Summary
Pastor David preaches out of Luke 20:9–18, showing how Jesus’ parable of the tenants confronts Israel’s leaders as faithless stewards who beat the prophets and ultimately kill the beloved Son. He warns that while the vineyard will not be destroyed, its stewardship will pass to others, and all people must reckon with Jesus as either the cornerstone of salvation or the crushing stone of judgment.
Transcript
It's good to see you this morning. So, please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke. And to the 20th chapter, Luke chapter 20. And we will be in the parable of the tenants this morning. This is the last parable. In the Gospel of Luke. And so Jesus is going to bring together everything that he has said to the Jewish leadership up to this point in the Gospel of Luke. And he's going to plant it in one final parable. Luke chapter 20, verses 9 through 19, hear the word of God. And he began to tell the people of this parable, a man planted a vineyard and he was going to plant it in one final parable. He planted a vineyard and led it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants so that they would give him some fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty handed. And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty handed. And he sent yet a third. And this one also they wounded and cast out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, "What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him. But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, "This is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours." And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. When they heard this, they said, "Surely not." But he looked directly at them and said, "What then is this that is written? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces. And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him that very hour for they perceived that he had told this parable against them. But they feared the people. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we ask that you would speak to us today through the voice of your Son. And as we hear the voice of your Son speak this parable once again to us. I pray, Lord, that even though this is a parable about a past judgment, you do not change. You are the God who continues to judge and to save by this stone. By this one who is the cornerstone. And so I pray today that into this world, as the word of God is proclaimed from the river to the ends of the earth, as churches all over the nations including this one proclaim your word, that your word of judgment would go out and your word of salvation would go out, and your word would accomplish the divine intention for it's leaving the mouths of men today for the honor of Christ's name we pray. Amen. My mentor in reformed theology, R.C. Sproul, said this after he had become a Christian, and after he had read the Bible through the first time, when he became a Christian he had immediate hunger for the word of God. He read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And his conclusion after reading the Bible all the way through from Genesis to Revelation was this. This God means business. This God plays for keeps. That was his response. And here in the last parable that Jesus is going to tell in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus means business. Jesus is playing for keeps. As a matter of fact Jesus is packaging everything that he has said so far to and against the Jewish leadership in the Gospel of Luke, and he's packaging it in one more story so the people don't miss it, and so the Jewish leadership do not miss it. Jesus is looking through this parable, squarely into the face of the Sanhedrin, the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes, and he is saying this, "You are finished. Your day has come. Your day is over. The cornerstone is here." And they get this. They are not confused as to whether or not Jesus is speaking about them. Look at verse 19. In the middle of verse 19 it says this, "For they perceived that he had told this parable against them." And they were right. Jesus was telling this parable against them. And as we go back to chapter 9 and as we drop in, you'll notice that Jesus has been moving audiences. At the beginning of chapter 20 he's teaching and preaching to the people. Then as we get later on in those verses, he shifts over to the leadership. And now he shifts back to speaking to the people. So he's telling this parable to the people who are supposed to follow this leadership. So it's to them that he speaks the parable, but it's in the earshot of the leadership. Verse 9, "And he began to tell," notice, "the people." So Jesus is directing this to the people that were listening to him preach and teach. And he told the people this parable. And the parable is this, "A man planted a vineyard, let it out to tenants, went into another country for a long while." So we need to set the characters for the parable. Who is the vineyard planter? Who is the one who planted the vineyard? God is the vineyard planter. Who is the vineyard? The vineyard is Israel, his people. They have always been viewed with the image of a vineyard. Who are the tenant farmers? Who are supposed to take care of the vineyard for God? They are the Jewish leadership, the Sanhedrin, the chief priests, the scribes, and so forth. Who are the servants who come to speak for the owner? They are the prophets who come and speak for God throughout history to the Jewish leadership. Who is the beloved son? Well, the beloved son is the beloved son. The beloved son is Jesus himself. So these are the characters that are set for us. But what we need to understand is behind this parable, those who would have grown up going to synagogue, and those who would have grown up going to temple, would have already felt a reverberation with another passage that's just like this in the Old Testament that sets really the backdrop for us to understand the parable. So turn with me to Isaiah chapter 5. Isaiah chapter 5 is the backdrop for this particular parable. Jesus is drawing from Isaiah chapter 5, and he's doing a few different things with it. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 5, and you'll notice that Isaiah chapter 5 does not begin in judgment. It begins with a love song, a love song that God would sing over his people. But that turns quickly to judgment because his people, as we heard this morning, as Chris read in Jeremiah, his people have forsaken him for sisters that have no water in them. So Isaiah 5 says, "Let me sing for my beloved." My love song concerning his vineyard, God loves his vineyard. He sings over his vineyard, the people. 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 watch tower in the midst of it, and he hewed out a wine vat in it, and he looked for it to yield grapes. So God plants his vineyard, he tends to this vineyard, he sings over this vineyard, he expects grapes from this vineyard. But it yielded wild grapes. And verse 3, "And now, oh inhabitants of Jerusalem, men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. I attended to you. You produced wild grapes. Whose at fault, me or you, judge between us. What more was there for my vineyard that I have not done for it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I tell you what I will do with my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured. I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste, and it shall not be pruned or hodled, and briars and thorns shall grow up. I will also command the clouds that they reign upon it no more." So God says, "I looked for fruit from you as a vineyard, the people of God. What I found were wild grapes. I found wild grapes when there should have been good grapes. Therefore, I'm not taking care of you anymore. I'm not protecting you anymore. I'm not providing for you anymore. You're going to be on your own now, and we will see what happens when you are on your own. And for God to pull back from his vineyard is judgment, you see. That's what he's doing. And then verse 7 says, "The vineyard of the house of ... The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel." In other words, the vineyard are the people of God. And the men of Judah, his pleasant planting. Well, what's the problem? Well, look at what it says. "God looked for justice and behold bloodshed. He looked for righteousness and behold an outcry. What God was expecting to find as fruit from his people, he found the opposite of that fruit. And so because his vineyard was producing wild grapes, he was going to judge it. And so as we go back to Luke chapter 20, this is what is in the background of our parable. A judgment parable. And you'll notice that what Jesus says that God found in Isaiah 5, this is what Jesus is finding in Luke 20, where there should be justice. There is bloodshed as we're going to see. But I want you to notice a little bit of a difference between our passage and Isaiah 5. Isaiah 5 is certainly the backdrop. And what they share together is that they're both vineyard passages. God is the vineyard planter. And they're both judgment passages. It's clearly in our background. But I want you to notice the difference between Isaiah 5 and Luke 20. There are a couple of differences that are important. First, in our parable, the problem is not with the harvest. Our problem is with the tenant farmers. In Isaiah 5, the problem was with the grapes. Here, the grapes are fine. It's with those who are caring for the vineyard that God has a problem with. So the judgment is on the tenant farmers, not on the vineyard. That's really important for us to see. God is not saying through this parable, "I'm done with the vineyard." He's saying, "I'm done with those who are taking care of the vineyard." And I want to stop for a moment and just be pastoral for a moment. As we are in these passages, excuse me, I think it would be very easy because we are in a series of passages, I went down the wrong way, that are repeatedly about judgment. Judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment. And when we leave this parable, we're going to be entering into more passages that are about judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment. All the way up to the judgment of the cross of Jesus himself. And the danger for us as we're in this long stretch of Luke, the danger for your heart and the danger for your mind at this point in time is to have judgment fatigue. And can we just get on to some good news here? We are moving church towards the darkness of night when the whole demonic world is unleashed on this location here. We have to move through the darkness, and you have to be willing to move through the judgments here and take them in and see them for what they are with this God who means business so that you can be ravished by the light and ravished by the grace and ravished by the cross, you see. So don't go through these passages and get judgment fatigue. Enter into them for what they are saying to real people who Jesus is pronouncing real judgment on, and they will face the music because God keeps good in His word. And then recognize that this same judgment is something that actually you had earned with your life's track record until Jesus decided to take your track record and make it His and give you His track record instead. You see, judgment fatigue weakens our affection for Christ. So let that not happen here. So when you come to verse 10, the harvest time comes. The time came, and you'll notice at the end of verse 9, it says he went away for a long while. It takes about five years to cultivate a vineyard from the beginning to where you get your first fruit. And so after a long while, the time came for harvest and he sent his servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit from the vineyard, but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. So the harvest time comes. You'll notice that the owner does not want all of the grapes. It's very specific. The tenant farmers get to keep some. The owner wants some. Just make sense. Send his servant to receive some of the crop. The rest of the crop would be left there for the tenant farmers. But that's not what the tenant farmers had in mind. They had done the work. The vineyard owner is far away. So rather than give the fruit to the servant who came to take back fruit to the owner, they beat him. They beat him. They send a message to the vineyard owner that we're not complying with you. This is not your vineyard anymore. This is ours. And that word for beat here is the same word used in Luke 22 for when they pulled out Jesus' beard and they beat him. The beating begins here. That it's going to be given to Jesus later on. And so they beat him and they send him away. This is just like the temple, when the leadership was taking what belonged to God for themselves. Then in verse 11, we have a repeat with an escalation. You need to notice that every one of these times that a servant is sent, the tenant farmers do the same thing. They repeat, but they escalate. So verse 11 says, "And he sent another servant, but they also beat and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed." So the first guy in verse 10, they beat him and they send him away. The second guy that comes, they beat him and then they humiliate him. Now I was sharing with Jeff this week as I was studying this, that this word for shameful is used in Romans 1 for sodomy. So there's the possibility that they really treated this brother shamefully. Like, lot shamefully. So that might be hinted at here, and that's what the escalation would be. The first guy, they just beat him and sent away. This guy, we're going to beat him and we're going to humiliate and shame him publicly, and then they send him away empty-handed as well. And then in verse 12, they do the same thing again, but they escalate again. Verse 12 says, "And he sent yet a third." This is the one they also wounded, and that's where we get our Greek word. The Greek word there is what we get our English word for trauma. They dealt with this guy so bad, he was left traumatized, whatever they did to him. And it says, "They cast him out." The other ones, they sent away empty-handed. Get out of here empty-handed. This time, they not only shame this guy and traumatized this guy, they picked him up and they threw him out. So again, another escalation is taking place there. And this is really what we're told throughout the Scriptures on how it is that God's people had always treated the prophets who came to God's people looking for the harvest, pronouncing judgment and pronouncing blessing. These servants are God's mouthpieces to come and represent him and receive from the leadership what is due to God. But all throughout the history of Israel, God's people have always treated the prophets in the same way as they're being treated in this parable. And Jesus has already said this to us in Luke. Turn with me back to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11. Jesus has already said these things. Luke chapter 11 beginning in verse 47, "Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed." You see, you're just carrying on, Jesus said. He's telling the Jewish leaders that your fathers killed the prophets. You just carry on. You're carrying on the family name, the family business. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers for they killed them and you build their tombs. Therefore also the wisdom of God said, "I will send prophets and apostles. Some of whom they will kill and persecute so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation." This is what you've always done. I've always sent you my mouthpieces. I've always sent them to either try to bring a word of judgment to get you on the right track or a word of salvation and shalom to bless you with. And what do they do when they show up? You kill them. You kill them. You shed their blood because you don't want to hear from God. Turn over to chapter 13. Jesus says the same thing again. Chapter 13 verses 34 and 35. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. And I want you to notice how he describes the city and its leadership in verse 34 and 35 of chapter 13. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets. You're the prophet killing city. That's who you are. And in the parable, Jesus is just reminding them that they are full of bloodshed. They are prophet murderers. And every time God is sent one to awaken them, to reveal their sin to them, to reveal the way of salvation and the way back to Yahweh, they have cut it short and simply killed the prophet. So what will they then do to the Son? Turn back to chapter 20 and verse 13. After exhausting, sending the prophets, the owner of the vineyard said, "Maybe they'll listen if I send my own Son." Verse 13, "Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do?' I will send my beloved Son." Perhaps they will respect Him. I'm going to send the beloved Son. This, of course, like last week, takes us back to the baptism of Jesus. We're at the baptism of Jesus, God declared from heaven, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Jesus doesn't become the Son of God at the baptism. Jesus is declared to be what He always was, the eternal Son of the eternal Father. This is the Son of my love. This is an eternal relationship. This is my best word. This is the best thing I have, my most cherished Son, together in a communion, Father and Son, spiraling the Spirit together in an eternal communion that is there that we've always had together. Now my Son incarnate, I have given you the best of myself. I've given you the thing I love the most, my beloved Son, the Son of my love. And then at the Transfiguration, here is the Son of my love again, my beloved Son. Listen to Him. And of course He's going to die, but the echo here for us goes back to Genesis 22. Because there was another beloved Son that God asked something of. Genesis 22, "Abraham, Abraham, hear am I," He said, "Take your Son, your only Son, Isaac, whom you love." Take Abraham the Son of your love. And take him to the land of Moriah and offer him there is a burnt offering on one of the mountains in which I will show you. Abraham, Abraham, take the Son that you love and kill him. And offer him as a sacrifice to me. And as Abraham was raising the knife up, trusting that God would do something, either this side or that side of Isaac's death, the angel of the Lord, the Messiah Himself before the incarnation, the Son of God comes and stops the knife before it goes into Isaac. And there is a substitute ram found in the thicket that becomes a replacement and a substitute for Isaac. And as the angel of the Lord stops the knife at Isaac, he does not stop the knife at the ram. Because the one who is the angel of the Lord who stopped that knife would one day take on human flesh and become that ram. And when the Father went to put the knife down on him, the knife would go all the way. So you see what's happening here. Jesus is the greater Isaac who took the knife in the place of Isaac. What it means for him to be the Son of the Father's love is not simply that he's the eternal Son of God, is that he is the willing sacrifice for the sins of his people. You see, he's willing to take that knife and guess what mountain Jesus would be sacrificed on, the very mountain that Isaac was not sacrificed on, Mount Moriah, same physical location, same mountain, better Isaac. It's beautiful. Here, verse 13, we have the Father's true representative come to the vineyard with the Father's authority to the Father's property to claim the Father's due of which he is the Father's heir. What then will I do? I will send my beloved Son. Perhaps they will respect him. That word for respect there is actually a stronger word than that and it means perhaps they will be ashamed of themselves for how they've been acting. Perhaps finally they will be ashamed of what they've done to the other prophets. Perhaps when they see my Son they will recognize the way that they've treated me, the owner of the vineyard, and treated my servants. And they will be ashamed of themselves. Not so much. Verse 14, "But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.'" Not only are they not ashamed of what they've done to the prophets, they plan to put a scheme together to kill the heir and to kill the son. This should remind you of another Old Testament story with some brothers and a little brother. Here comes that dreamer, Joseph. Let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. And now here's Jesus' own brothers. Let us kill him and keep the inheritance for ourselves. You see, Jesus is the greater Joseph. He is the one who will experience what Joseph himself did not experience because he would go through death and come out on the other side. His brothers would actually kill him. But not only that, back in chapter 9, turn with me there, in verse 22, Jesus had already said that this is going to happen. Jesus had already prophesied that these men, this leadership, were going to act this way. Back in chapter 9, in verses 21 and 22, Jesus said this, He strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected." Watch this. "By the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised." Those three groups of men are the exact same men we're dealing with here in the temple. Scribes, elders, and chief priests. Jesus had already predicted that these men would reject him and that these men would kill him. And that's exactly what's happening in our parable. Jesus, the Son of, the Son who comes, is being rejected and he is being murdered and he is being killed and he is being cast out. And so verse 15 says, "And they threw him out of the vineyard and they killed him." So now the escalation goes all the way. All the other prophets are a precursor here and now they kill him and they cast him out. This is something of course that the writer of Hebrews, when the writer of Hebrews reflects on this, says linking the death of Jesus, the murder of Jesus, at the hands of those who murdered him and killed him, linking that to being outside the temple precincts and outside the city being cast out of the vineyard. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 13 says, "So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach that he endured." You see it was vital for Jesus to be crucified outside the city limits. It was vital for him to be thrown out of the vineyard. It was vital for that to take place because the importance of what was happening here is that everything that was going on at the temple was being judged, was being condemned, was being brought to an end. And Jesus was moving the temple over and all the sacrifices over and all the atonement over and everything over to himself, you see. And he was moving it outside the city because now we would go to him and to no longer to the temple. We don't go to the temple anymore. That is going to be done with. It's going to be judged and finalized because it's fulfilled its purpose in history. And now Jesus is coming. He's the cornerstone of a new temple. And so it begins outside and we go outside to him. And that is why all this nonsense of rebuilding another temple in Israel right now with sacrifices being restored again is so unbiblical. It drives me nuts. So there's a whole article in the World Magazine that came yesterday on this effort to move back in and people are planning and purposely raising money to rebuild the temple so that the sacrifices can start. Again, this is happening from the church. No. Jesus answered the whole purpose and reason for the temple and the sacrifices. He himself is the cornerstone of a new temple, which is the Jew Gentile Church together in which there are spiritual sacrifices offered. That's why he moved it outside the gates because this was no longer going to be the central place from which the world operates. Now it will move outside and ultimately to heaven is the place from which he operates from. In the words, "Let us not get caught up in the things that retard the word of God and move it backwards and take it away from Jesus." Jesus is the cornerstone. He is the beginning of the new temple of which we are a part of even now for us to think about going back to blood sacrifices and red heifers. All of this stuff that's going on, the dirt treat of red heifers again. All of that is a seeking obliteration of the whole book of Hebrews and the sacrifice of Christ. And if I get in trouble for this, like others have said before me, I get in trouble for this. Because I believe it to be so true. Anything that obscures the finality of Jesus Christ should be condemned. Verse 16, "What are they going to do with Jesus?" What is God going to do with those who are going to seek to destroy his son, to kill his son? Verse 16 says, "He will come and destroy those tenets and give the vineyard to others." It's over for this leadership, but notice it's not over for the vineyard. And notice that the judgment here is twofold. The judgment here is twofold. Number one, the tenant farmers themselves are the ones that are condemned. He will come and destroy those tenets. So the judgment and the condemnation and the destruction come on the tenants, not the vineyard. Notice secondly that the vineyard is not destroyed, the vineyard is handed off. The vineyard is transitioned to new leadership. Look at what he says. "He will come and destroy those tenets and give the vineyard to others." So the vineyard will remain, the tenant farmers will be the ones that are destroyed. And the vineyard will remain because it will be, it will transition into something new. He's going to give it to others. There will be new leadership, apostles, pastor, teachers, according to Ephesians 4. There will be new graphs onto the vine, Gentiles, Ephesians chapter 2. All of this is clear for us in Ephesians 2 and 4. The vineyard has a future because the vineyard has Jesus ultimately as the cornerstone. The vineyard has a future because it's being transitioned to that which is going to fulfill it. The old is going to be destroyed in AD 70. The new is going to come with Jesus himself, you see. But because this is all the people I've ever known, they respond and say, "No way. Look at the end of verse 16." When they heard this, they said, "Surely not." No, what, what, what, what, what? "Take it away from these guys, give them to someone new." It's not something they could even conceive in their minds because all they've ever known is this leadership. And they use phraseology here that Paul will use strongly in the book of Romans, "May it never be." These are like, "This can't be what you're saying and this parable can't be the case." And then look at what Jesus says, verse 17. "But he looked directly at them and said," Now don't let that go by you. He looked directly at them. Okay? "Don't let that go by." Have you ever as a father or a mother been just scanning things with respect to your children? And then all of a sudden, right, no one? All of a sudden, you get that look to your kids like they get it and you get it. Okay? What it says, Jesus looked directly at them. All right? That's the same word that's used when Peter denied Jesus the third time in the Gospel of Luke. And he looked up and it says after he had denied Jesus the third time, Jesus looked at him across the yard. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. This is no Jesus casually surveying these people who say, "May it never be." He looks right at them and says, "You better get what I'm about to say." Okay? And look at what he says. "But he looked directly at them and said this," What then is this written? Jesus says, "You all have to understand that this, everything that's happening, including the death of the son." Okay? All of this, all the judgment, all the death, all the death of the son, all of this has always been the plan. This is not new. This is not de novo. This is not coming out of nowhere. This has always been the plan. You know those Psalms that you sing? You know that Psalm that you just sang to me when I was on the donkey riding in, that Psalm 118? That very Psalm tells you that this whole parable of the vineyard has always been God's divine purpose and plan, including the death of the son. Look at what he says. "What then is this written? The stone that the builders rejected has become the corner stone." Notice what's in play here. Jesus says this. "That which is going to become the corner stone of the new temple, the new people, the new dwelling place of God, first has to be rejected. The rejection of the son of God as the new corner stone of the new temple must not be a surprise to us." It was prophesied. It was prophesied that the stone is going to be one that is rejected by the builders. They're going to reject this stone. And the builders here are the chief priests. This stone here is going to be rejected, but this stone that's rejected becomes the corner stone. This is the new promised temple, the fulfillment of the temple with a new promised leadership of which Jesus is the chief of. Jesus is the chief priest, the chief prophet, the king, and the chief shepherd of this new temple and dwelling place that's being built. And Jesus himself is the corner stone. And this is all to plan. It is not a surprise. Even the rejection of the stone itself has been folded in. And then Jesus closes with the R.C. Sproul, God means business thing. Even though this is built in, even though this is prophesied, this does not mean that these stone rejecters are off the hook when it comes to their responsibility. They are still responsible for their actions, even if their actions are unfolded in the prophecy. So how they treat the stone, they can't say, "Well, it was in Psalm 118 that we would do this. We're off the hook." No, they are simultaneously responsible for the actions that they had done, and it was simultaneously the purpose of God for those actions to be done. That's exactly what Peter says in the book of Acts. This Jesus was delivered up according to the predetermined plan of God. You crucified him. Which is it? Yes. It's yes. It's the same thing here. Verse 18, Jesus says, "If you don't relate to the corner stone by receiving him for who he is, you still will relate to the stone." It's just not going to be a good relation. In other words, everyone relates to the stone. Jesus either is the corner stone that you receive, and you become a part of the house that he's building. Or Jesus is the stone that's going to destroy you. Please understand that. But no one can opt out of a relationship to the stone. The stone either is your salvation, or the stone is your judgment. But no one decides to say, "I don't want to be a part of the stone's world." No. You either are a part of the stone or you get stoned. And I'm not talking about the modern euphemism for getting stoned. Because look at verse 18. Jesus is serious. Jesus is quoting Isaiah 8 and Daniel 2. And he says this, "Here's your options. Relate to the corner stone, or everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces. And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." So you have two options. Relate to the corner stone and become a part of what he's doing, which is building a new dwelling place for God. Or stumble over him because you won't receive him and you'll be broken to pieces. Or that rock falls on you and crushes you to pieces. Whether you stumble over it, or whether it falls on you, the stone judges you. Or you receive and become a part of what the stone is doing, which is being a part of the temple of God. There are only two options. Judgment or salvation. But there's no third way. There's no inescapable way. There's no way around the stone. On the day of true judgment on the final day, you will either be a living stone, united to Jesus the corner stone, or that stone will fall on you and crush you and you will stumble over it. There is no other way. So this morning, I exhort everyone in this room to remember that Jesus plays for keeps. And you will either have him on your side as Savior because he took the knife for you and you receive Christ's sacrifice for you, or you will have him against you as a stone that will destroy you. And so I exhort you this morning, as the gospel is being preached right now, flee to the Son who took the knife for you. Flee to the one who took the knife in your place so that you would not have to have the stone destroy you. He took the destruction for you by receiving the knife on the cross. And he rose from the dead conquering that very thing that would have killed you, which is sin. And so I exhort you to flee and to go to that corner stone and to be found in him, you see, rather than on that day to have that rock come down on you. But that day is coming and no one shall escape it. But what does that mean for us? What does that mean for us? I want to close with this. And I would really, I know it's hot in here. Hopefully I haven't gone long. But I would really, really love for all of you to take this in right now if you can. Get a second wind, perk up, pour your water bottle on your head, whatever you got to do. Pinch your neighbor, wake him up. Not necessarily Bonnie pinched the neighbor, but turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. In 1 Peter chapter 2, this is where all this parable comes home and includes us. See, well, what is my part in this? You have a huge part in this. You have a huge part in this. Everything that took place in that parable this morning is so that what's happening in 1 Peter 2 can take place. Everything that took place in the parable this morning happens so that what's happening in 1 Peter 2 can take place in 1 Peter 2 sweeps you in and sweeps me in and tells us what the result of this cornerstone being rejected is. 1 Peter chapter 2, as I read it, "Let this wash over you." So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. In other words, shut your mouth and then open it again for something else. Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Now watch this. This is our passage being fulfilled in our eyes in your life. As you come to Him, that's Jesus. As you come to Jesus, which I'm imploring you this morning, if you have not come to Jesus, come to Jesus now. As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men. But in the sight of God, He is chosen and precious. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For as it stands in Scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious. Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. Believe in the stone, believe in the cornerstone, believe in Jesus, trust in Christ. Come to Him, become a part of the house that He's building, the priesthood He's building. So you can offer your life as a sacrifice to Him. Verse 7, "So the honor of all of this, of being part of this house, it's an honor to be a part of the house of God." This honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you, this is you church, this is your identity, this is who you are, this is who Christ has made you to be. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. Every one of those was used of Israel in Exodus 19. You are the new Israel, the new vineyard, the new people. Why? His possession, why are you his possession? So that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. We exist to proclaim, sing, speak, read, write, produce, spread the excellencies of Jesus. That's why we exist. Once you were not a people, but now you're God's people. That's who you are. You're God's vineyard. You're God's people. You're His treasure. You had not received mercy at one time, but now you have received mercy. You see, we are the mercy. We together, along with the church of Jesus Christ, on earth, made up of Jew and Gentile, we are God's building. We are God's dwelling place. That is who we are. That is what our identity is. And we have a calling, and that's to spread the supremacy of Jesus Christ everywhere we go. And we do that because we are the mercied people who are now identified as a royal priesthood. I pray that today you would recognize this is who you are, and that Jesus suffered and died and rose again so that you could be this. You could be this, and you could be a part of this. And every Sunday, He gives us this table so that we can display, enact, receive, and participate in all that it means for Him to be the cornerstone, and in all that it means for us to be living stones. Amen? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I pray that something was able to get through today in the heat. I pray that Your Word would accomplish His divine purpose. I pray that we'd see You for who You are, and see us for who we are in relation to You, and that it would be transformative in every way. I pray this in Jesus' name, and amen. Let me make one comment about getting in trouble. My statement about a rebuilt temple and about renewed sacrifices have nothing to do with those people who are futurist or premillennial. It's only those who have a view of that that would take us back into the Old Testament, not those who have a premillennial view and actually don't have a place for the rebuilding of that stuff. So I just want to make sure they will understand that I was not going against the various orthodox views of the end, just one that I believe is a grave error. And if you need to talk with me about that, I'm more than happy to have you talk about that. Thank you.