Experience TRUTH - #21

Christ alone, the Cornerstone. He is the head of the body. He is the chief Cornerstone. This language is rich in Scripture. If you go to ancient Israel, if you travel back to the Holy Land today, any Jewish tour guide will take you to the temple, and he will take you to where they believe the Cornerstone has been unearthed by archaeologists and ready to be placed at the construction of the new temple.

Really, really fascinating. And it is no small rock. It is the chief Cornerstone. Well, we know who the chief Cornerstone in the temple of Almighty God is. His name is Jesus.

This week we wrap up Luke 20, verses 9-19. Robbie Dilmore, the Christian car guy, also the host of a bunch of really cool programs like Jesus Junk. It's a bunch of cool podcasts. If you haven't subscribed, by the way, to our podcast channel, not just this program, but so many programs, Experience Truth, and so many programs, Robbie, you have on there, Christian Car Guy, Keenan Pursuits, Weekly, and all kinds of wonderful partners of ours have programs on there. So it's a neat little thing that'll hit your phone every time that one of them uploads, right?

Absolutely. If you go to iTunes, you'll see that the Truth Network is a podcast provider. And they have their own page of lots of different programming that we actually provide exclusively through podcasts. Broadcast, podcast, just to encourage you in your walk with Christ. And we're grateful to all the many radio stations, the Wilkins Radio Group, the Life FM, so many that carry this program. We're grateful to you and all the Truth stations down in Jacksonville, Florida, North Florida, Southern Georgia, 91.3, 91.7, and 91.9 FM.

All our good friends in St. Augustine. Robbie, read the passage for us. Everyone listen closely. This is the Word of God. The most important thing that we'll read today on this program is the Word of God. And then we're going to go kind of jump to the end in the conclusion of our thoughts from last week and our journey through the book of Luke. So here you go, Luke 29 through 19. When he, Jesus, began to tell this parable, a certain man planted a vineyard and leased it to vine dressers. And he went into a far country for a long time. Now at vintage time, he sent a servant to the vine dressers that he might give, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vine dressers beat him and sent him away empty handed. Again, he sent another servant and they beat him also, treated him shamefully and sent him away empty handed. And again, he sent a third and they wounded him also and cast him out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do?

I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him and when they see him. But when the vine dresser saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, this is the heir, come let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

He will come and destroy those vine dressers and give the vineyard to the others. And when they heard it, they said, certainly not. Then he looked at them and said, what then is this that is written? The stone, which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone. Whoever falls on that stone will be broken, but on whomver it falls, it will grind him to powder. And the chief priests and the scribes, that very hour, sought to lay hands on him.

But they feared the people, for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. So Robbie, a whole lot going on in this thing, and I want you to read this question here. You know, Christ the cornerstone, there's so much in here. Let me give some background.

This is very, very important. If you go to Isaiah 5, verses 1-7, you'll see an example, all throughout the Old Testament, the language of vineyards. And this part of the world, by the way, was run over with vineyards and rich agricultural terrain, very topographically rich with all that stuff. A lot of work went into building these vineyards and making them ripe.

You had to work, remember Naboth's vineyard that Ahab and Jezebel just lusted after, and then they shed his blood to get it. But his vineyard was desirable. You see a vineyard, it was like much, much, because it was both profitable, fruitful, literally, but also provided a living for people, and provided a great inheritance on the land. The Bible says, don't remove the ancient landmarks. So some of these vineyards would be in families for generations, not to be trifled with. It'd be like a modern-day rental home, or a modern-day piece of real estate that you just released.

So that was a great, great enterprise. So, three different occasions, we send three different servants, the master does, the owner of the land, simply to connect and simply to collect the prophet. Why shouldn't he be the owner, and he should be collecting some sort of rent, which would be a percentage of that which was gleaned from this land. And these guys obviously symbolize the province of Israel. If you read Hebrews 11, 35 through 38, they were killed.

One was Sonder, and half of which we think was Isaiah. These prophets suffered so much. Here is the apple of God's eye, His children Israel, rejecting and turning their backs on Almighty God. So many saints have suffered throughout history, even today in proclaiming the gospel to the earth. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and yet we go proclaim that the God of the earth, sir, the God who gives you the lungs you're breathing from the atmosphere that you're living in, in the land that you live on, He created, we're going to tell you about His goodness and how much He loves you.

And yet, you're hated for that as a believer, and there's 57 countries where the Bible is illegal, and more Christians are being slaughtered today and killed, executed, imprisoned, beaten, burdened than any other time in history. So God says, I'll send my son. Verse 13, I will send my beloved son. Now the son is the person that would hold all the authority. The son represented the father, and the son would be the future heir and the future owner. So when the son appears, either the owner is dead, or it triggers the fact that, hey, if we take him, we may be able to lay stake to the land. And so, Jesus, obviously, this is a picture of Him. So what do they do? They take Him, they kill Him, and they take the inheritance, and they cast Him out of the vineyard. So this question here, Robbie, is a tragic question, but I want you to just jump in with it if you would. So when does God's mercy and patience turn to justice and wrath?

Yeah, so at what point does God say, enough? And you know, a lot of folks out there in the world are watching things unfold, and they see evil regimes. They see evil things our own government does. They see the slaughter of, you know, today.

Someone said there was this recent coronavirus thing. Someone said if Planned Parenthood was forced to shut their doors for one day, more lives would be saved by that act than were ever taken by the coronavirus. We kill our own young in our country here.

You know, what's going on here? We make this a Democrat-Republican issue. This is life and death.

Good gracious, there would be no Democrats or Republicans if someone's mom killed them, and we legalize that in our country. So there's so much bloodshed. So when is God going to say enough, Robbie?

When does this happen? Because obviously he dropped the bomb on these guys. It says, what does the owner do? What does he do in response to this evil that these men, these unjust evil tenants, did? Well, it's a really interesting dilemma that you propose there in your question, in that, you know, and a lot of people say, well, I just don't understand how the God of the Old Testament would be the same as the God of the New Testament, because all I see is love. You know, because you see the things like the stoning of vacant that you mentioned in the previous episode that, you know, that were, or, you know, Aaron's sons that were, you know, offered up the wrong stuff.

So how does that all reconcile here? Well, the interesting thing is, I think, that all God has to do is turn from you for a moment. I mean, and just when he's keeping his face shining upon you, he's holding back Satan and all that he wants to destroy you with. But you remember when Paul says in that one piece of scripture that, right, you know, I turned him over to Satan.

And so all God has to do is kind of turn his face and, wow, 70 AD happens, and clearly those vine dressers that were there at the time that were supposed to be making, you know, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and all that stuff, that's what they were supposed to be producing. And unfortunately for them, wow, it was a horrible time, if you read history. I mean, it was a bloodbath.

Yeah, it really was. And, you know, it's interesting, going back to another bloodbath, I believe it's Revelation 5 somewhere in there, where the saints under the altar, you know, they were martyred. They're crying out, How long, O Lord?

How long will this go on? How long will our people be slaughtered? You're people that love you, we serve you, and we're being killed, we're being imprisoned, we're being tortured, you know, simply because we love God. But this should be a wake-up call for Christians that present Jesus Christ, who is the chief cornerstone. By the way, God is called our rock all over the place. He's called our rock, our salvation. The Lord is my rock. You know, Jesus Christ is the rock of ages.

He is the eternal one. Rock, in the Bible, pictures both stability, it pictures structure. In the case of the chief cornerstone, it is the foundation stone. Over and over again is referred to it.

We spent more time on it last week on that. Psalm 118, verse 22, Peter picks it up in 1 Peter 2, 4 through 6. Paul picks it up in Romans 9, 30 through 33, that Jesus is the chief cornerstone, and you will be submissive to him.

You will bow to him now, or you'll bow later, you know, because he rules and reigns. And they rejected the cornerstone. The cornerstone they rejected became the chief cornerstone, a la Jesus Christ. And it says these priests were very, very upset. It says after Jesus mentioned these words, whoever falls in the stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls it will grind him with powder.

Verse 19, the chief priest describes that very hour sought to lay hands on him. They're like, we've got to kill this guy. We've got to literally fall on him. We've got to crush him.

He's saying he's going to crush us. And maybe they understood that he was saying, I am that one. I am he.

And over again he admitted it, but maybe their ears were unclogging, and they saw it as a threat. Jesus is giving this as an invitation. I'm here. Receive me. I'm your Messiah. The one you've prayed for every day, forever.

The one who is the Lord of this temple that I just had to clean out, because you just desecrated it with all this merchandising. And yet they wanted to lay hands on him and kill him, but they feared the people, for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. So instead of repenting of their murderous ways, and repenting of destroying and killing all these prophets, you know, John the Baptist, all these prophets leading up here and about to kill Jesus, instead of repenting and saying, we're guilty, we want you as our chief cornerstone.

What do they do? They want to kill them. But they're cowardly afraid of the people, and we know that's going to change later in the week.

They're going to stir the people, and it's going to get real bloody. But Robbie, let's just wrap up. Am I flurrying around and worrying and scared of death? And anxious, and the wind blows, it blows me here and there? Or am I anchored in Jesus and say, you know what? Let's stop.

Let's drop. Let's pray. And let's anchor to Him. And we're here to encourage you today that He is there waiting for you to wait for Him.

To call upon the name of the Lord. If you don't know Him, call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. If you do know Him, remember, He's your rock. And quit getting sidetracked by all these other things, and anchor to Jesus. And tell someone about Him.

Right, Robbie? What a blessing. Experience the truth. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, just at Stu Epperson. And we'll put some of these messages up, by the way, are on Facebook at my Facebook page at stu.epperson. And be sure you tell someone else out there about the powerful Word of God, about the Rock, Jesus Christ. And let Him be your rock. Bow to Him today. for causes for the kingdom by trying to shut down his business you can't buy his pillows at coals anymore you can't get them on the amazon or you can't get them at costco they're attempting to close his business because he stood up for kingdom values what a chance to respond especially if you need a pillow oh i've had mine now for years and years and years and still fluffs up as wonderful as ever queen size pillows are just 29.98 be sure and use the promo code truth or call 1-800-944-5396 that's 1-800-944-5396 use the promo code truth for values on any my pillow product to support truth you