Today on the Verdict with Pastor John Monroe. In our passage today, we're going to see the increasing intolerance, in fact, increasing hostility against Jesus, who is the truth.
Now he's a perfect man, but as he confronts the religious leaders, their authority, their influence is being undermined by Jesus, who not only teaches the truth but is the truth. Welcome to the Verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. The truth of the gospel is that Jesus Christ is our one and only way of salvation. Through Christ, we are offered forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. But the question is, how will you respond?
With humility or hostility? Today on the Verdict, we're continuing in Matthew and discussing repentance and rejection. For those of us who hold that Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures are absolute truth, it seems that we're on a collision course with our society, which is tolerant of anything but biblical truth. And I found that even those who come to worship God may not be coming primarily to hear the truth. Rather, someone to be reinforced in their prejudices and desires, and live in a false reality where they think that God exists to make them happy.
No wonder there is a rejection of truth, rather than a humility of listening to and responding to the truths of God as revealed in His Word. Yet we know that truth triumphs. Today we return to Matthew twenty-one, where Jesus tells a story of two sons. Let's continue to be challenged regarding truth. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter twenty-one, from verse twenty-eight to the end of the chapter, and we're going to see in this parable the challenge.
Of the truth, verse twenty-eight. What do you think? Jesus wants us to be thinkers. He wants us to reflect. What do you think?
A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, "Son, go and work in the vineyard today." And he answered, "I will not." But afterward. He changed his mind and went, and he went to the other son and said the same. And he said, "I go, sir," but did not go. Which of the two did the will of the father? They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors." And prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.
What a statement! Who is he talking to? The chief priests and the elders. Verse forty-five. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.
Verse thirty-two: For John came to you in the way of righteousness, as John the Baptist, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. Remember John the Baptist. Jesus is saying, "What was the message of John the Baptist? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The religious leaders should have been the first to respond to the way of righteousness.
They were religious. John is a prophet. He's in fulfillment of Malachi, and John comes, and he's preaching the way of righteousness. He's preaching about the necessity of repentance and preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Of all of the people in Israel, the religious leaders, the chief priests, and the elders should have been the first to say, "Yes, we repent, and we believe in John," but they don't do it.
The challenge of the truth. Secondly, the rejection of the truth. The parable in verse thirty-three. Let's read this parable. Isn't Jesus a master storyteller?
Here another parable, verse thirty-three. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard, and put a fence around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit, and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them, saying, "They will respect my son." But when the tenants saw the son, They said to themselves, "This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance." And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to these tenants? They said to him, "He will put these wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons." Let's just stop there. The rejection of the truth. Here is another parable told by Jesus.
Another story told by Jesus about a vineyard. This parable is an indictment against Israel. The vineyard here then represents Israel. The vinegrowers, who are they? They are the corrupt religious leaders.
Who is the son in the parable? Clearly, our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you get what's going through the mind of the religious leaders? They knew their Bible. They knew he was speaking against them.
He is confronting them with the truth. What are the religious leaders doing? Not only. Are they rejecting the truth? Not only are they not believing the truth; they are actively plotting to kill God's beloved Son.
They're plotting to kill Jesus. Do you know what happens? Intolerance of the truth leads to rejection of the truth, and then leads to hatred of the truth. Do you know what's going on in our society? People first say, "Well, I see things differently." Then they actively reject the truth, and then they hate the truth.
And you say, "Well, John, none of us here would hate the truth." Well, I don't know. I'm asking what your response to the truth. When you hear the truth from God's word, as you read the truth, does it shake you?
So much so that some of it you just want to reject. Oh, you love the idea that God loves you. After all, you think you are really special. You're really wonderful. Yes, I understand that I am a wonderful person.
That's why God loves me. It's a wonderful truth that God does love you, but He doesn't love you because you're a wonderful person. You are a wonderful person because God loves you. This idea about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ—that seems odd. I want a bit of Jesus, but I don't want to be a fanatic.
That's a bit much. Don't mind doing a bit of on Sunday. I even give him some money. I even serve sometimes. But total surrender—how is it?
Could it be that we're rejecting the truth? Could it be also that there is doubt in your mind now about the authority of Scripture? Did God really say that? Because it intrudes into how you live, because it impacts some of your personal relationship. Perhaps like these religious leaders, you want to be in control.
You want to be in charge. You want to be the authority of your own life. You want to live your own life, and you want people around you always saying that whatever you believe and whatever you do is just wonderful. You're a really special person. As you live as you like, and then the truth of Scripture intrudes and impacts your life.
Today, you're confronted with the truth. See, this Jesus is the King. We're going to see that in a minute. Do not reject the truth. The challenge of the truth.
The rejection of the truth. Verses forty-two through forty-six. The triumph of the truth. I want to tell you that truth always, always triumphs. Verse forty-two.
We've got the parable. Here is Jesus. Have you never read in the scriptures? He's going to quote from Psalm one hundred and eighteen, one of the great psalms in the Psalter. Have you never read in the scripture?
Here it is, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken in pieces. And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard this parable, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds because they held him to be a prophet. Here is the master teacher, the triumph of the truth. The religious leaders are going to be judged. Israel, the vineyard, is going to come under the judgment of God.
But other people are going to be blessed. Did you notice in the parable, Jesus said the vineyard will be given to other tenants. Verse forty-one. Or they said to him, "Let out the vineyard to other tenants." Verse forty three. Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, ethnos, a nation producing its fruits.
Israel is going to come under the judgment of God. The dispensation of the Mosaic law is about to end. A new age is about to come, the age of the Church. And the apostles are going to be given the spiritual leadership to God's new community, the church. And now, rather than Israel being the focus of God's purposes, the focus will be on this new community that we know, the church.
The kingdom of God is taken away from you, Israel, and is given to another people. Turn to, for example, to Acts chapter thirteen. The judgment of God is going to come on Israel, and it did in AD seventy. The Romans attack Jerusalem. The temple is destroyed.
The temple is gone, never yet being rebuilt. Jesus is saying something very, very serious: that those who reject him will not go unpunished. You say, does this mean that Israel doesn't have a future? No, Israel does have a future. The vineyard, Israel, is not destroyed, but it's given to others; it's given to another people.
Acts 13, verse 46. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, "It was necessary." He's talking primarily to the Jews. It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. That's Israel. The gospel is preached to the Jew first.
It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, since you thrust it aside. And judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. The vineyard has been taken away from you and given to another people. And now, in the wonder of the purposes of God, we have the church.
What's the church? Comprises Jew and Gentile. Ah, but judgment. Is coming on Israel, verse forty-one. He will put these wretches to a miserable death.
Verse forty-four: the one who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. What's Jesus saying? The apparent tragedy of the cross is going to turn to triumph as God vindicates His Son by the resurrection from the dead. Jesus is the stone who was once rejected. Verse forty-two: the stone that the builders rejected.
Who's the stone? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Who's doing the rejection? Israel. Has become the corner stone.
Israel rejects the Messiah. He's beaten. He's ridiculed. He's cross crucified. The stone is rejected, but that same stone—a wonderful—that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is put on the cross.
Now he becomes the cornerstone, the main stone, the capstone. That stone which was rejected by you, in fact, is going to become the cornerstone. That the Lord Jesus Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth, and the Church of Jesus Christ and the truth of God will be triumphant. And that stone, rejected by you, was was it going to happen to it? The one who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.
What do you think of Jesus? This is his teaching. The kingdom is offered to you—the kingdom of heaven. The tax collectors and the prostitutes go in it before you. You continue to reject it.
If you continue to reject it. The one that you are rejecting, in fact, is going to be the one who is triumphant, and that same stone that you reject is going to crush you, and you're going to come under the judgment of God. If you know your Bible, your mind goes when you think of that stone to Daniel two. You remember the image Nebuchadnezzar's image representing all of the kingdoms of the world, and then there is this little stone. And Daniel, in his interpretation, sees that little stone, and it crushes all of the kingdoms of the world.
And that little stone fills the whole world. It says it will break in pieces all these kingdoms. I'm quoting from Daniel two, and bring them to an end. And it shall stand forever. This kingdom, kingdom of God, will stand forever.
Howard Marshall writes: The stone is set there by God's purpose, so that if people refuse to build on it, it will become the means of their ruin. And here our Lord Jesus is quoting from Psalm, one hundred and eighteen. The point is, truth will triumph. God's purposes will not be thwarted. The truth that Jesus is the only Savior results in opposition.
It results in rejection. It results in hostility and in intolerance, as we see more and more. But we say, "This is the Lord's doing," and it is marvelous. In our eyes, so Peter, wonderfully, in Acts chapter four, listen to him. He says, "Let it be known to all of you and to all of the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified." That's the stone being rejected, whom God raised from the dead.
By him, this man is standing before you today. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. That's it. The stone rejected has become the cornerstone.
Our Lord Jesus Christ dies in seeming weakness, but He's raised in almighty power, and this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. When Queen Elizabeth the First in December seventeenth, fifteen fifty eight, was told that her half sister Mary, Mary Tudor, died, and that she now was the queen. It said that she was reading her Bible and was reading in Psalm one hundred and eighteen, and said in Latin, "This is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes." She was amazed that with all that was going on, that she was now going to be the queen, and she was going to reign for a long time as Queen Elizabeth the First, and she said. It's the Lord's doing. It's marvelous in our eyes.
What we do know is this: that when our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and ascended to His Father and crowned victorious, truth is triumphant, and we, the people of God, in the midst of a dark world. Where Christians are attacked, and where people are intolerant of the truth, we keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ and say, "Don't we? This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. And how wonderful that you and I can enter the kingdom of heaven, a kingdom which will last forever. Isn't that wonderful?" To know that through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, this stone which was rejected has been made the corner stone, and God does a mighty work, bringing Jew and Gentile into this new community, the church.
As we await the return of King Jesus, who will catch us up, and we shall ever be with Him. The forces of secularism, the forces of evil are strong in our world. But this glorious truth—that Jesus is the cornerstone—fills us with praise and joy. I'm saying to you today: pursue the truth, seek the truth. Proverbs 23, verse 23: Buy the truth and do not sell it.
Don't reject the truth. Don't just talk about it. Humbly. Submit to the truth, as Jesus says. If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
Today is a day of truth, a day of salvation. Put your trust in Jesus Christ. Follow him and love him with all of your heart, because this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. That we are on the victory side.
Some of you spent quite a lot over the last few days watching games.
Some of your teams won, and some of your teams lost. I'm not sure about my team. It's going to be kicking off very shortly, and they may well lose. But one thing I know is this: that we who are on the side of Jesus Christ, that we are on the winning team. That while it is dark, and while it is difficult, and while life is sometimes very, very tough, we understand this: that that stone is the cornerstone, and that we are part of the kingdom of God, and all of the forces of darkness will never, ever, ever prevail over Christ.
This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Let's pray. As I pray, will you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, Eternal God? We thank you for Jesus, the Cornerstone. We think of your work of salvation, the wonder of it, and we say, "This is the Lord's doing; it's marvelous in our eyes." This is the day that the Lord has given us.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it. We praise you, Father. This is all of your doing. We thank you for Christ, and pray now that we will humble ourselves and love Him and seek Him with all of our hearts in His name. Amen.
This is the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. There is still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us. From matters of truth and identity to the subjects of love and grace. Our world seems more confused than ever, but to find truth and certainty about who we are and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God. To help you do that, John wrote a booklet titled "Eternal Security: Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World." Through this special resource, John shares his personal testimony along with a careful examination of Scripture to offer us clarity on matters of eternity.
Get your copy today by visiting our website at theverdict.org. While you're there, consider making an investment in this Bible teaching ministry. Whether it's five dollars, fifty dollars, or more, your gift today helps cover the cost of sharing these gospel messages to listeners around the world. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Verdict podcast, featuring John's weekly podcast exclusive called Avizandum. It's available wherever you get your podcasts, or simply go to our website.
Again, that's theverdict.org. The Verdict is a ministry of Calvary Church in South Charlotte. We're located on the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road. If you've been looking for a church home or a community to help you grow in your walk with Christ, we invite you to join us for our Sunday services. For more details about Calvary and our service times, visit theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? Do you have an insatiable desire to know the truth—the truth which will truly make you free? Don't be trapped by your own preferences, opinions, and desires, which will lead you further and further away from the truth. Jesus described the devil as the father of lies. Don't allow yourself to be distracted or led astray.
Place your trust in Jesus, who is the way, the truth. And the life, and you will be able to say, "This is the Lord's doing." It is marvelous in our eyes. Thanks for joining us today on the Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
