Isaiah chapter 5 and we're reading
from verse 1. Now will I sing to my well-beloved
a song of my beloved touching his vineyard My well-beloved
hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it, and gathered
out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and
built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press
therein, and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and
it brought forth wild grapes. 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 that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I
looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild
grapes. And now go to, I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof,
and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof,
and it shall be trodden down, and I will lay it waste. It shall
not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briars and
thorns. I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord
of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant
plant. And he looked for judgment, but
behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, a cry. Woe unto them
that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there
be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of
the earth. In mine ears said the Lord of
hosts, of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great
and fair without inhabitant. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall
yield one bath, and the seed of an omer shall yield an effa.
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may
follow strong drink, and continue until night, till wine inflame
them. And the harp, and the vial, and
the tabret, and pipe, and wine are in their feasts, but they
regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation
of his hands. Therefore my people are gone
into captivity, because they have no knowledge, and their
honourable 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. But the Lord of hosts shall be
exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified
in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed after
their manna, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers
eat. 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. 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.
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in
their own sight. Woe unto them that are mighty
to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink, which
justify the wicked for reward, and 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 have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised
the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the
Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his
hand against them, and hath 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. And he will lift up an ensign
to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the
end of the earth. And behold, they shall come with
speed swiftly. None shall be weary nor stumble
among them, none shall slumber nor sleep, neither shall the
girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes
be broken. whose arrows are sharp, and all
their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint,
and their wheels like a whirlwind. Their roaring shall be like a
lion, they shall roar like young lions. Yea, they shall roar and
lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none
shall deliver it. And in that day they shall roar
against them like the roaring of the sea, And if one look unto
the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened
in the heavens thereof. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Just who the characters are in
the opening verse of this chapter is not altogether easy to say. Some of the commentators see
this as God the Father speaking to God the Son regarding his
people. Others speak of Isaiah speaking
or singing to God or Christ concerning the Jewish people. And others
see something else or some variation within those groups. Either way, the message ultimately
is intended for the church. regarding Christ and his work
and for this we shall seek today. Remembering that God the Father
calls his son his well beloved and he loves us as he loved him. The Lord our God loves the elect
Those are his dearly beloved sons, just as much as the Lord
Jesus Christ is and was. The opening verse shows us something
of the great variety of methods that the Lord used and the Old
Testament prophets used to gain the ear and the attention of
those to whom they were sent. And we see sometimes God's prophets
writing their messages in the earth or in the sand. Sometimes
they act out a scene like a play and they use a visual lesson
to communicate their message. Sometimes they used objects to
emphasize what they were speaking about. Sometimes they described
strange and curious visions of otherworldly events. The book of Hebrews tells us
that they were always speaking about the Lord and the Lord himself
tells us that in Luke's gospel. That they brought a message from
God to men concerning Christ that had to be received and had
to be believed. And here in this chapter five,
Isaiah sings a song. And it may well be that he actually
put these opening verses to music. It's a song with a purpose and
a song with meaning. The people are confronted with
a parable in this song. It's got a clear and an obvious
meaning. And Isaiah speaks of a clear
and obvious wrong that has been done. What he presents as being
a shameful injustice. And the people are invited to
hear this song, they're invited by the prophet to judge on that
injustice. Of course, we appreciate and
understand it is more than just a song or more than just the
story of a vineyard. Just as the Lord Jesus in his
own ministry spoke of vineyards in parable form, this message
tells of an imminent judgement and the destruction of Jerusalem
and Judah that is about to take place. So it was a very solemn
and serious message. Isaiah was telling the people
of his age that God was going to destroy the nation for their
wickedness and he conveys to them in this parable set to music
that message of judgment. Now actually the song is only
the first two verses. And so too is the challenge that
he sets the people concerning the song that has been sung,
the injustice that has been done. And Isaiah concludes his references
to the vineyard in verse 7. And he shows there that he has
been prophesying about what God is going to do to the men of
Jerusalem and Judah. in the likeness of this vineyard. Because they produced wild grapes
or poor produce, when the Lord had done so much for them, they
would be abandoned and they would be left desolate. And in the
remaining part of the chapter Isaiah lists six woes against
the people for the sins that they had committed and he warns
them about the soon destruction by a mighty nation whom God will
call from afar by, as it were, waving a flag and hissing or
whistling. to bring them against Jerusalem
and Judah. So we see something very interesting
here. We see that while these nations
probably thought they were moving in military power, in conquest
against the nations around about building their empire, gathering
their loot and their spoils of war. What the Lord says, what
Isaiah says is, no, they are mere tools in the hands of God. to bring judgment and condemnation
for sin against him. And interestingly, the Lord Jesus
Christ uses this same pattern in Matthew chapter 23 by giving
a list of woes against the scribes and Pharisees of his day. Now we may look at this chapter
as we've read it together and perhaps you've had opportunity
to read some of it and think about it in the past week. But I think that it is clearly
an interesting chapter with respect to its form, the song and the
parable and its structure. But let us also accept that there
is something chilling in this chapter for the judgment that
it announces and the wrath that it foresees when the anger of
the Lord is kindled against the sin of his Old Testament people. And some people might wonder
if this passage and others like it has any continuing relevance
since it refers to incidents and people that are long gone.
Well, I believe that it has. The very fact that the Lord,
as we've mentioned in Matthew chapter 23, continues to use
the pattern of Isaiah against the scribes and the Pharisees
shows that this passage has a repeating relevance. And I want to take
just a few headings from what Isaiah writes that I think will
show that continuing importance of these messages for us today. And the first one is this, that
the righteousness and the holiness of God is as rigorous and absolute
today as it always has been. The righteousness and the holiness
of God is as rigorous and absolute today as it always has been. Think of Adam and Eve expelled
from the garden. Think of the world destroyed
by the flood. Think of God overthrowing the
Tower of Babel and the nations being scattered. Even the golden
calf that we read about earlier shows God's justice and judgement
and hatred of sin. God was ready to wipe out the
whole nation for that act of idolatry that they perpetrated
against him. God is always holy and sin always
spoils. When God brought Israel out of
Egypt, he planted it like a young, healthy vine in Canaan's fertile
hills. He supplied every temporal blessing
as the vineyard owner did in Isaiah's song. But Israel and
Judah brought forth wild grapes, rotten and unusable. And this is a pattern to God's
church to keep us humble and always leaning upon the Lord
for his righteousness. Left to itself, the earth always
grows weeds. And left to ourselves, we always
stoop and revert to sin. Let no one ever think that if
their circumstances were better, if their life was improved, then
they would be better. It is true that poverty brings
its own temptations, but health and wealth bring temptations
too. and we can produce no righteousness
by ourselves. That's what this passage is showing
us. Sin dominates our hearts and
no matter how good the circumstances are into which we are placed,
from the perfection of the Garden of Eden to the fertility of the
hills of Canaan, wherever men and women are, Sin breaks out
because of our fallen nature. Fallen nature infects all our
faculties and it taints our every action, every word, every thought. So that whether this is 735 BC
when Isaiah was writing or 2023 AD the message of God's holiness
and man's sinfulness is just the same. Isaiah goes on in this
chapter to highlight the wickedness of men by expounding upon these
six woes that we read together. And Isaiah gives us interesting
examples of Jerusalem and Judah's evil. It's not just that he says,
oh, you're sinners, or oh, you're evil. He specifies what those
sins are. And they are sophisticated sins. Dare I say that they seem like
modern sins. They actually show that even
so long ago, men and women were ingenious, cunning, and deceitful,
self-serving in their sinfulness. and in their practices. They
were not primarily motivated by serving God. Here we discover
them covetous and accruing wealth. We find profit being pursued
by manipulation. We find economic oppression. We find pursuit of wealth through
commercial domination. We find exploitation of the poor. We find the pursuit of pleasure,
drunkenness and partying are listed with wine and dancing
and reveling and music and sensuality, hedonism if you like, the pursuit
of pleasure, humanism, decadence, vanity, self-promotion, self-indulgence. Isaiah identifies liars and atheists,
relativists, self-righteous, religionists, legalists, full
of pride and conceit, who trouble the Lord's people by their rituals
and their ceremonies and their false doctrine, their legal observances. Verse 25 tells us about these
people. They justify the wicked for reward. That means they take bribes.
They justify the wicked for reward and they take away the righteousness
of the righteous from him. What an interesting phrase, what
an interesting verse that is. They justify the wicked for reward
and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. They
cast away the law of the Lord of hosts and despise the word
of the Holy One of Israel. They call evil good and good
evil. They put darkness for light and
light for darkness. They put bitter for sweet and
sweet for bitter. And these are the very things
that we see around about us today. I could make a good case that
what the Prophet is describing here is the doctrine of free
willism and legalism in the churches of today. they take away the
righteousness of the righteous from him because they take away
the Lord Jesus Christ and they put in place structures of legal
obedience and observation and they say that this is Christianity
and they deny the spirituality of a believer's union and life
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah bundles all of this sophisticated
sin and he declares that 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. So yes, there is a nation coming
with horses and chariots and sharp arrows. And yes, there
is going to be exile. And yes, there is going to be
the loss of the nation. But he sees this as a spiritual
problem. This is for the sin of the people
against God. captivity, yes, servitude, yes,
famine, yes, drought, suffering, pain and loss. But what he is
talking about is accountability. God has given every blessing,
but man's heart is evil and shall continue to be evil as long as
God withholds his judgment. So our message today is the same
as in Isaiah's day. Be not deceived, men and women. Be not deceived, men and women
of the church. Be not deceived, men and women
of the world. Destruction and accountability
is coming fast. I mentioned In yesterday's little
introduction, the mocking way in which Isaiah's warnings were
treated by his hearers. And this too is indicative of
our modern attitude to the warnings of personal accountability. When
Isaiah threatened his generation with coming judgment, people
laughed and they said, bring it on. Let God 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.
We're looking forward to seeing this Isaiah. If you're so certain
that this is coming, well, where is it? and the reprobates of our day
still openly mock God's goodness and forbearance and long-suffering. Our gospel is openly mocked. Not religion, mark you. Religion
has its uses for the men and women of this world. But the
gospel is for making fun of. Peter says, the Apostle Peter
in 2 Peter chapter 3 in verse 3, there shall come in the last
days, and these are the last days, there shall come in the
last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, where
is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.
so that I believe we can see direct parallels between Isaiah's
denunciation of the people of his day and the words of Peter
to the churches of his day and of the Lord Jesus Christ and
of the circumstances of our time today. I said I had a couple of points
that I wanted to make. Here's the next one that I want
to draw your attention to. Here is another indication of
the continuing relevance of this passage and others like it. for today's hearers. Peter said
in that passage that we just quoted that heaven and earth
are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition
of ungodly men. Heaven and earth are reserved
unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly
men. But Isaiah shows also that there
is a wide variety of means currently at God's disposal to humble nations
and punish the ungodly. And these things are happening
around about us today. God, says Isaiah, would command
the clouds that they rain not. And that meant that drought came. He would make the ground barren
and sterile, bringing on famine and economic hardship. He would
bring on medical issues, send sicknesses and diseases that
would affect both the rich and the poor alike. Nature would
turn upon men and women, wild animals, storms, earthquakes,
natural phenomena. There would be armed conflict,
there would be economic troubles, there would be political instability. And we have seen recently the
effect of microscopic viruses. And we are living in the midst
once again of a time when nuclear threat and war in Europe is a
reality. So that the littlest things can
bring on global and national and regional and individual calamity. And we discover that all of these
levers are in the hands of God. This is the reality that Isaiah
has explained to the men and women of his day, and which is
still the reality today. Satan has indeed blinded the
eyes of men and women. But here again, we see God's
sovereignty at work. Some confronted with judgment
heed God's warnings and sue for peace, while others laugh like
the men in Noah's day when Noah built the ark and they mocked
him. As if to say, bring it on, if
it's going to rain, let it pour. But what we see in this is that
what the warning that softens one hardens another. And that is the way that it has
always been, and it reveals to us God's sovereign, distinguishing
grace. And men and women may not like
the idea that free will is not in their gift, but the Lord knows
them that are His, and He is gathering His own, and He arranges
all things to accomplish His will in this world. He is bringing
his people through the preaching of the gospel, under conviction
of sin, and to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as their
saviour, while others mock and laugh as they make their way
to hell. And Isaiah says, And the Lord
declares, Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. And so it shall be. The final
point that I'm going to draw our attention to today is a reminder
that in all of this warning of judgment, the love and the goodness
of God stands faithful and sure for his people. And that this
is a word here bound up in this chapter of judgment. This is
a word, too, of comfort for our souls today. This is the relevance that it
has for the people of God in every age. So our third point
is this, that God is looking after his people. In the middle
of this chapter 5 of Isaiah, there is a lovely little verse
which speaks of the Lord's flock. The Lord's little flock, It's
verse 17 and it says this, How blessed we are to have such a
Lord and Saviour as this, who loves us as his bride, who cares
for us as his children, and who leads us as his sheep
and protects us as a mother hen covering us through danger under
his wings. Nothing in the midst of all this
trouble and all this calamity and all this judgment and all
this fearfulness, nothing touches the Lord's people. without Christ's
say-so. And nothing will disturb us,
but the Lord will use it for our greater good. Many of us have problems. We've
listed and thought about some of those even in our prayers
today. Some are of long duration, some are today's troubles and
today's problems. We all have challenges in our
lives, we all have trials at this very moment and I'm not
denying for a moment the hardships and losses that are often felt
by the children of God. But nothing of this is judgement
and nothing of this is punishment. And we can call it refining and
we can call it sieving and we can call it polishing. We can
even say that it's humbling and chastening. But every experience
in the life of a believer is purposefully designed and deliberately
suited for our good. It may humble our spirit. It
may have the outcome of mortifying our flesh. It may loosen our
hold on the imaginary treasures of this world, but all the time
these trials will be strengthening our love of the Lord, sharpening
our commitment to Him, and enlarging our admiration of the Saviour
and all that He has done for us. In short, The trials of a
believer teach us what in this life is truly precious. Isaiah says in that verse 17,
then shall the lambs feed after their manner and the waste places
of the fat ones shall strangers eat. This verse was a comfort
to the elect remnant of Isaiah's day when they heard it being
spoken because it did three things for them. First, it confirmed
the continuance of the Lord's flock and the preservation of
the remnant people. It confirmed that the Lord was
not going to lose his church, lose his people. But more importantly
in that context, it confirmed the continuance of the Lord's
covenant promises. It proved the Lord's faithfulness. All through the history of the
Old Testament people, there was a remnant who were kept, preserved,
in amongst the nation of Israel and Judah. And while the rest
of the people became fat and indolent and idolatrous and persecuted
the poor and dominated the weak, The Lord kept his people, kept
them safe, kept them sound, kept them preserved with this promise
that he would faithfully fulfil the coming of the Messiah and
the ransoming of their souls. And the people were encouraged
in the day of Isaiah as they saw their enemies coming on their
nation to know that in the midst of all that judgment, the Lord
would preserve his people and thereby preserve his covenant
promises. The mean man shall be brought
down, the mighty man shall be humbled, the eyes of the lofty
shall be humbled, but the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in
judgment. and then the lambs shall feed. They shall persevere and outlive
those that go down to hell because their God is faithful to them,
because the promises of God are intact and because the Messiah
will still be their Messiah and he will still establish his kingdom
and he will still gather his people. The second thing that
this little verse taught the remnant was this, that they would
eat after their manner. Now what manner is that that
they ate? They ate in green pastures beside
still waters, in safety under their shepherd's protection.
They would feed profitably for their soul's well-being. They
would feed on spiritual nourishment that they craved. They would
feed with unbroken pattern, at a prepared table in the presence
of their enemies, just as they always had after their manner. The goodness and the mercy of
the Lord would follow them all the days of their lives. Do you
see the comfort that that is for the Lord's people? Who knows what the next disease
is that's going to come into the world? Who knows if there
is going to be economic catastrophe? Who knows if there is going to
be war? Who knows if there is going to be a nuclear holocaust? Who knows? The Lord knows. And
in the midst of it all, He will preserve you and He will preserve
me because He preserves His church and He causes us to feed after
their manner. He will always be our faithful
God and whether we live on this earth or whether He translates
us into His presence there will be no change. He will be feeding
us for eternity after their manner on the beautiful spiritual food
that is the Lord Jesus Christ to nourish our souls and our
spirits. And the third thing that these
people learned from this verse was this, that strangers shall
eat in the waste places of the fat ones. And this was confirmation
of God's covenant purpose to gather his elect from amongst
the Gentiles and to bring a strange people from the ends of the earth. or as Isaiah has already said
in chapter 2 verse 2, that in the last days the Lord's house
shall be established and exalted and all the nations shall flow
unto it. Here he was renewing that promise. Brothers and sisters, this is
us that he's talking about. This is the relevance, the continuing,
ongoing relevance of these passages for us today. We are the strangers
spoken of in this verse. Paul says, we were without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from
the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye
who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. He says that in Ephesians chapter
2 verse 12. Do you see this? Do you see it? More than 700 years BC, Isaiah
is talking about you and me. He says, we shall eat in the
waste places of the fat ones. Now that might not sound too
attractive until we realise that this waste place is the vineyard
in the song that he has been singing about. Carefully constructed
and prepared by the Lord to be exactly what we need and do the
greatest good for us. And now it will be possessed
by a fruitful people. Not because we're the finest
vines, but because we are grafted into the finest vine and our
branches united everlastingly to the Lord Jesus Christ. To
this end, that we should bear much fruit. And no, it does not
mean that we are heir to a little scrap of dirt on a Jewish hillside. But it means that we are heirs
to the whole world. That we are heirs of a heavenly
mansion. That we are heirs and joint heirs
with our bridegroom and our husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers
and sisters, eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them
that love him. Through it all, our God is faithful
and his promises are sure. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.