Our lesson this morning is in
verses one through 12 of Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12, verses one through
12. I titled the lesson A Marvel
to Believers. After our Lord gave this parable,
to these Israelites, he summed up his parable in verse
11 saying, this was the Lord's doing. And it's marvelous in
our eyes. And truly everything about the
Lord is marvelous. If you sit down and think about
it, which we don't often do, we read that thing like it's
a newspaper. You need to read these verses and think about
them and mull them over in your mind. Get up early before all
the world's cares fill your head and read a little bit and think
a little bit before you start your day. And if you do that,
you'll find out that everything is marvelous to a believer. His divine and eternal purpose
is marvelous. You start thinking about God
who has no beginning. Huh? You ever thought, just sit
and thought about that? God had no, there was no beginning
with him. There's no way to even calculate
a beginning with God. He always was and he always will
be. He's God. That's marvelous. There's nothing else in the universe
that's like that but God. His divine and eternal person,
his purpose and will, my soul. Paul told Timothy, I don't know
how old Timothy was, but he was pretty young, maybe 18, 19, maybe
even in his early 20s, and he told Timothy, he said, God saved
us. God hath saved us. and then called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, now listen, which was given us in
Christ Jesus before the world began. 2 Timothy 1, 9. Isn't that marvelous? Got everything about your salvation
if God's saving you today. And I'm saying saving because
you ain't gone saved yet. But everything about your salvation
was purpose from the foundation of the world. That's marvelous. God's will. He said, I declare the end from
the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I'll
do all my pleasure. Don't you find that marvelous?
No matter what men do, no matter what fallen angels do, no matter
what Satan does, God's will will be done. That's marvelous. His creation and providence. He spoke and it was done. Oh,
you sit out here and look at, oh, we can see just a few miles.
But all creation, I'm talking about the universe, I'm talking
about farther than man has ever seen. All of his outer space
travels and cameras and telescopes, he hadn't even begun to see the
end of things out there. How'd all that stuff come to
be? God spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. Is that not marvelous? That's
a marvelous thing to me. And his son, and all that pertains
to him, a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, the
surety of the everlasting covenant of grace, that blood he shed
on that cross was the blood of the everlasting covenant. That's
what it says in Hebrews. You think about his son and all
that pertains to him. He is the head of the body, the
church. All things were made by him and
for him, and by him all things have a continuance. All for him. Please the Father that in him
should all fullness dwell. You think about his son and all
that pertains to him, God. coming into union with man. He's as much man as if he were
not God and as much God as if he were not man. God and man
in one person. That's marvelous, marvelous in
our eyes. And then when I think about his
irresistible power and rule, all things, he worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will. And no matter what man
does, God just, he just, he just does his will, and they do his
will, doing exactly what's contrary
to his will. And they still do his will. So everything I think, when I
think about This is the Lord's doing. Everything the Lord does,
everything about the Lord, everything about God is marvelous in the
eyes of a believer. God's given him eyes to see.
This is the difference. Religion walks an aisle. They have an experience. They
have a dream. They speak in tongues. Whatever
it is that they do, they glory in that. They don't glory in
God. Anything you tell them about
God, they'll just fly right back into your face. We don't believe
that. Our God wouldn't do like that. All these things and more are
marvelous to those who believe, but this parable is not about
that. This parable is a historic parable. It clearly tells us down in verse
12, if you'll look down there, that the Jews perceived that
the Lord had spoken this parable against them. They understood
that this parable had to do with the nation of Israel. It had
to do with them, their religious body, their religious organizations,
everything that they stood for, this parable was about them.
and it was against them. See that down there? He spoke
this parable and they knew that he spoke this parable against
them. And this parable was given to
describe the conduct, the evil behavior, and the falling away
of the nation of Israel from its very conception when Moses
delivered them out of Egypt. From that time forward, how many
fell in the wilderness, rebelling against God? Moses went up to
get the commandments. When he come back down, they
were dancing naked by firelight, worshiping a golden calf. This parable's given to describe
the conduct and evil behavior of the nation of Israel, who
now pretended to be holy, now pretended to be representatives
of God, God's holy nation and all this kind of stuff, and he
spoke a parable about them. And he described them from their
conception all the way to their total destruction in 70 AD. The history is pictured or illustrated
to us by a parable about a vineyard and the vinedressers that attended
it. And it clearly stands as a warning
to those of us who have been given far greater privileges
than old Israel, that should we follow their example, we'll
also follow their end. So let's begin here. Israel stood
as a nation in this world, and as a nation, they were judged
and destroyed by God. Not so much every individual,
but the nation as a whole. Did you know all true believers
are called a nation? All God's people on this earth,
all his local churches, all of them together, are described
as a nation. In 1 Peter chapter two, verse
nine, the apostle tells us, ye are a chosen generation, a holy
priesthood. Now listen, a holy nation. A holy nation. God's church is
set in this world as a holy nation, separate from all others. Not
like anything else in this world. Not like any other nation in
this world. They're special. God made them
special. They're sanctified of God. That
is, they're set apart for divine service. There's a reason behind
their calling. And as Israel was blessed of
God with great privileges, even so, so are we who profess to
be fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God.
We have special privileges. God sent us a preacher. I'm telling you, there's thousands,
untold thousands out there who never heard the gospel. God was not pleased, he may yet,
but he wasn't pleased to send them a preacher. He wasn't pleased
to send them somebody to tell them the truth. Do you believe
that? You believe God sent, how shall
they preach except they be sent? They're sent of God. They go
where God directs them. They go to a people that God's
chosen to hear, chosen to bless. They're special, they're set
apart, they're blessed. The Lord blessed Israel like
he blessed no other nation. No other nation. They stood apart.
The most powerful nation in the world had them under their thumb,
and God delivered them, and not so much as a dog barked in resistance
when they walked out of Egypt, and they walked out of Egypt
with all their gold and silver. They just gave it to them. Why?
God made them willing to give it. Get rid of them. And without question, these verses
have an application to our nation or any nation in this world,
but especially ours. The United States of America
has been blessed of God like no other nation in the world.
You think about it. We have enjoyed prosperity, freedom,
safety. Man, all this stuff was going
on back in the 50s and 60s. especially the 60s, and talking
about setting up weapons in Cuba of mass destruction and all this
kind of stuff, people running around building bomb shelters
and stuff, I felt just as safe as I could be. I lived in America. We've enjoyed all of these things,
safety and bounty like no other nation in history, and also the
gospel. The gospel and local churches,
evangelists, and pastors have occupied places and ministries
in this country since its conception. And without question, this nation
has received and enjoyed the blessings of God over the years,
and still, still enjoy those blessings compared to other nations,
and they far exceed them in the ministry. and preachers and pastors. But we, like Israel of old, have
refused to give God the glory. We've abused these privileges.
We've rejected the servants he sent. I can hardly take in the
evening news. I don't watch it anymore. You
may think bad of me. I don't watch news anymore. I'll
tell you what happens. When I turn the news off, I'm
sit there ashamed of the leaders of this country. Absolutely ashamed. Our people in general act like
barbarians. I'm talking about our leaders,
governors, people in power, mayors. Act like barbarians, the teachers
in schools and things. Act like barbarians, act like
they don't know anything about God. Refuse to acknowledge God according
to his word. Shamefully treated God's servants.
Man came in here last week passing out tracks for a song fest, right
in the middle of service. Treat God's servants like imposters
and frauds. No fear of God, Paul said before
their eyes. And it's a common thing that
young women in this country breed like dogs, first with one, then
another. Married don't even enter into
it. There's no thought about God and his commandments or his
instructions. Prostitution, adultery, pornography,
homosexuality is as common as it can be. It's accepted. It's accepted. It's played out
on the television. You have trouble trying to watch
something on TV without seeing it on there. And the moral fabric of this
nation has declined because its citizens have forsaken God. You read Romans chapter one,
you'll find out that's exactly what happens when you deny and
reject the truth of God. immorality. God's truth not even considered
in general in the raising of our children or the governing
of our country. And the fact that our nation
has not been destroyed by God ought to be a marvel in our eyes. But it seems clear to me that
this parable is spoken in connection with local churches. Local churches. Israel was a
picture of the church. Did you know that? Natural Israel
was a picture of God's church. And there's a marvelous thing
here to be seen by those who believe. God says to us in Romans
11, verses 20 and 21, be not high-minded But fear, for if God spared not
the natural branches, that's Israel, take heed lest he also
spare not thee. Just because you gather in a
building and acknowledge some facts, that doesn't make you
a child of God. That takes an inward work of
God in the heart. You can accept facts and never
rejoice in them. Did you know that? You can read books and they'll
point out facts to you in the scripture and you can go over
and see them and you can acknowledge that that's a scriptural fact.
But that doesn't make you rejoice in it. That doesn't make you
trust in it. That doesn't raise your heart
up in worship to God. Take heed lest ye also spare
not thee. Now I want to use an outline
given by Brother Fortner in his commentary on the book of Mark.
It's been a big help to me as I'm going through this book.
But he writes on these first 12 verses of seven lessons taught
in this parable. Now we'll just quickly go through
them and you can enlarge on them when you get home and think about
what you heard this morning. And the first of these lessons
is that God's church in this world is his vineyard. In John
15, verse one, our Lord said, I am the true vine. My father
is the husband man. He planted me. He planted me. This is his garden. And we're
one with him, aren't we? That was his reason for coming.
He put us into an everlasting union with his son. When his
son came, he came as our representative into this world. And we're one
with him, grafted into him, because of this spiritual, eternal union
with him. And God's church in this world
is his vineyard. He dug it out, he planted it. And he built the means to make
it profitable, where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. And he's not talking about how
much money you give on Sunday in the offering plate. He's talking
about good works being those works of faith. By grace are
you saved through faith and back not of yourselves. It is the
gift of God. He leadeth thee to repentance.
The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. And then secondly, the Lord God
has committed his vineyard to those he has appointed as stewards. In this thing he said, I committed,
I built a vineyard, planted the grapes, got it all out here,
bought the land, tilled the land, planted the grapes, did it all,
built the place where the grapes are processed and everything,
and then he appointed some vine dressers. And then he went into
a far country. He went away. He said, I want
you to take care of this. And they said, OK, we'll take
care of it. There's no greater privilege
in the world nor a greater burden than to have the gospel of Jesus
Christ, that heavenly treasure, in these vessels of clay. No
greater privilege on earth, but no greater burden on a man's
heart than to know that. And as the Son of God appeared
to Israel of old as God's holy servant and was despised, even
so it is as the church of God speaks on his behalf and are
rejected of men. He sent out the 70 and he said,
he that heareth you, heareth me. But he didn't stop there. He said, he that despiseth you,
despiseth me. There's nothing more important
than for you to hear and rejoice in Christ and give God the glory. Thirdly, at an appointed season,
the Lord God looks for and expects to see fruit from his vineyard.
He didn't plant that vineyard and just walk off and leave it
and could care less what goes on in it. No, he came back to
the vineyard, didn't he? And he expected fruit from it.
He expected a profit from it. He expected to see something.
And this is not talking about our good works or our moral character. What this is talking about is
faith and reverence and obedience to the Lord. That's what he's
talking about. The fruit of God's vineyard is
hearts that love and praise and worship God. And true worship involves prayer
and faith and faithfulness to him. And these vinedressers in
the parable, they had no investment in this. They had nothing invested
in it. There was no money involved.
They had no rights to the vineyard. It all belonged to the one who
bought it and appointed them as the vinedressers. They had
nothing in it. Nothing in it. They had no rights
to the vineyard except those given to them by the owner. But having things seemingly in
their hands, the master went away and he said,
I've appointed you as stewards over this. You take care of these
grapes. You process these grapes. And
from time to time, I'll be back. But everything was in their hands,
Russell. He wasn't around. And so they just kind of left
off his instructions and started doing things their way. I don't
think this is the way you ought to do grapes. I think you ought
to do grapes this way. I don't think we ought to give
a whole lot of this back in store for the masters. We could use
that ourselves. So they got together and took
counsel together and said, here's what we're going to do. And over
the years, slowly began to go this way and that way. Having
things seemingly in their hands, they began to think otherwise. They began to think it belonged
to them. What if this was ours? They began to think that they
answered to no one, that the owner not being there had no
power over them, didn't know what was going on. And then the fourth lesson is
this, verses two through eight, teach us that as men and women
that are God's faithful servants, They treat God's faithful servants
the same way that they treat God's son. He said, in the parable,
I sent you some servants, and you shamefully treated them,
beat them, and sent them back, and I sent some more servants,
and you beat them and killed some of them. And he said, I
just kept sending you servants, and you kept killing them and
abusing them, and finally I said, I'm gonna send my son. Surely
they'll reverence my son. But you didn't. You killed my
son. Now what's the master of the
vineyard gonna do? You see what I'm saying? As men
and women treat God's faithful servants, so they'll deal with
and treat God's sons. And no man that knows God and
loves God and fears God will reject or shamefully treat God's
servants. You get that in your head fixed. You see somebody in the church
stomping their foot, red in the face, cursing one of God's servants,
dressing him down in public, they don't know God. I just saw. No man knows God and loves God
and fears God will reject or shamefully treat God's servants.
And his servants he calls ambassadors. Do you know what an ambassador
is? We send an ambassador over to
Egypt. Now I know he gets his information
from here, but that ambassador speaks on behalf of this country.
And if you reject what that ambassador says, you're rejecting what this
nation has said. And you're going to suffer the
consequences. And it's the same thing with his servants he calls
ambassadors. They speak on the behalf of and
with the power of him whose servants they are. And he said, you come into a
town and they won't receive you. They won't take care of you.
They won't have you. They won't love you. He said,
when you leave that place, you take your shoes off and click
them together and knock the dust off your feet as a testimony
against them. And I know this, that men and
women despise God's servants and despise their gospel and
reject their authority and yet claim to do it in the name of
God. All right, fifthly, lost religious
men and women love their religion. These men that he left there
were just full of their self. Who in the world would stand
up against a man, a rich man, Powerful man. They didn't have
anything. They were nothing before he made
them stewards. And here they are. Now they're
doing things in their name. Now they're doing things by their
power. And now they walk around. And if you don't bow to them
and you don't give them the proper reverence, man, they'll take
you out and stone you. Lost religious men and women
love their religion. They love their duties. They
love their activities and ceremonies and traditions and holy days.
And they love their government. They like to have business meetings
about their government. But they hate God. They hate
God. If it were possible, they'd knock
Christ off his throne so that they might have everything for
themselves. Religious men talk about man's
will, don't they? Man's glory, man's decisions,
man's privileges. God doesn't even enter into the
equation. It's about man's rights. Listen to what our Lord said
in John 3, 19. He said, this is condemnation,
that light has come into the world and men loved darkness. rather than light. Darkness. He called the Pharisees, not
a bunch of drunks down on the pier, but he's talking to Pharisees,
the most religious people produced by the Jews. And he told his
disciples, he said, leave them alone. If the blind, you mean
they're blind? That's exactly what he said,
isn't it? They're walking in darkness.
Blind lead to blind, they'll both fall into the ditch. The husbandman in the parable
said, this is the heir. The master sent his son back.
He said, they'll reverence him. But they said, this is the heir. Let's kill him. Let's kill him, and the inheritance
will be ours. Jewish hierarchy did everything
that they did toward God's servants and God's son to preserve their
position, their power, and influence over the people. I'm gonna read
you something over here out of the book of John. After the resurrection
of Lazarus, the chief priest and a high council of the Pharisees
gathered together and they said to one another, this man doeth
many miracles. he raises the dead, he cleanses
the lepers, he casts out demons. This man doeth many miracles
and if we let him alone, if we let him alone, all men will believe
on him. And the Romans will come and
take away our place. That's what they're worried about.
They get to get up there every Sunday with that big gown on
and that big necklace on and they get to come on and people
kissing on their rings and bowing to them and calling them father
and all this kind of nonsense. They're going to come and take
away our place. I won't have that title of priest
anymore. I won't have that body of men
behind me called the high council. They gonna come and take away
our place and our nation. And from that day forward, they
took council together for to put him to death. Sixthly, I know I'm over my time,
but I need to get through this message. If we despise the privileges
and opportunities God has given us, he'll both take away those
privileges, and he'll make those things which might have been
the means of our eternal salvation, and he'll make them the very
basis of our everlasting ruin. Our text says he'll come, and
destroy the husbandman and give the vineyard to others. And to them our Lord quotes his
scripture, the stone which the builders rejected has become
the head of the corner. And you can read about it, I
think it's in Acts chapter two or Acts chapter three, right
along there where Peter tells them this scripture's fulfilled. In Revelation 2.5, he warns us,
and these are pastors, his candlesticks are his pastors. And he warns
us in Revelation 2.5 that he'll remove the candlestick that's
despised. And then lastly, I want you to
see this, God's purpose and will is not hindered one bit. Not
one bit. There's an absolutely, I was
thinking marvelous as I wrote through this lesson, and there's
an absolutely marvelous, amazing passage of scripture over in
Acts chapter four that I'd like for you to see. Turn with me
over there to Acts chapter four. This is an amazing passage of
scripture. those who would deny God's power
and providence and God's power in men and over men. He said in Acts chapter 4 verse
27, for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast
anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and
the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. And Paul tells you over in the
book of Romans that everything that Israel did in their fall
and their demise and all of that stuff was an open door for the
Gentiles with God's purpose to save. And it's the Lord's doing. And
it's marvelous in our eyes. May the Lord work in us by His
grace to make these things marvelous, marvelous in our eyes. Thank you.