Back to sermon search

Full transcript

Welcome to this further study in the book of Daniel. Last week we moved over to the second part of the book, namely to chapter six, So that tonight we move on to another chapter, to chapter seven. Now we have already studied chapter seven in some part, when in the earlier part of the series we compared chapter seven with chapter two. Tonight we want to consider those two chapters again. Let me remind you of what they have in common. They are both prophecies that tell of the coming of Christ, the ultimate coming of Christ, to deal with the Gentile powers that be in the world. And so in chapter uh two, you may remember, Nebuchadnezzar the king was given a dream by God. And in that dream he saw a statue of a man, a very glorious statue of a man. The head was of gold, the breast of silver, the loins of copper, the legs and the feet and toes were of iron, uh, the feet mixed with clay. It was a glorious image and represented the Gentile imperial powers, beginning with Babylon, the great emp- empire of Babylon under its head, Nebuchadnezzar, which was the, uh, power in place when Daniel was alive at the beginning of his career. It was followed, as we saw last week, by the Medo-Persian Empire. But in the dream in which Nebuchadnezzar was given to see this image, God predicted to Nebuchadnezzar the sequence of world empires that would arrive from his time onward. So the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek Empire that arose out of Alexander the Great, and the Roman Empire. They were represented by this glorious image, but the image had a weakness, a fatal weakness, in that it was unstable on its feet. The feet were a mixture of iron and clay. And because of this fatal weakness and instability, it was eventually brought to its end by God as a rock cut out from the mountain without hands, that is by miraculous power, fell upon the image, smashed it to pieces, and the wind blew away the resultant dust. One vision, therefore, of the Gentile imperial powers from the time of Nebuchadnezzar onward. Now, tonight we are to go back to chapter seven. As I say, we have already thought about it, and we noticed that this chapter seven. in some sense, repeats the message given in chapter two. Chapter seven is likewise a prophecy and a vision of a succession of Gentile imperial powers, starting with Nebuchadnezzar. But the difference between chapter seven and chapter two is in the imagery that is used to depict the succession of Gentile empires. Here they are depicted through this statue, glorious, magnificent, and it was a statue of a man representing the glorious achievements of human power in the great empires that succeeded one another in that day. It had its fatal weakness, of course. But here, the same Gentile empires are looked at from a different point of view. They're represented not by a glorious image, brilliant image of a man. They are represented by a succession of wild animals. And the fourth one of them is an amalgam of animals, so to speak. It is so hideously destructive that in the end, God, in order to save the human race, has the fourth beast destroyed. Tonight we're not going to repeat that. We're going to look at these chapters to see what they may tell us about the second coming of Christ. In this image, the coming of Christ, his second coming is represented by the stone cut out without hands, that is by divine power, that smashes this image, all of it together, does away with Gentile imperial powers, and establishes the kingdom of God on earth. In chapter seven, a similar thing takes place. The final beast is destroyed, but its position, its, uh, power is given over, this time to one who is called the Son of Man. And just as the stone here makes a very big contrast with the brilliant artifice of the image of a man. So here, our Lord, depicted as the Son of Man, makes a very vivid contrast with all his glorious humanity, a vivid contrast with the hideous strength of those wild animals. Two different ways, therefore, of looking at the succession of Gentile empires. From one side, brilliant, from another side, like irresponsible power blocks, wild animals, full of destruction. But as I say tonight, we're going to look at these two chapters and think about what they have to tell us, in particular, about the second coming of our Lord. So let's begin by reading from chapter two just to remind ourselves of the actual scripture. Daniel chapter two. And beginning to read there in verse thirty four. This is Daniel telling Nebuchadnezzar what his dream was and what it represented. Verse thirty four, thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and break them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. And again, now as Daniel interprets the dream, verse forty four: And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. For as much as our source that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. As I say, tonight we're going to fasten on that imagery, the stone that s- fell on the image and broke it to pieces, and itself became a great mountain of a kingdom. What it can tell us about the second coming of Christ. Now let's look at chapter seven and the counterpart to this in chapter seven, beginning in verse seven. and reading to verse fourteen. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrible and powerful and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. It devoured and break in pieces and stamp the residue with his feet, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. I beheld till thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did sit, and his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, and the whole, the wheels thereof burning fire. The fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld at that time because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake. I beheld even till the beast was slain and his body destroyed, and he was given to be burned with fire. And as for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto the Son of Man. And he came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Verse seventeen: These great beasts which are four are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth, but the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. And finally now, uh, lower down, uh, to verse twenty two. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints received the kingdom. Verse twenty seven: and the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Let that content us for the moment as our reading. As I say, tonight we're going to think about this imagery and what it can tell us about our Lord's second coming. So, first, let us go to the New Testament. But when it comes to the Lord's second coming and all the events that will cluster around his second coming, there are features, are there not, about which Christians hold differing views. So we love them all. That is, we love all the Christians. And we don't let differences about prophetic things ruin Christian fellowship. Surely we don't. And then you'll see, one of the best ways for ourselves is to start our interpretation of these prophetic things with the words of our Lord Jesus, and begin with his explicit statements, so that we are not at first obliged to make all sorts of deductions. We can set both feet firmly down on the statements of our Lord, explicit statements about his second coming. Now I want to remind you of how unique our Lord's interpretation of the Old Testament was. Because you can read the whole of the Old Testament through, and you will not come across the phrases, the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ. Or if you do come across it, let me know. The Old Testament prophesied, of course, that the Messiah, as we have just read, would come on the clouds of heaven. And coming with the clouds of heaven in the Old Testament is an emblem of deity. But another prophecy, namely Zechariah chapter nine verse nine, told Jerusalem to expect the coming of Christ, and when he came, he'd come on a donkey. Now, it doesn't take a lot of intellectual s- uh, power, does it? To see the difference between the two, our Lord coming with the clouds of heaven and our Lord coming on a donkey. You say it couldn't be both simultaneous, could it? How will you explain it? The Old Testament does not use the term, one happened at the first coming. He came on a donkey to Jerusalem. The second will happen at his second coming. So what right have we Christians to say that there are going to be two comings of the Messiah? So let us go first to our Lord himself and see what he has to say upon this matter. And this is chapter twenty two, Beginning to read at verse forty one. Now, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, what think you of the Christ? Notice the phraseology. He's not saying, what do you think of me? Though, of course, he was the Christ, the Messiah. But he is asking these Pharisees what they expect the Messiah to be on the basis of the Old Testament and on the basis of the Old Testament prophecies. So he's saying, what do you think about the Messiah, the Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, the son of David. Yes, there were many scriptures in the Old Testament that said that the Messiah, when he came, would be a descendant of the great King David. But now watch what our Lord replies to them. He says unto them, how then doth David in the spirit call him Lord. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet. If David then calls him Lord, how can he be his son? That is, in the sense, how can he be only his son? What our Lord is doing is quoting the first verse of an Old Testament psalm. It's Psalm one hundred and ten, is it not? That runs like this, the Lord, Jehovah, that is. And it's David who's writing the psalm and speaking. So David, King David, is saying, the Lord Jehovah said to my Lord, David's Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. If King David called the Messiah Lord, how can the Messiah be simply David's son? I think every Irish gentleman here will understand the logic. You're going away on holiday, sir, and you're afraid that while you're away, the grass will grow too high, you see. So you call your son and say, now look here, my boy, I'm going away. Isn't that what you say? Or do you say, now look, my lord, would you mow the grass while I'm away? I think not. I don't think you would call your son lord. Not being Irish, anyway. We wouldn't in England anyway, either. How then did David call Messiah Lord? And not merely that, you see, the Lord, Jehovah said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. And from that we notice a very important, interesting thing. Here was the Lord Jesus standing in the temple court, a few days before he was in fact crucified by these same religious authorities. And he's asking them the question, what do you think about the Messiah? And quoting Psalm one hundred and ten. now listen to the second bit of that first verse. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. This was our blessed Lord, who was, of course, the Messiah. Here was he standing on earth. But calling to mind the prophetic voice of Psalm one hundred and ten verse one, where Jehovah would say to our Lord, sit at my right hand. Ponder that for a moment. If you came home and found me sitting on your settee, sir, in your lounge, you wouldn't, I think, say, oh, sit down, because I'm already seated. If I weren't seated, of course, you might well say in your politeness, oh, do sit down. You wouldn't say sit down if I were already seated down. And here is God, Jehovah, saying to the Messiah, sit at my right hand, which shows at that moment he wasn't seated at the right hand. He's been invited to sit at the right hand. But now notice the other thing. This is Messiah talking, and at the moment Messiah is on earth. He has come. He came by way of Bethlehem. And when at the end of his public ministry he came to Jerusalem, he came riding on the donkey. Matthew explains it, so does Mark and Luke. Fulfilling Zechariah chapter nine verse nine, the great prophecy. Rejoice, sign, your king comes to you, lowly riding on an ass and on the foal of an ass. And our Lord deliberately took an ass and deliberately rode into Jerusalem on the back of that donkey in order to fulfill that prophecy, claiming to be the Messiah coming to Jerusalem. His first coming. But then they crucified him, did they not? And our Lord is saying, how about? Listen to Psalm one hundred and ten verse one, written all those centuries ago. Then the Lord would say to the Messiah, come and sit at my right hand. Yes. A prophecy of our Lord's ascension. He was crucified, rose again the third day, and ascended to heaven and sat at the right hand of God. Notice the final part of that verse. Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. From which we learn, by our Lord's own interpretation, that there were to be two comings of the Messiah. What we now call his first coming, and he came to Bethlehem and came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and was crucified. Died, was buried, rose again, and ascended to heaven. Until? Until when? Until his enemies have made the footstool of his feet, as we shall presently see. That will happen at his second coming. That interpretation of the, of the Old Testament prophecies, that there were to be two comings of Messiah, not just one, goes back to our Lord himself. Let's look at that from another scripture, Acts chapter three, verses twenty and twenty one. This is Peter talking to the crowd in the temple courts in Jerusalem. Not long after our Lord had ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit had come, and here are Peter and John preaching to the crowds. And he's saying to them, verse nineteen, repent you therefore and turn again that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ who has been appointed for you, even Jesus, whom the heaven must receive until the time of the restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began. See what he's saying? Christ now ascended into heaven, and we need to repent and to be ready, says, uh, Peter to Israel, because one day he is coming again. The heaven must receive him and retain him until the time of the restoration of all things of which the Old Testament spoke. So in this present time, he is in heaven, seated at the right hand of God, and waiting until the time when the enemies shall be made the footstool of his feet. One other scripture at this point, Hebrews chapter ten, in which famous verses the writer is contrasting the Jewish priests with their often repeated sacrifices, and the sacrifice of Christ offered once and for all. So we have in verse eleven, and every priest indeed stands day by day, that's every Jewish priest, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But he, that is our Lord, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting, waiting until his enemies be made the footstool of his feet. Notice this repetition. Why bother about the repetition? Because we're asking for things about which we can be certain. In the explicit statements of the New Testament, the first coming of Christ according to the prophets, his ministry on earth, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, we're waiting for his second coming, likewise prophesied by that Old Testament. Now let us look at another famous passage, Luke chapter four, And notice a very important imprecation of this doctrine that there are two comings of Christ. Luke chapter four. And so our Lord comes, verse sixteen, to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the book and found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. So put your thumb in that place in the Bible, if you, if you've got a thumb and have a Bible, and put your, uh, thumb just in there, because we're first going to look back at the prophet Isaiah, who first delivered this prophecy, and we'll see exactly what the prophecy said. And then we'll notice how our Lord quoted it. This is Isaiah chapter sixty one. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all them that mourn, to point unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. Would you notice all those details? And in particular, verse two, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, and so forth. If we've got that on our minds, let's go back to the synagogue in Nazareth, where our Lord has read from Isaiah sixty one in the scroll given to him by the ruler of the synagogue. He has read some of that prophecy, do you see? And so we're told, verse seventeen, he opened the book and found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And at that point, he closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of all those that in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears. This was, of course, sensational. He was in Nazareth, the village where, uh, he spent most of his boyhood and his early manhood, and sitting around was Mary, maybe Joseph still, and aunts and uncles and such like things, do you see? And they all knew him. They thought he was the carpenter's son anyway. And he dared to read that passage from Isaiah, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, he's anointed me, claiming to be the Messiah, the anointed one. And then he quotes Isaiah about his mission, to open the prison, to set at liberty them that are bound, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And then he stopped. Closed the book. And said, today this scripture is fulfilled. We may be glad he closed the book at that stage, because you have seen what the next phrase said, haven't you? The day of vengeance of our God. If he had read that phrase and said that today is this scripture fulfilled in your ears, there must have followed some dying judgments. Of course, some of the people in Nazareth were disappointed because the day of vengeance as they understood it, being Jews, that God would rise up and deal with the Gentile nations, that's what he would do, and avenge Israel and drive out the Romans, and if need be, smite them hip and thigh. They would have been glad if our Lord had done it. The fact he didn't do it sort of disappointed them. But of course, if our Lord had begun the work of judgment, where would he have ceased? You know, some people have a very simplistic idea. They say, you know, if there's a God, why doesn't God stop all the evil in this world. Yes, that's a thought. Uh, suppose he did. Where would he start? You say it'd be a simple matter. He would divide the people up and put all the good ones in one bundle here, and all the bad ones in another bundle there, and he'd take a big sword and slice off the heads of all the bad ones and leave the good ones. Simple, isn't it? And if God instituted his judgment today, which, uh, group, if you wouldn't mind my asking, which group would you be in? Uh, among the good ones? You'll see God is impartial in his judgment. And in the mercy of Christ, when he came the first time, as he himself put it, he came to seek and save that which is lost. He came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. That's why he came. And that's why eventually he died on the cross, is it not? As the apostle said, he bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might pass away from unrighteousness and live unto God, that we might find forgiveness, the cancellation of the debt of our sin, and be reconciled with God and become children of God. That's what he came to do the first time. There will be a second time. And when he comes a second time, then he will deal the wrath of God upon the unrepentant. Now let's look at this once more, because this is important for our understanding of Daniel, that we get our Lord's own interpretation of it. So here is Matthew thirteen once more. Our Lord is describing the progress of his kingdom. It's going to be established by the preaching of the word, not by the use of the sword. Pray notice it. Our Lord forbade his disciples ever to use the sword in order to propagate his kingdom, forbade them to use it even to defend his kingdom. My kingdom is not of this world, he says. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I should not be delivered to the Jews. My kingdom is not from hence. You are a king then, said Pilate to him. Yes, says Christ, and for this cause I was born, and for this cause I came into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth. Now ponder it. You cannot convince a person of the truth by threatening him that if he doesn't agree with you, you will execute him. You can't do it. If the person says, oh yes, I believe just to escape your sword, well, they haven't really believed, have they? Our Lord is such a king. He came to bear witness of the truth. He prepared his apostles, the prophets and followers, to use the sword to propagate his kingdom or even to defend it, do you see? So now here he, uh, the kingdom is to be advanced by the preaching of the word. Then he told a parable of a farmer who had sowed his field with good wheat, but while he slept, an enemy came and sowed tares, that's false wheat. And eventually, when the good wheat and the tares grew up, his servants noticed it, and they came to their master and said, is it your will that we go and gather up the tares? Clean them up, pull up the weeds, you see. So let the good stuff grow. And he said, no, lest happily, while you gather up the tares, you root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until. This is our Lord laying down the program. There will come a time when he will rise up and execute judgment. Let's look at the interpretation of the parable, you'll see, verse forty of the passage. As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be in the end of the age. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and them that do iniquity. He shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. How is this relevant to Daniel? You say our preacher tonight is verily getting old because he's wandered from Daniel now and shows no sign of ever coming back. Do you see? Must be getting old and doddery. Oh, but it's relevant. Believe you me, it's relevant. If you dare to come next week, we shall see how relevant it is, do you see? Because in Daniel we're going to read of the time when our Lord shall come again and execute the judgment of God on the Gentile imperial systems. Chapter two says it. Chapter seven says it. We want to distinguish in our minds when these things, exactly what they refer to, don't we? And when this shall happen. And we need to get it clear then, according to our Lord in the New Testament, as he understood, or he wrote it in any way, the Old Testament, the Old Testament implied, and now he is stating it. There were to be two comings of Messiah, the one when he came to Bethlehem, to Jerusalem on the donkey, died at Calvary deliberately to make a ransom for our souls, was buried, rose again, and has gone back to heaven and is waiting until the time when his enemies be made his footstool, when he shall come again. Here under the figure of the stone cut out without hands, to smash the image and blow it away and set up his kingdom on earth. Here in the image of the wild beasts, they shall be destroyed, and God will give the kingdom to the Son of Man. Now let's see that, and our Lord actually says so. This is Matthew, once more, Matthew chapter twenty six verse fifty nine. And this is our Lord talking to his judges, the Jewish judges. Now the chief priests and the whole council sought witness against Jesus that they might put him to death, and they found it not, though many false witnesses came, but afterward came two and said, this man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. And the high priest stood up and said unto him, answerest thou nothing? What is it which these witnesses witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Messiah, that is, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, You have said it. Nevertheless, I say unto you, and here come the words relevant to what we're talking about. Henceforth you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power. He's saying you shall see the son of man. What do you mean the son of man? Well, the son of man that Daniel talked about. Whom in the vision Daniel saw, the son of man coming with the clouds to the ancient of days and being given the kingdom. Our Lord is calling their attention, even when he was on trial for his life and they were about to accuse him of blasphemy for saying what he said and to crucify him, saying, yes, you may crucify me, but I shall rise again, and you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, that's on the right hand of God, and coming, like Daniel said, on the clouds of heaven. This is our Lord interpreting Daniel chapter seven. So this much, uh, we may take and put our feet firmly down on it. There's no argument you don't want to argue with Christ, you. Uh, there's no argument about it. He's coming, and when he comes, he will took down power and all authority. But what about, ah, you say, ah, but wait a minute. You've concentrated on chapter seven. What about chapter two, Where we read about that image, and it was of various metals, gold and silver and copper and iron and iron and clay. And we read how a stone cut out without hands, Hebrew for by miraculous power, it cut out and it fell upon the image and smashed it to pieces, and the wind took it away. Mm-hmm. Well now, uh, has our Lord anything to say about that? What does that represent? And when is it going to happen? Uh, do you see? Well, this time again, we go back to Luke, shall we? And this is Luke chapter twenty. And while you're finding the place, let me remind you that in this chapter, our Lord told the Pharisees among the Jews and others a parable. How a, a man planted a vineyard, you see. He's a wealthy man, and uh, went off for a cruise or something, and let it out to husbandmen, to tenants, to see, to keep the vineyard. And when the time of the grapes came, the landlord, he sent servants to, um, collect the dues, you see. But the tenants took their, the, the man's servants and generally beat them up and threw them out and refused to give them anything. So at long last, the owner, he had one son, and he said, well, I'll, I'll send my son then. Surely they will reverence my son. But the tenants saw the son coming down the road, and as they skulked behind the glass houses, you see, and they saw him, they talked together what they do. They said, this is the heir. Look, let's kill him, and then the vineyard will be ours. What a vivid parable that is, isn't it? And worth extending in all its meanings to, to all sorts of places. Typical of many human beings, isn't it? They like to live in this world as if they owned it. They like to forget that they're merely tenants. We're only tenants, aren't we? We don't own the place. It's God who owns it. And God sent his son into our world. He, the one through whom the universe was made, and sent him to claim his rights. And men, even religious men, saw the air coming, determined to destroy him, thinking the vineyard would be theirs. Well, the rulers who stood around him saw the point of the parable, and our Lord asked them the question, verse fifteen of chapter twenty. What therefore will the Lord of the vineyard do unto them? He will come and destroy those tenants and will give the vineyard unto others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. But he looked upon them and said, what then is this that is written? The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner. Quoting once more from a psalm from the Old Testament. Who were the builders? Well, the rulers. And in particular, the rulers of the temple. Ha ha. And our Lord said that when they killed him, God would take the vineyard away from them and give it to others. That is precisely what happened, isn't it? From the day of Pentecost onwards, it was the apostles of Christ that were given now the message to preach, and they preached it, and thousands got converted from Israel, but then it didn't stop there. The gospel went out throughout the whole world, and it's not under the control of the religious authorities in Judaism, is it? So he said they'll take it away and give it to others, so it will bring forth the fruit thereof. But now notice the next word. Do you see? This is the stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner. The absolute foundation stone of the new temple that is the people of Christ. Now two things follow. Everyone that falleth on that stone shall be broken to pieces. But on whomsoever it shall fall, it will scatter him at dust. Remember what happened to this image? Go on, see if you can remember. How was that image destroyed? How? Stone fell on it. Yes, a stone fell on it, smashed it to smithereens, and the wind took it away. On whomsoever it shall fall, says Christ. But now notice that verse contains two things, not one. So let's take the first one first. Everyone that falleth on this stone shall be broken to pieces. What does that mean? Well, how can you fall upon the stone, so to speak? Well, let's look at Romans, shall we? Epistle to the Romans. Yes, chapter nine, verse thirty. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by work. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling. Even as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. What has happened, says Paul, to the Jews? Now don't you Gentile believers get uppish. You are to love them, not fight against them. You are to love them. What has happened to them? Well, they were very religious. And where they went wrong was this. They sought salvation, as the verse has it here, by their works. Do you know that is a widespread attitude in this world, as far as I can judge in my travels? People normally accept it that seems to them to be the right thing. If you're going to be saved at last and enter into paradise, it will depend on your good works. And Israel sought it that way. And the man who wrote this letter to the Romans before he got converted to Christ, he sought it that way. Seeking salvation and acceptance with God on the basis of our good works. When they heard the gospel of Christ, that salvation isn't by works. Because when we've done our best, we have come short of God's standards, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And therefore, all God's law can do is to curse us. Do you see? But since that is so, what God has done in his mercy and grace and love is to send his son to take our place, to pay the penalty of our sin, to give his life a ransom, that we might be redeemed, on the basis of which God can offer us salvation, forgiveness, free and for nothing, as a gift. But you know, when Paul's contemporaries heard this, that their good works could never earn them salvation, but they wanted to be saved, they had to be saved and receive it as a gift from God. Do you know what? Instead of saying, that's marvelous, we never heard anything so marvelous in all our lives, you see. No, they got uppish and offended. Hm, you must think we're very bad, and our good works are as good as yours, and all that kind of nonsense. Isn't it funny? That people think that they can earn salvation from the Almighty, but what they do, when the Almighty tells us straight, we all come short and deserve the wages of sin, which is death. But God's salvation, this marvelous salvation, is that we can be saved through Christ. By grace are you saved through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. So they, they heard this message, many of them, and they stumbled over it and damaged themselves. They stumble over it, and many do still. And Peter says the same thing in one Peter chapter two. They stumble at it. And many stumble at it still. The great doctrine of salvation through Christ, a gift free and for nothing, forgiveness, reconciliation, acceptance with God, and a sure, sure place in his heaven as a gift. To stumble over that is to damage yourself. There's something worse. Said our Lord, this stone. It's a metaphor for himself, isn't it? Stumble over it and his message of salvation, you'll damage yourself. But on whomsoever that stone shall fall. Now, it's not a question of people stumbling over it. It's a question of the stone coming and falling on them. We'll grind them to powder. That's very solemn, isn't it? Notice the future tense. On whomever it shall fall. It will. For Christ hadn't come now to destroy sinners, but to save them. In his first coming, he came to give his life a ransom for many and to save men and women. But at his second coming, he shall come with all the glory of the Father and execute the judgments of God on our wicked world. We haven't got very far tonight, have we? What we've been trying to do is to read these chapters and to see where our Lord has commented on them, and make that the basis. Then we can go on and explore the matter further, can't we, when we have got his verdict and the explicit statements of the New Testament. But let us rejoice. Jesus is coming. Sing the glad word, coming for those he redeemed by his blood, coming to reign as the glorified Lord. Jesus is coming again. Let's pray and ask God's help to accept his word. From our hearts, Father, we thank thee that thou hast sent thy dear Son into our world. We bless thee for the wonderful fact that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost, and to give his life a ransom for many. And all of us who know our sins forgiven and peace with thee through the sacrifice of thy dear Son. We do come with overflowing hearts to praise thee for his first coming. We thank thee, Father, for the assurance of thy word that Christ is coming again. We bless thee.