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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 his eye on, 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, 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. Thank you, Heavenly 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. Amen. OK, we're going to continue this evening with our Bible study in 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. OK, 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. And chapter four is essentially highlighting, or should I say the very beginning is highlighting the cascading effect of Judah's 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 they 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 twenty five, thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in the war. So he's telling women that essentially what's going to happen is he's just eradicating all of the men from the land. OK, 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 approach. 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 explain to you why in just a bit. And they want to get married. You know, they want a husband. And but the only thing they want the husband for is not for provision or for protection or for any love or affection. They just want their name. And in fact, they tell the guy, you know, hey, don't worry, we'll eat our own bread. We'll wear our own apparel. I'll buy my own stuff. You know, 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 approach. 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. OK, so they don't 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. OK, and this is like the refuse of the land, by the way. OK, so who knows what this guy is? Because maybe they're saying this because he can't provide. All 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 is 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, you know, they want someone who, you know, basically doesn't meet their financial or physical needs. They just want someone because they need the 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. OK, 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. 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 purge 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. And 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 that 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. OK, and maybe even some Israelites to 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. OK, 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. OK, they're the ones who are going to be purged out of Jerusalem. OK, you know, and 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 to them because they don't believe on Jesus Christ. And so what 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. Well, unlike man, so shall every Israelite who is saved will stand in their lot in the end of days at the inauguration of the millennial reign, and they will inherit Jerusalem. They will inherit Israel, says in verse five, and the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion 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, basically saying that God is 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 six 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 four is basically just a continuation of Chapter three, 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 five. Okay, and if we're to label Chapter five, if we're to give it a title, it would be the parable of the vineyard. And I feel like there's like a 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 five, but we also see it in the New Testament. Okay, 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. Okay, and so it begins here in Chapter five. 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 one says, Now will I sing to my well beloved, a song of my beloved touching his vineyard, and my well beloved hath a vineyard in 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 winepress 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 is picturing 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 2, that he fenced it and gathered out 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, 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 the 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 the 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 husbandman, he's just like, all right, everything's said, you know, you gardeners out there, you probably know the feeling, right? You put everything together, everything's been perfect, you watered it, you, you know, 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 should, 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 husbandman, 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, it's the actual plantations themselves, they're the ones who are producing the wild grapes. Of course, wild grapes referring to just, 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 Roman chapter three, where it said, what advantage hath the Jew, or what profit is there of the circumcision, much every way 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. You know, in Mark 12, and we went over this on Sunday, Jesus Christ gives the parable of the vineyard and the husbandman. 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 grapes at all. It's a very unfruitful tree. And in Isaiah chapter five, he's referring to the nation as a whole, whereas the vineyard in 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, okay? You say, well then, you know, how's 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. But you know what? 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 husbandman. 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 it in it? Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes. What is he saying? You know, what do you think I could have done differently? It's basically what you're 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 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 solving you. 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 a 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 Sony, 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, tombs over benches 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, just listen to the Bible. You got YouTube. Throw on some Alexander Scorby. Listen to them 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? You know, but the principle that we learn is that at the end of the day, you know, it's your responsibility. OK, 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 Second Corinthians, Chapter six, verse one 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. First Corinthians 15, 10 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 late comer. 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 till later on in life. You know, 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. Okay. I mean, I just, 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 then, you know, they showed up, but he got someone saved. And it's 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 P.A. 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 a New Zealander saved. Why? Because we're trying to utilize what's been given to us, right? Oh, I just can't get anybody saved. Folks, you can literally lie down and get someone saved 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 saved. 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 and nowadays, you know, to get someone saved 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, 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 at 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 he looked 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 produce 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 you 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, 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. Okay. And the only thing you're going to produce, you're not even going to produce wild grapes anymore. You're going to thorns and briars. And when I think about this, I think of the state of a backsliding Christian. You know, 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're not, 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, you know, 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. And 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. And 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, to there be no place, that they may be placed 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 joining 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 nine, all you're doing is collecting everyone in the same place for me to destroy, basically. Verse nine says, in my ears said the Lord of hosts of a truth, many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair without inhabitant. Yea, 10 acres of vineyards shall yield one bath and the seed of an omer shall yield an ephaph. Basically saying the amount of destruction that shall come upon them is going to be great. Okay. 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 whoa. Whoa, you know. This is whoa 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 is 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. I mean, 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. We 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, like your objective is to just get drunk. You're wicked. You know, you're not sober. You're not being vigilant. And it says there that they may follow 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 seeing clearly. They're not being vigilant. 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. And it says until wine inflamed them. It goes on to say in verse 12, and the harp and the vial and the tabern and pipe and wine are in their feast, 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. It kind of reminds you of a verse 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, where they're living in luxury and in pleasure, surfading, 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 surfading and 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 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. We don't have a spirit of fear, but of power, 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. And if there's anything for you that's important to retain, it's 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. I mean, 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. And 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 keeps looking at the clock as 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 8 20. I'll be done by then. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5 6, let us not sleep as do others. No, I'm just kidding. 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... No, 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, okay? 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, okay? You think about a watch as someone who keeps vigil, okay? And this is not to say that you're watching for what's going to happen in the news or what war is coming up or whatever, what laws or whatever is happening. Watching just means that you're watching with your spirit, okay? 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 here. 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 are probably not even saved, okay? They haven't believed on the Lord. Because it's telling us that they're going to descend into hell. And yeah, it's poetic language, but I believe he's literally referring to the fact that they're going to hell. And why is it saying that hell hath enlarged yourself? You know, 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, you know, take in all these souls, has to create room. There used 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, okay? And he's basically saying like all this glory, this pomp, pomp is just like their arrogance, their pride. He's like, you that rejoice, he's saying, you guys are all going down into it. This is how angry God is. He's basically saying like go to hell. And the mean man, mean is average man, it's not someone who's like angry, the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. He's basically saying, I'm not making any exceptions for any person in the land of Judah, and 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. You're average, you're going down. You're 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 God, 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? He'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 about, you think the fact that he just said all this stuff, like it was just like, oh man, you know, let's get right. It sounds pretty bad. I don't want to go to hell, you know, we should get saved here and actually believe on the Lord. But they 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 rope. 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 council 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. Make speed means hurry up. Oh, that's because, you know, the prophet is preaching, Isaiah is preaching this to the nation of Israel and you have these dumb drunkards are like, hurry up, do it then. Let's see it. Hasten the word, get to work God. That we may know. He's like drawn here so we can see it. You know, 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's just like, where is the promise of his coming? For all things continues to work 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 can 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 can a loving God? They ask for it. Ask and it shall be given. Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. It's crazy. You know, people who say those things don't really understand how much the people of this world provoked the Lord unto wrath. They don't hear the thoughts of the intense of the wicked of this world, or even that which they verbalized 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. Scary thought there. We see there a nation showing contempt for the Lord. And you know what, that's a nation that we live in today, and people 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 usually, you can regret it, right? It's like, oh man, I shouldn't have said that. But some people actually take time to actually like put it in the comment section, you know, put it, tweet it, or exit, 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 to 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 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. It's 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. Well, 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. And then let me just say this, you know, faggot is not even that offensive compared to some of the things that faggots say about Christians. How about that? You know, 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. You know, we don't necessarily even have a wide range of vocabulary for them. We just have words that come right before faggot, you know, we just kind of add it on sometimes. We try to be conservative about, you know, what we have, you know. Woe unto them to call evil good and good evil. And you know what? He's talking to 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 may not agree with on every single doctrine. But if they're standing up for some righteousness, I'm going to commend that. If 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. But then you have, oh, you guys are so anti-Semitic though. Why? Because we stand against a nation and a religion that crucified my Savior and yours? 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 Corey 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. To put an Israeli flag on a lion is animal cruelty. But you know those same Christians, they'll 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 desire and all this other crap that you say. Point of verse. Go ahead and call 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 cause we got a rocket to look at. We're going to look at a nation of perverse judgment. He says, won't to them that are mighty to drink wine. He's bringing this up again. And men of strength to mingle strong drink, which justify 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 proper 31 verse four. 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 or Lemuel. It is not for Kings to drink wine, nor for Prince's 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. Yeah. So all these Catholic alcohol or not, yeah, Catholic alcoholics do all these Calvinist 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? You know, they're reading Proverbs 23 as they're drinking, right? So they're a nation that is a 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, as the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, he has stretched forth his hand against them and had smitten them, and the hills that tremble and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all 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. He's like, you got one spanking, but you're, I'm not done. Like, whap! Ah! I'm not done, my hand is stretched out still. Whap! Ah! 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, and essentially referring to a banner, a banner that people would use in war, to declare war. And the Bible's saying here, 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. Father, we 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. Pray your blessings as we go on our way, Lord. Help us not to soon forget these principles and truths. Help us 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.