Let's turn together to Mark chapter
12. We read at verse 1 that the Lord
Jesus began to speak unto them by parables. He began to speak
to the chief priest, the scribes, and the elders who were standing
in his presence. And this is the parable, the
first of several. A certain man planted a vineyard
and set a hedge about it and digged a place for the wine vat
and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went into
a far country. And at the season, when it was
time, he sent to the husbandmen servant that he the servant as
the messenger of God might receive from the husbandman the fruit
of the vineyard and they caught him and beat him and sent him
away empty and again he sent unto them another servant And
at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and
sent him away shamefully handled. And again he sent another, and
they killed him, and many others, beating some and killing some.
Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him
also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. They will reverence my son. That's
all he required. That's the fruit he was looking
for. They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among
themselves, this is the heir. Come let us kill him and the
inheritance shall be ours. Now there's the motive. And they took him and killed
him. Cast him out of the vineyard. What shall therefore the Lord
of the vineyard do? What would you do? He will come
and destroy the husbandman and will give the vineyard to others.
And have you not read this scripture? The stone which the builders
rejected is become the head of the corner. This was the Lord's
doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. And they, that is the chief priests,
the scribes, and the elders, the leaders of the Jewish nation
and their Jewish church state, they sought to lay hold on him,
but feared the people, for they knew. It wasn't a matter of speculation,
they knew. The word of God stuck like a
barbed arrow in their hearts. They knew that he had spoken
the parable against them. and they left him and went their
way. Now clearly this is a historical parable. We are told in this
twelfth verse that these chief priests, scribes, and elders
of the Jews knew that the Lord Jesus had spoken directly concerning
them. Now the history of the Jewish
nation from the time that God took them out of Egypt until
the time that he sent the armies of Rome into Jerusalem in 70
A.D. and thoroughly destroyed that
nation and that city and that people as far as their civil
and spiritual structures concerned, he just annihilated them. He
utterly destroyed them. Now the whole history of the
Jews from the time they came out of Egypt to 70 A.D. is described here in this passage.
And in these 12 verses we have a picture given and a very clear
interpretation drawn by the Son of God of God's dealings with
the whole nation of Israel during all that time, both in providential
mercy, in patience, in long suffering, and at last in severe just judgment. The parable then is clearly a
historic parable. But it is recorded in this place,
here in Mark's gospel, in the book of God, for more than just
to give us a history of the Jews. It is recorded here by divine
inspiration and stands as a beacon to warn us, lest we who have
received and experienced far greater mercies than the Jews
ever knew anything about, should also at last be dashed in pieces
upon the rocks of God's righteous retribution and judgment. Without question, there is here
a warning for us as a nation, and I would be remiss in my duty
as God's messenger if I didn't speak it. The United States of
America is a nation which has been blessed of God perhaps like
no other nation in all history with providential mercy. We have
enjoyed almost from our inception prosperity like no other nation
in the world. We have lived and still live
for the most part in the lap of luxury. Our straightened circumstances
are better than most people in the world ever dream of having.
We live for the most part without any fear of war, terrorism, those
things that disturb other nations of the world incessantly. We
live with freedom and we live with safety. There's never been
a nation more blessed of God than ours has been historically
in the most important area, and that is with the gospel of God's
free grace. This is the land of what the
historians refer to as the great awakening. God has sent faithful
prophet after faithful prophet, generation after generation to
this country. They've gone through the length
and breadth of this land. Israel of old had peculiar privileges
as no other nation in her day, but their providential blessings
were nothing compared to what we've enjoyed. But like Israel
of old, throughout our history, we have provoked God to jealousy
over and over and over again. It seems to me both as I read
history and as I look over the brief experience of my existence
in this world that the more God has just opened the windows of
heaven and showered blessings upon us the more greatly, more
blatantly, more signally we have turned from him, seizing after
just the material, carnal, sensual things of this world. Truly we
must acknowledge, we must acknowledge. Turn back and let me show you.
Hold your hands here Mark 12, I'll get to it in a minute, but
turn back to 2 Chronicles 36. We must acknowledge, as did the
psalmist, he hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded
us according to our iniquities. We have behaved just exactly
like the Jews described here in 2 Chronicles chapter 36 and
in verse 16. Look at verse 15. The Lord God, let's
read it. Let's read it personally, all
right? We'll do no injustice to scripture. You read it just
like this. the Lord God of our fathers, sent unto them by his
messengers, rising up betimes and sending, because he had compassion
on his people and on his dwelling place. But they and we mocked
the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets. until the wrath of the Lord arose
against his people till there was no remedy. I want to tell you it is a thousand
wonders to me. It is a thousand wonders to me
that God has not destroyed our nation. Our streets run red with blood. Blood shed by unrestrained, undisciplined
children. This generation of children and
young people, I hope, I'm gonna put this on the radio and I hope
every mama and daddy in the country hears it. This generation of
young people have barbarians for parents. And some of you
behave like it sometimes. Parents these days are more like
brute beasts, crawling reptiles who just lay their eggs in the
sand and bury them in the sand of this world and forget them,
leave them to raise themselves. Now you listen carefully to me,
I'm saying exactly what I intend to say. Parents who refuse to
train, govern, and discipline their children, who refuse to
mold the characters of their children for good, are nothing
more than breeding beast, and I apologize to the beast. In
these days, it's customary for men and women, boys and girls,
simply to breed like dogs, first with one, then another. Adultery
is so commonplace that you just expect it. from the White House
down. It's given way to an utter disregard
for any kind of commitment to responsibility and obligation.
Utter disregard for marriage, for law and for order. Fornication
is smiled at as a like thing. It's as common for girls these
days to have babies out of wedlock as it is for dogs to scratch
fleas. Homosexuality is not only tolerated, it's accepted, it's
promoted, it's taught in our classrooms, in schools from the
earliest times you send your children off to school. It's
taught on everything that comes out of Hollywood. It's the common
theme of everything that's written in our day, in every aspect of
what's called cultured society. And as it has been throughout
history, when nations have abandoned God for their lust, abandoned
his way for their pleasures, abandoned his law and his order
in the name of freedom and human liberty, human life has become
cheap. Human life in our society is
cheap. So cheap that babies are buried more commonly than folks
go get their teeth cleaned. Unborn infants are looked at
as just unwanted fat, you just suck it out when you don't want
it. And I lay the charge, two places, I lay the charge and
responsibility at the doors of mom and daddy, who do not take
the responsibility of parents. Now you moms and dads, you young
folks who think about becoming moms and dads, If you don't intend
to raise your children for the glory of God, do the world and
yourself and them a favor, don't have them. Don't have them. Well,
we don't want to interfere with that little boy. We don't want
to interfere with that little girl. It might make them feel
bad. That's the intention. You want them to hurt when they
don't obey. That's the intention. Somebody
came up to me one time, When Faith was a little girl, she'd
sit right where Shelby sits now, and she's just a little tight.
And she'd come to church, we didn't bring toys for her to
play with, brought her to church to hear the word of God. We didn't
bring things for her to write and scribble on, brought her
to church to hear the word of God. And she'd misbehave. When she'd misbehave,
she's just a little tight. I'd step out of the pulpit, rather
than go into that door, I'd go to this door, we'd go outside,
and we'd have a talk. And I did all the talking, and
didn't say a word. One of the fellas met me at the
door one day, one of the women. She said, Brother Don, you're
gonna give that child a complex. I said, I fully intend to give
that child a complex. I want her to do what I tell
her to do. And she's going to do what I tell her to do first
time I tell her. You mommas and daddies, I hear
you, you say you should do this. No. My soul, I wasn't even raised
anywhere around Christianity. If I'd have said no to my mama,
I wouldn't have had any teeth to this day. That's nonsense. That's utter nonsense for you
parents to let your children get by with you speaking a word
to them and not obeying you. And the reason we have the condition
we have in this society involves moms and dads have been raised
with the notion that somehow we don't want to interfere with
anything. If you don't interfere, foolishness
is bound up in the heart of a child and left to itself it'll be raised
up to be nothing but a fool. and we're living in a generation
of mad fools and they rule the universe as far as politics and
education and such of that's concerned. It's astounding as
I said earlier that God has not simply wiped us off into oblivion
and yet the fact that he hasn't done so gives me some hope. Maybe Our great, gracious, and
glorious God will once more in wrath remember mercy. Maybe he has in store for our
land such a great spiritual deliverance as he gave to the Jews and brought
them out of Babylonian captivity physically. Maybe he will be
pleased to bring us out of the Babylonian captivity of spiritual
darkness into which we have plunged ourselves by disobedience. Now
having said that, horrible as things are on the streets of
our cities, in our classrooms, in our political leaders, in
the houses that people call families, bad as social fabric is in our
land, there's a worse problem. And the worst problem is the
root cause of all the other problems. The problem I speak of is this
fact, the teachers, preachers, spiritual leaders, churches,
local and denominational throughout our land, those who profess to
be God's servants, who claim to be responsible to teach God's
word and God's ways and God's truth, have long abandoned the
glory of God and the gospel of God because they take things
that belong to God to themselves. If you'll read the first chapter
of Romans, you will see that the moral decline of any people
begins with spiritual decline, with idolatry and with apostasy
from the revelation of God given in his word. And I lay the responsibility
for homosexuality, for the crime in our streets, for the blatant
disregard of all things concerning the law of God, I lay it at the
doorstep of Arminian free will works, idolatrous religion. Folks
have been taught all their lives that they are after all God and
they just decided so. I'll do what I want to. The parable here given in this
12 verses of Mark chapter 12 speaks historically of the nation
of Israel. It is without question a warning
to us as a nation, and a warning to all other nations of this
apostate age like ours, who are reaping the consequences of forsaking
God and His Word. He still visits the iniquities
of the fathers, unto the children and the children's children,
unto the third and fourth generation of them who will not obey Him.
He's still a God of judgment. But this parable is primarily
a warning to you and me. That's primarily the purpose
it's given. It is a warning to this local church. A warning
to us who are now so greatly blessed in these dark, dark days
with the privilege of sitting under the ministry of the gospel
in the house of God, hearing the word of God faithfully proclaimed. Now this is what God the Holy
Spirit intends for us to learn from this parable. You can read
it for yourself in his own words in Romans chapter 11, verses
20 and 21. But this is the lesson. This is what the parable means.
Bobby and Judy Estes, Merle and Charlotte Hart, Don and Shelby
Fortner, everybody else here, this is what it means. Be not
high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the nation
of Israel the natural branches, take heed. lest he also spare
not thee. That's what the parable teaches.
Now with that warning in mind, I'm gonna wrap this up by making
seven statements that are plain lessons given from the parable. First, God's church in this world
is his vineyard. That's what he says in verse
one. Now I'm speaking primarily here
of the local church. There certainly are applications
of the parable to the church universal. And there certainly
are lessons to be had here for every true local church. But
I'm talking to Grace Baptist Church, Danville, Kentucky. And
this is what the Lord tells us concerning this assembly of professed
believers. This church belongs to God. Doesn't
belong to the Baptist denomination. Doesn't belong to the deacons.
Doesn't belong to the pastor. Doesn't belong to you. Belongs
to God. It's his church. He separated a piece of ground in his own
property. He separated a piece of ground.
He said, I'll plant my vineyard right here. And he planted his
vineyard. By his hand, by his providence,
he planted it. He digged a place for the wine
vat in his vineyard. And he's hedged it about. Oh,
he put a hedge around it so that the wild boars in the field couldn't
come through and tear down his vineyard. And this local church,
this vineyard of the Lord, I hope you know, is the greatest blessed
privilege and blessing you have in this world. I don't mean it
takes first, second, third place, it's first thing. Greatest, blessed
privilege and blessing you have in this world. You might not think so now, but
if the Lord God should come take away this candlestick, it wouldn't
take you long to find out. Secondly, the Lord God has led
out his vineyard to husbandmen. Now this is what that means.
This is exactly what it means. God has entrusted to you and
me his vineyard. Oh, wow. He's let it out to us husbandmen.
It is our privilege and our responsibility to care for his vineyard, to
maintain his vineyard, to seek to it that all things are done
well for his vineyard. Thirdly, at the appointed time,
the Lord God sends his messengers, his servant, and looks for and rightfully
expects fruit from his vineyard. He establishes his vine and he
plants it and hedges it about. And he said, no, it's gonna bring
forth fruit. That's the reason he planted
it. That's why he planted it. And he comes to collect rent
from the husbandman. And this is all the rent he asks,
all the rent he demands. And he's gonna get it. Reverence
for his son. Surely they'll reverence my son.
Reverence his word, reverence him. Reverence his ways, reverence
him. Reverence his doctrine, reverence
him. Reverence him for his obedience unto death by which our sins
are put away, for his righteousness by which we stand accepted and
holy before God. Surely they'll reverence my son. Here's the fourth thing. As you read through verses two
through eight again, God sent, he sent his servant
and they stoned him. He sent another one and they
shamefully used him, sent him away empty. He sent another one
and they killed him. He sent others and they killed
some and knocked others. And at last, he sent his son
and said, surely they'll reverence my son. And they said, this is
the heir. Let's kill it and we'll have
the whole thing to ourselves. Now here's the lesson. As you
receive or despise, as you esteem or mock God's messengers, so
you receive or despise, esteem or mock God's sons. That's not
too much said. Our Lord said to Samuel, said,
they haven't despised you, they despise me. You're just the dearest
they can get to me. If they receive you, they receive
me. If they reject you, they reject
me. Now that's not talking about this person. My soul, this man
speaking to you, is not fit to be embraced, received by anybody. If you had any idea what I really
am, you'd run from me like the plague. But I come to you has
God's messenger. And Bob Ponce, if I've got God's
messenger, you better receive it, because God's speaking to
you. God's speaking to you. I'm not up here offering you
some good advice. I'm not up here offering you
some counsel, saying, hey, you take this home, study it out for yourself.
See, if you agree, I'm here speaking to you God's word, and you better
hear God's word. To despise it is to despise God. God's servants throughout history
had been ill-treated by most of the people to whom they preach. And they did so because they
were God's servants. And God's servants today must
not expect any better. When God's own son came here,
they seized him and nailed him to the tree. But this is the
fifth thing, and we need to understand it. Lost religious men and women
love religion. Religious duties. Religious activities. Religious clothes. Religious
jewelry. Religious beads. Religious trinkets. Religious ceremonies. Religious
history. Religious tradition. They love
everything about religion. But lost religious men and women
utterly despise God, his son, his gospel, and everybody who
preaches it. If they could, Get hold of God's
son by the throat, jerk him off his throne and crucify him all
over again. Throw him out of his kingdom. Let us break his bands asunder,
cast his cords from us. Let us throw him away, get rid
of him and the inheritance will be ours. You wonder why on earth
do men who stand in pulpits, men who teach in seminaries,
men who have positions of leadership, men to whom other men look for
direction toward God. Why will they reject the counsel
of God and deny the word of God and despise the gospel of God?
How come? Because they're not about to
turn loose of their religious power over men. They love it.
Let's get rid of God, get rid of God's Word, and we'll do just
exactly what we want to. And if you don't believe that's
what goes on, just read what goes on when these religious
denominations get together and decide what they're going to
do. God's glory got nothing to do with that. God's word got
nothing to do with that. God's truth got nothing to do
with that. God's gospel got nothing to do with that. The souls of
men got nothing to do with that. They do what they do because
they count noses and count dollars. That's all. They're motivated
by nothing else except their own power and their selfish interest. And I'll tell you something else.
You better learn from this. Conviction is not conversion. This text here says these scribes
and elders and chief priests knew, they knew the Lord was
talking directly to them. They knew it. And they said, we can't kill
him right now, but we won't hear this anymore. And he walked away.
It's not conviction that's conversion, but it's Christ in you, causing
you to bow to him, trust him, believe him. That's conversion. A lot of folks have had conviction
about one thing or another. Some of you sitting in here tonight,
you have a little trouble, you get a little difficulty, and
you keep feeling guilty. Oh, I better get me a Bible and
read it. Read about four or five verses, oh, I feel better now.
I better start going to church. Come church time or two, well,
everything's all right now. If you go to most churches, they'll
get you down here and pray you through and everything's all
right now. And everything's fine. And then you get a little convicted
again, you better pray a little, better read a little, better
go to church time or two. Everything worked out now. And then it goes
all over again. But conviction's not conversion.
Conversion is the turning of your heart to God Almighty. the
turning of your heart to Jesus Christ. Sixthly, it is clear
from this parable that if we despise the privileges and opportunities
God has given us, he will take away those great
privileges and make those things which might have been the means
of our everlasting salvation and joy the means of our everlasting
destruction and misery. What shall I do with my vineyard?
Take it away. Give it to somebody else and
send your judgment and destroy this people. What I do, what
you do, is exactly what God will do. But I don't despise the gospel. I don't, when I preach, you don't
get me wrong, I don't despise the church of God. I don't despise
God's people. I'll tell you what it is to despise
it. I got a garden planted out there. To despise it is to just
leave it. Just leave it alone. Just leave
it alone. Well, weeds are growing today,
yeah, but I, you know, I got a ball game. The weeds are growing
today, yeah, but I won't go fishing. The weeds are growing today,
yeah, but granny came in. The weeds are growing today, yeah,
but the kids have come home. The weeds are growing today,
To hell with the garden, I want everything else. That's what
it is to despise God's church. That's exactly what it is. God's
people are meeting today. To hell with that, I got something
else to do. That's exactly what it is. And that's what it is
to absent yourselves from your responsibility and your privilege. One more thing, though we despise
it, and though these privileges may
be turned to judgment against us, and though they may be turned
to judgment against those we dearest love because they have
willfully despised God's Word, God's purpose still stands. He
said, I sent my son. upon my holy hillside. Though
the builders have rejected this headstone, he's still on the
headstone of the corner. And this was the Lord's doing,
and it's marvelous in our eyes. Oh, the depth of the riches of
the wisdom and knowledge of our God, his ways, our past understanding.