Turn back to Matthew 21. Maybe it's where I was gone for
two weeks, but the singing this morning just seemed exceptional.
Just lively, lively. Everybody's awake. I enjoyed that special. This
is the Lord's doing. I can look at this congregation
and say, this is the Lord's doing. This is the Lord's doing. And
it is marvelous, wonderful in our eyes. Now, we know that the
whole of salvation is the Lord's doing, and I'm glad that it's
so. He purposed it. There is a purpose. behind all this. All that we
see. You look at the world and you
see all the seemingly chaos in places. There is a purpose behind
all of it. He purposed it. And He planned
it. God, who is infinite in wisdom,
planned and purposed every minute detail In salvation. But not only in salvation, but
in everything that's going on that brings about our salvation.
Everything. He purposed it and he planned
it. What person would sit down to build a house without plans? Probably an idiot. That's probably
the label you'd give that person. God purposed it. In His infinite
wisdom, He planned it and He executed it. He didn't leave
it up to us to execute or to finish it. He executed it and
He sustains it and He will bring it to final glory. Oh, how amazed we are going to
be. It will be someday. It will be
marvelous in our eyes. Absolutely. Astounding. It is now, but not like it's
going to be. Not like it's going to be. He
chose the recipients of it. Who better? Who better to choose
than God? The scripture says he chose our
inheritance. Who better? That's what I'd like
to ask anyone who opposes election. Who better to choose than God?
Who better to choose than infinite wisdom? Who better to choose
than one who is holy and right and makes no mistakes? Do you
know anybody better? I don't. I'm sure not better. I'm sure not. He chose the recipients. He didn't leave this to chance. He didn't leave it to free will.
Human free will. There's no such thing. Our will
is in bondage to our nature. You know, we would choose a lot
of things that we'd like to do or have or quit. There's habits
I'd like to quit. Have you ever had a habit you'd
like to quit? But it's got you, doesn't it? It's got you. So much for free will. I thank God. I thank God that
this salvation is His doing. Listen, it's the Lord's doing
and He's still doing it. We have been saved. We are saved
and we shall be saved. He's still doing it. It's the
Lord's doing. It's His work. It's His. And
I'm glad that it's so because whatsoever the Lord doeth, it shall last forever. We'll
never fall again. We'll never have to worry about
that. We'll never have to worry about falling, sin, Satan, death. It's gone. It will be gone. Because it's the Lord's doing.
When you behold the host of heaven, that 10,000 times 10,000 times
10,000. Thousands and thousands, it says. You can just stamp on
it. This is the Lord's doing. The
Lord Jesus Christ's doing. It's His doing. And when we look
at the whole scheme of salvation, it's marvelous, marvelous in
our eyes. When we look at Jesus Christ,
His person, when we see the glory of God in His face, it's marvelous,
wonderful in our eyes. Only God could come up with such
a marvelous salvation. And only God could create such
a marvelous man. The man Christ Jesus was created. The son is given, but the child
was born. Only God could come up with such
a man. Only God. God and man in one person. Only
God could come up with that. Now we have in this parable a
householder. And this householder is God the
Father. The vineyard at this time is
Israel. And the hedge that he speaks
of is his protection. He has protected Israel. He kept
them safe as they traveled through the wilderness and he brought
them into the land of Canaan. He protected them. They were
led by a cloudy pillar by day and fire by night. He kept them. He protected them, just as you
and I. He has a hedge. There is a hedge about us. His
word, angels, his power, hedged. He hedged his vineyards. He's
the one who hedged it. And the winepress is his. He built the
winepress, which represents the altar of sacrifice. That's where
the grapes are squashed and the wine, the juice flows out of
it and of course it becomes wine. And you know wine in the Scripture
represents the blood of Christ. Christ said that he tread the
winepress of God's wrath alone. It represents that. And the tower
is the guardhouse. It's the temple. He gave that
to no other nation. There were many nations. No other
nation. had the priesthood, the husbandman,
the priesthood, the scribes, the kings that he gave them. These were all given by the householder. All given by him. And last of
all, the servants. He sent his servants to them.
And the message of the servants was Christ. Christ said, Moses
and the prophets spoke of me. I was their message. And God
sent his servants to Israel. He didn't send them to the Hittites,
the Amorites, and all those otherites. He was sent to the Israelites. The servants were the prophets
and the apostles and preachers in this day. This applies to
our day too. You know, Matthew Henry said, application is the
life of every message. If we do not apply it to ourselves
and to our day, well, we've missed it. I'm not here this morning
just to give you a history lesson, although we have a 1500 year
history lesson in this parable. So that's what we have here in
this parable. Now, let's go back to creation.
When God created the heavens and the earth, He created a garden. He did not just create Adam and
put him on the earth. He created a garden. A perfect
garden. A vineyard. And he put Adam in
it. And what did he tell Adam to
do? He said, dress it and keep it. Take care of my vineyard.
The same thing those scribes and those Priest and today, as
I stand here. Boy, I tell you what, I read
this. This is weighty. The responsibility here on everyone
who stands in a pulpit and pastors over God's vineyard. This is
weighty. This is a weighty parable. For
God created Adam, put him in that garden. He told him to dress
it and keep it. But Adam failed. Adam fell and
he was put out of the garden. He was put out of it. But God
has never left himself without a witness. He's never left himself
without a people. Abel was a witness. Noah was
a witness. Abraham was a witness. Isaac
was a witness. We've been going through Genesis.
We've seen this. Jacob, who was named Israel, was a witness. And then God made Israel into
a nation, and they became His vineyard. They are the vineyard. They are the vineyard. As I said,
we have before us 1,500 years of history right here in this
parable. He calls them the vineyard. And He said, I sent servants
to you, prophets to you. I gave you all these things.
That's why I gave you all these things. We also have here a prophecy
of what the religious rulers, our Lord is telling these religious
rulers, what they are going to do to him in a couple of days.
Two or three days from this parable, they fulfill exactly what he
said was going to happen. He says that when the sun comes,
the household is going to send the sun and the sun, who is the
heir, is going to be rejected and they're going to slay him.
He's telling them, In a couple of days, this is what you're
going to do to me." Isn't that amazing? He tells them what's
going to happen to him. But he also tells them what's
going to happen to them. God's going to remove the vineyard.
He's going to take the kingdom of God, the gospel church stake.
The gospel first came to the Jews. And there was a church
in Jerusalem. Where is that now? In that area. There were many churches, all
these churches that we read of, Paul preached to. Where are they
now? But the gospel church that was
removed from Israel. A few years after that. Not too
long, but a few years, several years, but a few years after
that, it was removed and God sent it to the Gentiles, another
nation which will bring forth fruit. That's the Gentiles, us. God gave it to us. What a responsibility
we have. And that's why it's important
here, the responsibility they were given, the privileges they
were given, and the responsibility of taking care of what God gave
them. Responsibility always brings
accountability. Always. I want you to notice, who owns
the vineyard? Let this be established. You
see, They said, this is the heir. Let us kill him. We'll seize
the inheritance. It'll be ours. It's his and it's always been
his. It's his and it always will be
his. The householder owns the vineyard. You'll notice this.
Here, another parable. There was a certain householder.
He planted the vineyard. Israel was his planting. The
church is his planting. The church is his building. It's
his temple. It's his. which planted a vineyard
and hedged it round about. He hedged it. He's the one who
protects it. He's the one who keeps us safe.
He's the one who keeps this congregation together, this congregation of
believers. He's the one who keeps us. He hedged it round about. He's the one who digs the wild
grass. He's the one who provides the
sacrifice and the blood. He's the one. He's the one. And
then he gave his vineyard priests and scribes for the good of the
vineyard to take care of it. He's the one who gave these things.
Look over in Ephesians chapter 4. In verse 11. And He gave. You notice, He. He gave. Some apostles. Some prophets. some evangelists,
some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ. This is the fruit. This is what it was given for.
It was to edify and for the perfecting of the saints and for the work
of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we
all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ. He gave these things for the
good of His church. This is not for me. This is His. Those scribes, those Pharisees,
Sadducees, they turned this thing around and made the people serve
them. Instead of them being the servants, they made the people
serve. That's what they did. And God, it says here, God gave
it out to them. That is to the husbandman, to
the priest. And they were to what? Dress
it and keep it. Take care of my vineyard. I read that this week and I thought
it's saying the same thing to me. Take care of my vineyard.
You stood up here this morning, Frank. Take care of the vineyard.
Take care of it. We do that through preaching
the Gospel, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, handling the
Word of Truth. Rightly. That's how we handled it. That's
how we take care of the vineyard. So God gave it to the husbandmen.
They would take care of it. But there were tears among the
wheat. There were some good priests
that God gave, but then there were some bad ones. And it just
grew worse and worse. There were some tears among the
wheat. They became self-serving instead of God-serving. instead
of serving Him. Look over in Ezekiel chapter
34. Ezekiel chapter 34. Let me read
these verses to you. Starting at verse 1. Ezekiel
34. And the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds
of Israel. These are the ones whom the Lord gave to take care
of the vineyard. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God
unto the shepherds, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that
do feed themselves, should not the shepherds feed the flock?
Is that not my business this morning? Feed the flock. Scripture says feed them with
knowledge. Yet ye eat, in verse three, ye eat the fat and you
clothe yourself with the wool. You take of their goods. You're
after their purse. That's what you're after. And
you kill them that are fed, but you feed not the flock. The disease,
have you not strengthened? Neither have you healed that
which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken,
neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither
have you sought that which was lost, but with force and with
cruelty have you ruled them. This is what he came to. This
is what was going on when our Lord came. And they were scattered
because there's no shepherd. They became meat to all the beasts
of the field. You can read on through verse 10 there. But that's
what happened. That's what happened. Now in
verse 34, he said, when the time of the fruit drew near, when
it was time for fruit, you remember our Lord in this chapter, He
saw a fig tree and it was all leafed out. And when you see
a fig tree all leafed out, it says there's fruit. That's what
it's saying. There's fruit because fruit on the fig tree comes before
the leaves do. And when he went to that tree,
there was no fruit on it. There was no fruit. And here
he says, when the time drew near. In other words, he sent his servants,
not when it was time for the fruit, but when it drew near
and he was sending them servants to instruct them. and to deal
with them, and to teach them. But when they saw these prophets,
and when these prophets came, they mistreated them, stoned
them, killed them. Look what they did to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet. But you go through and look at
the life and the death of these prophets at the hands of Israel,
at the hands of God's people, that nation which was God's a
typical nation there of the church. He sent him these men and they
killed him. When the time of the fruit drew
near, the householder sent his servants, the prophets, that's
who he's talking about, to the husbandman for fruit. And what is the fruit? I read
part of it through there in Ephesians, but I think part of it is this.
Praise, the fruit of praise. the fruitfulness of thanksgiving,
love to God, the glory given to Him, the glory
that's due unto His name. Well, when He came, none of these
things were so. The prophets didn't find these
things. And when they saw them, when the servants came and they
saw them, they stoned them. This is the charge against Israel.
This is the charge against the priests and the scribes and those
lawyers. This is the charge. David, you
killed. You killed the prophet. You killed
my servants. I sent to you. I sent to you for your good.
And you killed them. They forgot who owned the vineyard. They forgot who owned the vineyard.
It's his vineyard. Oh, that I would never forget
who owned this. They hadn't heard from him for
a while. He said he went into a far country. I meant to look
this up, but I'm thinking between John the Baptist and Malachi,
there's something like 400 years. That's a lot of years went by.
Silence. Silence. And they forgot who owned the
vineyard. Now some of you may have heard
men say this. I've heard it in places that
I've worked. If it were not for us, the owner
of this place wouldn't have anything. If it were not for us, he wouldn't
be driving that Mercedes. I've heard this said when I worked
at a company years ago. If it weren't for us, that man
wouldn't have anything. And that's the attitude they
had. This fruit, all this is going on. If it wasn't for us,
if it wasn't for our efforts and our work and our faithfulness,
we wouldn't have any of this. And those scribes and those Pharisees
wanted to keep the vineyard for themselves. They saw Christ not as a son
of God, Not as the Savior. They saw Him as a threat. They
said, if we leave Him alone, the whole world will go after
Him. We're going to lose everybody if we leave Him alone. They loved the power that they
had. They wanted to keep the money
that they were getting. They loved the recognition. Did
not our Lord say they loved to be seen of men? They stand on
the corner and they pray loud because they love. They love
recognition. They love to be seen of men.
And they did not want to give that up. Not to him. Not to that
poor Galilean. I mean, here they are dressed
in the robes. I mean, they look fine. They
look fine. And here he is dressed like a
peasant. He's dressed in poverty." And they're like, no, we're not
giving this up to you. No. They didn't want to give
up any of that. They forgot who owned the vineyard. They forgot who planted the vineyard.
They forgot who digged the wine press. They forgot whose temple
it belonged to, whose temple it was. God's temple. God gave
it to them. God gave it to them. But here's
God's long-suffering. And last of all, He sent to them
His Son. Oh, the long-suffering God. He sent Him His servants. Then
He sent Him more servants. They mistreated the first ones.
I would have just... Now, you and I would have canned them
the first time. We would have canned them. Fired. You're gone. You know that. We are not a tolerant people
by nature. He sent His servants, then He
sent more servants. They stoned and killed them,
and they did the same to the rest. And then what did He do?
He said that He sent His Son. And the prophecy here, what He's
telling them, here's the Son. I am the Son. This is the Son
of God speaking to them. The householder is God, the Father.
He has sent to you, last of all, in the end of the world. He sent
his son saying, they will reverence my son. Oh, what a charge. The charge is they did not reverence
his son. Surely when the Son of God comes, his own people
will reverence him, his own vineyard, his servants, the husbandmen,
they'll rejoice. He came unto his own. and His
own received Him not. Isn't it heartbreaking? Heartbreaking. And it is. It is to me. It's
heartbreaking. When you look at all of God's
creation, and you look at men and women who go every day and
never, ever acknowledge God's presence, God's mercy, God's
hand, never thankful for one bite of bread, And that's His
creation. That's sin. That's what sin has
done to us. He came to His own and His own received Him not.
He was despised, it says, and rejected of men. And when the
husbandmen saw the Son, they conspired to kill Him and seize
His inheritance. Look here in verse 38. But when
the husbandmen saw the Son, they said among themselves, now listen, Listen here carefully to what
they say. This is the heir. They recognized Him. They did
what they did against light. They recognized Him as the Messiah. I don't know if all of them did,
but there were many of them Pharisees and those scribes. They recognized
this is the Messiah. This is the heir. Come, let us
kill him and let us seize on his inheritance. This all belongs
to him. But if we kill him, it will belong
to us. That's how stupid man has become. To think that the householder
is not going to have his revenge. They did what they did against
life. They recognized this is the heir.
But they loved their position so much, so much, they were not
willing to give it up to him. That rich man, whether he was
saved later or not, I don't know. But I do know this. I do know
this. He went away sorrowful. He could
not at that time give it up. Who gave you those riches? Who
gave you the job you have? Who gave you the intelligence
you have to do what you do to make what you make? God gave
it. The householder. He gave it. They were not willing to give
it up. I believe that many hear the gospel. I believe many hear
the gospel and they know, they know this is the gospel, but
they will not submit to Christ because they love themselves
and their sins more. I believe if that rich man had
really done it, had he been willing to do it, he'd have probably
kept it. He'd have probably been able
to keep it. If not, he would have been far richer. He would
have still been far richer. And they caught him in verse
39. And they caught him and they cast him out of the vineyard
and they slew him. This is going to happen within
like a couple of days. They're going to catch him in
the garden. And they're going to take Him.
They're going to deny Him. He's going to be cast into the
judgment hall. And He's going to be cast out
of Jerusalem. He's going to take Him with outside the city. And
He's going to be crucified. He's telling them exactly what
they are going to do in a couple of days. And you know, in a couple
of days from that time, you would have thought that somebody would
have said, you know what? This sounds just like what He
said two days ago. But it never dawned on Him, did
it? Never dawned on Him. When the Son of God came, He
was despised and rejected of men. He was bruised, it says
in Isaiah 53. He was tortured. He was tormented. He was mutilated. You know, they
make these movies, Christ hanging on a cross. They've never made one. It says
His visage. was so marred more than any man. You couldn't tell who he was. I imagine he looked like a piece
of meat hanging on that cross. I imagine that's what he looked
like. Because he said his visage was marred more than any man.
He was mutilated, tortured, and then hanged on a tree. This is
how men This is how men treated the heir of all things. And then notice here, self-righteousness
always condemned itself. Sooner or later, give a fool
enough rope and sooner or later he'll hang himself. And self-righteousness,
sooner or later, will always condemn itself. They say unto
him, you see, in verse 40, when the Lord thereof of the vineyard
cometh, What will he do to these husbandmen? What would you do?"
He said, they're going to tell him what they would do. He said,
the husbandmen are going to do what they think they would do.
And they said to him, he will miserably destroy those wicked
men. They're passing judgment on themselves. And he will let out, he will
give his vineyard unto other husbandmen. which shall render
him the fruits in their seasons." And that's the Gentile church
now that's in this world. He gave it to the Gentiles, sent
the gospel to the Gentiles. And that place over there now
is just as dry as dry can be concerning the word of God and the gospel. And they'll give
it to other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in
their seasons. And then Jesus saith unto them. He's going to
take them to the Scriptures. You men are scribes. You read
the Scriptures. You know the Scriptures. You
know the Word of God. And He always establishes what
He has to say with the Word of God. Always. Did ye never read
the Scriptures? You read the Scriptures. I know
you read the Scriptures. They read Psalm 118. That's where
this is taken from. He reaches back to a prophecy
in Psalm 118 of David. And he says, The stone which
the builders rejected. They were the builders. The same
has become the head of the corner of the building on which God
is building. He's the head of the corner.
This is the Lord's doing. This is the Lord's doing. This
hour that he is about to die, this hour of being about to be
crucified, this matter of substitution, as we heard this morning, this
is the Lord's doing. And it's marvelous in our eyes. Marvelous. Christ is that stone. He is that tried stone. He is that living cornerstone,
as Peter speaks of there in verse 4, back over in 1 Peter. He's the foundation on which
the church is built. We are built upon Christ. He's
the foundation stone. He's the cornerstone. He's the
strength of the house. Men rejected Him, but God accepted
Him and made Him the head of the corner. that was despised
and rejected of men. This man who walked around in
poverty. This man who they just wanted
nothing to do with. He's the headstone of the corner. Boy, I'd say if you looked at
him with these eyes, you would think you couldn't build a house
on that stone. Oh, there's a better looking stone there, man. Look
at that stone. Remember the disciples? Said to the Lord, concerning
the temple, they said, look at these stones. Look at these.
Oh, you're looking at the wrong stone. Look at this stone, this
stone. This is a tried stone. I'll tell
you what, he looked like a tried stone. That's one of the things
that messed with their head, they couldn't get past his appearance. He's the cornerstone, that's
what you find out. And look over in Acts, look over
in Acts, we'll return to this one scripture. Acts chapter 4. In Acts chapter 4, let me see the
verse. Go to verse 10. Be it known unto
you all, and to all the people of Israel, God's vineyard, that
by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand
here before you whole. This is the stone which was set
at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. He's the strength of the building. And this is the Lord's doing.
And it's marvelous in our eyes. The whole of salvation is the
Lord's doing. His incarnation is the Lord's
doing. His humiliation is the Lord's doing. Scripture says He has put him
to grief over in Isaiah 53. And it's marvelous in our eyes.
It's wonderful. It's an astonishing thing. That's
another meaning of marvelous, an astonishing thing. Truly,
is it astonishing to you this morning? Is Jesus Christ, His
person, astonishing to you? Is it? Is the way God saves sinners
an astonishing thing? Is the fact that God saved you,
is that an astonishing thing? That He saved me? Is that an
astonishing thing? Is not God's salvation of you
and I in Christ wonderful and astonishing? Isn't the love of
Jesus something wonderful, astonishing? Now let me make the application
and I'll close. Because you have abused, in verse
43 through 44, he's saying, because you have abused and misused what
I gave you, you've abused the vineyard, misused all the gifts
and talents and all that I've given you. I'll take it from
you and I'm going to give it to someone else who will love
it and appreciate it. God took the gospel from them
and gave it to the Gentiles. Could that happen here? Could that happen to us? Absolutely. Absolutely. If we take this gospel
for granted, If we take the blessings that He gives us and just use
them for ourselves, if we do that, if we grow lukewarm, He
will remove the candlestick. You can read that over in Revelation
2.5. He said, I'll come and remove the candlestick. That's the pastor. And if He removes the pastor,
He removes the gospel. If He removes the gospel, He'll
remove that pastor whom He gave. if he's God's true pastor. He'll
remove him. May we never become lukewarm
in worship. I want, when I'm gone, I want
the gospel to be preached here in this place for years to come.
Whether I'm here or when I leave, whenever the Lord takes me away.
However, we've got to leave. We all got to die. We all have
to die sometime, sooner or later. And someone else steps in that
position and goes on. I want the gospel to be here.
I want it to be here. If God is not pleased to keep
the gospel in this place, after he takes his sheep away, I'd
just as soon annihilate this building and not let another
thing be spoken here. May we never become lukewarm
in worship. They did. It was Sabbath day,
Saturday for them. It was Saturday. Time to do this. Time to do that. May we always be serious in worship. May we always give to Him, every
time we come together, the glory due unto His name. And may we
always recognize who gives and who takes away. It's the Lord's
venue. It's His doing. And then he says
here, he pronounces judgment. And on whosoever shall fall on
this stone shall be broken. But on whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder. Christ was a stumbling stone
to those Jews. That's what it says in 1 Peter
2. They could not get past His appearance. Has anyone's appearance ever caused you to build a wall.
I mean, automatically, it's just like the way they're dressed
or something. It's just kind of like, whoa.
Yes. They couldn't get past his appearance,
which was his poverty. They could not get past his education. They could not get past his parents.
Everything about him just seemed wrong. He did not fit the profile
of a Messiah. It just didn't fit the profile. And they stumbled. And they were
broken. But it also could mean this,
on whomsoever that person falls, whoever falls on his stone shall
be broken. It could also mean this, that all who fall on him,
all who fall on him are broken in heart and spirit, brought
to faith and repentance shall be saved. Shall be saved. But on whomsoever he falls on,
they shall be ground to powder. This speaks of his power and
his authority to execute judgment. They didn't think he had the
power to do anything, for they wouldn't be so resistant. They rejected his rule over them.
But God made him both Lord and Christ. And if we fall not on
him for mercy, he's saying I'll fall on them for judgment and
grind them to powder. And they perceive that he's faking
them. He's talking about us. This parable is against us. And
you know what? They remain lost. This shows
you how that the whole of salvation from the new birth, faith, repentance
is of God. They understood He's talking
about us. And instead of saying, Lord,
save us from such a tragedy, save us from such an end, instead
of saying that, they said, listen, we've got to kill this one. We have got to do him in. But
being the good politicians that they were, they feared the people
and they left him alone. God even uses politics to work
his favor. Believe it or not, he does. The
only reason, you know, the only reason we have religious freedom
right now is because the politicians are afraid of the people. That's
why they leave it alone. That's too much of a hot potato.
And so they leave it alone. But here's the message, here's
the application. Let's not take the gospel for granted. Especially this one standing
here right now speaking. Let's not take this for granted.
Because God will remove it. God will remove it. It's His.
The vineyard's His. And I tell you this, He'll take
care of His own. No matter who He has to remove to do it. Alright,
that's all I've got.