The Stone that Divides

Mark 12:1-12

INTRODUCTION

In the mid nineteenth century, America was divided over many issues, not the least of which was slavery. In the midst of this, in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, daughter of a Presbyterian minister, published her novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The book sold 300,000 copies the first year, an enormous amount for the time. In this book, Stowe used the medium of fiction to expose the horrors of slavery to thousands of people who had no exposure to it, lighting a fire under the abolition movement in the North and hastening, in some people's opinion, the coming of the Civil War. She created fictional characters and fictional circumstances but did this to confront people with truth. In our passage today, we'll see Jesus do something similar, use a fictional story, in this case a parable, to confront people with the truth about himself and about themselves. This story still confronts us today demanding that we either accept what Jesus says about himself or reject it, giving us no cover for any middle ground.

BACKGROUND (V. 1)

As we saw a couple weeks ago, the book of Mark reaches a turning point at the beginning of chapter eleven. Jesus' ministry in the region of Perea has ended and having previously avoided Jerusalem, he now resolutely heads there where his mission and ministry will be completed. It must be remembered that the only reason Jesus avoided the fate that awaited him in Jerusalem was due to timing, never because of fear or reluctance to do what he'd come to do. There was a specific time set by the Father for the Son of Man to be "delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law" (10:33) and that time had now come.

We are now in the midst of the Passion week in the Book of Mark.

On Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem hailed as a king by the people which stirs up the religious leaders against him even more.

On Monday, he cursed the fig tree and cleansed the temple both symbolizing the condition of Israel and the fate that awaited those in Israel who rejected him, especially among the leadership. And, as we saw, these leaders began to plot how to kill him after this (Mark 11:18).

We're now at Tuesday where we've seen the chief priests and teachers of the law confront Jesus over his authority and he puts them in a dilemma by demanding they either reject or accept the ministry of John the Baptist as being from God. They cannot say he's from God without indicting themselves and are unwilling to say he's not for fear of the people so they refuse to answer.

The parable we'll look at this morning comes after this encounter and it turns up the heat on the Jewish leaders. They've tried to wriggle off the hook with their refusal to take a stand on John's ministry and now Jesus, skillfully using a fictional tale, a parable, not only puts them back on the hook but sets the hook, exposing them once again for the enemies of God that they are, setting the stage for his crucifixion that will be orchestrated by them.

BIG IDEA

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law & Prophets. To reject him is to reject God and cut oneself off from salvation.

If you have your Bibles, you can open up to chapter twelve of the Book of Mark.

Mark tells us in the first verse of chapter 12 that "Jesus began to speak to them in parables:"

We need to pause a minute and ask 'why?', why this change of approach? He's just finished this back and forth encounter with the Jewish leaders where he's once again gotten the best of them. They've unsuccessfully tried to debate him a number of times and Jesus has no trouble handling whatever they throw at him, so why is he now changing to telling them a story?

Interestingly, the last time Mark records Jesus teaching in parables is also after an encounter with the Jewish leaders. In that instance, in Mark 3, they refused to acknowledge that the work of Christ was from God, instead accusing Jesus of doing miracles by the power of Satan. They are then condemned by Christ as having committed the "unpardonable sin." It's right after that, that Mark records Jesus switching to teaching in parables.

Here, in chapter eleven, they refuse to acknowledge the work of God once again, this time in the life of John the Baptist but also, in the life of Christ by questioning his authority to do what he's doing - specifically his authority over the goings on in the Temple. Jesus is the Lord of the temple but they think they are.

This parable is a direct response to this and is a mark of God's judgment on the religious leaders.

Jesus makes this clear after the earlier parables in Mark 4:

And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that

“‘they may indeed see but not perceive,

and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they should turn and be forgiven.’" - Mark 4:10-12

Here, Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9-10, part of Isaiah's commission from God where he's told to preach to the people even though the people will not listen. In fact, Isaiah's preaching to them, Isaiah bringing God's word to them, while they continue to harden their hearts in the face of it, was part of God's judgment on them.

God's word can be both an instrument of judgment as well as an instrument of grace and salvation. When the Bible says God's word will not return void, that means it will always do what God intends for it to do and sometimes He intends for it to be an instrument of grace and at other times, an instrument of judgment. Those who reject Christ heap up judgment for themselves the more they are exposed to His word and remain unrepentant in the face of it.

It's the same here. Jesus speaking in parables was a form of God's judgment and that's why we see it here in response to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. Jesus is pronouncing judgment on them just as he did using the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple. (7:20)

THE PARABLE (Mark 12:1-8)

Let's look at the parable.

Parables have two levels of meaning. One level, the surface level, is simply the story being told. Below that level is the more hidden meaning, the interpretation of the parable. We'll get to that in a minute. For now, let's look at the surface level meaning because the surface level meaning is important too. The story is designed to provoke a reaction and the reaction the story produces at the surface level is the same reaction the listener should have to the underlying truth being communicated.

For example, in the parable the prophet Nathan told to King David in II Samuel 12 a rich man with many sheep steals the only lamb of a poor man, kills it and roasts it for his guests. David becomes outraged at this injustice and demands the man be punished for it. It is at that point that Nathan reveals the underlying meaning of the story. David, who had many wives, had stolen the wife of Uriah who had only one. You are that man, Nathan tells him. (II Samuel 12:7). The outrage David felt over the theft of the lamb is how he should have felt over sin, over his affair with Bathsheba.

So, keep that in mind because the same is true with this parable. Let's read it beginning in verse 1:

12 And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

Jesus begins with a common occurrence in Israel, the building of a vineyard. He describes in detail how it is constructed and once it is finished, how the owner leases the vineyard to tenants and goes to another country. This too was a common practice. The tenants would work the land and in return for the use of the land and some of the produce, they would provide the owner with part of the crop. It was a legal arrangement.

One of my great-grandfathers was a tenant farmer in Floyd County, Georgia up near Rome. He worked on what was called the "three-four" system. The landlord provided the land and the house they lived in and in exchange my great-grandfather gave the landlord either 1/3 or 1/4 of his production, depending on the crop. My grandmother remembers all the children helping pick cotton and other crops as soon as they were old enough to do so to be sure they could provide the landlord with what was owed and have enough to live on for themselves. Because if they didn't do what was required, the landlord had the right to evict them. The landlord was the owner, they were the stewards. They owed him a portion of the fruit of their labor.

This is a similar arrangement to what's described here. The tenants are responsible for seeing that the land is fruitful, they were to steward the land on behalf of the master. This concept, stewardship of land on behalf of the true owner, was familiar to the Israelites because it is how God told them to view all of the land of he gave them:

The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. - Leviticus 25:23

God owned all the land, the Israelites were his stewards. This arrangement, described in the parable, of owners and tenants was a small picture of that larger reality and they would have gotten that.

From planting a vineyard to harvesting of the first crop took about three years so when the time came for that crop, the owner sent one of his representatives to the tenants to collect the portion of the crop owed to him.

This is where the parable takes a shocking turn.

Rather than living up to the agreement, they refused to pay. Not only did they refuse to pay but they beat the master's servant and sent him away empty-handed. This servant had been sent with the master's authority so to mistreat him was to mistreat the master. There were probably audible gasps in the crowd as Jesus told this. This is unthinkable. These are wicked people!

Oh, but it gets worse.

The master sends another servant who is beaten, then another who is murdered. Then others, all of whom are either beaten and sent away or murdered. Finally, he decides to send his beloved son thinking they will at least respect him. It's like when you're watching the horror movie, don't go in the basement! The crowd's probably saying no!, don't do it! Don't send your son to these terrible people. Servants are one thing but his own flesh and blood, his son and you're going to send him into the arms of these brutal killers? The crowd would have been horrified.

The story now reaches its shocking climax. The tenants plot to murder the son hoping to steal the land for themselves. When the son arrives he is murdered and to add insult to injury, not even given a proper burial - which would again have been shocking to the Jewish audience. His remains are thrown outside the vineyard for the wild animals to devour.

Jesus then asks in verse nine, "What will the owner of the vineyard do?"

In Matthew's account, we find out that the crowd could not contain themselves and they blurted out:

They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” - Matthew 21:41

And it's likely that among those saying this, or at least agreeing with it, would have been the chief priests and teachers of the law. Ever the sticklers for legality, they could not let such an injustice go by unpunished nor would they dare to disagree with the judgment the tenants should face, because it was the right judgment and they were all about being on the right side of the law.

This is the reaction Jesus was trying to provoke with the story, this is outrageous!

Jesus has them right where he wants them. (15:41)

THE INTERPRETATION (Mark 12:1-8)

Let's look now at the interpretation, the below surface-level meaning. The thing the crowd, particularly, the priests and teachers of the law should be incensed about. They were probably picking this up the whole time and were getting madder and madder but couldn't openly disagree because of the way Jesus framed the story. He framed it in such a way that you had to be outraged.

Jesus is basing this parable on Isaiah 5:1-7. Notice how similar the first two verses are to the story:

Let me sing for my beloved

my love song concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard

on a very fertile hill.

2 He dug it and cleared it of stones,

and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it,

and hewed out a wine vat in it;

and he looked for it to yield grapes,

but it yielded wild grapes…

And when we jump down to Isaiah 5:7 we get the key to interpreting the parable:

7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts

is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah

are his pleasant planting;

and he looked for justice,

but behold, bloodshed;

for righteousness,

but behold, an outcry!

The vineyard in Jesus' parable is Israel. Just as with the fig tree.

And just like the Isaiah passage, this parable summarizes God's dealings with Israel over time. He freed them from slavery and gave them a land flowing with milk and honey full, as Moses says in Deuteronomy 6 a land:

And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. - Deut. 6:10-12

All this was provided for you by the vineyard owner. Who, then, is the vineyard owner?

The vineyard owner is God. He sets up everything needed, the vines, the wall, the winepress, the watchtower, etc. They did not have to build a thing, only to work it, just like the people of Israel in the Promised Land. But, along with God's good provision came responsibility, a responsibility to bear fruit for the owner.

The owner was a gracious and generous man but the land still belonged to him. He leased the it to tenant farmers, who were to steward the land for him. They were to bear fruit but, as the passage in Isaiah says, they only produced sour berries. The words translated "sour berries" means "inedible fruit," fruit that will not fulfill its purpose. They were to produce faithfulness and justice and instead they produced bloodshed.

So we have God and the nation of Israel, who then are the tenant farmers? Is this the people of Israel in general or a subset of them?

Remember the function these tenants played. They were to steward the vineyard for the master. Whose job was it to steward Israel for God? Or, said another way, who were supposed to be Israel's shepherds?

The Jewish leaders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law.

The tenant farmers are the Jewish leaders, those given stewardship over God's people.

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. - Matthew 23:1-3

These Jewish leaders were supposed to be fulfilling Moses' function in the lives of the people, meaning they were to lead them in proper worship and service to God. And they believed they were. Notice how often in the gospels when they challenge Jesus that they refer to Moses or the Law of Moses. They saw themselves as heirs to Moses and the prophets but Jesus is about to show them they are heirs to someone else.

That brings us to the servants sent to collect the master's due. These are the prophets sent to the people of Israel from Moses up until John the Baptist.

At the base of Mt. Sinai, Israel promised to follow his law and worship him alone and in exchange, God promised they would live long in the land he was giving them. But, when they possessed the land, they went after other gods and forgot their promise to Yahweh. But, rather than immediately destroy them, in his patience and mercy, God sent his representatives, the prophets, to call them back to Himself. He sent them over and over. And they treated them shamefully.

Zechariah was murdered between the sanctuary and the altar, Amos was run out of town, Jeremiah was thrown down a well.

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. - Hebrews 11:36-38

The Jewish leaders, were, of course, familiar with this history. But, they saw themselves as the successors to these prophets. As we often do when we read Bible stories, they put themselves in the wrong place in the story:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ - Matthew 23:29-30

Jesus is making it clear that rather than successors to Moses and the prophets, these chief priests and teachers of the law are in fact successors to those who killed the prophets and not only that but they will soon kill again and this time it will be someone greater than the prophets whom they murder, it will be God's own son.

Which brings us to the last person in the parable, the owner's son. Verses 7-8 again:

But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

The Son is, of course, Christ and here he prophesies that the Jewish leaders will succeed in murdering him and, the most shocking thing in the whole parable, they will do so with full knowledge of who he is in a vain attempt to usurp God and maintain their position.

It's the oldest self-deception in creation, going all the way back to Satan, created beings believing they can remove God from his throne and take his place. Friends, it's the root cause of all our sin as well, the desire to be God. To put ourselves in his place, to make decisions apart from him or contrary to him.

So, in this parable, Jesus has exposed the chief priests, scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees as corrupt, Godless, violent men, who are the successors not of Moses but of those who killed the prophets. He's in essence pointed his finger at them and said like Nathan, you are the man.

This would have been a great time for repentance. A time to fall on their face before Christ and admit their sin and their need for him, but, sadly, that's not what happened which brings us to our next point, the response. And I want to look at both Jesus' response to the parable and the response of the Jewish leaders. (24:42)

THE RESPONSE (Vv. 9-12)

What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord's doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.

JESUS' RESPONSE

The tenants have beaten and murdered all of the master's representatives, they've not born fruit for the master and now the body of his beloved son lies dead outside the vineyard walls. Jesus now asks and answers that penetrating question, what will the owner of the vineyard do?

We saw in Matthew's account that the crowd provided the answer. Here in Mark, we see Jesus affirming that answer. "He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others."

What does Jesus mean by this?

The chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, will be removed as the shepherds of God's people and in their place, new shepherds will be raised up, were being raised up at that very moment. The entire system created by these corrupt leaders, the one Jesus attacked when he overturned tables and ran the money changers out of the temple, will be completely destroyed and God will raise up a people who will worship Him rightly. Jesus speaks of this transition in John's gospel when speaking to the Samaritan woman by the well:

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. - John 4:23

And this is nothing new. As the parable points out, God has sent messengers to the people for hundreds of years saying the same thing. This is the kind of worship God has always demanded and the kind of worship he's always called his people to:

And the Lord said:

“Because this people draw near with their mouth

and honor me with their lips,

while their hearts are far from me,

and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,

therefore, behold, I will again

do wonderful things with this people,

with wonder upon wonder;

and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,

and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” - Isaiah 29:13-14

“I hate, I despise your feasts,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

I will not look upon them.

Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to the melody of your harps I will not listen. - Amos 5:21-23

So, Jesus is saying, your time as the shepherds of my people is over and I'm going to raise up people who will glorify the Father. And how will they do that? By bearing fruit like the tenants of the vineyard should have:

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. - John 15:8

The true disciples of Jesus Christ bear fruit, not sour berries.

Not only are new leaders being raised up contemporaneously with the old ones, the old ones are headed for destruction. This was, of course, already happening but it would be finalized some forty years later:

Jesus speaks of this another place, in Matthew 24:1-2:

Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2 But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” - Matthew 24:1-2

And that is indeed what happened. In A.D. 70, the Roman army under Titus, who would later be emperor, destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. As Jesus prophesied, not one stone was left upon another. The Roman siege had begun during Passover when the city was full of people, just as it was when Jesus told this parable, trapping thousands in the city. The historian Josephus claims over a million people were killed and another almost a million taken prisoner by the Romans. When the smoke cleared, gone was the temple, gone were the Sadducees, gone were the Pharisees, gone was the priesthood, gone was the sacrificial system and gone, even, were the records that allowed the Jews to know people's tribal affiliation and even know who was supposed to be a priest. If you go there today, as many from our church are right doing right now, you can still see the evidence of this destruction on the temple mount.

And who were the new shepherds of God's people, the ones to whom the vineyard was given?

The twelve Apostles.

We see beginning almost immediately after Pentecost that it's the Apostles whom God's people begin to look to for instruction:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. - Acts 2:24

Remember, this was the Jerusalem church being talked about here, a church comprised of Jewish believers. Whereas they'd previously looked to the Scribes, Pharisees and priests for instruction, they were now looking to the Apostles, God's new shepherds of his people.

A clean break had been made and a dichotomy had been set up, a dichotomy that applies to all humanity, verses 10-11 again:

Have you not read this Scripture:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord's doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

The Son, rejected by the tenants and left dead outside the vineyard is not going to stay dead. He is, in fact, going to be the cornerstone, the foundation on which God will build his Church. And, in Matthew's account we also read of the cornerstone:

And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” - Matthew 21:44

That was true of the Jewish leaders who rejected Christ and it remains true of all who reject Jesus Christ as Lord and King and Savior.

To reject Christ is to reject God and to be crushed by the cornerstone.

Which brings us to the response of the chief priests and teachers of the law. (32:02)

THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND TEACHERS OF THE LAW'S RESPONSE

Their response is short and sad:

And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. - Mark 12:12

Like the Rich Young Ruler in chapter ten, the cost of following Jesus was too great, it would mean giving up everything they held dear, including their position as the leaders of Israel. So, like the Rich Young Ruler they walked away. No repentance, no sorrow, only malice and hatred, hatred that would lead in just three days to the fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy that the son will be murdered by the wicked tenants.

What a sad ending for these men who claimed to be servants of God. There's a lesson in that for us. We can get too wrapped up in our own agendas or the agendas of this world to be of use to Christ and to bear fruit for him. Which brings us to our application.

THE APPLICATION (Mark 12:9-11, Matthew 21:42-44)

We've called this series in Mark Action / Reaction. We've seen this morning the reaction of chief priests and teachers of the law. And now we have a chance, when confronted with this same information, to think how we should react.

This parable was aimed at a particular audience for a particular purpose. We're not first-century Jewish leaders plotting to kill Jesus who were exposed by his teaching. Where are we in this passage?

We're in verses 9-11 but I want to read the equivalent passage from Matthew 21:42-44 because it provides more detail:

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord's doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

There are two groups of people mentioned here and every one of us is in one or the other. We are either among the people to whom the kingdom has been given for the purpose of bearing fruit or we are the "one" whom the stone crushes. There is no third category, no middle ground. As our "big idea" said:

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law & Prophets. To reject him is to reject God and cut oneself off from salvation.

This is not a well-received teaching today, even by some within the church, that Jesus Christ is the only way to be reconciled to God, not a way, not the best way, but the only way.

A recent survey done by Ligonier Ministries, the ministry of the late R.C. Sproul asked people if they agree with this statement:

“God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam,” 66% of the general population agreed with that statement. But, the shocking part is that 51% of evangelicals agreed with it. The majority of evangelicals do believe that Jesus is the substitute, but slightly over half of them do not believe he is the only substitute. So, even among those who claim the name of Christ there is confusion on this essential matter.

But, when Peter stood before the Jewish leaders, after Pentecost, probably before many of the same men who heard this parable and walked away, he made this clear:

11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 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.” - Acts 4:11-12

There are only two options. All humanity is either building on this stone or will be crushed by it.

If you're here this morning and you're a follower of Christ, you are called to build on this stone.

And the edifice Jesus is building is his church. There are no lone-ranger Christians, no healthy ones at least. When Peter declared that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus told him that on this "rock," Peter's confession, he would build his church and the gates of Hell would not prevail against it. I've sometimes heard people say "look for where God is working and join Him." Agreed. And where He's working is in and through the church. Building on the cornerstone means being involved in the local church because that's where God is building.

Secondly, bear fruit for the kingdom. Christ has not saved us just to take us to heaven when we die. He's saved us unto good works. We, as Protestants, sometimes downplay the importance of works because we don't want to sound too Catholic, but works are not optional for the believer. They don't save us but they are evidence of our faith. Ephesians 2:10 says:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

God has prepared things for you to do, he's prepared things for me to do. He saved us for a purpose. And that purpose is to glorify him by bearing much fruit. All true disciples bear fruit. Just as there are no lone-ranger Christians, there are also no fruitless ones.

When we combine these two things, building on the cornerstone, the right foundation and bearing fruit using the gifts God has given us, Christ's church is built up and it multiplies, in other words, it is healthy and strong as well as growing. That's why we place importance at Grace Fellowship on starting new churches because it is through the church that God's work in this world is accomplished. That is the method God has designed to find the lost and disciple the found. So build on that cornerstone.

As we close, let me say something to those who may be in the other category, the ones, rather than building on the cornerstone are in danger of being crushed by it. One of the sobering truths of this passage is that there comes a time when repentance is no longer possible. Friends, It is possible to walk away from Christ for the last time. I think that's what we saw with the chief priests and the teachers of the law in this passage.

If you've never repented and trusted in Christ, I urge you to do so today. The time is coming when you will stand before the Lord to give an account and that time may be sooner than you think. And let me just say, you can't give an account, not one that will make a bit of difference before a Holy God. No matter how good you think you've been, you are without excuse as Paul says in Romans. As I said earlier, our works necessarily flow out of a relationship with Christ but they do not earn it. We are saved by the grace of God through faith alone in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Don't walk away today like the chief priests and the teachers of the law without trusting in Christ. As the author of Hebrews says "today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." And you've heard his voice through Mark's gospel and this parable and for that you are accountable to God. So, I urge you, repent and believe. If you have any questions about that…

Let's pray this morning as we close…