redemption through the ages. And in fact, he tells this history. He tells the past history and he predicts future that is now history for us. So as we think about this, it's still Tuesday morning or Tuesday of Passion Week. The end of Chapter 11. That morning, I come back into the city of Jerusalem from Bethany. The day before, on Monday, he had cleansed the temple. They then challenged his authority to do that. He silences them. They can say nothing. And so now he tells a series of parables. Mark only records one of them. Matthew has three. This is the middle one that Matthew tells. And earlier in Mark when he was telling parables and the disciples asking him asked him about it. He says in response to them he said to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God but for those outside. Everything is in parables so that they may indeed see but not perceive and may indeed hear but not understand less. They should turn and be forgiven. As he's in his ministry in Galilee and Korea. He told the parables to hide the truth from those who were outside the kingdom of God And then he explained if they needed to be explained he would explain the parables to his disciples. That was the purpose for the parables here as he tells the parable is to make the truth clear to make to help the those outside understand what's going on to help them understand judgment is coming. It's coming on the nation, it's coming on the clergy, on the religious leaders of Judah. The nation is going to be destroyed, it's going to be given to others. And we've actually known that for a couple of messages. We saw the fig tree we we understood or we came to understand the fig tree was a cursing of the fig tree was a picture of the externalism of the Jews. They look like they were bearing fruit. Jesus walks gets to the fig tree and there's no fruit. And so he curses it. And because we have the whole story. We can say that's a picture. That's an enacted parable, a drama to depict the state of Israel as God's people. And then he goes in and he cleans out the temple. Again, to further elaborate on this judgment that is coming because of their rejection of the truth. We know that because we have the whole story. These folks were not privy to that yet. The disciples saw him curse the fig tree the next day the fig tree was gone and he just explained a bit to them about that. Come in and he cleans the temple and I just want to know what do you who do you think you are? Maybe you just don't like our business practices. They don't really understand until he tells this story. And then they get it. They really have no way of knowing until he tells it. Mark, Chapter 12. We're going to look at these 12 verses and then a handful of other verses to go along with this parable. Mark 12, verse one, he began to speak to them in parables. A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent to them another servant and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. They sent another and him they killed. And so with many others, some they beat and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally, he sent him to them saying they will respect my son. But those tenants said to one another, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours. And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do. He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and is marvelous in our eyes. And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people. For they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. Let's ask the Lord for help to understand. His word, Father, we do ask for your help. On our own, we're dull of mind and unable to perceive what you're saying to us. Father, I pray for your people this morning. That the spirit might so indwell them. That he might instruct them. And I pray for those who are not father, would you send your spirit to bring them to the place to where they understand. Where they are before you. Show them. Themselves, as you see them. And Father, would you show them this morning, this very morning, their only hope, the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The one by whose name they can be saved. The only one through whom they may be, by whom they may be saved. Teach us, we pray. Guide us. And may it be your voice we hear, not the voice of a mere man. Amen. So, the story there is told. It would be a story that all of the people would understand. Many tracts of land in the area in Jesus' day that would be owned by an absentee owner, leased out to the tenants, making wine in these vineyards. Setting a tower where the tenants might stay and then where they may look out. Building a wall around the field to keep out the predators, both animal and human. Digging a hole for the wine vat where they would mash the grapes into the pit. This is a typical story. Everyone would understand it. A vineyard worked by tenants. The owner receiving regular payments, sometimes with money, sometimes with the fruit of the vineyard, the produce, the wine itself. Sort of a sharecropper kind of a view, if you know about that. It is interesting for me. I had an awakening when I hired in out at the plant. I worked shift work for a couple of years and it got in the way of me playing softball on the weekends. And so I went to straight days, took a pay cut and went to straight days and went back to a very labor-intensive Louisville manufacturing plant back in the back of the refinery. And I was driving a forklift, loading trucks with these barrels and cans and olive oil. And the man who did the checking, was an older fella, and I got to know Leroy Shwerington pretty well. Leroy was, oh, let's see, Leroy was probably born around 1930. I don't know, that'd make him 80-something now, I guess. But Leroy had quite a story to tell, at least quite a story to this little naive boy who was in the plant. Leroy grew up a sharecropper. His family grew outside of Rosenberg, lived on a place where they were tenants. And Leroy got to go to high school, and these are his words because the master liked him. Let him go get a driver's license. Let him go to high school. Leroy became educated, and Leroy ended up in the refinery working for the oil company. I had never heard of anything. I thought that was, you know, 200 years ago. Leroy was a sharecropper. He grew up a sharecropper. That's what's going on here. These folks don't own the land. They're just working for the owner. And the harvest comes. So the owner sends a servant per contract to get the payment. And this first one that comes, they resist the claim of the owner and they beat him and send him on his way empty handed. So, the owner sends the next one, they strike him on the head, verse 4, and treat him shamefully. Then, verse 5, he sent another and they, him they killed. And so, with many others, some they beat, some they killed. Matthew, in his telling of the story, says many, many others, much more others, sort of a sense in which maybe even you can get the picture that these are the prophets coming to God's people in the vineyard. Even John the Baptist considered that last great prophet. And of course, they kill him. But as he's telling this story, you can imagine that those who are listening are beginning to get a picture, maybe of what is. This isn't just a story that Jesus is telling us. I think they might look at one another and say, I think he might be talking about us. Isaiah five, Craig read it, Israel. Is the Lord's vineyard. Hmm. It's also a dramatic picture of the patience of God, isn't it? Prophet after prophet after prophet mistreated. The Lord's slow to anger, full of kindness, long suffering for hundreds of years as he sends the prophets to the people, he's slow to judge them reticent. But then the climax of the story comes in verse six. He still had one other. A beloved son. And finally he sent him to them saying they will respect my son. But those tenants said to one another this is the heir come let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours and they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. The owner's beloved son. He's the heir. We kill him the place will be ours. And so they did that test him outside the vineyard. They killed him outside the camp, outside the vineyard of God. And so now if there's any doubt in these religious leaders minds, they know what Jesus is talking about. At this point, they recognize this parable is surely about them. It's easy to figure out. Jesus was claiming to be the beloved son. Wonder if any of them. Had maybe been or heard the story of what God said at the baptism of Jesus. This is my beloved son in whom I will please or at the Mount of Transfiguration. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. They'd already planned on destroying Jesus back in chapter 11, verse 18, and the chief priests and the scribes heard it. as he's casting out cleansing the temple and he says my house should be called the house of prayer for all the nations but you've made a den of robbers the chief priests and scribes heard it and they were seeking a way to destroy him for they feared him because all the crowd was astonished they've already made their plans all the way back to mark chapter three where they teamed up with their enemies the Herodians and together had sought how is it we're going to kill this man And so when Jesus tells this story about the tenants who are going to destroy the sun, it becomes really clear. They may be questioning, how does he know our plans? You know, do we have a mold? Do we have someone who's letting it out? But anyway, the meaning of the meaning has become clear. The owner is God. The vineyard is the people of God. The servants of the prophets, the son is Jesus and these tenants. or the clergy or the ruling leaders those who are causing all the trouble those who are mistreating the prophets planning to do away with the sun are these religious leaders. Described in verse 27 of chapter 11 the chief priest describes in the elders those representatives of the Sanhedrin the ruling party. But it's because these guys know their Bible. They're able to realize Jesus is not just telling a story, it's about them. And he's confronting them about what they're doing. He's telling them he's the Messiah, but he's also telling them he knows what they're up to. And these first two days of the Passion Week, Jesus is establishing those facts. He's establishing that he knows everything they're planning on doing. And he's also establishing now, as he makes it clear, judgment is coming to Jerusalem. And so these tenants are acting out how God's prophets are treated in the story. As you read through the Bible, God speaks to his people again and again, and they resist. And why Jesus has this litany of one comes and another comes and another comes and another comes and they say to them, you know, the history, you know, the history of our nation, our our people. God sent prophet after prophet. You've revolted by mistreating him. Leave your finger here or your marker and go to Hebrews 11. In fact, we're going to go to a few verses, a few cross references, so you might want to be nimble, be ready to be moving. You know, Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of faith or the The listing of those who by faith didn't receive the promises, but they believe the promises. And as the author of Hebrews writes and walks through the history of Israel by faith, by faith, Abel, he speaks of Abel's faith, Enoch's faith. He speaks of Noah's faith. Then he goes to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and he walks through these saints. These Old Testament saints who lived by faith, Sarah, these all, verse 13, died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar. Then he continues about Abraham and then he goes to Moses and how Moses lived by faith and how the people by faith crossed the Red Sea. The walls of Jericho, the faith of Rahab by faith, Rahab. Did not perish in verse 32. What more shall I say for a time would. Fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, of Samuel and the prophets. And then notice what he says about them. Who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead. by resurrection, all of that by faith. But right in the middle of it now, he turns sort of obliquely turns about this faith, these faithful ones, and notice what he said. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging. even change and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in the deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised as God had provided something better for us that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. By faith, these folks stood and yet they were killed. They were beaten, sawn in two. You know, some traditional history says maybe that's what happened to Isaiah. Most of it, not at the hands of pagans, at the hands of their own people, at the hands of the religious aristocracy, the leadership in Israel. And that's why when Jesus approaches Jerusalem and he weeps, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers the brood under her wings, but you would not. It's clear what Jesus is telling these fellows. And they're getting it from the time of his birth until the time of his execution. Jesus' life was never safe among men. It's the nature of man. It's our fallen nature. We're not indifferent to God. We hate him. He's our enemy. He demands to rule over us. He demands his sovereign authority to be acknowledged and man will stop at nothing to cast off these bonds. Were God to come today, we'd figure out if it was in our power at all, we'd kill him. And I know that because that's what happened to God when he came the first time. And we're no different. What we did a couple of thousand years ago, Jesus said it would happen a couple of days after Jesus speaks these words, it does happen. They seized him. They take him outside the city, outside the vineyard, and they kill him with a criminal's execution. So Jesus comes to that point in the parable, and now he he asked him a question. Verse nine, back in Mark, Chapter 12. What will the owner of the vineyard do. In Matthew Matthew records that they said to him he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits of the season. Mark says that Jesus says he will come and destroy the tenants. Now if you think about this story so far. The owner has sent his servants to receive payment from those that he has hired to manage his field. And they kill one after another after another. And finally, they kill his son, who is the heir. The Jews listening to that story would have no problem whatsoever with the owner destroying the tenants. I mean, capital punishment was part of their law code. They would have no problem with that. They would say, yes, he's got that right. But it's this next phrase that really gets them. And give the vineyard to others. Luke records this. When they heard this, they said, surely not. It's not that the tenants are going to be destroyed in the story. That's. That's legit. But to give the vineyard to others, that's the bird in the saddle of these fellows that really enrages them. Surely not, they say, and Jesus said, that's exactly what's going to happen beyond their imagination. They're God's people. God's purpose is to use us. And we are his people and this is ours. It can't be taken from us. Now, Jesus is saying that owner, his decisive response is just what's going to happen. Matthew records Jesus saying, I tell you, the kingdom will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits, and that's what they can't stand. That's what They cannot tolerate in Jesus. The cursing of the fig tree now comes to light. The cleansing of the temple. Now, this story sheds all the light on that as precursor to this judgment that's about to come. As I said, we've known for a couple of weeks, but they're just now finding this out. It's coming into plain sight. They now know what the fig tree was about, at least the disciples who saw it, and it's Further explained by the cleansing of the temple. And now this parable makes it all claim all clear. This big tree that looked like it might have fruit. This big tree that on the outside looked very healthy. But there's no fruit. And Jesus curses that tree, not because there's no breakfast. I mean, you know, it's early in the morning, a fig, not that's not what's going on. It's a statement about the people of God from a distance. It looks like they're worshiping him. Looks like they're bearing fruit. It looks like they have fruit to offer, to offer to others. And he gets up close and they're bearing nothing to offer, but a dead, cold, External system. And right after this, he's going to come out and add woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. There's no hope. There's no vital relationship in you. You're just a bunch of dead men's bones that got put on a new pair of clothes. And Jesus is saying God's going to destroy this temple, this sacrificial system, the priesthood, all of it, and give the venue to others. And all that happened in 70 A.D. when the Romans came and wiped out Jerusalem. And so these religious leaders are irritated. They're hardened. They could sense their power and their influence slipping away. And they weren't going to stand for it. They were OK with God because of who their dad was, because of who their granddad was, because of What tribe they were from they were fine. Jesus says no. Here's the real story. You're not. Here's what's going to happen. And he quotes them for them part of Psalm 118 going back to the Psalms. Have you not read this scripture. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes. He began with an allusion to Isaiah 5. He ends with this quotation. from part of Psalm 118, A Song of Ascent. By the way, when you come to the Advent season or Christmas season, you're going to get little books that has devotions pertaining to the birth of Christ. Or you can buy a book during the period of time coming up to Easter, and you can buy a little devotion. Well, if they made devotion books back then, Coming up to the period of the Passover and they had daily readings preparing for this Passover, which is happening this week. Psalm 118 would be right in the middle of their devotions, it would be something they would be so familiar with. He says, haven't you read the scripture? You probably read it. In fact, it was yesterday's devotion. Haven't you have you read it? Well, if you haven't read it. Sunday night, Sunday evening, as as Jesus came in to Jerusalem on a donkey. And the people proclaimed him as King Hosanna. You heard someone 18 then. But have you not read it? Do you not understand it? Here's a stone. Rejected by the builders of your false religion. We're at the construction site of a temple of the temple. And here's a stone. No, this one won't work. It's thrown into the construction dumpster. And that's the stone that becomes the corner of the whole building. A poor depiction, but that little picture on the front of your bulletin, the little rock that kind of holds the pile of stones up. Jesus has become the cornerstone, the stone, the foundation. And you've rejected me, the most critical stone. In the construction project of God's temple. I'm the one you despise. And I'm actually the foundation of the whole thing. And then he finishes, this was the Lord's doing is marvelous in our eyes. And we've been going through Mark for a while now, but if you can remember some of the things that we've been through, what we've learned, how marvelous it's been, hasn't it? As he turned the values of the world upside down with the principles of the kingdom and putting the world's ideas and the world's philosophies and the world's principles in their place, whether it be capitalistic materialism that we're so engulfed in. He says, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Profit is a P&L statement in your business. Whether or not your stock's doing well is no matter if you lose your soul, he says. That's not, profit is not, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world? The self-centeredness in which so many people operate. He said, if you want to be first, you got to be last. If you want to be great, you have to serve. If you want to live, you have to die. And then healing the blind. Raising the dead. Casting out the demons. Power over the forces of nature. It's marvelous. This was the Lord's doing. It's marvelous in our eyes what the Lord is doing in our eyes, in some's eyes, but not in these men. It's the unsearchable riches of the ways of God. He hadn't come to call the righteous to repentance. He's not bringing in the righteous into his kingdom. He's bringing in sinners into his kingdom with a Savior, the Lord Jesus. Don't need to be saved if you're righteous already. If you don't think you have sin. And then he says and it will be taken when he says it will be taken from other taken from you and given to others. God will continue this unfolding drama of redemption by creating a new Israel. The new people of God, it's going to consist of Jews and it's going to consist of Gentiles who believe in Jesus as the Messiah, all who've repented and believe the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Picture we have in Romans chapter 11, where the rejection of the Jewish people meant salvation for the Gentiles. Unbelieving Jews, the natural branches are broken off. The Gentiles, who are the wild olive branches, are grafted into the tree, and they're sharing in the nourishing root, Paul says. The root being the Lord Jesus. And then the believing Jews, the natural branches that have been broken off, are grafted back in again, and you have this one tree with Jews and Gentiles who bowed their knee to Christ as the Messiah, as the Lord Jesus is growing this one tree of the vineyard. That's what Paul says in Romans 11. In fact, he makes the point. He says this. It's not that God has just cast the Jews off completely. Eleven, I'm just going to look at a couple of verses. I asked, then, has God rejected his people? Well, by no means. I'm an Israelite. A descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Nene cites Elijah. And Elijah says, Lord, I don't think anybody's believing in you but me. And God says, I've reserved all these from the prophets. He says, I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. And so, Paul says, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. Verse 7, what then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The left obtained it, but the rest were hardened. And then he goes on. So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall by no means rather through their trespass? Salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous. He hasn't set Israel aside where the Jews are excluded from the kingdom. Not that I know I'm going to set the Jews over here. And so now I'm going to use or deal with the Gentiles. He's rejected those who stumble over his son. The stone that the builders rejected has become the. Cornerstone, the Lord's doing marvelous in our eye. He's rejected all those who stumbled over his son, everyone. He continues, everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces. And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. So the people of God from this point become. What Peter refers to in First Peter, too, as he quotes this same story, you might want to turn to First Peter, Chapter two. writing to those who are scattered. In the dispersion. Probably from Rome. Jews and Gentile believers alike who've had to flee. First, Peter, Chapter two, verse four. As you come to him a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house. to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, for it stands in scripture. Behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. People stumble over Jesus, we talked about it last week, people stumble over Jesus in ways they're offended by Jesus in ways they're not offended by Muhammad, they're not offended by Buddha. But it's because the Lord Jesus stands and says, I'm the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. And my name, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that I am Lord. To the glory of the father, I am God in the flesh, and he's a stone over which men and women stumble. I can't stand the idea of his authority over them. They must bow their knee and call him Lord. And Peter says, as he continues, but you see, verse nine, eight, nine, nine, but you The end of verse eight, they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you, you didn't stumble. You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for his own possession. Actually, allusion back to Exodus. Very Jewish here, the people of God are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and a people for God's. Own possession, here's how. God speaks to the Israelites, the Hebrews in Exodus. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. And then he goes in verse 10 of Peter. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy. If you were in Sunday school class last week, that's straight out of Hosea. Name your son, no mercy. Those who received mercy will no longer receive mercy. Those who Your other child, not my people. Those who were my people are no longer my people now in the new covenant here. Once you were not a people, the restoration. Now you are a people once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So those who come to trust in him from every background, every nation and tribe and language and tongue are those who to whom he's giving the vineyard. Prophet after prophet had gone. Instead of responding, the people of God beat them, treated them shamefully, stoned them, killed them, and the son has now been sent. And how does John explain it? John chapter 1, he came to his own, his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them he gave the authority or the power to become the children of God, even those who believe in his name. So just a closing thought how is it. That these leaders who knew the word of God so well who saw the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled right before their eyes. Wouldn't trust in their long awaited Messiah the one that they've been waiting for for so long. How is it that they did not see refused to see they were not willing For centuries they'd longed for him and here he is and they reject him. I would say there's many reasons, and not the least of which they're dead in their trespasses and sins. But I see two in this section right here in Mark. And the first one is, look at the end, look at verse 12. They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the people for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. Back in eleven thirty two. But shall we say when Jesus asked him is John's baptism from heaven or from men, but we shall say if but shall we say from man, they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. You go all the way back to 18 as he's cleansing the temple. The chief priest and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. One of the reasons they didn't see him is they feared man more than they feared God. They feared Jesus, but not as God. They feared him as a man only. And their fear of man blinded their hearts and their lives to the truth of God. Remembering that Jesus says don't fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear fear him who after he is killed has authority to cast into hell and they suffered terrible consequences because they feared man rather than fearing God. Read Proverbs 2 verse 10 or 12 verses 15 verses. We won't go there. The wisdom and the insight and integrity and an understanding of justice and understanding of righteousness and understanding of the truth is promised to those who learn to fear the Lord. They feared man. They missed it all. And ultimately, if these guys continue, they'll be rejected and cast into hell. Because they're fearing those who can kill their bodies, not the one who can kill them and cast them into hell. And I kind of compared that to the apostles in Acts chapter four. and Acts chapter 5 as they are thrown into prison and they bring and they seek to bring them before the Sanhedrin bring them before I said don't you speak about this anymore. We're going to obey God. You choose what you do you do what you got to do. We're going to obey God rather than man. So they beat him and throw him and let him out. And they rejoice and they go home and they pray to God and they ask God for more boldness. They don't ask God to stop the people. They pray for more boldness and they get thrown in prison again. And they tell him to stop it and they say, no, we're going to do what God says, we're not afraid of you. And that last little verse there in that section in Acts 5, and every day they were in houses and in the temple, witnessing of the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't care. Were they killed? Yeah. But they didn't fear, man. They feared God. That's one of the reasons these guys missed their Messiah. The other reason, of course, is they know the Scriptures. They'd memorized it from their childhood, and with all their knowledge, they're standing in the face of their Savior. And they reject him because they are not willing to die for what they believe. Actually, they believe he's a heretic. Jesus is willing to die for what he believes and he does. These guys are cowards. If they were men of conviction, They wouldn't have backed off because they were afraid of the people. Eventually, they get their way. They reject him, blinded by their animosity to the truth. And in the parable, they don't kill the son because they didn't recognize him. Really, they kill the son because they do. They know exactly what he demands of them. And they're not willing. So. When the word of God is heard and it's over and it's rejected, when the pleadings, the pursuit of the word is ignored, not believed when the when you read it, when you study it, when you hear it preached and you don't respond in the right way, you end up in a far worse situation than you were before you heard it. If. The word of God doesn't soften your heart and bring you to faith. It's going to harden your heart. God sends you messenger after messenger, book after book, Bible after Bible. And if that doesn't soften your heart, it's going to harden it. And most people don't reject the Lord because they don't know and they misunderstand. It's because they do know what it is. So how about you? Is he to you a stumbling stone? Is he to you someone that you are stumbling over and when you fall over him, he will crush you? As Luke records. Or is he your solid rock on which you're building your life? How can I persuade you? You know, Paul, we have the gospel, the gospel being the story of Israel, the story of the Bible fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who brought us God's understanding of the plan of salvation, if I'll say it that way. And so there's some persuasion. Paul persuaded and persuaded and dialogued and and kibbutzed and all those words that we have in the book of Acts, how he dealt and reasoned with the people. And then 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if any man is a new creature, if any man's in Christ, he's a new creature. And he says, I beg you. Be reconciled to God. That's our persuasion. I beg you, Jesus Christ. The one who knew no sin became sin that you might become the righteousness of God in him. Is Jesus Christ your cornerstone? Are you still stumbling over him? Father, we thank you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for our rock. The solid rock on whom. We build our hope. Father, I pray for your people today that we might leave faithful. That we might live faithful. And that those around us might see and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, who transforms lives, makes us new creatures by reconciling us, or reconciling the Father to us. You are God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.