If you would, turn again to Isaiah
chapter 5. The title of the message this evening
is Three Histories. I had originally entitled it
Judgment and Sovereign Mercy, but I was going over my notes
one more time this evening and changed it to Three Histories.
I want us to see in our text this evening three histories,
to see God's judgment and God's sovereign mercy in these three
histories. Now, first, we have to look at
the history of Israel. The obvious application of this
text is to the nation Israel, and the Holy Spirit removes all
doubt in verse seven. It is for the vineyard of the
Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah. So I want us to look at how God
has dealt with this nation Israel. But now I'm not going to give
you a history lesson, OK? If I started to give a history
lesson, all our kids would say, boring. You had enough history
for the day, haven't you? I'm going to have a history lesson.
This is what I want us to learn from this, from the history of
how God's dealt with Israel. What happened to Israel could
happen to you and me. If we become proud of grace,
like Israel became proud of grace. That's how contrary to grace
that we would become proud of grace, but it can happen. Now,
God dealt bountifully with that nation Israel, and they rejected
Him. And not just when our Lord came,
all through their history, they rejected the Lord. They continually
left the Lord and fell into idolatry through all their history of
the Old Testament. And then the Lord came incarnate. He came
to His own. His own received Him not. They
rejected Him and they crucified Him. And in turn, God's dealt
with them in judgment. And no one can say God's judgment,
the way He's dealt with Israel, is not right and just. God simply
gave them what they wanted. They said, leave us alone. So
He did. And He's left them alone as a
nation ever since. Now, verse 1, Isaiah chapter
5, Now I'll sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching
his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard
in a very fruitful hill. Now the nation Israel was God's
beloved nation. God chose that people and he
loved them from all other nations of the earth. He singled them
out to receive his love and his presence. They were his beloved.
And the nation Israel was God's vineyard. God planted them. He started them with Abraham.
Now that nation that descended from Abraham, they went through
many dangers, toils and snares, didn't they? God did plant them in a very
fruitful hill, in the Promised Land. He planted them in that
land flowing with milk and honey, exactly like He said He'd do.
In verse 2, and He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof,
and planted it with the choices fine, 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.
Now God put Israel in that promised land and He protected them. He
put a wall about them. He put a wall of fire about them.
Nobody could harm them. Israel, when they went into the
promised land, didn't have one trained soldier. They'd spent
generations being slaves. Yet they drove out nations of
giants. They conquered huge walled cities. And these big walled cities,
they knew for a long time, Israel's coming. They got prepared. And
Israel just drove them out like they were nothing. And they did
all that because God drove those nations out before Israel so
He could give them the land. And God removed all the stones
from that land. All those nations that would
be against Israel in the Promised Land, God removed them. Just
like a farmer removes large stones from his field so he can plow
and plant and have a good crop. God removed every obstacle so
that His people would flourish in the land. And God planted
His people from the choice seed. He planted them from the seed
of Abraham. Now here's the pride of race. It's not being a physical descendant
of Abraham why God was blessing them. The seed of Abraham, Paul
tells us in Galatians, is Christ. He blessed that nation Israel
for Christ's sake. That was the only place on the
planet. One place. that you could worship
God is in Israel. There was one place where God
would meet with men and men could meet with God and worship Him
and hear the Word of God, have the prophets, have the law. It
was in Israel. No other nation. And God expected
a good crop. He put a wine press in it. God
expected to have large harvests of grapes that could be crushed
and made into wine to make the heart of His people glad. God
built a tower in the middle of it. Now that tower is his temple. A tower is a good thing for safety,
especially, you know, in that day. Today, you know, instead
of a tower we have radar and, you know, things. But a tower
was a good place for safety in that day. You could climb up
high in that tower and you could see danger coming from a long
way off and you'd be prepared. That was a temple. It was a place
of safety. It was a place where you could
watch for danger. You can be protected by worshiping God.
It's a place where you can see God's ways and be protected from
danger. And a tower is also a place people
can see it from way off. And they can all gather to it
and worship. That was the purpose of the temple,
that everybody could gather there. God put His presence in the middle.
You couldn't mistake it. It's easy to find. He put His
presence and His worship in the middle of that country. And after
everything God did for Israel, The lamb brought forth wild grapes.
Now wild grapes look just like other grapes, but they're from
a different seed. They're from a different vine.
Those wild grapes are hypocrites. They're religious hypocrites.
The wild grapes, usually they're smaller, but they always taste
sour. They're not sweet, they're sour.
They might look the same on the outside, but they're different
fruits. The word that Isaiah uses here for these wild grapes,
it means a corrupt, rotten, stinking grape. In verse 7, this is not
the fruit that God planted. He talks here about the house
of Israel, the men of Judah, his pleasant plant. These are
not the grapes that God provided and God planted. They're not
pleasant. They're sour. And that's what happened to Israel.
They fell into idolatry. And Israel was so steeped in
self-righteousness, they were so proud of themselves for having
God's law, they actually thought they did keep God's law. And
when Christ came, they rejected him. And they rejected him because
their pride of race. We don't need you. We have Abraham
as our father. They didn't think they needed
anything else. They thought simply because they were Jews, they
thought they didn't need anything else. And that's the danger of
falling into pride of grace. The Lord blesses us and blesses
us and blesses us. And we think, well, he's got
to keep doing it. Does he really? It's his grace. It's undeserved by definition.
But that's what the trap that the Jews fell into, and it brought
forth wild grapes. So verse three, and now inhabitants
of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me
and my vineyard. What could have been done more
to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, why would
I look that it should bring forth grapes, brought forth wild grapes?
Now God says, you judge this. Whose fault is it that God's
vineyard brought forth those wild, sour grapes of man's righteousness? self-righteousness of man's works.
Why did it do that? Whose fault is it? It's not God's
fault. God gave Israel so many examples
of His grace. Gave them so many pictures of
Christ. They have no excuse for trusting in their works. God
gave Israel the sacrifices. And He gave them the sacrifices
so that day after day, year after year, they would be reminded
of their sins. God didn't give them the sacrifices
so they could think man's sin could be put away by the animal
blood, by going through this ceremony of shedding animal blood. He gave them those sacrifices
so that they'd be reminded of their sins and they'd be looking
for Christ who would come to be desacrificed for sin. God
gave History the law. And He gave them the law so that
they could see their sin. And they looked to Christ to
come and fulfill the law for them. God didn't give them the
law so they could earn their own salvation, their own righteousness
through their own obedience to the law. It's not God's fault
these wild grapes grew. Self-righteousness and man's
works. God gave them every advantage. It's man's fault. Man is the
one who's guilty of perverting the gifts that God gave Israel.
And men today are no different. Now, they were talking about
the Jews of old. We're all Gentiles. We've got the exact same nature.
Men today pervert all of God's gifts if God doesn't prevent
us from doing it. The gift of grace. What did Paul
say about that? He said someone's going to object
to this business of grace. Well, shall we sin that grace
may abound? That's perverting God's grace. And when that's
our attitude, you can just expect God to deal with us like he dealt
with these Jews. And God promised them judgment in verse 5. He
says, and now go to, and 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
I'll break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down,
and I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned nor digged,
and there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also command
the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. God promised them he's going
to take his protection away from that nation. He built that wall
of fire around them, but he's going to take it away. And the
enemy's going to come and lay waste to that whole nation. And
the destruction, when it comes, will be so complete, there's
no fruit going to grow there. The only thing that's going to
grow there are briars and thorns. What are those? The result of
the curse of sin. The only thing that's going to
grow there is the curse of sin. In just a few years after our
Lord's death, Rome came in and destroyed that whole place. Wiped
it out. And that destruction is so complete
that today, no Jew living can trace his family ancestry back
far enough to know what tribe he's from. They're destroyed. And man is not the only one active
in this destruction. This is God's judgment. This
is what God says I'll do. He says, I will command the clouds
not to rain on you. In judicial authority, God's
withholding the water of life from that nation Israel. God
took the gospel away from them. He took his presence away from
them, and he sent his gospel to the Gentiles. That's why you
and me are hearing the gospel tonight. God sent it to the Gentiles. The church on earth today, predominantly,
is made up of Gentiles. There may come a day God will
graft the Jews back in, but that hasn't happened yet. He hasn't
been pleased to do that yet. They're still in this judicial
blindness, under this curse. Verse 7, he says, For the vineyard
of the Lord of hosts 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. God looked for righteousness
because God requires righteousness. He requires perfect righteousness.
And all he found, that word oppression means a scab. He found a scab. The deeds of the law don't heal
anything. The Jews, they were very zealous
about following all the ceremonies and all these. But it didn't
heal anything. All it produced was scabs. The
wounds of the law that can't be healed. In verse 8, Woe unto
them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till
there be no place. that they may be placed alone
in the midst of the earth. In mine ears, said the Lord of
Hosts, of a truth, many houses shall be desolate, even great
and fair, without an inhabitant." Now people, I guess, were trying
to buy up the whole neighborhood. You know, they were trying to
buy all the adjoining lots because they felt some security in possessions. Maybe they felt like they bought
enough land, you know, they'd insulated themselves from their
neighbors or something. But what this is, is the sin
of covetousness. The Jews wanted to keep God for
themselves. Now they are very orthodox. They
believed in election. But they didn't want to see God's
mercy extend any further than the borders of Israel. They didn't
want to see God show mercy to the Gentiles. They said, now
we've got a corner on this business. We've got a corner on God. We've
got a corner on God's blessings. And we're not going to let it
go. Now that is such a wicked attitude. So contrary to grace,
God's not going to bless that. People could even become covetous
with God's grace. We've got it and we don't want
anybody else to have it. Now, verse 10, what happens in
that? God says, yea, ten acres of vineyard
shall yield one bough, and the sea of an omer shall yield an
ephah. Now the field, what this, I looked all these words up,
what this means is the field is only going to produce one-tenth
of the seed that you plant. So, you've got a hundred pounds
of seed. You know, after you plant it, what's going to grow?
About ten pounds. That's all you're going to harvest.
You plant ten acres of a vineyard. When you harvest it, you know
what you're going to get? Eight gallons of wine. Now, I'm no
farmer, but you're going to starve at that rate, real quick. This
is a picture of man's works, man's obedience to the law. There's
a lot of effort that goes into it. I mean a lot. And it produces
nothing. You get back less than you put
into it. That's man's obedience to the law. Because of our nature,
fallen in Adam. We'll get to that in a minute.
Verse 11, Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning,
that they may follow strong drink, that continue until night, till
wine inflame them. And the harp, and the viol, the
tambourine, and pipe, and wine are in their feasts. But they
regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation
of his hands. Now they're drunk on all the
material blessings of God. And to this day, the Jews are
still looking for God to send them a king like David and set
up an earthly kingdom. To this day, they're looking
for that. They're not looking for a king savior from sin. In verse 13, therefore, my people
are gone into captivity. Because they have no knowledge.
And their honorable men are famished. The best of them are famished.
And their multitude dried up with thirst. You know the entire
history of Israel is filled with captivity and ethnic cleansing. Ethnic cleansing is not a new
thing. People have been trying to do it to the Jews forever.
And spiritually, they're famished. They're famished for spiritual
bread of life. They're thirsty for the water
of life because they don't have it. And they don't have it because
God's withholding it from them in His judgment. Verse 14, Therefore,
hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure.
And their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth
shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought
down, and the mighty man shall be humbled in the eyes of the
lofty. shall be humbled." Now, that
might sound pretty harsh, but hell is going to be filled with
religious people, just like these Jews. He said, you've got all
this orthodoxy, you've followed all the ceremony, and hell is
going to be filled with people just like them for this reason. They've got religion without
Christ. But, verse 16, the Lord of hosts should be exalted in
judgment. And God that is holy should be
sanctified in righteousness. Now God is glorified in how He
dealt with Israel. His justice is glorified in how
He has chosen to deal with that nation. Now again, I didn't go
through all this to give you a history lesson. This is what
I want us to see from this. It's a warning. That we don't
fall into the same attitude as those old Jews. That we don't
fall into some pride of grace and look down on everybody else
so that we don't want God to bless them. We see people in
false religion. It's pitiful. We all do. It's
pitiful. But don't think we've got a corner
on God's grace. God can be merciful to men. And
we actually should be praying that God does. We actually should
be praying God be merciful to them. Because the moment we become
proud of grace, and we say, well, we've always had this, you know,
God will just always bless us. He may not. He did in Israel,
didn't He? They rejected Him, and this is the way He's dealt
with them. Now, I want us to look at this
passage again a second way. I want us to look at this as
the history of man and Adam. We won't reread all these verses,
but they're still fresh in your mind. God put Adam in a fruitful
hill, didn't He? put Adam in the Garden of Eden.
And God and Adam loved each other. They were friends. They walked
together in the cool of the day. And God made a perfect garden
for Adam. Put him in it. God put everything
that was necessary for the good and happiness of man in that
garden. It was perfect. And Adam fell. The problem was
not Adam's environment. You know, today, you know, we
have all these problems and sin and we say, well, it was, you
know, My parents' fault or my environment's fault. No, it really
wasn't. Adam was in a perfect environment. And he still fell. The problem
was not in the environment. The problem was Adam. He sinned. He sinned against God. He fell
into sin and death. It was Adam that caused wild
grapes to grow in God's garden. God didn't plant sour grapes
in there. That was Adam's doing. Man's
works. Adam brought him into the garden.
Adam said, I'll be like God. I'll govern myself. I'll determine
my own destiny with my own choices. And Adam fell. So there's a great
gulf fixed between Adam and God. And God says, now you judge.
His fault is this. Well, it's Adam's fault, isn't
it? What more could God have done? other than make Adam upright? Put him in a perfect garden?
What more could God have done? Not one thing. We're the problem. And you notice I didn't say Adam's
the problem. We're the problem. Because we're just like Adam.
We came straight from him. And man is ruined because of
Adam's sin. Nothing can grow in our hearts
except briars and thorns. Nothing but the results of the
curse of sin. Man, because of Adam's fall,
cannot produce anything. Not anything, not one thing of
any spiritual value, life-giving value. The only thing we can
produce is thorns because we're dead in sins. And that's the
way man's going to stay. That's the way all men and women
are going to stay unless God does something for them. God's
the one who has the bread of life. Christ is the bread of
life. He is the water of life. Unless
He comes to us, we'll die of thirst and die of hunger. That
great gulf fixed between God and man? We can't cross it. Only
God can. And if God doesn't cross it and
bring that life to us, we'll die in our sins. And man has become oppressive.
Boy, how quickly after Adam's fall did man become oppressive.
My goodness. And to make matters worse, you
know, it's one thing seeing people oppressive out there in the world,
you know. Boy, in business, you've got competitors and you're just
oppressive. I mean, you just want to grind them down, you
know. But I'll tell you something worse than that. I kind of like
that competitiveness. I don't know, maybe that's right,
maybe that's wrong, but I guess it depends if you're the one
getting crushed or not. But I'll tell you something worse than
that. Instead of righteous judgment, there's a cry of oppression.
People use religion to oppress one another instead of setting
them free. Isn't that sad? A man looks for
security in numbers. They think, well, we get enough
numbers, you know, that means we're right and everybody else
is wrong. God gives us a lot of riches. That means we're right
and everybody else is wrong. God's blessing us. And God says,
I don't burn all that up. I'm taking all that away. Look
at verse 10. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall
yield one bag, and the seed of an omer shall yield an ephah."
Now, man is religious. Well, he's out there planting
and sowing and working, but religion without Christ will produce death. It's not going to produce life.
You get less out of it than you put into it. Our obedience to
the law can only produce death, and man's religion All it is,
look at verse 11, woe unto them that rise up early in the morning,
that they may follow strong drink and continue until night to wine
and flame them. They're just drunk on the things
of this world, trying to get more and more and more of them
because they think that's God's blessing. And the harp and the
viol and the tabret and the pipe and the wine are in their feasts,
but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider
the operation of His hands. All man's religion is is an attempt
to get more of the things of this world through their own
works. You give, God will give you more. You be good, God will
give you more. He'll bless your business. He'll
bless your bank account. He'll bless you with health.
And we think that's good religion. We think that's good. Because
we're drunk on the things of this world. And men think religion
is just a big party. They've got all the instruments
and the ceremony and the rituals. Now, there's nothing wrong with
rejoicing. There's nothing wrong with being happy in the Lord. But the problem with man's religion
is it's religion without Christ. You see what he said at the end
of verse 12? They regard not the work of the Lord, neither
consider the operation of His hands. They consider and regard
the operation of their hands, but not His. They don't regard
the righteousness that the Lord Jesus Christ works. They don't
regard the salvation that Christ has provided for his people by
the operation of his own hands. So they're going to remain in
captivity to sin. They're religious, but they don't
have any knowledge of who God is. And they're famished for
the bread of life because Christ is not preached to them. They're
starving because of problems in the pulpit. They're starving.
They're famished. They're dying of thirst because
Christ is not preached to them. And unless God does something
for them, they're going to go to hell because that's exactly
what our sin deserves. And it doesn't matter who you
are. This is the great equalizer, the mean man, the average man
and the mighty man. They're going to be humbled together
in the same place. There's no difference. All of
sin to come short of the glory of God and the judgment is going
to be the same. And God will be glorified in their damnation. God's justice. is glorified in
the damnation of sinners. But thank God there is a third
history here. That's a pretty sad history.
Both of those are sad histories. But there is a third history
here. Third, I want us to look at this text and see the history
of God's elect. Last Sunday I put an article
in the Bulletin by Brother Todd Kniper, My History. My history's
all new in Christ. I want us to see the history
of God's elect. This is the result of sovereign
mercy. Now, the history of man and Adam,
that is our history. I mean, don't mistake me. That's
our history. All of us were born into this
world with Adam's nature. He's our first father. We're
born under the curse. But in the midst of all this
judgment for sin, God's promised mercy. mercies found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. God's going to be exalted in
judgment, and God's going to be exalted in mercy towards His
elect. Look at verse 16. But the Lord
of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy
shall be sanctified in righteousness. God's going to be sanctified.
He's going to be seen as holy, and He's going to be glorified
in righteousness. Now, the judgment of the wicked
That's done in righteousness. And the salvation of sinners,
that's done in righteousness too. This is what God who is
holy hath done. God's going to make his people
righteous in the righteousness of his Son. When God makes his
people the righteousness of God in him, God's going to be glorified
because he's the only one that can do that. He's the only one
who can take the sin of his people away. and make us righteous in
Christ. And God did it this way with
these two opposing histories. He allowed those wild grapes
to grow so that his mercy to sinners would be magnified. Verse
17, then said the lambs feed after their manner and the waste
places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. Now God's lambs
are going to be fed. They're going to be led to the
green pastures by Christ. And when they're in the green
pastures, they're going to feed on Christ. He's the shepherd
and He's the pasture. God's lambs are going to be fed
so well. They're going to be fat and flourishing.
The word that Isaiah uses here means that they're going to eat
according to their capacity. Every one of these lambs are
going to eat according to their capacity. They're going to eat
as much as they want. This is God's abundance of mercy
to sinners. It's an all-you-can-eat banquet.
Christ is an all-you-can-eat banquet for sinners. He's everything
that we need. And the strangers that are going
to eat there are Gentiles. Now this is why the Apostle Paul
in Acts 13, we read that in the Scriptures, was sent to the Gentiles. He's the Apostle to the Gentiles
so that these strangers are going to come eat just as God promised. Now let's look back at verse
1. Let's apply this to God's sheep. Now 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. God's elect's got one song. It's the song of our beloved.
We're accepted in the beloved. Was my beloved more than another
beloved? Oh, let me sing his praises to
you. Let me sing the song of my beloved. He planted his people
in a very fruitful hill. He's made us to bear the fruit
of His Spirit. Verse 2, He's fenced it in. He's
gathered it out of the stones thereof, and planted it with
the choices fine, built a tower in the midst of it, and also
made a winepress therein. And He looked that it should
bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. He's fenced
us in. He's fenced in His people with
His presence. Now, He's fenced us in. You know,
a fence works two ways, doesn't it? He's fenced us in so the
enemy can't come in and pluck us out of His hand. But He's
also fenced us in so we can't wander off either. He's going
to keep us with Him. And it will be that way forever.
Look back at Psalm 94. Now because of their sin, God
did forsake Israel. He put them, for a time at least,
under judicial blindness. But He will never take His presence
away from His people. Psalm 94 verse 14, For the Lord
will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance,
but judgment shall return unto righteousness, and all the upright
in heart shall follow him. God's people will not be destroyed
because Christ was punished in our place. That's why they won't
be destroyed. And God planted the choicest vine, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the vine and He's made us
branches in that choice vine. God planted the seed of Abraham. The Lord Jesus Christ himself,
he grew as a tender plant, didn't he? A root out of dry ground.
And that root grew to the rod of Jesse. The branch of righteousness
unto David. And God made his people grow
in that branch unto David. That vine. We're in that vine
and he's made us to bear his fruit. And he's built a tower
in our midst. And that tower is Christ. It's
the tower of the church where Christ is preached. He made a
wine press in it. Now, you know the wine press,
what happens there, it's the place where wine is made. And
that wine press, in the midst of his people, is the place where
Christ was judged, in the place of his people, where he took
the place of his people, and just like those grapes, he was
crushed, punished for the sin of his people. so that his people
would go free from judgment. And that wine, the wine of the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, makes the hearts of God's people
happy. Now, what more could Christ have
done? I want you to think about that. What more could he have done?
The unbeliever must think. They have to think this. Christ
must need to do something else. He could have done more. That's
why they feel the need to do some work. Whether it's to ratify
salvation, do something to make salvation complete. They have
to do some work. Because Christ didn't do it all.
He didn't do enough. But the believer says, what more
could Christ have done? Nothing. He couldn't have done
anything else. He did it all. He's done everything
that's necessary. He's done everything that's required
for the eternal salvation of His people. Christ made everything
new and everything perfect, and He's the one who keeps everything
perfect. He's going to keep all those wild grapes trimmed back.
He's going to keep them from growing up too strong. Now, those
sour grapes of our works and our self-righteousness I wish
I could say they're not there anymore, but that'd be a lie.
They're there. But God's going to keep them
back so that they don't overtake God's garden. God's garden is
the heart of His people. And those sour grapes are not
going to overtake the hearts of His people. And one day God
is going to remove them. He's going to remove them permanently
and take us home to be with Him. So in the meantime, let's avoid
this history of Israel. God's, for His people, He delivered
us from the history of Adam. But let's avoid the history of
Israel. Becoming proud of grace. It's my prayer, God, take that
wicked heart from us. So that we won't oppress the
lost with the Gospel. And we won't oppress one another
with the Gospel. You know, you can get pretty
hard on one another. You know, saying, well, we're
not doing this right, we're not doing this right, we're not doing this
according to Scripture. I believe the gospel is given
to us not to oppress one another, but to point one another to Christ.
To edify and strengthen one another. Given to us to promote peace
and unity. And God help us from wanting
to keep all this blessing for ourselves. You know, some visitor
comes in. Well, they don't do everything
just the way we do. And start thinking, well, I wish
they'd just leave. You know, it's causing kind of a disruption. Let's not want to keep this blessing
to ourselves. Let's not start thinking that we've got a corner
on God's mercy. God's merciful to sinners wherever
they're found. And God's delivered us from the
captivity to sin and to death and to hell. Let's be a thankful
people. I want you, in closing, to look
over Matthew 21. This whole passage is about Christ,
just like every other passage. And perhaps our Lord had this
passage in Isaiah in mind when he gave this parable in Matthew
21. See if this doesn't sound familiar.
Beginning in verse 33 of Matthew 21. Here's another parable. There was a
certain householder which planted a vineyard, hedged it round about,
digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and lent it out
to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And when the time
of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen,
that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took
his servants, and beat one, killed another, 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, Thou reference 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 thereof
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 seasons. Jesus saith unto them,
Did you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders
rejected, the same as become the head of the corner? This
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous 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." And on
whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. Whosoever
shall fall on this stone, who shall fall upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, shall be broken, and a broken and a contrite heart
God will not despise. But on whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder. There is sovereign mercy and
sovereign justice. And the chief priests and Pharisees
that heard his parables, they perceived his fake But when they
sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because
they took him for a prophet. God help us to fall upon that
stone and be broken. Let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank
you for your sovereign mercy. How we thank you that you did
not leave your people in the history of Adam in captivity
to sin our own works of the law and self-righteousness. But You
gave us a new history. You put us in our Lord Jesus
Christ. You accomplished all things for
us. Complete salvation. Complete,
full salvation for sinners in Him. You took away our sin. You took away the curse. You
took away The filth and the guilt of sin bore the punishment in
His own body on the tree and made us the righteousness of
God in Him. may come and fall upon this rock
is in your sovereign mercy you've allowed us to do. It's in his
precious name we give thanks and we ask you to bless your
words as they've been preached to his glory and for the good
of your people.