Series:
Questions
Title:
What More Could Have Been Done?
Text:
Isaiah 5: 1-7
Date:
March 25, 2018
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
We find
in our text our next question that our Lord asks a sinner.
Isaiah 5: 4: 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?
In this
passage, God the Father is speaking to his well-beloved Son, Christ Jesus,
concerning his vineyard:
Isaiah 5: 1: Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching
his vineyard.
The
vineyard he speaks of is “the house of
Israel and the men of Judah”. They were the visible church of the Old
Testament. God used Israel and Judah to
show what all men are and will do if left in our unregenerate state, even with
the greatest advantage given them.
Proposition:
Sinners produce only dead fruit unless Christ creates us anew and produces
fruit in us.
Divisions:
1) We will see what God did for Israel and Judah of the old testament and their
response 2) We will see what God has done for his Israel of the new testament
3) We will take away some vital lessons from it
THE OLD TESTAMENT VINEYARD
We see
the advantage God gave to the children of Israel. This is the Israel of the old
testament. This is the visible church of
old. And we see their response to all
this advantage.
Isaiah 5: 1:…My wellbeloved hath a vineyard
in a very fruitful hill:
Israel
and Judah was the vineyard of God’s wellbeloved Son: Christ, the Mediator, between God and men. It was Christ our
God who formed the nation Israel. It was Christ who spoke to Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. Christ was speaking in the burning bush to Moses. It was Christ giving Moses the words to speak
to Pharaoh. Christ our Lord redeemed Israel out of Egypt and delivered them
into the promised land of Canaan. Canaan is the hill spoken of here—a very fruitful hill—the land of milk
and honey. When all the world was
barren, God placed Israel in Canaan, in a very fruitful hill, where they would
have all they needed to live and serve him.
Christ created that nation like a husbandman does a
vineyard.
·
Isaiah 5: 2: And he fenced it—he kept them protected.
·
Isaiah 5: 2:…and gathered out the stones thereof—stones of darkness and ignorance
·
Isaiah 5: 2…and planted it with the choicest vine—he let Israel wander 40 years until those who believed
not perished. Then he planted his vineyard with God’s choice vine: elect sons
of Abraham like Joshua and Caleb and others he regenerated and gave faith
·
Isaiah 5: 2:…and built a tower in the midst of it—the tower was the temple of God like a watchtower in a
vineyard. He gave them priests and prophets to stand as watchmen for
their souls. The temple was the place where God promised to meet with
them over the mercy seat.
·
Isaiah 5: 2:..and also made a winepress therein—he set up his altar where the blood of his sacrifices
flowed like the blood of grapes in a winepress bearing witness of Christ Jesus
our Substitute.
Here is
his charge against them.
·
Isaiah 5: 2:…and he looked that it should bring forth
grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes—He
looked for good grapes, good fruit like: “love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance:
against such there is no law.” (Gal 5: 22-23) But they brought forth wild grapes, wild
fruit, dead fruit like: “Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like:…they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal 5: 19-21)
·
Isaiah 5: 7: 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—He looked for the fruit of judgment—justice in their dealings with God: confessing
their sin, confessing their need for Christ to justify them; and he looked for
them to be just with one another: showing mercy and forgiving one another. Instead,
he found oppression—robbery toward
God: stealing the glory that belongs to Christ for his work of saving his
people. And they oppressed one another: men building their large houses at the
expense of the poor. The religious leaders fleeced poor sinners for personal
gain by stealing God’s offerings from them and taking them for themselves. He looked for the fruit of righteousness but the distressing cry of the poor came up into his ears.
So he
asks the question.
·
Isaiah 5: 4:
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?—the children of Israel were given every
advantage men can be given. Paul said, Romans 3: 1: What advantage then hath
the Jew? or what profit is there
of circumcision? 2: Much every
way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Seeing
the Lord could not have given them any more advantage than he did then why did
they bring forth wild, dead fruit?
Be sure to get this: this is the lesson God teaches us using the whole
nation of Israel. They brought forth
dead fruit because a sinner, though given all these advantages by God, can do
nothing but sin. You recognized the two kinds
of fruit from Galatians 5. The grapes,
the good fruit such as “love, joy, peace” is the fruit of God the Holy Spirit. The
wild grapes, the dead fruit such as adultery, idolatry, hatred is the fruit
of the natural, unregenerate flesh of man.
A sinner, though given every advantage God can give him, cannot bring
forth fruit unto God. The apostle
Paul said when we were dead in sins
“ye were the
servants of sin…ye…yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity
unto iniquity;…What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now
ashamed? for the end of those things is death.” (Rom 6: 17, 19, 21)
“For when we were
in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our
members to bring forth fruit unto death.” (Rom 7: 5)
“A good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.”
(Mt 7: 18)
“Either make the tree
good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt:
for the tree is known by his fruit.” (Mt 12:
33)
Today,
multitudes are religious of themselves, without Christ, without being born anew
of the Spirit of God. All their many wonderful works is dead fruit of the
flesh. For instance, most preach
responsibility from this text but they do so preaching a lie. They say if we do not fulfill our responsibility
then God’s will goes unfulfilled like it did with Israel so that God had to go
to plan B and send forth his Son. That is corrupt fruit by corrupt men just like
the unregenerate children of Israel.
God’s
faithfulness to save is not altered when men do not believe. Paul said, Romans 3: 3: For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? 4: God
forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou
mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art
judged.
Indeed,
men are responsible to obey God’s word and bow to Christ. But when men refuse
to bow to God’s word, it simply proves what the Lord declares in our text that all
men by nature are depraved sinners and left to ourselves we cannot produce
fruit. He teaches us to “cease from man for where is he to be
accounted of.” We must have Christ to save us!
So after
the Lord called out his last elect from Israel, he finished with that nation
and took down the hedge and justly destroyed the nation in 70AD and he says it
shall never be built again.
·
Isaiah 5: 5: 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: 6: And I
will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up
briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon
it.
Yet,
mingled in all God’s warnings of judgment to the children of Israel, Isaiah
prophesied of a day when Christ would come to save his elect Israel from among
Jew and Gentile.
Isaiah 4: 2: In that day shall the branch of the
LORD [he is the Vine we are the branches, in the
day Christ works grace for and in us, he and his people shall] be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of
the earth [the fruit Christ produces in his people] shall be excellent and comely for them that are
escaped of Israel. 3: And it
shall come to pass, that he that is
left in Zion, and he that
remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
[in the lambs book of life] 4: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of
Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by
the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. 5: And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount
Zion, and upon her assemblies, [his people and churches] a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of
a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. [like the cloud and fire that led Israel
in the wilderness, Christ himself shall be upon his people and his local
churches for a defense] 6: And there shall be a tabernacle
[Christ himself and his place of worship] for
a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a
covert from storm and from rain.
Isaiah 5: 16: But the LORD of hosts shall be
exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. [this is what he looked for in Israel when he looked
for judgement and righteousness. He looked for them to exalt the LORD by
casting their care on Christ. But he found robbery. In the day Christ came, he
brought his people to exalt him by believing on him.]17: Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste
places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. [his elect among the Gentiles]
So in the
fullness of time, Christ came as Isaiah prophesied. And Christ told these
unregenerate, religious leaders a parable just like the one in our text:
Mark 12: 1:…A certain
man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the
winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far
country. 2: And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he
might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. 3: And they
caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. [so it went with all his servants. The children of
Israel rejected God by rejecting his prophets] 6: Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last
unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. 7: But those husbandmen said
among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance
shall be ours. 8: And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the
vineyard.
When
Christ finished this parable the self-righteous men of Israel and Judah perceived
Christ spoke of them. So they did exactly what Christ said they would in the
parable, they crucified the Prince of Life, God’s own Son.
It is
amazing that folks who oppose the believer for resting entirely in Christ do
exactly as the Pharisees did to Christ in their opposition of him. Without
knowing it, without intending it, in all their attacks on the believer they say
and do precisely what Christ said they would according to the scriptures. Their goal is to convince us the bible is
just another book and that Christ is just another man. Yet, by the very
arguments they deem so ingenious, they only prove to us that Christ is indeed
God our Savior and that every word of God is true. And while they endeavor to
turn us from Christ they only make us cling ever more tightly to our Lord and
Savior.
But in
crucifying Christ, they fulfilled God’s eternal will and by his blood, Christ
created a new vineyard
CHRIST’S NEW TESTAMENT VINEYARD
Now, let’s
use our text with an eye to Christ and see what he has done for his Israel of
the new testament, his elect.
Isaiah 5: 1: Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching
his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
When the
Son of God took flesh and dwelt among us, God the Father spoke from heaven
saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased; hear ye him.” (Mt 17: 5) The work of creating his people anew to be his eternal vineyard is
Christ’s work alone.
·
Isaiah 5: 2: And he fenced it,
and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine—Christ himself is the Vine—God the Father’s choice! (Is
42: 1) And also, Christ sent his choice apostles and preachers to preach his
gospel. Paul said, “I have planted,
Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” (1 Cor 3: 6) So his vineyard, his people, “are built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.” (Eph
2: 20)
·
Isaiah 5: 2…and built a tower in the midst of it—Christ is our “Strong
Tower the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” (Pro 18: 10) And the church where he places his watchmen
is his watchtower in his vineyard because we preach Christ our Strong Tower. Right
here in this place, Christ has provided us with a church—his watchtower—where
we can hear the gospel of Christ preached in spirit and in truth by his
watchman.
·
Isaiah 5: 2…and also made a winepress therein—Christ himself trod the winepress of the fury of God’s
wrath all alone and there was no man with him to help. (Is 63: 3, 5) He
suffered and bled to save his people from our sins. Christ is the Fountain. We
wash in his blood alone. His gospel refreshed us like wine.
·
Isaiah 5: 2…he looked that it should bring forth grapes,
and [by Christ’s finished work of redemption] it brought forth [fruit in abundance all
produced by Christ Jesus our Righteousness.]
Romans 7: 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another,
even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God.
John 15: 3: Now ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you. 4:
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. 5: I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in
me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do
nothing.
Psallm 92:12: The
righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. 13: Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in
the courts of our God. 14: They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they
shall be fat and flourishing; 15: To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my
rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
Now, God is satisfied with Christ our Righteousness.
So our risen Lord does the opposite for his fruitful vineyard of what he did to
the unfruitful vineyard. Instead of taking down the hedge and the
wall, Christ hedges us about and we shall never be eaten up by the adversary.
Isaiah 26:1: In that
day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; Salvation [Christ our Salvation] will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Isaiah 27: 2: In that
day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. 3: I the LORD do keep it.
1 Peter 1:5: Who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the
last time.
Instead
of laying it waste and not pruning it, Christ says of each his people in his
vineyard now, “every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” (Jn 15: 2) Instead
of withholding the water of the gospel, Christ says, “I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night
and day.” (Is 27: 3)
Who is
this new vineyard.
·
Isaiah 5: 7: For the vineyard of
the LORD of hosts is the [elect] house of Israel, and the [elect] men of Judah his pleasant plant—[elect
from among Jew and Gentile]—and he
looked for judgment, [and in Christ]
behold [judgment]; for
righteousness, [and in Christ]
behold [righteousness]—
Isasiah 5: 16: But
the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be
sanctified in righteousness.
Isaiah 60:21: Thy
people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the
branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
Isaiah 61:3…that they
might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might
be glorified.
Philippians 1:11: Being
filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the
glory and praise of God.
Now,
let’s answer the question concerning his new covenant vineyard.
·
Isaiah 5: 4: What could have
been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?—Nothing more can be done! Christ declared, “It is
finished!”
·
Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth
grapes, brought it forth [good] grapes?—Because
Christ the Vine produces only good grapes for and in his people. We are the
workmanship of his hands!
LESSONS TO TAKE AWAY
In our
day, God has given us far more light, far more advantage, than what he gave the
children of Israel. Christ has come and
accomplished redemption for his people. He
has created his vineyard anew. He has
placed his tower, his church, in this place where the gospel goes forth for you
to hear weekly
Like
Israel of old, we have a responsibility to walk in the light God has given us. Use
it. Come hear the gospel of Christ preached. Study his word. Call on God to
save you. Do not despise the light God has given you!
One day
soon, just as the Lord destroyed the nation of Israel because they despised the
light he gave them, he shall destroy this whole world and every sinner without
Christ shall be cast into outer darkness. If God saves you it will be all of
his doing and he shall receive all the glory; but if you perish it will be all
your doing because you despised the light and would not walk in it.
Christ
Jesus is the Savior of sinners. If you
truly cast your care on Christ he will save you. He delights to show mercy! Seek
him while he may be found! Believe on
Christ and slip into his perfect robe of righteousness! Oh, may God the Holy
Spirit make you put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Believer,
seeing the work of salvation is all the work of Christ performed freely for us,
remember these words of the apostle Paul:
1 Corinthians 6:20: For
ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your
spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 10:31: Whether
therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
When we eat
and drink at our Lord’s Table in remembrance of Christ Jesus, we do so giving
God all the glory!
Amen!