About this sermon
Isaiah sings of his beloved’s vineyard: he dug it, cleared it of stones, planted choice vines, and built a watchtower, but it yielded wild grapes. “What more was there to do for my vineyard?” The vineyard is the house of Israel, which the Lord rescued and planted in the land, yet he looked for justice and found bloodshed. So he will remove its hedge, let the beasts trample it, and command the clouds to give no rain, the covenant curses of Deuteronomy. Jesus told the same story against those who rejected him.
Sermon transcript
We begin today in Isaiah chapter 5, and we will consider verses 1 through 7 of Isaiah chapter 5. You’ll find that on page 676. This is the word of God. My friends hear it with reverence and awe. Let me sing for my beloved, my love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fine vineyard. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it, and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge and it shall be devoured. I will break down its wall and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste. It shall not be pruned or hoed, and briars and thorns shall grow up. 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 are his pleasant planting. And he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed, for righteousness, but behold, an outcry. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his word. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we pray that you would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word, and we ask that you would make us receptive.
We pray that your word would find a lodging place in our souls and bear much spiritual fruit in our lives. And we do ask that you would grant me the grace to express your word well and faithfully. And we ask, Lord, that you would be magnified in the proclamation of your word this day, and that we would be edified and challenged and built up in our most holy faith. We pray these things, Heavenly Father, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. Dear ones, the title of my sermon today is The Song of the Vineyard. And there are five key words that the young people can be listening for in my sermon today. The words song, judgment, vineyard, fruit, and faith. Well my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when I was a young person in my teenage years, I used to listen to music all the time, whenever I had a spare moment.
It was one of my favorite activities in my free time. Like many teenagers, I was almost obsessed with my favorite musical groups, and my favorite songs had an almost cathartic effect upon me in helping me to cope with my teenage angst. In fact, when I started to make money as a young person, when I started to save up money, I would typically spend my money on two very important things, at least two high priorities According to my teenage thinking at the time, number one priority, candy bars. Second priority, record albums. I love to buy record albums. See back then, the only way to listen to your favorite music, because we didn’t have cell phones or computers back then, you either turned on the radio, or you went out to what was called a record store, and you bought your favorite vinyl record.
And so that’s what I did with my spare change as a young person. But of course, one of the problems with my love for music was that sometimes a catchy tune would just get stuck on replay in my brain. You ever had that happen to you? You hear a song, a jingle, maybe a song that’s advertising a product. I’m told that the advertisers do this on purpose. They purposefully create these little jingles or these songs. Sometimes they’re a little bit annoying, but they stick with you, and your brain replays it over and over and over again. And there seemed to be no way for me to shut these songs off. You ever had that experience, beloved? And let me tell you, it’s difficult to focus on something like completing an algebra homework assignment when you’ve got a catchy rock tune playing in the back of your brain.
Well, friends, I bring this up to illustrate the point that music is a powerful thing. Even if you are not as obsessed with music as I once was, music still is a very powerful thing. A well-crafted and skillfully performed song has the power to grab our attention, to make a deep emotional impact, to leave a lasting impression, and also to serve as an aid to memorization. I suspect that many of us probably learned the English alphabet as children by being taught, you know it, the ABC song. And I used that principle in seminary. When I was struggling to learn the Hebrew alphabet in seminary, I decided one day to make up a little ditty for reciting it, and once I put it to music, I was able to memorize it rather quickly. Music is powerful, and it aids the memory.
Well, dear ones, in our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet Isaiah to employ this beautifully crafted lyrical masterpiece, typically called the Song of the Vineyard, and he did so in order to grab his audience’s attention and to draw them in as the Lord, through Isaiah, delivers an unforgettable message of judgment against the professed people of God, a people who had absolutely no excuse for their faithlessness to the Lord. Isaiah begins this passage by playing the role of a folk singer who sings a love song, but as the passage progresses, the literary flow goes from love song to lamentation to explanation. If you paid attention, as I read through this passage, it starts off as a love song, it turns into a lamentation, and finally, at the very end in verse 7, the Lord, through Isaiah, explains the significance of this passage and its meaning.
It begins in a seemingly joyful atmosphere of song, but in verse 3, it quickly shifts gears to a courtroom setting, and then it ends in verses 5 through 7 with a pronouncement of divine judgment and a divine interpretation of this song allegory. The lyrical beauty of this song parable or allegory draws the listener in, but the sudden shift in tone and content shocks the listener with a divine pronouncement of judgment that leaves an indelible impression upon the conscience, an impression that is intended to cause the hearers to feel the weight of their guilt, the weight of their wretchedness, and also to cause them to see their desperate need for God’s forgiving and restorative and renewing mercies and grace. Now what is the context of this passage? You’ll recall the last time we were in Isaiah that at the end of chapter 4, we had a messianic prophecy, a messianic prophecy about the branch of the Lord, which is a prophetic title for the promised Messiah.
And one of the things that we’ve observed so far as we’ve made our way up to this point in the prophet Isaiah and his writings is that he alternates between judgment and then oracles of hope and messianic expectation. Well, here in chapter 5, Isaiah returns to the judgment theme. And so let’s dive in to our passage for today. And the first thing I want us to consider from verses 1 and 2, the opening verses of chapter 5, is Yahweh’s meticulous care for his vineyard. Yahweh, by the way, that’s the covenant name for God in the Hebrew. It’s usually the English translators will indicate that they’re using, that they’re translating Yahweh when they put the name Lord in all capital letters. So when I say Yahweh, I’m speaking of God’s covenant name. And that focuses especially on God as the covenant redeemer of his people Israel.
And we notice in this passage, Yahweh’s meticulous care for his vineyard. Again, let me read verses 1 and 2. It starts off on a joyful note. It says, let me sing for my beloved. It’s almost like a romantic song is starting here. Let me sing for my beloved, my love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it. And he looked for it to yield grapes. We would expect that such a carefully manicured vineyard would produce much in the way of a harvest of sweet and juicy grapes. But instead it yielded what? Wild grapes or useless grapes. In this story song, the owner of the vineyard would have every reason to expect that his vineyard would produce an abundant harvest of good grapes.
After all, he planted his vineyard in an ideal location that had ideal soil. A very fertile hill is how it’s described in verse 1. In the Hebrew, it’s literally on a hill, the son of oil, again, expressing its ideal location and the good soil of that location. And not only that, it says he dug it and cleared it of stones. Now to the original hearers and listeners of this prophecy, that would have made a great impression because there were many stones in that region where Isaiah prophesied. So given the prevalence of stones in that region where Isaiah ministered, this would have required labor intensive effort, an effort that would demonstrate on the part of the owner a great devotion to its vineyard and to the success and fruitfulness of his vineyard. Not only did he choose the ideal spot with ideal soil, not only did he clear it of anything that might hinder its fruitfulness, it says that he also, it says, what does he do next?
It says he planted it with choice vines. He planted it with choice vines. Good vines, not leftovers, not bad stuff, not questionable stuff. Good vines. Again, we see the owner’s commitment to providing for the success and the fruitfulness of his vineyard. And not only that, we’re told that he built a watchtower, not just a booth. Back in chapter one, verse eight, Isaiah had spoken about a booth in a vineyard. But this owner of the vineyard builds a watchtower, showing the owner’s commitment to the protection and well-being of his vineyard, giving his vineyard every possible advantage to bearing a fruitful yield. And then there is mention also of a wine vat. Again, friends, these pictures and images of the vineyard which Isaiah piles up, these all serve to show the owner’s faithful commitment to his vineyard and his meticulous care for it.
Again, given all of this meticulous care for his vineyard and the protection that he has provided for his vineyard and the digging up of the soil and the clearing out of the stones and the setting up of a watchtower and the planting of choice vines, he would naturally, the owner would naturally expect an abundant harvest. And if there is anything lacking in the harvest, it certainly could not be blamed on the owner. The vineyard, using some personification, the vineyard couldn’t say to the owner, well, you didn’t do enough for me. That’s why I’m not bearing enough fruits, no. Now who was the owner, this owner of the vineyard? Isaiah addresses the owner of the vineyard in verse one as my beloved. But it’s clear as we read on in this passage that the owner of the vineyard represents the Lord himself.
In verse three, there’s a shift from Isaiah addressing the Lord as his beloved to the Lord addressing his people. It says, and now, oh, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. And then, of course, the explanatory verse at the end of this passage, verse seven, makes it clear, for the vineyard of whom? The vineyard of Yahweh of hosts, the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah. So the Lord himself is the owner of the vineyard. And what does the vineyard represent? Again, verse seven makes it abundantly clear. The vineyard represents Israel or Judah. In other words, it represents the professed covenant people of God. And of course, this is not the only place in the scriptures where God’s people are represented as either a vine or a vineyard.
Other prophets pick up on this imagery as well. For example, let’s just look at a few other passages as we compare scripture with scripture. Turn to Jeremiah chapter two, verse 21. Jeremiah’s right after Isaiah. Jeremiah chapter two, verse 21. Here again, the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah says this. Let me start at verse 20 actually. For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds. That’s a reference to the Lord delivering the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt, his redeeming his people from slavery. Long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds, but you said, I will not serve. Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. Yet I planted you a choice vine, holy of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?
Or consider Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 19, verses 10 through 14. Ezekiel again is right after Jeremiah. Ezekiel 19, verses 10 through 14. Another imagery is used. It says this. The Lord says through Ezekiel. Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard, planted by the water, fruitful and full of branches by reason of abundant water. Its strong stems became ruler’s scepters. It towered aloft among the thick boughs. It was seen in its height with the mass of its branches. But the vine was plucked up in fury, cast down to the ground. The east wind dried up its fruit. They were stripped off and withered. As for its strong stem, fire consumed it. Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. And fire has gone out from the stem of its shoots, has consumed its fruit, so that there remains in its no strong stem, no scepter for ruling.
This is a lamentation and has become a lamentation. God’s people compared to a fruitless vine. And finally, one more verse, Hosea chapter 10, verse 1, Hosea chapter 10, verse 1. Hosea is right after Daniel. Hosea chapter 10, verse 1. The prophet Hosea writes, Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built, meaning altars to pagan gods. And as his country improved, he improved his pillars, his pillars used in the worship of false gods. And so, our passage for today. The Lord is the owner of the vineyard. The vineyard is God’s visible covenant community, God’s people. And what is the charge? What is the message here at the end of verse 2? It says, and he, the owner, looked for it to yield grapes. Why wouldn’t it yield grapes?
Everything had been done for it that could be done, at least externally. But it yielded wild grapes. Or as some translations translate it, worthless grapes. That’s how the New American Standard Version translates it. It’s interesting, the Hebrew indicates stinking things. Instead of juicy grapes, it’s rotten fruit, it’s stinking fruit. Consider my friends, the special ways that the Lord had cared for His people and had provided for their spiritual fruitfulness. Consider all that God had done for His people. God had redeemed and rescued His people from slavery. They were slaves for years and years and years. They were enslaved under the burdens of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And the Lord miraculously, supernaturally delivered them. And He brought them out of Egypt. He performed miracles and signs and wonders in their midst, showing His care for them.
He parted the Red Sea, enabling them to go through on dry land. And He closed the Red Sea over the Egyptians who pursued them. Such mighty acts of deliverance. And then He brings them to Mount Sinai, where He gives them through the prophet Moses. He gives them His law, His Word. We are told in Romans chapter 3 that it was to the Jews that God had committed the divine oracles, the Word of God. They’d been given the Scriptures. And not only that, the Lord led them through the wilderness, through the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. This supernatural manifestation that hovered over the tent of meeting. God gave them also His tabernacle and later on His temple when He brought them into the land. And that tabernacle and later on temple, what was that a symbol of?
That was a symbol of God’s gracious royal presence dwelling in the midst of His people. It was a reminder to the people of God that though they were sinful, the Holy God had come to make His dwelling place in their midst. God had rescued them. He had cleared out the stones, if you will, in the promised land. He had cleared out the pagan peoples of the promised land. The wicked Canaanites, the idolatrous Canaanites and Amorites and Girgashites and all the other ites that there were that were cleared out of the land. And He planted His people in the promised land. And then He continued to rule them and guide them. And He raised up for them an anointed king, the Davidic kings. Great David, King David. And the Messiah is going to be the ultimate anointed one, Great David’s greater Son.
Think of all these amazing spiritual privileges that the people of God, the professed people of God had received under the Old Covenant, especially in contrast to the pagan darkness that lay over the surrounding Gentile nations. You would think that the people of God would continue grateful for all that the Lord had done for them, that they would be loyal to the Lord, that they would refuse to follow the pagan ways of the nations that surrounded them, but no. Instead of being a light and witness to the Gentiles around them, instead of pointing the Gentile nations around them to the true and living God in whom alone is salvation, instead of that, they adopted the customs and practices, the pagan customs and practices of the nations. And not only that, they were to be a just and holy society.
They were to be a picture of the justice of heaven, for the promised land was a type and picture of the ultimate promised land of the new heavens and the new earth. And that’s why the Old Covenant people of God was a theocracy. They were to rule and show justice and righteousness in society, the kind of justice that we would expect in heaven, where things would be done on earth as they are done in heaven. But instead, there was bloodshed, there was oppression. The people of God, the professed people of God, did not treat each other with justice. They oppressed each other and were guilty of violence and bloodshed. That’s in particular the sins that Isaiah focuses on in this passage, as we learn at the end of verse 7. They had received so much.
What more in terms of external inducements and encouragements could the Lord have done for them? In spite of all these amazing and miraculous benefits and privileges, very little spiritual fruit was born. Instead, unbelief and idolatry abounded, and only a remnant of the people manifested the fruit of a true and living faith in Yahweh, their covenant God. God always preserves for Himself a faithful remnant, a chosen remnant. But in spite of all that God had done for them, only a small remnant remained faithful. You say, well, this is the new covenant, so what does this have to do with us? Well, friends, with the coming of Jesus Christ and the new covenant, we have received even greater spiritual privileges than our brethren under the old covenant. And therefore, let us pay all the more attention, for with greater privileges come even greater responsibilities.
I’m reminded of what we are told in Hebrews chapter 2, verses 1 through 4. The author of Hebrews says this, and again, Hebrews is written to a group of Jewish Christians who were being tempted because of the pressures of persecution to abandon their Christian faith and to go back to their previous Judaism. The author of Hebrews writes this, Therefore we, we who are believers under the new covenant, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.
Let us pay all the more attention, for we have been privileged with even greater privileges. And that leads me to my next point as we move on in our passage and consider verses 3 and 4, the bad fruit produced by Yahweh’s vineyard. The bad fruit produced by Yahweh’s vineyard. Here we go from a love song to a courtroom scene as it says this, and now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild or rotten grapes, worthless grapes, stinking things, as the Hebrew indicates? Here again, this allegory shifts from a love song to a courtroom scene, and beginning in verse 3, the direct speaker is no longer the prophet addressing Yahweh as his beloved, but Yahweh Himself, the owner of the vineyard, addressing His people, those described as Jerusalem and the men of Judah, and calling upon them to judge between Himself and His vineyard.
And given that His vineyard is the people of Israel and Judah themselves, He’s calling them to judge yourselves, judge between me and you. Is my charge about your fruitfulness true or not? And then in verse 4, He says, what more was there to do for my vineyard? In other words, what more could have been done in terms of external means and motivations and inducements toward holiness and spiritual fruit in their lives, and also the fruits of true justice and righteousness within the Israelite theocracy at a societal level? After all, He had given them His word. He had given them His oracles, His very word. Brothers and sisters, God has given us His word. We have His word in its fullness now, and yet how many of us allow it to sit and collect dust on the bookshelf?
There are brothers and sisters right now in other parts of the world who don’t have access to the word of God, who would literally give an arm or a leg to have their own copy of the word of God. We have multiple copies of the word, but do we really read the word? Do we meditate on the word day and night as the blessed man of Psalm 1 does? I know that ultimately speaks to Christ, but are we in the word? The people of old, they had been given His word, His Torah, His covenant instruction, His law. Not only that, but God had blessed them with the ordinances for true worship. He had given them the blessings of the priesthood and the sacrifices, all of which preached the gospel in symbol form and pointed them forward to the person and work of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only that, He had given them His very own Shekinah glory presence as symbolized by the temple in Jerusalem, and He had given them His gracious royal rule through providing them with the Davidic kingship. What great privileges indeed, and what great inducements to the bearing of spiritual fruits and holy living and a just and righteous social order. But instead, what fruits did they bear? Did they bear the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-contradiction? Did they bear the fruit of humility and allegiance to and trust in and love for the Lord and repentance? No. They bore the fruit of a wandering heart, going after the gods of the nations and seeking to incorporate the pagan practices of their surrounding gentile neighbors into their own worship of God. And not only that, oppressing each other, acts of violence and bloodshed against their fellow Israelites.
It’s interesting, verse 7 speaks of their fruits. It says, For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. And he looked for justice, but behold bloodshed. Now in the Hebrew, the word for justice sounds similar to the word for bloodshed. It’s a Hebrew wordplay, which again is a lyrical way of driving home the point to the consciences of his listeners. And then he goes on to say, I looked for righteousness, but behold an outcry, an outcry due to oppression. Again the words in the Hebrew for righteousness and outcry sound similar. So he’s using a Hebrew wordplay here. But not only is he confronting the people with their social injustices, their injustices toward one another and violence on a social level. Read through the rest of Isaiah and read through the rest of the Old Testament and you will see that the professed people of God, time and time and time again, bore the evil fruits of disloyalty to the Lord through their idolatry and their covenant breaking.
In other words, instead of bearing spiritual fruits, the spiritual fruits of true faith and repentance, they bore the wild grapes of impenitence, unbelief, hardness of heart, stubbornness of will. You say, well, yeah, they were pretty bad people back then, weren’t they? But we’re better today, right? Are we really? Once again, consider how much greater our privileges are today as the church under the new covenant. No longer do we have mere shadows and types and thank God, no longer do we have to bring to our worship assemblies animals to slit the throats of and sacrifice on an altar. Aren’t you glad you don’t have to do that? Because Jesus, the lamb of God, he was sacrificed once and for all and forever and is fully atoned for all of the sins of all who come to believe in him.
Friends, today we know the name of the Messiah, our old covenant brethren didn’t know his name. We know his name, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and we have received the full disclosure of his gospel. And yet how many of God’s professed people today bear wild grapes instead of the good grapes of the fruit of the Spirit and spiritual renewal? Dear ones, it’s important to understand God looks for fruit among his people. Now our fruits can’t save us and by fruits we mean the good works that are produced by true faith. The Lord looks for his people to bear the fruits of repentance and faith, the fruits of new obedience. But it’s important to understand we’re not saved on the basis of those fruits. Those fruits don’t contribute to or add to the finished work of Christ in any way.
After all, the only fruits that can save us are Christ’s fruits, Christ’s obedience and sacrifice, the fruits of his saving work alone. But at the same time, the spiritual fruits that we produce manifest whether our trust is in Christ or in something or someone else. Our Lord Jesus once said in a context where he’s warning against false prophets, he says you will recognize them by their fruits. And in that context, the fruits could be either false doctrine or evil living, or I believe both perhaps. Let me just read quickly Matthew 7, 15 through 20, Matthew chapter 7, verses 15 through 20. The Lord Jesus at the end of his sermon on the mount says this, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.
Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Again, this principle applies specifically to the false prophets he’s warning against, but I believe it can be applied in any situation, more broadly speaking. By their fruits you shall know them. And that brings me to my final point, beloved. And that is, let us consider Yahweh’s judgment upon his faithless vineyard, Yahweh’s judgment upon his faithless vineyard. Here the allegory depicts the owner of the vineyard taking great pains to prepare his vineyard for a fruitful harvest, but he is deeply disappointed because it doesn’t yield a good harvest, it yields a rotten harvest.
So what is the owner of the vineyard going to do? So the Lord tells us what he’s going to do to his fruitless vineyard. Verse 5, and now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge. In other words, I’ll remove its protection so that the wild animals come and trample it down. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured. I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste. It shall not be pruned or hoed, and briars and thorns shall grow up, and it shall bear thorns and thistles, in other words. And not only that, he says, I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. If you read the covenant curses recorded in Deuteronomy, one of the curses is that if the people were unfaithful to the Lord, then the Lord would withhold the rain.
So this is a sign of God’s covenant curses upon the people. So in these verses, what do we learn that the Lord is going to do to his fruitless vineyard? Well, God would remove the special protection that he had provided for his people, allowing his vineyard to be trampled down, wasted, and turned into a fruitless wilderness that bears not bountiful fruit, but thorns and thistles, the kinds of thorns and thistles that God had cursed the ground with as a result of man’s fall into sin. Remember the curse back in Genesis 3, verse 18. See the promised land was to be a land flowing with milk and honey, right? God promised his people, I will give you a land of milk and honey. It was to be a fruitful land, a land with bountiful harvests. But the Lord is saying, no, it’s no longer going to bear bountiful harvests.
It’s going to bear briars and thorns. The harvest will be disappointing. Instead of a fruitful vineyard bearing the marks of God’s blessing, it would be turned into a barren wasteland bearing the marks of God’s curse. You say, well, how is this fulfilled? Well, it was fulfilled initially when God in the history of Israel allowed foreign invaders to invade the land of his people, the land of Israel and Judah. But it was also fulfilled in the Babylonian exile where the Babylonians came in and they destroyed Jerusalem. They leveled the temple, they destroyed the temple and they took the people into exile. And then verse 7, we go from the lamentation of verses 5 and 6 to the final declaration and explanation of what this all means. Verse 7, for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting.
And he looked for justice, but behold bloodshed for righteousness and behold an outcry. The song has been sung and the lamentation has been delivered. Now as if to drive the point home with a laser focused pointedness, the vineyard of this song allegory is identified and by implication so is the owner. And what we’ll follow in the remainder of this chapter, chapter 5, is a series of woes that Yahweh pronounces against his faithless fruitless people. So it’s kind of a depressing passage. It starts off on a joyful note or a seemingly joyful note and gets your attention, but then it delivers, it delivers a pointed message and a warning. Dear ones, our God, as I said, our God looks for fruit among his people. But let’s be honest, none of us bears spiritual fruit as we ought to.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and it is loyalty to God and a humble spirit and a repentant heart and a trust in the Lord. How many of us we look at our lives and instead of seeing the fruit of the Spirit we see manifestations of the works of the flesh so very often. All of us naturally produce wild grapes or stinking things in our lives. What hope then is there for us, especially since we are even more responsible, we have even more privileges and we therefore are guilty of even greater neglect of the things of the Lord. What hope then is there for us? Well, our hope is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ for you see, my friends, though this passage seems to be a depressing passage at one level, it’s ultimately a joyful passage because it points us to Christ.
You see, ultimately it is Jesus Christ who fulfills the song of the vineyard. He fulfills it by way of contrast but he fulfills it nonetheless. For unlike God’s people of old, Jesus Christ is the true, faithful, fruitful vine even as he is the true obedient Israel. And by God’s grace we who by faith abide in him bear good fruit, not the fruits of our own works or merits or efforts or attempts at obedience, but the fruit of his grace, the fruit of the Spirit. Are you abiding in Christ? Do you look to the fruit of his obedience and sacrifice alone to make you right with God and to save your soul? As I close, as we close our time in the word, let me leave you by reading from John chapter 15 verses 1 through 17.
And here are these words of our Lord Jesus, the one who is the true vine, John 15, 1 through 17. The Lord Jesus says, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Maybe you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, in other words trust in me, and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is who bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me, if anyone does not trust in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the father has loved me so have I loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as I kept my father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. And this is my commandment that you love one another.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants for a servant does not know what his master is doing but I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my father I have made known to you. You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the father in my name he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you that Christ is the true and faithful vine and that by your sovereign grace we who are believers trust in him, abide in him and therefore we can be confident that in your time and by your grace we will bear spiritual fruit that demonstrates ourselves to be your disciples.
We thank you for the saving fruits of Jesus our Lord. We pray that we might benefit from those fruits in our lives. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen.
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