Luke chapter 20 in your Bibles, please. Luke chapter 20 is where we're going to be this morning. Children, do you like stories? Do you guys like stories? Mac likes stories. On Sunday afternoons, I have the privilege of reading stories to Mac, and then we both take a nap, all right? And stories are good, because stories can get into your heart. They can get into your mind, and you kind of envision things. And Jesus often, when Jesus would speak, a lot of times Jesus would share a story. And it's called a parable. And a parable is a earthly story. that has a heavenly meaning. Our story this morning is the parable of the vineyard. But there's parables like the parable of the sower. We recently did that, I think, last month. We had the parable of the sower. And it's a story about a earthly farm. But the heavenly meaning is that you're sowing the Word of God, and that it bears fruit in some soil, or it doesn't bear fruit in other soil. And so it's an earthly story, but it has a heavenly meaning. There's a parable of the wheat and tares, and how the good man sowed the wheat, and then the enemy came and sowed the tares. Picture that. There's going to be heresy that Satan's going to try to put into the church, and he's going to try to corrupt the crop. But that there's coming a day where God's going to divide those, and God knows his, and there's a division to heaven, there's a division to hell that will take place. So these parables, stories, have a purpose. The parable that we have before us today is a parable Jesus used to rebuke the Pharisees and the Jews for their failure in the stewardship God had given to them that would bear eternal fruit. And I'm not sure, I'm not a theologian, but as I study the past, I look at the I look at the vineyard as the principle of life, everlasting life that God has given, embodied in doctrine and embodied in the lives of those that are saved. It is that stewardship of life, everlasting life that God has given to it. The Jews were the privileged people. They had that stewardship initially that God gave. They were the descendants of Abraham. On Thursday nights, we've been studying the book of Genesis. And so we've come through the Abrahamic covenant where God made a covenant with Abram. And Abram was, had imputed righteousness that God gave to him. And he had a relationship with God established by faith that God had given as well. And so his descendants, the Jews, were the people of God. They were given God's law, they were given God's blessing, they were given God's chastening. And it's a privilege that they had that. They were given further revelation. As they were given the Jewish judges, Jewish kings, Jewish prophets, God increased the revelation that he had given to the Jews. They were looking for the promised Messiah who would come through their seed. Jesus would be a Jew. And they were looking for that. They were given the first opportunity to repent and to follow Jesus. All right, and some of these concepts might be hard for you guys to get, but I want you to do your best, okay? And Amy, I might have to move you, all right, if you guys can't sit and be good. So you guys do your best to listen, and we'll try to put it where you can get some of this today. And so the Jews, in a spiritual sense, they were entrusted with eternity. They had been given everything that has to do with everlasting life in God's plan of what was taking place, and they had incredible stewardship. And I can't fully apply the passage as we study it this morning, I can't fully apply it to the church, okay? But there are ways in which we can apply it. We've been given an incredible privilege of knowing Jesus that carries with it the enormous responsibility of tending the vine of eternal life. And what I want to challenge us with this morning is you're to be a good steward of what God has given you with the gospel and everlasting life. Are you a good steward? How are you doing with your stewardship? We're going to examine the stewardship this morning really of others, but to think, how are we doing with the stewardship that God has entrusted to us? Let's pray and commit this service to the Lord. Father, I thank you for the grace that you give. And Father, it's our desire this morning to open up the Word of God and to let the Spirit of God speak to our hearts. And Father, there's ways in which you've showed your hand today. I'm thankful again for each one that is here this morning. We praise you for that. But Father, now as we come to the service time, I do pray that the Spirit of God would guide me as I speak. Lord, I can't speak without your enablement. And I do ask that you'd strengthen me and enable me this morning. I pray, Lord, that you please give me wisdom as I share this passage. The Spirit of God spoke in my heart about it as I've studied it. I pray, Lord, that I could adequately convey that this morning. But Father, would you give us ears to hear, would you give us grace to listen and take in the truth of the word of God, and I pray, Lord, remind us of the stewardship that you've given to us as a church. It's in Christ's name I pray, amen. All right, so we're just gonna take the passage, we're gonna look through it this morning, and so we're gonna start with the responsibility. The responsibility that God gave incredibly to the Jews and then to the church, okay? A big responsibility, you might have seen This past week, I think it was in Vancouver that a man stole a plane. Did you see that? I think it might have been early on this past week. That man had security clearance. I heard a friend of his interview and they said, you know, he's got security clearance, he's got access to the cockpit. Apparently he had, through video games or whatnot, he learned to somehow fly a plane. He could at least take it off. And he did some pretty incredible maneuvers with that plane when it was in the air. And then sadly, he crashed it, lost his life in that. And people look at that and think, wow, you know, I mean, this man had some incredible trust that was given to him. And they would probably say, you know, wrongly so that he had this trust and he violated that trust. But trust brings great responsibility, doesn't it? Look at the Jews and what God had given to them, they had a huge responsibility that God had given to them. Every time a pastor takes up the word of God, he takes it up hopefully with the understanding that he handles in his hand everlasting life. Every time we have the opportunity to share the gospel with somebody as a believer, we carry in our hands everlasting life. What an incredible responsibility that God has given to us. Matthew 5.14 speaks of this responsibility. It says, "'Ye are the light of the world. "'A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. "'Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, "'but on a candlestick, and it giveth light "'until all that are in the house. "'Let your light so shine before men "'that they may see your good works "'and glorify your Father which is in heaven.'" God gave us an incredible stewardship. When he gave us the gospel, he gave us understanding about Jesus Christ dying for men's sins, that he paid the complete price, that through him alone there's forgiveness of sins. What a responsibility God has put into our hands, and ye are the light of the world. As I look out at you this morning as a church, The light isn't anywhere else. I mean, the light isn't out in the world today. It's not on the football pitch. It's not anywhere else. We are the light of the world that God has given. And so as we think about this responsibility entrusted originally to the Jews, God planted the vine which bears eternal fruit. God planted it. It says a certain man planted the vineyard there in verse nine. The certain man obviously represents God. And God had planted that truth. And I go back to Abraham. Abraham was the first man recorded in the word of God that had imputed righteousness through faith. That even in the New Testament speaks back to what Abraham had. And I had a great question asked me by Alec a couple months ago. Okay, Jesus is the one by faith we trust in him for salvation. What about those that came before? They were trusting in a future king. They were trusting in the coming Messiah. They were trusting the revelation that they had by faith. And God, as they honored God with that faith, God imputed righteousness to them. So that's the Jews. They're the people of God. They're the ones that, of all the heathen nations, there wouldn't have been many that were saved, if I can apply that New Testament term to the Old Testament, those that had imputed righteousness like King David. There wouldn't be many of those heathen nations, there'd be some. But within the Jews, hopefully, The majority of those people had followed in the steps of Abraham, a good many of them. They were the people who got entrusted with that truth that God had given. It's a gardening picture. There's something wonderful about gardening. Do you guys like to garden? You guys at Holiday Bible Club, you got a plant. Did you plant it? You got it in the planter? You watering it? All right. There's something wonderful about a garden. I like gardening. And I take great pride in my garden. I'm not going to take somebody spoiling my garden lightly. If somebody snuck in and put poison on it, I'm jealous of it. Why? Because it's mine. But I'm handling life. You think about that? I mean, you're handling something that is very precious. It's a joy to see it grow. God is very jealous of His garden. God is very jealous of the health of his garden, the doctrine that keeps it healthy, the way it's maintained, the way it is served, okay? Because it's his, he planted it. The Bible speaks about it, Exodus 20, says, thou shalt not bound thyself to them, nor serve them, idols. We talked about idolatry in Sunday school. For I, the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God. Have you guys ever gotten jealous? You ever get jealous, you know? God is a jealous God. Sometimes we think that's a bad thing, we think. That's a good thing if it's jealous about good things. I'm jealous of my wife. She's my wife. I love her. And I want to protect her. I want to guard her. Don't anybody mess with my wife because I'm jealous of her. God is a jealous God. Don't anyone mess with God's garden because God is a jealous God. Exodus 34, 14. for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a Jealous God. Deuteronomy 4.24, the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a Jealous God. Deuteronomy 5.9, I the Lord thy God am a Jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Deuteronomy 6.15, for the Lord thy God is a Jealous God among you. Okay, so the Jews were entrusted with God's garden. God's a Jealous God. It's His. Listen, there's gonna be a lot of the way through good application to us. God is a jealous God. He's given us his vine of everlasting life. I don't wanna twist parables up. In this parable, Jesus is not the vine. But there is a parable where Jesus is the vine. And God's very jealous of his son. He's very jealous of the truth that goes out of that garden that he has planted, that he's entrusted to man because it's his. The Jews weren't trusted with God's vineyard, okay? It says, he led it forth to husband men. Okay, the vineyard wasn't sold. It was leased. It was leased. They rented it. They weren't owners of it. They were just maintaining it as God desired them to, or should have been as God desired them to. So he gave it to the Jews as the husbandmen. Okay, the Jews are God's covenant people. We talked about that. Jeremy Corbyn, okay, who is the leader of the opposition party, the Labor Party, in Parliament. Jeremy Corbyn has been under fire for the last several months for what thing? Does anybody know? Anti-Semitism, yeah? He's against the Jews, and they say they're accusing him for different reasons. But one of the reasons that just surfaced this past week is a video of Jeremy Corbyn attending to a wreath-laying ceremony. Standing beside a Palestinian terrorist leader, a Palestinian terrorist organization, standing beside him while they laid wreaths at the graves of the people that killed the Jews in the Olympics back in the 1960s when they broke into their rooms and they killed, I think, 21, somewhere in there, Jewish athletes, Israeli athletes. And the Mossad, the Jewish secret police, took those guys out one by one. It's a very interesting documentary you can watch. They hunted these guys down. They killed them. And so they're there at the grave of one of these men. And Jeremy Corbyn looks as if he's about to lay a wreath there. I won't get into the politics of it. It's very interesting politics right now having to do with the Jewish people. But anti-Semitism has no place in the life of a believer. Why? because we have a Jewish book that tells us about our Jewish king, who's gonna come back and reign in a Jewish land for a thousand years, right? I mean, our privilege has come through the Jews. We, of all people, ought to love the Jewish people. We ought to say, praise God. And yes, I mean, do they mess up? Yes, many ways. And they, obviously, especially at Calvary. But they are the Lord's, Jesus's people by birth. And so the Jews, why did God give the Jews? or choose the Jews to be his covenant people. Here's what the word of God says, Deuteronomy 7, verse 6. For thou art a holy people, Jewish people, unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you are more in number than any people, for you are the fewest of all people. but because the Lord loved you and he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. What a privilege. It wasn't, to go back to that day, I guess, it wasn't the Moabites, it wasn't the Amorites, it wasn't those other people groups, it was the Jews that God looked at, not because they're the greatest, they're the fewest. I mean, Abraham didn't have any children until he was ancient, but because of God's love and God's promise. Think about, again, what God has done for us, the privilege that he has entrusted the gospel to us. Why? Because we're great? Raise your hand if you've got great faith. Raise your hand if you've got great, I'm talking self, self-faith, great self-righteousness, great self-ability. See, it's nothing about us, it's just the goodness of God that has entrusted to us the gospel. Paul said, 1 Corinthians 4.1, let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. We've been chosen by the grace of God to carry the gospel. What a privilege God has given, just like God did with the Jews in our story here. God gave them space to develop his vineyard. It says he went into a far country for a long time, okay. God departed, God's off the scene. Initially, as you think about the children of Israel, initially God is on the scene, it's a theocracy. God led them, pillar of fire, pillar of cloud, right? And then they said, we want a king. And God said no, and they said yes, and it's just like the story of Lot and Zoar, we talked about this morning. They forced their way, in a sense, God allowed it. They got an earthly king, in a sense, God departed. And he's in another country for a time. So there's a period where God is somewhat off the scene, and then Israel begins to Sadly, rebel against God. Judges 21-25 says, And just maybe because God didn't immediately stop them. Just like the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8-11, Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Okay? And so, God's departed, God's off the scene. Here's the vineyard, and they're beginning to do things in the vineyard that is going to corrupt what God desires to be done in the vineyard. Okay? And so that is taking place. Now, as again, And I hope you can follow this. I'm gonna do my best to help try to make this make sense. I'll tell you this, when I studied this passage, I was praying through it. I'm just saying, Lord, I gotta preach this to the church. It's an Old Testament, you could say, application, or it's a time of Christ application to the Jewish people, but I believe there is a very significant application to our time, okay? So we'll get there, we'll get there, and I hope I can connect things, okay? But when it says he went into a far country, it reminds me of another parable that the Lord told that does apply to the church, okay? And it is the parable of the talents. Matthew 5.13. It says, watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants. Amy, it's time for you to move, OK? I'm sorry I've got to do that, but move real quick, OK? Maybe go sit by Kaylee, all right? Just head back there. That'll just help you guys. All right? Matthew 5.13. Watch ye therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country. There's that similarity, that God is away, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, and to every man according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. And again, in this parable, you can apply it to the church. The Lord Jesus was here, he gave gifts, he gave his abilities, the spirit of God gave his ability, he departed, he's coming again. We know he's coming again, all right? So we know there's that application. Then he that received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise, he that received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money. And so he departed, he left them with a stewardship, same as in our parable. Because he entrusted them with a responsibility, there's gonna be, and the next point is a day of reckoning. And because God has entrusted us with great responsibility, For us as well, there's gonna be a day of reckoning, just like there was for the Jews. And it's because God anticipated a great harvest. Verse 10 says, That's reasonable, isn't it? God had a vineyard. He entrusted it to people to care for it. It's reasonable for Him to come back and say, you know what, let's see what's going on here. Let's see how it's being developed. Let's see what's taking place. And so he did that. As they came, they had authority that if they looked at it and saw something was amiss, they could deal with that and say there's a problem because the master had sent them to get a reckoning of what was taking place. Now we're going to go back to the Parable of the Talents, New Testament Church. Matthew 5.19 says, And a lot of times our modern sayings come from the Bible. There's many sayings that we use today that come from the word of God. I wonder if this is one of them, a day of reckoning. He's there to examine what they've done. And so he that received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliverest unto me five talents. Behold, I've gained beside them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. He also that received two talents came and said, Lord, thou hast delivered me two talents. Behold, I've gained two other talents beside them. His Lord said unto him, well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew that thou art in a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed, and I was afraid. And when it hid thy talent in the earth, lo, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto everyone that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And I'm gonna apply that in part in a little bit, okay? But the reality is, they were entrusted with what? Give me an idea. The talent that they had. Is it not similar to what we're considering in our story, the vineyard? It is the doctrine. It is the truth that benefits me. It's the truth that benefits you. It's what I can do with that that's going to bring glory to God. And the worst thing I can do with that is bury it, right? Now, let me give you a modern day application of this. Does the Catholic Church have this? Yes. Do they claim to be a Christian church? Yes. And there's even a greater application of this with regard to the Church of Scotland. But you have this book, and they bury it by their tradition. They bury it by their adding onto their religion. And their religion effectively buries this so it benefits nobody. Do you see it? And there's going to be a very real application to that in just a second. Church of Scotland, what are they doing with the Word of God? They're taking this book and they're burying it. How so? They're rejecting the authority of the scripture. It's amazing. Who would have thought John Knox Day, especially go back, John Knox Day, or let's just go up to Robert Murray McShane. And the free church came out in the 1840s out of the Church of Scotland. They came out because they saw things happening, but they would have never suspected that the Church of Scotland would put in women ministers, and that they would put in homosexual ministers, and that they put in Opportunity. We'll see it in just a second. I'll use another illustration. Opportunity for homosexuals to be married in the church. What have they done? They've heaped onto the Word of God their tradition, their religion. They're acting as if it's their vine, and they're burying it. We've got to be careful. We don't want to bury the word of God by our religion or our ideas, right? We want to guard this. We want to invest this, okay? And so, why? Because there's a day of reckoning coming. There's a day where God's gonna hold us accountable for what we've been given. So let's continue on. Because of that, okay, so the day of reckoning comes. What happens in the heart of those that are tending the vine? The day of reckoning comes, there's a rebellion. They had failed in their stewardship, and so they're gonna rebel against God, beating his servants. And let me say this, when men have rejected their stewardship, this is always the result. The first story about this is Cain and Abel. They're both entrusted with the truth about God and how to worship God. Adam and Eve had, no doubt, instructed their kids. There was some knowledge that it's to be a blood sacrifice, but Cain comes. He wants to worship God as he wants. He's heaping dirt upon God's revelation, saying, I'm gonna worship God however I want. I'm gonna exalt my tradition, my ideas above that. What's he due to Abel? He hates Abel, he despises Abel, he kills Abel. So let's look at it in our story. It says, the husbandmen beat him. So here, God sends a servant to these that had a stewardship over his truth. They weren't obeying God. So they beat him, they sent him away empty. And again, he sent another servant. They beat him also, and then treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. And again, he sent a third, and they wounded him also, and cast him out. You see, don't we see that with Israel? Jesus is just giving them a synopsis of history. They were entrusted with the vineyard, and then God sent prophets, men that had authority from God to say, look, this isn't right. You need to get right. You need to obey God. And they beat them. They treat them shamefully. They cast them out. They send them away. And so Jesus is referring back to it. It's the same thing Stephen did in his message in Acts 7. He's preaching to the Jews and he's giving them their history and saying, here's a history lesson of how God is working and why Jesus Christ is the Messiah. It says in Acts 7 51, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them, which showed before of the coming of the just one. of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth." How did they respond? Kill the prophet. just like he told them they had always responded. That's exactly what they did. We'll see it in our story as well, okay? That's a natural reaction. Somebody that rebels against God, entrusted with truth, and rejects God, those that keep their stewardship are gonna be treated the same way that is in this passage. And you think about it. We're getting there in Britain. But think about these phrases, send you away, beat you, shamefully treat you, wound you, cast you out. Can we not see that in the modern context of those that stand for the truth of the Word of God against those that have cast that aside? They're going to despise those that hold on to that. Now let me ask you a simple question. Why? Why should I expect that? And I'm not trying to doom and gloom, you know, make us so sad. When I'm so sad, I'm a Christian, God's entrusting me with truth, everybody's going to treat me miserably. Why are they going to treat me miserably? Because that's the way they treated the Son. Okay? And that's where the story's going. That's what Jesus is saying. And so the rebellion, then the rejection, the Jews so violently rejected God, they turned on His own Son. Verse 13. Then said the Lord of the vineyard, what shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be they will reverence him when they see him. And when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves saying, this is the heir, come let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. All right, here they are in their stewardship. God has sent prophets saying, hey, get right, do it right. God had entrusted them with something so valuable. So he sends his men, then he sends the sun, saying they're gonna reverence the sun. And the sun comes, and they take the sun and they kill him. Okay, did God know they would do that? Yes. Jesus is not suggesting that God was ignorant of the fact that when the Son of God came, he'd be crucified. We knew he would be because he had to be, okay? In God's mercy. And think about how many times God used wicked people to fulfill his will. I mean, look at Judas. Look at Pilate. And so God allowed that. But I'll tell you this, Jesus Christ did not come to earth presupposing that the Jews would reject him, or in this sense, he knew they'd reject him, but he didn't desire them to. He didn't come courting their rejection. He didn't come trying to get them to rebel against Him. In fact, the Word of God says it was the opposite. Jesus said, Matthew 23, 37, Does this sound familiar? It's our parable, isn't it? The servants came and you killed them. How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings? And ye would not. And so the son came, and he knew they'd been cast out. He knew they'd been wounded. He came anyway to them in love, saying, I wanted to embrace you. I wanted to take you. By the way, those that believe in extreme Calvinism, what do they do with this passage? I wanted you, but what? Ye would not. My will was to come to you. My will was to take you as a mother hen. That was my will, but you rejected me. All right? And they did. It's what Peter preached at Pentecost, Acts 2.22. You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs. And think about the mercy of God. What he's saying is, when the sun came, it was like there were neon lights flashing and saying, this is the Messiah. He came so clearly. And that's what Peter's saying. which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Listen, we talked about it in our holiday Bible club. They took the Lord Jesus Christ, they blindfolded him, they punched him, they spat on him. They stripped his back and stretched him out and ripped the flesh off his back with a whip. He had the crown of thorns pushed onto his head. He had his beard plucked out. He had to carry a wooden beam that he couldn't carry from loss of blood up to the place where they staked him to the cross and crucified him. Why? Because the Jews said that's not the Messiah. That's not, you know, it's almost like this. It is no longer God's vineyard. It is their vineyard. See, they've rejected the master. They've had it so long, they think, this is mine. I can do what I want with this stewardship. And so they reject him. Let me ask you this. And did it matter to them that Jesus was the Messiah? No. See, they willfully, we talked about this morning in Sunday School, the idea, they willfully rejected the light. So here, let me apply it to our day. Does it matter to the Church of Scotland that the word of God condemns homosexuality? See what I'm saying? I mean, if the master was to come and just say, hey, this is my vineyard here, and I'd just like to tell you what I say about homosexuality, and it's this. Does it matter? No. Does it matter that the word of God teaches that a minister is to be a man? By the way, the Church of Scotland started with women ministers. And I read a very interesting book about how did we get here? How did we get to this point of accepting homosexual ministers? And he said, you know, we accommodated women ministers with the idea of this. We can have women ministers in churches that desire that, but nobody will be forced to have a woman minister. But then they changed it. then it's, you know, it's followed the same pattern with homosexuality and homosexual ministers. Alright? And so, does it matter? No, it doesn't matter that the Bible, and by the way, I had a man, I spoke, I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with a a Pentecostal, Anglican, Evangelical minister that God allowed me to bump into. But he said, when I said, you know, they're Pentecostal, and I said, you of all people ought to follow 1 Corinthians 14 then, and I know, just as any minister today would know, Pentecostal churches don't. They don't follow 1 Corinthians 14, the main text that speaks about what they have added to their religion, and I said it speaks very clearly about women are to be silent. And he said, I think you're imposing a cultural idea on a future generation. You know what that is? That's the beginning of liberalism, and that's the beginning of throwing dirt upon the talent. It's beginning to cover what God has said is where. It's saying, it's not that important. Yes, it is important. Absolutely important. You look at where the Church of Scotland is. They stumbled over that first to get to the point where they're at. All right? And so it matters. And so again, careful. that we don't exalt religion over this book as has taken place. And so the retribution. So we see the rebellion, the rejection, now the retribution. The price of their rebellion far exceeded what they thought possible. Okay, verse 15. What therefore shall the Lord of the vineyard do unto them? That's a strong statement, isn't it? He's the master, he's the one that gave them that trust, and they violated it. What's he gonna do? This is what the Lord says. He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said what? God forbid. They're shocked. How could this be? I mean, we're the, and the Jews, we are the people of God. How could God possibly reject us? as he would in his mercy to the Gentiles, we'd be grafted in, and we're warned, careful, don't be high-minded, because if God removed the branches, he could remove the grafted-in branches too, right? And God's mercy, God's gonna work differently and with a different people, but it was inconceivable to them, but they were wrong. And one more quote about homosexuality in the Church of Scotland. There was a vote this year drafting new laws to allow for same-sex weddings in the Church of Scotland. And this is what Reverend Tom Gordon said. I have two daughters, both of whom are married. I have one gay daughter in a same-sex marriage. When my older daughter got married, she had a choice to ask me to conduct her service as a minister or for me to walk her down the aisle as her dad. But when my younger daughter got married, she had no such choice. Give people a choice. Allow their marriage to be conducted by a minister with God's blessing. What do you say to that? Oh, master of the vineyard, this is our vineyard. We can do what we want to do. It doesn't matter what you say. We reject the Messiah. Listen, rejecting God's word is no different by a liberal denomination than what the Jews did when they rejected Jesus Christ. And I'll illustrate it, and I think I can prove it from the word of God, what I'm saying and what I believe the word of God is teaching. The Jews that rejected Jesus, were they born again? That's our modern sense. Were they saved? Were they spiritually enlightened men? Were they righteous men? No. They had become so liberal in their beliefs and so rejecting of God that, listen, they were not righteous men. They had rejected the Lord. And it says he's gonna come in what? Destroy them. Okay, would God say that about his people? No, and I've got other texts of scripture that we can look at with regard to that. He's gonna destroy them, why? Because they're not his. They rejected him, they resisted him, and the Church of Scotland, again I say, has done the same thing, or any religion that, or yeah, denomination that exalts its religion above God, it's likely, that they're not saved. Do you get what I'm saying? They're not born again. They have rejected God's truth. Luke 12, 42. The Lord said, who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household to give unto them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But, and if that servant say in his heart, my Lord, delayeth his coming, Now think about this, he's a servant. Somehow he's a servant. He's entrusted with truth, but watch what happens to him. My Lord delays his coming. He begins to beat the men's servants and maidens to eat and drink and to be drunken. He's violating his stewardship, because the master's gone. The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour when he is not aware, he'll cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. Do you get it? It's saying servant, but he's not saved. He's not a righteous man. He's a man that had a stewardship that didn't use it properly. God is off the scene, he violates it, and when God comes, God just casts him into hell, because he never was a child of God. And we've already gone through the text, but you can look at it again. The parable of the talents, what happens to the man with one talent that he buried? he's cast into hell. They'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so what is the point? Just like Israel, those that reject the authority of the word of God and what God has given, and exalt their religion above truth, what happens? Eventually, okay, if not immediately, eventually, it's a body of people that are lost. And I spoke to this Anglican minister yesterday. And I praise God he's evangelical. I'm reading JC Ryle's biography right now. He was an evangelical Anglican. And it was interesting that God gave me this conversation with this man. I praise God. He's saved. But his wife said, I said, how many within the Anglican church, how many would you say are born again ministers? And I don't like this question. He said, it depends on what you mean by born again. And I'm like, John chapter 3. And his wife said, you know what, the Anglican church is very broad. And there's some there, it's basically Catholicism, which is right, because they never really separated from Rome, okay, if you read the history. Okay, clear down to evangelical believers. But then she said, but I'm not gonna judge them whether or not. And I said to her, look, I don't mind seeing things as God sees them and just saying, you know, you reject the gospel, you're not saved. Impossible. Because you have rejected the Son. You've rejected the way God said to oversee the vineyard. It's not all the same. You can't do that. And so the retribution. And so that brings us lastly to the reality. The reality. And that is that men do not get to pick and choose. They have an opportunity to believe and obey God. Here they are, they've cried out in shock, God forbid. And the Lord says, he beheld them and said, what is this then that is written? The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him, and they feared the people, for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them. And in question, were they right? Yes. So here they are with their vineyard, and the whole reason Jesus is telling the story is to hit them with the truth that they've done exactly what we've considered this morning, okay? Now watch what they do. And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which had famed themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor." Just like he said. They rejected the son, just like the son of God was telling him. He's telling him a parable about what they're going to do, and there they go. Kill the son. In the conversation yesterday as well, this pastor's wife, minister's wife, was undermining the authority of God. And I just want to go, God hasn't changed His mind. God's not, you know, looking at our liberal society, which we talked about in depth this morning. We're in Romans chapter 1 in Sunday school. It was good this morning because it tells us all about our society. God is not up in heaven going, oh, you know, they all disagree with me. So yeah, I guess culturally it's modern times. Listen, God doesn't change his mind. God has told us his mind. God has told us his truth. I wrote an article in the Midlothian Advertiser, and it's coming out this week. So if you get a copy on Thursday, it'll be out, all right, which is our community county newspaper. The title is, Can God Save Me? And I only have 350 words, so I have to make it very succinct. But this is what it says. The simple answer is yes. However, to be saved, you must save from your heart. God, I'm sorry. You're right. I am wrong. Please forgive me as I put my faith in Jesus. Caitlin, sit down, will you, buddy? Thanks, bud. God, I'm sorry, you are right, I am wrong. Please forgive me as I put my faith in Jesus. You must agree with God. Are you wondering if you're in agreement with God? Please mark the statements below with which you agree in your heart. And every one of these statements has scripture with it. But here's the statements. God is your creator. God is your lawgiver. God is your judge. You broke God's law. You must turn from your sin. The punishment for your sin is death. Without Jesus, you'll go to hell, which is why you need to be saved. Jesus died for your sin. Jesus came back to life. Jesus is the exclusive way of salvation. Your good works, religion, baptism, kindness will not save you. Faith in Jesus alone brings salvation. And then I ask at the end, do you agree with God? We pray right now in faith and ask him to forgive you and save you. And then I scripture Romans 10, 13. And so the scripture is there. But the point is this, how many people are going to pick up the paper and go, yeah, I agree with that. Oh, that's good. You know, I agree with that. I agree with that. And the problem is this, a lot of our denominations A lot of other ministers in our county, when they read that article, you know what they're going to say? I disagree with that. I disagree with that. I disagree with that. I disagree with that. Why? Because they disagree with God. They disagree with God. And so what is the point this morning? We have a stewardship. As a church, we're gonna protect that stewardship. Say, by the grace of God, doctrinally, we're gonna be on guard. Practically, we wanna be on guard. Part of our stewardship is also giving the gospel and sharing the light. Say that I'm completely doctrinally correct in the vineyard. but I'm not bearing any fruit because I'm not telling anyone about Jesus Christ. Have I fulfilled the responsibility that God has entrusted me? And the answer is no, I haven't. And so let's think about the stewardship that God has given to us. And then I just wanna challenge you with this. When our society is crying out and we're hearing it constantly, homosexuality is okay, there is no creator, it's evolution and science is everything and all those things, we gotta be willing to say, you know what? I'm just gonna stand with God and just gonna obey God and please God, all right? And I hope this morning God will just help us say, you know what? I've given you a trust as well. We're looking at how others violated God's trust, broke God's trust, but God's given us a trust as well. We gotta stop and think, you know what? I gotta do what God says. I gotta obey God, I gotta please God. I can't make exception and say, well, I don't really like that. No, this is what God says. And honor God with that. I hope that's a challenge to your heart this morning. Of all days where we need to stand, today's the day. Because everyone wants us to change the vineyard. But it's God's vineyard. So may God help us to be good stewards. Let's pray. Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would take the truth of the Word of God and put it deep into our hearts. Lord, I pray that you'd give us wisdom and Lord, we're no better than any other generation. But if we start fearing men, we'll start changing things, and that'll dishonor the master. And so I pray, Spirit of God, give us grace to stay true to the Word of God. Give us grace to see as God sees. And Father, I pray that you'd encourage us. I don't want to discourage our hearts. We've got a wonderful privilege to know the truth that sets people free. But Father, we have a responsibility because of that to share the light and to be the light. Lord, we don't want a day of retribution. We don't want a day of judgment. We want a day of well done thou good and faithful servant. And so may the Spirit of God just give us insight, give us wisdom in the day in which we live. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.