Greeneville Seventh-day Adventist Church: Last week Pastor Kent covered the fruitless fig tree. And the week before that he covered the triumphal entry. These are also both in Matthew twenty one, and they set the stage for what we're talking about today. So I want you guys to recall to your your minds what was talked about in the past two sermons. They're both important for the message. Today. You see, when Jesus came in to Jerusalem He came in as the Messiah, showing himself to be the Messiah. And the people understood it. Pastor Kent made that very clear showing, you know, verse nine it says The multitudes that went before and followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. This is what Jesus experienced coming into Jerusalem. And then he cleansed the temple, cast out those who were selling there, overthrowed the money tables. And he said, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David, they rejoiced with them, right? No, it says they were sore displeased. And they said to him, Do you hear what these people are saying? They're calling you the son of David. They're calling you the Messiah. Rebuke them. Don't let them say that, right? And Jesus said, Yeah, have you never read? Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise. And he left them and went out of the city into Bethany and lodged there for the night. This sets the stage for what's coming later in in Matthew and also in the rest of this chapter. We see a conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. The people as a whole are accepting of Jesus as the Messiah. They're calling him the Messiah. They're they're welcoming him. Despite the fact that later they too, many of them will be part of the the people who are mocking to crucify him. And yet in this moment. Jesus is making a statement that he is the Messiah, he's cleansing the temple, and yet the religious leaders are refusing to acknowledge that. The religious leaders are displeased and they're challenging him. And that brings us to the fruitless fig tree. And I think this really sets the stage for the rest of the chapter. So I'm going to hit it one more time, like Pastor Kent did last week. He saw a fig tree in the way as he returned to the city, and he was hungry. So he came to it and found nothing on it but leaves. A fig tree has leaves when it has fruit. And so for a fig tree to have leaves and not fruit was abnormal. It wasn't time for figs yet, but the fact that this fig tree had leaves early meant that it should have had fruit early. It had All of the external appearances to have fruit, and yet no fruit. And so Jesus said to it, Let no thing grow on you henceforward for ever. And the fig tree withered away. And the disciples saw it and marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away? And Jesus uses this as an opportunity to teach on faith, but it's also a lesson on the Jewish nation. I believe Pastor Kent covered that as well. The Jewish nation as a whole were like the fig tree. They had this profession of being the people of God, the ones especially favored with a revelation of knowledge, the ones who would be favored with the Messiah to come to them first. who had profit after profit sent to direct them in the right path. And yet, as a nation, they were fruitless. Their profession had not led to any sort of spiritual fruitfulness. And this is where we pick up in verse 23. And so when Jesus came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him while he was teaching, and they confronted him. They said, By what authority do you these things? Do you do these things? And who gave you this authority? It's a r reasonable question, right? I mean, if someone came in and cast a bunch of people out of the temple and overthrew the money cha ta changers tables and cast out all all the animals. You'd have to why what authority do they have to do this, right? The questi the the question itself is not a problem. But the heart behind the question is their problem. If they were sincerely asking where this authority came from, I believe Jesus would have told them. But Jesus' answer is very telling. Jesus said to them, I will also ask you one thing, and if you tell me, I will likewise tell you by what authority I do these things. Pretty straightforward. The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven. Or from men. Jesus is saying, John the Baptist, my forerunner, right? The one who was preparing the way for the Lord, was his ministry and his message divinely ordained, or was he just doing his own thing? Was he just a man? Was it from heaven or was it from man? And you see the the the reasoning of the religious leaders tells everything. They say here, they reasoned with themselves. Saying, if we shall say from heaven, he will say to us, Why did you not believe him? But if we shall say from men, we fear the people, because they hold him to be a prophet. Isn't that interesting? The religious leaders are at such a point of self delusion that when asked a simple question, instead of just answering it, Based on what is true, they have to reason within themselves. If I answer this way, this is gonna be the consequences. And if I answer this way, this is gonna be the consequences. You see, they're depending their answer upon the reaction. Because they're hypocrites. They didn't think John was a prophet. They didn't think it was from God. But they feared the people, and so if they actually said what what they believed was true that he wasn't from God, well then they're gonna lose their standing with the people and they don't want that, right? And so they say We don't know. And so Jesus said, Well, then I can't tell you either. Because it's the same reasoning. If Jesus were to say, Well, yeah, I'm from God. The Lord sent me. They're gonna reject him just like they rejected John, right? They're gonna be like, you blasphemer. But if he said from men, then Jesus is lying. And they would say, Well then why are you doing this? if you're just from men? The Pharisees themselves, the religious leaders, had set themselves up to reject the Messiah by rejecting light after light after light. Because they rejected John, they were more likely to reject Jesus. And they rejected Jesus early in his ministry, they rejected him later in his ministry, and now when he's having his triumphal entry, and the signs are all around them that he is sent from God. They can't even see it. And they ask him, By what authority do you do this? When it was very clear, By what authority he did these things. And so Somewhere along the way, their religious leadership, their stewardship of God's people, God's church, you could say, had turned into ownership. They went from stewards to being owners of their own will, their own ways, to the point that they just rejected the Messiah again and again and again. They were moulding themselves to the expectations of the people to maintain power and authority over them. John confronted them about their sins, about their need for repentance, and they rejected John as some lunatic in the wilderness. And now Jesus has been showing them their sins, calling them whitewashed sepulchres and hypocrites and all sorts of things, and they reject Jesus too. And that same danger exists for us today. And that's what this passage is about. So to answer them, to help them to see past their their thick blindness, he gives them two parables. The first parable starts in verse twenty eight. What do you think? A certain man had two children, two sons. He came to the first one and he said, My son, go to work today in my vineyard. And the first son said, No. I will not. I don't know about you, I don't know how you guys were raised. If I said that to my dad, mercy, I would have been in trouble. My dad said, I want you to go do this and I said, No. Boy, that would be the last thing I said for a while. But afterward he repented and he went. You see, Jesus is making it very clear. This person's not in the right. It's disrespectful, it's dishonorable, it's punishable to disrespect and dishonor your father like that. And defiant to obey to disobey a direct commandment like that. But at the end of the day, when all was said and done, he repented and he did it. He changed his mind. But then there came a second son, right? And the father said the same thing. Go work in my vineyard today. And the son answered, I go, I'm on my way. I'll head there right now. But yet he didn't go. He never went. And so which of the two of them This is a really interesting question, right? That Jesus poses at the end of the day. He didn't say which one was wrong. He didn't say which one sounded better. He said at the end of the day, which one of them did the Father's will? And they said to him the first And so then Jesus puts it straight to them. And so truly I tell you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. The harlots, the publicans, the sinners these are the people who with their life had said no to God, right? God gives them commandments, a way of life, to a rule to live by, and they say, No, I don't want that. I'm gonna live my way. I'm gonna do what I want, right? They rejected God's offer. But yet in due time When they realized the error of their ways, when the message of John came calling them to repentance, they repented, right? And they went, and they they gave their lives to God and they followed the Lord. And yet the second son said he was gonna go, right? The the the Pharisees, the scribes, the leaders, the whole time they had claimed to be faithful to God, right? The ones expounding the scriptures and and the ones who were above all people blessed and honored, and and the other people brother. Not not someone to be to be given any any chance. They're they're obviously not gonna be in heaven because they are less than us. These people are the ones that never actually went, never actually surrendered their lives to God, never actually came to the point where they did the Father's will. John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the publicans and the harlots believed him, and when you saw this you did not repent afterwards, that you too might believe in him. You see, profession is not the same as submission. The lives of the scribes and Pharisees make us very clear all throughout the gospels. Time and time again, we see that it's the people who had the highest profession of faith, the highest righteousness on the outside, the ones who tithed most scrupulously and and did all the right rituals. They were the ones who were the most hard hearted, stubborn. Difficult to get to. Most clear rejectors of Jesus. Does that not scare you guys? 'Cause here we are today, right? In a church, listening to a sermon from God's word, sitting in the right church on the right day, doing all the right stuff, right? Maybe you you keep all the all the externals just perfectly, right? And you're not like one of those people who said no to God with their lives and who went out and did all sorts of drugs and drinking and partying and and gambling. But at the end of the day. Are you doing the father's will? Or are you having a high profession with no real submission? The question is not what you say or what you show with your life externally, but at the end of the day who does the will of the Father. Repentant obedience, a messy life that gives itself to God, is better than an empty profession. And so this is our danger, being in the church. It's very possible to become good at saying yes to God externally. To knowing how to say all the right things and just to to make your prayer sound really good and and to show off without showing off and to be you know, checking all the boxes. You know, I read my Bible this morning and I prayed, and you know, I'm doing great. Haven't eaten cheese in three weeks, and you know, so I'm doing really good, right? Better than those guys. But Jesus is showing us here that that's a totally wrong mindset. Who has your heart? Are you actually in the vineyard? Are you going or are you not going? Are you obeying or are you not obeying? And then he tells another parable. This parable even worse. Here another parable. There was a certain householder. He planted a vineyard, and he hedged it round about, he dug a wine press in it, he built a tower, and then he lent it out to husbandmen, to stewards, to tenants, and he went off into a far country. And when the time of fruit drew near, he sent His servants to the husbandmen. that he might receive his fruits. That's a pretty reasonable thing, right? I put a lot of effort into this vineyard, make it really nice, tell some people to look over it, and when it's time for harvest, I want some of the fruit, right? It's pretty straightforward. Nothing wrong there. But then what happens? The husbandman took his servants and beat one of them, killed another one, and stoned another. And again, he sent more servants than the first, and they did to them the same. I had to wrestle with this. I was like What had to be going on in their heads? The point that they're gonna beat and kill these servants. I it took me a minute. I'm like, just just logically speaking, what scenario does this make any sense? Like, Blyn's been building a house, right? I'm gonna call you out. And if let's say Blyn hires me to help build his house, right, and I'm I'm doing the construction, I'm putting up the drywall and and all this kind of stuff, and the time comes for the house to be ready to be sold. And the t the the the people come to look at the house and I run them off with a shotgun. I say, This is my house now. Isn't that crazy? You'd think something was wrong with me. And so eventually Blenn's gonna come and be like, What's going on? Right? Because I basically just took his house from him because I started building it. Maybe I helped out a little bit, right? And I got a little a little hot headed or something. This is it I'm trying to understand where they're coming from, but this is what Jesus says. Is happening with his people. He's saying, I'm I planted the vineyard. I'm the one who hedged it. I'm the one who dug a wine press. I built the tower. You're just my stewards. And yet now you want to come kill all my servants? Why? I can't help but think because they wanted to do what they wanted to do with the vineyard. They didn't want to be stewards, they wanted to be owners. And that's really scary, right? Because how often are we like that? Aren't we stewards too? We might not have a vineyard, but God's given us this life. And yet we live like it belongs to us. God's given us all the time, and yet we spend the time like we want to spend it. He gives us money and yet we bicker about how much we have to give back to him. He gives us truth and we guard it to ourselves and act like we're better because we have more knowledge instead of using it to benefit other people. You see, stewardship is really dangerous when we forget that we're stewards. It becomes really bad when we forget that we're accountable to the one whose steward we are. And there's a statement in Christ's object lessons, page 296. That should make us even more scared. It says, the church in this generation, in the present day, in the last days before Jesus comes, has been endowed by God with great privileges and blessings. Don't we have great privileges and blessings? More than any previous generation, I believe we are blessed. We have so many things to be grateful for. And then it says, and he expects corresponding returns. Because we have more blessings, there's more required of us. Is that what the Bible says? To whom much is given, much is required. And yet sometimes we think to whom much is given must be a much much exalted person, right? That's not what the Bible says. God has entrusted us with a knowledge of Scripture. He's entrusted us with His church, with beautiful truths, with schools and institutions and resources, with a community around us that needs a knowledge of Him. And these things sometimes we act like the husbandmen trying to take it as our own and use it for our benefits rather than being stewards of the trusts that God has given us. The question that Jesus is indirectly seeing showing in this beginning is it's not how impressive is my vineyard? It's not look at all the fruit that's being produced, but it's what are the stewards doing with what's been entrusted to them. The owner just wanted some fruit. And now he's got a bunch of dead servants. The vineyard is not ours. And what are we doing in it? How are we behaving with God's precious possessions? And yet that's not even the climax of this story. Verse thirty six or thirty seven Last of all he sent them his son, saying, Surely they will reverence my son. Right? You'd think so. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and seize the inheritance. Isn't that wild? First problem I have with this is what makes you think killing the son's gonna give you the inheritance? It's not your inheritance to killing the son's not gonna give you the inheritance. It's gonna give you a descendants. But they are so greedy here, so selfish that they can't even see the end of their actions. And how much are we like that, right? Because we know the Bible. We know what it says at the end, right? I'll read it if you don't know. Let's read it real quick. It says, He that overcomes shall inherit all things. Revelation 21:7. I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the whoremongers, the sorcerers, and the idolaters, and every liar shall have their part in the lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. That's the end of the book. And yet somehow, sometimes we get so blinded by our selfishness, in the present moment, we think, man, if I just do this thing, I'll get the inheritance and I'm gonna have a great life. If I just kill the sun, right? And every time we sin, isn't that what we do? We trample on Jesus afresh. And yet in our blindness, we think that that's gonna do something good for us. To kill the son afresh and take the possessions for ourselves and indulge our selfish. Greedy desires. It's insane. That's not logical at all. They said, This is the heir, let's kill him. They caught him, they cast him out of the vineyard, and they slew him. How do you think that made the owner of the vineyard feel? Can't imagine. What did the owner of the vineyard do wrong? Nothing. He just wanted some grapes. He did everything right. The only thing he did wrong is he picked the wrong husbandmen. He picked the wrong tenants, right? He picked the wrong stewards. And that's exactly how it is with us, right? He's entrusted the final message to a dying world to a bunch of sinners. But why does he do it? Because he loves us, because he has high expectations of us, high hopes for us. Because he knows that we can do great things by his grace. I believe that, don't you believe that? God would not have put us in possession of this vineyard to steward it if he did not think that we could do it. And yet too often we can be like these husbandmen, blinded by pride and selfishness, that leads us to do with it as we want. Regardless of the consequences, regardless of who we hurt in our way. Everything depends on how we treat the sun. And every time we reject God, every time we are unwilling to do his will and follow his guidance, it's just as if we took his son and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. Because we don't want him ruling our lives, telling us what to do with our vineyard. This is exposing the selfish human heart. And this is exactly what was going to happen to Jesus. In a couple of days, these same leaders that he's telling this parable to are gonna catch Jesus while he's in a garden, gonna beat him, mock him and scourge him, give false accusations against him, cast him out of the city, on a hill, on a cross, and slay him. And it's foolish of us to think in our hearts, I would never do that. I could never be like those guys. They were sinners, but not me. It's foolish of us to think that. You are just one bad decision away from being in that spot. And I think it does well for each of us to think in those terms, to understand that you are just one bad set of circumstances away from being a murderer. You're one bad set of circumstances away from being a thief. A liar, you name it, without the grace of God, we're all sinners. And you could have just as well been one of those leaders who crucified Jesus right after he called you out. And we need to be mindful of that. Because we don't have we don't have a good message for us either. Remember in Revelation three, it talks about us. Says I know your works, you're not cold or hot, and I wish you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm and not cold or hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. Because you say you're rich and increase with goods and have need of nothing. You think you own the vineyard. But you don't know that you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. And yet he doesn't leave us there, does he? But we need to receive his counsel, don't we? I counsel you to buy from me gold, tried in the fire, that you can be rich, and white raiment, so that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear. And anoint your eyes with Ayesav that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. See this is our danger just as it was theirs. But then the question comes, a very scary question, verse forty When the Lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those husbandmen? Good question. And they themselves say He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and he will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, who will give him the fruit in their due season. They condemn themselves. But it's a reasonable conclusion. Anyone could come to that conclusion. If God has made me a steward of his blessings and his resources and I am unfaithful to my stewardship, why would God continue to make me a steward? And so Jesus closes this parable. Did you never read in the scriptures that the stone which the builders rejected the same is become the head of the corner, the cornerstone? This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth fruits. And we see this happen in the book of Acts, right? The Jewish nation rejected Jesus, they crucified him, and Jesus took the gospel from them, they took the blessings from them, and they gave it to the Gentiles. And they rendered fruit. Now Christianity is all over the place because it was given to faithful stewards. And then verse forty four. Is a testing question for each one of us. This cornerstone Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder. Doesn't sound like a good option. Neither one of those sounds like a good option, does it? Do you want to be broken? I don't wanna be broken naturally, right? That's not fun. I've had one broken bone and I don't want to do it again. It hurts. But I'd much rather be broken than ground to powder. There's no coming back from that. Broken bones can heal. But being ground to powder, I don't think they're coming back from that. And that's the message that Jesus is trying to say. If you fall on the rock and are broken, if you humble yourself and fall down in brokenness before me, you'll be broken, but I can heal you. But if you persist in your stubborn rebellion and your selfishness and being the God of your own life, when I come, I'm gonna grind you to powder. Isn't that a heavy message? But that's what each one of us has to face. An indecision is a decision. And yet The scariest part of this whole message to me, and hopefully for you too, is verse forty five. When the chief priests and Pharisees heard these parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because they took him for a prophet. This blows my mind. And it should be a very big warning to each one of us about the deceitfulness of sin and the danger of resisting the Holy Spirit. Because they knew, they perceived that Jesus was talking about them, and it was not good words. The first one, which one did the will of the Father? The one who rep who did evil and repented and did good, or the one who said good and never did it at all? And he said, John came to you and you didn't believe him. And then another one saying, There's these wicked husbandmen and they killed all this guy's servants and then they k they're gonna kill his son. What should he do to him? the he should kill all. Great. And you want you're gonna kill me. It says they wanted to lay hands on him. They were literally about to fulfill this prophecy. Right in front of Jesus' eyes, and the only reason they did it is because they feared the people. That should be scary to to you and me. Because how often can we sit right here and listen to these sermons and be like, Man, that's really calling me out? Man, yep, Jesus is talking about me. And yet go and do it again. Anyways. Still want to lay hands on Jesus again and throw him out of our lives. And yet in the church, the only thing that keeps us from that sometimes is fear of the people, reputation, right? That's something that is on both sides of this passage. Verse 26, if we said John comes from men, we fear the people. They didn't do what they wanted to because of fear of the people. And in the end, they didn't do what they really wanted to do because of fear of the people. The only thing that kept them from expressing their inner heart was an external. Desire to be seen good, right? And that is exactly what it is for the hypocrite, for the one who's not right with God in the heart. On in the inside, they want to crucify him afresh, right? On the inside, they want to say, No, psh, he's from the world. We don't we didn't accept him because he wasn't a prophet. But they don't do externally what their heart says internally because they fear how it'll make them see, be seen. And that is a dangerous thing. To be in, a dangerous position to be in. And it's especially a danger for us as Christians. Well, you know, I really, I really want, you know. Say, I really want to smoke a cigarette, but you know I can't do that. The church members will smell it on me. If that's your mindset, there's a bigger problem, right? It's not about whether or not the church members smell it on you. Please, Lord, let them smell it on you, because then maybe they'll confront you in love and we'll get to the heart issue, right? The church is not supposed to be something that. just externally restrains you from doing what you want to do. It's a place where you come and get changed in the heart. And that's what we need. And that's the message here. Jesus is saying, guys, you are on the verge of rejecting me. And yet you have a chance. He gives them there's still a couple more chapters before this is over. And he makes some really big appeals to them. He has some very strong words that we'll get to. But time and time again he's pleading with them, with us. Don't be hypocrites. Don't let your externals deceive you into thinking that everything is okay on the inside. Jesus does not just want fruit. He wants us. He wants our hearts. He wants our lives. What does the Lord require of you but to love Him with all your heart and to keep His commandments. To walk in His ways. And that's the message here. Is there's a very real danger that we will have a strong profession without Really possessing the sun. And that if we persist in that, our end does not look good. And so each one of us needs to choose today, to wrestle with our hearts and say, Am I willing to fall on the rock and be broken? When I perceive that this message is speaking about me, do I want to lay hands on him or do I want to fall at his feet in repentance? How many of you guys are with willing to say with me today, Jesus, this vineyard, it belongs to you? I belong to you. Everything belongs to you. Lord, forgive me for my unfaithful stewardship. And Lord, help me to do your will. Help me to be faithful. And produce fruit in my life. If that's your will, I ask that you raise your hand with me. Let's pray. Father, Lord, please help us. Each one of us we're sinners in need of a savior. We fall short of your glory time and time again. We make mistakes. We make intentional errors. We're broken, Lord, but sometimes we allow the busyness of life or the lusts of the world, the distractions. The deceptions of the enemy, whatever it may be, to crowd our lives and just trick us enough into thinking that we are all right. We're good enough for later and we'll we'll take care of the rest some point in the future. I'm better than someone else. At least I do this or don't do that. But Lord, please break through all those walls, all those deceptions, all the distractions. And help each one of us in our hearts to know of a surety. If everything that we have in R belongs to you or not. Open our hearts and open our minds to see us, to see ourselves as you see us, and not only, Lord, to see, but to do what needs to be done about it. Help each of us to fall on the rock and be broken for you. That there be nothing between our souls and our Savior, and that we may go to work in your vineyard faithfully, because truly time is short, and the night is coming when no one can work. This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.