and let's go to the book of Matthew, Gospel of Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21, and tonight we're going to start reading from verse 18. We're going to read down to the end of the chapter. Matthew 21, starting in verse 18. The Bible says, Now in the morning, as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only, and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is this fig tree withered away? Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, But also, if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done. And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him, as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things, and who gave thee this authority? And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell me, I and likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it, from heaven or of men? And they reasoned within themselves, saying, If we shall say from heaven, he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? But if we shall say of men, we fear the people, for all hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus and said, we cannot tell. And he said unto them, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. But what think ye? A certain man had two sons. And he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not. But afterward he repented and went. And he came to the second son and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir, and went not. Whither of them Twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not. But the publicans and the harlots believed him. And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward that ye might believe him. Hear another parable. There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and led it out to husbandmen, and went to a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto them likewise. But last of all, he sent unto them his son, saying, they will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. When the Lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures the stone which the builders rejected, The same is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on the stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because they took him for a prophet. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, ask for God's help as we look at the scripture tonight. Our Heavenly Father, we're so blessed and thankful for your word tonight. And we thank you for the messages and the words of Jesus. I pray you give us wisdom and Holy Spirit discernment as we interpret and apply the truth that he was teaching here in the scripture. We pray, Holy Spirit, that you would lead us and guide us not just to understanding but also to obedience. Help us to learn the importance of bearing fruit, of genuinely trusting you and following you and living out all of who you are in our lives and bearing forth fruit for your honor and glory. Help us not to be guilty of unbelief and doubt or perhaps even hypocrisy and religion without genuine salvation. But Lord, help us to have the real thing and to live that out before you. Help us and be with us during this time, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to preach tonight warnings for unfruitful Israel. Warnings for unfruitful Israel. Some of the illustrations and parables our Lord uses really centers around this truth of bearing fruit. And you know the idea is if a seed is planted in water, the idea is naturally you expect fruit And I think about in my life, and I'm sure you could say the same in your life, there are people that have poured into my life, that have prayed for me, that have invested in me, that have just encouraged me. Certainly the Lord Himself in my salvation, in the Holy Spirit, His Word, all the graces and gifts He's given. There ought to be fruit in my life of what God is doing, amen? There ought to be fruit in your life, evidence of what God is doing. That's the whole point of this scripture and these lessons that Christ is teaching. And the issue is that amongst the Jewish people, all that God had blessed them with, the only fruit they had in this instance was unbelief. Rejecting Christ. Rejecting the true Gospel. And so our Lord has to give them some warnings about what it is to be unfruitful. We previously looked at our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, a very tremendous occasion as he marches into Jerusalem. And we talked about the important symbolism of coming into Jerusalem as a king, a humble king at that. And it really marks his last days leading up to the cross. But it's also a foreshadowing, a picture of the last days when Christ literally does return to this earth to establish His rule as King. So a tremendous picture here as He's in Jerusalem. We talked about how He, some of the things He did as He entered Jerusalem, cleaning out the temple. And someone mentioned just the three offices of Christ seen in this passage. He's prophet, priest, and king. He enters Jerusalem as a king. He enters as a priest when He went to cleanse the temple. And He enters as a prophet with these messages and warnings for Israel. So there we see our Lord's three offices. Prophet, priest, and king. And as the situation unfolds here in Jerusalem, as he returns back and has an opportunity to rub shoulders with some people here, he gives some very interesting lessons. about what God is doing and what the response should be to what God is doing, which, of course, ought to always be faith, trust, obedience. And then he warns about the consequences for not trusting God, for disobeying God, that there's consequences to doing that. So let's start, number one, with the first lesson, the lesson of the fig tree. The lesson of the fig tree. Look at verse 18. It says, now in the morning, so this would be Monday morning, in the morning as he returned into the city Jerusalem, he hungered. First of all, let's just stop right there and consider the weight of that statement. Consider the fact that Jesus was hungry. What does that mean? Well, it talks about His humanity. That He was 100% man and also 100% God. He's the God-man. And in His humanity, He could feel pain, He could feel betrayal and all the emotional experiences that we go through, and He could even be hungry too, amen? And here he's hungry and they see a fig tree as they're passing in the way according to verse 19 and in a very dramatic way Our lord actually performs a miracle here. It's it's almost like an anti-miracle It's a destructive miracle because he really destroys this fig tree And it's really one of only two Destructive miracles our lord did in his earthly ministry here destroying this fig tree and also you might remember drowning those pigs Remember that situation casting out the demons So this is one of our Lord's only destructive miracles. And this miracle essentially is a living parable. It's a object lesson our Lord is doing. And throughout the Bible, there are different object lessons given. Oftentimes in the Old Testament, they proclaimed and preached the word of God, but sometimes that wasn't enough. Words weren't enough. There had to be visible illustrations to just illustrate and show, here's what God wants you to know to get your attention. Here's an illustration here. And our Lord is going to point out Israel's hypocrisy, their unbelief, their lack of faith in light of all that God had done for them. And it says in v. 19, when He saw a fig tree in the way, He came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only. And here's why this is so unusual. Because for this particular type of tree, the only time it would have leaves would be if it's bearing fruit, if it was harvest season and it was bearing fruit. It wasn't harvest season at this time, but yet it has these leaves giving the appearance of false advertising, if you will, that it has fruit, but really it doesn't. Our Lord's calling out this fig tree as an illustration to call out Israel. that you can be adorned with maybe leaves of religion, but not actually have the fruit of genuine faith and following Jesus. And having leaves is the easy part, but actually bearing fruit, having substance to your walk with God, that's something else entirely. And our Lord's calling that out. This is false advertising. Oh, how many times have you seen maybe a commercial? Hey, you buy this product and guaranteed satisfaction or your money back and all this stuff. And, you know, it's a lot of times it's just, you know, just hustlers just trying to get your money. And a lot of times it really is just false advertising. You know, take these pills, you'll lose 100 pounds in two days and all this stuff. And, I mean, there's so much we can say in our culture, especially here in New York City, that's false advertising. But sometimes we have to understand, pointing the finger at ourselves, are we giving a false advertising of who we really are? That we proclaim ourselves to be believers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, is there actual fruit? in that statement that we're following Christ. Are we seeing answers to prayer? Are we able to impact the lost around them? Seeing sinners come to salvation? Are we seeing the influence perhaps on the next generation that we ought to have? There ought to be genuine fruit if we're truly following Christ. Keep your place here in Matthew. Go to John 15. The Gospel of John 15. In John 15, this is an important truth here, verse 1, our Lord said, I am the true vine. My father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you're clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Look at verse four. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. So when we're talking about bearing fruit, we're not talking about works of the flesh. You know, you can imitate religiosity. You can imitate, hey, go to church, dress right, talk right. You can do those external things, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about actual fruit that only Jesus can produce in us. And He says that only comes when you're abiding in Him, when you're walking with Him. In verse 5, He says, I am the vine, ye are the branches, He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing. Right? That's the goal in our Christian walk, that as we are connected to the source, as the branches were connected to the vine, that's Jesus, that there ought to be fruit. And tonight, I hope that we can examine ourselves. Lord, I want to make sure that there's fruit in my life. There's evidence, tangible evidence. What's the importance of fruit? Well, people notice that fruit. People can partake of that fruit and be blessed by it. Oh, if you start to see your Christian life as not just self-serving, but I'm here to be a blessing to everyone around me. Wherever I go, I want to make an impact. Leave my mark for Christ. That's what we're talking about. And we ought to have this desire that we want to bear fruit in the workplace. Hey, we're going back to school soon. I want to bear fruit in school. Maybe lead some of my friends to Christ and bring them to the gospel in my neighborhood, or even closer to home, in my family. amongst my home, my relatives. I want to bear fruit and see them come to know the Savior. And that's what the Christian life should be about. Bearing forth much fruit. Let's turn also to Galatians 5. Galatians 5. Let's consider the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5.22. It says, but the fruit of the Spirit, the natural result of walking in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, the Spirit-filled life, the natural result of that is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. You know what's amazing in these verses? I know that there's the Christian disciplines and things that we do for obedience, say, be faithful in church, go, you know, be a witness, be soul winning regularly, you know, make sure we talk about this morning, keeping ourselves morally pure and dressing right and all the guardrails and convictions we should have. But notice it's not just a list of rules. The Christian life is not just downgraded to just that alone. The fruit of the Spirit is just deeper than all of that. It's love, joy. peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. You know, if you go down the road of what's just all about having a lot of rules, there's a lot of people that have more rules than you and me. We can go down to Lancaster and find the Amish crowd. We can go to the Middle East and find, I mean, people have a lot better rules than you and me, but we're talking about genuine fruit of the Holy Spirit. Only God can produce that in a heart and a life that surrender to Him. That should be our desire. Lord, I want to bear fruit. And someone said it's fruit singular of the spirit, not fruits plural, meaning you can't say, well, I have love, I don't have joy. I don't I'm not the kind of person that has joy. No, brother, if you're walking in the spirit, that's going to be what God produces naturally in your life. And all of this is yours. That's the promise here, because you have the Holy Spirit. So we want to be bearing fruit. That should be our desire in our Christian life, that we're bearing fruit. We don't want to be like this fig tree our Lord saw back in Matthew 21 that was false advertising, and He had to use this as an illustration, and He judged this tree. He destroyed this tree for having leaves but no figs. And pardon my cheesy joke, but he's using figurative language here. All right. I had to throw that one in there. But he is condemning this fig tree back in Matthew 21. And he's saying, listen, this fig tree really represents you, Israel. It represents you've been poured into. You are recipients of the covenants, of the prophets, all the promises of God, all the grace of God. And you go through the Old Testament, God's always reminding them, I'm the Lord your God, I delivered you out of Egypt, I gave you the land of Canaan, I established you, I gave you security, prosperity, and yet their Messiah comes, He came unto His own, His own received Him not. And in Jesus' day, there was a lot of religion. I mean, the Pharisees, I mean, you talk about religion and legalism. I mean, they were to the T with all of that stuff. But they were religious but lost. They had all these systems to make themselves appear righteous, but really they were just hypocrites. So our Lord has to address that, rebuke that. And again, my hope for us tonight is that we don't see ourselves so far removed that sometimes in our life that can creep in, that hypocrisy and just focusing on externals and not really bearing actual fruit. So this fig tree our Lord is using as an illustration for Israel. And let's look again at Matthew 21 and verse 19. When he saw a fig tree in the way he came to it, found nothing thereon but leaves only, and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, how soon is the fig tree withered away? And so our Lord judged this non-producing fig tree. It was essentially taking up space, but not producing fruit. That's the idea here. And our Lord is seeking fruitfulness amongst his people. And when we stop bearing fruit, that means we need to start examining the root What's happening beneath the surface that's causing me to not be fruitful in my walk with God? Am I harboring unconfessed sin or other issues that I haven't given to the Lord in surrender and obedience? Examine the root, and then we'll get to the fruit. And then our Lord contrasts the unbelief and the fruitlessness of this fig tree with principles of prayer. And I think when you contrast unbelief and you get to prayer, prayer is the ultimate act of belief. If you believe God, you will pray. It's the ultimate declaration of dependence. Lord, I need you. Lord, I can't, but you can. That's what prayer says. And we cast our dependency on him, our care upon him, the Bible says, for he cares for us. And he gives an interesting lesson on prayer. And he also indicates, implies that he performed this miracle as a result of prayer, which I think is really interesting. They were so surprised that the fig tree withered away so quickly. In verse 21, Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, if ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done. and all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Incredible promises on the power of prayer. Beloved, prayer moves the hand of God. Prayer is the God-appointed vehicle, the means for us to see God's will come down from heaven and to be established in this world. That's what prayer is all about. And this is one of many promises that Jesus gave regarding prayer. Go back to Matthew 7. This is one of my favorite verses on prayer from Jesus. And maybe I know very familiar to all of us here tonight. Matthew 7 and verse 7. Jesus said, Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Now, I don't have to remind you that the asking, seeking, and knocking is a continual. The idea behind it is not just a one time, but because you believe, because you have faith, you keep asking, you keep seeking, and keep knocking. Verse 9, or what man is there of you of whom his son, if asked bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more Shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him it's interesting the parallel text and Luke talks about the Holy Spirit and The blood the greatest gift we can have is the fullness and the power the fruit of the Holy Spirit That's the best gift we can get And the picture is we ask our earthly parents for things, and parents delight in blessing their children. It's one of their greatest delights to be a blessing to their kids. And how much more does our Heavenly Father want to bless us? That's an encouragement to keep praying, to keep trusting and seeking God. Let's look at another scripture. Let's go to 1 John 5. 1 John 5 and verse 14. The Bible says, and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. When you really study out what the Bible is saying here, not only can you see answers to prayer, but you can know and have confidence that the answer is on the way. That's the idea of expectant prayer. It's not, Lord, you might do this, you might not, I don't know. It's expectant confidence, confident prayer. It's the kind of prayer that begins with God. It's not just our will up to God, hey God, this is what I want, come over to my side here. Prayer is, Lord, we know this is your will. You want this more than I want this. Lord, you've convinced me by your Spirit, by your Word, this is your will, and so in faith, we're praying for this, and we're waiting for the answer, and we know it's coming. That's expectant, confident prayer, isn't it? That's the kind of fruit-bearing God's people need to have, that Christians have had through the ages, that make a difference in a dark, sinful world, where we see answers to prayer. Well, that always comes when you're walking with Christ, walking in His Holy Spirit, and you're bearing fruit. F.B. Meyer on this topic of prayer said, when we are in such union with God that His thought and purpose can freely flow into us, suggesting what we should pray for and leading us to that point in which there is a perfect sympathy and understanding between us and the divine mind. Faith is always the product of such a frame as this." I think that's an excellent way to describe prayer. That as you walk close with God, you know what God wants and what God desires, and you can be more effective in praying for God's will to be done. And our Lord gives a great promise here that when we pray believing, we can see our prayers answered. All right, let's go back to our text in Matthew 21. Number two tonight, Jesus' authority is questioned. Jesus' authority is questioned. You know, there were many skeptics in our Lord's day, as there are today, that wonder all these great teachings. All these condemnations, who are you to say this? Who are you to give us these warnings and condemnations? That's kind of the idea here. Let's go back to Matthew 21 and let's look at verse 23. When he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching and said, by what authority doest thou these things? And who gave thee this authority? So he's back in the temple. Remember what he did the first time he was in there? He cleaned house, got rid of all the money changers. Now he's coming and teaching. And so they're scratching their heads. Who is this guy? Who do you think you are coming in here, changing everything? And now you're teaching to us. What authority do you have to do this? We're the Pharisees. We're the ones that usually run the show around here. Who do you think you are? And our Lord knew that these were insincere questioners. They weren't saying, Lord, we really want to worship You. We just want to be sure who You are. That wasn't the intent behind their question. They were trying to discredit our Lord, but instead, our Lord's going to discredit them in a very interesting way. We can learn a lot about our Lord, about how He responded to opposition, to those who mocked Him. And they bring this question of authority, but like He often did, He answered their question with His own question first. So we have a question for you first. Verse 24, Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell me, I am likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John. Whence was it from heaven or of men? And he's raising this question to judge their competence and really to show their credibility here. Remember, they're going after his credibility. He knows that. So he's going to reveal to everyone around them that they have no credibility to stand on. they start reasoning in themselves and Jesus knows this if they say that he's actually from heaven that John the Baptist ministry was actually of God well then they've just given up they don't want to give that answer then they know that he was proclaiming Christ and Christ is common they don't want to go down that road they all Christ also knew these men were cowards yeah they were cowards because if they came out and said what they really thought he's just of men They knew the crowd around them, they wouldn't like that. They'd have to leave town maybe, they might get beat up, worse. They were cowards. The Lord knew that, so they weren't willing to give a straight answer. So it says, they reasoned within themselves, saying, if we shall say from heaven, he will say unto us, why did ye then not believe him? But if we shall say of men, we fear the people, for they hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. And we learn something from our Lord that sometimes as soul winners we have to learn too. We want to give the gospel to everyone. We want to give an opportunity for everyone to get to hear the gospel. But we also need to recognize there are some people that really they're just trying to waste our time, honestly. There's some people that it's like a brick wall. Their goal is not to hear truth. Their goal is just to argue and talk in circles and circles and circles. There'll be sometimes we're out soul winning and we'll meet someone from one of the cults, maybe Jehovah's Witness or maybe some other false religion. And I mean, if we're not careful, you can get in some tango for a whole hour with that person. But maybe there's someone down the street you could have kept going and you would have actually met a genuine seeker that actually, maybe they have genuine questions seeking truth. So we need the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom and discernment. And our Lord shows here these people, they weren't genuinely seeking the truth. That's why He responded the way He did. They were cowards, they were hypocrites. And our Lord showed that they lacked credibility themselves, not Him. You'll know that the whole point of John the Baptist's ministry was to be the forerunner of Christ. His message was, behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. That's what he said about Jesus. His whole ministry was preparing the way for Jesus. They didn't like that. So Jesus trapped the trappers. by asking them his own set of questions which they failed to answer. And they refused to answer Jesus, so he refused to answer them and left them alone. Then our Lord gives a series of parables, number three, our Lord's parables, and we'll look at the rest of them tonight. In verse 28, it says, But what think ye, a certain man had two sons? And, you know, a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. It's a story that anyone, especially in that culture and age, can relate to, but there's a hidden meaning, a deeper meaning behind it that points to a spiritual truth, a spiritual reality. And it's a simple story of a father who had two sons, and very common, we can understand this, but especially in those days, you went into the family business. That's usually the expectation, right? Whatever father does, the sons usually go into the family business. But notice his father doesn't go just expecting that, he actually asks them. Says a certain man had two sons and he came to the first and said son go to work today in my vineyard He answered and said I will not but afterward he repented and went and he came to the second and said likewise and he answered and said I go sir and Went not An interesting lesson here. It's easy to give lip service, isn't it? It's another thing to actually go out and do what you said you're going to do. It's easy to sing, oh, how I love Jesus. But are you going to live that out during the week before ungodly co-workers or mates in school or in the neighborhood? So this parable of the two sons is given, and there's two different kinds of sons. They're in the same house. They had the same offer of service to their father. Both were given that. One son says he won't, but later repents and does. The other son says he will, but actually never does. Well, the picture here, especially the crowd our Lord's talking to, corrupt, tax collectors, publicans, harlots, the people that everyone looks down on in that society, they would be like that first son, right, that said, no, but then repented and actually went and served the father. And these Pharisees and scribes, they would be compared to the second son that they claim with their mouth, oh, we're serving God, but they were actually hypocrites. They weren't serving him at all. They had no intention to. That's the whole point of this parable, this illustration. A couple of things that we can note from this parable that I want to draw our attention to. First, the father asked the son to work. And yes, the picture of the Christian life and serving our heavenly father, it is work. It's not play, is it? Christian life isn't really just a playground, it's a battlefield, you could say, and we're serving and laboring for our Heavenly Father. We should understand that. Notice he says, work today. That means immediately, not just some distant time, right? Work today, the Father asked. And the father asked them to come to his vineyard, verse 28, my vineyard. So it's we're doing it on behalf of the heavenly father. It's his work done his way for his honor, for his glory. That's what the Christian life should be all about. It's my vineyard, it belongs to the father, but it certainly should have mattered and been important to the son. When you skip down to verse 31, he asked that question, whether of them Twain did the will of his father, they say unto him the first. Jesus saith unto them, verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. He's in the temple. These are people that are religious. They're doing what the religious systems of that day says to do, be in the temple, the teachings and all these types of things. But he's rebuking hypocritical people, especially these leaders, these Pharisees. And he's actually showing, listen, the ones that you look down on, the corrupt tax collectors, Republicans, by the way, like Matthew used to be, Levi, that's what he did before he got saved. Hey, you look down on them, the harlots, hey, the woman at the well. Yeah, they were living a life of sin, but at least they repented, they understood their sin, they acknowledged it, and they were forgiven. Those folks will sooner have the kingdom of God than before you folks that think you're so religious Think there's nothing wrong in your life. You're just great. Everything is just fine It lets us know a few things to again when we witness to people sometimes the hardest people to witness to our religious people Who think they have it all figured out already? There's nothing wrong. Everything is just fine I don't need that the the wicked sinners of our day the the obvious down-and-outers They are the ones that need the gospel not me And our Lord is bringing that out with this parable. So he rebukes them. They wouldn't believe John's message. They wouldn't receive, they wouldn't repent, receive forgiveness of sin. And then he gives a next parable that has a very similar theme, a parable of the vineyard. And you can really compare this to Isaiah chapter five. Let's turn there really quickly. Let's go to Isaiah chapter five. A lot of similar applications in these parables here. In Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 1, the Bible says, Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard, my well-beloved hath a vineyard and a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with a choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard, What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes, and now go to, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. And I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briars. and thorns, and I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment, but behold, oppression." I mean, he was looking for justice. Behold, oppression. For righteousness, but behold, a cry. This is an interesting illustration. You've got to keep that in mind, especially as you consider this parable our Lord gives in Matthew 21. And again, the idea is all of the privileges that, in particular, Israel had, everything God did to prepare them as his people to be really a light to all the nations, and they forsook all of that privilege and chose a path of idolatry, unbelief, disobedience to God, and God was going to judge them for that. But let's look closer. Let's go back to Matthew 21 and look closer at this parable, starting in verse 33. It says, Here another parable. There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. So this man had this vineyard, and he basically was renting it out. for these farmers to come. And the idea was they were to come and to dress it, to tend to it, take care of it. And the goal was that it would bear fruit. That's the goal. In verse 34, when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants. So the owner of this vineyard sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto them likewise. But last of all, he sent unto them his son, saying, they will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? So he gives a similar parable here. of this vineyard that was rented out to some tenants, to farmers to tend to it and to bear fruit with it. And instead of managing this vineyard, they mistreated and even killed the servants, the messengers that were sent. And eventually this master, this owner even sent his son and they killed him too. Now you can't miss that in just a few days. That's exactly what's going to happen to our Lord. And He's giving the allusion to Himself here. that God had sent forth prophets. You think of the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, many other Old Testament prophets. And many of them, their messages were rejected. In fact, many of them were persecuted and even killed for standing for the truth. And now God is trying to give the message ultimately in the person of His Son in Jesus. God speaking His love, His mercy, His grace, His power, it's all revealed in Christ. But instead of following Christ, submitting to Christ, they're going to reject Him and even crucify Him. They're going to have Him killed. And that's what this parable deals with. Time and time again, the message of love was sent out. The message of hope, of forgiveness, finally sent in the person of the vineyard's son, the owner of the vineyard's son, but they rejected this message too, and instead had him killed. And that last question in verse 40, when the Lord thereof of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto these husbandmen? and they responded they say unto him he will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his vineyard unto another husbandman which shall render him the fruits in their seasons and then our lord quotes from psalm 118 and let's turn there so we can have a better a clearer understanding of what our lord is talking about here psalm 118 what we call a messianic psalm that ultimately points to Christ and points to his kingdom, that's still future. But the picture of this parable is that our Lord is going to have to judge Israel and the leaders of Israel that are so corrupt, and they're no longer going to be able to be recipients of the blessings that now God's going to open up to others. When you look at Psalm 118, and let's Let's start, let's read from verse 22. Verse 22 says, The stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. That's talking about the last days, the day of the Lord, when Jesus comes back. And the picture is that they're building a structure here, and you need to have a cornerstone. That's the centerpiece, the foundational piece, the most important piece. And as the builders are building, and they come to a stone, and they say, no, this won't work. We don't want to build with this material. And they keep building, keep building, only to find out in the end that piece that they thought was no good, not worth it, had no value, that was the chief cornerstone all along. And they missed it, completely missed it. and now they're going to have to face that judgment from that same chief cornerstone. Our Lord's referring to Himself here. He's the King. He's the cornerstone. He's the foundational piece that if you refuse Him as Savior, you'll only face Him as Judge. So having that in mind, let's go back to Matthew 21, and we'll see the rest of our Lord's rebuke here. essentially he's rebuking the Israelites saying listen the kingdom is offered unto you and you're rejecting that offer and Now God's gonna do something new that ultimately the church we think of Jew and Gentile coming together in the church That's that's God's design. That's God's program today through the church age and Israel today primarily is in judgment of Right? They're unbelieving people. We thank God there are individuals that are being saved, but they're in a state of judgment because they've rejected their Messiah. But God still has plans for them. You read Romans 11. God's not done completely with Israel. There are still plans for Israel. But today they're in a state of judgment, unbelief. And we go back to Matthew 21 and verse 42, Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures the stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner? This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof, and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken. But whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. You know what this speaks to? It speaks to when you actually humble yourself and fall on Christ, you'll actually find mercy, forgiveness, you'll have everlasting life. That's the pathway for salvation, is humility, being broken and contrite before the Lord. But when you're stout and proud and arrogant, you don't need Christ, you don't need God, you don't need the gospel, well, now that same stone is going to come and grind you to powder. And you compare this with also Daniel chapter 2 and other scriptures in Daniel that point to the nations that reject God and how they're going to face God's wrath in the end times. That's what our Lord is getting at here. They'll be ground to powder, to dust, just blown away like they're nothing. And verse 45, when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard this parable, they perceived that he spake of them. Well, duh, right? That's what you should say there. Verse 46, but when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, there's their cowardice, because they took him for a prophet. But we know eventually they will get their hands on him and crucify him. Well, the choice before these religious leaders is the choice before every person, every sinner. Again, you can be broken and humble before the Lord, or he will have to break and humble you himself in judgment. That's the ultimate message of this parable. We can miss out on the opportunities God has given to us because of our unbelief, our pride. And those of us that are saved, I believe we should have the mentality, the vision, the goal that we want to live out and bear fruit, the fruit of all that Christ has done for us. You're saved, you have eternal life, thank God for that. But are you using that salvation to be a blessing, a channel of God's blessing to others? Are you walking in the Spirit, bearing forth much fruit as you're connected to that vine, to Christ? Otherwise, we are not being who we are supposed to be in Christ. The warning here is that as we follow Christ, that it's not just following a religious system, it's a real living relationship with the Savior. That's the way it ought to be. It's also a warning, I think, for us individually, but even for us as a nation. Charles Spurgeon had some interesting words to say about his country, England, back in the 1800s. You think about where England was in his day, sending out missionaries, just the great prominent preachers that came from England and where England is today. Now we're sending missionaries to England. Most people in England are secular humanists. They don't believe the Bible, don't believe God. It's so sad. But he said these words. What a warning is this to our own country. We too are seeing the sacrifice and deity of our Lord questioned. His sacred word assailed by those who should have been its advocates. Unless there is speedy amendment, the Lord may take away the candlestick out of its place. finding other people which will prove more faithful to him and his gospel than our own has been. I think about our country. You know, God's used America greatly as a beacon for the gospel. There can be no doubt. God's been so gracious, raised up many godly Christians in our country, but increasingly we're turning away from God, turning away from the Bible. And again, what will God do with that? Snuff out our candlestick. We're deserving of that. We pray for God's mercy. Pray that we can be part of a faithful remnant of people that wants to continue following the Lord and bearing fruit for his honor and glory. Let's pray. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for these warnings. I pray You give us just the understanding, but also the obedience, Lord, that we submit, surrender ourselves to You. I pray first and foremost that all of us would know You as Savior, and that we would also be walking in surrender and obedience to You. I pray you help us to see fruit in our lives as we are connected to you, walking with you, filled with your spirit, that we can make an impact in the unsaved around us, that we can be the salt and light, bringing them to the truth of the gospel, seeing them saved. I pray that we would see answers to prayer, that we would see mighty miracles take place, Father God, as we continue to live the Christian life. It would help us not to become cold or calloused, hypocritical. Help us to continue genuinely seeking You and following You. With our heads bowed, our eyes closed tonight, maybe God's convicted you of your need for salvation. Maybe you know you need to repent and be saved. You don't want to go on just pretending to be something that you're actually not. Maybe God's convicted you of that and you need to be saved. God's spoken to you. Could you raise your hand tonight? We'd love to pray for you. See, that's my need, passion. I want to make sure I'm saved. Oh, for us as believers tonight, as we examine our hearts, is there any hypocrisy that needs to be dealt with, confessed, and forsaken? Oh, do we need to seek the Lord that we would bear much fruit as we are filled with his spirit and walking and abiding in him. I'm going to ask our pianist to play hymn of invitation. Let's spend a time of prayer that we want to genuinely follow the Lord. We want to see him move and work and use us. We want to make the most of the opportunities God has blessed us with, the privileges that we have in Christ. and that we bear much fruit for His glory.