The title of our message today,
not for sale at any price. Not for sale at any price. I am so happy that some of you
young folk are here today, young adults. And then I'm happy with
these children, these fine boys back here, Benjamin and Asher.
And then the baby has gone out for a spell, but I'm honored
that you're all here, especially you young folks. I want you to
get this message today. I have lived long enough, and
so have many of us here, to have known many who have lived in
this life and have already departed into eternity. I have laid awake at night many
times and counted literally into the hundreds I have known that
are gone. From my childhood, the community
I grew up in, just go out every road in the community, in every
house, who lived where, gone, gone. And then through my years of
school, classmates, those I went to school with, some gone. And then on the jobs I've had,
people I've worked with, and then in the churches and preachers,
many I've known. And some have left this world
and died never professing to know God. And others have professed not only to know the
Lord, but have held on faithfully to the end. Others professed to know the
Lord and fell by the wayside somewhere. But how blessed it is to think
of those who truly knew God and were faithful to the end. which
had this motto along life's way, not for sale at any price. Well, Naboth in this passage
we've read you was just such a man. In verse six, King Ahab
whining and pouting tells his wife Jezebel, Naboth said to
me, I will not give thee my vineyard. Well, Ahab lied. That's not exactly
what Naboth said. What he said back up in verse
3 was this. The Lord forbid it me that I
should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. Ahab called
it Naboth's vineyard. Naboth called it the inheritance
of my fathers. Big, big difference. What Ahab
did not understand that this was not just a piece of real
estate to Naboth. It symbolized something much,
much more. It represents the goodness of
God, the gift of God to my fathers. Remember the Lord had told them,
Israel, the Israelites way back in the wilderness, before they
ever crossed the Jordan. He said, when I bring you into
the land, I will give you, I'm going to drive out the enemy,
and I'm going to give you houses to live in that you didn't build.
They're already built. And I'm going to give you vineyards
that you didn't plant. It's my gift to you. I can imagine
Brother Naboth could stand out in his vineyard and enjoy it. and fellowship with the Lord.
And he could say, I never was a slave in Egypt those 400 years
like my fathers were. I never crossed that hot, burning
desert and wondered for 40 years, but my fathers did. But then
you, Lord, in your goodness and in your mercy, you gave them
this beautiful vineyard. And they've left it in my keeping.
And I'm trying to keep it. But it's yours, Lord. I'm keeping it for you. I'll
not trade it. I'll not sell it. There's no
price to be put on it. It's not for sale at any price. So first this morning we'll consider
the worth of the vineyard. The worth of the vineyard. Ahab
told Naboth in verse 2, I'll give thee for it a better vineyard,
I'll trade you another one. Well now obviously in the eyes
of men there were better vineyards, but in Naboth's heart Ahab could
not give him a better vineyard because there is no better vineyard
And I will say to you this morning Nothing or nobody in this world
can give you any better vineyard than God has given you. There's
not a better one Then they have said or if you prefer I'll give
thee the worth of it in money I'll just buy it straight out
But in Naboth's heart, the worth of it could not be found in money.
It was a spiritual matter. It's a vineyard. Christ said, I am the vine, ye
are the branches. That's a vineyard. That's a vineyard. This represents the spiritual
heritage of God's people. And it's at Jezreel. below Mount
Carmel at Megiddo. Jezreel is that Armageddon being
fought in the lives of God's children every day that we live over our vineyard. Naboth is repeatedly called Naboth
the Jezreelite. He's a warrior, a warrior for
his soul. And this vineyard is in Jezreel,
a war zone. And that's what the heart of
God's child is, a war zone, every last one of us, every day that
we live. Now, this was Naboth's life. It was a matter of his fellowship
with God. That's what this is about. God
had instructed Israel back in Leviticus chapter 25 and verse
23, the land shall not be sold forever, for the land is mine. Naboth never once called it his
vineyard. He called it the inheritance
of my fathers. It's what God did for them and
it's what God's done for me. And it's not for sale at any
price. Ahab could not understand that Naboth was not just trying
to be hard to get along with, that's what he thought. But Ahab was messing with the
conviction of Naboth's heart. And that's what happens with
every single one of us every day. The very greatest advice
I could give to anyone today and to the children, and especially
you young adults here this morning, and young parents, the greatest
thing you can do for yourself, for your spouse, for your children,
is to put a big sign over your heart and life. Not for sale
at any price. Any price. Children may argue back with
you concerning your instruction. They may try to book your authority. I'll tell you what you can do. Don't give them room to argue
back with your example. Be what you want them to be. Hold to what's right and do what's
right. and trust God with the rest.
Our adversary, the devil, he knows just how to arrange it.
How to make you look like a fool for saying no. When you know
in your heart you ought to say no. I promise you all the money,
all the fame in this world is not worth as much as that measure
of conviction, God in His mercy and grace has put in your heart. To be born into a family, into
a country, into a part of the country, to have lived here,
to have grown up in church, many of us, and even if you wouldn't,
to have had this privilege to come together just like we are
this morning, to have been blessed of God to hear and to know the
truth. What a blessing. What a blessing. It's worth more than anything
else. But the devil don't care. He
just wants to rob you of it. The convictions of your heart a conscience to fear God, to
fear disobeying God. That's a gift of God's grace
just to you. And when you trade it off, when that conviction leaves, when you're bankrupt of any fear
of God and anything goes, And there are no limits on your life.
What a miserable, bankrupt existence that is. So I repeat that that we call
conscience, conviction, fear of God is worth more than all
the fortune and fame in this world. Worth more. Secondly, consider a moment the
wasting of the vineyard. Now we read here and notice that
Ahab didn't want the vineyard for himself in order to keep
it a vineyard. No. He's going to take all those
ancient and fruitful vines and rip them out of the ground, roots
and all, and plant him a garden of herbs. Verse 2 says, he wants
it for a little kitchen garden just beside the palace to be
able to go out of the kitchen and gather a few fresh herbs
from his own garden to season his own food. He didn't care
anything about the fruitful vineyard God had given Naboth. And can
I say this morning, the devil And this world and this community
around you don't care anything about that precious vineyard
God has given you. They'll make fun. They'll talk
about what a fool you are for trying to hold on to the convictions
of your heart. But dear friends, you better
hold on. When you lose that vineyard,
They won't grieve with you. They'll laugh at you. That's
how it goes. And then thirdly, just for a
moment, consider the war over the vineyard. You see, it's not
out on a battlefield with guns and swords, no, but it's a war
in the heart. Naboth, no doubt, was called
unpatriotic. dishonoring to the king, cold-hearted. But you see, that
wasn't the issue at all. The issue of the war was over
whether he had honored God with what God had given him. And so
it is in your life and mine. When we're confronted by the
devil, when we're confronted by the world, oh, they got a
way to reason it out and figure, well, you know, you just ought
to do this. We've been good to you. You ought to honor this.
I mean, we honored you. Hey, this is all about whether
or not you'll honor God with what he has given you. So they probably called him names.
They probably, you know, they criticized him. That's what the
war is over in your heart. We need to understand this morning,
it's not about what people say or think. It's all about your
conviction to honor God with what he's given you or whether
you're willing to just throw it away. You better put up the sign. It better be easy to see and
clear to read, not for sale at any price. Ahab is a coward. He goes in, lays down pouts about
it. That's what verse 4 says. When he sees the not for sale
sign, he won't look at anybody, he won't eat, he's on a hunger
strike. Poor fellow. But he's married
to a Jezebel. Most cowards are. Who is she? Well, she's the daughter of a
heathen king. Ahab had married her and she
led him to worship the false idols of Baal. He's the king of Israel. This
people God had chosen and provided for and promised to send his
son through their loins, and he's married into this heathenism.
Who is this Jezebel? She is defined in Revelation
2 as alive and well in the church at Thyatira, as a religious harlot,
seducing the servants of Christ to commit spiritual fornication
and go after idols. Jezebel is not a powder like
Ahab. She's a fighter. But she don't fight fair. And
we read here that she wrote some letters and signed Ahab's name,
the king's seal. And she sent letters to the nobles
and the elders in Samaria and said, I want you deal with this
fellow Naboth. Call in false witnesses to testify
that he blasphemed God and the king. And I want you to make it so
that the only reasonable thing we can do would be to go ahead
and condemn him and stone him to death. You see, war is merciless. And the devil don't fight fair.
You need not think you can compromise with the devil without losing
ground. He won't have it any other way.
You'll lose and he'll gain every time you deal with him. So they
stoned Naboth to death. But Naboth is the winner. There's
a lot of things in this world worse than dying. a lot of things. He's much better
off to die for what he believed than to live without it. Than to live having compromised
his convictions. My heart is stirred in me. This
being Memorial Weekend, our thinking is along this line. My heart
is stirred when my mind goes back over the years And I remember
so many in the Lord's army who have believed God and stood on
their convictions till their dying breath, regardless of what
anybody said or thought. But then when I look around and
see folks still walking around that used to believe something,
I thought, that used to have strong conviction, I thought,
it kind of gives you a sick feeling that so many that you thought
cared don't care what God said or who God is. I tell you, we're
in a mess in this country, folks. This Hollywood mess has ruined
us in this country. Satan has blinded us as to what's
really important. He sure has. Who cares if you
make millions of dollars? Who cares if you're famous worldwide? and live to be 110 and then die
and go to hell. Who cares? That's not the issue. That's
not the issue. Not at all. Not the issue at all. Someone said the true value of
a life in this world is not its duration, but its donation. Romans 14, 7, Paul said, no man
liveth through himself, no man dieth through himself. Your life is affecting people. What about it? I mean, everybody
knows we go to church. That's no big deal. What about
day by day? What about our life? What about
our heart? Is there any indication that
you love God? Are you living for His glory,
not your own? That's the issue. I want to say this morning, come
what may, You need to settle it in your heart in spite of
what anybody else does. When I go down, I'm going down
with the sign still up, not for sale at any price. You say, well, hadn't you made
mistakes more than you could ever imagine? But I'm not taking the sign down.
I want to go down with the sign still up, not for sale at any
price. One more thing. We'll conclude
the word of the Lord, the word of the Lord, just because this
world acts like the word of the Lord means nothing. That does
not mean the word of the Lord means nothing. It means everything. It will stand and stand forever. When we stopped reading at verse
16, verse 17 says, and the word of the Lord came to Elijah. Elijah is God's prophet. And
the Lord says to him in these next few verses, I want you to
go and meet Ahab, the king. Where will I find him, Lord?
Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth. The Lord is still
calling it the vineyard of Naboth, and Naboth is dead. I want you
to go there, and you'll find Ahab, and I want you to give
him a message. They stoned Naboth right in the
front yard of the palace, and the dogs licked up his blood.
I want you to tell Naboth, middle of verse 19, Thus saith the Lord,
In the place where dogs lick the blood of Naboth, shall dogs
lick thy blood, even thine. And that's not all. Your wife
Jezebel, verse 23, And of Jezebel also spake the Lord, saying,
The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Now the next chapter opens, 22,
it opens by saying there continued three years without war. It looks like Elijah was just
kind of flapping his jaws, say, Three years, nothing happened.
Everything was fine. But you see, God don't have to
even the score in a week or two. He's got all the time there is. Finally, in chapter 22, later on here, they're at war
with the Syrians. Mr. Ahab is out there in his
chariot. And verse 34 says that a certain man drew
a bow at a venture. This was on the Syrian side.
He didn't even aim. He just drew this bow back at
a venture and let the arrow go right into the Israelites. And this verse said that this
bow that he drew at adventure shot the arrow. It smote the
King of Israel between the joints and the harness. Wherefore he
said unto the driver of his chariot, turn thine hand and carry me
out of the host, for I am wounded. The battle increased that day.
The King was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians.
and died it even and his blood ran out of the wound, the blood
ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. Verse 37, so the king died and
was brought to Samaria and they buried the king in Samaria. Now
look at verse 38, and one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria
and the dogs licked up his blood. And they washed his armor according
unto the word of the Lord which he spake. The dogs, the palace
pooches, same old red bones or blue ticks or whatever they was,
that licked up Naboth's blood, licked up Ahab's blood. God said
that's how it'll be, bud, and that's how it was. wasn't overnight. God don't have to do anything
overnight. But he'll get around. He'll get around. So much for
Ahab. Later in 2 Kings 9, over just
a few pages, verse 33, two men threw Jezebel
out the window. And it says, In this verse, some
of her blood was sprinkled on the wall. So they went down to
get her body and to bury it. The Bible said in verse 35, when
they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull
and the feet and the palms of her hands. Them dogs had been
at it again. Wherefore they came again and
told him and cried, This is the word of the Lord, which he spake
by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel
shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel. It happened just that way. What is the worth of the vineyard
God has given you? You better not take it lightly. To hear and to learn the truth
of God's gospel, to trust Christ, to walk with Him. Don't walk over it. Don't kick
it away. Oh no. The wasting of the kingdom. you'd
better know, or the wasting of the vineyard, you'd better know
the devil aims to strip you of it. When us old heads around here
are gone, 20 years from now, you young adults sitting here,
some of you right now in your 20s and 30s, you're going to
be 40s and 50s. And only God knows what this
world will be, but He's big enough to handle it. He's going to handle
it. The question is, where will you be? You and your vineyard. Will you have traded it off?
Will you have thrown it away? Will you have walked on it? Are you going to be still living,
trying to honor God in your life? It's so important. The vineyard,
the vineyard. The war over the vineyard. You'd
better know the devil's ready to fight every day, all day. He'll stop at nothing. to take it from you. But then
finally consider the word of the Lord. He'll have the last
word. How you got here is not so important
as how you leave here. Ahab was born in a palace with
all its finery. He died in his chariot with an
arrow to the heart and the dogs licked up his blood. The Lord
Jesus was born in a stable, died on a cross, but he died saying,
it is finished. I have finished the work thou
gavest me to do. So I'm simply saying, put up
that sign, folks. Put up that sign. You'll fail
enough trying to do right. Don't disown the devil, the keys.
Let him know you're against him. in your heart and in your life,
not for sale at any price. At any price. We could go on and on. Our time's
about gone. I think about this heathen entertainment
Hollywood mess. How that they live and make millions
and are famous all over the world. And they're in the news all the
time and on these scandal sheets. And they're getting married and
divorced one and marry another and every six or eight months,
every time you turn around, all this kind of garbage. And it's
supposed to be important. That's not important. Not at
all. And I heard something the other
day in print, I hadn't seen this in several years, that heathen,
that George Byrne. Comedian, lived to be over a
hundred. Played God in a movie. See? If I hadn't read that, I'd about
forgot the fellow existed. You know what? This world's about
forgot he existed. And we could name many more.
Nothing, nothing, nothing to him. Live and die without God. How sad that is. But let me give
you the other side of the story. Men like Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
Jonathan Edwards, Martin Luther, John Calvin, they're quoted from
pulpits every Sunday that comes all over the world. What about
that? That's what the book of Hebrews
meant when it said men of whom the world was not worthy. That's
a fact. It's a fact. Praise God for the
vineyard, the vineyard, put your sign up, make sure it's readable. Not for sale. All right, let's
stand together.