Sermon

The Parable of Two Sons (The Last Week of Jesus Part 4) - Frank Brancato

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. As we begin this morning, we do so in marks account in Mark,

    Mark 11 chapter mention

  2. chapter 11 and verse 27. The Bible says, then they came

  3. again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the

  4. temple, the chief priests the scribes, and the elders came to

  5. him. This is a day that tradition

  6. tells us was the cult was called the day of controversy, or it

  7. was the day of questions. Jesus is probably walking into

  8. the court of the Gentiles. And when it talks about the

  9. temple, it's not talking about the temple proper.

  10. It's not talking about the place of worship.

  11. It is talking about the temple court and one of which was the

  12. court of the Gentiles, that was the most, that was the biggest

  13. place and that was the place that allowed the majority of the

  14. people to go. Only Gentiles can go there.

  15. Notice what happens, though? It's on Tuesday.

  16. Jesus has just cleanse the temple and Marc records, the

  17. third time that Jesus comes to that area.

  18. And we could just picture in Our Minds Eye as he's walking across

  19. the court of the Gentiles and he's teaching people and no

  20. doubt. He is healing people, but on the

  21. scene, he is addressed by the following, there were the chief

  22. priests. They were the scribes and also

  23. the elders, and they came to him an obvious formal delegation.

  24. Now, let's talk about the chief priests who were, they the chief

  25. priests were composed of the Current high priest.

  26. The previous high priest. And also all the dignitaries

  27. that the current high priest would have allowed to be in that

  28. group. History tells us that the

  29. majority of the chief priests were under the Jewish sect of

  30. the Sadducees. We know the difference between a

  31. Pharisee and a sadducee. The primary difference was the

  32. Pharisees believed in the resurrection.

  33. While the Sadducees. Did not the chief priests were

  34. composed primarily of Sadducees their job.

  35. Was the custodial rights to the temple.

  36. They were the ones that had the temple and it was in custody to

  37. them. That was one group of people

  38. that were there. What about the scribes?

  39. The scribes were the experts in the law.

  40. They were the ones that studied the law.

  41. They were the ones that interpreted the law and

  42. interesting. In these two groups of people,

  43. the chief priests being the Sadducees, the scribes were

  44. primarily made up of Pharisees, but there was a third group to

  45. and that were it. Was the elders, the elders were

  46. the respective heads of the tribes or the heads of tribal

  47. divisions. Now it is probably true.

  48. As most Scholars said that, the chief priests are leading the

  49. way. Now, I don't know how many

  50. people were there. The Bible doesn't say.

  51. So, it just says that it was plural.

  52. So, we have a quite a few men, no doubt, and no doubt.

  53. They're led by the chief priests.

  54. And the reason for that is the cut.

  55. The questions that are being asked, have nothing to do with

  56. worship or law or the interpretation of the law, which

  57. would have involved. The scribes is talking about the

  58. custodial reich's of the temple. It's talking about in reference

  59. to what Jesus just did. When he Just the temple.

  60. And Mark chapter 11 and verse 28.

    Mark 11 chapter mention

  61. Here is the first question and they said to him by, what

  62. Authority are you doing these things and who gave you this

  63. authority to do these things? Now we find that inevitably,

  64. they asked Jesus for questions but the first two questions

  65. specifically refer to the Lord's interference with the temple

  66. market and you know, on the surface it might appear to be

  67. very Very reasonable. I mean, after all, here comes a

  68. Galilean and in their mind and so many people considered him,

  69. just a Galilean Carpenter, here was a Galilean Carpenter and his

  70. friends people in Galilee were not educated.

  71. They didn't have higher education in Galilee.

  72. In fact, you remember in Acts chapter 2, I love that remark.

    Acts 2 chapter mention

  73. When they're speaking in tongues as the spirit gave them,

  74. utterance they said aren't all these that speak Galilean.

  75. In other words, they didn't teach languages in Galilee.

  76. So there was no one that had any credentials at all came out of

  77. Galilee and that's also what is meant when it says nothing?

  78. Good came out of Nazareth but here's the Lord and he's on the

  79. scene and they want to know, what are your credentials, who

  80. gave you the authority, and what Authority do you have to do?

  81. What you have? Just done in the cleansing of

  82. the temple. Remember when Jesus came in and

  83. he overturned the tables of the moneychangers that picture this

  84. one of the Lord do. All of a sudden he comes in, he

  85. overturned the tables of the moneychangers.

  86. He says my father's house, shall be a House of Prayer.

  87. You made it a den of Thieves. He overturned the chairs of

  88. those that sold the doves and then he said, and get those

  89. cages out of here. He ran the people out that were

  90. the vendors that were selling in the market, there in the Gentile

  91. area of the marketplace. There ran them out to read the

  92. people out that were buying and selling and I ran the people out

  93. there were making it some kind of a thoroughfare or shortcut to

  94. go through from one city to the next.

  95. That's what he just did. And they want to know.

  96. Where did you get the authority? I want to know.

  97. Where did you get it? What Authority do you have?

  98. Who gave it to you? In other words, Jesus is showing

  99. or demonstrating that he has Superior jurisdiction and they

  100. want to know why he did such things.

  101. Now, when you think about this, very idea, first of all,

  102. understand in the temple. In the courtyard of the

  103. Gentiles. Remember, it was a lucrative

  104. bizarre business and it was actually called the Sons of

  105. anise and I'll tell you something like I even mentioned

  106. a couple weeks ago, I guess it was.

  107. I quoted my father-in-law and my father-in-law always said.

  108. If you want to get a man's attention, you tap him on the

  109. wallet. If you really want to get

  110. somebody's attention, you just alter or you just affect their

  111. money. That's exactly what happened

  112. here. It was called the bizarre of the

  113. sons of anise and all these things were going on.

  114. It was a very lucrative business in the Lord comes in and put a

  115. stop to it. All, no doubt he has now, got

  116. their attention. Now, where is his ordination?

  117. Where's his credentials? They want to know that he can

  118. interfere with temple protocol but there were something else.

  119. They understood this to that. Jesus was unlike any man that

  120. Lift. Remember when Jesus was

  121. preaching, they said no man taught or spoke as Jesus did.

  122. No one spoke with the authority of Jesus.

  123. No one was like Jesus. And you know what, there's a lot

  124. of people that follow Jesus for all manner of reasons while he

  125. lived. In the last three years of his

  126. life, one of the reasons that people follow Jesus was because

  127. of his Charisma, you know, we talked about people that have a

  128. charismatic personality people that just you're drawn to them

  129. because of their personality. What if, what if you were Jesus

  130. Christ and you have that charismatic personality and

  131. people are drawn to you, but in addition to that, you have

  132. healed their sick. People, you have fed their

  133. hungry, you have raised their dead, you have caused blind eyes

  134. to see. Don't you see?

  135. The people that were rejecting? Jesus still realized, they had a

  136. great problem because now people are following Jesus.

  137. Remember Caiaphas. I don't understand this at all.

  138. I don't understand this at all. After Jesus raised Lazarus from

  139. the dead. Caiaphas said, he raised him

  140. from the dead. He admitted it, he didn't say

  141. that. People said he raised him from

  142. the dead. Caiaphas said, he raised Lazarus

  143. from the dead. That's what it says.

  144. And then Caiaphas said, we got to do away with him.

  145. We can't let this go. We can't let people follow this

  146. movement. People, these people, these

  147. Chief priests realize they had a problem.

  148. But notice this, they want to know what his credentials are.

  149. They want to know where he gave the authority?

  150. They want to know all that stuff.

  151. And this is the response but Jesus answered and said to them.

  152. I will also ask you one question, then answer me and I

  153. will tell you by what Authority I do these things then he said

  154. the baptism of John, was the baptism of John from Heaven or

  155. was it from man? And then he finishes by saying,

  156. again, answer me. Now this phrase baptism of John

  157. refers to the entire work and teaching as a whole of John and

  158. it was symbolized. Obviously in the baptism of

  159. repentance. Now they got a dilemma here, you

  160. know why? Because the people considered

  161. that John the Baptist was a prophet.

  162. The people consider that, in fact, the Bible talks about John

  163. the Baptist, it says it says that John the Baptist was

  164. greater than all the men in the land and yet two things.

  165. He says to Jesus I'm not even worthy of latching his sandals

  166. as one translation renders it because the one that's coming

  167. after me is mightier than I. I'm not even worthy to bearish

  168. use. That was Jesus.

  169. The Bible does record though, that there was no man like John

  170. the Baptist and yet interestingly we find out in the

  171. word of God. It says that the least in the

  172. kingdom is greater than John the Baptist because John the Baptist

  173. was never in the church. That's how he talks about

  174. someone that's a Christian. Ian in the kingdom and that

  175. great. But notice the people considered

  176. John the Baptist a profit. Now here's the problem.

  177. If they say that John the Baptist was not from heaven.

  178. Now they got a problem with the people because the people

  179. considered him to be a prophet. All right?

  180. That's one thing, can't do that, can't say that.

  181. Now, if they said wait a minute, John the Baptist was from

  182. heaven. Then they have to admit

  183. something else. A passenger, brother, Carl

  184. quotes? Quite often at the table.

  185. I love that. John the Baptist declared Jesus

  186. as the Messiah. The world considered, John the

  187. Baptist a prophet John, the Baptist considered Jesus, the

  188. Messiah and in John 1 and 29. When he says, Behold the Lamb of

  189. God, which takes away the sin of the world, they got a real

  190. problem, they got a real dilemma.

  191. If they said he's not from God. Now he got a problem with the

  192. people because he's a prophet, if they say he was a God, then

  193. they're going to say, wait a minute, John, the Baptist that

  194. was from God said. That Jesus was the Messiah, so

  195. all that happens. All that problem.

  196. So they reasoned it out. They reasoned among themselves.

  197. And if you go down a couple of verses, we find this in verse

  198. 33. So they answered and said to

  199. Jesus, we do not know and Jesus answered and said to them.

  200. Neither will I tell you by what Authority I do these things, I

  201. think it's important to note the following They were not

  202. concerned with what was true. Please get this.

  203. They were not concerned with what was true.

  204. Number two, they were not concerned with what was right.

  205. Number three, they were only concerned with what was safe.

  206. I read one comment. Are you always said, sit in

  207. that, the perfect picture of the crowd pleaser or the hypocrite,

  208. not really concerned about the truth that really concerned

  209. about what's right? But only concerned with what was

  210. safe, that's all I cared about. That's all they cared about what

  211. was safe. In an attempt to save himself

  212. from the Dilemma, you know they said they professed ignorance,

  213. you've heard me say this you've heard me talk about ignorance

  214. why does Jesus in John chapter 8, condemned ignorance because

    John 8 chapter mention

  215. ignorance in that passage was willful.

  216. And remember this, willful ignorance always runs

  217. hand-in-hand with willful rejection.

  218. That's fact. It's kind of like an agnostic.

  219. That's a willful. Not know where you putting

  220. yourself in a willful cat. Gory or willful classification

  221. of a not knowing. That's exactly what they were

  222. doing. They didn't have the guts to

  223. stand for what was right there, really didn't care.

  224. All they do is we got to do what's safe?

  225. So they're going to say, well, we don't know, we don't know.

  226. And they say, basically in essence, they were refusing to

  227. tell Jesus and Jesus refuses to tell them and now we get to our

  228. little sermon and, you know, it's a netley Matthew is the

  229. only one that records, this little Parable.

  230. The only one of the four gospel writers, and this is what

  231. happens. He begins by saying, but what do

  232. you Fake. You know, I'm going to tell you.

  233. sometimes people think when they look at the writings and the

  234. words of Jesus, And the sermons that Jesus preached.

  235. Sometimes people think that they were just very simple.

  236. And not very profound and that is not true.

  237. Some of the deepest most profound teaching and all the

  238. Bible, our come from Jesus, and many of them came in the last

  239. week. When he preached in these

  240. parables, Don't mistake the fact that he made it sound so simple.

  241. As something that was not profound.

  242. It was extremely profound. So they said where did you get

  243. the authority? He said all answer that just

  244. tell me this did baptism of John.

  245. Was it from heaven or men? They said well we can't tell

  246. Jesus is neither. I tell you.

  247. But then he said well what do you think?

  248. What do you think? A man had two sons, he's got to

  249. give a tail here of two sons, and it came to the first son.

  250. And he said, Son, go work today in my Vineyard first of all, I

  251. love this because he begins the parable, he begins his sermon

  252. with the phrase. What do you think?

  253. He asked him a question? You know, what's going to happen

  254. in a few verses? He's going to end and conclude

  255. the sermon with another question that can fix them but he begins

  256. with What do you think? Now, the story at the very

  257. beginning seems to have little to do with the previous conflict

  258. between them but quickly, it does in a scathing rebuke of

  259. hypocritical leaders. Now the phrase two sons

  260. literally means children. Now those of us that have

  261. children picture this, he got two kids, you got two kids and

  262. you tell two kids, you tell both of them the same thing to do and

  263. you get two different responses Jesus is Saying I got I got one

  264. for you. What do you think?

  265. If a man has two sons now the first Sun represents The

  266. sinners. Represents a sinner.

  267. The second one represents the religious leaders and little did

  268. they know he's preaching about Sons, he's preaching about

  269. children. He's talking about working in a

  270. Vineyard. He's going to make a very

  271. profound point. He goes to the first son and he

  272. tells the first son, I want you to go and work in my Vineyard

  273. now. This is a picture of Sinners

  274. too, because sometimes when Jesus was on the face of this

  275. Earth and also John the Baptist there were those that were

  276. rebellious at first but later they would repent and Obey and

  277. then he have the religious Elite and they profess to be Godly and

  278. actually, in contempt of his law.

  279. But the parable here shows that God is not interested in what

  280. somebody claims to do, that's just lip service.

  281. Nobody cares about that. God is not concerned with, or

  282. interested in what somebody professes, they will do.

  283. He's only interested in which someone professes or someone

  284. demonstrates that they will do whatever you do.

  285. That's what the Lord is concerned with when a man

  286. actually does. Now here the father speaks to

  287. the first son and we learned from verse 30 that they both

  288. had. They both have equal opportunity

  289. to work. Both have the opportunity to do

  290. their father. What their father has asked

  291. their compliance is simply a product of attitude and you know

  292. what? It's a product of Free Will.

  293. And I have to make this point, please understand this people do

  294. exactly what they want. That's a fact. sometimes people

  295. say well, I can't no it's not a matter of you can't you won't

  296. You won't. In my short little life, 51

  297. years, I'm going to tell you, I have always done, just about

  298. what I wanted. Sometimes I have Justified an

  299. accent, I didn't have a choice but yeah you have a choice.

  300. We all have choices in this little scenario, the two

  301. children, the two sons, they both have different attitudes to

  302. what the father had told them different attitudes.

  303. Now free will is going to reign in each case in Matthew 21 and

  304. verse 29. I want you to notice this he

  305. answered and said look, I will not When Scholars said this

  306. Fowler said, it's better rendered in the original and I

  307. love this because I think it's true.

  308. It's better rendered in the in, in the original.

  309. I don't want to I don't want to now.

  310. Folks, I'm going to tell you something, I don't do this very

  311. often, I'ma do it. Now I might ask you to listen to

  312. me. I'm going to ask you to really

  313. listen to me. The reason that preaching on

  314. things like church, attendance doesn't work.

  315. Is because it's not the problem. It's not.

  316. It is the outward manifestation of a greater problem, and that's

  317. the heart. And what we do, please listen,

  318. we justify our behavior and our choices by saying we didn't have

  319. a choice. We didn't have a choice.

  320. Something came up Beyond My Control.

  321. But I'ma tell you something, if you really wanted to do

  322. something in your life, if you really wanted something you

  323. would do everything, it took you to get their heating, you get it

  324. done. I have never not done what I

  325. really wanted to do. That's fact when the first son

  326. says, I will not what you saying is, I don't want to I'm not

  327. going in the vineyard and work for you.

  328. Father, because I don't feel like it Okay, just a little

  329. 50-cent tour, little free little freebie there.

  330. I'ma tell you, it's the truth. It's the truth.

  331. And it's not it's everywhere. It's the heart of man is where

  332. people's hearts are. If your hearts are in a certain

  333. place, you'll do exactly what the heart wants.

  334. You'll be led in that direction. That's a fact. so if you have a

  335. problem with decision, just because you got a problem with

  336. your heart, All of us here. He says, I don't want to,

  337. there's no respect for his father here.

  338. Only blatant exercise of selfish will.

  339. But you know, even hearts of ice can melt in time in that great.

  340. The father patiently allowed his sons bitterness to convict.

  341. Watch What Happens. The first thing he says is I

  342. will not but then afterward he regretted it and he went Now the

  343. word regret in the new King. James is the word in the Old

  344. King James and the English language.

  345. The word repent. But the word repent here is not

  346. the typical word for repentance in the Bible, or the Bible talks

  347. about repentance. And what do we say?

  348. When we talk about repentance, we're talking about, don't

  349. misunderstand me on this. We're talking about someone that

  350. has a change of their heart, which is a change of mind that

  351. leads to a change of action. We know that that's repentance.

  352. How many times have you heard me?

  353. Say, repentance is not being sorry?

  354. Okay. What's this mean in the new King

  355. James? It says regret in the Old King

  356. James, it says repent. So what are we talking about?

  357. It is talking about this, this young, man, whoever, however, he

  358. was this first son, had deep remorse because of his decision

  359. prior You ever have deep remorse?

  360. You see, this is a picture of how he felt.

  361. And not necessarily the outward demonstration of a change

  362. although it did lead to a change but the word is Regret.

  363. Meaning he had deep remorse. He had deep remorse. now, may I

  364. say That deep remorse is only profitable and productive. when

  365. you act upon it and change your behavior, Deep remorse is only

  366. worth anything. If you change your behavior,

  367. you're the perfect example of the flip side of that is about

  368. Judas. You think Judas had regret?

  369. You think Judas had remorse. Absolutely.

  370. He's he took the thirty pieces of silver back to them and he

  371. said, I have sinned, I have testified and sinned against the

  372. blood of Jesus, the innocent blood And they said so what see

  373. you to it and he throws the money down.

  374. It becomes Blood Money. And then he goes out and he was,

  375. he do change his life, no. Feel bad.

  376. Yeah, I thought rotten and he hung himself.

  377. He took his own life. Remorse is only productive if it

  378. produces Behavior, but the word he regretted is talking about

  379. deep remorse. What we find out there are other

  380. passages that speak of a word like, this, or describes this.

  381. How about what Paul said in second Corinthians chapter 7?

    2 Corinthians 7 chapter mention

  382. You know what he called it, he called this deep remorse, he

  383. called it Godly sorrow. What else remember when John,

  384. the Baptist was preaching the Forerunner to Jesus the cousin

  385. of Jesus, six months, older than Jesus before. 4Runner.

  386. You know what he called it. He called it this he called the

  387. idea of deep remorse and godly sorrow.

  388. He called it fruits, worthy of repentance. in other words, you

  389. feel bad enough to make a difference.

  390. You feel bad enough to change her life.

  391. Feeling bad is not good enough. And I want to say this, too.

  392. Sometimes people. Have a hard time, forgiving

  393. themself. For past decisions and behavior.

  394. I understand that I do, I totally understand that.

  395. But everything in the word of God regarding remorse is off for

  396. the purpose of making the change.

  397. In other words, make the change and then God accepts the change.

  398. It's not a matter of beating yourself up for thinking.

  399. Awful of yourself for the rest of your life.

  400. It ain't about that at all. It's this.

  401. You have deep remorse. It's Godly sorrow.

  402. And what's it going to do? It's going to pursue and it's

  403. going to come out in fruits. Worthy of repentance, you going

  404. to change your life. Again.

  405. Guilt is good. World says.

  406. Oh no. We don't want.

  407. No, no, no, no. We don't want you to be guilty.

  408. Yeah, guilt is good. You know why?

  409. Because that's what that little voice inside of me with my

  410. conscience and my guilt. That's what says, you know, what

  411. I've done wrong. I'm going to change my life.

  412. I feel bad about it. I'm going to make it right and

  413. then make it, right? And you know I get to do, I get

  414. to feel good again. so, if we would just follow the Bible, the

  415. Bible pattern, Now, here we go, this son said here, it says he

  416. regretted any went. Well let's talk about the Second

  417. Son but then he came to the second and he said, likewise and

  418. he answered and said I go sir, but he did not go, there's an

  419. amazing piece piece here. I want to, I want to make a

  420. point of first of all. First of all, the idea here in

  421. the word, I the word I is in phatak in the Sentence.

  422. And what that means, that means he is elevating himself.

  423. It is emphatic, in the sentence of I go now, interesting about

  424. that. About I go.

  425. He's basically saying this one scholar, put it like this, a

  426. better rendering would be this. My brother did not go but I

  427. certainly will. In other words, this is in, this

  428. is in fatik, in a sentence meaning, it is elevating

  429. himself. It's kind of like this, you

  430. didn't, but I will. Look at me.

  431. I will the same thing. I certainly will.

  432. It's kind of like the guy that raises himself.

  433. Higher than somebody else do you?

  434. Are you thinking right now when I'm thinking about you thinking

  435. about a certain example, Jesus gave We're somebody elevating

  436. himself above what he thought everybody else was my mind.

  437. Goes to the Pharisee and the Publican, I'm not gonna go into

  438. that, but that's what I, that's where my mind goes.

  439. They, both go into the temple to pray.

  440. The Pharisee says, I thank you that.

  441. I'm not like all the terrible rotten rotten rotten rotten

  442. rotten people with the world. Ain't even that guy over there.

  443. The hapless Publican, right? And then the Publican smote his

  444. breast as an outward sign of an inward, anguish and says God be

  445. merciful to me The Sinner, okay? The Pharisee elevated himself

  446. above the public, enter the tax collector, the same phraseology

  447. and meaning is found in this word I he's talking about the

  448. Second Son. Their second son, is elevating

  449. himself in word alone that he's better than the first son and

  450. said he didn't go, but I will. And then we come to this word

  451. here. Now, this on the surface, sounds

  452. like he's being very respectful but this works sir is the Curry.

  453. The Greek word and it means a superficial word of respect.

  454. In other words, it's just a word.

  455. It is just show. There's no sincerity at all.

  456. Now, it's going to make sense when we describe who this is But

  457. this is just a little story, all of a sudden there he is.

  458. Telling and preaching the idea is the whole thing is an act.

  459. Now, it doesn't say if this son intended to actually obey his

  460. father at the time, it doesn't say, and it really doesn't

  461. matter. all that matters is he disobeys just like the Pharisees

  462. as they say and they do not Jesus would speak about

  463. Pharisees and he would say what they say, do it because they

  464. know the law, they know the law, every aspect of it but don't

  465. follow their example, why they say and they do not So really

  466. the idea is. Who's going to do the will of

  467. the father? The first son says, I'm not

  468. doing it. Why I don't want to but later,

  469. he regrets it with sorrow and he goes The second census, hold

  470. this guy over here my brother. He didn't go, I'll go even use

  471. the word sir as appear as a point of respect.

  472. But he doesn't go. Jesus preaches.

  473. All of that. And then Jesus says this, he

  474. says, which of the two did the will of his father.

  475. The Lord story ends the same way that it began.

  476. And that's what the question. The question to the.

  477. And the answer, the question is obvious and the answer.

  478. The question is immediate Jesus wants to know who did the will

  479. of the father and they said, well, the first The first.

  480. Don't you see answering the Lord's question though, by doing

  481. that the leaders convict themselves?

  482. Because they were just like the second son.

  483. And then Jesus says this, He said to them, assuredly, I say

  484. to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God

  485. before you. Picture this they thought they

  486. were leading the Messianic parade and others were

  487. following, but much to their surprise.

  488. The Lord expresses just the opposite to most unlikely.

  489. People are already leading the way they are sinners.

  490. They are harlots. They are Tax Collectors because

  491. they accepted the ministries of both, John the Baptist and

  492. Jesus. So now all of a sudden, yes,

  493. who's leading the way one scholar said, the Sinners are

  494. proceeding the sand. Beatrice.

  495. It must engage these leader in Rage.

  496. These leaders, No Doubt. Because he mentions tax

  497. collectors and prostitutes. I thought this was kind of

  498. ironic You know, the only gospel writer that wrote this Parable

  499. was Matthew and Matthew was also a tax collector.

  500. You think Matthew changed his life?

  501. Oh, he absolutely changed life. What about that?

  502. Little I was a kid shaky change his life. he sure did because

  503. Jesus says today, salvation has come to your house What's he

  504. talking about folks? The first son represents someone

  505. that rejects makes bad choices. But now says I've regretted it,

  506. I'm going to make a change. I'm going to make a change.

  507. Harlots and prostitutes Fowler called typify Brazen in purity.

  508. And they're mentioned together. They become a proverbial phrase

  509. that describes all that is vile. Load some alien, to the feelings

  510. of the pure respectable and even the Patriotic, according to

  511. Broaddus, yet Jesus uses these types of people.

  512. He says that they have advantage.

  513. And here's why here's why for John came again to you in the

  514. way of righteousness. And you did not believe him, but

  515. tax collectors and harlots believed.

  516. Him. And when you saw it, you did not

  517. afterward relent and believe notice.

  518. John came preaching, the message of the Kingdom, Jesus came

  519. preaching. The message message of the

  520. Kingdom, they had two opportunities and they rejected

  521. them both. But tax collectors and harlots.

  522. They were the ones who went out. They were the ones that were

  523. baptized in the River. Jordan confessing their sins.

  524. Listen to this. Maybe this is you.

  525. I have no idea. Those that are most blinded by

  526. sin. Are the ones who most clearly

  527. see their need for forgiveness. You ever known someone that

  528. lived a really hard life. And made some really bad

  529. choices. And lived a life of sin. but

  530. they come to the realization, I need to be forgiven and they

  531. find out they can They find out that in Jesus Christ.

  532. They can be completely forgiven. So They seized the opportunity,

  533. they obey the gospel and they become a phenomenal service for

  534. the cause of Christ. I'ma tell you something folks,

  535. sometimes the people that this world kicked around a little bit

  536. Become some of the greatest Christians later on in life.

  537. At the time. Oh, blinded by sin. but in time,

  538. See Clearly they're needed for forgiveness.

  539. That folks that is a picture of the tax collectors and the

  540. harlots. Notice this John Kane.

  541. I speaking to these religious leaders here, John came to you

  542. in the way of righteousness and you didn't believing, you didn't

  543. even believe it all. Then it says, but tax collectors

  544. and harlots believed him. Now they're going to get another

  545. chance, watch this. And when you saw it, you did not

  546. afterward relent and believe him, you messed up twice yet two

  547. choices yet to Chances and you didn't, you didn't believe John.

  548. When he came, you didn't believe John.

  549. After he didn't believe me, either.

  550. Is the entire point. Fowler wrote this.

  551. What moral perversity it must take to mingle among the

  552. participants in the nation's greatest moral Revival and

  553. remain. Totally.

  554. Unaffected by it and worse publicly disclaim all ability to

  555. discern its origin in God. Have you ever known someone

  556. folks? That they, you take them the

  557. word of God, you try to study with them, they hear sermon

  558. after sermon, the invitations are extended and all that and

  559. they just unfazed. Or like Joe.

  560. Hisle said to me one time. Oh I just don't see it. as some

  561. would say, they didn't see it. But please understand, it's not

  562. because they couldn't it's because they wouldn't, and that

  563. was willful rejection. What?

  564. An amazing sermon. What an amazing response to the

  565. question that they said, what Authority are you doing?

  566. The things you're doing? Who gave you the authority to

  567. do? What you did.

  568. Jesus, you just cleanse the temple.

  569. You've taken over here. We got the credentials, you

  570. don't? And Jesus says only answer, you

  571. just answer me one question. Baptism of John, was it a man

  572. from Heaven, man? Or from Heaven, they said, oh,

  573. we got a big problem. Got a big dilemma.

  574. So they said I, we don't know. We cannot tell Jesus.

  575. I can't tell you either. But what do you think about

  576. this? What do you think about this?

  577. Man has two, sons tells the sons to go into the vineyard and

  578. work. The first son, says not me.

  579. I'm not doing it then later regrets.

  580. It and goes the second son says I will.

  581. Absolutely, I'm better than him. But he doesn't go.

  582. And then he says tell me which one did the will of his father

  583. and they said the first. So all that being said, let's

  584. wrap it up in conclusion. This is not by the way, please

  585. get this. This is not a picture

  586. contrasting. The rejection that the Jews had

  587. to the gospel in contrast to the Gentiles acceptance of the

  588. Gospel. That's not, what's being

  589. contrasted hear? What's being contrasted here?

  590. Is this something very specific? It's talking about a contrast of

  591. the worst within Jewish Society, who were they Hey.

  592. Harlots publicans and sinners. Now, this is all represented in

  593. the first son, okay? So it's a contrast contrast

  594. between the very worst, the centers and that is a picture

  595. that Jesus describes with the first son, that is in contrast

  596. is the reason for a sermon that is in contrast to the following

  597. the very best in Jewish Society, who were they, they were the

  598. religious leaders. It is a cotton, is it is a

  599. contrast or comparison between the two?

  600. Now who were the religious leaders described them as they

  601. The second son. That's the reason for the

  602. parable. And it's aimed at rebuking the

  603. hypocritical Jewish leaders. Now.

  604. The next Parable is going to talk about the difference

  605. between the Jew and the Gentile in the wicked Vine, dressers

  606. that's coming. But in this case folks he's just

  607. talking about two different people.

  608. He's talking about two classes of people.

  609. One that the world thought that they were just Sinners, terrible

  610. people. And the other was the religious

  611. Elite, and Jesus says that the publicans and the harlots and

  612. the Sinners will go to the kingdom before, Are you why they

  613. did their father's bidding? We thank you for listening to

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