The Lawless Vinedressers

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Well, I am happy again to be able to have one of the men of the church come and bring the Word.
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Again, I want to say how thankful I am for the time that I've been given to spend time with the family and to get to know our new baby.
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And I'm thankful now for Brother Mike who has prepared again a message for us to hear out of the Gospels and we look forward to hearing him come.
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So Brother, come and bring the Word.
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First and foremost, I'd like to say thank you to this church for its condolences to me and my family the loss of our grandfather.
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He was a loved man and the text and emails and cards that came to the house were very appreciated and that comes from me and my family as well.
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Have your Bibles turned to Matthew chapter 21.
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And if you want to go ahead, we'll stand up and read that as an honor to His Word.
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Verses 33 through 46.
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Here another parable.
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There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower.
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He leased it to the vinedressers and went into a far country.
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Now when the vintage time or the harvest time had drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers that they might receive its fruit.
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And the vinedressers took his servants.
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They beat one, killed one, stoned another.
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Again, he sent another servant, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.
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Then last of all, he sent his son to them, saying, They will respect my son.
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But when the vinedresser saw the son coming, they said among themselves, Here is the heir.
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Come, let us kill him and we will seize his inheritance.
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So they took him.
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They cast him out of the vineyard and they killed him.
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Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers? And the people around him said to him, He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and he will lease his vineyard to another vinedresser who will render to him the fruits of their seasons.
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Jesus said to them, Have you not read the Scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
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This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
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Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing fruits of it.
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And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.
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Now when the chief priests, the Pharisees, heard this parable, they knew that he was speaking to them.
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But they sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the multitudes, because they took him to be a prophet.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I am desperate in need of You now, as I open Your Word to speak to Your people, to speak Your truth out of Your book.
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Father, I pray that You would give me the strength to preach and teach the Word.
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Father, not putting any confidence in preparation or exegetical studies, but Father, confidence in the power of the Spirit, that You will send forth Your Word, that it will go out and it will accomplish that which You sent it to do.
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Father, You say Your Word won't return void.
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Father, You also say when the preaching of the gospel goes out, it produces life unto life or death unto death.
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And Father, we pray today that those that are in this room that do not know You, that Father, it will produce life.
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And Father, for those that do know You, that it would be encouraging, edifying, and uplifting, and that You would be honored in all that is said and done.
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In Christ's name, Amen.
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For those of you that know me, I revert back to certain books of the Bible and to certain passages over the year.
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I don't know if any of y'all do that.
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There's always certain passages that you always gravitate to.
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One for me is the book of Hebrews.
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And the other is Passion Week.
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And that actually was started by my dad who is here today.
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When we go through Passion Week, the time when Christ is fixing to be crucified from His triumphal entry, and what me and him would do is we would go through that in order.
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And over the time, I put an outline together so I would not have to keep flipping back and forth.
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But to see what transpired on the week that Jesus was crucified and resurrected.
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It is the most significant week in world history.
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It's when Jesus walks into the temple.
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He condemns the temple.
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He is then crucified and He is resurrected.
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And just to let you know, if you go and look at your Gospels, look at for the vast majority of the chapters, focus on the last week of His life.
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The book of John, more than half of the book if I remember correctly, spends on the last few days of His life.
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So it's very significant.
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But this parable, let me give you some context to bring you up to where, why I'm going to use this parable and what it's saying.
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This would be taking place on Tuesday of Passion Week.
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This would be Tuesday about mid-morning.
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But what has already taken place is on Sunday, the triumphal entry, where Jesus comes into the city.
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He is making His descent from the Mount of Olives to the temple complex.
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And as He is doing that, there's people laying down palm branches, as we call it Palm Sunday, clothing and all of those things.
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And as they're doing so, they're crying out, Hosanna, Hosanna to glory to God in the highest.
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And what they are doing is wanting to hail Him King of the Jews.
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But as they are trying to hail Him King of the Jews, Jesus is lamenting.
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He is crying.
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He is weeping as He enters the city.
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Because He says this thing, He says it in Luke, He says, if you did not know that this was the day of your visitation, if you did not know, you would not know what's about to happen to you.
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There's going to be armies that will surround you, and you are fixing to be leveled to the ground.
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That is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem.
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But on Monday, on Sunday, He comes into the temple complex.
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As they go into the city, hail King of the Jews by the Jewish people.
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He goes into the temple complex.
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He looks around.
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He sees all of the idolatry that's going on, the buying and selling for extortion of the animals.
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He leaves on Sunday evening, goes back two miles to Bethany.
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It's on Monday.
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And as He's heading back from Bethany into the city, He looks off into the distance and He sees a fig tree.
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And Jesus is hungry, pointing to His humanity just like you and me.
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Jesus is hungry.
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And as He approaches that fig tree, that fig tree has no fruit on it, but its leaves are ready for harvest.
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Jesus says, I curse you.
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And Jesus cursed that fig tree.
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And as He enters the city, He goes in.
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He goes immediately into the temple complex.
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And He sees the same exact things that were happening on Sunday happening on Monday.
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Extortion, political power, things that Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, the things that he was trying to do to manipulate and extort God's people.
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It says that Jesus then drives out the money changers.
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He flips open, flees.
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One passage in, I think it's John or in Luke, says that He lets the donkeys and the animals and the oxen free.
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And another one says He frees all the doves.
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But both of the acts of the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple are both prophetic.
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And understand this, they're both prophetic imagery of what God was fixing to do to the nation of Israel.
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God was casting judgment on them.
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And why? Jesus has already said it.
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You did not know who I was.
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You did not know that I was your Redeemer.
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And you have constantly rejected me.
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So, the chief priest, the scribes, the Pharisees, they had already been trying to plot to kill Christ before His triumphal entry.
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Before this time had happened, they had already sought how they would kill Christ.
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So now Jesus, He goes on.
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He goes back to Bethany, sleeps for the night.
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And those guys are coming back in.
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I'm sorry, as they're going out, they see the curse of the fig tree.
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Then Jesus gives them an explanation of faith and power and following God and faith.
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Back.
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Coming back in on Tuesday.
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The twelve come in.
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They pass the withered tree.
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Jesus then enters the temple complex.
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As He enters that temple complex on Tuesday, which is where it brings us for today's message, Jesus enters that complex immediately to teach the people.
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And He is doing this in what is called Solomon's Porch.
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I don't know if you've ever looked at a temple diagram, but Solomon's Porch was a long veranda style area with Corinthian stones, enormous stones, just very elaborate.
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It was also the place too where the buying and selling of the animals that they were doing for extortion by Caiaphas had been taking place.
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And understand, when it says that Jesus cleansed the temple, we have no indication that that took place again.
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Never again.
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No indication in Scripture, no indication in any extra-biblical writing that the buying and selling in the temple complex took place again.
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So when it says cleansed, Jesus did just that.
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He cleansed it.
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It says that He went in and He began to teach.
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And as He was teaching those people in that area, Luke says He was teaching and preaching the Gospel.
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He was preaching the Gospel.
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And as He was teaching and preaching the Gospel, the Sanhedrin came to Him and asked Him a question, Who gave you the authority to run all these people out of here? That's what they asked Jesus.
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Who were they to ask the King of kings and the Lord of lords, Who gave you the authority? And Jesus says, I'll tell you what I'll do.
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I'll answer that question when you answer this.
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You tell me whose baptism was John's.
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Whose baptism was John's? Was it of men or was it of God? They couldn't answer Him, so Jesus said, you know what? I'm not going to answer another question you've got until you answer that.
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So understand, from the time that Jesus came in the temple complex, this is shadow boxing.
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They're duking it out.
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This is a power struggle.
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The people want Jesus to be the prophet and the redeemer.
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Not redeemer of their soul, but the redeemer from Rome.
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And the religious leaders want Him completely out of the way.
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Because if Jesus gets power, who loses power? The religious leaders do.
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So, Jesus then gives another parable.
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Of the two sons, one being unrepentant, one being disobedient.
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This is also the day of parables on the complex that day.
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He goes on to tell the religious leaders that harlots and tax collectors and Gentiles, all of them will enter the kingdom of heaven before they do.
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So, needless to say, Jesus was making it very clear.
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You didn't receive John the Baptist when he came teaching and preaching.
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And now you're not receiving me, is what Jesus said.
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So, that picks us up on this conversation in verse 33.
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One more point.
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This is a parable.
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Understand, this is a parable.
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And early on in Matthew chapter 13, when Jesus began to teach in parables, He said it had two purposes.
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One, to reveal truth.
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And another, to conceal truth.
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So, just remember, that's the purpose of parables.
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It's an earthly meaning with a heavenly story, if that's what you want to call it.
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That's probably what most of us have been taught in times past.
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And that is true.
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But it's to conceal truth or reveal truth.
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And remember that this very parable is being spoken to the religious leaders at the time with all of these other thousands and thousands of other Jewish people present.
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Remember, this is the time of Passover.
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There's hundreds of thousands of people in Jerusalem.
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And Josephus, I don't know if any of y'all ever read Josephus' works.
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You can read either the Jewish wars or his antiquities.
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He even says there's anywhere between 1 million and 1.5 million Jews within Jerusalem and surrounding the temple complex there.
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So, this would be busting at the seams.
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So, imagine the people during the Passover hearing Jesus speak to the religious leaders.
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And we'll start over here.
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Here, another parable.
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There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard, set a hedge around it, dug a press in it, built a tower, and leased it to vine dressers and went to a far country.
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Understand that when Jesus said a vineyard, I'm going to give you a parable of a vineyard.
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In the mind of those people steeped in Old Testament prophecy would have been that of Isaiah.
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When Isaiah spoke of the vineyard, when Isaiah was condemning the religious people, the same thing for their idolatrous acts.
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And here's Jesus now doing the same thing.
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And if you want to go read that, it's Isaiah chapter 5 verses 1 through 7.
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And it's very interesting the things that are said in there and it's parallel to what Jesus says.
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But this landowner took this piece of land and at great expense, he put a vineyard in it.
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It says he planted.
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Man, the expense that it would take to plant a vineyard.
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He put a hedge around it.
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He put this hedge around it to keep marauders, to keep people from coming in, taking it to keep animals from coming in and eating.
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It says that not only did the landowner provide a hedge around it and plant vineyards, this wasn't just a couple of vines, we're talking a vast piece of property.
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He planted this vineyard and then it says in the middle of it he put a wine press.
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And Mark's account, he says a vat.
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If you know anything about a vat, they make a press and as they squeeze and crush the grapes or whatever fruit you're using, as it goes down it falls into a big drum.
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It says that he takes this vat and he puts it in the middle.
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It's a large because it's going to be a well-planted vineyard.
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That will produce large amounts of produce.
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And when this landowner built this tower, he built that vineyard.
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Not only did he take that vineyard with a hedge and with many vines, but he also put a tower in it.
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In the Old Testament and all of ancient literature, a tower was for one purpose.
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It was to overlook, to see who was coming.
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Whether it be someone who had more authority or more power or a more military strength to overtake that vineyard and take all that they had, or at times it was used for those people to find a place of refuge when inclement weather.
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Either way, it was put there for a purpose of protection.
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Protection from either the weather or from people coming.
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So now, when Jesus had said the vineyard, we know that this has captured their mind and their thoughts when he said vineyard.
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It's right here when Jesus makes this shift.
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He shifts from, hey, this wine press and this tower, to where he makes a shift to who the vine dressers are.
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He says, and not only he takes this piece of land, he gives it to the vine dressers.
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Vine dressers were often people who would lease that piece of property.
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It would be given to them to work the land, produce large amounts of vine or wine, so that when the land owner would come, what would be his due? It wouldn't be money he's looking for.
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He's looking for produce.
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He's looking for, hey, I gave you everything necessary to produce fruit, so now give me what to do.
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So in this parable, we see the land owner would be God himself.
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The vineyard would be this nation of Israel.
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And the vine dressers would be the religious leaders, the scribes, the Pharisees.
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And at this particular time, they were supposed to be the spiritual guiders and leaders of the nation of Israel, and all they are are false prophets.
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That's all they are.
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They're out for themselves.
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They don't care about the people.
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We see that very clear as Jesus is in the middle of preaching the gospel, and what does that person do? That person comes up to him and starts asking him questions.
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I'm sorry, if he's preaching the gospel, and we're in an open area, and a guy walks up to him, I'm cutting the guy off.
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And when man is preaching the word, that's the words of God coming out of his mouth.
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Jesus Christ was speaking.
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And they had no problem cutting him off.
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So that's the vineyard.
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And then you have in verses 34 through 36, we have the appearance and the rejection of the servants.
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So it says that when the harvest time drew near, he sent his servants to the vine dressers that they might receive its fruits.
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Once again, we see these people that were coming to receive that which they had been entrusted the vineyard to do so.
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And the word servants here is not the normal word for servants.
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It actually is a slave.
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The translation should have been slave.
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And some of your translations may say that it is doulos.
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And a doulos was someone who had been bought and purchased.
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Therefore, everything that they said and did was to bring prosperity and honor and point to their master.
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That's what the doulos was, the servant.
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And it says here that those vine dressers took the servants, they beat one, killed one, and stoned another.
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It says that these vine dressers took the servants and they beat him and killed them.
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The vine dressers were hostile not only towards the owner, but they were hostile towards their agreement.
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The agreement was they were supposed to do what they were supposed to do, which was produce fruit.
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Produce fruit.
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Then give that which is due to the landowner.
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The vine dressers, knowing the owner would be sending more servants to collect care, they didn't care anything about it.
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They didn't care about their covenant with that landowner.
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They didn't care anything about what they had already done.
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So what does it say in verse 36 and 35? I'm sorry, the vine dressers took the servants, beat one, killed one, stoned another.
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But then in verse 36 it said he sent others, more than the first.
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And they did likewise to them.
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Look, this landowner was very gracious.
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He should have sent an entourage and squashed them.
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They had already beat one, killed another, stoned one.
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In another passage it says that one was injured in his head, meaning it was fatal.
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Look, they didn't have emergency rooms where if you get hit in the head with a big rock or a stick where you can go and be taken care of.
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Usually when something was hit in the head, it was a fatal blow.
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So here it is, the landowner being very gracious did not do that.
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He sends more servants.
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Well, who are the servants in this parable? It's the prophets.
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It's the prophets.
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How many times did God send prophets to warn the people of Israel? I mean, we could go through all the prophets.
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What was the message of the prophets? Anybody in here know? Repent.
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Repent.
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It was not, hey, come and have a better life.
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It was repent or God is going to judge you.
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Every one of them.
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John the Baptist being the one right in the forerunner of Jesus Christ, what was his message? Repent.
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What was Jesus' message? Repent.
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So Jesus didn't preach anything that all of his predecessors as prophets, I'm saying, as predecessor prophets preached.
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He preached the same message.
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And what did they do to the prophets? They killed them.
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What are they going to do to this person? They're going to kill them.
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They're going to kill them.
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The prophets' primary responsibility was not foretelling the future.
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I know we think of a guy who tells the prophet he's going to tell the future.
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More so, it had to do with them being what's called a covenant prosecutor.
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What they would do, they would be disobedient.
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God would send a servant, a slave, a prophet to go, call them to repentance, to administer the word of God, hoping that that would lead them to repentance and faith, to trust back in Yahweh of the Old Testament, and that they would do that.
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Well, more times than not, they didn't.
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So what did God have to do? He would have to judge them.
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We see a first major judgment on them after becoming a nation of Israel in 722, when He sent the Assyrian Empire and wiped out the Northern Kingdom.
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They didn't listen.
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Judah, the Southern Kingdom, did not listen.
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And God says, I will do you just like your sister.
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And what did He do in 586? He did the same thing.
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Sent them off in the Babylonian Empire and made utter destruction.
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If you've ever read Jeremiah or the Lamb of God, you ought to read the imagery that's in there.
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And that image is true.
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He is not making it up.
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It was utter destruction.
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Bodies left in the street, people taken off into captivity.
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It was utter destruction because they did not obey.
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In the Old Testament, these leaders of the nation of Israel had already had a long history of killing the prophets.
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Killing the prophets.
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Stoning them.
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Beating them.
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The prophets of God were put in place to esteem.
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They were put in the place to uplift the people of God.
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And what did they do? They didn't want their authority.
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They didn't want anything from them.
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So what they did is, we want to do it our way.
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We want our power.
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So they killed them.
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The normal response to the prophets was this right here.
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You can write these passages down if you would like.
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This is Amos chapter 5 verse 10.
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They hated the one who rebukes and negates.
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And they abhor the one who speaks uprightly for God.
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In 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 4, Jezebel massacred the prophets because he spoke the truth.
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In Jeremiah chapter 19 verses 14 through chapter 20 and 2, Jeremiah was prosecuted.
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Jeremiah was thrown in a hole.
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He was beaten.
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Jewish history says he was even stoned at one time.
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The Bible doesn't say that, but Jewish history says he was stoned.
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It could be true.
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We know this.
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He was mistreated.
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And Jeremiah didn't take it with a stiff upper lip.
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Jeremiah was a fragile man.
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And then in Chronicles, I want to turn over to 2 Chronicles 24 and read verses 19 through 21.
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He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord and they testified against them.
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They would not listen.
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The Spirit of the Lord came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, who stood above the people and said to them, Thus says God, Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has forsaken you.
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So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king, they stoned him in the court of the house of the Lord.
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Look what they did to the man of God, and look where they did it, because he spoke the truth of the matter.
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They killed him in the temple.
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Go on over to chapter 36 of Chronicles, verses 14 through 16.
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Moreover, the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more, according to all the abominations of the nations.
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In other words, they were doing everything that God had already told them in the law.
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You do this, I will do this.
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God says, You act like these other nations, and I will decimate you.
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Here is what it is.
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It says, They began to do all the things of the abominations of the nations and defiled the house of the Lord that He had consecrated at Jerusalem.
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And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by messengers, or the prophets, rising up early, sending them, because He had compassion on these people and His dwelling place.
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But they mocked the messengers.
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They despised them.
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They scoffed the prophets, until the wrath of God arose against them, and there was no remedy.
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You can see, this is the reaction of the people.
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Quote, the people, their leader, the leader of the people.
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This was their reaction to God's prophets.
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And even most recently, you could even say, if you go back and look, six months prior to this, whose head did they just remove? John the Baptist.
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And why did they do that? Because he called Herod to repentance because of his adultery with his brother's wife.
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Pulled him out of prison and cut his head off.
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The point of this parable right now is to show that the religious leader's history of killing the prophets of God was long and very long.
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These men should have been receiving these people as a gracious gift.
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They revered these men as God going, turn, turn, turn.
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And what did they do? They did not.
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And God continually sent prophet after prophet after prophet.
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Jesus Himself says in Matthew 23, verses 37-38, after the last confrontation at the temple, O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, you stone the prophets.
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You stone the prophets.
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But then we have in verse 37, the appearance and the rejection of the blessed Son.
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Then last of all, He sent His Son saying, they'll respect My Son.
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But when the bind dresser saw that Son, they said among themselves, here is the heir.
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Let's kill him and seize the inheritance.
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So they took Him, they cast Him out of the vineyard and killed Him.
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This is the climactic point of the parable.
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It's at this point right here where the landowner says, I'm going to send all that I can.
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I'm sending it here.
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I'm going to send the last person that I have to send and I'm going to send my son.
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And I like the wording that he used.
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It says, I'm going to send my only Son, the beloved Son.
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There's no way you can't help but point that to that of Jesus Christ.
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He'll go and maybe if this person goes, things will be different.
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They'll respond with respect and gratitude because this landowner or God has sent His own Son.
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But no, they don't.
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Instead, what do they want to do? They want to kill Him.
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This could be no greater appeal.
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No greater appeal from this landowner or from God Himself to send nothing other than His own Son.
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We hear the landowner, God saying, After all I've done for you, I've put you in this garden.
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I've put protection here for you.
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I've given you everything necessary to produce fruit and you have produced nothing.
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And if you go back and you read what it says in Isaiah, the parallel passage to this, He says, I put you in here to produce good fruit and all you did was produce wild grapes.
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And it says that God struck them down then.
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It's right here where the co-eternal, co-equal Son of God comes onto the scene.
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And He is here right now performing miracles, doing all this teaching in the temple complex, showing all these people for three and a half years of what it meant to be a godly man and what God wanted to do to them.
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And what do the religious leaders want to do? They want to kill Him.
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Jesus spoke against the idolatrous practices within the temple.
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And Jesus does the same as they did before.
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And not only did they not only want Jesus to leave, they wanted to keep their sacrificial system.
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When Jesus called for self-denial and no self-centeredness, that's what they wanted.
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I'm not denying myself.
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I'm going to keep myself.
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And I'm going to keep the things that I like.
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And I'm going to reject you.
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It didn't do anything but anger God all the more.
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But the vinedressers, verse 38, they didn't respect the Son.
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The vinedressers saw the Son coming.
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And they seized Him and they killed Him.
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This very tower which was built for their strength and to keep marauders out to see an enemy coming, they have used to look and to see the Son of God coming.
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Now they see the Son of God coming and what do they do? They want to kill Him.
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They want to take the Son of God and destroy Him.
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And that's exactly what they do.
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That's exactly what they do.
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It says they seize Him and they kill Him.
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And they take the inheritance.
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They didn't want what God offered them through repentance and faith.
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They wanted their sacrificial system.
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They wanted their political power.
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They wanted their holy place, the temple, to remain.
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They did not want to receive the true temple who was Jesus Christ the righteous.
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They wanted to keep their blasphemous acts.
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It's the same thing that happened in the Old Testament.
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You see it in Malachi.
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What did they want? They wanted to keep it their way, not God's way.
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It says that they seize Him, they capture Him, they ambush and they apprehended and slew Him.
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There is no way in reading that parable from our side of the cross that you can't see Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane with torches and clubs and chains and an army that came from the temple complex, Caiaphas himself, coming down through the Kidron Valley, looking off into the distance, seeing them in the middle of the night, Jesus praying, coming led by Judas, and their fixing to beat Him, seize Him, take Him before the courts of Israel and have Him killed.
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It says on here that not only did they do that, but they took Him and they cast Him out of the vineyard.
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It says that they took Him in verse 39 and they cast Him out of the vineyard.
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All of the Gospel records make it very clear that Jesus was taken outside the city like a common criminal, led out through the Damascus gate and nailed to a tree.
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They took the Son of God, the One who came to redeem the nation.
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They took Him, they drug Him out, they beat Him, they put Him on a tree, nailed Him to a place where criminals were crucified every day.
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They treated Him like a common criminal, erected Him in a place of degradation and shame, stripped Him down to nothing.
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Understand, nothing.
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There was no tunic on Him.
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He was shamed.
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He was beaten.
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That's what they did to the Son of God.
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The religious leaders did that to the Son of God.
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The religious leaders threw the hand of Rome.
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The religious leaders had no power to put someone to death.
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So who did they use? They brought Jesus before the Sanhedrin.
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We can't kill Him.
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So who did they do? They took Him to Pilate saying, kill Him.
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Pilate said, for what? Well, under our law, He should be killed.
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It was never questioned.
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They chastised Him.
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The people continued to cry.
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Spineless backbone.
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No Pilate.
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He just says, okay.
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But then verse 41, it says, the self-condemning words of these people.
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Jesus asked this question to them.
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They know what it would have been like for someone to come over and take things of their own.
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So He asked them, therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will we do to those vinedressers? So it's right here where Jesus points to them.
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If this happens, what should happen? Let's think back in the Old Testament.
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In 2 Samuel 12, Nathan, not our Nathan, but Nathan the prophet, goes to David.
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Remember what he did? He gives him a little parable.
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A man comes and he takes this guy, this little ewe lamb, the only one that he has.
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A more powerful man.
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And he takes it.
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He tells David, what should we do to that man? And David said, we should kill him.
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And what did Nathan tell him? You're that man.
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It's right here.
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It's just like this.
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Jesus has thrown the hook out.
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He has set the hook.
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It's right in their jawbone.
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And they're fixing to condemn their self.
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It says right here, what shall we do to those vinedressers? And listen to their response in verse 41.
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They said to him, we will destroy those wicked men miserably and lease his vineyard to another vinedresser who will render to him the fruits of his season.
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They condemned their self.
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Jesus says, what should we do? And they say, kill him.
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Kill him.
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That's what we should do.
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That's exactly what we should do.
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We should kill him.
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It's at this point that these people understand that they are speaking, that Jesus Christ is speaking to them.
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Jesus Christ is speaking to them about something serious.
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These religious leaders know that when they answer Christ and what should He do to them, that in 70 A.D., that's exactly what God does to them.
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He takes that place which they worship so well.
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Instead of worshiping the true temple who was Jesus Christ, what did they worship? They worshiped a building made of stones and bricks and gold that was never intended to be the place of which God would dwell forever.
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God would dwell in the hearts of His people and Jesus had already said that.
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He had already said at this point at the temple, in three days, you'll destroy this temple and I'll raise it up again.
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But they were so blinded, they were thinking of the actual structure of the temple.
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They wanted to worship the law instead of the one who fulfilled the law.
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They wanted to worship their sacrifices instead of the only sacrifice which is in Jesus Christ.
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They wanted to worship the temple instead of the true temple.
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But it would be just 40 years from this very time that God would shut the book to Judaism.
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You understand, Judaism, which you see today, is an irrelevant religion.
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It's irrelevant.
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There's no temple.
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The true temple has come.
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There's no sacrifice.
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The true sacrifice has come.
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Jesus Christ was the sacrifice that propitiated the sins of His people.
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Even if a temple erected there today, let's just say it happens, it would never be the true temple.
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It would be a building.
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Jesus Christ came to indwell His people.
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So in 70 AD, He would kill all these lawless nine dressers.
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He removed the place that continually for 30 or 40 years afterwards, abominations and blasphemies, and that shadow was no longer needed because the substance of the Old Testament shadows had come.
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Jesus Christ.
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But in verse 42, Jesus directs it to them again.
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Have you not read? That is so funny to me.
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He's taking men who were steeped in the law, who knew the law, some of them had memorized all of the Old Testament, and He said, Have you not read? In other words, you're an idiot.
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Do you not know what's happening today? Here's what's happening.
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The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
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And this was the Lord's doing.
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And it is marvelous in your eyes.
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Jesus now shows the rejection of the Son in the parable was none other than Himself.
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All that the Psalms had talked about, specifically Psalm 118, which we read as a call to worship, this is the day the Lord has made.
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It's glorious.
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Here it is.
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You're rejecting the Son of God under the predetermined and foreknowledge of God.
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You're going to reject Me.
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God has ordained it this way, and it's glorious.
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It's marvelous.
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And what's taking place is the fulfillment of that prophecy.
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They would reject the stone.
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This would be no accident.
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It would be that which God had determined before time began.
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And that cornerstone in the building is the most important stone.
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That rejection of that stone is the most important stone of anything built.
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Especially in ancient times, they would find a stone that was perfect.
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They would find a stone that was completely symmetrical.
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And they would take that stone and put it in the corner, and that would be the stone in which everything was put around.
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Jesus Christ was that.
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Look, Jesus Christ is not the foundation of the church.
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He's the cornerstone of the church.
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The foundation of the church is that of the law and the prophets and the apostles.
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It's their writings.
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Jesus Christ is the corner.
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Without that corner, there is no foundation.
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There is no structure.
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And without the true cornerstone, there is no church.
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So Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.
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And instead of seeing Jesus Christ coming onto the scene, being the perfect cornerstone, perfect in holiness, perfect in righteousness, perfect in His morality, perfect in all that He did, perfectly healing people...
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Look, man, we didn't have people getting their legs going and getting up all wiggling.
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Oh, man, my leg is just a little sore today.
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When Jesus Christ healed people, they jumped up like deer.
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And they ran.
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People didn't have to go, oh, I can just a little clearly and I don't need some glasses.
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No, when Jesus healed people, He healed them perfectly.
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And instead of seeing that, all they saw was themselves.
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And that Jesus was going to take it, and they wanted to kill Him.
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And they rejected Him.
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And now that they would reject Him, the kingdom of God will be taken from you.
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What was the purpose of the nation of Israel? The purpose of the nation of Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles.
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That's what they were supposed to be.
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And what had they done? Even in the Old Testament, what had they done? They had secluded themselves.
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We're better than you.
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We're better than you.
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And you'll even see that today.
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A friend of mine is actually here today.
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We went to Jerusalem last year, and I couldn't get an Orthodox Jewish man to shake my hand.
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Unclean.
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Even today.
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They're better.
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And that's never the intent.
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The nation of Israel was supposed to be the light unto the Gentiles.
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But because they were not the light to the Gentiles, what does it say right here? It says that God would take it from them and give to a nation bearing the fruits.
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Do you understand? That is a fulfillment of you and I.
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How many Jews do we have in here? Good.
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That's the fulfillment.
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Every one of us was brought into this.
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Because their rejection, rejection of who Jesus Christ was, we, Gentiles, have been brought into that covenant.
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God has taken from them in their rejection, although under the predetermined foreknowledge and counsel of God, that is the way it was intended to be.
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And God has taken it from them and has given it to the Gentiles.
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I am not, for those theologians in here saying, Mike Cogger, he's a replacement theologist.
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No, I'm not a suppressionist.
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But I will say this, Scripture is very clear of this, that God did replace the nation of Israel with the church as its light unto the world.
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Very clear.
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Very clear.
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Not two covenants, any of that.
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It's a covenant.
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There is one people of God and it's God's church.
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And it's made up of Jews and Gentiles.
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Read the book of Romans.
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Read the book of Galatians.
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And if anybody's got a problem with that, take it up with Paul when you see him when we get to heaven.
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It says, And whoever falls on that stone will be broken.
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But whomever it falls, it will grind him like powder.
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Do you understand that that meaning is the same? It doesn't matter.
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Either those who fall on Jesus Christ will be broken and they will come to Him with a contrite heart and they will come to Him and be renewed or that stone will crush you.
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You will be crushed.
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Either on the day of judgment because of your lack of repentance and faith or you can have repentance and faith today with a broken and contrite heart throwing yourself at the mercy of God that He would save you.
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It's going to happen.
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Crushed today? Forever.
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Crushed for all of eternity.
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And when they sought to lay hands on Him perceiving that they were speaking of Him, they feared the multitudes for they took Him as a prophet.
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Fear of men.
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Fear of men.
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They continued to fear men.
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They wanted to kill Jesus but feared the multitudes.
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They didn't serve God.
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Why? Because they feared men.
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They feared Caiaphas.
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They wanted Caiaphas to run the show.
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And these men at this point were a wretched wretch.
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Jesus has just condemned these men.
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Jesus has condemned them by their using their own words.
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This was not a nice cuddly message from Jesus about turning from your sin.
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This was you're condemned.
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And you're condemned because you've rejected the Builder.
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The cornerstone.
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The chief cornerstone.
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None other than Jesus Christ.
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I would ask you this.
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As we move to some areas of application.
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Application is very easy.
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Very easy.
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You did not create yourself.
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You didn't get up this morning and put the key in the car by your own power.
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You didn't take the very breath you just took by your own power.
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You didn't take steps to get here this morning by your own power.
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That was a gracious act of Jesus Christ.
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Some of us will leave here today and we'll go eat a plate of food and you will take that fork and you'll put it in your mouth and you will taste buds in your mouth that God has allowed you to enjoy food.
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Some of you will leave here today and will enjoy the marriage bed and you will have kids, offspring.
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And God's given you kids and a marriage to love and enjoy.
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And to honor and give Him glory.
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Just as the vinedressers were given a vineyard to produce fruit.
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God has given you breath, life to serve Him.
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And if you don't serve Him, He will turn you into a wretched wretch.
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He will judge you.
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Children, listen.
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Those of you who play ball, may play baseball, who gave you the ability with a hand and eye coordination to hit a baseball? God did.
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Who gave you the ability to kick a soccer ball? Or shoot a basketball and hit nothing but net? God did.
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You owe God yourself.
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Give yourself to Him.
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You don't know.
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This could be the very last opportunity that you feel the Spirit of the Lord tugging at your heart.
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You don't know that.
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Same for you, mom, dad, adult.
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I don't know the hearts of the people in this room.
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I know this, that there will be on that day many that will say, Lord, Lord.
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And they will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.
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He will say, depart from me, I never knew you.
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This could be the very last time.
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I remember a time, me and my dad, we worked together.
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I'd shared a gospel with this man numerous times.
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Numerous.
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About 4 o'clock on an afternoon and blatant rejection.
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7 o'clock, that man dropped dead.
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Well, he got in an accident and was killed.
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Not anybody in this room is guaranteed another second.
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Young, old.
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Give yourself to the Lord.
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For those of you that are believers and that we begin to follow other things, look, our hearts are prone to wander.
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We even sing that hymn sometimes, hearts prone to wander.
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Lord, nobody in this room, and the Lord knows that His, humanly speaking, has the ability to follow the Lord perfectly.
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So I'd ask you, examine yourself.
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What's in your heart that's going on that's pulling you away from Christ? Examine yourself to see if you're in the faith.
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The men are going to come play in a few minutes.
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Examine yourself.
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Use it as a time of reflection.
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Use it as time to confess or repent.
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Maybe initially for the first time.
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I don't know.
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Or maybe just to tell the Lord, thank You for what You've given me and help me to be a faithful steward.
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Every one of us knows that we can say that.
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Nobody in this room is a perfect steward.
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Let's pray.
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Father God, I come to You right now and thank You for Your Word.
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I thank You for the parables in which You spoke.
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Father, have meaning.
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Father, enter in inexhaustible.
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We could do the same parable over and over again.
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And Father, we could never pull and extract the depth and the meaning and all of that which is involved in it.
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Father, for Your Word is infinite.
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God, as we have this time of reflection, Father, I pray that You would work into the hearts of men and women.
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Father, You would be mighty to save if necessary.
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If it would please You to grant repentance that would lead to life, do so.
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Father, if it would be pleasing to You to encourage or instruct or exhort, Father, do that as well.
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Father, this time is Yours.
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This day is Yours.
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And Father, we ask that You would do what only You can do, which is convert hearts.
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And Father, we thank You for this time and I thank You for this opportunity.
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In Christ's name, amen.