Well, we had just a blessed day
yesterday at Brother Mahan's funeral, and I will try, I know
it was streamed on audio, and I will try to find out if it
has been preserved. If it has, I'll get you the internet
address where you can listen to the services at your leisure. And needless to say, my mind
has been greatly over the Mahan memory of experience with him
over the years throughout the day today and yesterday. I heard
him say many times or tell many times about the first time he
heard the gospel of God's grace. Ralph Barnard was brought to
Ashland for a citywide meeting. in all of the churches that claimed
to be Christian churches in the city. The whole city had a meeting
in Central Park in Ashland. And Rolfe got up the first night
of the meeting and he said, there are two lies commonly told on
God. They're told everywhere and they're
not true. He says, first one is God loves
everybody. He don't, that's just not so.
And the second is that Christ died for everybody. That's a
lie. He didn't. And of course, things
erupted from there. But God, by gracious wisdom,
sends messengers to his church as needed to preserve and keep
his church, even in the darkest of days. And that's my subject
tonight. Our keeper. A text you will find
in Isaiah chapter 27, verses 2 and 3. God, our keeper. In that day, sing ye unto her
a vineyard of red wine. I, the Lord, do keep it. I will water it every moment,
lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day. Here, the church of God is compared
to a vineyard. That is frequently the case throughout
the scriptures. God's church is his vineyard,
the vineyard of God's planting, the vineyard of God's tending,
the vineyard of God's care. In Matthew 20, our Lord Jesus
gave us a parable in which he described the church as a vineyard
into which the Lord God sends his laborers. He calls for us
to send, to pray that the Lord of the harvest might send forth
laborers into his field. And he tells us that his church
is a vineyard into which he sends his laborers, preachers of the
gospel, to care for and to tend and to keep alive his vineyard. Then in John 15, our Lord Jesus
tells us that he is the vine of which you and I are branches. And he says, my father is the
vine dresser. He's the husbandman. He's the
keeper of the vineyard. Here, the church is called a
vineyard of red wine. It's called a vineyard of red
wine because, as best I can determine from what I'm able to read, the
red grape was the best grape grown in Palestine. And the Lord
God considers His church the best of the best, the most excellent
in the earth, because He has made it so. His church is the most excellent
in the earth. He has made her so. His delight
is in her. I'm certain also that the church
is called a vineyard of red wine because it is the fruit of Christ's
blood, the blood symbolized by the red wine that we take every
Sunday evening in the cup of communion. All the plants of
this vineyard spring from live in and bear fruit from one vine,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the true vine. And the red wine represents
the believers' trials in this world, the fruit of their trials. As the wine is squeezed from
the grape in the winepress, So God's people in this world bring
forth fruit unto God as they are pressed and squeezed by the
well-ordered afflictions of divine providence. God brings trial to individual
believers and to his church, to individual congregations and
to the church as a whole. Not only that he may prove our
faith to ourselves, but that he may cause us to bring forth
fruit to his glory. And the squeezing of the grape
brings forth the juice, so the squeezing of God's people in
adversity brings forth fruit unto God. You will observe in
God's people when they're tried their most excellence. You will
observe in God's people when they're tried the sweet grace
of God working in them. Tribulation worketh patience. We find it only by tribulation. Increasing patience, hope, we
find it only by tribulation. These things God does for us
for his glory, for the benefit of his people. A vineyard is
a piece of ground chosen and separated from the rest of a
man's property. So it is with God's church. All
things are his, all men and women are his, he's the ruler of all,
possessor of all, but he's chosen his church. He separates his
church from the rest of the world as his vineyard. A vineyard is
fenced in, fenced in to keep it from wild animals that would
destroy it. Isaiah tells us of this vineyard
in the fifth chapter. He fenced it and gathered out
stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vine and built
a tower in the midst of it. A vineyard is deliberately planted. It's not something that just
grows by nature or springs up by the wild. The church of God
is deliberately planted by God. It is not something nature will
produce. The believer is God's plant. It's something God has
produced, not something produced by nature. And the vineyard requires
constant care. It must be pruned. Stones have
to be gathered out of it. It has to be watered. And it
must be constantly watched over. I've never had a vineyard, well,
just a real small one, three or four grapevines. You hardly
call that a vineyard. But Shelby and I raised a garden
for years, and you can't leave it to itself. It'll soon die. We're fixing to go to California,
Shelby, and make arrangements to see if somebody waters the
flowers she planted recently. If she doesn't, they will soon
wither and die. So it is with God's church. It must be watched over. And
God declares in our text, I, the Lord, do keep it. I will
water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night
and day. Without question, this refers
to the whole church of God's elect, the whole kingdom of God
the entire kingdom of heaven. It's his venue. It also speaks
of every local church, every gospel church. I don't mean by
that all they're called churches. I mean every church where God
is worshiped, where the gospel of God's grace is proclaimed
of this church, Grace Baptist Church of Danville. God says,
this is my venue. I, the Lord do keep it. I will
water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night
and day. And all that's promised to the
church extends to every individual believer. All that's promised
here to the whole church of God, to the local church, is promised
to you who are gods. The Lord God who keeps the whole
vineyard, keeps each branch of the vine. His care extends even
to the smallest branches and to every leaf. So the promise
of our text, while it includes the whole vineyard, the whole
church of God, it extends to every branch of the vine our
father has planted. Every believer, every child of
God, all who are members of the body of Christ, joined to Christ
divine. We are bought with his blood.
grafted into him by God's grace, drawing life from him by God-given
faith. The Lord God is the keeper of
his vineyard, and we are his vineyard. The Lord God is the
keeper of his vineyard, and we are his vineyard. Most of you
are aware of the heartache that the Mahan experienced several
years ago with all the eruption of things in Ashland. I heard
him say many times before that, and many times since that, in
the face of trouble, when men would despair, he said, God is
not out of business. God is not out of business. No matter how things look, no
matter how they appear, no matter how painful they are in the feeling
of them, in the experience of them, God is not out of business. He is still God our keeper. The Lord God is the keeper of
the vineyard and we are his vineyard. Look at the text again. I the
Lord do keep it. I will water it every moment,
lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day. Augustus Toplady wrote a hymn
concerning this. A couple of verses read like
this. Upon my leaf, when parched with heat, refreshing dew shall
drop. The plant which thy right hand
hath set shall never be rooted up. Each moment watered by thy
care and fenced with power divine, fruit to eternal life shall bear
the feeblest branch of thine. His vineyard will bear fruit
to him for eternity. The vine God has planted, God
will keep. And my text this evening forms
the kind of message I really enjoy preaching. The outline
is right here in the text. These four points. I, the Lord,
do keep it. I'll spend the bulk of my time
there. I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day. Here's the first thing. I the Lord do keep it. I repeat this is a promise of
God to his church as a whole. This is a promise of God to every
individual congregation. This is a promise of God to every
member of his church. We are kept, tended, Protected
and guarded by God himself. Kept by the power of God. The Lord himself, our great God,
the triune Jehovah, our keeper, is he who neither slumbers nor
sleeps. Turn back to Psalm 91. I want
to read two very precious psalms to you. Psalm 91. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is
my refuge and my fortress. My God, in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with his feathers. and under his wings
shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield
and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, or for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor
for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side and 10,000 at thy right hand. but it shall not come nigh
thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou
behold and see the reward of the wicked, because thou hast
made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high, thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee,
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling, for he shall
give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. We don't begin to grasp that
as we ought. My dear wife reminds me of it
often when I need to be reminded of it. We drive a lot and on
the road have many times been in situations where it looked
like serious accidents were at hand. And I would exercise what
limited driving skills I have and be nervous and start to relax
a little bit, and she will often repeat these lines to me. He shall give his angels charge
over thee. What are the angels? Ministering
spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be the heirs
of salvation, to keep thee. Where do they keep you? In all
thy ways. in all thy ways. That means wherever
you go, whatever your circumstances, whether they are circumstances
of adversity and calamity brought on by your own wickedness and
unbelief, whether they are ways of affliction and trouble and
sorrow brought on by God's goodness and mercy. He shall keep thee
in all thy ways. They, the angels of God, shall
bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against
a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion
and adder. The young lion and the dragon
shalt thou trample underfoot, under feet, because he hath set
his love upon me. Therefore will I deliver him.
I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. What a
statement. What a statement. God says concerning
Lindsay Campbell, because he hath set his love on me, I will
deliver him. I will set him on high because
he hath known my name. As if somehow your love and your
knowledge is the cause of God's goodness. And we know better. We love him because he first
loved us. We know his name because he made
his name known to us. And yet he rewards us for the
love and the faith that he gives us. He rewards us for it because
Christ has earned it for us. He shall call upon me and I will
answer him. I will be with him in trouble.
I will deliver him and honor him with long life. Not necessarily with 92 years
or 82 years or 52 years or 42 years, but with eternal life
will I satisfy Him and show Him my salvation. He shows it now. He showed it to us in the day
when first He revealed Christ in us. But oh, my soul, how little
we can see. When we have left this world
and enter into that long life with which we shall be rewarded,
then we shall see God's salvation. Now, turn over to Psalm 121. Most of you, I'm sure, can quote
this Psalm. Brother David Coleman sang it to us so long. Brother
Gabe Starnaker sang it yesterday at Brother Mahan's graveside. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills, for whence cometh my help? My help cometh from
the Lord, the Lord which made heaven and earth. He will not
suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord, the triune Jehovah,
is thy keeper. The Lord, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite
thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve
thee from all evil. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil, evil from without and evil from within. He shall
preserve thy soul The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy
coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. Now let's
go back to our text, Isaiah 27. Let me see if I can handle this subject
in a practical way to benefit our hearts. The Lord God promises,
I will come. This I know, I need keeping. I need keeping. In the years of my experience
on this earth, I have seen many, many, many promising, promising,
promising folks start in the way of faith. I see many profess
faith, many who appear to be men, women, upon whom God has
performed a work of grace, who, as our Lord said in the parable,
endure for a while, but then something chokes out the word. They dry up, they wither, they're
blown away, and they're gone. I need keeping. I trust I'm one
of God's, chosen by his grace, redeemed by the blood of his
darling son, called by his spirit, but I need keep it. Because my
foes are many, and like a tender vine, I have no strength, no
ability in myself to prevent any from destroying me. Learn this, children of God.
I'm certain one reason God has left us in this body of flesh
so that we have to struggle all our days with every manner of
the lust of the flesh is to make us understand that any one of
those things that pop up in your mind through the day and the
night, anyone would destroy you in a moment if God didn't keep
you. Anyone, any one of those evil
things that pop up in your heart, day or night, would destroy me
in a moment if God didn't keep me. What can a vine do? Nothing. If I'm kept, God must keep me.
The vine planted in the midst of the field is exposed to all
sorts of perils and dangers, and we need keeping. Let me remind
you of a few. Satan, the arch enemy of our
souls, does everything in his power to uproot and destroy the
vine God has planted. If he had his way, you and I
would not possess one grain of grace or one spark of faith. He's like a roaring lion who
goes about all the time seeking whom he may devour. He's described
in just that way by the Apostle Peter. He's pictured just that
way in Revelation chapter 12. He desires not only to sift us
as wheat, but he would burn us as chaff. The fiend of hell would
destroy us if he could. Well did our Savior teach us
to pray. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. More literally, lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. If we really knew
Satan's power, if any of us really knew his malice toward us, we
would never cease to give thanks for the fact that our Lord Jesus
Christ prays for us. And this is how he prays. I pray
not that thou wouldest take them out of the world, but that thou
wouldest keep them from the evil. There again, I pray not that
thou wouldest take them out of the world, but that thou wouldest
keep them from the evil one. He doesn't pray that we would
be kept from evil things. He puts us in the midst of evil
things often. but he prays that we may be kept
from the power of the evil one. Oh, how we need keeping. If we
had no other adversary than the devil alone, we couldn't stand
for a moment but by God's keeping. But other adversaries we have.
A vine planted in the wilderness is exposed to the wild boar who
would dig it up and devour its roots. The wild boar the psalmist
spoke of, unbelief. I've often said God's people
ought never doubt. That's so. We ought never doubt. But I know that we often do. I delight to sing when I can
read my title clear to mansions in the sky. I'll bid farewell
to every fear and wipe my weeping eyes. But there are many times
when I cannot and do not read my title clear. I don't doubt
my Lord, but I've often been made to doubt my interest in
him. Like Thomas, I sometimes will not believe because I cannot
see. Like Peter walking across the
water to the Lord Jesus as he took his eyes off the Savior
began to sink. So we often take our eyes off
the Savior. We start looking at the sea around
us. Were it not for God who keeps
the vineyard, the wild boar of unbelief would destroy us. Worse
yet than looking at the sea around us, we are horribly prone to
start looking at ourselves. And as often as we look to ourselves
for anything, for any hope, for any strength, for any ability,
as often as we look to ourselves, we begin to sink. Satan often
raises Moses up as he did against Joshua, God's high priest in
Zachariah three. And he cast the law before us
and would cause us to look to our obedience. The accuser constantly
throws our sin in our faces. And when he cannot sink us with
sin, he floods our minds with a horrid pride of self-righteousness. When pride doesn't destroy, he
hurls at us despair and a sense of spiritual numbness. And with those things, he would
destroy us if God didn't keep us. There are many small insects,
unseen pests, quiet worms that might easily destroy the vine
of the wild if it were not for the fact that the Lord God keeps
them. In fact, it's far easier to detect
the wild boar or the raging lion than to detect these small creatures,
the aphid of indifference. the canker worm of pride, the
caterpillar of conceits, the grub worms of self-sufficiency.
Nothing more quickly would destroy the vine or an entire vineyard
than those quiet things that we ignore. But the Lord God says, I do keep
it. Besides that, the vine of God's
planting is often attacked by nibbling little foxes, we're
told in the Song of Solomon. Nibbling little foxes who work
in the secrecy of darkness. Take us the foxes, the little
foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.
Little foxes of false doctrine. Little foxes of neglecting God's
ordinances. Little foxes of gossip and contentious,
critical spirit. God's vines put forth their tender
grapes, which these foxes would destroy. How they would seek
to destroy love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
meekness, faith, temperance, the fruit of the spirit, the
little foxes would destroy. but God won't allow it. He says,
I will keep it night and day. Then we have those foul black
birds that come in droves just as the grapes are ripening, worldliness. Like most people in this age,
I thought for many years, before God saved me, many years afterwards,
the great thing of worldliness was, you know, dressing like
the world or going to worldly places or enjoying worldly amusements. You can't go dancing, can't go
to the movies, can't drink wine, can't smoke a cigarette, can't
watch television, can't play cards. You can't, can't, can't,
can't, can't, can't, can't. And the more you can't do, the
more godly you are. No. Those things may involve
worldly things we ought to avoid. But John speaks of the love of
the world. Materialism, greed, ambition,
selfishness, self-satisfaction, self-sufficiency. When we begin
to say to ourselves, well done, you can mark it down, it's ill
done. Let us not be numbered with those
of whom Habakkuk describes who sacrifice under their own net
and burn incense under their drag. Never was there a vine
that needed keeping like this vine does. Me. Me. I must be kept. I must be kept. I often think to myself, and
I think accurately, think to myself, the easiest place on
this earth to hide from God is in the service of a pastor
who spends all his days reading the Word and studying while neglecting
his soul, looking for something with which to minister to others.
If ever there was a vine that needed keeping, it is this one. So I ask you, as God promises
to keep his vine, you pray that he'll keep this vine. But we
can't keep ourselves. Thank God the text does not say,
I, the Lord, have planted it. Now I will leave it to grow and
flourish and bring forth fruit and keep itself. We must be watchful,
yes. But our watchfulness of ourselves
is the result of God's watchfulness of us. Augustine used to pray
like this. I read this somewhere a long
time ago. Lord, save me from that evil man, myself. Save me from that evil man, myself. I have no foe in the universe
like myself. I have no enemy who would destroy
me like myself. And the same is true of you.
There is not a word of truth to Wesley's hymn that goes, a
charge to keep I have, a God to glorify, a never dying soul
to save and fit it for the sky. What foolishness. Only God can
save my soul. Only God can do it and fit it
for the sky and he has done it in Christ. In him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And as the fullness of God dwells
in him, ye are complete in him. We are never so weak as when
we think we're strong. We're never so poor as when we
think we're rich. Let us learn then to live to
Christ. to cling to Christ, having nothing
but possessing all things in Christ. He's our strength. He's our salvation. Now look
briefly at the next line. I will water it every moment. I, the Lord, do keep it. I will
water it every moment. Watering is an essential part
of the gardener's business. The corn and the beans will not
bear fruit without water. The flowers cannot be kept in
bloom without being watered. As this vine must be kept by
God, it must be watered by Him as well. Many years ago, First
time I went to Chiapas, Mexico to visit with Brother Milton
Howard, we went out to the Colfitt Plantation. The plantation in
Mexico is not quite like they were in the south here. It's
just a man who had a large piece of property in the mountains
of Chiapas, Mexico, up in the Chiapas Highlands. He raised
coffee beans. And way out there in the middle
of nowhere, this man had built a little chapel, oh, I guess
about a fourth, no, not even a fourth the size of this auditorium.
It'd seat probably 20, 25 people, maybe 30. And we'd go out there
and preach. And I was out visiting with Roberto
and Milton and I were walking together and we got to talking
about his irrigation system. Had this huge irrigation system,
just amazing what he had done out there. And we were talking
about it a little bit and he said, he's out and water these
fields all day long. But I can't do as much good watering
the fields all day long as God does with one good shower. He who waters his vine is God. He waters it by his word, by
his spirit, making the word effectual. The soil in which this vine is
planted is horribly dry. Tell me, you who are born of
God, have you found anything in this world anything in this
world, anything in this world of any benefit to your soul. You answer no and you answer
right. Often people think if I could
just change my place, move away, I'd be better off. It's never
so. You can't move away from trouble
because the trouble is in you. You only move from one set of
outward troubles to another set, but you can't move from trouble.
God puts difficulties in our way, such as we need. And with the difficulties he
puts in your way, he gives you grace to endure them and to profit
by them. He puts difficulties in my way,
such as I need. And with the difficulties, with
the affliction, with the adversity, He gives me the grace that's
needed to bear the difficulties He puts in my way. The things
by which you grow and thrive might crush me. And the things
by which I grow and thrive might crush you. God gives his mind,
each member of his church, exactly what we need day by day. Frequently,
even those things that are given to help us yield no water, because
there's no grace in the means of grace. only in the God of
grace. It is God who makes his word
profitable to your soul. If what I have to say here tonight,
what I've said already, or what I say in the next couple of minutes
is of any benefit to your soul, it will only be because God made
it so. And if what you experience day
by day benefits your soul, it's only because God makes it so.
The beauty of this promise is here. every moment. I will water it every moment. Oh, wondrous God. Wondrous grace. His grace is
perpetual. His grace is perpetual. It is ever flowing from His throne. down from heaven to your soul
in an unceasing flood of grace. You and I need the ordinances
of public worship. We can't survive alone. We need
the constant watering of grace, but only God can make his grace
profitable to us. I once read about a man of whom
others said he ate and drank and slept Jesus Christ. Oh, how
I wish that were true of me. He ate and drank and slept Jesus
Christ. Oh, God give me grace when I
wake in the morning to awake with Christ on my heart. When
I dress to put on the garments of salvation, when I go through
the day to walk in your path, when I come in at night to rest
in your son, and when I lie down at night to have my mind fixed
upon him. As we're commanded to pray without
ceasing, God promises to water us without ceasing. Oh, let me
experience that promise. Let my heart always be wrapped
up in, baptized in, and draw life from Christ. Let me have
my life full of Him, watered every moment. Back years ago,
Before Shelby's dad died, we'd go up there and visit. And everywhere
that old man sat, every time he sat down, I don't care if
it was out in the barn, I don't care if it was in the granary
outside the house, wherever he sat down, you'd find a scrap
of paper somewhere. In the house, you'd find a scrap
of paper. He was forever working on a puzzle. You remember that?
I don't reckon he ever got it figured out. But everywhere you
go, you'd see a drawing of that little puzzle. I've tried to
work it a number of times myself, never could do it. But I gave
up, he didn't. He just kept on working on it.
Oh, God let Christ so influence me that he's ever on my mind
and on my heart. Look at the third line of our
text. Lest any hurt it. I, the Lord, do keep it. I will
water it every moment, lest any hurt it. Nothing shall hurt God's
vine. There shall no evil happen to
the just. Turn over a few pages to Isaiah
54. Look at this. Isaiah 54, verse 17. No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper. No weapon that's formed against
thee shall prosper. God said the blacksmith is in
my hands. He tempers things as I temper
them. And no weapon formed against thee shall prosper. I'm not aware
of most of them, but I've been aware of a few weapons formed
against me. And the ones of which I have been made aware, I have been made to see, how
that God calls me to prosper by the weapon formed against
me. And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment,
thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me. God's people are often assaulted
by dogs barking against them. But the Lord God made this promise.
Against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his
tongue, against man or beast, that ye may know how that the
Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. Let the dog bark all he will,
he can do nothing to God's. Here's the fourth thing. I will
keep it night and day. I the Lord do keep it. I will
water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night
and day. In the night of adversity and
in the day of prosperity. In the night of trouble and in
the day of peace. In the night of sorrow and in
the day of rejoicing. In the night of temptation and
in the day of deliverance, in the night of indifference, and
in the day of devotion. You see, all the circumstances
are alike dangerous to us because of our inward sin. Whether you're
talking about devotion or indifference, whether you're talking about
trouble or peace, whether you're talking about sorrow or joy,
they're all alike dangerous circumstances to us. except the Lord God keep
his vineyard. Blessed be his name. He that
keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. And let me wrap the
message up by reading another passage of scripture. The 80th
Psalm. The 80th Psalm. Begin at verse eight. Thou hast brought a vine out
of Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heathen
and planted it. Thou preparest room before it,
and it caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the
shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly
cedars. She sent out her boughs into
the sea and her branches into the river. Why hast thou then
broken down her hedges? So that they, all they which
pass by the way do pluck her. The boar out of the wood doth
waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
Return, we beseech thee, O Lord of hosts. Look down from heaven,
and behold, and visit this thine. Verse 17. Let thy hand be upon
the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of Man, whom thou madest
strong for thyself. Let your hand be on the Lord
Jesus. So will not we go back. As long as God's right hand is
on his Son, our Mediator, so shall we not go back from thee.
Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. Turn us again,
O Lord God of hosts. calls thy face to shine, and
we shall be saved. That's my prayer. And this is
God's promise. I, the Lord, do keep it. I will
water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night
and day. Amen.