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Isaiah chapter 5 and let's look at verse number 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel The title for the sermon tonight is The Vineyard of the LORD The Vineyard of the LORD And we saw there that very clearly what is that vineyard You know we're going to look at this illustration of God It says the vineyard of the LORD of the host is the house of Israel And the book of Isaiah once again is a judgment on the southern kingdom of Israel Which was the house of Judah which was the two kingdoms in that southern part And we know that historically they were overrun, they were taken into captivity by the Babylonian empire Okay, so let's start there in verse number 1, Isaiah 5-1 Now will I sing, so actually this is a song of Isaiah I didn't know this, I mean I wasn't, I didn't pay attention I guess Isaiah was a singer, you know he was someone that was a bit of a songwriter He had this in his skill sets But it says now will I sing to my well beloved, so he's singing to his God A song of my beloved touching his vineyard And we saw of course the vineyard is the house of Israel He says look this nation belongs to you God He says my well beloved have a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, in a very fruitful hill And so the illustration is that God has said alright, I want to establish a vineyard I want some nice grapes, I want some nice grape juice And so I'm going to plant my vineyard in a place that's going to be very fruitful, a very fruitful hill Now as I've been going through the book of Isaiah You guys know that we've also been looking at other books of the Bible So if we're up to Isaiah chapter 5, what's the fifth book of the Bible that we want to see some correlation with What's the fifth book? Deuteronomy Deuteronomy, thank you Okay so if you can, keep your finger there Isaiah and come with me to Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 8, Deuteronomy chapter 8, Deuteronomy chapter 8 please And verse number 7, Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse number 7 And of course when we have this illustration of the vineyard, of the nature being planted in a fruitful hill It should remind us the fact that the book of Deuteronomy was a retelling of the law of God, right? So initially God wanted the children of Israel to go into the promised land But they rebelled against the Lord and they were then led into the wilderness Until all of those that were over the age of 20 that would pass away And the next generation would be the ones that would go into the promised land Well before they went into the promised land, we have the book of Deuteronomy, a retelling of the law Which was given to a new generation And they're told in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse number 7 For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks, of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills And so we know this is a very fruitful land that they've been taken into, the land of promise Drop down to verse number 10 Now God gives them a warning God gives them a warning, once you get into that fruitful land They are going to be fruitful, they are going to multiply, they're going to be doing very well as a nation But then God warns them when they are doing well, in verse number 10 When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which ye have given thee Now brethren, when you are blessed, right? When you get your paycheck, okay, or you multiply And you're able to do, maybe you buy something pleasant Maybe you buy yourself a nice car Or maybe one day you're able to buy yourself a nice house for yourself You know what we're to do? We're to give God all honor and glory, we're to bless the Lord We're to remember that all good gifts come from the Lord And that's what we're meant to do, okay? But sometimes when our possessions increase We also, you know, yes we should have a warning, verse number 11 says Beware, you know when you start to get a little bit of money in the bank accounts Okay, when your possessions develop and grow Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments In his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses and dwelt through Nothing wrong with all those things And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied And all that thou hast multiplied, then thy heart be lifted up And thou forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage So God's warning us You know, one of his blessings on our lives is to have possessions, to have blessings To have great gifts and great things that we can have, that we can enjoy on this earth But God tells us when this happens It's in the nature of, I don't care who you are It's in our nature to lift ourselves up, look what I've achieved, look at me, pat myself on the back I'm doing better than this person, I'm doing better than that person And before we know it, you forget the Lord Okay, and here's the warning, drop down to verse number 19 And it shall be If thou do at all forget the Lord thy God And walk after other gods and serve them and worship them I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face So shall ye perish Because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God God says look, you're going to see these nations The people of the land of Canaan Destroyed before they walk into that promised land They're going to be destroying and running away the Canaanites out of the land He says in the same way that you see them run off the land In the same way that you see them destroyed If you turn against the Lord and you forget the Lord God And in this case worship other gods Then the nation of Israel is going to suffer the same fate They're going to be driven off the land, they're going to be taken over by a foreign nation So maybe I keep a bookmark, whatever you got in the book of Deuteronomy We are going to come back to this, but come with me back to Isaiah chapter 5 Isaiah chapter 5 So I just want to show you again, God's put them in a good land A very fruitful, very fertile land And it was meant to be a blessing and not to forget the Lord God Now as we continue through Isaiah 5 You'll find that they did forget about the Lord God They were blessed greatly on the land They forgot about the Lord, verse number 2 It says, and he fenced it So again the illustration of the vineyard God put a fence, as it were, a fence of protection around his nation, around the vineyard And gathered out the stones thereof So instead of it being stony ground, he made it very fertile ground I suppose the fact that this idea of God removing the stones Is the idea of the Canaanites being driven out of the land And then it says, and planted with the choicest vine Keep that in mind, he planted it with the choicest vine God made sure that he got the best quality in this illustration The best quality vine to make sure that his vineyard would be very fruitful And he built a tower in the midst of it So there was a high place there So they could look over the vineyard, make sure there's no dangers Make sure it's protected And also made a wine press therein And he looked that it should bring forth grapes And he brought forth wild grapes So he plants his vineyard, he fences it, protects it Make sure that it's the best quality vine That he's being used And he says, now it's time to get the grapes He's got the vineyard ready He wants a drink of that juice You say, hold on, is God trying to drink alcohol here? Well, as we keep going through this chapter It's very clear that God does not want the alcohol You have to look at this later on He obviously wants good quality fresh grape juice But instead of these grapes, it says it brought forth wild grapes So instead of grapes that should have been delicious and wonderful and sweet He goes, these grapes are like low quality, bad quality grapes You know, the other day I bought all these strawberries for the kids Because they weren't special I was like, oh wow, strawberries aren't special And Christina got them all ready And I picked one strawberry, put it in my mouth I was like, that's so nice, so sweet And I told her, I said, Christina, man, this is like the best strawberries And she's like, what? Everyone's found them sour So I tried another one Yeah, it was kind of sour I got like the good one, like the one good one But the one that wasn't special But they're all sour And the kids are kind of complaining Oh, these aren't, they look nice on the outside But they weren't, you know, they weren't good quality strawberries So I can understand that Like, yeah, you want something nice You're expecting something of high quality And all of a sudden it's bitter, it's sour And that's what he says about his nation of Judah You guys should have been fruitful You guys should be praising me and worshipping me and blessing me And you're being fruitful in the land Instead you're wild, you're low quality grapes And I'm going to quickly read to you Remember when it said there that he planted the choicest vine? What this strongly reminds me of, don't turn there right now But reminds me of John 15 verse 1 where Christ says I am the true vine Then he says, and my Father is the husbandman So of course we want to take an illustration We want to take applications, I should say, for us today And we also have been planted into that choicest vine The highest quality vine there is, which is Jesus Christ And he says his Father is the husbandman So in the same way in this illustration Where God is the husbandman of this vineyard, he's the owner We want to make sure that we produce good fruit for our God We don't want to produce wild grapes in our Christian life Low quality fruits or no fruit whatsoever And so just keep that in mind as we keep going through this Yes we're looking at the nation But we also want to take some principles and learn of that for our own lives Verse number 3 it says, oh now, sorry, and now Oh 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 God is telling the people of Judah, look Judge between me and you, you're the vineyard Is there anything more that I could have done for you? I've taken you out of bondage I've brought you into the promised land I gave you the ability to overcome the Canaanites You know I chose a land that is flowing with milk and honey You know I've given you everything, all the blessings you could possibly have You know you have a walk with the Lord You've got the temple, you've got the knowledge of God You've got the scriptures, you've got priests and prophets You have all these wonderful things going for you What more could I have done So it says to the people of the land, look judge between me and you and the vineyard Have I failed you? Of course the answer is no It's the people that have failed The people had everything available to them And brethren, we have everything available to us today don't we And you've got church, praise God for church You've got your Bible You've got the Holy Spirit of God, you're saved I mean He's given us, I've mentioned Australia before He's given us a great place to live He's given us freedoms we can meet Are we worried about someone breaking in right now and shooting us all down or something like that Or being arrested and thrown into prison We've been given so much You know the question might be asked of us What more could I have done, more to my vineyard Can God do anything He's really laid down His life for us What more could we ask of God, He's done everything He's given us a home in heaven We shouldn't fear death and truly we will never die Because we have everlasting life But then what kind of fruits are you producing in your life for the Lord God That's the question, that's the challenge And if you can go back to Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 32 please Deuteronomy chapter 32 Deuteronomy chapter 32 And verse number 31 So in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse number 31 God is comparing the nation of Israel with all the other pagan nations Especially the Canaanites Or the ones that they're going to drive out of the land Compares their nation to those other nations And it says in Deuteronomy 32-31 For their rock is not as our rock Even our enemies themselves being judges Look our rock of course is the Lord Jesus Christ We serve and worship the true God of the Bible You know the gods of the other religions What is that rock It doesn't compare to the rock that we have Again talking about these other nations it says in verse number 32 For their vine is the vine of Sodom And the fields of Gomorrah Their grapes are grapes of gold Their clusters are bitter And then it says Their wine Christ wanted his wine from his vine Now it says Their wine is the poison of dragons And the cruel venom of asps And you know in the Bible that alcohol is often referred to as the venom of snakes Of serpents He goes look our juice, the grape juice that we drink Is not like their drink Christ wants good quality grape juice He says these other nations they want to get drunk They want to take on the alcohol And he says look we're not like the other nations And brethren you know in the New Testament we're a spiritual nation of God We're the Israel of God We're a chosen people, a spiritual nation made unto God And we ought not to be like this world You know we need to make sure that our wine is not their wine We make sure that what we drink is not alcoholic It's not going to get you drunk It's not going to intoxicate It's not going to damage you But I'm trying to show you that God used these illustrations of the wine Of the vine I should say That they've got a vineyard as it were as an illustration But their vine is of Sodom The fields of Gomorrah About pagan nations But if you were here with me when we covered Isaiah chapter 1 What did God say about Judah? He essentially called him Sodom and Gomorrah He says you guys are like you've got the same You're just like Sodom and Gomorrah He refers to the nations in any way you know Isaiah chapter 1 And so it just shows us that You know they started so well We're not like the other nations But now God's saying you're just like the rest of them There's no difference Their grapes are grapes of gold They're bitter grapes Low quality, bad quality grapes And now the nation of Judah are the same to God Now brethren you know when we got saved We start well got saved praise God But you know what we ought to be sanctified We ought to grow we ought to become more holy We ought to overcome the sins in our life We don't want to be like everybody else And look I don't know maybe someone here enjoys his alcohol I don't know I mean people get saved at different places And different addictions at different times in life And look that's definitely I just want to make it very clear That is something God is not pleased with you drinking It corrupts your mind It destroys your body And that should be the difference between God's people And the others the other nations So look let that be something you try to overcome in your life You'll thank me for it Like if you're struggling with alcohol You'll thank me for it if you get offered Just even physically just even mentally Okay you'll be doing much better getting off that junk But back to Isaiah 5 you can say in Deuteronomy Isaiah chapter 5 and verse number 5 Isaiah 5 and verse number 5 And now it says And now go to I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard So the vineyard's not working He's done everything he's fenced it He's got the best quality vine for it Alright he's got a tower he's looking over it protecting the vineyard And it's not being fruitful What do you do? I've never really been a gardener But what would you do if you plant a tree I mean I'll ask Hayden but Hayden just destroys trees It doesn't really plant any But you know if you're trying to fertilize a fruit tree You're pruning it you're taking care of it You're protecting it from insects and birds from destroying the fruit And it's not producing anything What are you going to do with it at the end of it? After all that labor and all that effort At some point you're going to go on You know I've tried so long so hard It's time to just chop down the tree And that's what God says right? He goes 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 Now at this point he's talking about walls Now talking about the city of Jerusalem Remember when the Babylonians destroyed that Yeah the walls were destroyed When Babylon destroyed Jerusalem That's why when they came back from Babylon They had to rebuild the walls of the city In fact they had to pretty much rebuild the entire city And the temple of God And then in verse number 6 it says And I will lay it waste It shall not be pruned nor digged But there shall come up brides 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 plants And he looked for judgments And behold oppression For righteousness but behold a cry And so God says I'm through with you guys I'm done It's time for you to be trodden down And of course this is the illustration Of the Babylonian takeover Now keep your finger there And come with me to John chapter 15 In the New Testament John chapter 15 and verse number 1 John 15 verse number 1 Look when we read for the Old Testament Especially the prophets It's always bad news for Israel I mean there's just this constant judgement about Israel And it's very easy Again it's very easy to go yeah man These stiff necked people But when you see these things I always want to bring it to our reality You know I want to be able to apply it to our lives right I mean that's the whole point of the scriptures right It's written for our prophet So then Jesus Christ gives us this parable in John 15 verse number 1 About us now that we are saved It says I'm the true vine And my father is the husband man Okay Every branch in me That beareth not fruit he taketh away And every branch that beareth fruit he purges it That it may bring forth more fruit Let me stop there for a moment This parable is not about how to be saved Okay It's not telling us how we can differentiate between someone that is saved And someone that is not saved Look at verse number 2 again Every branch in me Stop there for a moment If you're in Jesus are you saved? Yes sir Okay This whole thing is about saved people That's right Okay I want to make that very clear Because some people say well in order for you to be saved You've got to abide and maintain And you've got to keep laboring and staying in Christ Jesus Or if you step out of line then you lose your salvation Or you're never saved Or this is how you judge Someone that is saved or someone that is not saved Are you being fruitful? Are you not being fruitful? That's ridiculous Every branch in me immediately Is still about someone that is saved Okay That beareth not fruit So can a believer not bear fruit? Yeah He taketh away And every branch that bear fruit he purges it That he may bring forth more fruits Look if you start bringing fruit for Jesus Christ He's going to work in you He's going to purge you He's going to do more work More fencing More towers Right More protection Because he wants more fruit to develop in your life Look at verse number 3 confirms that look you're saved Now ye are clean Clean Okay Through the word which I have spoken unto you Abide in me and I in you As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself Except it abide in the vine No more can ye except ye abide in me Okay Now again is abiding in Christ speaking how to be saved? No Because they're already saved Okay This abiding in Christ is our walk Our fellowship Okay Now that you are saved You're to strive to walk with the Lord You're to strive to pray and spend time with your Lord And read the Bible and come to church And all those wonderful things that pleases the Lord Then he says in verse number 5 I am the vine Ye are the branches He that abideth in me and I in him The same bring forth much fruit For without me ye can do nothing So brethren when we do well in our walk In our servitude for the Lord You know what again why could we do that? Because we abode in Christ Okay Everything is because of Christ I mentioned this before right Whatever we achieve You know man if you preach a good sermon You'll be high on the pulpit The only reason you could do it Is because you're in Christ Jesus I mean for those of you that preach You know You know that The wisdom of God's word Is superior than any wisdom you could have come up with Like God's word makes you look good Glory to him You know It's his It's because of Christ Verse number 6 If a man abide not in me Say oh see that's not saved No no no he's saved He's in Christ He's just not walking with Christ He says he is cast forth as a branch And he's withered And men gather them And cast them into the fire And they are burned If ye abide in me and my words abide in you Ye shall ask what ye will And it shall be done unto you Herein is my Father glorified That ye bear much fruit So shall ye be my disciples Now some people misunderstand They say What do you have to do to be saved Or you have to become a disciple No no That doesn't save anybody Judas Iscariot was a disciple He wasn't saved Okay You've got to be in Christ In order to be saved Okay But if you want to be fruitful If you want to glorify the Father Yes seek to be a disciple To be disciplined In the ways of the Lord That's what it all means That I'm going to discipline my life After the commandments of God That's what a disciple is You say what about the ones that get burnt there The branches Is that all about hell fire Of course not It's just that you can get to a point In life where you're just not Bearing any fruit for God You're not walking with him You're not profitable to God So God says alright Well you're not profitable for me There's nothing more that you can do Like you know We have the teaching of Christ says that if salt loses its savour Okay Okay we're the salt of the earth And if salt loses its savour What's it good for To be trodden on the foot of man Okay Yeah It can't be re-salted essentially Okay Well that's the You know what If you get to such a bad place Such a Such a backslidden state With your Lord God You're just no longer fruitful for him You can't lose your salvation Christ You know Christ has paid for all your sins Praise God It's just that God can't utilise you You're not going to be fruitful for him And I don't know about you But I've got to I still have I'm still hopeful that I'm halfway through my life I want to keep producing fruit for God You know whether you say that's the fruit of the spirit Or whether it's about You know bringing souls to Seeing souls saved I think you can apply all of it If you want Okay But you know of course You know we ought to be seeing souls saved You know we ought to be allowing the Holy Spirit To work in our hearts And bring forth those fruits of the spirit I think it's absolutely What God delights in To see your growth To see your love To see your desire to bring him fruits You know what We don't want to be these wild grapes Rebellious Just doing our own thing Make sure that we're walking closely with the Lord And so You know it's easy to look at Old Testament Israel Oh what a failure They messed And they did They messed up severely Okay But what are the lessons for me? You know When Christ uses the same illustration To speak of his disciples To speak of his children Man I better take this seriously I don't want to be a disappointment I don't want to be a disappointment Like Old Testament Judah was In this time Do you want to be Do you want to be a disappointment I don't want to be a disappointment To my Lord God You know I want Christ to come And be able to say to me Thou good and faithful servant That's what I want Christ to say Thou good and faithful servant And I'm sure you want the same Back to Isaiah chapter 5 and verse number 8 Isaiah 5 and 8 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 Now this is not saying You look at When we keep going It's not saying that it's wrong To have your house attached to another house Like if you live in a duplex or something It's not like God's angry at you Or if you live like in an apartment or something With another house next to you or something That's what it's saying right But the issue What we soon see here Is the issue is that they've been rebuked For their sin of greed Or their covetousness Okay And so they want the additional house They want the bigger fields They want to produce more Like they're not being fruitful Spiritually speaking for God But they want to be more fruitful When it comes to their resources and wealth And verse number 9 says In mine ears save the Lord of hosts Of a truth many houses shall be desolate Even great and fair Without inhabitants Yea, ten acres of vineyard Shall yield one bath And the seed of an Homer Shall yield an epath So what he's saying is Like people are trying to amass Their wealth and their houses Because these houses are going to be left empty Okay because when the Babylonians come The people are taken into captivity And you've got nobody living in these houses And when he says this idea Yea, ten acres of vineyard Shall yield one bath You know the idea of a bath Is similar to what we think of bath In the sense that it's something that holds water It's a way of measuring volume Okay So from a vineyard you expect grape juice Right And I hadn't looked this up And you know I don't know if this is 100% correct or not But they say that a bath in Bible times Was approximately 35 litres Okay, 35 litres And you might say Well if I had 35 litres of grape juice That'd be nice, yea But if you had ten acres of vineyard And you produced 35 You're like hold on This has not been productive for me Like this is such a low return For all the effort For all the hard work of ten acres Of vineyard All I'm getting is 35 litres of grape juice And then it says there And the seed of anoma So anoma is another unit of measurement Shall yield an epath That's another unit of measurement And apparently an epath Is 10% of anoma Apparently Okay An epath is 10% of anoma So normally, look If you go around planting seeds You expect the seeds to grow into whatever tree Whatever fruitful tree you want it to be And then you're going to have all these fruits That result from that, right? So the idea is that you should have Much more fruit At the end of a harvest Compared to how many seeds you planted But what he's saying here Is the seed of anoma Shall yield an epath So let's say for example The farmer plants a thousand seeds All he's going to produce is 10% So he's going to produce a hundred crops He planted a thousand seeds But all he's getting is a hundred crops Okay, so it's the complete reversal Of what you would expect God is saying, look I'm cursing your productivity You know, I'm cursing your output Okay, because they're not being fruitful for God So why should God help them on the land? God's stripping away their fruitfulness Their resources, their wealth And notice how it continues there in verse 11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning That they may follow strong drink That continue until night Till wine inflame them Okay, so they're planting their vineyards For what reason? For the alcohol That's what they're doing The people on the land, okay And the reason we know that the strong drink You know, strong drink You need to understand strong drink is You need to understand strong drink is Usually alcoholic beverages in the Bible But not always Okay For example, vinegar Is non-alcoholic But even vinegar is referred to in the Bible As a strong drink Okay But the context will dictate You know, whether this is an alcoholic beverage Or not Well the fact that it says till wine inflame them You know, it is just well acknowledged That alcohol brings inflammation on the body All over your body Right, drinking alcohol That's a common cause Inflammation across the entire body And so we can see very clearly that these are People drinking alcohol, right God's people Whose wine should not have been the strong drink And the mixed wine like the pagan nations Now they're doing the same We saw that in the book of Deuteronomy, right That they should not be that way But now God is saying you have become this way You know, now you guys are the ones drinking All this alcohol You're chasing the strong drink You're being inflamed by the alcohol Verse number 12 What else are they doing? Not only are they getting drunk Verse number 12 It says in the harp in the vial And 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 So not only are they drinking it up They're parting it They're out doing feasts and parties And celebrations But in doing so They're forgetting the work of the Lord Okay, so I feel like this is just Australia What do the average Australian A young person at least does in Australia On the weekend or something They get drunk and they go party somewhere They go hit the club in scene Or whatever it is Drink it up That's just, I mean right now Schoolies in Queensland Like on the Gold Coast What are they doing right now schoolies All these school leavers Getting sloshed Getting sloshed Whatever that means Getting drunk I think Okay, parting it up It's just the same Like what we're seeing here Is just the fact that Australia As blessed as it is And praise God for it It's the still great wickedness Like the sins again The sins that we see here Are the sins that we see in our own nation These are sins that You know We could get caught up with You know Parents you know When you have your kids You need to be careful Your children The influences that they receive You know From their friends and what have you We don't want them to be Just like the rest of the world And then verse number 13 God prophesied about their captivity in Babylon Therefore my people are gone into captivity Again it's past tense But it hasn't happened yet Because God knows it's going to happen Right You know Have gone into captivity Look at this Because they have no knowledge God's saying they're stupid They don't know anything Alright I mean Like alcohol does kill your brain cells Okay Because they're stupid And the honorable men are famished And the multitude drive up with thirst Famished is like famine So there's a lack of food There's a lack of water And of course this would happen When the Babylonians would come Jerusalem would be besieged Okay They wouldn't be able to bring food Into the city As they're trying to protect themselves Hide themselves from the Babylonians And people starve to death Literally starve to death In Jerusalem And verse number 14's scary God says Therefore Hell hath enlarged herself And opened her mouth Without measure And their glory And their multitude And their pomp And here that rejoiceth Shall descend into it Into it This is supposed to be God's people God's nation God's blessed them on the land And you know Not only are they far from the Lord They're not even saved Many of them are not saved That's why as they perish You know at the hands of the Babylonians You'd expect man You've got the scriptures You've got the prophets You've got Like again What more could God do for you? And you can't even get saved You can't even put your faith In the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob And they die and they're They're not going to heaven these people They're going to hell Interesting that it says Therefore hell hath enlarged herself It makes sense that you know If hell is in the sense of the earth It's It's scary and it's sad Because you know hell was created For the devil and his angels So obviously God gave hell certain dimensions That it would Be able to take all those You know beings in And then it has to enlarge itself Because men are going there Every single day And even God's own nation You know the destination of Judah People are dying and just going to hell People just are not saved on the land You know I mean how sad I don't know I don't know what to say But how sad that this is happening To the nation of God You know I mentioned this yesterday I don't know if you heard my sermon at New Life Baptist Church But when I started going to my first IFB church And my pastor kept saying you know Because of Zionism and dispensationalism The Jews are God's chosen people The apple of God's eye And all this kind of stuff And I'm just a young man in my early 20s I went to my pastor and said, pastor I'm so confused You're saying that there's such wonderful people In a special way more so than anybody else But if they die Not trusted in Jesus where do they go? And he said to me I haven't figured that out yet Now look I don't believe I honestly believe he knew the answer That they're going to hell It's just that he couldn't reconcile that With such wonderful The apple of God's eye, God's chosen people The holy nation Oh but they go to hell when they die I think that was his issue Struggling with reconciling those two thoughts Right dispensational theology With where would someone go if they don't trust in Jesus It's a hard thing to wrap your mind about around We are a people of God We're here in this church We love the Lord, we are his people But I want you to think about The next generation Because they started well They go into the promised land They're following after Joshua And of course the teachings of Moses But at some point parents We can fail the next generation We need to be really Careful about our children If we know the scriptures We know the value and the wisdom of God's word We want to make sure that our children Understand that value They understand Look, you're going to be tempted in the world But you need to understand The wisdom and the enjoyment And the drunkenness in the parties Does not compare To the wisdom, the love and the joy That you have in Jesus Christ We know that but we forget to teach our kids I say we in general Because how many times do you see People who are faithful to church And all of a sudden their kids are in the world Kids have gone to the devil And I hear stories It breaks my heart when I hear stories like that Now someone says to me Pastor we just did everything we thought we could We brought them to the church We took them to youth group We read the Bible as a family We sung hymns We did this, we did that Took them to the Christian school Whatever it is I tried to do everything I mean at the end of the day I suppose your children have their own will Their own mind They're going to have to make their own decisions in life But let's not forget that our Don't take it for granted Don't think if we just bring our children To church They're just going to automatically value God's word Okay parents we need to show them Hey we as it were Came out of Egypt You know we were in the wilderness And until we were in the promised land With our Lord Jesus Christ walking in his ways You know we got to tell them Just how much better that life is Encourage them to walk in the Lord And not just expect because they came to church That they're just going to flourish And be fruitful for God So obviously generation after generation After generation Further and further and further away from the Lord You know less and less getting saved Praise God for men like Isaiah Who are still preaching the truth And remember when In the book of Jeremiah I'll just read to Jeremiah 6 30 You can look at it later on But when God spoke about that generation That would be taken into captivity He said about them in Jeremiah 6 30 Reprobate silver shall men call them Because the Lord hath rejected them Okay so he's saying look This generation is reprobate The Lord has rejected this generation And now we understand why Because they're not even saved They're on their way to hell And God had to bring judgment The judgment of Babylon Like 70 years captivity Where the children and the grandchildren Would appreciate coming back into the promised land Rebooting the city Rebooting the temple And sometimes God just has to Put us through some difficulties To remind us just how beautiful it was When I was walking with my Lord Isaiah 5 verse 15 Is that what I'm up to? Sorry Yep verse 15 And the mean man shall be brought down Because remember they were all lifted up The pomp and the pride You know they thought so highly of themselves They said 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 manner And the waste places Of the fat ones Shall strangers eat Alright Keep your finger there And come with me to Ephesians chapter 2 So God is saying look I've got to bring this nation down I need to humble The prideful And brethren let me just One of my strongest recommendations to you Is don't allow yourself To become prideful Just don't lift yourself up Don't think highly of yourself Again and again Just give all glory to Jesus right You don't want Him You don't want to be forced To give glory to God I humbled myself Lord And then you can exalt me In your due time But pride is always there I want you to remember this Pride is always there The flesh is always there And this flesh is very prideful So prideful you know When you knock on someone's door You go soul winning What do you think you have to do to go to heaven? I'll be a good person Me It's there immediately It doesn't take much But pride is always there And even when someone says to you You're such a humble person And you're like yes I am That's pride It's always there But Ephesians 2.11 Ephesians 2.11 Now what I'm looking at here Back in Isaiah 5.17 I'll just read it again So after God brings his judgment Then it says And the waste places So we know that the nation's Going to be made desolate The waste places of the fat ones So of the wealthy people in Judah All these places It says Shall strangers eat Now I do believe in some ways This is speaking about you know Strangers, other people The inhabitants of Judah Are taken away into captivity So then other people just come and take off the land And live in their houses And all that kind of stuff But just the way that it speaks about the lambs And we know that often Christ speaks of his children As his lambs You know he's the good shepherd, the chief shepherd, the great shepherd And he reminds me of this teaching here In Ephesians 2.11 Ephesians 2.11 Now remember it's the Babylonians That's going to take them into captivity Gentiles if you want to put it that way In Ephesians 2.11 it says Wherefore remember That ye been in time past Gentiles in the flesh Who were called uncircumcision By that which is called the circumcision In the flesh made by hands That at that time Ye were without Christ So this is a time when you were not saved You were without Christ Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel Look at this Strangers Of the covenants of promise Having no hope and without God in the world So this is before we were saved God says we were strangers From the covenants of promise From the commonwealth of Israel But then drop down to verse number 19 It says Now that we are saved Now therefore ye are no more strangers And foreigners But fellow citizens With the saints And of the household of God And are built upon the foundation Of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself Being the chief cornerstone So what I see here What we're looking at in the book of Isaiah Is that ye we were once strangers But we are now heirs of the promise You see The nation of Israel, the nation of Judah Should have automatically They just should have been the recipients Of the promise that God gave to Abraham They thought Just because I've got a physical lineage I'm an automatic entrance To the promises of God But no, in order to receive the promises You had to be in Christ Jesus But we were strangers We were without God when we were not saved But then we heard the gospel salvation We put our faith on Jesus Christ And now we're made fellow citizens With the saints of God And we're his lambs We're part of his fold He's our shepherd Jesus Christ is our shepherd And so again I see this parallel there With Isaiah That the Jews have favoured God So severely God's opened the doors for all people Of course To participate of the blessings Of the promises that God has laid out in his word Back to Isaiah 5 verse 18 Isaiah 5 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 So another illustration Think of someone pulling Like a cart Pulling a cart with rope And that rope represents his iniquity The idea there is that The people of the land Their sin is on show They're just carrying their sins openly And not only with all their sins And iniquities upon them They're now mocking God He says, let him make speed They're like, hey, when is God going to judge us And hasten his work, that we may see it They're like, hey, I want to see God's judgments And let the counsel of the Holy One Of Israel draw nigh and come That we may know it They're like in open sin In open rebellion against God And they're like, I want to see how God's going to judge us Like mocking God That's why God then says in verse number 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 Woe unto them that are wise In their own eyes And prudent in their own sight Brethren, if we did not have The word of God available to us If we didn't have this wisdom and knowledge We would call evil good And good evil We would say that which is bitter is sweet And what is sweet is bitter And think about our nation Think about how Horrific abortion is Killing a baby Killing the innocent In his or her Mother's womb Where the baby ought to be the safest Most protected Think about the wickedness Of killing a baby And they say, well It's a small price to pay For the happiness of mum Of the happiness of mum and dad The world thinks Abortion is a good thing Why should we destroy someone's life with a baby? Let's kill an innocent child Think of homosexual marriage Love is love Why should we stop them from loving one another? But they've corrupted biblical marriage They call it good, but it's evil It's darkness, but they call it light What about Halloween? Thank you for preaching on Halloween, brother Children dressing up like devils And all the ghosts and wizards And witches and whatever else Things associated with darkness And everyone rejoices They think it's fun Celebration lollies It's strange You'd think Surely, even an unsaved man Surely you know Maybe in the mother's womb he's wrong But the world's not Truth is relative, isn't that what Brother Ash, Pastor Ash Brother Ash preached not long ago Truth is relative Well, you know, this is where the world leads You know, and This is the shining light This is the wisdom, the knowledge of God Look, wash your brain Wash your mind with God's word We've been so corrupted, all of us By the philosophies of this world You know, the TV And all the things, all the media That we've obsessed about You know, I'm sure, I guarantee There are still things in your mind Where you're corrupted, where you're brainwashed And you need the washing of God's word In your heart, in your life To bring you out of that darkness And then it continues in verse number 22 Isaiah 5-22 Woe unto them that are mightier to drink wine And men of strength To mingle strong drink Again, does it sound like God's in favor of alcohol? No way Woe unto them Verse number 23 Which justify the wicked for reward Notice the At the end of verse number 22 Notice the colon When you see a colon in your King James Bible What it's saying is that What you're about to read will clarify Will give further detail of what you just read So what's happening? These people are drinking wine They're drinking alcohol, they're getting drunk And then these same people Which justify the wicked For reward And take away the righteous Of the righteous from him He says, look, alcohol's going to cloud Your judgment It's going to cloud your judgment You're going to justify the wicked When the wicked gets brought And that wicked needs justice and judgment You're going to receive a reward and a bribe To let him go Because the alcohol Destroys your judgment And someone that is righteous You're going to try to take away the righteous Like someone that is good and proper And a good citizen Someone that loves the Lord, doing the best You're going to say, well that guy's rubbish He says in verse 24 Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble And the flame consumeth the chaff So their roots 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 Now keep your thinking They come back with me to Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 16 Verse 24 Deuteronomy chapter 16 Verse 18 Deuteronomy chapter 16 verse 18 Let me just say alcohol is going to impair your judgment You know you play with that You're going to destroy your life You're going to drink that substance And you'll think you'll be You'll think you're sober enough to drive You know Wrong judgment, wrong call You could lose your life You could kill someone else You know, just stupid decisions That alcohol makes You could be a married man drinking alcohol You know, after work one day You look at some other woman And before you know it, commit adultery These things happen And it even happens With God's people That attend church I know stories And how many times is alcohol involved? Almost always It impairs the judgment Now in Deuteronomy chapter 16 verse 18 God says judges and officers Shall thou make thee in all thy gates Which the Lord God giveth thee Throughout thy tribes And they shall judge the people with just judgment Just They shall not rest judgment They shall not respect persons Neither take a gift For a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise And pervert the words of the righteous So God says look We need people that know how to Pass judgment justly Rightly Correctly He says look, don't take a gift Don't take a bribe Because it's going to blind your eyes Again, what do we see Playing out in Isaiah 5 That these people that are to pass judgment Not only are they drunk, impaired judgment But they're taking bribes And they're not judging righteously I see this in our nation It's strange I look at our nation And I feel like I know how I can see how corrupt our judges And lawgivers are But then when I talk to some of my Not so much now but Some of my old friends that are from South East Asia For example, like Thailand or something They're like oh man If you think there's corruption here Because in Thailand for example Anything you want to do You've got to slip like a $5 note or something You want any speed You want anything processed anywhere You need to always slip a little bit of money To satisfy people Then your application will be processed Because there's just corruption On every level And it's not unusual, it's just expected It's just what it is That's just the culture of the land But again I just want to show you the parallel there With Deuteronomy and Isaiah 5 Back to Isaiah 5 Verse 25 Therefore is the anger of the Lord Kindled against his people And he has stretched forth his hand against them And has smitten them And the hills did tremble And their carcasses That's their dead bodies Were torn in the midst of the streets For all this his anger Is not turned away But his hand is stretched out still It's so amazing For all this his anger Is not turned away But his hand is stretched out still You can take this in two ways Either his hand is stretched out in the sense That he's still bringing judgment Or also that his hand is stretched out For those that are willing to come to God And get things right And say, Lord My nation may have favored me But I'm not going to, Lord I'm going to walk in your paths Then he says in verse 26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations From far The nations from far The Babylonians Had many nations under their power And from far And will hiss unto them from the end of the earth And behold they shall come With speed swiftly And again God is like prophesying That this is going to happen The carcasses Torn in the midst of the streets This is the hand and the judgment of God And again we read these verses And there aren't many churches That would read verses like this Because they don't want you To think of God in this way But I want to show you God is angry with wickedness The Bible says God is angry with the wicked Every day Okay And brethren I just want you to remember Even though we're saved When we sin We've done wickedly It's wickedness And look praise God we're saved We can't lose her It's been nailed to the cross But when we sin Remember we break our fellowship If we don't abide with Christ We're not going to be fruitful for him Okay So I like these passages Because we need to be reminded How much God hates Wickedness How much it angers him So that when we sin We don't just think oh who cares And think of it as some minor thing It's major In the eyes of our Righteous holy God Now remember what he says That a nation is going to come And the judgment is going to be swift Against Judah One more turn into the book of Deuteronomy please Deuteronomy chapter 28 Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse number 49 Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse number 49 Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse number 49 Now Deuteronomy chapter 28 Starts really promising Like really uplifting God is telling them if you keep my commandments You're going to be blessed and all this Really great stuff But then you get to verse number 49 Not before verse number 49 God starts to warn them but if you don't keep my commandments There's all these curses And the curses just keep going And going and going and going And within one of these curses In verse number 49 God says God the Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far That's what we saw in Isaiah 5 From the end of the earth As swift as the eagle flyeth A nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand Of course they spoke a different language A nation from afar and they're going to come swiftly That's what Isaiah chapter 5 said Let's keep going to verse number 50 A nation of fierce countenance Which shall not regard the person of the old Nor shall favor to the young And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle And the fruit of thy land Until thou be destroyed Which also shall not leave thee Either corn, wine, or oil Or the increase of thy kine Or flocks of thy sheep Until he have destroyed thee And he shall besiege thee In all thy gates Which is exactly what happened The city of Jerusalem was besieged Until thy high and fenced walls come down Which is what happened Wherein thou trustest Throughout all thy land And he shall besiege thee In all thy gates Throughout all thy land Which the law of thy God have given thee Like the warnings So long ago the warnings were there In the scriptures And now the nations just Contrary to God Like they've got the blessings of the scriptures once again They've got the blessing of Isaiah Going around preaching God's word Preaching God's word And yet they've become like the pagan nations Around them And God's already prophesied long ago By the hand of Moses that this would happen to them So what we just read there Is of course descriptive of the Babylon forces That take over the captivity And come back with me to Isaiah 5, verse 27 Isaiah 5, 27 You know, I used to think When I was a kid, because I didn't know my Bible well enough And I struggled to read through the Old Testament Because it's hard, right, it's one of those early books But I remember thinking, man, like God The judgments and The death and Wow, captivity Man, God, it's like Why can't you give them more of a chance? But then when I Got from my Bible and I'm going through Deuteronomy like this I'm like, hold on, God warned them A long time ago Like, a long time ago A long time ago he's warned them Right, so they've got no excuse That's why God says, well, judge me between me and my vineyard Is there anything more that I could have done? He's warned them, he's told them Yeah Like, we can't think that God's not just He is so just Amen So righteous And so loving Because we should have been wiped out And then he sent his son to die for us Like, it just blows you away, right How much he hates wickedness How much it angers him And even then he says, you know what I'm going to send my son to die for them To pay for their wickedness, to pay for their iniquities and sins And we believe that Yes, Lord, I want that I want that salvation Like, think of just how blessed we truly are To just be in Christ Jesus Verse number 27, Isaiah 5-27 None shall be weary, nor stumble among them They're saying Like, the army The Babylonian army won't be weary Even though they're travelling from afar Once they get there, they're ready for war They're ready to destroy you Like, you would expect an army travelling far They're going to be getting tired, weary They're starting to wear out, their clothes are wearing out God's sustaining them It's God's judgement God's making sure they get there Verse number 28 Whose arrows are sharp and 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 Alright, so as they're taking away into captivity They're looking back at their land They're looking back at Judah, Jerusalem And all they see Is darkness and sorrow Because it all got burnt down Think of the flames Think of the smoke in the air It says the heavens are darkened They're looking back at their land It's just demolished It's all destroyed The city is all going up in the air It's blocking the sun And that's what it's speaking about there But one more illustration, one more parallel here Come with me to 1 John 1 I know we've looked at this recently 1 John 1 When we understand That the Bible is more than just surface level There's a spiritual teaching once again The fact that the land is darkened Represents their spiritual condition before God They're in a dark and spiritual condition with God And you guys know these passages But just a reminder once again Because I know we can get comfortable in our sins I know I can get comfortable in my sin If I can, I know you can I always think that If I can, my church can Because we are the same flesh and blood We all have the same sinful condition We all have pride and all these kinds of things We might struggle with certain Different sins, but generally speaking We're the same And when we do sin Don't just blow it off Don't just think, oh well, it doesn't matter I'm saved anyway, who cares Something like that 1 John 1 5 This then is the message which we have heard of him And declare unto you that God is light And in him is no darkness at all So again I get this idea When they're walking away from Judah God is light And in him there is no darkness at all It tells me that God's not there anymore God was not in Judah He removed his presence from that place He was building the vineyard But now he says alright, I'm just going to destroy it Just let it run I don't care if the thorns and the brides and all that kind of stuff comes in I don't care if it all gets trodden underfoot And verse number 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him And walk in darkness, we lie And do not the truth When we sin, when we walk in darkness We can't say we've got fellowship with God We can't say we're abiding with Christ When we have unconfessed sins before God We can't think that we're going to be fruitful for him I want this sermon to be fruitful for you So what do I do before I preach? God please forgive me for my sins Lord if there's any darkness between us Please bring me into your light Forgive me, use me What's the point of coming all the way from Sunshine Coast And then just preaching something in my own strength It's just wild rapes is what it becomes I want to be something that is fruitful for God And then verse number 7 But if we walk in the light As he is in the light We have fellowship one with another And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son Cleanses us from all sin You can keep reading but you know the teaching You know what, if you're in darkness If you've got unconfessed sin Reverend, before you go to bed tonight Please, just bow your head Do it even between now and before we end the service Do it on your drive home whenever you're comfortable Say Lord please forgive me I committed that sin, you saw it Lord I'm embarrassed, I did it, yes I failed you against Lord But I just want to be in your fellowship, forgive me I want to walk with you, I don't want to be in darkness And the Lord is ready He's always ready to forgive us Ready to bring us into fellowship Wants us to abide in Christ Wants us to be fruitful Not only does he save us but he wants to spend time Quality time with us Bring forth quality through in our life Okay, let's pray