Isaiah 5: 1-7
The Master Planner
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Isaiah (740-680) came on the scene of Judah’s history at a time when it
was of the utmost importance that the people realize that salvation was of the
Lord, and not merely by man’s own efforts.
Isaiah found himself standing against the threat of rising imperialism
by Assyria and the emergence of a spirit of universalism which began to turn
his people from the concept of a theocracy to that of dependence upon an
alliance with the surrounding nations of the Near East.
Prophets, as mouthpieces for God, lived a dangerous life. Occupational hazards were great. There job was to relay the message of the
Master Planner.
GOD HAS A
PLAN FOR US
1 I will sing for the one
I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
The
Promised Land for Israel, a rest for Christians
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
God did not choose the nation of Israel…He chose Abraham (and made
a covenant)
God cleanses us of our sin when we trust in his Son
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
God offers safety and provision for those trusting in Him (a
refuge)
God has provided all we need for producing fruit; He leaves the
choice to do it or not up to us
GOD GIVES US A CHOICE TO PARTICIPATE IN HIS PLAN
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.
The fruit of the spirit (Gal 5:22)
The time of the Judges and following; Israel intermingled with the
inhabitants of the land.
God looks for fruit from us, but not all produce like He wants (1
Cor.). At times, we are so closely
associated with the world, our fruit is choked off, and no one can tell the
difference between a believer and non-believer.
3 "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
Beginning with the Exodus, and on through the Kings
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
All the northern kings were bad, all but three southern kings
GOD DISCIPLINES HIS CHOSEN IN ORDER TO GET WHAT HE WANTS
5 Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
God takes away His protection (in order to correct)
The Babylonian Captivity
6 I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
Thorns, what the first Adam was cursed with, and what the second
Adam wore while paying for the sins of the world
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it."
God takes away its provision, and gets its attention
As well as their idolatry, for the past 490 years the
Judeans had been neglecting the law of the Sabbatic year. The land was supposed
to lie fallow for one year in every seven and was now owed 70 Sabbatic years.
This was the reason why their captivity in Babylon was to last for 70 years:
To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah,
until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she
kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
(2 Chronicles 36:21)
It got its 70 years fallow; God always gets what He wants, with
our without you. He just invites us to
participate with Him
Many pastors have destroyed my
vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant
portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate
it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it
to heart. (Jeremiah 12:10–11)
Here, God's vineyard is Israel and God's pleasant
portion is Judah. The word pastors
used here literally means ‘to feed’. It refers to those people who were
responsible for the spiritual feeding and spiritual welfare of the people, that
is, the priests, the prophets and to a large extent in those days the king.
Often when a king did good in the sight of the Lord, the people followed suit
and when a king did evil in the sight of the Lord, the people returned to
idolatrous worship. The king was a very great influence as a pastor to his
people. At this time, Israel had fallen, Judah was about to go into captivity
in Babylon for 70 years and God lays the blame fair and square on the
pastors!
7
The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden of his delight.
And he looked for justice (mishpat), but
saw bloodshed (mishpach);
for righteousness (tsidakah), but heard
cries of distress (tsiakah).
The
play on words illustrated the irony of what God expected
What does
the Lord require of you, but to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with your God (Micah 6.8)
Rejecting
the Cure
Is 7:10-17
Intro: Refusing the cure
Jehovah's
Witness mother dies after refusing blood transfusion after giving birth to
twins
By LIZ HULL, ANDY DOLAN and DAN
NEWLING - Last updated at 22:26pm on 5th November 2007
A young mother died hours after
giving birth to twins because her faith prohibited a life-saving blood
transfusion.
Emma
Gough, 22, was able to hold her son and daughter after the natural delivery,
but suffered a sudden haemorrhage and lost a great deal of blood.
As
a Jehovah's Witness, Mrs Gough had signed a form before the birth insisting
that she should not be given blood.
Staff
at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital begged her husband Anthony, 24, who is also a
Jehovah's Witness, and other relatives to allow the transfusion. But followers
believe that blood transfusions are prohibited by the Bible and the family
would not sanction the treatment.
Mrs
Gough, a shop worker from Dawley, Telford, Shropshire, died early on October
25.
The
twins are being cared for by their father, who yesterday led the mourners at
his wife's funeral.
Mr
Gough said: "We are coping the best we can. There will be an inquest and
issues will arise from that."
The
couple married on the Caribbean island of Barbados in December 2005 in a
ceremony attended by 30 family members and friends.
At
the time, Mrs Gough was a secretary working for her husband's gas fitting and
plumbing business.
Friends
said the Goughs were teenage sweethearts and Emma had been "ecstatic"
to learn she was expecting twins.
Their
best man, Peter Welch, 24, said Mrs Gough's death had devastated both sides of
the family, all Jehovah's Witnesses.
Mr
Welch, of Sutton Hill, Telford, said: "We can't believe she died after
childbirth in this day and age, with all the technology there is.
Disobedience
11. Ask the Lord for a sign (double interpretation)
12. Ahaz did not ask; instead, he went to the
world (Assyria) for help (v. 9; Ps 118:8)
The Sign
14. A sign:
Virgin; Immanuel (Mt 1:23)
Rom 1:2 (Greco-Roman letter
writing)—promised through his prophets (Mt 1:22); if God says it’s going to
happen, it will
Rom 1:3—regarding his son (had to be
both human and divine)
Human nature (Mt and Lk
geneologies)
Son of God (John 1:1)
The Price
of Disobedience
16. Land of two kings laid waste
17. Ephraim broke away from Judah—the king of
Assyria
Conclusion: Take the cure: Immanuel
Is. 26:3
Peace
- Our minds
wander at times, because we are unsure of the future, we have problems
- We need
something stable to fix our minds upon--we need peace
- Peace
comes by trusting; JN; 99x believe; JN 16:33
- We try to
trust other things--Acts 17:22
- What ever
you use as a stable source, ask yourself, "Has it ever let me down?"
- This
won't--He won't
Government
Isaiah
33:22
Judge-toa-Judicial: Supreme Court
Lawgiver-wj-Legislative: Congress
King-lkn-Executive: President
"Restless! Peaceless!"
Isaiah
57:20-21
C.H.
Spurgeon
Preached at
the Metropolitan Tabernacle, May 21, 1876
From C.H.
Spurgeon's Sermons, Curtis Vaughan, ed., p. 265-273.
"But
the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up
mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith
my God, to the wicked."
Introduction
1A A Fact Observed--Two Classes of Sinners
1B
The Wicked--overt transgressors living in the indulgence of open and
known sin
1C They are swayed by restless passions
1D The sin of Lust
1E Their cravings are never satisfied
2E Poem by Dr. Doddridge
2D The sin of Anger
3D The sin of Envy
1E Sin of the poor
2E Sin of the sick
3E Sin of the Princes
4E Sin of the strong
4D The sin of Pride
5D The sin of Avarice--once possessed by a
desire to amass gain, there is no rest
6D The sin of Ambition
1E Not the desire to use one's capacities for
God's glory and for fellow creatures
2E The craving for so-called "human
glory"
2C They are agitated by the memory of their old
sins
1D Each sin breeds other sins
2D Every sin causes a tendency to commit other
sins
3D What we once did by choice, we come to do
because we must
4D Sin in the soul is like leaven in the
dough--it heaves and ferments
3C Like the sea, they are governed by a greater
power than their own
1D The sea feels the force of the moon, and is
agitated by the agency of the winds
2D The wicked are under the dominion of the
prince of the power of the air
4C They are kept, by the action of others, from
being at peace
5C They are out of gear with the entire universe
of God
1D Stars are obedient to the law of their maker
2D From the tiny atom to the huge Atlantic, all
are under the power of the divine law
3D Only the Wicked are not obedient to the Law
of the Lord
4D Man would not chance to disobey the law of
gravitation, nor even the law of man--they will ultimately lose
2B
The Moral--those who have heard the gospel and have rejected it.
1C No peace when they see others coming to know
Christ
2C No peace when they hear their friends and
relatives rejoicing in Jesus their Savior
3C No rest around the communion table
4C No rest watching their friends die a
Christless death
5C Poems by Dr. Watts and Augustus Toplady
2A A Sentence Pronounced
1B
No peace to the wicked
1C God Himself says it
2C God is at war with the wicked
2B
No peace where there is unpardoned sin
3B
No peace where there is no purity
4B
No peace in receiving the sacraments
5B
No peace from weeping an ocean of tears and offering prayers continually
Conclusion
Put down your weapons, cry for mercy, accept the reconciliation which Christ has wrought, trust Him, and you shall have peace.