Eight Days that Changed the World – Tuesday
Matthew chapter 21. Let’s break in at verse 33. Matthew 21 and verse 33. The Lord Jesus is the speaker. Hear another parable. There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a winepress in it and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went into a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.
Jesus saith unto them, did you never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, It is interesting that that’s the plural word. There is a previous parable in which the Lord Jesus .
By presenting simple facts, caused these enemies to pronounce their own verdict of being guilty. Now, in this parable, he actually got them to pass sentence by what he said. They realized that the parables were spoken about them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because they took him for a prophet.
Now, that was a lengthy reading, but if you will bear with it. I want to read the parable in the next chapter. Chapter 22. Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready, come unto the marriage. But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. And the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all, as many as they found both bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment.
And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.
Now we’re looking at the Tuesday in the last week of the Lord Jesus prior to Calvary, and so much took place on this day in the Lord’s life that it is impossible to consider even a quarter of the significant events. To any gospel preacher, today’s topics provide something of an embarrassment of riches. There’s so much that we could look at, and I hardly knew what to emphasize from such a wealth of information that the Word of God provides to us. Just understand that in the Lord’s incredibly busy life. This was an incredibly busy day. It was a day filled with teaching, including the third of his public discourses. The first, you know, is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five to seven. The second was the Sermon by the Sea in Matthew chapter 13. And this day in chapters 24 and 25, what is called the Olivet Discourse was delivered because the Lord spoke much of it in proximity to the Mount of Olives. But a lot more took place on this day.
This is the day that he explained about the fig tree’s barrenness as they passed it in the morning, coming back from Bethany to Jerusalem. This is the day that he told the parable of the two sons that we didn’t read, the parable about the heir of the vineyard that we did read, and the parable about the marriage supper. This is the day when he faced verbal attacks from Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. And by the way, this was the very time, tomorrow is the Passover, as you know, this is the very time when Israel would be examining the lamb to make sure that it was without blemish and without spot. And this is the period where the Lord Jesus presents himself to the rulers in Jerusalem, and they do everything they can to try to find some blemish, and they are unable to do it. This is the day that he asked the all-important question, what think ye of Christ? This is the day that he pronounced solemn woes on the hypocritical leaders. In chapter 23, he called attention to the widow’s two mites. He gave, as I said, the lengthy Olivet at this course. And then finally, in the evening, he went out to Bethany.
With an eye to how short the time is for this meeting and realizing how important your time is. I’ve chosen just three things to look at. And if we don’t have time to finish them, I will make sure that I finish on time, if not earlier. They’re easily remembered. I’m not a fan of alliteration, but it does help me to remember these when I think about the three topics that we want to look at. I want you to think about the master’s son. In chapter 21. He sent his son to the husbandman. I want you to think about the marriage supper in chapter 22, where the Lord Jesus presents the gospel and salvation under the imagery of a huge feast, a supper being given by a king for his son because of a marriage. And then I want you to think about the mighty sovereign in chapter 25, and I did not take the time to read those verses.
So here is the parable then about this vineyard and in telling this parable the lord jesus presents himself as the beloved son of the father being sent it is interesting to me that in the previous parable he used the same thing the idea of a son in that case two sons to speak about us, and you remember those two sons a father comes to his first son and he says to him go work today in my vineyard, and the boy is openly defiant. And he says, I will not go. He goes to the second son, go work today in my vineyard. And the son says, sure, I’ll go.
Now, at that point, neither of them intended to go. The boy who was defying his father fully intended to not go. The boy that said so glibly to his father, sure, I’ll go, fully intended not to go. We know that when the Lord Jesus concludes the parable and he says that that one son repented, he repented, he changed his mind and he went. But the Lord Jesus doesn’t say that the other son repented and didn’t go because he never intended to go. So the Lord Jesus was showing us something that again and again, he reminded us about. And that is while we all sin differently, we are all sinners. And when you look at these two boys, there’s only one thing that made a difference. This boy is saying, sure, dad, I’ll do what you want me to do and never intends to do it. This son is defying his father verbally. I will not go. But in the final analysis, the only difference between those two boys was that one repented and one did not. Now, it is the Lord Jesus who reminded us about the importance of repentance. He said, except you repent, you will perish. Those are fairly blunt words. If you do not repent, you will perish.
The disciples and the apostles preach the same thing. Paul says, I preach repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith in Christ is the only way that a human being can be saved. Do you have a moment in your life when you repented, when your mind was changed? I don’t think I will ever forget the night, as long as reason is working, the night that God brought me to repentance. I came into a gospel meeting like this. I had no thought in my mind about being saved. I had no intention of getting salvation. Mr. Tommy Thompson from Alaska was speaking that night. I have no idea what he spoke on. I have no idea any verses he quoted. I do not know his points. All I know is that at some point in that meeting, the word of God changed my mind.
The word of God in the hand of the spirit of God changed my mind. When I came into that meeting, my thoughts were one thing. When I left the meeting, what I thought about myself, what I thought about life, what I thought about sin, what I thought about the importance of salvation, all of that had changed, within the space of less than an hour as my mind had been changed by the truth of the word of God. Instead of my thinking that life’s purpose was to have all the fun possible, I was just a teenager, but instead of thinking that, I realized that life had one great, overwhelming, all-important purpose to it, that in that lifetime.
I obtained the remedy for my sins so that instead of perishing, I could be with God in heaven. Instead of imagining that I was not as bad as others, I left the meeting realizing that I was a sinner moving every moment relentlessly and inexorably to an eternal judgment in hell and the lake of fire. It’s God that changed my mind about that. Instead of my thinking that salvation was something to be looked for and sought for later in life, I left that meeting with just one thought in my mind. Oh God, how can I get salvation tonight? How can I be sure? Where am I going to be in eternity if I don’t find Christ tonight? So I would like to ask you again, is there a time in your life when you were turned? Because we all think wrong to begin with.
Every one of us thinks wrong to begin with. And there has to be a moment where the word of God changes your mind and turns you to God and to Christ. But in this parable, when the Lord Jesus speaks about the master’s son, our attention is turned to Christ. To his majesty, because he is, in the parable, he’s presented as the father’s unique son.
Here are the words, having yet therefore one son. So the father, the owner of the vineyard has just one son. Similarly, although God has many children, although God has many sons and daughters, he only has one unique son, his eternal son, the Lord Jesus. No new person came into existence when Christ was incarnated, conceived, and born. No new person came into existence because he had existed eternally, but a new human being came into existence. And the Lord Jesus came in order to provide the remedy for our sins. You notice, please, that in the parable, this one son, this unique son, is described as being the well-beloved of his father. Remember how John chapter three ends? Verse 35 tells us the father loves the son and has put everything into his hand. Again and again, the Lord Jesus spoke about this. He reminded the disciples that the father had loved them before the foundation of the world. And he used those words in prayer to his father. This is the son that God loved. And just as the owner of the vineyard sent his son into a scene of danger and violence.
God sent his son into a world of murderous malice and violence. Notice, please, then Christ’s mission. The language of the parable is that the father sent his son, last of all, to these violent workers. They had beaten servants. They had killed some servants who had been sent. Last of all, he sends his son.
Do you know that in the past, God used prophets? He spoke through human beings?
But then there came a moment where angels announced to shepherds at Bethlehem, until you was born this day in the city of David, not a prophet, not a mere messenger, until you was born this day in the city of David, a Savior, Christ the Lord, and God’s Son had come into the world. And he came into a world that was teeming with violence and opposition to heaven’s rule. He came into a world that had been commandeered and was controlled by Satan. He came into a world that was roiling and seething with animosity and with hatred against God. And yet into that world he came. Just as that son goes into a vineyard where there are men who are going to murder him, the Lord Jesus came into a world that hated him. He is the one who said, they hated me without a cause. They hated me without a cause. Not enough just to ignore him or neglect him or even to reject him, but to actually feel hatred in human hearts because the Lord Jesus was the light. He was the perfect one. And his life and his words were a constant rebuke to sinners. Notice that in the parable, the father, this is wishful thinking, the father says, they will reverence my son. This was the thinking of the father in the parable because he was just a man like you and I, you and me. But God knew everything that was going to happen when he sent his son.
That’s what elevates this whole message of the gospel of everything else you could ever hear. God willingly sending his son to die. Christ obediently, willingly coming into the world to die for that very purpose and to do so for you.
All of that accomplished at Calvary in these words, come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours. When they said, let us kill him, they knew who he was. This is the heir. I wonder if there’s some intimation in there that the leaders of the Jews knew exactly who this was.
But they had no desire for a Messiah like this. this is the heir. Come, let us kill him. I think the Lord Jesus is laying bare for us the sinfulness of the human heart, because it is showing what we did to the Lord Jesus is showing what human beings would do to God if they could just reach him. We would pull him from his throne if we could, but we couldn’t reach him. So the hatred of sinful men lashed out at the lord jesus this is the heir come let us kill him but notice please their logic, if they killed him the inheritance will be ours you see greed and envy and self-will were involved, in the murder of the lord jesus because they did not want him to upset their position of power. So now let me sum up for you, because this is extremely important. This is Christ’s meaning in this parable. The Lord Jesus knew that he was going to die. That’s the very purpose he had in coming. When a baby is born, the parents’ hopes are that the child will live. There’s one person who came into the world who never had to die, never had to die. He was not mortal in the sense of having to die.
He only accepted the ability to die if he chose to. And they determined to murder him. In the parable, neither the father nor the son would have been involved if they knew that the son was going to be killed. But God knew. God knew what would happen to the Lord Jesus. But he so loved the world that he was sacrificing his only son so that sinners could be saved. Christ knew. And he gave himself at Calvary so that you could be saved from your sins, so that you would not have to go to hell and to the lake of fire. He willingly allowed himself to be nailed to the cross and he willingly laid down his life. On a May day in the year 2008, In Louisiana.
A young woman took her children to meet her former boyfriend, father of the children, at a park. According to the East Baton Rouge police, that former husband and his new girlfriend lured that woman and her children into the bushes. There are children here. I’m trying to be very careful. He had brought with him a baseball bat and a knife, and he used those implements to kill his former girlfriend. He used the knife against a four-year-old daughter named Lindsay, his daughter, a three-year-old son named Juan. And then they just ignored, they left the seven-month-old baby, Robin. They left them to die.
Seven-month-old Robin did not die. She did not die because four-year-old Lindsay did not die. Her father had missed the jugular. She was hurt, but not mortally. Somehow she was able to stop her bleeding. She was terrified. She picked up her little baby brother, held him, all night. in those bushes where there were venomous snakes. The report was even wild cats were known to be in that park, that little girl, four-year-old girl, huddling in the dark, holding on to her baby brother. In the morning, when it was light, she stumbled out of those bushes holding that baby in her arms. And there were park workers who saw and ran over to them and actually thought that they had been burned. Both of them had almost their whole bodies were red from the bites that they had taken from the insects through the night. They were rushed to the hospital.
And Lindsay refused to go to sleep after they were cared for. She refused to go to sleep until they brought Robin and put Robin into her arms and her bed. It was Lindsay’s testimony, the information that she gave the police, that led to the arrest of her murderer.
She was released from the hospital in time for the funeral of her mother and her other sibling. I’m going to read you the account. Lindsay went to the funeral with a white scarf, hiding her neck wound. The reporter said it was a wound so bravely borne because at some level, this child’s love for her tiny sibling outweighed her terror and her pain. Got that? Her love for her sibling outweighed her terror. Four-year-old girl going through that, her terror and her pain. That’s without question, remarkable love. But it reminds me that at Calvary, the Savior’s love for you outweighed all the terror and the pain that was involved with crucifixion. Nothing, nothing would stop him. Nothing would deter him. Nothing would keep him from laying down his life in order to save you. No one could turn him aside from that purpose. I don’t know what you think about him. I don’t know what you have done with such astounding love.
But I’m so glad that I found out he loved me and that I personally, I personally took him as my savior. Gospel preaching doesn’t involve getting people to subscribe to some facts. It’s not a matter that we’re trying to get you to agree to this and to this and to this. Gospel preaching presents to dying, perishing sinners a savior. Take him, trust him, accept him, and he’ll save you. Fail to do that and you will lose your soul forever. You’ll perish. But that is where the lines are drawn. This is what the gospel is all about, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That is, he came to save you. In the parable, the death of the son resulted in judgment on the murderers. Here’s a difference. There is a day when judgment is coming, but just right now, the death of God’s son enables God to offer forgiveness to you. So that you will not have to come into that judgment. Remember his words at Calvary, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.
And do you remember what happened when he uttered that prayer? There was a thief beside him who trusted him. The soldiers who crucified him, at least it says not only the centurion, but they that were with him said, this is the son of God. This was a righteous man. He’s offering forgiveness to you tonight so that you will not come into the judgment. Somebody caught it, I think, so memorably in a poem when he said, praying for sinners while in such woe, no one but Jesus ever loved so. This is the Savior who died to save you.
With all my heart, I wish I could just exhort you and urge you to trust him tonight, to take him as your Savior. But very quickly, I want you to think about that marriage supper, chapter 22, because if the former parable and topic remind us what God has done for you, why he did it and the price he paid, then this parable, the parable of the marriage supper, focuses on you and raises the question as to what you are going to do with the vast provision that God has made for you. And so the Lord Jesus confronts us with that concept of full provision because he tells us it’s a banquet hosted by a king. So this is a feast provided by someone who has unlimited resources. This is not someone saying, come to the wedding and you can go home with a sandwich. This is a king. This is unlimited resources. This is the picture of tables groaning with the provision. He talks about his fatlings being killed, all the mighty provision being gathered for this supper. It is the Lord Jesus’ way of conveying to you how rich, how bountiful, how abundant is the salvation he’s offering to you. Whether you’ll accept it or not, it’s there.
Billions have been saved by it. There’s room for you tonight at this wonderful banquet feast. There’s a chair for you if you will have it. It’s a king, a king who has provided this feast. But notice the banquet was for his son, the prince. So now we understand it was a banquet where no expense was spared. Now it’s not just a matter that the king has unlimited resources, but it’s his son whom he loves. And he wants to shower on him all of the visible affection that he has. And this is a mighty feast. The gospel message tells us that God is so completely, thrilled with what Christ accomplished that because of Christ, God will save you.
I’ll tell you one thing about salvation that got changed in my thinking. I thought the day would come if I was ever saved, that I would do what I was supposed to do. And then when God saw that, he would say, okay, now I can save you. John wrote to the Christians and he said, your sins are forgiven you for Christ’s sake, for Christ’s sake. It had nothing to do with me. It had everything to do with Christ. And the moment that I took Christ as my Savior, I came into the good of this limitless provision that he made at Calvary. And he’s willing to forgive you tonight. See, the banquet was fully provisioned and it was available. The king’s message, listen to the tenses he used. I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fatlings are killed. Everything is ready. Come. Come. Isn’t that the meaning of the Lord’s words at Calvary when he said, it is finished? Wasn’t he saying that everything was prepared, everything was provided, and now the invitation to you is just to come? And then we focus on the foolish reaction of the people.
It shows us the insanity of sin when they say, when it says they would not come. Sin makes fools of people. I hope you understand that. Sin can take the most intelligent person and turn them into an absolute fool. God expressed it this way in the Old Testament. He said, all you who hate me love death. It’s a mark of insanity when a person loves death and wants to die, god is saying a person who hates god is on a course of insane self-destruction, all they that hate me love death here are these people how foolish, how foolish it was here was a provision offered them freely a king for his son there was so much that they could have enjoyed that night That day, if they had just come, but they refused to take the invitation. So allow me please to stop right now at 8.07 here, Tuesday night, Midland Park Gospel Hall, and ask you, what are you going to do tonight, here, now, in this meeting? What are you going to do with God’s invitations?
You understand there’s only one of two choices. You can say, I’m coming. I’m accepting that invitation. I’m coming to Christ. Or you can do what these people did and not come, refuse the invitation. They would not come. Notice, please, they made light of it. They were treating this invitation as if it were of no importance at all, that their life and what they were doing was more important than this king’s wedding feast for his son. And what a description of 21st century Americans. Making light of eternal things, treating as of no significance the most important issue in life. Is that what you’re doing tonight? Then we find that others actually murdered the messengers, slew them. And then the Lord Jesus is going to tell us about the judgment that will fall on them. But please just notice the preparation. The Lord Jesus describes those who do come. He calls them good and bad. There are people who would never have been in that marriage supper, never have been in that marriage supper, except for a thing called grace.
Grace. They wouldn’t have any gifts to bring. They couldn’t have contributed to the feast. Had there been a cover charge to get in, that would have been beyond their means. And the only reason they are there is because the Lord Jesus is telling you, that no matter who you are and no matter what you’ve done, If you turn from your sins and turn to him tonight, he will save you. I’m going to just change the wording. This is such an old conversation. I’m just going to change some of the words to make it more sensible to us today. This is from the third century. And there was an opponent of Christianity who was having a conversation with a very well-known Christian teacher. And this is what he said. When most teachers go forth to teach They cry, come to me You who are clean and worthy And they are followed by the highest caliber of people available But your master, Jesus, your master cries Come to me, you who are down and beaten by life And so he accumulates around him The worst of humanity.
The christian responded to him and said yes, They are the refuse of humanity, but Jesus does not leave them that way. They come to him and out of material that you would have thrown away as useless, Christ fashions men, giving them back their self-respect, enabling them to stand on their feet and look up to God. They were cowed, cringing, broken things, but the son of God set them free. Will you allow me to repeat it? This is the Savior’s way of saying, no matter what your past is, no matter what you have done or not done, come tonight.
He will receive you if you come as a sinner to the Lord Jesus. In the parable, the guest’s condition and sense of need is what caused them to respond. The wedding’s fully attended. Everybody’s there. They’ve received the garment that the king has provided for them, and now they’re ready to step into the presence of the king. Do you remember how often the Bible uses this idea? Remember Amos saying, prepare to meet thy God. Matthew chapter 25, the Lord Jesus said that when he returns, those who are prepared, those who are ready, will go with him. Listen to the language of Zacharias when he speaks about the birth of his son who would be John the baptizer, and he said that his preaching of repentance would make ready, would prepare a people for the Lord. You need to be prepared. You need to be ready to meet God. If you died now the way you are, you wouldn’t stand a chance of getting into heaven. You’d be lost forever. But you can be prepared tonight. You can be made ready. Just as Adam and Eve discarded their fig leaf aprons and received the coat that God had made for them. Just as Isaiah said, God has clothed me with the garments of salvation. Just let the prodigal son receive the best robe. Just as in Zechariah 3, the filthy garments are taken away from a man and God says, I’ve taken away your sin and they clothed them with new raiment. God can take away your sin tonight.
And make you ready to meet God. Sometimes, I know this is wrong, sometimes in a gospel meeting I almost feel like asking for a raising of hands. You know, is there anybody here who does not want to go to hell? Is there anybody here? I’m not asking you to raise your hand, but I wish flags would go up in your mind, in your brain as you’re listening tonight. Is there anybody here who wants to be sure before you step back out into that world, that if this were your last night on earth, that Wednesday, if God spares us and we meet together here, that we will have the assurance that you have gone to be with Christ and not that you have lost your soul forever. Here’s what God says, and I’m going to just close with these words. He says, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.
Filed under: Gospel Series, higgins-eugene
