Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1951
“Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those vinedressers said among themselves, This is the heir, come, let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What shall, therefore, the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and will give the vineyard unto others.” Mark 12:6-9.
BROTHERS AND SISTERS, you know the story of God’s dealing with Israel and Israel’s dealing with God. The Lord chose their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He made them a race separated unto Himself; He brought them out of Egypt from under the iron yoke; He led them through the Red Sea; He fed them for 40 years in the wilderness. He led them about and tutored them, even as a man teaches His son. In due time He brought them into the land which flows with milk and honey and He put them under a dispensation eminently gentle and full of tenderness where, as a nation, they might enjoy unbroken prosperity, “sitting every man under his vine and under his fig tree, none making them afraid.” All that He required of them was that He should be their God and that they should put no idols in His place, but should obey His statutes.
Alas, from the first, they copied the nations among whom they dwelt—they set up the gods of Egypt when they were in the wilderness and, in Canaan, they went astray after the polluted deities of the nations. They worshipped defiled gods with obscene rites—they even passed their children through the fire to Moloch—and did horrible things which angered the Most High. In His long-suffering, He sent them Prophets one after another—Prophets who received unworthy treatment at their hands whenever they rebuked their sins. The Prophets were derided, persecuted and even slain with the sword. God, in great patience, sent them more of His messengers, some of them grandly eloquent, like Isaiah and Ezekiel; others of them full of tears, like Jeremiah, or clothed with dignity, like Daniel. They warned the people and ceased not to plead with them, whether they would hear or whether they would forbear. Cruel treatment awaited many of the servants of the Lord—they were stoned, they were sawn asunder.
Israel rejected the servants that came from the great Householder asking for the rent of His vineyard. They repudiated the claims of God and cast off allegiance to Him with contempt and disdain until, at last, the nation was led into captivity and, in the end, only lingered on the chosen soil as a mere remnant. Judah wept upon the dunghill—whereas before she was adorned with bridal ornaments and sat upon the throne! The adversary ruled in the halls of David, for the days of Herod, the Idumaean tyrant, had come. The Roman yoke was heavy upon the people—their sins had brought them low. God, in His infinite compassion, gave them one more opportunity. He had one Son, His well-beloved Son, and He sent Him to His Israel. With lips that dropped mercy and with eyes that overflowed with tenderness, He came. “Oh, that you had known,” He said, “even you, in this your day”! He wept over the city which would not be saved. But His warning and His weeping were lost upon the blinded people. Those who had rejected the Prophets also rejected the Lord! The fate of the servants was repeated in “the Heir.” “Let us kill Him,” they said, and they put Him to the death of the Cross.
You know the story—it is full of infinite mercy on God’s part and of immeasurable guilt on the part of man. God seemed to out-do Himself in His long-suffering and man seemed to out-do himself in his wanton defiance of the Most High! Sin culminated in the murder of the Son of God—it reached its utmost height of horror when the cry was heard, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Yes, they crucified the Lord of Glory!
What has this to do with us? I am not going to preach this morning merely to rehearse a piece of ancient history which has no bearing on today. I do not so regard the death of our Lord. My anxiety is to reach the consciences of living men and, if possible, to win to the Blessed Heir of all things, who has risen from the dead, some of those who have had a share in His death. I would bring to the Great Householder the fruits of the vineyard which He, Himself, has planted, and I would move many hearts to relent towards Him at the remembrance of the wicked injuries which have been done to His servants and to His Son. May the Spirit of God silently move over this audience at this time, as I try to use this passage, not in its strictest application, but with such an application as I am sure the Spirit of God will approve! May He bless the Savior’s Word to present uses, that we may this day repent!
The fact is that unless changed by Divine Grace, we have all refused to pay to our great God the service which is due Him. He has put us here and given us this life, like a vineyard, for us to cultivate, but many have cultivated that vineyard entirely for themselves—themselves or their families and friends—and not for their God, their Maker. “God is not in all their thoughts.” Now, the Lord has sent to such, many messengers. We have had no Prophets in these days living among us, but we have the Word of God and the record of the testimonies of His Inspired Messengers and these virtually speak to us. We have Moses and the Prophets—they are speaking to us even now. Besides that, we have been surrounded by men of God and encompassed by holy women who have appealed to us on God’s behalf. They have been urged to speak by the love of their hearts and they have tried to bring us to repent of past rebellion and to yield ourselves at once to God. Many are the voices around us and within us which persuade to render unto the great Householder His due—but in many cases none of these have been successful.