Mark Chapter 12 Verse 1

• Jesus is pulling directly from Isaiah 5 with this teaching (this parable). The owner of the vineyard planted, set a fence around it, a partition, a separation including protective measures, dug a place for the wine vat, expecting there to be a harvest and thus the need for a vat…and built a tower which speaks of protection but also of abundance as the tower would also be used to store the harvested fruit. Now flip over to Isaiah Chapter 5 where we get some incredibly important details.
• What this speaks of personally is you and I. We are the vineyard. God is the planter, the builder, the harvester and as we saw with the fig tree, the primary Customer, the Enjoyer…God He is first in terms of whom the vineyard serves…
• I see kids today, church kids, church young men and women tattooing “1-1-6” on their bodies…bobbing their heads to the fantastic beats and powerful music where the message is, “We are unashamed!” 1-1-6 being Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” But here’s the concern I have…these kids unashamed of the Gospel, great…but what’s your life look like? Would God echo back concerning you, “1-1-6?” The answer for each one of us personally…what have we done with the vineyard He has planted…?
• Isaiah Chapter 5 verse 1. He has chosen a very fruitful hill…in other words the place is perfect! What’s the place? Where’s the place? Wrong question. Who is the place? Remember you and I are the vineyard…our hearts, the perfect place…fashioned with eternity imprinted upon them…craving a relationship with the Father…
• Isaiah Chapter 5 Verse 2. He clears out the stones…all of the things that choke out fruit…choke out growth. All of the excuses. All of the carnal worldly tendencies that simply serve self…when God is allowed to be God, to lead, to be the Authority…He removes those stones…and plants not just vines but the choicest vines.
• And there in verse two is the tower that we saw in Mark 12 as well as the wine vat but we get the why here in Isaiah. Because God expects good fruit man…but there’s a problem…it brought forth wild grapes. Under developed, sour, no good man…false fruit as it were…why?
• Well I’ve had a tough life, you don’t know what’s happened to me. If you only knew. I have trouble with concentrating so I can’t spend time in the Word. I have trouble focusing so I can’t spend time in prayer. I’m just a red blooded Italian and so, well you know my temper…I just go off man! Let’s see what God says…
• Isaiah Chapter 5 verses 3 – 4. God if You had just done more for me. Given me more abilities. More drive to serve You…more whatever…horrible excuse! God says, “What more could have been done?” I prepared your heart, made it the perfect place at the perfect time. I planted the choicest vine…My truth and My grace and My love…I built you a tower and installed the winepress, I cleared out the stones…and what’s happened? You’ve carried them back in…

• And so you’ve grown rocky, hard, unfruitful…watered down as it were because no roots are drinking up the water (a type of the Word). You see God has done all that is required in each heart that has received Him for us to bring forth good fruit man…and yet the things of this world…grudges, unforgiveness, self filled thoughts and days, careless moment to moment living…just breathing to death, those are all stones that have been cleared out…we carry them back into the vineyard and the fruit is choked…

• You are who you’ve decided to become…period. Well I’ve been dealt a hard hand…I have this going on or that…try that on someone else…God has given and done all that is necessary for us to bear fruit man…love, joy, peace, long suffering, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control!
• He has done all that is required. He has given you His Spirit, opened your eyes, cleared out the stones, removed the junk and maybe today you find yourself filled with things, “you gotta work on.” See it for what it is. Know the truth. You have brought back into the vineyard what He has removed…time to get the shovel and remove them…man for me that’s a bull dozer but I’m on it! Because I take responsibility for where I’m at spiritually and where I’m not at…
• Can you see where you are today, and where you’re not? Do you care? I pray you do because God has life for us but we are free to choose degradation…it’s our choice to make…You guys ever heard of Radio Shack? They’re in big trouble. On the brink of extinction. De-res for all of you TRON fans! Disassemble for all you Short Circuit fans…why? Because they can’t figure out where they’re at man…they won’t face the music and resolve to make a change…A market expert recently commented, “What Radio Shack didn’t do was they didn’t reinvent themselves.” There’s a spiritual word for that, its repentance…The expert continued, “If every year that goes by, you say you’ll manage, trouble is your future.” Same with us man!
• Notice God’s response to sour fruit…fruit that stings rather than feeds others…fruit that He will not touch personally...

• Isaiah Chapter 5 verses 5 – 7. Difficulties will come man…why? Because God is unfaithful? Because God is unmerciful? Not at all. God is love but…sin has consequences man. The world and your flesh and your living for self will leave you defenseless…trampled down, laid waste and prickly. Dry spiritually as the Lord awaits repentance…This is what Jesus is referring to back in Mark Chapter 12 and a very powerful message for us today…

Mark Chapter 12 Verses 2 – 3

• Why? No fruit! If there was fruit…”here is the servant of the owner! Yes come and see what we’ve done! The hard days, the hard hours…all of the tending and the pruning and the watering that we’ve done…come and see!” Man when Madison cleans her room and really puts her all into it, she can’t wait until daddy gets home! Daddy come see my room! But when I’ve told her to clean it and she doesn’t, when I get home, where is she? Can’t find her…She takes me and beats me…no! I’m just kidding but you get the point right?
• If you are diligent in your walk…not intending to be diligent, that doesn’t count. Not being mentally diligent! That serves only self…but serving God will all your heart, soul, mind and strength man! You’re not a gossip! You are a Bible studier, you do make it a point to speak to God always, you do acknowledge Him in all that you do, and you reject your own limited rational understanding…if you are pressing in and growing man when it comes time, you can’t wait to show off that work…when the Lord returns man, to call us home or when you draw in your last breath on this earth…your heart is filled with hope and confidence…but not these…why? Because they’ve been lazy, living for self. No fruit.

Mark Chapter 12 Verses 4 – 8

• Where is Jesus? He is in the temple, of course! And He just had a run in with the chief priests, the scribes and the elders and so who is right there with Him? Yep! The chief priests, the scribes and the elders and guess what? They KNOW He is talking about them. I wonder if He is just staring at them…HA!
• Not only that, they know exactly what He is saying because they knew the scriptures so they are heating up right now! Why? Because Jesus is painting a clear picture of what the world has done…what specifically Israel has done…God has sent His prophets, He has sent His oracles carrying His Word…and finally, now, He has sent His Son. His everything. But they have rejected them and now they have rejected Him…

Mark Chapter 12 Verses 9 – 11

• Dag on…harsh right? No. Their choice. Why is it that folks think that a God of love wouldn’t condemn the world? A God of love would allow choice man…How is it that the world misses that?
• The story of the building of Solomon’s temple is interesting…The chief cornerstone was sent along with the other wall stones and yet the chief cornerstone was larger, didn’t seem to fit as they were building so they cast it aside, thinking it to be an error…but when it came time to place the chief cornerstone they panicked…the building would not be able to endure without it yet the quarry had forgotten to send it…so they sent to the them and said what gives…and the response…you have it already, it was sent long ago…and someone remembered…there in the overgrown weeds…maybe thorns and briars, the stone which the builders rejected…and perfectly it completed and fortified the temple…
• Jesus is saying to the religious elite, you’ve built walls, you’ve fashioned rooms, you’ve called it the house of the Lord…yet it has no strength and will not endure. You’ve lived within the vineyard planted by My Father and yet you have tended only to yourselves and so there is no fruit…stones have crowded back in and now it is only fit to be, well…plowed…burned down and rebuilt properly…look at their response…

Mark Chapter 12 Verse 12

• They sought to lay hands on Him and pray for Him. NOT! HA! They wanted to kill Him! They knew exactly what He was saying and they knew exactly who He was saying that He is…He is the beloved Son and if the Son He is the Heir and in their own Torah, their own Pentateuch, the Books of Moses, “Hear o Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is one…” and so they perceived, they understood, they heard precisely what Jesus was saying, that He and the Father are indeed One and so they wanted to kill Him for blasphemy, for saying He is God and for openly rebuking them…and yet His heart for them…come home.
• Change. Make the decision today. Turn up the rocky soil and allow the choice seeds good soil…but they would not...would you? It’s time to remove those stones that you’ve moved in…stop carrying new ones in man…it’s time to really prepare for Daddy to come home…