Well, good morning to you all. If you would, please take out your Bibles and open to Matthew chapter 21. In the Pew Bible, you'll find that on page 1050. Let me open with this question. Are you a patient person? As some of you may have become a little impatient waiting for me to ask the question. Probably, you are more patient in some areas than others, or at some times than others. In my view, if you happen to be first in line at a light with a left-hand turn arrow, you have a solemn civic responsibility to be prompt in your response when the light turns green. And get things off to a good start for those waiting in line. Your community is depending on you. On Tuesday of this week, I had little patience for a civically irresponsible fellow citizen, causing a backup for those of us trying to turn off of 309 on Torvilla Road. I do tend to be quite patient with restaurants and wait staff in particular. I spent a number of years in that line of work. I know how crazy things can be and how their income is significantly dependent upon guest experience, a large portion of which is outside of their control. Conversely, I am impatient with those who are impatient with the waitstaff. Patience, however, is listed among the fruit of the Spirit. While the gifts of the Spirit are individual and particular, the fruit of the Spirit are specific evidences or fruit that should be born in the lives of all believers as they are being shaped to be more godly. more Christ-like. Not that we will possess perfect patience the moment we believe, but it should be present and should be growing. Where would patience rank in your list of virtues? What would it be like if God's patience looked just like your patience? Is that a scary thought? It is for me. In today's parable, we will see the amazing patience of the Lord with his people. But we should not take God's patience for granted or assume upon it because as God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus 34, Verses six and seven, he says, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. Well, let's see what we can learn of this patient, but serious God, as we read Matthew chapter 21 verses 33 to 46. Matthew 21, 33 to 46, this is God's word. Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them, saying, they will respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance. And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When, therefore, the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? 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 in their seasons. Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces. And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds because they held him to be a prophet. Amen. Praise God for his word to us. As we get started here, I want to remind you of the setting that we're in. Matthew 21 begins with the triumphal entry, where Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey to shouts of Hosanna, on what we know as Palm Sunday. It's the beginning of Jesus' Passion Week. On Monday of that week, he goes into the temple and flips the tables of the money changers and drives out those who are selling sacrificial animals. And it's now Tuesday, and Jesus is in the temple teaching. He's challenged by the religious leaders as to where his authority came from, and that leads to the parable of the two sons that we looked at last time. immediately followed by the parable we read today. So as we make our way through this text, we're gonna organize our time under four headings. First, God's patience with his people. Second, coming judgment. Third, Christ the cornerstone. And fourth, producing kingdom fruit. So our first heading is God's patience with his people. Jesus says, hear another parable, and then tells of a man who plants a vineyard. He puts a fence around it to provide protection from animals and thieves. He digs a wine press so that the fruit can be processed and yield its purpose, and a tower, which may be used for lookouts, for shade. or for storage. He has provided everything necessary for a productive vineyard, except workers. So he then leases the vineyard out to tenants who can work the land. The trouble is that these tenants do not return to him the fruit for which he planted and provided the vineyard. Now this parable is a little different than many that we have looked at. Often in Jesus' parables, he makes connections to what his hearers would have experienced in their daily lives. A woman kneading dough or sweeping for a lost coin. A man sowing seed or a shepherd going after a sheep. But in this case, this isn't just some random guy planting a vineyard. Being Jewish, having the Old Testament scriptures, his hearers, especially since this is the religious leaders, the chief priests and the elders that he's talking to, they should have picked up on a similarity with Isaiah chapter five. Let me share a portion of that with you. Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it and looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, oh, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? Skipping to verse seven. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. And he looked for justice, but behold bloodshed. For righteousness, but behold an outcry. This should have clued them in that Jesus' parable had to do with God's relationship with his people. Jesus is actually in this short parable encapsulating the entire history of Israel. In Isaiah, you have the vineyard planted and everything done to provide for good fruit, but instead it produces bad fruit. But Jesus' story goes a step further. Here, the master of the house, representing God, provided tenant farmers, men employed to cultivate the land so that it will produce good fruit. And these are the religious leaders, especially the priests in their role with the temple. They should have been shepherding the people, guiding, teaching, interceding, but throughout Israel's history, they fail as shepherds and Israel as a whole does not bear fruit. God has provided everything for them to be fruitful. He's called them out of Egypt and given them life. He provided them with land. He gave them the law and the covenant, but no fruit is being given to the Lord. And so he sends prophets to collect and to call the people back, but they reject the prophets, mistreat them, and even kill some of them. Now in Jesus' story, the master of the house sends his son. In Mark's gospel, he adds the description that it is his only and his beloved son. I want you to pause here. Consider that you are part of the crowd when Jesus is speaking to these religious leaders. In other words, I want you to try and hear this as someone who has no knowledge of the cross or the resurrection, no experience with the church or Christian history. You have just heard about a guy who sends servants. They beat one, kill one outright, and subject a third to the painful, death of stoning. So he sends more servants, a larger number, and the same thing happens. Now, if you were the landowner, what would you do at this point? The law is on your side. There's a contract. They have failed to keep terms. In fact, they've committed multiple murders in failing to keep the terms of the contract. Probably, you would go to the authorities, to law enforcement, have them evicted, arrested, and prosecute charges. Is there any one of you who, when I asked what you would do, thought to yourself, I'd send my son. That's what I'd do. That sounds ridiculous. The story is almost becoming unbelievable. After such treatments to servants, who would ever do that? God would. God did. Again, this is the history of God's relationship with his people. We're not talking about patience in a few weeks of a growing season. By Jesus' day, it had been over 1400 years since the Exodus and God bringing them into their own land, a good and fruitful land, clearing their enemies, giving them the law and the covenant and the temple. establishing a priesthood to shepherd and to intercede, giving them kings to protect and to rule. They were supposed to be a light to the world. The nations were to be drawn into their light, bringing about the promise of Abraham to be a blessing to all people as they bore the fruits of righteousness. For 1,400 years, God sent them prophets to call them back, to call them to righteousness. And for 1,400 years, they rejected, mistreated, and even killed some of those prophets. On Thursday at the Westminster commencement, O. Palmer Robertson gave the address And he said this word patient in the New Testament, not a great translation. Instead it meant long suffering. 1400 years is long suffering. The fact that this sounds crazy to us, to send your son into such a situation when we have the rest of the story It only highlights the amazing patience, mercy, and grace of God to sinners. In the parable, the master sends his beloved son. The tenants see him coming and they drag him outside the vineyard and kill him in order to maintain their interest in the vineyard. In real life, These religious leaders will reject the Son of God to maintain their interests in the Jewish society. And within 72 hours of this Tuesday encounter, at their behest, Jesus will be led outside Jerusalem and nailed to a cross. That brings us to our second heading. Judgment is coming. Jesus asks these religious leaders what the owner of the vineyard will do when he comes. They respond that he will put those wretches to a miserable death. Wretches and miserable here, it's the same word used as an adjective and an adverb respectively. The bad ones will die badly. In other words, the punishment will be fitting for the criminal. There will be justice. Also, Note the question is, when? Not if he comes, but when he comes. The owner is coming. Now, if we pause here for a moment, we can review what this passage has told us about God so far. We've seen that God is long suffering, amazingly patient, merciful, and gracious to sinful rebels. In this case, for over 1400 years. But we've also seen that people should not presume upon the Lord's patience because the Lord is coming. And when he comes, there will be a fitting judgment. In other words, God is just. In one sentence, God is amazingly patient, merciful, and gracious to sinful rebels, but he is coming and will bring justice with him. There is so much I don't know about God, his plans for me, or for the world. Why did this thing happen? Why did that person get sick? Why does it sometimes look like the evil prosper? I don't know. is the only honest answer I can give. Scripture doesn't tell us, and God has not revealed all these things to us. But what we do know, not just from this passage, but over and over throughout the Bible, as though it is screaming it at us, is that God is patient to rebellious sinners, Second Peter 3.9, he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish. That doesn't mean die, but face eternal judgment. He's patient with sinners, he's gracious, he's merciful, abounding in steadfast love, and he is coming. And when he does, he will be just and set all things right. And he must necessarily do this. It is essential to his nature to act in such a way. And while that doesn't provide every answer to every question, It is the first framework through which we must process events like a cancer diagnosis, or a tragedy like happened in Texas this week. God is patient, merciful, and gracious, and he is coming. He is just, and all will be set right. This merciful God, Psalm 34 tells us, is near to the brokenhearted. His compassion is available to them. And as our text today shows us, he knows what it's like to have his own son unjustly murdered. Now I believe it is only then, after we have processed through the framework, that we are truly ready to respond and bear fruits of the kingdom. That is to respond in light of the gospel. Or as Pastor Kennedy has frequently said, and we've been trying to do here through all the trials of the last couple years, put the gospel first. Now it kind of sounded like I said put it second. But the framework helps to ensure that the gospel I'm putting first is the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus, and not the gospel of my own personal preferences, self-interest, or political leanings. We all have a sense of justice, and that was true of these religious leaders who unknowingly condemned themselves in their own judgment of the situation. At this point, they would not have, and no Jew would have identified themselves with the tenants in the story. That might have been the Romans or the Gentiles, but certainly not anyone from God's favorite nation. It's not until Jesus' quote from the Old Testament that they realize he's speaking about them. And that brings us to the third heading, Christ the Cornerstone. This quote comes from Psalm 118. This is hugely important to the Jewish people as part of the Hallel, Psalms 113 through 118. They would be recited on joyous occasions like the Feast of Passover that's taking place in Jerusalem while this parable is being told. It is from Psalm 118 verses 25 and 26 that the crowds, they apply that to Jesus shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It's from Psalm 118 verses 22 and 23 that's quoted here in our text today. It originally referred to the salvation of Israel, that their enemies, kind of like builders examining a stone, had rejected Israel as not being worth anything. But by the Lord's doing, Israel was saved and had become the cornerstone, the most important. And here, in our text, Jesus rightfully and with authority applies that text, saying it was really talking about him. That the builders of Israel, These religious leaders will examine him and reject him. He will, in a marvelous way, by the Lord's doing, be vindicated as he's raised from the dead, and he will be the cornerstone. Jesus says, therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. This word translated people here is ethne. We get words like ethnic from it. It means people or nation. And it's important for us to be careful here. Some have thought that this meant God was taking the kingdom away from Jews and giving it to Gentiles. But ethne is in the singular here. For to mean Gentiles, it would have to be plural, or nations. This is not Jesus saying that God is rejecting the Jewish people as a whole. He has not done so. That actually cannot be a possibility. Yes, Jesus' greatest opponents are Jewish. But so is every apostle. And they certainly aren't rejected. This is a rejection and judgment on the religious leaders, specifically because they have rejected Jesus, God's son, the cornerstone. But the Lord will take the rebellion and rejection of Israel's leaders here and use it to fulfill his long ago promise to Abraham. I will make of you a great nation and will bless you Make your name great so that you will be a blessing. In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. God takes the greatest act of evil ever committed in the crucifixion of Jesus and uses it to bring the gospel to the world. I don't think we get the full picture here in this text, but the rest of the New Testament provides it for us. Instead of these religious leaders and their temple, Ephesians 2.20 speaks of the church, made up of Jews and Gentiles as the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 1 Peter 2.9, after quoting this same passage from Psalm 118, speaks of the church as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy ethnic nation. people for his own possession. You may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And this new nation is made up of people from every nation. None, including Jews, are excluded because of their nationality. There is one point and only one point that determines whether someone is part of this new nation who receives the kingdom of God. and that is their relationship to the cornerstone, to Jesus. For those who reject Jesus, the cornerstone becomes a stone that they fall upon or stumble on, ultimately leading to them being judged and rejected by God. But for those who examine Jesus and accept him as the cornerstone, they are brought into the kingdom of God and will produce its fruits. And that brings us to the final heading, producing kingdom fruit. The central question of the parable is, will you respond to God's son before the crisis comes? And the discussion with the religious leaders adds, have you examined Jesus? Have you made him the cornerstone of your life? We spoke at the beginning about God doing everything necessary for Israel and providing for them. As we quoted from Isaiah five, what more was there for me to do for my vineyard that I had not done in it? And that applies to us all the more. In addition to life, strength, skills and abilities, we have God's word so readily available to us. Never in history has God's word been more readily available. Never in history have there been more or better study aids to help all of us understand God's word and what he calls us to. Living this side of the cross and the resurrection, we have the additional benefits of the gospel, the Holy Spirit, the church. What more is there that God should have done? So are you producing kingdom fruits? There's a particular warning here to those in leadership. Verse 38 pictures these religious leaders so strongly bent on keeping power, control, and authority that they were willing to kill to keep it, even if it meant ignoring all the evidence that Jesus is the Messiah. And even after he's raised from the dead, they engage in a cover-up campaign Grievously, this lust for power, control, and maintaining authority is not something that Christian leaders are immune to. You've heard the news stories about the abuse scandals. A week ago, a huge third-party investigation was released concerning issues in the Southern Baptist Convention. This only highlights that this lust for power and control is not a Jewish problem. It's not a Roman Catholic problem. It's not a Baptist problem. It's a people problem. That's what happens when Jesus is not the cornerstone, giving alignment to our entire lives. Apart from His grace, we will all, leader or not, resent His authority and desire to control the vineyard for our own aims. God will not leave these things unaddressed. He will bring justice. You can pray for your leaders that we would be humble and submit our entire lives to Jesus. You can also pray for our denomination. Just this week, a study committee released a 220-page report on domestic abuse and sexual assault that will be presented for review at this year's General Assembly. For the sake of clarity, this is not a third-party investigation. At last year's General Assembly, We voted to appoint this committee to study these and other related topics to abuse and provide, create a report that would be a resource for pastors, for sessions, for churches in responding to these kinds of things in God-honoring ways. But apart from leadership, what does producing kingdom fruits look like? The very first thing is that it will include faith in Christ Jesus. Trust in him alone for the forgiveness of your sins and submitting to him as Lord. This is what it means for him to be the cornerstone in your life. If he's the cornerstone, then our lives are to be aligned to him. The foundation, as we mentioned earlier, is the apostles and the prophets, that is the word of God. So we rest on the word of God and we are constantly aligning ourselves, measuring and checking that we are aligned to the character, to the person of Christ, our cornerstone. And then ask yourself, do I love God? Do I love Jesus? Do I love my neighbor? Is that love bearing fruit? Is it present and growing? What about the other fruit of the Spirit? Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. If you find any of these lacking, pray and ask God's forgiveness and grace and then look to Christ and don't stop. Don't stop looking until you are overwhelmed and in awe. If you lack patience, Don't stop looking at his patience to you. We spoke of his 1400 year patience with Israel earlier. He's been patient with me for 14,784 days and I have fallen short of his glory every one of them. But no matter how long I have been running, or hiding, when I turn around and cry out to Him, He is always there. If it's kindness you lack, don't stop looking at His kindness. Don't stop looking at the kindness of the Lord until you are overwhelmed and in awe of Him. And if you don't know where to look in the scriptures, then just fix your eyes on Jesus and don't stop looking. That is who the Holy Spirit is working to make you like. You will never be Him, but you will be like Him. Finally, I want you to see a major shift that takes place as a result of the kingdom being taken away from these religious leaders and given to a new nation that will produce its fruits. We said earlier that Israel was to be a light to the world and nations were to be drawn to their light, bringing about the promise of Abraham to be a blessing to all people as they bore the fruit of righteousness. So you could say that this was to function like centripetal force, like a drain. Their bearing fruits should have created energy that would draw nations to the center, to Israel. But now, with the new borderless nation made up of Jews and Gentiles, it is more like centrifugal force. The energy around the center drives out to the peoples of the nations with the light of the gospel. So we cannot just sit here in a holy huddle and be bearing the fruit of the kingdom. We must take the light out into the darkness. They need to know that God is patient God is merciful. God is gracious towards sinners. They need to know that God is just. They should not try his patience, but trust his son and make him your cornerstone. Let's pray. Almighty God, We are amazed at your patience, mercy, and grace to sinners like us. Please forgive us for where we fall short and fill us with your spirit. We might align ourselves to Christ the cornerstone and produce the fruits of the kingdom, taking the light of the gospel to the world. It's for his glory, the blessing, of the peoples we pray, amen.