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. This is the parable, the first
of several. A certain man planted a vineyard
set a hedge about it, and digged a place for the wine vat, and
built a tower, and led it out to husbandmen, and went into
a far country. And at the season, when it was
time, he sent to the husbandmen a 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 that 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 has 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. What about a 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
12th 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 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 the times 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'm going 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 going to 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 birthed 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. And Faith was a little girl.
She'd sit right where Shelby sits now, and she's just a little
tot. 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 tot. 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 going to 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 mamas 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 is both 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 under the children and the children's children under
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 Judaestus, Merle and Charlotte Hart, Don and Shelby
Cortner, 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 going to 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 as his
church. He separated a piece of ground in his own property. He separated a piece of ground
and 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 of 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. 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 going to 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 asked.
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 him 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 sword. 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 as
God's mission. 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 they 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 know, you have a little trouble,
you get a little difficulty and you keep feeling guilty. 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 it goes all over again. But conviction is 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 should I do with my vineyard?
Take it away. Give it somebody else and send
your judgment and destroy this people. What I do, what you do,
is exactly what God will do. For 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've 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, 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. What a wait. 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 set my soul upon my
holy hill of Zion. Though the builders have rejected
this headstone, he's still 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 are past understanding.