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Copyright © 2012 J. Neely. All rights reserved.
Chapter 35 - Wicked Vine Growers
Matt. 21:43-44
43 Therefore [dia] [touto] say I [lego] unto you [humin] , [hoti] The kingdom [basileia] of God [theos] shall be taken [airo] from [apo] you [humon] , and [kai] given [didomi] to a nation [ethnos] bringing forth [poieo] the fruits [karpos] thereof [autos] .
44 And [kai] whosoever shall fall [pipto] on [epi] this [touton] stone [lithos] shall be broken [sunthlao] : but [de] on [epi] whomsoever [hos] [an] it shall fall [pipto] , it will grind [likmao] him [autos] to powder [likmao] . KJV-Interlinear
43 'Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it. 44 'And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.' NASB
People stumble not by accident, but by their own intentional decisions, and not by uninformed knowledge, but people make their, negative toward God decisions, knowing the repercussions of their decisions.
1 Pet. 2:8 'for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.'
Appointment to doom comes by the decree of God. A decree made in eternity past. Doom belongs to those who reject Jesus Christ. They are appointed to it, and in effect make their own appointment by making their own choice in life to reject God.
Likewise, those who have believed in Christ and are therefore saved, have numerous opportunities to advance in their spiritual life (everyday of their life). But there are many who do not pursue with vigor, a program to advance in their spiritual life. They make their choices.
Are they naive? No. All know the opportunities of the spiritual life, but excuse after excuse comes along and prevents them from a daily study, prevents them from believing the things that they do study, prevents them from getting over their self pity when life doesn't go their way. So their spiritual life doesn't get very far off the ground, if at all.
We should know regarding believers in our current dispensation, 1 Peter 2:9, 'But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for Gods own possession.' We have the greatest opportunities of anyone who has ever lived in all of history. We have far greater opportunities in our spiritual life than anyone in all of the Old Testament times.
David was a king even beginning a dynasty which will never end. Yet we have opportunities far greater than David. Solomon was and has been the wealthiest man in all of history. His wealth totals will never be exceeded by anyone. Yet we have opportunities far greater than Solomon.
Where do our opportunities come from? John 15:5-6, 'I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 'If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. NASB
Our opportunities come from Jesus Christ - the written word. We have to have Jesus Christ in us, Bible doctrine in our souls, placed there through our daily study of Bible doctrine. And, we have to abide in Him, apply that which we learn to our daily life. This produces divine production which is credited to us. Apart from Christ (the written word) in our soul, we have no other means of producing divine good.
He who produces divine good qualifies for divine reward. He who does not produce divine good (does not abide in Him) will be burned and discarded from the vine of prosperity.
Now there are two ways to look at this. First, unbelievers, or those who refuse to believe in Christ, and negative believers, or those who initially believed in Christ at some point in their life and now either reject Christ, or those who incorporate a lot of their own worldly beliefs in with their attempted spiritual life - to these all who in effect fall on the corner stone, Jesus Christ, they will all be broken into pieces.
Their lives will end up a huge waste of time. At death they will have nothing to show for their lives and therefore will go into eternity with nothing (unbelievers) or very little (negative believers) in their souls.
Those who reject Christ outright (unbelievers will see the wrath of Christ and that stone will in return fall on them. They (unbelievers) will be crushed into oblivion. Oblivion means they will become absolutely worthless.
Negative believers will receive their burning at the Judgment Seat of Christ, where Christ will burn away all that human good, all that wood, hay, and stubble that they have accumulated in their soul, and they (those negative believers) will enter into eternity with whatever reward is appropriate (very little) to their empty souls.
The Kingdom of God? That will go to believers only. Those who rejected Christ (and here He is speaking to unbelieving priests), those who have tried to define their own kingdom of god, they will lose it all. The Kingdom will be given over to others (believers in Christ), a nation, or collection of peoples, who will abide by Gods principles and wisdom.
Who runs this world of six billion plus people? Very few. So the illustration will apply in heaven. Not all will run whatever there is to run in eternity. Jesus Christ will of course run everything forever. But there will be a division of privilege, of reward, of crowns, of awards, of wages, and so forth, Rev. 1-3, between all believers. Not all will receive the greater rewards. Only the few who remain loyal to Gods word will reside in that upper class of believers. Review the many parables which we have covered recently, concerning this concept.
This high rank of privilege is open to all however. No one is excluded unless they exclude themselves by their very own choices - negative choices concerning their daily Bible study and more important, their application, or the lack of application, of Bible doctrine to their daily lives.
Again by appointment, negative people make their own appointment. If we are defeated in our spiritual lives, then we defeat ourselves. If we succeed, then it is by the grace of God who provides us with the means of victory, that we might succeed.
To fail means that your eternal reward goes to someone else (the ten minas parable). To succeed means that your eternal reward goes to you.
Jesus Christ makes this very clear now. The priests now have their eyes wide open. Back in verse 16, Jesus pointed out that even young people can see the difference in truth. Why can't they (the priests) see the truth of life? Even young people can discern between the hypocrisy of the world, so why do adults get involved with all manner of self centered ideas, just to have their way in life?
God lays it all out in plain English (so to speak) so that we can all understand. No one has any excuse. Everyone can succeed in their spiritual life. Those who fail, have only themselves to blame!
Look into that mirror and figure out where it is you stand in life. Those who succeed in life recognize their flaws and pursue the counsel of God in order to improve themselves. Those who will ultimately fail in life are those who do not see their flaws (or they just ignore them), and they believe that they know themselves, and know what they need to do in order to succeed in life.
They do not seek the counsel of God (Bible study), they obviously have something better. The end result? They fail! And what is worse, anyone who is going to fail, is destined to fail (because of their own choices in life), but they will not know it (they won't accept this idea) until it is too late - after they die.
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