On Whomsoever It shall Fall, It will Grind him to Powder

Jesus here has been telling many parables to those around Him. Many could not understand the parables, even His disciples, and they would take Him aside and ask Him what He meant. He would say to them, “Now this is likened unto so and so,” and He would explain it more fully to them. He said, “Blessed are your ears for they hear.”

But He also dealt with another class of men who never wanted to know the way of God. They just followed Him around as some little dog would follow us, grabbing at our heels and we would have to tell it to go away. That is the way the Pharisees and Sadducees followed Him. They tried to find some failure in Him: some excuse to cover up their sins, but they never found what they were looking for. Jesus was perfectly calm. When they questioned Him through their wisdom and much learning, they would never confound Him. He was always calm and could always put them to flight.

We have around Him here the Pharisees, the chief priests, and others who were thinking and saying, “We will see what is going on now. We will see what He is going to say today.” And today, we have that type of people just going around to see what is going on. They never get anywhere. They never get any closer to God. You can never depend on them. Just coming to see what is going on will not do.

But as we come inquiringly to God, He loves us and hears us. If we come to Him for our next step asking, “What would thou have me to do? What step must I take now?” He loves that. Ah, the more we know about Jesus and the less we do, the more condemnation is upon our souls. These Pharisees and chief priests have much condemnation upon them tonight. I often think I would have loved to have lived in the days when Jesus was upon the earth. But since it is God’s will I am living today, I am glad and satisfied.

Yet I think it would have been so nice to have been able to talk with Him, to hear Him explain the parables, to watch Him heal the sick, to Hear Him expound the Scriptures. Yet I could have been there and could have been just as hardhearted as those Pharisees and chief priests. They heard Him but His words never penetrated into their hearts for good. He would refer back to their own prophets—to Moses, Isaac, Jacob, the prophets, and their very law—yet they would not listen.

Those Pharisees and high priests were the ones who were giving out the law. Everything had to be done just so. They made sacrifices, they vowed vows, they were up to the minute, no one could tell them anything. But praise God, Jesus went underneath of that. He told them parables, and He explained them.

He is telling them here, “There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and he felt he must go into another town. He thought, while I am gone, I will let this vineyard out and it will prove profitable to me. So he let it out, and when the time came for the fruit to be plucked he sent his servants. When the husbandmen saw the servants coming, they beat them and sent them away. The ruler sent more servants, but the husbandmen beat them likewise. Then he thought, I will send my son, they will reverence him. They will surely give him the fruits. But when the husbandmen saw the son coming, they not only beat him but they killed him, and said, ‘We will take his inheritance.’”

Oh, that was getting down “under their skin,” if I might use that expression, and the Pharisees did not want to understand that. They tried to cast it over and said, “What does it mean?” But he referred to them over to Isaiah the 5th chapter, where He speaks of the nation of Israel. God loved Israel because of Abraham. Abraham followed God all the way. He said He loved Israel as this man loved his vineyard. He planted the fruit, fenced it in, gathered out the stones, and planted the choicest vine. He even built a tower in the midst of it. He watched over it, loved it, but when He came back and looked for fruit, he found only wild fruit.

God said, “What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” What more could He have done? He did all He possibly could.

“Oh,” you say, “God doesn’t give everyone the same chance.” But He does. He gives everyone the same opportunity. And as He loved Israel, fenced it about, did everything possible for it, when He went to look for good fruit, He found only wild fruit.

“What more could I have done? I have done all I could, and I find only wild fruit. Israel has turned against Me.” Whose fault was it that Israel failed? Surely not God’s.

Jesus is going over the same message we find in Isaiah 5th chapter, to the Pharisees and chief priests. “What more could God do for you? If they killed the son, what do you think the master should do to the husbandmen?”

“Why,” they said, “He should kill them, and let the vineyard out to someone else.”

Jesus did not come back at them and say, “That is you I am referring to.”

No, He referred them to Isaiah 28:16: “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.” And He says to them here, “Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?” He begins to tell them that the very One they are rejecting is going to become the head One. Jesus explains to them He is talking about Himself. He is saying God had put a stone in Zion, and they fell over it, and would not accept it. But that stone was going to become the corner stone, and the only ones who would be accepted would be those who accepted that corner stone.

When the Pharisees and chief priests heard that, they saw through it. God did not leave them there with blinded eyes. They saw through Jesus’ explanation, and they saw that He was getting down into their hearts and saying, “You are refusing the Son of God.” He did not say, “You are refusing Me, for I am the Son of God.” But He simply said, “Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?”

You know when a building is erected, the laying of the corner stone is very important, for it holds two sections of the wall together. When the builder is looking over the stones, he is very careful to select the right one for the corner stone so it will hold the wall together.

Jesus is saying, “God sent His prophets to you, but you rebelled and rose up against them. He is sending His Son on which you might build.” But they refused the chief cornerstone, and so do you. Every time God sent someone to them, they rebelled until at last He said, “I will send my Son. They will not reject Him.” But they did. And how terrible when we think how they looked over God’s “building” every time, how they looked over God’s will. And instead of accepting Him, they refused Him. But what they accepted would not work, and they failed.

Jesus is standing before them. Here is God Himself in the person of His Son; God in Jesus Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself; God incarnated in the flesh, talking to them. What more could He do? He came first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but they would not accept Him. He stood there, a man, giving them a chance to accept Him, but in their hearts they were getting ready to refuse Him, for the 46th verse tells us, “But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.”

They looked Him over and said, “Anyone will do but this Jesus. We will use any stone, but we will not have this one.”

When they took Him to the cross, and the Jewish people were there crying, “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him! We will have no other king but Caesar.” They refused the only One.

Where are we tonight? If we are on God’s side, accepting His Son, we will not lose. The very stone that the Jews rejected became the head cornerstone. God set Him up. God made His name above every name, both in this world and the world to come. God put Him in His rightful place, man put Him down. The Jews rejected Him, but God said the very One they had rejected He would be made the head cornerstone.

Jesus had been put in His rightful place. He died for your sins and for mine, but He came forth from the dead, and is now sitting on the right hand of the Father’s throne making intercession for those who will call upon Him. Ah, but listen, “Whoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” What does this mean? What stone is He talking about? Jesus is saying, if they would have listened, they would have been broken down, humbled, but they would not do it.

In their hearts they were saying, “We will take Him and kill Him.”

Oh, my friend, to go outside of God’s will is a terrible thing. Not to do what God wants you to do is a serious thing. As I was standing at the street corner this morning waiting for my car, I saw a little ant walking across the street car track, and I thought, “If the car would come now that little ant would be ground to powder,” and I thought of this scripture. We would be the same if we would reject Jesus Christ.

But if we say, “Cleanse me, wash me in the precious blood,” everything will be well. If we go against Him, He will fall on us and we will be ground as powder. We might as well stand in front of an express train as to reject God. What good is your life and mine outside of Jesus Christ? It can only be used for the enemy. If you will give yourself over to God, your hands, feet, body, all can be used for God’s glory. If you step away from Him, you are rebel and in the end you will be destroyed. Suppose you could gain the whole world, what good would it be to you? You cannot take even a button into eternity with you. The whole world will do you no good whatsoever if you lose Jesus Christ; if you lose your chance. The whole thing is summed up in the question, “Where will you spend eternity?”

Those Jews said, “We will not have this One to rule over us.” Ah, but there is coming a judgment day, when the great judgment bar of God will be set up. Eternity will be real, these days will be real, the remembrance of our rejection of Jesus Christ will be before us. The most terrible sin outside of blasphemy is the constant rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You say, “I am not a sinner who has been a thief. I have not murdered anyone. I have never committed any vile sins.” Perhaps not, but God does not judge big or little sins. He judges whether or not you have accepted His Son.

Whoever rejects this corner stone—this stone that was laid in Zion first, this one who was born through a Jewish woman so that the Jews could not say, “Our Messiah came through the gentiles.”… He was born like the prophet said He would be born, but yet He was rejected. They would not accept Him. And He said, on whomever this stone would fall, he would be ground to powder.

Tonight you might say, “That is terrible what the Jews did. We would not reject Jesus Christ.” Ah, but if you have never been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, you have rejected Him. It means condemnation. You will be ground to powder. The end is in sight for you. You say you would like to know what your end will be, and some people will even go to spiritists or fortune tellers.

You say, “Well, they told some things that were right.” It is possible they did, for they are linked up with the devil, and he knows what you are doing. You say, “It was very good. Nobody could have known that, only some supernatural power. So I am going to listen.” You little realize that that is the devil speaking through that man or woman to whom you are listening.

If you will but go to Jesus Christ, what difference does it make what you are going to do tomorrow even? What difference will it make what is going to happen next week, or if you daughter is going to get married? The real issue is, “Where will you spend eternity?” Will you spend it with the redeemed, or with the lost in eternal damnation? You can find it out quickly by saying, “Have I rejected the chief corner stone? Have I rejected Him, for there is salvation in none other?”

It is not in the denomination, organization, joining church, trying to be good or spiritual, treating your neighbor better, lifting yourself up or holding yourself down and getting away from your sins, but it is in Jesus Christ. It is in asking Him to wash you in His precious blood.

If you will be willing, “whosoever falls on this stone shall be broken.” As you are willing, you will be broken. Satan used his own will and was cast out of Heaven, Adam used his own will and was cast out of the garden, Eve used her own will and disobeyed God. It is in you and me, since Adam and Eve, to use our own wills. Ah, that will of man! That is the last thing we will let go. We do not want to humble ourselves before God. We would rather turn away, wait until another time, or keep on as we are. Our will does not want to be broken.

Jesus said if we would fall on the cornerstone, we would be broken, but if it would fall on us we would be ground to powder. How is it with you tonight? Are you just coming to church for the sake of coming? Are you just coming to appease your own conscience? Are you coming because you want to see what is going on? Are you coming because you don’t want to stay at home? If you haven’t the broken and contrite heart, then you had better stay at home.

David said if God desired sacrifices he would gladly give them, but there was only one thing He desired: a broken and a contrite heart. The Jews stumbled over the prophets. One prophet came, they could not tolerate him. Another came, they could not tolerate him. Another and another and another. But when some old prophet came and said, “Peace, peace,” that is what they liked.

You can say “Peace, peace” all you want today, but the Word tells me when they say peace, look for sudden destruction. Today they are saying, “Peace,” but all the time factories are humming, making instruments for war. Everything is being prepared. Hell is underneath of it all. What is it all about? I tell you, nothing can bring the nation back but God, and there shall be no peace until the Prince of Peace comes. This One whom God has made the Head—there is salvation in none other. And the people stumbled over those prophets.

Did you ever stumble over any? When I was a child and would stumble over a chair I would say, “Oh, paint it white.” I did not want to stumble over the same thing again. But the Jews, the more they stumbled, the more they riled. And when Jesus came, they stumbled completely. They did not fall on Jesus, but they stumbled over Him and never got over it. He became to them a rock of offence. Every time they came to Him, they would say, “I don’t want to hear that, it isn’t for me,” and they stumbled over Him.

But to those who believed, He became the chief cornerstone, and tonight they, with the prophets and apostles, are built on that stone. Our Founder and Builder is God, and we are fitly joined together—living stones Peter tells us, in the living faith.

Are you stumbling tonight? When someone says to you, “Give your heart to Jesus,” will you shrug your shoulder and say, “Not tonight”? If you do, you are stumbling. If you will fall on Him, you shall be broken, and you shall be made right in the blood of Jesus Christ. Are you like the Jews? Have you put it off? The whole thing tonight rests in acceptation or rejection. We do not preach joining church, but we preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. A rock of offence to those who will reject, and one day you will be ground to powder. Which state are you in tonight? May the Lord have mercy upon you!

Come while you have time. Be not like the Jews. They became angry, and more angry, until finally they turned on Him and nailed Him to the cross. You say, “I would not do that.” No, perhaps not, but your sin was there when they nailed Him to the cross. Your sin drove those nails in His hands, your sin drove the nails into His feet, your sin ran the spear through His side. Your sin and mine did that, but it was judged there. Although I know I was not actually at the cross, my sin was there, but by His blood He has washed them away, and then He arose again.

You have stumbled over Him, but if you will fall on Him, you will be broken. If He falls on you, you will be ground to powder. Which shall it be with you tonight? It is wonderful to know, though my sins helped to put him to death, yet they were judged there that day. Ask yourself this question. If you have accepted Him, let Him have His way with you. If you have rejected Him, your doom is certain. He will say when you come before Him, “Depart from Me, ye cursed,” and you will be cast into eternal torment. May God have mercy upon you in Jesus name! Amen.