And the Bible reads, "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying,
'We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name
to take away our reproach.'
In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the
earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
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.
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.
And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies
a cloud, and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night.
For upon all the glory shall be a defense, and there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow
in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a convert from storm and
from rain.
Let's pray.
Thank you, Father, for the truth of your word, dear God.
We thank you for giving us this church, and we thank you for our pastor.
Please bless him this evening as he preaches your word unto us in Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
Okay.
We're going to continue this evening with our Bible study and the book of Isaiah, and
actually we're going to do a little something different tonight.
As you see, there's only six verses in chapter four, so chapter four is going to be my introduction,
and we're actually going to go through chapter five tonight.
Okay?
So I'm just going to briefly cover chapter four.
There's not a whole lot to say there, but I do want to make some comments before we
get into chapter five.
But chapter four is essentially highlighting, or should I say the very beginning, is highlighting
the cascading effect of Judas' sin.
If you remember in the previous chapter, in chapter three, the last thing, the last condemnation,
the last judgment that God brings up in chapter three is how proud and haughty and arrogant
the women are, and the fact that they have stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking
and mincing as they go, making a tinkling with their feet in verse 16.
And he begins to talk about a lot of their ornaments and things that they deck themselves
out with.
And obviously giving us a picture that the women of this time were very much concerned
with their physical appearance, but didn't really much care for what's going on on the
inside.
And God was very much displeased with that.
And if you remember in the beginning of that chapter, one of the main judgments that he
was bringing upon Judah was the fact that he was going to remove all the competent men
from the land, so all of the artificers, the orators, the prophets, anybody of intellect
or value was going to be removed from society.
And the last thing we see here is the fact that he's condemning the women for their pride.
And then towards the end of chapter three, he says in verse 25, "Thy men shall fall by
the sword and thy mighty in the war."
So he's telling the women that essentially what's going to happen is he's just eradicating
all of the men from the land, okay, they're gone.
And this is important because it's building up to what we're going to see here in chapter
four.
Look at verse number one of chapter four, "And in that day, seven women shall take hold
of one man, saying, 'We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel.
Only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach.'"
So what do we see here?
Well, we see the description of an independent woman, right, because it says here that these
seven women want to take hold of one man, and I'm going to explain to you why in just
a bit, and they want to get married.
They want a husband, but the only thing they want the husband for is not for a provision
or for protection or for any love or affection.
They just want their name, and in fact, they tell the guy, "Hey, don't worry, we'll eat
our own bread, we'll wear our own apparel, I'll buy my own stuff."
They're basically like a boss lady, right?
I'll take care of myself, we don't even do 50/50, I'll just pay the bills or whatever.
I just want your name, your last name.
And why is that?
Well, it says at the latter end of verse four to take away our reproach.
So obviously, during this time, not so much today, but in the cultural context, we see
that it was a reproach not to be married, and it should still be a reproach not to be
married, right?
Marriage is something that is very much honorable, something that God has instituted, and something
that every person should strive for, especially if they have that desire.
But in these days, it was very much a reproach, even amongst those who were godless, okay?
So they understand and they see that God is judging the land, He's removing all these
men from the land, and so all these seven women are going for one guy, okay?
And this is like the refuse of the land, by the way, okay?
So who knows what this guy is?
Because maybe they're saying this because he can't provide, right?
Because remember, all the good men are taken out, all the competent men, all the men of
status and riches and might and power are removed.
So this one guy is left, this remnant here, and the women are saying like, "Hey, we want
to marry you because we want your last name, but don't worry, we'll take care of ourselves."
So the independent attitude still prevails there, and you say, "Well, what's wrong with
that?"
Well, keep in mind that this is God judging the land.
So part of God's judgment on the land, or an indicator that the land is being judged
by God, is the fact that the women are very much autonomously independent.
They don't need any man to take care of them, and they want someone who basically doesn't
meet their financial or physical needs.
They just want someone because they need a status that they have a person, or that they're
married to someone.
It kind of reminds me of just the Hollywood actresses of this world, where they get married
but only for status reasons, right?
It's not necessarily because they want a family or because they need to be provided for, it's
simply to not be a reproach.
And so this is a major condemnation upon the land of Judah, where the women can't even
see that the land is being judged.
They're just kind of freaking out over the fact that they're not married, and so they're
just trying to, they're desperate, okay?
They're going for anyone and anything as long as they're willing to give up their name.
And so we see that there in verse number one.
Now verses two through six kind of jumps forward into the future by giving hope of God restoring
the land.
And obviously he's referring to the physical land of Judah, because it's going to be pillaged,
it's going to be destroyed, it's going to be made desolate.
But he's also referring to a future restoration known as the millennial reign and new heaven
and the new earth.
And we're going to see this constantly come up in the book of Isaiah where he judges them
and then he gives them that promise, right?
But what it says in verse two it says, "In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful
and glorious and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are
escaped of Israel.
And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem
shall be called holy, even everyone that is written among the living in Jerusalem.
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."
Now, this is something that's literally happened to them, right, in their immediate future.
But what this is also referring to is what we read in Romans chapter 11 that all Israel
shall be saved.
And if you read that portion of scripture in Romans chapter 11, it says that ungodliness
shall be taken out of Jacob and then all Israel shall be saved.
And what's referring to is the fact that at the end of Daniel 70th week, at the end of
the battle of Armageddon, at the inauguration of the millennial reign, you actually have
all of unbelieving Jews removed from the land of Israel.
Those who are blasphemers, those who hate the Lord Jesus Christ, they're completely
removed and the only ones that actually remain in the land are resurrected Israelites.
And maybe even some Israelites that get saved in the end times.
It's obviously a very small portion, small percentage, but the vast majority of those
who actually dwell there are resurrected in the regeneration during the millennial reign.
And so ungodliness is removed and at that point all Israel is saved.
You have all Israelites who are inheriting the land, who are essentially receiving the
promise that God had given to them thousands of years prior to that.
Now let me make myself very clear, none of these Israelites that you have today in the
physical nation of Israel are going to be there.
They are the ones who are going to be purged out of Jerusalem.
I know they want to gaslight the entire world and manipulate the world into thinking that
that land is promised to them by God, but they're pseudo-Jews, they're not real, they're
not those who actually believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and so the promises don't pertain
unto them because they don't believe on Jesus Christ.
And so what the promise is, the promise is geared towards are legitimate Israelites who
have believed on the Lord, saved people, even those of the Old Testament, right?
They may not have known the name of Jesus Christ, but they believed on God, they believed
on the Lord God, the Messiah and the coming Christ.
And so just as Daniel in the book of Daniel states that in the last days, he shall stand
in his lot, one like man, so shall every Israelite who is saved will stand in their law in the
end of days at the inauguration of the millennial reign and they will inherit Jerusalem, they
will inherit Israel.
It says in verse 5, "And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, upon
our assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for
upon all the glory shall be a defense."
Basically saying that God's presence will always be there and obviously that's a call
back to the Exodus where God was leading the children of Israel through the wilderness
by a cloud and a pillar of fire.
He's basically saying, "I will defend you."
He's going to be their God at that point.
Verse 6 says, "And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime, from the heat
and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain," essentially also
emphasizing the fact that he's going to protect them.
And so chapter 4 is basically just a continuation of chapter 3, the thoughts there of the judgment
that's to come.
But now he's going to get more specific and he's going to get very poetic in chapter 5.
And if we were to label chapter 5, if we were to give it a title, it would be the parable
of the vineyard.
And I feel like there's just like a really popular illustration that God likes to use
often to illustrate Israel and that is a vineyard.
Because we see this illustration being used here in chapter 5, but we also see it in the
New Testament.
When Jesus Christ is talking about the Israelites, talking about Jews, he often uses a vineyard
as a way of illustrating how he's going to deal with them.
And so it begins here in chapter 5.
We're going to look at the song of God and His vineyard.
First couple of verses here.
Look what it says in verse number 1, it says, "Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song
of my beloved touching his vineyard, and my well-beloved hath a vineyard and a very fruitful
hill.
He fenced it, gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and
built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine press therein, and he looked that
it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes."
So the first thing we're going to look at tonight, via this parable that God is giving,
is that the vineyard, which pictures Israel and Judah, had a very superior advantage.
Why?
Advantage over who?
Over everyone else.
Why?
Because God actually favored that land.
He took care, you know, that vineyard, Israel's picture in that vineyard, had all of the elements
necessary for it to produce fruit, and it didn't produce good fruit, it produced wild
grapes.
And, in fact, he says that, first of all, he planted it on a fruitful hill, okay?
The ground where he placed it, very carefully prepared, he even planted it alongside the
best vines.
I mean, if you think about it, Israel, historically, had the best prophets.
They had all the prophets of God.
They had Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as their patriarchs.
They had the system of the judges who all prophesied.
They had great kings, great prophets like Elijah, Elisha, and various others who came
to them and gave them the word of God.
They were planted by very fruitful vines.
Not only that, but they were also well protected, right?
He says in verse two that he fenced it and gathered up the stones thereof and planted
it with the choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it.
What is it talking about?
You know, God is their strong tower, right?
He was the one who was protecting that land and that people, basically saying there should
be no reason why you don't produce some fruit, Israel.
You know, you should be producing some of the finest juices and wines known to man because,
you know, essentially the elements are perfect for you.
Got good dirt, good vines, you got a great husbandman that is protecting you from all
of the animals that want to come and eat the vine and the fruit.
He even says that he made a wine press therein, meaning that, you know, there is a purpose
for them because if you think about it, a wine press is created so that when the grapes
are gathered, they're put into the wine press, you know, it's to create juice, right?
That's the purpose of it and be drunken.
In other words, you know, Israelites had a purpose.
Wonderful nation and superior to all other nations, they had a purpose behind that, which
is essentially to preach the word of God to all nations, to be a light unto the Gentile.
God placed a wine press in Israel so that they can be used when they preach the word
of God and be a light unto the Gentiles.
So you know, you have the husband man, he's just like, "All right, everything's set.
You gardeners out there, you probably know the feeling, right?
You put everything together, everything's been perfect, you watered it, you kept the
gophers away, you got the best dirt.
I mean everything was just in place, it's perfect.
It should not, it should do, it basically should just produce the best of fruits, but
then it produces wild grapes.
And you know, in the New Testament, it just produces no fruit.
So we already see the beginning stages that this vineyard sucks.
Why?
It's not because of the husband man, he did everything he could on his part to make sure
the fruit was produced.
It's the vine, it's the vineyard, it's the actual plantations themselves, they're the
ones who are producing the wild grapes.
Of course, wild grapes are referring to, they're just distasteful, they don't taste good, they're
not juicy, they're not great.
And so we see there that God is very much disappointed, not with his work, but rather
with the vineyard itself.
Even though they had this great advantage, and it makes me think of Romans chapter three,
where it said, "What advantage hath the Jew over prophets there of the circumcision, much
everywhere chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God?"
So Israelites were not superior as a nation, they just had a great advantage over the fact
that God began his work there.
That is where the prophets come from, and he wanted to use them, and of course they
failed being used of God.
And so it's a great parable to illustrate that.
Let me go over some portions of scripture here.
But in Mark 12, and we went over this on Sunday, Jesus Christ gives the parable of the vineyard
and the husband men.
The difference is, is that in Mark chapter 12, instead of not even, they're not even
producing wild grapes, they're just not even producing any of your grapes at all.
It's a very unfruitful tree.
And in Isaiah chapter 5, he's referring to the nation as a whole, whereas the vineyard
and the parable by Jesus in Mark 12 is more so addressing the religion of Judaism, which
is a religion of Israel at that time.
So not only is the nation unfruitful, putting forth wild grapes, but you know what?
The religion that it produced, known as Judaism, is also unfruitful, you understand?
And then of course we have Matthew 21, where Jesus comes to the fig tree and he curses
the tree and he says, "No fruit grow on thee from henceforth forever," right?
And of course that fig tree also illustrates and symbolizes the nation of Israel and the
religion of Judaism, because they essentially go hand in hand.
He's cursing them saying that they're not going to grow fruit on themselves anymore.
They're being plucked up by the roots because they're twice dead as a nation and as a religion.
You say, "Well then, how is fruit supposed to be produced?"
Through the true vine.
You see, the vineyard of the Old Testament was Israel because Moses gave the law unto
the Israelites, so they're essentially that vineyard from which the word of God should
come forth.
You know, the mediator of the New Testament is the vine, okay?
And so now people don't have to enjoin themselves to the Old Testament covenant because it's
ready to vanish away.
Whereas the New Testament covenant, you're joined it by believing on Jesus Christ, which
means now you're attached to the true vine, okay?
And of course, he says, "My father is the husband man."
And that's where we get the illustration of Romans 11, verse 16 through 26, regarding
the wild olive tree, because at the end of the day, you know, he is the root of essentially
the New Testament, and we are the Gentiles, the wild olives that are essentially grafted
into that vine and into that root, and we become a part of the promises as well.
Okay, look at verse number three.
So first and foremost, we see here the advantage of the vineyard, but then we're going to look
at the assessment of the Lord regarding the vineyard, it says in verse three, "And now,
O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?
Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought forth wild grapes?"
What is he saying?
You know, what do you think I could have done differently?
What is he saying?
What kind of criticism do you have, you know, for me?
What could I have done differently?
What did I not do for you guys?
You know, I set you up for success, is what he's saying, and they completely failed as
a nation.
Now, the application that we can make to this, obviously, we're not Israelites.
We're not in the Old Testament.
But, you know, the principle still applies, because if you think about it, every believer
in this room is set up for success, right?
And, in fact, we would say we have far more elements of success in our lives than possibly
the Israelites did in the Old Testament.
We have the Word of God.
We have local New Testament churches.
We have technology.
We have--we live in America, right, where we have all types of freedoms.
We can freely go out and preach the gospel and knock on doors, and we can, you know,
shout it from the housetops if we wanted to.
You know, I wouldn't recommend this, but you know, if you're a Christian, you could literally
go to the corner with some blow horn and just preach the Word of God, and really, no one's
going to stop you.
Now, it's not the most effective way of sowing, in fact, it's a really stupid, annoying way
to actually preach the Word of God.
But if you wanted to do that, you could, because this nation obviously upholds free
speech to a certain extent, right?
Obviously that's being removed little by little.
But what I'm saying is that God has given us a great platform to succeed as individuals
and as a church.
Don't produce wild grapes, right?
You've been given not just the church, but you're in a fundamental Baptist church with
the right doctrine, with the right salvation, with the right Bible, red hot preaching, red
hot Christians, red hot singing.
Don't produce wild grapes because if you do produce wild grapes, it's almost as if God
can tell us, "What have I done, you know?
Could I have done more?"
And the answer is no, God does, He's given us everything we need to succeed as a Christian.
We have the word of God, we have the Holy Spirit abiding within us.
We have a man of God preaching you the word of God, but then you also have the Holy Spirit
of God, which is the Spirit of truth dwelling within you to guide you into all truth on
a daily basis.
On top of that, we have technology that can help us keep track of our Bible reading, keep
track of prayer, keep track of soul and keep track of church attendances.
We have organization and administrations, everything necessary to help you to succeed, to produce
grapes.
Amen.
Don't produce wild grapes.
And, you know, "To himself which is given of him shall be much required."
And so think about that next time when you have the temptation to say, "Well, you know,
you just want to blame the church, you want to blame the pastor, you want to blame a
brother or sister in Christ for your lack of Christian success.
No, my friend, it falls upon you producing those wild grapes because the Lord has already
given you everything necessary to succeed as a believer, okay?
To succeed and exceed, amen, to go further than most Christians have throughout the centuries.
It's really, you're the one who's placing the cap on yourself of how far you can go
as a believer.
"Well, I just don't read that well."
Then start reading more.
"Well, yeah, but then at that point, when am I going to really hit these goals?"
Well, listen to the Bible.
Yeah, you do.
Throw in some Alexander Scorby.
Listen to him all day long if you can.
When you go home, read a chapter.
I mean, there's so much available to us to succeed and produce fruit.
And so the Lord obviously is being facetious here when He tells them that, "What could
have been done more to my vineyard?"
And sometimes pastors can feel that way.
It's like, "I feel like I did everything I could."
So it's disheartening when you see people backslide, when you see people get away from
the Lord, when you see people regress spiritually, because you kind of think to yourself, "What
could have been done more to this vineyard?"
But the principle that we learn is that at the end of the day, it's your responsibility.
No one can succeed for you.
No one can read the Bible for you.
You have to get sin out of your life.
You have to live a life of sanctification.
You have to pay attention in church.
You have to read the Bible.
You have to be in church in order to succeed.
The Bible tells us you don't have to turn there, and 2 Corinthians 6 verse 1 says,
"We then, as workers together with them, beseech you also, they receive not the grace of God
in vain."
Don't let the grace of God be in vain in your life, right?
1 Corinthians 15 says, "By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the
grace of God which was with me," he says.
And, you know, the Apostle Paul was obviously a latecomer.
He was born out of due time, yet in spite of the fact that he came later on in the game,
he exceeded the other apostles and disciples.
Why?
Because the grace of God was not in vain in his life.
He utilized it to his fullest potential to get as many people saved as possible, to start
as many churches.
And you know what?
The same goes for you and the same goes for me.
You say, "Well, I got saved later on in life," or, "I didn't start serving God until later
on in life."
God can essentially catapult you to help you to make up for lost time.
But it really requires the effort that you put into keeping the vineyard and making sure
you produce the fruit.
This week, I love technology, I'm just going to tell you right now.
It would suck to have lived in like middle ages, or toilets, I mean just toilets.
Think about that.
But, you know, this week I heard about this platform, this internet platform where you
can do some pretty good soul winning, where you just talk to people like at the drop of
a hat every like six seconds if you want, you know, and just hang up on them or just
continue to go forward.
So I told you, Lisa, I was like you're trying this out for an hour and a half, just tell
me how it goes.
Or like an hour, I think it was like an hour.
And I was like just, I'm letting you know right now though, but a platform like this,
there's probably a lot of perverts and weirdos, so just be ready for that.
And you know, they showed up, but he got someone saved.
And you know what?
It saved us a trip to New Zealand, because the guy lived in New Zealand, very receptive
to the gospel.
So from the comforts of the PA booth in Southern California, Anaheim Hills, that Mexican right
over there, where, I mean I don't want to speak too soon, but he may never visit New
Zealand in his lifetime, that little Oaxacan right there got into New Zealand, New Zealander
saved.
Why?
Because we're trying to utilize what's been given to us, right?
Oh, I just can't get anybody safe, folks.
You can literally lie down and get someone safe nowadays.
You know, it's like you don't even have to get up anymore.
You have to be super lazy to not get anybody safe.
Let's just be honest, okay?
You know, you can't even bring up your hand to your mouth or your phone to your face in
nowadays, you know, to get someone safe if that's the case.
The point that I'm making here is the fact that God is trying to convey to Israel, you
know, I did everything I could for you as a vineyard.
I protected you, I blessed you, I put you in the best type of dirt, I surrounded you
with the best types of vines, basically that the fault is on you, okay?
Look at verse five.
We're going to look at the annihilation of the vineyard.
So the first thing we looked at was the advantage of the vineyard, secondly, the assessment
of the Lord regarding the vineyard, and now the annihilation of the vineyard by the Lord.
Verse five says, "And now go to, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will take away the hedge thereof, it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof,
and it shall be trodden down, and I will lay it waste.
It shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briars and thorns.
I will also command the clouds that they rain, no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his
pleasant plant."
Excuse me, "And you look for judgment, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but
behold a cry."
So what is he saying?
So because you didn't produce the fruit necessary, or should I say you produced bad fruit, wild
grapes, you were a bad testimony to the world because of your idolatrous practices, covetousness,
adultery, murders.
He says, "First and foremost, I'm going to remove the hedge thereof."
In other words, I'm not going to protect you anymore.
"And ye shall be eaten up."
This is why the foreign nation is going to come, break through the hedge, and destroy
them.
He says, "And break down the wall thereof.
It shall be trodden.
I'm going to lay at waste.
You're not going to be blessed.
I'm not going to prune you or dig for you.
I'm going to command the clouds not to rain upon you, essentially saying I'm not going
to bless you anymore."
And the only thing you're going to produce, you're not even going to produce wild grapes
anymore, you're going to produce thorns and briars.
And when I think about this, I think of the state of a backsliding Christian.
When a Christian backslides and decides to get away from God, there could come an instance
where the hedge is removed, where God says, "Okay, you don't want to work for me.
You want to disobey and rebel and just do things that are unpleasant, okay, let me
break down the wall thereof.
Let me break the hedge so you can be eaten up, your resources can be destroyed, you can
be trotted down, lay you waste, and then the further you get, you're just going to be surrounded
with thorns and briars, also known as reprobates, some of the worst types of people to teach
you.
Of course, he makes the connection in verse number seven that obviously he's referring
to Israel and Judah, if they didn't realize that already.
The grapes that he's referring to is the judgment, but instead he found wild grapes, which is
oppression.
The grapes that he was looking for was righteousness, but instead he found the wild grapes of people
crying for mercy and not being delivered by the people of the land.
So he came looking for fruit and found corruption instead.
So he's going to remove the protection and he's not going to bless them for it.
Look at verse number eight, if you would.
So now we're going to look at the sanctioned judgment upon the vineyard.
And we see in verse number eight that the children of Israel begin to, instead of responding
well to this judgment that God is making, they're kind of banding together.
And look what it says in verse eight, "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay
field to field, till there be no place, that there may be place alone in the midst of the
earth."
Basically saying, you know what?
You are in unity, but you're in unity against me.
And you know what?
Though hand joined in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.
And you can get everyone in this world to join hands all across the world and have this
ecumenical type of culture.
But at the end of the day, that's not going to keep God's wrath from coming upon a person
for their sin.
He's like, you know, join house to house, field to field, I'm still going to wipe you
out.
It's not going to work.
Verse 9, all you're doing is collecting everyone in the same place for me to destroy, basically.
Verse 9 says, "In my New Year said the Lord of hosts of a truth, many houses shall be
desolate, even great and fair without inhabitant, yea, ten acres of vineyards shall yield one
bath, and the seed of an omer shall yield an eighth bath," basically saying the amount
of destruction that shall come upon them is going to be great.
Verse 11, we're going to look at the absence of sobriety and vigilance here in verse 11.
He tells them, "Woe," by the way, woe is like cursing be upon you, okay?
Curse upon you.
When you see that, it's not like, "Whoa," you know?
Like, "Whoa."
Okay?
It's not that kind of woe, like, "Whoa," you know?
This is woe like you're about to be cursed, okay?
Curse is you could kind of replace it with curse, but woe unto them that rise up early
in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, that continue until night, till wine
inflame them.
So what do we see here?
We see that one of the reasons that God is judging Judah, because they're a bunch of
alcoholics.
Alcoholism is not something that just exists today.
It's something that existed a long time ago, even in the nation of Israel.
And we're talking about some full blown winos here.
Because if you've known alcoholics, you know that an alcoholic is someone who rises up
early in the morning to drink.
I mean, that's bad.
It's bad if you do it even after you get off of work and you go to the bar and you stay
there all night.
That's pretty bad.
You're an alcoholic if you do that every night.
But if you're rising up early in the morning, while everyone else is working and just going
about their day, your objective is to just get drunk, you're wicked.
You're not sober, you're not being vigilant, and it says there that they may fall a strong
drink that continue until the night.
So these are people that are drinking all hours of the day.
And look, this is not an exaggeration.
People do this today.
And in fact, there's people who actually have jobs who will go to their job intoxicated.
They're called functioning addicts.
Some people can't even perform their job, believe it or not, unless they're drunk.
You guys know what I'm talking about or just not, raise your hand if you know what I'm
talking about.
And I'm just using, we're just talking about alcohol.
There's people who do worse things than that in order to function at their job.
So these people are obviously absent of sobriety, which is one of the reasons why they're acting
so wickedly.
They're not, they're not seeing clearly.
They're not being vigilant.
You know, they're drinking as the judgment of God is going to come upon them.
They can't see it.
They're drunken in the night.
They're sleeping.
Okay, and it says until wine inflamed them.
It goes on to say verse 12, and the harp and the violin, the tabern 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 what is the picture that God has given us here of Judah?
Well, God's like, I'm going to destroy you.
I'm going to destroy you.
And they're just like drinking, playing instruments, having feasts, you know, kind of reminds
you of a verse, you know, in the New Testament that tells us, "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow
we die."
They're just kind of living in a careless manner, right, where they're living in luxury
and in pleasure, surfeiting as Luke 21 tells us, in drunkenness, and then that day comes
upon them unawares.
By the way, which is one of the reasons why God describes this as the day of the Lord,
because the ultimate day of the Lord is the same thing.
In that day, people are going to be involved in suffading, in drunkenness, and in fornication.
They're not being vigilant.
They're not being sober.
So then that judgment will come upon them unawares.
Be not deceived.
Evil communications corrupts good manners.
So we see that these individuals are so far removed from the Bible, from God, that they
don't have a sense of sobriety and vigilance to know, to have an understanding of the times.
And look folks, sobriety is a luxury, vigilance is a luxury.
The ability to just think properly when things are going haywire or south, and to be able
to think properly and make a good judgment and assessment and have yourself under control,
that's a luxury nowadays because people just freak out at the drop of a hat.
You add alcohol to that, you add the news to that, you add social media to that.
I mean, it doesn't take much to stand out as a sober person in this world.
Thank God for the Bible, thank God for the Spirit of God that gives us temperance, gives
us peace.
You know, we don't have a spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind.
You know, it's a blessing.
Let me tell you something, it's a blessing, don't take this for granted.
It's a blessing to be able to open up the Bible and pay attention to what you're reading.
That's a major blessing, to actually read the words and retain, think about that, retention
is a blessing.
If there's anything for you that's important to retain is the Bible, so to be able to read
the word of God and retain it, to ruminate on the truths of God's word so it can transform
your mind and you can become a better Christian, that's a major luxury that a lot of people
out there don't have.
There's people out there that can't even get saved because they can't retain or because
they're not sober, because they're not vigilant.
I'm not saying vigilance is necessary for salvation, it's just a component of being
sober though.
When you're sober, you're able to pay attention, you're able to retain, you can be focused.
You're locked in, amen?
These people are not locked in.
These people are behaving in a very debaucherous manner and they can't even see when the hand's
about to come and just slap the crap out of them because they're drunk.
Don't worry, we're going to see the rocket.
Courtney, Courtney keeps looking at the clock because the rocket's coming, okay?
Hey, be sober, okay?
I'm vigilant so I can see every move in this building right now.
It's at 820.
I'll be done by then.
The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 6, "Let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch
and be sober."
That's what it says, though.
Seriously.
"For they that sleep, sleep in the night," and with the blanket on, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
She knows how to take it.
I'm messing with her.
"For they that sleep, sleep in the night," listen to this, "they that be drunken are
drunken in the night."
And again, this is all in context to God's wrath coming upon a people.
And so Israel is completely drunken, and obviously it's poetic language is being used in Isaiah
chapter five, but I believe that they're literally drunken, because that's what alcohol actually
does to you.
It makes you sleepy, drowsy, incapable of understanding, and it's not going to allow
you to watch.
Another word for watch is to be vigilant.
You think about a watch as someone who keeps vigil.
This is not to say that you're watching for what's going to happen in the news or what
wars coming up or whatever, what laws and whatever is happening.
Watching just means that you're watching with your spirit.
You're paying attention to spiritual matters.
That's what it's referring to there.
Look at verse 13.
"Oh, we're not done yet.
Hell is awaiting the wicked."
So it just progressively gets worse.
Look at verse 13.
"Therefore, my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge, and their
honorable men are famished.
Their multitude dried up with thirst.
Therefore, hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure.
And their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he that rejoiceth shall descend into
it."
I mean, I think God's mad.
He's like, "You're going to go to hell."
So this is a very wicked people, and it sounds like the vast majority of them probably not
even saved.
They haven't believed on the Lord because it's telling us that they're going to descend
into hell.
Yeah, it's poetic language, but I believe he's literally referring to the fact that
they're going to hell.
And why does it say that hell has to enlarge itself?
What's the deal with that?
Well, what God is communicating here is how many people are going to die because hell,
in order to take in all these souls, has to create room.
There needs to be some vacancies.
So it has to enlarge itself to create more room for all the people that are going to
split hell wide open if she doesn't enlarge herself.
He's basically saying all this glory, this pom-pom is just like their arrogance, their
pride.
He's like, "You that rejoice," he's saying, "you guys are all going down into it."
That's how angry God is.
He's basically saying, "Go to hell."
And the mean man, mean is average man, it's not someone who's angry, the mean man shall
be brought down and the mighty man shall be humbled and the eyes of the lofty shall be
humbled.
So he's saying, "I'm not making any exceptions for any person in the land of Judah.
I don't care if you make minimum wage or if you're rich, you're all going to pay because
all of you are acting the same exact way.
Your average, you're going down.
Your mighty, you're going down.
You're lofty and you have eyes that are lofty, you're going to be humbled."
Okay.
Look at verse 16, "But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment."
So why is he saying that?
Well, because, you know, one of the responsibilities of God's people is to glorify God.
And what is a way of glorifying God is exalting the Lord, right?
You exalt the Lord by preaching the word of God, you honor Him, and exalt means you're
lifting Him up above everything else, right?
But these people aren't doing that.
So basically what God is doing is like, "Well, then I'm going to bring you down so that the
only thing that's exalted is me."
So He's like, "I'm going to send you to hell.
That way the only thing that's exalted in the land is myself."
In other words, God will get glory from you no matter what.
He's going to get it one way or another.
He says, "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."
Now, what does that mean in verse 17?
It's basically saying that their land will be so desolate and uninhabitable that the
animals will come and they'll be able to feast on land without distraction and essentially
strangers can now come in and just kind of take over because no one's going to be there.
Where are they going to be?
In hell.
Either they're taken into captivity or they're going to hell, but they're going somewhere.
They're just not going to be there.
Look at verse 18.
We're going to look at the self-aggrandizement of the vineyard now, and you think the fact
that he just said all this stuff, it's just like, "Oh man, let's get right.
It sounds pretty bad.
I don't want to go to hell.
We should get saved here and actually believe on the Lord."
But to actually just add insult to injury in the coming passages, we're going to look
at a nation showing contempt for the Lord.
Now listen to this very carefully.
Verse 18, "Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were a
cart-row."
What does that mean?
He's basically illustrating the nation of Judah as being a nation who doesn't go to
sin but forces sin to come to it.
He's drawing iniquity with cords of vanity, right?
They're not being drawn into sin, they're making sin being drawn into them.
They're bringing it to themselves, okay?
He says in verse 19, "That say, 'Let him make speed and hasten his work.'"
Talk about God here.
"That we may see it, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come,
that we may know it."
What?
This is like major contempt here.
You see the pride, the arrogance, the hatred for the Lord?
I mean, they're basically, what are they doing?
They're provoking the Holy One of Israel.
They're like, "Go ahead.
Hurry up."
Mixed speed means hurry up.
Oh, that's it.
Because you know, the prophet is preaching, Isaiah is preaching this to the nation of
Israel, and you have these dumb drunkards who are like, "Hurry up, do it then.
Let's see it.
Haste in the word.
Get to work, God."
That we may know.
He's like, "Draw near so we can see it."
This is similar.
This is worse, but it's similar to what the end time is going to say about the scorners
and mockers in the last times, who just say, "Where is the promise of his coming?"
For all things continuous, the word from the beginning of the creation, mocking God.
And people wonder why hell exists, you know?
How can a loving God, because this, don't ask stupid questions.
Read the Bible before you ask those stupid questions.
How could a loving God send someone to hell?
Because insignificant little weasels like people like this are saying, "Let's see it
then."
How could a loving God send people to hell?
Because that's what they asked for.
"Hasten the work!
Make speed!"
And then God's like, "Okay," sends them to hell and then people are like, "How could
a loving God?"
They ask for it.
"Asking it shall be given, seeking it shall find, knocking it shall be opened unto you."
Crazy.
You know, people who say those things don't really understand how much the people of this
world provoke the Lord unto wrath.
They don't hear the thoughts of the intents of the wicked of this world or even that which
they verbalize out in public.
There's a lot of blasphemous things that are being said of the Lord in mockery.
And you know what?
God doesn't judge them right away.
And they should be thankful because, you know, you think of a grown man bringing a hammer
upon an ant, that's not even comparable to what God does to those who mock His name.
But this is what they're doing.
This is what drunkenness does.
Drunkenness, a lack of vigilance, a lack of sobriety gives you boldness, does it not?
You ever see how bold people get when they get drunk?
They think they can fight anybody, you know?
They can talk, smack to anybody, their tongues loosens up.
Well, these people are so drunk that they're trying to provoke God to fight them, Gary
thought there.
We see there a nation showing contempt for the Lord.
And you know what?
That's the nation that we live in today, and people are showing contempt for the Lord.
And yeah, they may not verbalize it all the time, although they do, but you know, they're
typing it, which is actually worse, because you know, you say something verbally, you
can regret it, right?
It's like, oh man, I shouldn't have said that.
Well, some people actually take time to actually like put it in the comment section, you know,
put it, tweet it or exit it, or I don't know what they call it now for tweet.
On Facebook, just showing contempt for the Lord, they spell check it, they reread, they
read over it.
Look at verse 20.
We're going to also see a nation of perverse morality says woe unto them that call evil
good and good evil, and that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put
bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes
and prudent in their own sight.
So we see that a lack of sobriety and vigilance leads to this type of boldness where they
want to provoke God to anger, to fight, they're trying to instigate the Lord into pouring
out his wrath.
But on top of that, this drunkenness and lack of sobriety also causes a perversion
of judgment where they can't distinguish between right and wrong and in fact they think
that wrong is right and right is wrong.
Now the bible tells us, well actually I'll turn there in just a bit actually, yeah in
the coming passages.
But we live in a society like that where Christians are viewed as being evil.
They're putting evil for good and good for evil and the bible tells us that.
The bible tells us that in the last days perilous times shall come and it gives us a list of
characteristics of those who will make it perilous for us and one of them, one of the
characteristics says that they shall be despisers of those that are good.
Not because they're doing evil or because, you know, we're annoying them, it's just
because they're good.
You know, because they decide to actually have a family and live morally and not drink,
not smoke, not run with those that do, we want to raise our children for God, we want
to be on church on Sunday, we want to just live and promote righteousness and it's just
like, oh you guys are evil, crazy.
We live in a day and age where literally perversion is exalted to the point where an entire month
is dedicated for faggotry.
Think about that.
And anybody who speaks out against it is evil.
You want to highlight an entire month for evil and call those who call it out and those
who want to protect their children from it as evil.
I don't like when you use faggot.
Faggot's a good word because it gets your attention.
We need to bring the word faggot back, amen?
Let me just say this, faggot is not even that offensive compared to some of the things that
faggots say about Christians.
How about that?
Why don't we ever talk about some of the blasphemous things that they say, some of the murderous,
violent things that they propagate and they foam out of their mouths.
We don't necessarily even have a wide range of vocabulary for them.
We just have words that come right before faggot.
We just kind of add it on sometimes.
We try to be conservative about what we have.
Woe unto them to call evil good and good evil.
You know what?
We are the children of God's people and the ones who are responsible today for calling
good evil and evil good sometimes are even Christians.
Idiot Christians who are not reading the word of God, who fight against believers, who literally
side with wicked people against Christians.
And the Bible tells us that they that forsake the law praise the wicked.
So you find me a pastor, a church or a Christian that is criticizing a man of God, a church
or a Christian.
I'll find you a person that has forsaken the law of God.
Just tell me you don't read the Bible or that you hate the word of God because you're
praising the wicked and you're condemning the just.
And look, you know, there's Christians out there that I might not agree with on every
single doctrine.
But if they're standing up for some righteousness, I'm going to commend that.
They're standing against the wicked or if the wicked are persecuting them.
You know, I'm going to commend that person.
If they're a Bible believing Christian, if they believe in the fundamentals of the faith,
then I'm going to stand with that person.
You know, but then you have oh, you guys are so, you know, you guys are so anti-Semitic
though.
Why?
Because we stand against a nation and a religion that crucified my savior and yours.
You know, you have forsaken the law of God, okay.
And you know what?
Zionists make me sick.
Christian Zionists especially.
Zionists just in general make me sick, but Christian Zionists piss me off because you
kind of wonder like, are you, did you get lobotomized or something?
Why can't you see what the Bible says?
Why are you ignoring the word of God?
Well, I stand with Israel.
Then you know what?
You can stand with them if they get judged then.
Go ahead, stand with them all the way up to the judgment.
I'm so sick and tired of these Facebook and Instagram posts of these hoary AI images.
You know what I'm talking about.
It's like a lion and he's like roaring, but he's like made of like the Israeli flag, the
apple of his eye, pray for Israel.
And it's just like, where'd you get this image from?
This is, you know, that lion needs to be put down.
That's animal cruelty.
Put an Israeli flag on a lion is animal cruelty.
But you know, those same Christians don't condemn us for defending Jesus Christ.
You know, it's funny they never quote Jesus when they talk about Zionism though.
Ain't that funny?
You know, they come up with all kinds of verses.
It's like, Hey, can you quote Jesus though?
Do me a favor and just quote me a verse from Jesus where he's pro Israeli and Zionist and
apple of his eye and all this other crap that you say.
Point of verse.
Go ahead and quote, quote something from the classics like revelation two and three.
If you would give me something of the light classics like John eight 44, would you look
at verse 22?
We got to hurry up because we got a rocket to look at.
We're going to look at a nation of perverse judgment.
He says, woe to them that are mighty to drink wine.
He's bringing this up again and men of strength to mingle strong drink, which justified the
wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.
He's saying, so again, he's bringing up the subject of alcohol, which is showing us that
this was a major issue back then.
Now, why does he keep bringing this up in conjunction with them justifying the wicked
for reward?
Well, let me read to you from Proverbs 31 verse 4.
It says, "It is not for kings," and you know what?
We're not kings per se physically, but in the eyes of God, we're kings and priests,
so this is very much applicable to us.
"It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong
drink," listen to this, "lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment
of any of the afflicted."
When you drink alcohol, you can't understand the Bible.
So all these Catholic alcoholics out there, drinking while they're reading the Bible,
you can't understand it.
Why?
Because it perverts judgment.
It makes you forget the law.
What did I just read?
They're reading Proverbs 23 as they're drinking, right?
So they're a nation that is of perverse morality.
They're justifying the wicked, condemning the just, but they're also a nation of perverse
judgment.
They're perverting judgment for reward, in other words, for bribes.
And they're a nation who hates the Bible.
Look at 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 despise the word of the Holy One of Israel.
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 were torn in the midst of the streets.
For all of this, His anger is not turned away."
Listen to this, "But His hand is stretched out still."
You know, He's not like this.
He's like this.
That's what it means.
You know, these liberal Christians, they're all like, "Oh, that sounds so nice."
You know, hobby lobby little ornament there.
No, He's just like, He's about to hook them.
He's like, "I'm not done punishing you," because He's throwing them all these punishments.
And you're going to see in the coming chapters, He's like, "I'm not done."
Because His hand is stretched out still means, "I'm not done with you."
It's like, "You got one spanking, but I'm not done."
Like, "Wap!
I'm not done.
My hand is stretched out still.
Wap!
I'm not done."
Death and pillaging and the destruction of the men, all these things are coming upon
them, and he's like, "I'm not done yet."
And verses 26 through 30 is the slaughter of the vineyard.
And I'm just going to read the first verse here.
Verse 26 says, "He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far and will hiss unto
them from the end of the earth, and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly."
What does that mean?
This is basically him telling ... Just keep in mind, Isaiah's preaching this.
And he's saying, "God has an ensign," essentially referring to a banner, a banner that people
would use in war to declare war.
And the Bible's saying here that God has lifted up the ensign, and he's calling out to these
four nations.
He's like, "Come get them now."
So these nations, these four nations, are coming from afar because they're obeying the
Lord, and they shall be the instrument of their destruction.
And the end of the chapter, essentially, it highlights the destruction that's going to
come upon them.
And that is it.
Let's pray.
Thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for the instructions and how much we can see in the world today of what's taking
place.
We pray you bless us as we go on our way, Lord.
Help us not to soon forget these principles and truths.
Help us to live lives that are pleasing unto you, to be sober and vigilant in all that
we do.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Let's turn our song books to song number 55.
Song number 55.
When the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.
Let's sing nice and strong on our way home, amen.