How would
we could get in our mind an abandoned farm or an abandoned house or
vineyard or whatever, and how over the years it goes down,
it falls in disrepair, it begins to fall in, the brush and the
wild growth take it over, so that it is nothing like its former
self at all. In this passage the prophet uses
a parable, or a song as he calls it, to represent to the people
the condition of the nation. And again, it is under the figure
of a vineyard. First of all, verse 1, touching
his vineyard. And it is put beyond all doubt
in verse 7 that the vineyard is a figure of Israel, the men
of Judah, His pleasant plan. Now, in our first text, we read
in Matthew 21 and 33, of a certain householder which planted a vineyard,
and then He fortified it well. Yes, he put a wall, a hedge,
or a fence about it. Some kind of walled enclosure. Also, he digged in it a wine
press, where they might press out the grapes and store the
wine. And then he built a tower that
they might ascend it and might look and see the enemy approaching
unto them. Now in Psalm 80, the Lord transplanted
a vine out of the land of Egypt. And to do that, He cast out the
heathen. In Isaiah 5 and 2, He gathered
out the stones of the vineyard that it might have good soil
to grow in, and then He planted it. And it did well. It took
good, deep root in the fertile soil of the Lord's vineyard. It put down roots and established
and had all the moisture that it needed. And its vines and
its branches reached out and, as it were, filled the land and
climbed the hills, if we may use the imagery of the parable. In our parable, the householder
did two things. he let the vineyard out unto
husbandman or vinedresser. David Brown wrote, quote, these
are the spiritual guides of the people under whose care the fruits
of righteousness were expected, unquote. Such as the high priest,
the chief priest, the Levite, and others. The builders, as
they are called by Peter in Acts chapter 4 and verse 11. He refers to them as you builders. But then, B, he went into a far
country. And Luke chapter 20 and verse
9 says, for a long time he went away, having leased out the vineyard
He went away for a long time. Some commentators understand
that to be the whole economy of Judaism down through the ages. But we read in verse 34, at seasonal
times, when the time of the fruit drew near, when the plants ought
to yield and the husbandmen ought together. Mark chapter 12 and
2 says, "...at the season." Luke 20 and verse 10 says also, "...at
the season." And these servants were the prophets and the servants
of God that were raised up from time to time, likened to a season
of harvest that they might go gather the fruit in His name,
by His command, in His Spirit, These men were sent into the
vineyard of God. Now, how were they received? Were they gladly received and
given honor and their word put into the hearts of the people?
Nay. Our text said, Matthew 21, 35,
they beat some, they stoned some, they even went so far as to kill
others. Mark 12 and verse 3, they beat
some and sent them away empty. Luke 20 and verse 10, the husbandman
beat that one also and sent him away empty, that is, without
any fruit of the vineyard that he had come. Now, the Lord Jesus
charged the same in Matthew 23 and verse 37, saying, You killed
the prophets and stoned them that were sent unto Thee. And then we read, the householder,
the owner, the vineyard owner sent his very own son. In Mark chapter 12 and verse
6 says, having one son, his well-beloved, he sent him last of all to go
into the vineyard with this reasoning. If they won't reverence My servant,
maybe they will reverence My Son. After all, the Son is the
closest to the Father. The Son is an extension of the
Father. He is of the same nature and
the same family with the Father. The Son comes much nearer to
the Father than does a servant. What do the unfaithful husband
Mandu when the sun appears among them. They plot to kill the son. They say, this is the heir. Let's
kill him. And the inheritance shall be
ours. Now the reality is this. The
Jews persecuted the prophets one after another, stoning them,
killing some. They were a disobedient and gainsaying
people over their history. So says Paul in Romans 10, And
so, in the end of the age, God sent forth His Son. And when
He did, the wickedness of the Jew reached its very apex, that
is, it reached its height, it culminated, or reached its point
as they crucified the Son of God, the Prince of Life. Now, whether people like it or
not, the Bible lays the death of Jesus at the feet of the Jew
time and time again. That as Saul consented unto the
death of Stephen, the Jews consented unto the death of the Lord Jesus
at the hands of the Romans. They called him a blasphemer. They delivered him over to the
Romans to die on the cross. They said, we will not have this
man to reign over us. They even said, To Pilate, let
His blood be upon us and upon our children. Matthew 27 and
verse 25. What an awful imprecation is
that unto themselves. Let His blood be upon us and
upon our children. Now, at this point in the parable,
having killed the son of the vineyard owner, Matthew 21 and
verse 40, comes then the question and the issue must be raised. What will He do with those vinedressers
or husbandmen or sharecroppers or farmers? How will He deal
with them? Will He let it go? Will He start
all over? What will be their punishment? How will He handle them? We have three accounts of this.
They are Matthew 21, 41. Mark 12 and verse 9, and Luke
chapter 20 and verse 16. And from putting those together,
we find that their judgment or punishment would be twofold. It would be a double blow. He
will miserably destroy those wicked men. Some say this is
not easily expressed over in the English because it is very,
very emphatic. as it lays in the Greek. It will
go something like this. He will badly destroy those bad
men. Or, he will miserably destroy
those miserable men. Even He will make a wretched
end of these wretched men. And this is soon confirmed in
verse 42 through verse 44 by the stone that will crush or
grind them to powder. Secondly, what will the landowner
do? He will miserably destroy those
who have so violated their trust and His calling. Secondly, He
will take the vineyard away from them and He will give it to other
tenants who will render unto Him the just fruits in their
proper season. Now I took Matthew's account,
it's more full. Matthew's account indicates that
the Jews that were present actually gave this answer in Matthew's
account. While Mark and Luke make it a
part of the Lord's application as a judgment visited upon the
husbandman for killing the son of the land owner. Now we see
two things here. Let's notice them. Number one,
in Luke's account, that would be chapter 20 and verse 16, when
the Jews heard that saying, they answered, God forbid, may it
not be, perish the thought. The word is not in The word God
is not in the Greek, so say some. So they say, may it not be, let
it not be, and that forever. Linsky looked at that and he
calls the words optative, that is, it is the expressing of a
very strong wish upon their part, may it not be. It is a desire
that is expressed verbally. And we might express it like
this, oh may this never be or may it never come to pass. Then secondly, we see in Matthew
21-45 and Luke 20 and verse 19 that the Pharisees and the chief
priests realized that they might be the subject of the Lord's
parable, that this parable must be about them. In the mirror
that our Lord held up before them, it were as they saw their
reflection. But rather than repent of their
way like David did, they sought to kill him and espouse more
evil heaped upon their head. He reminds them of a passage
found in Psalm 118, verse 22 and verse 23. You have it in
Matthew 21 and verse 42. It is about the stone which the
builders refused. That is, the builders took this
particular choice stone and they set it aside and rejected it
as unworthy as having a place in the building. But this stone
was by God made the very head of the corner. And the Apostle
Peter in Acts 4 and verse 11 calls, as I said, the Jewish
leaders, ye builders, who set aside the stone which the Lord
has made the head of the corner. And taking this passage from
Psalm 118, We see that the Lord makes a special application. Two-fold, in fact. Those who
stumble upon the stone will be injured. They will be hurt. They
will suffer personal injury. They that stumble upon the stone
will be injured, but upon whom the stone shall fall in wrath,
it shall grind them under powder." That's the application made from
that passage about the stone. Then look at Matthew 21 now and
verse 43. Therefore say I unto you, the
kingdom of God shall be taken from you, given to a nation,
bringing forth the fruits thereof. Now he is speaking to the chief
priest and the pharisees. And they are pharisees too. But
he is speaking of the Jewish nation and their system of worship. He's talking to they that occupy
Moses' seat, as he calls it in Matthew. Blind leaders of the
blind, as we saw last week. In other words, the overseers
of the kingdom of God, the teachers. This would be taken from them,
not that the work or worship would come to an end or be abolished
or be no more, but given to another nation, bringing forth more fruit
in their season. In other words, the Jews are
to be cut off. This is a prophecy of their being
cut off. The kingdom of God will be taken
from them. Paul puts it another way in Romans
11, as branches lopped off of the tree. But here the Lord said
that it will be taken from them and will be given unto another. And that, of course, is the Gentile. Now, as Spurgeon wrote, the doom
of the unfaithful religious leaders was their sin, and quote, they
were to lose the blessings of the gospel, unquote. The words
of Spurgeon in his Matthew commentary. God did cast them aside, and
He did bring in the wretched Gentiles in their place, a people
who were not the people of God of old, who had lived in uncircumcision
and practiced idolatry. As Isaiah wrote, chapter 65 and
verse 1, am to be sought of them that
ask not, I am found of them that sought me not. I said, Behold
me, behold me, unto a nation not called by my name. Now the
Jews never have believed it, though it was written up in their
blessed and holy scripture. Now, we see this great change
play out. In the book of Acts, it plays
out and comes to its culmination. In Acts 13, first of all, Paul
in Antioch. This is important. When there,
and he preached, and the Jews contradicted, blasphemed, opposed,
and rejected what the apostle preached, then Paul and Barnabas
waxed bold, and in Acts 13 and verse 46 we read, It was necessary, they tell the
Jews, that the gospel should first have been spoken to you. But seeing that you put it from
you, judge yourself unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
unto the Gentiles." This, as I said, was down at Antioch. Now the same thing happened in
Rome. You'll find it in Acts chapter
28 as Paul saw the prophecy of Isaiah, verse 9 and 10 of chapter
6 fulfilled. in the eyes and ears of those
Jews that he spoke to about Christ, for he said, their heart is waxed
gross, their ears are stopped, their ears are dull. Then in
verse 28, Acts 28, listen to him as again he resolutely determines
to turn from the Jew unto the Gentile. Quote, Be it known therefore
unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles
and they will hear it. The book of Acts practically
ends with that statement. Now, the final stroke fell in
70 A.D. when Jerusalem, the holy city,
was destroyed. The temple was razed down to
the ground, not one stone left upon another, not thrown down. To add to that, their priests
were killed. Their priests were rounded up.
Many of the people who did not escape were slaughtered. All
of their genealogies that they so trusted in were destroyed. Now their eyes are holding that
they cannot see Christ in the blessed gospel of our Lord. And for centuries the people
of God have for the most part now been called from among the
Gentiles and the Jews who were enemies for the gospel's sake,
as Paul said, or for all practical purposes, still enemies of the
gospel and of Christ. So the prophecy of the parable
had its fulfillment. The kingdom taken from them,
given to another that shall bring forth the fruits of righteousness. Having practically done with
that parable as to our study, I would like to close with an
application that might be appropriate for us today. That is that America
has, in the past, been very greatly blessed for having the gospel. But God is not indebted unto
us. God is not in our debt. Now there is rising like a flood,
a tide of hatred toward the things of God and the things Christian. And I must tell you that a lot
of it is driven today by the Jew, along with a progressive
and the humanist, and the secularist, the apostate from Christianity
are now beginning to pile on to the gospel and to Jesus Christ,
our blessed Lord. All apostate preacher were in
town this week to take the side against the Lord and against
the gospel and the people of God. Spurgeon wrote, what a warning
is this to our own country." But he wasn't talking about America,
he was talking about England at the time. But what a warning
in our own time, when on every hand and openly and insolently
Christ is insulted. The Bible is attacked as a book
of fables. And Christians are called terrorists
now. In our day and in our generation,
the tide is turning. And what will it bring in the
end thereof? Who can say? Who knows but God
only.