Isaiah chapter 5. God shows great
mercy toward His elect in the, now this may surprise you, in
the just punishment of sinners who despise the goodness of God.
God shows great mercy toward His elect in the just punishment
of sinners who despise the goodness of God. Every child of Adam is a sinner. And every child of Adam must
die according to God's holy justice. All men are guilty before God. As the Lord declared His glory
to Moses, He said, He keeps mercy for thousands. He forgives iniquity
and transgression and sin. But He will by no means clear
the guilty. He does show mercy. And He does
forgive. But every iniquity and every
transgression and sin of every sinner shall by no means be cleared
until justice has been served. How then can God save a sinner? Either His justice is going to
be satisfied having been poured out on His Son, and thus satisfied
towards you. And through faith in His Son,
you're accepted with God. Or else, you're going to have
to answer to Him yourself in judgment. And yet, when the believer beholds
that God will not turn from executing His justice upon rebellious sinners,
but that he will certainly, surely, unchangeably, unalterably pour
out his justice upon those who rebel against him, who die in
unbelief. By that same immutability, by
that same unchanging character of God, we behold that those
to whom He has poured out His grace, He shall never change
that. He shall never go back on His
promise because His promise is sure and steadfast in His Son.
He won't pour out His justice twice. He won't pour it out on
His Son and then turn around and pour it out on one for whom
His Son died. It just won't happen. And in
the last day of God's holy judgment, those saved by His free grace
will not only rejoice in the grace and love of God that was
shown to them, but they will rejoice also in the judgment
of unbelievers because they are judged because they rejected
the Lord our righteousness. And our God's holy character
demands He pour out His wrath. That's what we find in Revelation
19. It says, It says that, After these things
I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Hallelujah,
salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God,
for true and righteous are his judgments. For he hath judged
the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication,
and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And
again they said, Hallelujah. And her smoke rose up forever
and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell
down and worshipped God that sat on the throne saying, Amen,
Hallelujah. And a voice came out of the throne
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. And so the thunderings of God
are praised. The thunderings of His judgment
against the unbelievers are praised in righteous praise because His
judgment is right and it's true. That's the place where the Lord
brings the believer is to say, Lord, if you should mark iniquity,
who could stand? I can't stand. I'm guilty in
myself before you, and I can't stand before you, and you're
just if you condemn me because I'm a sinner. In other words,
God brings us to take sides with Him against ourselves. The title of the message this
morning is A Song of Judgment and Righteousness. In Isaiah
5-1 we read, Now I will sing to my well-beloved a song of
my beloved touching his vineyard. Our text this morning is a song
written by Isaiah under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, and this
song is written to the praise of his beloved Lord Jesus Christ. That's the well-beloved. And
the subject of this song is the Lord's vineyard. In verse 7,
we're told that the vineyard is the house of Israel and the
men of Judah. This is that nation, that physical
nation, those men which the Lord delivered from Egypt and showed
great favor for years and years and years and years. Through
this one nation, the Lord declares plainly what He's done in giving
His only begotten Son for His people among every nation. And
He also shows the case of what shall be the case of sinners
who die in unbelief, who reject Him, go through this life rejecting
Him. He shows through this one nation
what shall happen to sinners out of every nation that die
in unbelief. Let's see it. First of all, God
has provided everything necessary for the provision of helpless
sinners. He has provided everything necessary for the salvation of
helpless sinners. We see the goodness of God and
the great things the Lord did for the nation of Israel. Let's
look at Isaiah 5. He says, My well-beloved hath
a vineyard and a very fruitful hill. The nation of Israel was
God's vineyard in a very fruitful hill. He called them his own
and set them apart for himself. And the hill in which he placed
them was a well-cultivated, well-fertilized land by the very goodness that
he showed to them. He didn't do this for any other
nation but them. And he set them, as it were,
on a very fruitful hill in the land of milk and honey. And verse
2 says, and he fenced it. God protected Israel from all
her enemies, round about. But what the Lord did for the
nation Israel, in protecting her, in fencing that nation,
the covenant God declares to you sinner, that this is what
he has done for the believer who now trusts him. Those who
make up His true Jerusalem, His true Israel, the spiritual Israel
of God, this is what He does for them. Listen, Zechariah 2.5
says, For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire
round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. That's
what the Lord said when He said, I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. Christ is defense. He's the defense
that surrounds and hedges His people about and protects them.
That's what the Lord showed us when He protected Israel for
all those many years from all their enemies round about them. Look then in verse 2 again, and
He gathered out the stones thereof. Every earthly shackle, every
earthly enemy, every idol that Israel, that nation faced, the
Lord removed it. He took them out of Egyptian
bondage. He took them out through the wilderness and their clothes
didn't wear out. The shoes on their feet didn't
wear out. He fed them. Before they went into Canaan,
He took away the nations from before them and cast them out
with their idols. He left some to prove them, but
He took away the stones thereof and took away the hindrances
that would have prohibited them from worshiping Him in truth.
What the Lord did for Israel in the land is what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done in free grace for those who have put
their trust in Him. Psalm 44, verse 3 says, "...they
got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did
their own arm save them, but thy right hand, and thine arm,
and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto
them." He showed what grace is, what grace He shows to the believer
in what He did, the physical, temporal goodness that He manifests
to the nation Israel. He delivered them out. and took
the stones out of the way, out of their path. Verse 2 there
says, "...and he planted it with the choice's vine." The choice's
seed is what he used. The men of Israel were the seed
of Abraham. These were the sons and daughters
of Abraham. The father of the faithful, the
choice one. and before delivering Israel
into their promised rest in Canaan." Do you remember the folks that
came to the land of Canaan? They came to the border. And
the Lord had said, go into the land of Canaan and spy it out.
And He told them exactly what it would look like. He told them
exactly how large the enemies were going to be. He told them
exactly how high up walled, fenced to heaven the cities were going
to be. He told them everything before they ever went in there.
of how it was going to be. And they went in and they saw
these things and they came back. He told them how fruitful it
would be. They came back carrying one cluster of grapes on a stick
between two men, carrying it on their shoulders. That's how
big the cluster of grapes were. And they came back and said,
indeed, the fruit is just like He said it, but the men are really
tall and the cities are fenced up. We can't go in. We can't
go in. And so you know what the Lord did with those folks? He
said, you can't go in. You're right, you can't go in.
You enter my land by faith in me. You can't go in there." And
they said, oh, well, we messed up. We'll fix it. We'll go in
there. And he said, no, no, you can't. He said, go on if you
want to, but you're going to die if you try. Do it by your
own hand. It's the same unbelief that said
we can't go in that said, oh, we'll go in there. We'll fix
it. We'll fix what we broke. We'll go on in now. Same unbelief. And so they went in and they
died, or some of them died. And then the rest of them wandered
for 40 years until that bad seed was done away with, as it were. And then he delivered them by
his choice seed, Joshua, the Savior. He took them in there.
That's how they went in. He says, I planted this vineyard
with the choicest vine. He planted the nation of Israel
with His divine oracles, His word, His holy just and good
law. He gave them the high priest
and He declared plainly how they could approach Him in a lamb.
Everything that He did in planting this vineyard was the choicest
vine. It was the choicest seed. And
all of it points to Christ our Savior. God of all salvation
has done this in Christ. Christ is the seed of Abraham.
Isn't that what Galatians 3.15 teaches us? He's that seed. He's
the faithful Joshua, our Savior. He's the Word. He's the holy,
just, and good lawgiver. And He's the one in whom that
law is magnified, and honored, and fulfilled, and established
for the believer by faith in Him. He's the believer's high
priest. He's the lamb who died in place
of his people that the law might rest its case toward them. And
what the Lord did in the nation of Israel is a type of what the
Lord has done for his people. For a multitude called spiritual
Israel that God gave to him. before the foundation of the
world. He put away their sin. That's honoring to Christ. He
paid the debt. That's honoring to Christ. He's
the choice vine. He's the seed of God. And in verse 2 it says, And he
built a tower in the midst of it. This tower is the temple
of God that he built in the midst of that nation. And that temple
was a sanctuary of safety and communion with God. In that temple,
he promised to meet with them, and that's where he met with
them, over the mercy seat. that covered that broken law
that was inside the ark. That ark is a picture of Christ.
That mercy seat is a picture of Christ. That blood that went
on that mercy seat is a picture of Christ's blood that went over
that broken law. And he said, I'll meet with you
there in Christ, which that typified. And he met with them there in
that tabernacle, in that temple. Who does that temple typify?
Look over at John 2, verse 19. Who is it? Where is this temple where God
is pleased to meet with us? Who is this One in whom His power
and pleasure is made known toward His people like it was in that
temple in the days of Israel? Look at John 2 verse 19. Jesus
answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, It took us
46 years to build this temple. You think you are going to raise
it up in three days? but he spake of the temple of
his body. He's the one in whom the believer,
in whom God meets with the believer. That's what this temple, he built
a tower in the midst of them, just like he's given Christ in
the midst of his people, where there's sanctuary and safety.
And then verse 2 back there in Isaiah 5 says, and he also made
a winepress therein. Now, remember, Isaiah is using
metaphorical language here. He's using a metaphor. A comparison
of two unlike things. But he's comparing Christ to
the wine press. And this is what he says. He
says, he provided a wine press. He actually provided a real,
physical, hewn wine press for the nation of Israel. A vineyard
is where you grow grapes. And when you take the grapes,
those grapes have to be put into a wine press, and the wine press
has to be tread by somebody to crush the grape, to get the juice
out of the grape to make the wine. That's what has to happen. And so God, He didn't leave anything
for them to do. He even made the wine press for
them. He said, I even put the wine
press in your midst. We know that Christ our Lord
is the fruitful vine. He's divine. Isaiah says that
throughout Scripture, throughout his book here. Let me point out
a few things to you here. Look over at Isaiah 53-1. Isaiah
53-1. We read here, Who hath believed
our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For
He, shall grow up, this is speaking of Christ, He shall grow up before
Him as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. You have a
root, you have a choice seed, and then you have a root, and
then you have a tender plant that comes up, and then you have
a branch or a vine that comes up. And it says here, He's that
branch of that vine. It says, He hath no form nor
comeliness when we shall see Him. There's no beauty that we
should desire in Him. You see that word there, no form nor
comeliness? This tender plant grew up. This
choice seed grew up. This vine grew up. This branch. But when people looked at Him,
people didn't see any comeliness in Him. Now look back with me
at Isaiah chapter 4. The natural eye finds no comeliness
in Christ the branch, but look back here now and you'll see
how He's beheld in that day when His glory is revealed. Verse
2 says, in that day shall the branch, that word there is vine,
from that tender plant, from that choice seed, in that day
shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious and
the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely. for
them that are escaped of Israel." That's Him. That's Christ the
Lord. He's the fruit of the earth. That vine that came up and bore
fruit. Why is He excellent and comely in that day when His glory
is revealed? Because then we behold that He's not only the
vine, but He's brought forth the wine of refreshing because
He tread the winepress alone. He's the vine. He's the fruit.
He's the one who put the fruit in the winepress, and He's the
one that tread the winepress, that we might enjoy the refreshing
of the wine of God's grace. Look with me over at Isaiah 63.1. Isaiah loves this metaphor. He
uses this under the inspiration of God. He uses this metaphor
of the winepress and the vine and the grape to show forth Christ's
work of redemption. Isaiah 63, verse 1. Who is this
that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Basra? You know
what happens when a man gets in a wine press and goes to treading
out those grapes? He gets grape juice all over
him and it dyes his garments. Look here. This one that's glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength,
who is he? The Lord answers, I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Look at verse 2 wherefore out
thou read in thine apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth
in the wine fat How did you get like this? He answers I've tried
in the wine press alone And of the people there was none with
me For I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my
fury and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and
I will stain all my arraignment and for the day of vengeance
is in mine heart, and the year of my redeeming has come. And
I looked, and there was none to help, and I wondered that
there was none to uphold. Therefore my own arm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me. I will tread down
the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and
I'll bring down their strength to the earth." There was nobody
to help him. He said, I trampled the people
down in my anger. You know what he did? He put
the sin of His people on His Son, and His Son went to the
cross, and He poured out the anger, trampled down His people
in justice that they deserve in the person of His Son, so
that they could go free. And that's the blood that's like
that wine vat that's been tread along that he treaded all by
himself and satisfied the justice of God and brought in an everlasting
righteousness for his people. That's the wine press. That's
the wine vat that he, the wine press that he tread along. And
He, that tender plant, that fruit of God, the fruit of the earth,
was crushed under the wrath of God. And from Him, His blood
poured out like juice from a grape pours out. But in that, brethren,
in that very thing that the world looks upon and says, that's a
wretched weakness right there on the cross, a shameful death
on the cross, that's the righteousness of God manifest. judgment and
righteousness right there. Now those that are found in that
judgment and that righteousness shall enter into judgment in
the last day redeemed, robed in the snow-white garment of
righteousness that our Lord is. But for those who attempt to
come by their own works, by their own will, by their own desire,
by their own understanding, by their own knowledge, by their
own idol that they've created in their mind, They'll have to
answer to that very judgment that the Son of God answered
to for His people, and they'll have to answer to it by themselves
under the thrice holy judgment and righteousness of God Almighty.
He will by no means clear the guilty. Now, one more thing on
this fruit, Isaiah 119. This might give you a little
more, a little better meaning to what Isaiah said there in
Isaiah 119. He's the fruit of the earth.
He's excellent and comely to the believer. In 1.19 He says,
if you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the
land, the fruit of the earth. The good of the land is the Son
of God, Christ our Lord. And He said, if you be willing
and obedient. you'll eat the fruit. The fruit is what He accomplished. Being willing and obedient is
simply trusting Him, believing Him. Eating the fruit of the
land is reaping the benefits of what He accomplished on our
behalf freely. That's the fruit of the land.
We get to partake of His righteousness. We get to enjoy a perfect, complete
standing with God Almighty in Him. Let's go back here and let's
see what was the complaint with the house of Israel. He did all
these things in the midst of this nation. Israel gave him
all these things, pointing to Christ. So what was his complaint
with them? Back in Isaiah 5, 2. And he looked,
he planted this vineyard, and he looked that it should bring
forth grapes. And it brought forth wild grapes. In Israel's
rejection, we behold the case of every sinner who rejects Christ
the Lord. The Lord declared to the house
of Israel in all that He did, that salvation is of the Lord.
He looked that they would trust Him alone for all, for everything. That's what He means by willing
and obedient. But instead, they trusted themselves. They trusted
their own flesh. They trusted their own strength.
And they didn't look to Him alone. And he said he looked at they
by trusting him alone would be the fruit of his planting. Instead
they rejected him and they brought forth wild grapes. You know wild
grapes, wild grapes look like the grapes that are planted by
a husbandman. They look like the same kind
of grapes that are planted in a vineyard. Wild grapes do. You
can't look at them and really tell the difference in them.
And did you know that wild grapes can come up and grow up in a
vineyard right beside the grapevine that's been planted by the husbandman
that owns the vine? Look back there at Isaiah 1.11.
Here's the point I want you to see here. The Lord said, to what purpose
is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings
of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood
of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats, when you come to
appear before me. Who hath required this at your
hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations.
Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons and Sabbath,
the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It's iniquity, even
the solemn meeting. your new moons, your appointed
feasts. My soul hates it. There are trouble unto me. I'm
weary to bear them. When you spread forth your hands,
I'll hide my eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers,
I'll not hear. Your hands are full of blood." You see, they
were in the camp of Israel. They had the Word of God. They
used the Word of God. They called themselves by the
name of the Lord. Did you know that the word Lord
and Baal are synonymous with one another? You know who makes
the difference and discerns the difference in the one who's calling?
The one who says, Lord, Lord. You know who says he's not calling
Lord, he's calling Baal. The one who sees the heart. God
Almighty. These folks were coming and they
were crying, Lord, Lord. They were bringing bullocks.
They were praying. They were having a solemn meeting. The
Day of Atonement. They were coming. They were doing
everything that God commanded them to do. And trusting in everything
they were doing. rather than the God to whom all
those things pointed and in whom all the worship has its end.
Look here. Let's see clearly in this Isaiah
chapter 5. We'll see here exactly what they
were doing. Verse 8. They loved the world and they
were covetous. Woe unto them that join house
to house, that lay field to field, to there be no place, that they
may be placed alone in the midst of the earth, trying to buy up
all the land and houses so they could just have it all by themselves.
In my ears Seth said said the Lord of hosts of a truth many
houses shall be desolate even great and fair houses without
Inhabitant a ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath and the
seed of a homer shall yield an ifa He says here the love of
pleasure and drunkenness and sensuality was in their midst
woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may
follow strong drink that continue until night to wine and flame
them And the harp, and the vial, and the tabra, and the pipe,
and wine are in their feast, but they regard not the work
of the Lord. There's the problem. They regard
not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His
hand. Have you noticed a difference
in the way that I preach to you? I talk about the operation of
God's hands. I talk about the work of God.
before the foundation of the world after he created the world
when he's bringing a sinner to himself what he does in a sinner
what Christ did at Calvary what the Holy Spirit does after a
conversion of a sinner what he does in preserving a sinner what
he'll do in bringing him to glory I want you to know about the
operation of God's hands and you know what God does through
that preaching through the operation of his hands he makes his people
are willing and obedient and faithful people and And if I
stop preaching the operation of His hands and start preaching
how you need to be more willing and faithful and obedient, you
might be the most beautiful grapes on the outside and just wild
grapes as you can be in your heart and in your spirit. Because
He didn't plant it. He didn't plant that vineyard.
But he says here, he says here, therefore my people are gone
into captivity, because they have no knowledge. Their honorable
men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore
hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure,
and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth
shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought
down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the
lofty shall be humbled. They were engaging in infidelity
and unbelief and in blasphemy. Look in verse 18. Woe unto them
that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin, as it were,
with a cart-rope, that say, Let him make speed, and hasten his
work, that we may see it. And let the counsel of the Holy
One of Israel draw nigh, and come, that we may know it. That's
blasphemy, to speak that way. And he says that's what they
were doing in their religion. They were religious. But they
were covetous. They were drunken folks. They were blasphemers against
God. They were moral and spiritual perverts, he says. Look at verse
20. Woe unto them that call evil
good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light
for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
You know, when God turns on the light and He says over there
in Isaiah 33, I believe it is, He says, He turns on the light
and you behold your righteousnesses, those things that you called
sweet and beautiful and lovely, you behold them as filthy rags. Well, He said, the problem that
I have with Israel is that they're hanging on to that which I call
a stinking, filthy abomination. And they call that sweet and
delightful and think it smells good because they made it. They
created it. They put their trust in it. It's
their hope. It's their glory. And he says, I hate it because
it's not my glory, it's not the operation of my hands, it's not
what I created, it's not what I performed, and it does not
honor my son and one I order. And he says, and yet they're
perverted in their judgment and their understanding. And then
he says here, haughtiness and pride, especially spiritual pride.
Look at verse 21. Woe unto them that are wise in
their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. I tell you what,
the man who thinks he's spiritually sound, who thinks he is wise
spiritually, will be the most arrogant, arrogant man. He'll
be the most arrogant man. He will not hear a word from
God, because it don't line up with what his his own understanding. When God saves a sinner, he takes
that, he makes Christ our wisdom. We want to hear about him, we
want to know about him, we want to read about him, we want to
sing about him. We can't get enough of him. He's our wisdom.
Not me anymore, not my flesh, not what I'm doing. I want to
know, but he did. The gospel is what he has done,
what he's doing, and what he shall do. Not what you're doing
or what you ought to be doing and not doing. That's the law.
And the law says, this is what you ought to do, what you ought
not to do, and you've broken it. And you need to see him.
You need to flee to him. Well, one more thing here, Bob.
They were oppressive. And this is where all self-righteousness
is going to lead to, is oppression in every aspect of our lives. That's where it leads to. It
starts in a pulpit with a man that don't know God. He's oppressive
to his congregation and tries to whip them and yoke them and
treat them worse than you would treat a donkey. And then it goes
to the people that's in the congregation, and they do the same thing to
one another, and it spills out into the community, it spills
out into the workforce, because it's all drunkenness, and reveling,
and perversion, and calling sweet, sour sweet, and sweet sour, and
light dark, and darkness light. It's backwardsness. Look at him
here, verse 22. Lo and to them that are mighty
to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink which
justify the wicked for a reward That's what I happen You take
that man that's telling everybody what they ought to be doing and
not be doing, I guarantee you the man that's got money that's
sitting in the congregation won't get near the yoke on his neck
that the poor man will get. Because he just ain't going to
be honest with him. He ain't being honest with the
people anyway, so he sure won't be honest with that man. He'll
tell him what he wants to hear so he can keep getting that reward.
And they take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. Therefore,
as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff,
so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up
as dust, because they cast away the law of the Lord of hosts,
and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore,
his anger kindled against his people, and he stretched forth
his hand against them, and they smitten them, and the hills did
tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the
streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand
is stretched out still. in anger. So what happened to
this vineyard of wild grapes? What happened to it? Look back
over there at Hebrews 5.3. Talking about physical Israel
now, talking about that nation Israel. Did God have an elect
people in that nation? Sure He did. He had a chosen
people within that nation. But was that whole nation His
people? No. No more than this whole world
is His people. He has a chosen people among
every nation. But in that nation, He's showing
His elect people in every age, out of every nation, tribe, kindred,
tongue under heaven, He's showing them what He did. And yet they
still turned against Him. They still rebelled against Him.
He's showing us that unless He comes to us in power and grace,
irresistibly creating a new spirit within us and a new heart within
us, it doesn't matter if you have the Bible, it doesn't matter
if you have a church to go to, it doesn't matter if you attend
that church faithfully every time the doors open. If you're
there, camped out on the doorstep even when the doors aren't open.
Your religious devotions aren't going to help you. They did all
the religious devotions and there was no newness of spirit. There
was no new heart within them. They rebelled against God. They
turned against God and looked into the work of their own hand.
And that's what we'll do, brethren. That's exactly what we'll do.
But look what it says here. Now hurry. Verse 3, And now,
O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you,
betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more
to my vineyard Then that I have then that that I have not done
in it What what could have been done more to my vineyard that
I have not done in it? Wherefore when I look that it
should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes Now go to
I'll tell you what I'll do to my vineyard. I'll take away the
hedge thereof And it shall be eaten up Break down the wall
thereof it should be trodden down and I'll lay it waste and
it shall not be pruned or dig but there shall come up briars
and thorns and I'll also command the clouds they rain no rain
upon it For the venue to the Lord of hosts is the house of
Israel and the men of Judah is his pleasant plant He looked
for judgment, but behold oppression. He looked for righteousness,
but behold a cry Turn with me if you will over to Matthew chapter
21 God sent his prophets to Israel
and they stoned every one of them and at last he sent them
his son And He looked for judgment and righteousness, which sinners
work when they trust His Son, who worked righteousness and
judgment. But He found depression, and
He heard them cry out, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! And therefore
the house of Israel was left desolate, and God sent His grace
to His elect scattered among every nation in the world. Let's
read it. This is the Lord giving them a parable. Matthew 21, 33. Here another parable. There was
a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round
about. This sounds familiar, doesn't
it? And digged a winepress in it and built a tower and led
it out to husbandmen and went into a far country. And when
the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen
that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took
his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another,
just as they did the prophets. Again, he sent other servants,
more than the first, and they did unto them likewise. But last
of all, he sent unto them his son, saying, Thou reverence my
son. But when the husbandmen saw the
son, they said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us
kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught
him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. And when
the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto
those husbandmen? They say unto him, He'll miserably
destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto
other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their
seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did you 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. Therefore say I unto you, the
kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation,
bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this
stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it
will grind him to powder. And so in 70 AD, the Lord physically,
literally fulfilled what he was talking about, the physical Israel.
Titus came in, the Roman ruler, and he just destroyed Jerusalem. Man, woman, child, wiped it off
the map. And this was a clear foreshadowing
of what shall come to pass on a worldwide scale toward those
who die in unbelief and rejecting. This is what will happen in the
day of judgment. who say, you rejected me. Casting
you out. Casting you out. Let me give
you a few things to take home with you. First of all, in God's
provision to Israel, we behold what God has provided in Christ
Jesus for His true Israel, the elect of God from among every
nation on earth. Christ is the fence of protection.
Christ has gathered out every stony enemy which His people
have. He took the law out of the way.
He took the ordinances out of the way and nailed it to His
cross. Satisfied justice. He comes and recreates a new
spirit and conquers even the enemy of our own flesh. And He
conquers every worldly enemy we've got. He's taken all the
stones out of the way. And He's the choice's vine and
He bears much fruit. He's the tower in the midst of
the believer in here where we worship God in spirit and in
whom his church has access to God. He's that tabernacle. He's
that temple. We come to this building, but
we actually come to worship Him in the temple that He is, to
worship Him in Him. Christ tread the winepress alone
so the believer can rest from his self-righteousness, from
his self-sanctification, from looking to Christ at Mount Zion
and beholding Him and then running back from Mount Sinai to try
to look to the law of commandments and ordinances to try to gain
a better acceptance. Our acceptance is Him. That's
where we stay because He fulfilled it. He's accomplished it. Now,
for every sinner who goes on in his rebellion, the omnipotent
God will cause you to confess all your iniquity in the day
of judgment. He came to them and what did He say to them?
What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not
done in it? He's going to make them confess their own sin and
confess that His judgment is righteous judgment. When He brings forth His people,
or brings forth the sinner in the day of judgment, He'll declare
the all-sufficient name of Jesus Christ. The Lord of hosts, verse
16 says, the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment and God
that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. The Lord told
Israel, your house is left desolate to you. That was fulfilled, really
literally fulfilled. But now this is the spiritual
application of it. Every sinner who dies in unbelief,
God's going to set apart himself in judgment and in righteousness
before his eyes on the day of judgment. And you know how he's
going to do it? You know in whom he's going to do it? Same one
he did it, he does it before in the eyes of the believer.
He's going to do it in his son. He's going to say, he's going
to pronounce the name of Jesus Christ. And he's going to cause
that man who rejected him, who hated him, to behold judgment
and righteousness was satisfied in him for his people. And he's
going, behold, I rejected him. There was nothing else that could
be done. He did it all. And I rejected him. Lord, you're
right. My damnation is just and I'm
the only one to blame for it because I didn't cast myself
on him, cast all my care on him. And here's the third thing. But
in the same way as Isaiah's song calls on the house of Israel
to confess, Same way He called on them to confess it. Same way
that He's going to make the unbeliever confess all his sins in that
day of judgment. The Lord, when He comes to a
sinner, in grace, in mercy and grace. He does the same thing. He calls His righteousness, His
holy righteousness, and His holy judgment to be manifest in Christ.
We behold that Christ put it away, that Christ satisfied righteousness. We behold that He is our righteousness.
And we behold that we're nothing of the sort. And He says, like
He says, what more could I have done? And we say, nothing. We're satisfied. And He says,
I'm satisfied in Him, and He makes us satisfied in Him. And
then the lambs feed after their manner and the waste places of
the fat ones strangers eat. That happened too. The Lord turned
from Israel and he began to pour out his grace upon his elect
scattered through the four corners of the earth after Christ raised
from the dead. In the same token, when He comes to our hearts in
power and grace, He makes us behold Christ and the righteous
judgment of God poured out on Christ and satisfied in Christ.
And then He makes us, His little lamb, begin to feed after our
manner. And our manner is in His pasture,
feeding on Him alone. That's it. Well, I'll leave you
with this. When Adam sinned in the garden, Scripture says that Adam and
Eve heard the voice of the Lord walking in the cool of the day,
and they were afraid, and they hid themselves from Him. And
the Lord said, Adam, where art thou? The Lord knew right where he
was. The Lord knows right where you are. He knows right where
I am. But He's going to take His Word and He's going to cry
out to you and say, where art thou? Where art thou? What more could I do in my vineyard
than I've done? Now, where are you? Are you at
my wine press, drinking the fruit of the vine that I've provided
in my Son? Are you in the temple, in the
place where I've said I'll meet with Him? Are you hedged about
by the fire of Christ's righteousness so that no stranger can harm
you? Or are you yet going on in the strength of your own way,
like Israel did? And I'll leave you with that
question. Where art thou? And may God be pleased to make
us honest. Make us honest.