Bible Study: July 13, 2022

According started. Okay, so last week you'll recall we had a question on Isaiah 3. We're in Isaiah 3, and we talked about how Isaiah 3 is a picture of our society today. When you look at the world around us, those verses were written thousands of years ago, as got inspired by Isaiah, but there, as we read about the things going on in the world there, and the justice, and the lack of truth in the streets, as we read at Isaiah 59, we see our world around us. And we know that God will withdraw us His blessing from it. As we ended last week, we read a couple verses in chapter 4, and I want to go back there and really just start in verse 2. Whenever God says He's going to withdraw His blessings, punish His people, that's going to be a tough time.

You know, He does that for a reason, not just because He's mad or angry or wants to get back at people, but He wants us to learn. And so, you know, just as you and I go through trials and, you know, persecution and even tribulation and the days ahead of us, it's to draw us closer to God and to develop our faith and trust in Him. And His will is always that people will turn back to Him, and sometimes we have to endure the pain and infliction in order to, you know, to come up with that. That's what happens to Israel. You know, we talked last week when you read Revelation 6 and you read these verses in Isaiah, you see they're not going to turn back easily. Mankind has so thoroughly set their minds against God that it's very sad. It's very sad, but it does show the power and the influence of Satan, you know, that that has happened. So if we look at Isaiah 4, we're going to begin in verse 2. We looked at verse 2 last week, but it speaks of Jesus Christ. You know, it says there in verse 2 of Isaiah 4, in that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious. And we did it last week, but let's do it again. You know, you'll hear me say often we don't have to guess who the branch is, you know, because the Bible interprets itself. And in Isaiah 11, we see exactly who the branch is that we're talking about here in Isaiah 11.

And verse 1 says, there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And that's speaking, of course, of David. A branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the eternal. We know that is speaking of Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ is the branch, you know, that we're talking about here in Isaiah 4 verse 2. And as God talks about all the not-so-good things that's going to happen to the earth, there's always the hope and always the future resides in Jesus Christ, his return to the earth when mankind can finally be free to follow God, yield himself to him without the influence of Satan. There's a lot of work and a lot of overcoming to do for mankind that lives over into the millennium. But without Satan's influence, finally, finally, they can develop a relationship with God and begin to live his way of life. So it says, in that day, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful, will be glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped. That tells us this is for a future time, right? I mean, we've read verses in other chapters, and you've heard of where, you know, coming up on Israel is a time when there will be a remnant left of them. Back in our first Bible study in Isaiah, we read Isaiah 6 and talked about the remnant of Israel that will be left as a tenth, only a tenth, of the people that are alive today. And so those are, you know, that remnant will be there. And so when it says here in verse 2, the fruit of the earth will be excellent and appealing. And we could take some time, and maybe we should take some time, to, you know, talk about the restoration of the earth when Jesus Christ returns. Acts 3 verses 19 and 20 talk about the time of the restoration of all things. You know, we know that the earth, we read, you know, those beautifully put together verses in Romans 8 where it talks about the earth just groaning and waiting for the revealing of the sons of man so that the earth can become again everything that God created today. Still a beautiful earth, still productive, still awe-inspiring, still perfect, you know, even though man has abused it so much, but perfect for us, us who live on it.

But it will be in a way that we can't even imagine, you know, when Christ returns and the world and the earth is free to become what it needs to be. So the fruit of the earth will be excellent. It'll be appealing for those of Israel who have escaped, those who survive over into that time. Verse 3, it says it'll, well, let me look at my verses here. Yeah, let's look at Jeremiah 23 as well. I have Jeremiah 23 written down there. Jeremiah, of course, was a prophet who prophesied to Judah after the fall of Israel, trying to show them, you know, don't make the same mistakes that Israel did. They fell and lost their, lost their promised land to the Assyrians. They were let away captive. Oh yeah, and this in January 23 verse 5, talking about the branch again. The days are coming here. Jeremiah 23 5 says, Behold, the days are coming, says the eternal, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Now, this is the name by which he will be called the Lord our righteousness. So that's just another, you know, the branch again, the Bible. The Bible shows something in and keep that word branch, you know, that branch in mind. You know, it'll, it's kind of a little alliteration of what we'll talk about when we get into chapter 5 here in a little bit. So we go back to Isaiah 4. Verse 3 says, It'll come to pass that he who is left in Zion, you know, picks right up on day for those of Israel who have escaped. And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy. Now, last week, I think we, you know, we read some verses that talked about how it will be when Jerusalem, when Christ returns, that Jerusalem will be a city of peace, that people will be able to live there again. The children will play in the state, in the streets. The old man will be respected in the city that he lives. And so he was talking about we have these people that are there in Jerusalem, and they're going to be called holy. Holy. Remember, we talked about the word holy. Those are people of God. Now, there aren't the people of God. It's interesting, there is no church of God. There may be some church of God people who live in Jerusalem today, but there is no church. There is no church of God, true church of God in Israel or Jerusalem today. But in that day, the people who live over there will be holy. Everyone, it says, who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. So let's go back in the Old Testament to Zechariah.

Second to last, we'll do the Old Testament. And as we see a picture of Jerusalem there in those days when Jesus Christ returns, it shows us that city where people will go up and it talks about let's go up to the mountain of the Lord. There's the law will go forth from Jerusalem. In Zechariah 8 in verse 22, okay, got people coming in and out. I think one goes in and then another one is able to join in. Okay, then okay. 20-22, yes, many peoples, yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before Him. Clearly, clearly speaking of that future time when Christ has returned and Jerusalem is the world capital, if you will, from where all the law goes out to all of the nations all over the world. Thus says the Lord of hosts, verse 23, in those days ten men from every language of the nation shall grasp the sleeve of the Jewish man saying, let us go with you, for we've heard that God is with you. Far different picture, you know, than we have of anything. Of anyone who would be associated with God today, in fact, the Bible talks about a time when those who are of integrity, those who obey God, will make themselves a prey. But in that day, people will seek the people who are God and these people that God calls holy, His people, those special ones, those will be people that live over into the world, into the into the millennium. So let's go back to verse four again, or verse four in Isaiah 4.

Isaiah 4 is a very short chapter here. It says, when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, well that hasn't happened yet, you know, when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and I'll stop there. So let's look at verse four. It's because there's a time when Jerusalem will be purged. It will become a holy city. It will become the inhabitants of those who seek God.

And Ezekiel talks about the millennial temple this year. We talked about people flowing to Jerusalem every year for the priest of Tabernacles. They will go up and they will worship God there. But God is going to purge Jerusalem because it's not that city today. It's a city that's perverted just like the nation we live in in so many different ways, you know, physically, but also perverted spiritually. Every religion on earth claims something in Jerusalem. You've got the Jews, you've got the Catholics, you've got the Muslims, you've got the Protestants, you've got every religion on earth that kind of there is there in Jerusalem claiming this is our word. So you have this just confusion of religion. And not one of them believes the same thing as the other. There's only one true church of God and there will be one temple and one law that goes out of Jerusalem to that day, not the very many theories and laws that go out today from various church leaders, none of which are true. So, you know, we have God washing Jerusalem up, right?

We talked a little bit about that back in Isaiah 1. In Isaiah 1 and verse 16, you know, when we went through those introductory verses here as God opens this book of Isaiah with these prophecies and with these admonitions and with these pictures of what's going to happen and what His people, physical Israelite is and is like and we are like, you know, we see this in verse 16. He says, you know, you've done all these things. I don't even like when you come before me, he says, because you're not coming before me with the correct heart. So in verse 16 of verse chapter 1, he says, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. You know, if we would make ourselves clean, God wouldn't have to, but He will wash Jerusalem. It will become a clean city, you know, it'll become the city He wants it to become. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil of your doing from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, you know, those words that we use that we need to take to heart as well. You know, we need to be cleansed by the washing of the water of the Word, as it says in Ephesians 5, and consistently washing ourselves so that we can become before God.

I've got another verse here. Let me find where I am here. Yeah, Ezekiel, Malachi. Let's look at Malachi. Malachi 3. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. Let me get there, Malachi.

Yeah, now this speaks of being purged by fire, right? Remember, verse 4 there talks about, I'm going to wash you and you will be purged by fire. I'll go to that verse again. So here in Malachi 3 verse 2, it says, who can endure the day of his Christ coming, right?

Yes, who can? Yes. Okay. Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like launderer's soap. I'm going to wash. I'm going to wash, wash, and some will be purged by fire, always God looking to perfect us spiritually, mature us spiritually, and make us blameless before him. He's like a refiner's fire, like launderer's soap.

He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer to the Lord and offering in righteousness. I don't know that we need to turn to Revelation 3. I think everyone here knows the admonition to the church of Laodicea that's there, the seventh of the churches of Asia Minor there, where God tells them, you're either cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot, but I'm good because I would just spew or I'll spew you out of my mouth. You need to either get what the program is they say today or choose to go the way of the world, whatever you're going to do. God counsels them, you know, refine yourself into fire, refine yourself in the fire so that you are ready, so that you become hot before God. As we look at the world around us today that gets further and further away from God, we have to be conscious that if we're not careful, our lights can go out, it can become a little dimmer, we can become a little less alert, we can become more less and less hot and zealous and think just as long as we're keeping a Sabbath day and the holy days we're okay, we need to be on fire. We need to be on fire and with zeal before God, with zeal for his truth and what he has called us to. So that's Malachi 3, 3 and verse 4. If we go back to Isaiah again, Isaiah 4, this is what we're and I'm going to read verse 4 again. When God has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion.

Do I want to turn to Ezekiel 16? I think we've talked enough in church about Ezekiel 16 when it talks about the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. It says the sin of Sodom is she had fullness of food, idleness in her ways. We know that we see a picture of our modern day world in that. Sodom and Gomorrah was a very comfortable place to live as it was in the Old Testament in that time. As they became more and more at ease, they allowed these destructive behaviors and destructive thoughts to come into their mind and they went further and further away from God. As America has become more and more wealthy, we have more and more times of ease, more and more entertainment. We see the nation that we live in in Canada and all over the world. We have people from three or four different nations on here with us tonight. All over the world, we see this laxity. Things that we wouldn't have thought 20, 30, 40 years ago, we would ever even tolerate. It would just make us sick today. It almost is like a way of life. We've just become a little bit numb to it in a way. That can affect our spiritual life if we start expecting those things. God will talk in Ezekiel 16 about the sin of Sodom and Sodom and the daughters and her sisters. He's talking about the nations and those that become like Sodom. Certainly, as we look around the world to us today, we've become like that. The daughters of Sodom who have followed in the same way of her.

Finishing up verse 4 there, purge the blood of Jerusalem from her mist by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. There's that fire that we talked about, that fire and that cleansing that comes from fire and being refined in the refiner's fire. Then, when God has done that, then you have the city that we talked about in Isaiah 2, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.

Then, when that happens, God will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion and above her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for over all the glory there will be a covering. So we say that in a clean environment, in this washed environment, when the people are holy and those who live over into Jerusalem are holy, they're doing God's way, they're living by his way of life, God's glory will appear there. He will watch over that area. He will protect it. He will provide it just as he did for that tabernacle in ancient Israel. Then, of course, we can talk about the similarity there, the analogy to the pillar of fire that led them by night and the cloud that covered them by day. But really, what it's talking about there is God's glory. God's glory will be in Jerusalem. You read that you read of that that temple in Ezekiel 47 and 48. Well, actually, chapters 40 through 48 that's there. And you can just get a feeling of, you know, God is there. I mean, he will be all over the earth, but that will be his place. Then Jerusalem will be his city. God has always loved Jerusalem. You know, he'll love it throughout the millennium, and then it's replaced with the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven when the purpose for the physical earth is complete. So it's a beautiful picture there of what God is doing. Verse 6, there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat for a place of refuge and for a shelter from storm and rain. God watches over his people. God provides for them. You know, Isaiah 25 speaks of the same thing there in Isaiah 25 and verse 4. I think we've all experienced the strength of God. I know many have been through a lot of trials in their lives. They've had things that have happened that have just been tough. If I could just say that, we do learn when we look to God there is strength. In times of health crisis, in times of loss, in times of trial, in times of tribulation, we will learn. We should be learning the strength comes from God. If we look to ourselves, it's meaningless. When we look to God, when we look to God, he makes it all possible. Verse 4, Isaiah 25 says, You, you God, have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, for the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. You will reduce the noise of aliens as heat in a drape place, as heat in the shadow of cloud, the song of the terrible ones will be diminished or humbled, as it says in the margin. Always look to God. Always look to God. He is the one. He is the one.

He's our shelter. He's our refuge. He's our rock, provider, creator, sustainer. You can go on for hundreds of adjectives of God and even more as we think about it. It is always him.

Let me pause there in chapter 4. If there are any questions or thoughts or anything anyone would like to add before we move into chapter 5, that begins a new thought, but a very relevant and meaningful thought here in chapter 5.

Well, in chapter 5, then, we're not going to get through chapter 5. I'm going to tell you that there's a word there in chapter 5 that takes us from Old Testament to New Testament that helps explain Christ's words. We see how it all fits together. Here, God, in the first five chapters of Isaiah, he's been talking about his people. Yes, his physical people in Israel. He's been talking about you and me, too. We are his people. We are his own special people in this day and age, who he's working with. He's watching over us, and these words were given to us as examples for us, as well. When we come to chapter 5, we come to the end of the introduction of Isaiah because Isaiah 6, you'll recall, it records Isaiah's calling, and then we'll go into chapter 7.

We'll finish chapter 5. The next time we have a Bible study, then we go into it. But this is a very interesting way of God that God has opened the book of Isaiah. He's talking directly to his people. He's shown us the world we live in and what even some of our attitudes might be. In chapter 5, he goes back, but this time he uses another analogy that flows throughout Scripture to make us understand how he sees us. Verse 1 says, Let me sing to my well beloved. This is Christ he's talking about. Let me sing to my well beloved, a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. I don't know if any of us have a vineyard, right? I don't have a vineyard. Maybe someone here does have a vineyard somewhere. I know that you learn an awfully lot about growing grapes and having a little vineyard. When my dad years ago retired, he worked for many, many years at Amico up in Whiting, Indiana. What he wanted to do when he retired was have some acres of land. He wanted to work with the yard. He wanted to do that, and he wanted a little vineyard. It was a little vineyard. I remember him planting these lines, and he had the grape things. But he would talk about everything he was learning and how the Bible came alive to him when he had to learn how to have these grapes produced the way he wanted. So there's these agricultural truths in the Bible that the people who read these verses in Old Testament times would know exactly what Christ was talking about or what Isaiah was talking about. Christ, you know, he talks about vineyards, too. We're going to look at vineyards for a while, because Isaiah takes us right into Christ and the parables that he gives about you and me. He's talking about you and me in New Testament times, and there is an awfully lot we learn about vineyards. God uses that throughout the scriptures to describe that. So he says, the song of my beloved regarding his vineyard, his Christ's vineyard, right? We're going to say, we're his vineyard today. We're the ones he is nurturing. We're the ones who he is working with. We're here as the one who he wants to seek to produce great fruit. To employ the new. When you have a vineyard, you work.

You work and you do the things right and you get some beautiful grapes on it. But if you don't do it right, the fruit doesn't come out the way that you want it to. So, oiling on to verse one, it says, my well beloved, we could just replace that with Christ so that we know he's talking. Christ has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up. He cleared out its stones. He planted it with the choice of vine. He built a tower in its midst, and he also made a wine press in it. So he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. He did everything right. You know, here God gives the recipe for a vineyard, right? He gives us several points here of what to do. My well beloved Jesus Christ, he planted his vineyard right. He did everything right. He planted it on a fruitful hill. I'm going to show you an article in a minute that came out of the Jerusalem Post that talks about the significance of planting vineyards in sloping areas. On a fruitful hill, he dug it up. He cleared out the stones. The choice is vine. I don't think we have to turn to John 15. Who is the vine? Jesus Christ is the vine, and his father is the vine dresser. You're not going to get a more choice vine than Jesus Christ, correct? He planted it with the choice of the vine. He built a tower in its midst. That tower is important because those grapes, that crop, and the fruit that it produced was extremely valuable to the people back then. Grapes and wine have significance in ancient agriculture and in Christ time. Even today, wine, you know, there's wineries all over the world. Every nation, I'm sure, has a winery. It's a kind of a special thing. You grow those grapes in a different way, but the tower was there to protect the crop, the vineyard, right? From people coming in, stealing the grapes, or even from animals coming in. So they had someone watching over the vineyard. Keep the enemies out. Keep the adversaries out. Keep the things out that can destroy the vineyard. He built a tower in its midst. He made a wine press in it. You've seen the prextures of wine presses. I'm going to show you one of those here in a minute. So that when the grapes are gathered, you can make the wine right there. You don't have to haul it off. To a factory, everything was right there in the vineyard. Everything was done to have a choice crop grow and to turn it into the valued wine that people made from it. He made a wine press in it.

Down to verse 6, you know, it talks about, you know, when he talks about his vineyard that didn't bring forth good grapes because he did everything right, but somehow the grapes didn't come forth as a good crop. You have to prune. You have to prune. You don't prune vineyards. You know, they just don't produce. But let's do go back to John 15.

Now let me... well, no, before we do that, let me pull up this article here because I think you'll find it interesting.

Okay, I've got a number of them under. That's the problem. Okay, this is an article from the Jerusalem Post back in 2019, and this man, Adam Monti Thiore, wrote it. But what he was talking about in his article was the ancient, the vineyards of Israel and how vineyards have always been important in that little nation of Israel. And he traces them back all the way to that. And he uses Isaiah 5 as a pattern of what a good vineyard, how you would create and maintain a good vineyard. So here he says, Isaiah's Song of a Vineyard is a wonderful source of information about vineyards and viticulture. From this, we learned that the very vineyard was on a fertile hill. We read that there in verse 2. Vineyards like slopes. There's more sunlight if facing the right way, drainage is better, and the vine will grow on slopes where other crops will not grow. And when you look at some pictures, even in today's Israel, where they have that, you can see rocky places where the vineyards are there along the slopes. And it makes use of that land, and they all get equal sunlight, if you will. We're told a new vineyard has to be dug up and cleared of stones. That hasn't changed. If you visit an Israeli vineyard today, you'll often find a pile of stones in a corner of a vineyard as evidence of the difficulties in clearing it. You know, again, look at the spiritual analogy here of some of this as well, because it's an interesting thing to think of the vineyard and what God is doing and how he's clearing it, how he's preparing the vineyard that we're going to see here in a minute. There's a spiritual picture of us as well. They planted the choices vines. That hasn't changed either. Then certain vines gave better results just like today. John 15, we'll see in a minute, you know, Jesus Christ is the vine. You don't get more choice than that. He built a watchtower. Many vineyards in ancient times had a watchtower to guard the precious fruit. Not much new there. The vine would naturally sprawl along the ground or grow up trees. If cultivated, it had to be trained or grown on a pergola. That is one of the features of it. When you see a well-maintained vineyard, everything is neat and clean and it's all off of the ground and well-maintained. Let me stop that for a moment and put up a picture here.

This is an artist's rendering, but this is a vineyard. You can, you know, back in ancient times. You can see, and I'm going to show you a picture of a tower even standing in Israel today, where at the end of the vineyard, you can see how the grapes are. You have the stakes there. You've got neat rows. You have the watchtower that's there where someone is washing over. You know, that crop that's there, you see the slopes that it's built on. You see the wine press over there to the left that people are stomping out the grapes as they make the wine. It was a well-designed, all put together. Everyone had their part in completing the product and to making that vineyard successful. The watchman had his job. The owner had his job. The wine pressers had their job.

The grape pickers had their job, but everyone worked together in a successful vineyard, produced a tremendous, tremendous product. Again, as you think about what God is doing, and he's talking about his son having his vineyard. And we get into some of the vineyard parables in the New Testament. You can see the analogy God is giving us today that would have been very alive to the people of Christ time, the people of Peter's and Paul's time. Not so much us because we don't we don't aren't as familiar with agriculture and what God has built into the earth and the lessons we would learn if we were working a vineyard or working in agriculture or cultivating the land and seeing the miracles and how spiritual lives can be learned by the physical that we do. So let's pause there for a moment and let's go over to John 15. You know what, before we go there, 2 Chronicles 26. Let's go there. So there's an interesting verse there. You will remember when we started the book of Isaiah, we talked about the first verse in Isaiah 1. It talks about Isaiah was alive during the king times of kings of Ziah, Jotham, Ahad, and Plizekiah. Remember we talked about how those kings were, the type of things Isaiah may have learned as he watched them. King Uzziah was the first one. I remember King Uzziah, he walked with God. He was very good, but later in his life he became proud and he turned against God and thought it was all about him. But here in 2 Chronicles 26, verse 5 is a very inspiring verse. As long as Uzziah thought God, God had him prosper. Israel was a very wealthy nation under King Uzziah. Down in verse 10, it talks about some of the things that Uzziah did. He built towers in the desert. He dug many wells, for he had much livestock, both in the lowlands and in the plains. He also had farmers and vine dressers in the mountains and in Carmel, for he loved the soil.

So it's interesting that here King Uzziah, who Isaiah saw and kind of worked under during that time, he observed, here's Uzziah, he loved the land. He built these towers. He's had these, you know, he had vine dressers in the mountains on those slopes. And when you look at the word in the Old Testament, it appears in the book of Isaiah more in the book of Isaiah than any other book in the Old Testament. You can go back. It's 21 or 22 times it appears in the book of Uzziah, several times here in chapter 5. But it's interesting, again, because you see those kings that Isaiah looked at, and we, as we go through the book, we'll see some of the things that they did that show up in Isaiah, again, his lessons for us. But if we go to John now, with what we've just read in Isaiah 5 about vineyards, vines, and the importance of all these things and how you'd have to maintain it, when you read about, you read what Jesus Christ's words to his disciples were, again, on that last Passover that he was alive. In John 15 verse 1, it helps these verses come to life for us to understand what God is saying and what he likens us to. Again, the lessons we can learn from the earth, even looking at it from afar as we have just done. John verse 1 of 15, I'm the true vine. Christ says, I'm the choice vine. I'm the one. And my father is the vine dresser. He's taking care. He's taking care of it. Every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit, he takes away.

One of the things that you learn, and if you have an unproductive vine or a branch, you cut it off. You cut it off. You don't allow it to stay there. You prune that thing back so it's the life, the living, the living branches that are there. Every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, have to do it. You may think, why do we want to do that? But the more you prune it, the more fruit that will be produced. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. We drop down to verse 5. I'm the vine, he reminds us. You are the branches. He who abides in me stays attached to him, and I in him will bear much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. Such a valuable lesson for us to learn. If we really want to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit, we have to stay close to God. We have to remain attached, and we have to grow and allow that vine to continue to live through us and defeat us.

Verse 6, if anyone doesn't abide in me, he's cast out as a branch, he's withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, you will stay attached to me, and my words abide in you, my spirit, my law, the things that I teach you to do. If you abide in me and my words in you, you will ask what you desire, and it'll be done for you.

By this, my Father is glorified, the vine dresser, that you bear much fruit. So you will be my disciples. And so when we see ourselves, when we see the analogy that Christ gives us, and we see this vineyard in Isaiah 5, we begin to see what he's talking about, and the picture that he paints in Isaiah 5 is a very disturbing picture. It's a judgment on the physical people of Israel. It'll be a judgment on the spiritual people of God as well. He's got a vineyard, he planted it, he was the choicest vine, even in physical Israel. He did everything right, but the fruit that he received out of the physical nations and tribes of Israel wasn't good fruit. For us, who have his Holy Spirit, who are supposed to be attached to him and living our lives to become even more and more attached and abiding in him, that's why in Galatians 5 it says this is the fruit that God is looking for. This is what he wants us to do, and if we're not producing fruit, we're not pleasing to him, and when he says that vine and that branch will be cast off, he's talking about you and me.

He's talking about you and me. Our job as part of the vineyard is to produce fruit.

Produce fruit. Now we have no excuse because we're attached to the perfect vine. I'm going to put up another picture here.

This is another artist's surrendering, but again, here's what the ancient vineyards would be like. They always had the walls around them to protect them because it was such a valuable crop.

This was his livelihood. This crop was important to him, and the vineyards took a lot of work in order to cultivate, and you wanted them just right, and you got that watchtower that's up there. Guarding, keeping the animals out, keeping the thieves out, watching, protecting, and making sure that the vineyard is safe. Here's one that came off of someone's blog that was over in Israel, a picture he took, and I think it was back in 2014 from up on the hill. There you see a kind of little vineyard right that's there, and over there in the upper left-hand corner, you see this watchtower that's there. You see this thing where they can watch over what's going on in that field, and you can see the gently sloping area even in today. You can see the vineyards in the far there. You've got the little trees in the front, but the vineyards are off there to the upper middle and over to the right there. You can see the sloping thing, so even in today's, when you take it, you see these same elements there in the Israeli vineyards, the same concepts that are used in the Bible, the same things that are there because God's telling us, if you're going to plant a vineyard, here's the way for it to be successful. And then one more picture.

Just so you can see what a really well-maintained vineyard is, because it's a thing of beauty.

People travel out to California, to the Napa Valley, and there you see all these vineyards. They're just beautiful, and a well-maintained vineyard is a beautiful thing to behold. Just look at every row is straight. Everything is neatly trimmed. The vines are there. They're alive. They're vibrant. This is a picture of what God wants his vineyard to be.

Neat, productive, trimmed, in order, standing at attention, ready to do that. A pleasure and a joy to the vine dresser, all emanating from the choice vine from which that vineyard came. And all of us, as we look at those rows and rows of vines there, that's us.

That's us when Christ sees us, because he's planted us in his vineyard, and he's expecting things of us. Of course, the choice is ours, whether we'll be a productive or not, but we've been given everything we need to bear fruit. But the choice is ours. Will we do the things and will we yield to the vine dresser who knows how to create a very productive vineyard?

Or will we do our own things and be the wild vine that has to eventually be cut off? Because it doesn't meet the grade, if you will. So I think what I want to do here is, since vineyard, the rest of this chapter here in verse 5, before we go into the calling of Isaiah, talks about the vineyards and then talks about how disappointed God is in the wild gripes that came up as a result of it.

Now, I don't know that we're going to have time to get into many of them today, but since we're talking about vineyards, Jesus Christ talks about vineyards as well. So why don't we go over to the New Testament? Because, again, as Christ would talk about vineyards in his parables, the people of his day would know exactly what he was talking about. They understood vineyards, they saw them as the productive field and the valuable fields that they are, and they would think back to these verses.

They had Isaiah, they would think back to Isaiah 5. We'll see here in Matthew 20 as you're turning over there. Mr. Shady, that's very interesting, and I mentioned it to you, church, is that it's based on agriculture, the teachings and such, and all the apostles were either fishermen, or tax collectors, and none of them were farmers or vineyard keepers or winemakers.

I find that quite interesting. That is interesting, isn't it? Yeah, the selection of the people. Yeah, none of them. But at one point as an amateur winemaker, there is a reason that they do put them on the slopes for the drainage, because the drier the season is, the better the concentration of sugar in the grapes, you get a better quality of wine from a drier season.

So they do put them on slopes so that there's well drainage. Very good, very good. Okay, yeah, see all these things you learn when you do that. I wish I had the time and the land to do that.

Just like I said, I don't know many people have done it. I just remember my dad talking about it, and he was just excited about the things he was learning because it tied so directly to the Bible and what he was learning at that time.

So yeah, well here in Matthew 20, you know, Christ talks about, he gives us parable about a vineyard. And you know, given what we've just talked about, I think, you know, as we read through this parable, we're going to see us in it again, right? So many times in the Bible, and you're going to hear me saying more and more, are we seeing us in the pages of the Bible? Because we need to see us, because these things are written for us.

You know, 1 Corinthians 10, 4 says, written for us, examples for us upon whom the ends of the ages have come. So we have to look at these things and say, oh, that's a nice story that I've read 15, 20, 30, maybe 100 times. Where are we? Where are we in this? Because in verse chapter 20 there, it says, this kingdom of heaven, that's when Jesus Christ returns, we're going to have a millennial reign of Jesus Christ, but then the kingdom of heaven comes to earth, or the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire landowners for his vineyard, workers to work in his vineyard.

And when he had agreed with the laborers for the nariest of day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others, went about the third hour, and saw other standing idol in the marketplace. And he said to them, you also go into the vineyard, whatever is right, I will give you.

So they went. So we had the morning workers, a lot of work to do in the vineyard to keep it all up the way you've seen those pictures, need more workers, they're going out, they're not working an entire day, but still a significant part of the day.

Verse 5, again, he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found other standing idol and said to them, why have you been standing here idle all day? What have you been doing?

You've been wasting your time. The important work is in the vineyard. So he tells them, and they said to him, well, no one hired us, no one gave us work to do. And he said to them, you go into the vineyard, and whatever is right for you, or whatever is right, you will receive. So an evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to you, Stuart, call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.

So the ones who were called to work in the eleventh hour, pay them first. The ones who've been there from early morning, pay them last. There's a lesson that comes when you see what the owner of the vineyard is doing. When the first nine, when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they received a denarius. The same pay that the people who came early in the morning were promised for the day. But when the first came, they suppose that they would receive more.

And they likewise each received a denarius. And when they received it, they complained against the landowner. Now we probably do the same thing, right? Really, I've worked for you an entire day, and this person's worked for you for an hour or two, and you're paying them the same thing that you paid me. It's not fair, right? It's not fair in the terms of a physical thing, but Christ isn't looking at the physical here. He is looking at the spiritual. What is the reward? I hate to use the word reward. What is it that the owner of the vineyard will give to those who have worked faithfully in the vineyard? Is it money? Is it eternal life? Is it resurrection in the first resurrection? Faithful workers? Whether they've been there for 50, 60, 70 years, or just one or two or three? What is the owner looking at? So when you look at it from a physical standpoint, you say, wow, now that isn't fair. The first who were there should have received higher payment. But God is showing you work in my vineyard for as long as I have you do. Here's what I promise you. If you yield to me, if you do the job well, if you continue to the end, if you don't give up, if you continue in that patient continuous that we talked about last week, if you endure, if you continue to follow me, if you continue to work hard, and you don't neglect, you don't dearth the way, you don't do any of those things, but you keep working, here's the reward. It's eternal life. It's eternal life. They said, these last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who had mourned the burden and the heat of the day. But he answered one of them and said, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn't you agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Isn't it lawful for me?

Do I dress there to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?

You are looking at it from a worldly standpoint. Do the job you're called to do for as long as you're called to do, endure to the end, and you will be saved, Jesus Christ said. So the last will be first, and the first last. Many are called, but few are chosen. It's an interesting parable that Christ uses with the vineyard because everyone was familiar with the vineyard. They probably even understood it's really hard work to go in there, right? I mean, if you happen to be the one, it almost looks kind of fun to be one in the wine press and to be stopping out all those grapes. Maybe not as fun to be doing the pruning and whatever or picking the grapes or however that goes, but every job had to be done and they had to work hard at it. Tracy, did you have a comment?

Nope, okay. Yes, yes I did. I couldn't get it off of mute. So what I was wondering was, in some ways, isn't it harder to be called at the last days than it is in the first days? I mean, we've been all these years learning God's way and getting the benefits and learning to trust God and everything. When we're calling the last days and you have to trust God, you haven't had very long to learn that and that can be really hard to learn. Yep, you know, God is wise. He knows what He's doing and He's the judge and yes, you know what, but it takes endurance, right? I mean, if you've been in the church for 30, 40, 50, 60 years, you can kind of let down. The hands can fall to the wayside, you know, to the side. That's why God says, you know, buck it up a little bit, wake up, strengthen the knees, get those arms moving again, get the zeal back because He will renew us, you know, as the eagles and give it that. We just have to, in whatever time He's called us in, to be able to, you know, continue with zeal until Christ returns. So, go ahead, someone.

These are coming across with Christ. Look at that one. You know, Christ said He will be with being paradise, you know, forever. And He was hung on the cross. He didn't know anything about it, so all He knew was, hey, Christ was Christ. He saw His heart, right? He saw His heart, is what He did. So, it doesn't mean that that man will be in the first resurrection, but in the second resurrection, he'll choose, you know, he'll choose Christ. Christ knew that by the way His heart was. So, yeah. If we go back to Matthew 8, you know, just looking at the first will be last, and the last will be first. You know, there's a couple of interesting verses there, and Matthew 8, that I think speaks to this, you know, the same thing. Christ introduces Matthew 20, you know, with the kingdom of heaven, and in verse 11 of Matthew 8, it says, I say to you, Christ speaking, I say to you that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Many will come, and they'll be there with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We know they'll be there. They are men who, you know, approved loyal to God through the very end. They went, you know, they went through various phases of their lives, but they remain true to God until the end. It says people will come from east to west. They'll all sit down there with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. They're the ones who will receive that denarius, right? They're the ones that they receive that reward. But the sons of the kingdom, right? The sons of the kingdom, you know, that would be the Jews. The Pharisees understood what Jesus Christ was saying in that in that parable. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. They'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You know, many who have had the opportunity, you know, who let it slip by their hands and by reason of neglect, or even reason of conscious choice. I'm going to do what I want to do instead of what God wants me to do in this occasion or or whatever. Or I don't need this and I, you know, I'm rich. I'm increased. I don't need this instruction. I don't need this instruction. I know it all. I mean, all those things that we can see, even in ourselves, right? When we say, I don't need this. I don't need that.

It's not that important to me. I don't do this. I'm not going to take this opportunity, you know, whatever. All those people, you know, when it comes time and they realize they didn't receive that denarius, they're not going to be part of those that are there with Christ. You know, again, that could be any one of us if we're not careful, earnestly, carefully, diligently following God.

And when you think about whack, weeping and gnashing of teeth, even when I was, you know, young and growing up in the church, weeping and gnashing of teeth always got my attention, no matter how many times, because I thought, what an awful feeling that would be to realize that you threw away everything and that you knew what you were going to go through because you simply couldn't choose God and put yourself second and not put Him first. So I think, you know, maybe 11 and 12 are talking about the last first and the first last and those who just are irritated, you know, and give up. Give up along the way or get tired of it and don't do the things that we talk about, you know, and enduring, you know, to the end. So you can contemplate that parable of the vineyard. We're all workers in God's vineyard. He's planted us. He's the vine. Those things, those things. Brother Shaby? Yes, sir. Looking at the word for vine dressing, it is almost George's. It has to do because remember when we read down in Isaiah, he said he dug the land first. He found a location. So he's intimate with location. He's intimate with the land, not just the vine.

So most people know it is they're corrected and they go with husbandmen. Just like Noah. Noah Noah is ish ha'adam. So a man who was intimate with the land, he became and he grew grapes and he made wine. So as a husband, most people say it's better to go because he's intimate with the whole process. Intimate with the whole process? Yeah, you're right. That puts him right there with it. You know, hearing you say that, I realize they had some verses to talk about vineyards in the Old Testament and that puts us right in the middle of it. I'll get to that in a minute, though. So a good point and a good reminder. So I'll get to that. Let's go to Matthew 21 because right after Matthew 20, Christ talks about vineyards again. And this is a little bit shorter, a little bit shorter parable, but in verse 33, verse 33 of Matthew 21, he says, Here's another parable. There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and let ahead and put a set of hedge around it, which he would do. Protect it, right? Keep the things out of it. Set a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, did all the things that he should have done. And he leased it to Vinedresser's husband, as Xavier just said. He leased it to husband. They would take care of it. They went into a far country. So when Vintage Time drew near, he sent his servants to the Vinedresser's that they might receive its fruit. And I'm going to use Vinedresser's. The Vinedresser's took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. And he sent other servants more than the first that they did likewise to them. But last of all, he sent his son to them, saying, well, they'll respect him. But when the Vinedresser saw the son, they said, this is the heir. Let us kill him and cease his inheritance. We want it all for us. We want to do it our way. We don't want to give back to the husband or to the owner. So they took him, cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those to whom he entrusted his vineyard? You know, that's another one to contemplate in light of everything that we've done. I could talk about it for 10 minutes, but there's a few other things I want to get to tonight. But I'll give you that kind of go back and read that. Think about in the context of vineyards and the vineyard that God has planted, the vineyard that you and I are in, the work we're doing, whatever it is. Remember Ephesians 4? Every joint, every person has a part in the work of God. Every person has a part in the spiritual building of the temple. Every person has a part in the vineyard that God has done. Are we doing it the way that God said? And when we do, it will come together and be a beautiful, beautiful, unified, exhilarating experience. But Xavier brought up a good point. And let's go back to Isaiah, because I mentioned that the word vineyard shows up, you know, many times. And Isaiah more than any other book. We're going to see it, you know, all the way even in chapter 65. We'll get to that in a minute. But Xavier brought up Noah. You know, we can see in Genesis 9 when Noah exited the ark, he planted a vineyard. You know, we can talk about Naboth's vineyard. Naboth, you remember him, he's the one who Ahab really wanted Naboth's vineyard.

Naboth must have really had a beautiful vineyard for the king of Israel to want it so badly. Naboth said, no way, no way. This is mine. I have toiled and I've worked on it. It's a beautiful vineyard and Jezebel conspired so that Naboth would be killed. So we have what it's an ugly story, but the vineyard, it was important. And we've already read about vineyards a couple times. And Isaiah, let's look at Isaiah 1 and verse 8. You know, we talked about this briefly, but we didn't have the background of the vineyard at this time. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard. Kind of a, you know, there's that booth, you know, but there that she's all by herself as a hut in the garden of cucumbers as a besieged city. It's kind of a sorry picture when you see a vineyard that what it used to be and you see the watchtower there, but now it's just sort of there. Everything's grown up. Nothing is maintained. It's kind of a picture of what was, but what, you know, how it was all let go. Kind of a picture of us if we just let ourselves go and become a mess and don't keep ourselves in the way of God. In Isaiah 3, last week, we read about a vineyard. Verse 14 says, the Lord will, in Isaiah 3, the Lord will enter into judgment. Whoops, 3, 3, 14. Oh yeah, the Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of his people and his princes, for you've eaten up the vineyard. You've taken all the fruit. You've eaten it up. You've devoured it.

You've destroyed it. You've eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses, right, for you have burned the vineyard. In Isaiah 16.

16 in verse 10, you know, this is talking about when God takes away his blessings. Gladness is taken away and joy from the plentiful field. In the vineyards there will be no singing, nor will there be shouting. No treaders will tread out wine in the presence. I've made their shouting cease. Therefore my heart shall resound like a heart for Moab and my inner being for, well, career errors. But you kind of see this empty feeling. What used to be the joy that was there and when it's gone, it's gone. In Isaiah 65, and that's the last chapter there, Isaac 65, you know, when we get into the latter chapters of Isaiah, it's pictured in Trumpets, the kingdom, the millennium, the time beyond, you know, the time beyond this 6,000 years of man's ruin when Christ restores all things. In verse 21 it says in Isaiah 65, they will build houses and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. Even in the millennium, people will be learning what God wandered us and what its mankind, things that would help us spiritually if we were able to do those today. They will build houses and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. A couple more verses. Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31.

You know Proverbs 31, it's the story of the virtuous wife. You've heard me say, if you've been on our Bible studies, that we as men can't look at our wives and say, this chapter is for you because we know that our future, if we remain true to God and loyal to Him, we will become brides of Christ. So this is a picture, also this chapter, of what we will be doing, what Christ is looking for in us. So when we look at it that way, yes, it's for our wives today, but men don't think that you can just erase this chapter because you can't have, as many people say, you can't have a Proverbs 31 wife without a Proverbs 31 husband. You see the two of them working together here, and it's a picture of us as well. Proverbs 31 and verse 16. Notice what the wife does.

She considers the field and buys it. Okay, now she's going to go out and work with her hands from her prophets. What does she do? She plants a vineyard. Which does it, she plants a vineyard. It's a valuable thing. Vineyards were a thing of value. Something that you cultivated and something that you could be, that you worked hard to make happen. And one last verse regarding vineyards, and this is Jeremiah 12. Those were all physical vineyards, but Jeremiah 12 tells us that God is looking at vineyards spiritually for us as well. In Jeremiah 12 and verse 10, and again, I look at the translations that the New Kings names, what they did, they didn't understand the flow of the Bible, they didn't understand the symmetry of the Bible, they didn't understand vineyards then, and vineyards in the New Testament, spiritual and physical, the applications, all that. So here in verse 10, they say many rulers, but when you look that up, it's shepherds, many pastors, right? The newer translations will say many pastors have destroyed my vineyard. Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard. They've tried my portion underfoot, they've made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. Certainly that's a testament and a judgment on the world around us that would call themselves Christian, but not true Christian, but also spells to the responsibility of every pastor in the true church, every teacher, and we're all teachers. Remember, that's what we're in the process of learning. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard. We all have to work together. We all have to be very diligent in maintaining God's Word, keeping the vineyard exactly the way that God said it, abiding by everything the husbandman wants us to do. Can't underscore that enough. He's going to be looking for that fruit, and you and I have to be producing that fruit, and there's one way to produce it.

We know that is. We just have to discipline ourselves to do that.

Let's finish with just a few verses in Isaiah 5, and then we'll pick it up next time and go through that. I'm just going to read through verses 3 through 7. They're not encouraging verses, right? But they are in a way, because you and I don't have to be what God has said. He has planted us to be a choice vineyard. He's given us everything we need, that when with Christ overseeing it and everyone working together the way they would, that we're a vineyard that the husband is going to be absolutely pleased with. Doing things the way, producing the fruit, something that is the envy, if I can use that word lightly, of everyone that sees it by this Solomon, though, everyone doing their part and working together on it. So we have verse 2, where Christ did everything right, and we know he did everything right. He expected it to bring forth good groups, grapes. Why wouldn't he expect it to? He did everything, but it brought forth wild grapes. And verse 3, now inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge please between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done in my vineyard that I have not done in it? Now, Christ might say that.

He might be looking at us one day if we fail to honor him, if we fail to respect him, if we fail to abide by every word that he said and live by every word and learn more in detail the way God wants us to live and then apply that into our lives. What more could I have done? I gave you my spirit. I gave you my word. I sent these things to you. You have no excuse except that you just resisted and wouldn't yield to me and do it my way. What more could have been done to my vineyard than I have not done in it? Why then would I expect it to bring forth good grapes? Why aren't you just doing the things that will produce the fruit that God wants and not resist everything he says? And now please let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard. And these are New Testament words. You see Jesus Christ talking about the branches that have to get cut off because they are not producing. Let me tell you what I'll do to my vineyard. I'll take away its edge. It'll be burned. I'll break down its wall. It'll be trampled down. I will lay it waste. I won't prune it anymore. I won't dig it anymore. But there will come up briars and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain. No rain on it. What a sad picture! What a sad picture of what could have been if the vineyard had just responded to the vine dresser and not fought against it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. And the men of Judah are his pleasant plant. He looked for justice but behold oppression, for righteousness but behold a cry. Cross out for help. There isn't any cry for help from Judah or Israel or people who depart from God just a wailing. They're miserable. They're miserable and they're unhappy. But we see the world around us and we'll see it even more. They're not going to cry for help to God. Maybe they'll cry for help to each other but it's just a wailing that goes up in the land farther and further we depart from God. So let me end there. We'll come back and we'll look at those verses but we'll continue in chapter five next time. The rest of the time it kind of shows us how do we pervert the vineyard? What do we do that it brings forth wild grapes? And the rest of chapter five talks about some of those things and we'll bring this into the 21st century and you're in my life because everything we're going to read the rest of chapter five we see all around us today. And you and I live in it and some of us even do the things that are here. Let me end there and open it up for comments, questions, or whatever anyone would like to talk about.