WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.839 Alright, so here we are in Isaiah 5 and when you look at this passage at the very beginning 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:08.839 you realize quickly that it's a song. 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:12.820 So Isaiah says right at the beginning, let me sing. 00:00:12.820 --> 00:00:19.240 And the commentators think that Isaiah is probably at one of the annual feasts that 00:00:19.240 --> 00:00:22.160 the Israelites would gather for in Jerusalem. 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:26.839 And it's very normal at the feast days in Jerusalem throughout the week for people to 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:31.480 sing. They would sing in the marketplace, people would sing in the forecourt of the 00:00:31.480 --> 00:00:33.200 temple, they would sing songs of all sorts. 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:36.359 Of course, many of those songs were positive. 00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:40.640 And then here comes Isaiah with this song that he sings. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:46.000 And as soon as you read it, the first six verses is the song that he sings. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:49.679 And you think in verse one, maybe this is a love song. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:54.400 It almost sounds at the beginning like it's going to be like the song of Solomon. 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:57.159 Let me sing a song for my beloved. 00:00:57.159 --> 00:00:59.600 And you think this sounds good. 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:02.359 And then you realize that it's not. 00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:03.759 It's a sad song. 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:05.120 This song is a lament. 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:06.239 It's not a comedy. 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:08.319 It's a tragedy. 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:15.280 And you realize it because he's not singing to the beloved, but on behalf of is the word. 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:19.640 So he's singing in the name of the beloved and the beloved here is God. 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:25.200 And he's singing a song of lament from the lips of God to the people at one of these 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:27.040 great feasts in Jerusalem. 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:29.120 It's supposed to be happy and it's not. 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:30.599 It's sad occasion. 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:34.840 Isaiah ruins the mood here in the middle of the pilgrimage. 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:43.280 And the sad song is about the fact that God had taken Israel, Judah, Jerusalem in particular, 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:49.359 and planted her, saved her, planted her as his great vineyard. 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:52.640 And from her, he wanted to produce sweet wine. 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:57.159 He wanted to make something beautiful, reestablish the Garden of Eden, even. 00:01:57.159 --> 00:02:00.200 That's the sweet wine that he wanted to make from her. 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:02.079 And when you get to verse three, you find out what happened. 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:11.280 It says that instead verse two, in fact, that she yielded not sweet wine, but wild grapes. 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:20.479 Now the Hebrew term there is not actually wild grapes, but it says stinky fruit. 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:25.960 Very literally it says that he planted this vineyard and all he got was stinky fruit. 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:29.400 The grapes stink, it says. 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:31.080 They're rotten. 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:32.800 You can't use them to make the wine. 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:34.680 They're putrid. 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:39.680 And you read something like that and you say, what in the world does that mean for us? 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:40.680 Two things. 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:45.360 One, we've got to learn why the grapes stink. 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:52.240 And then secondly, how this passage is even worse than it appears and how that actually 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:53.800 becomes good news. 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:54.960 All right. 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:59.159 So first, why the grapes stink? 00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:00.400 Why the grapes stink? 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:02.319 I don't know is the answer. 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:07.920 I'm not sure how actual grapes become rotten and putrid on the vine. 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:11.199 But the point, it doesn't matter because the point of the passage is not a point about 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:19.679 botany or viticulture, the word, the science of being a good vine dresser. 00:03:19.679 --> 00:03:20.799 It's a parable, right? 00:03:20.799 --> 00:03:24.359 You read it, you realize that this song is a parable. 00:03:24.359 --> 00:03:31.319 God is the vine dresser, the planter, the vineyard maker, and Judah, Jerusalem specifically, 00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:32.319 is the vine. 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:33.799 And they're the grapes. 00:03:33.799 --> 00:03:35.719 The people of Jerusalem are the grapes. 00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:41.280 He saved them, he planted them, and he got rotten stuff out of them. 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:45.199 And you read that and you read, if you were paying attention to the reading, you would 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:52.360 have seen the misery that comes after this versus eight to 30 describe the destruction, 00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:55.599 the burning of the vineyard that is coming. 00:03:55.599 --> 00:03:59.800 And it's a hard passage to read, especially for us modern people, about what God's going 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:02.319 to do to this vineyard. 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:06.599 And at the same time, if you've been here for the past three weeks, you've got to say there's 00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:07.599 nothing new. 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:12.000 I mean, this is the exact same story we've read about every single chapter. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:17.199 In chapter one, God has said, you, you, Jerusalem are prodigal, you're my children, but you're 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:20.879 prodigal sons, and you've run away from me, and you're going to be judged. 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:26.319 Then he said, you, Jerusalem are the faithful city that's become a prostitute to me, and 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:27.319 you're going to be judged. 00:04:27.319 --> 00:04:31.680 And then last week, chapter three and four, he said, I'm going to take all the goods away 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:35.959 from you that you chase after your idols, and you're going to be judged. 00:04:35.959 --> 00:04:42.680 And so there's nothing really new here, except in chapter one, two, three and four, there's 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:49.360 a moment where you, you're a bunch of prodigal sons, but I'm going to redeem you whether 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:50.840 you like it or not. 00:04:50.840 --> 00:04:54.840 And then you're, you're the faithful city that became a prostitute, but I'm going to 00:04:54.840 --> 00:04:59.439 make you the great city, the desire of all the nations, whether you like it or not. 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:03.439 And last week he said, I'm going to judge your idolatry, but then I'm going to send 00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:09.399 the branch, as Hunter preached about last Sunday, the branch, the, a word for the Messiah, 00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:10.879 and I'm going to redeem you. 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:12.680 And then you come to chapter five. 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:19.240 This is the last chapter of the preface of Isaiah, chapter six starts the main body of 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:21.800 this oracle, of this prophecy of Isaiah. 00:05:21.800 --> 00:05:25.560 This is the end of the preface, it's the end of a section, and it's the climax, the height 00:05:25.560 --> 00:05:27.560 of this section. 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:32.560 And this is what one of the great commentators, Alec Matier, he says about it. 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:39.040 He says in chapter one and chapter three, there were places where the vineyard was mentioned 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:44.959 and the vineyard in chapter one and chapter three was protected from judgment, but not 00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:45.959 here. 00:05:45.959 --> 00:05:51.040 Now, in chapter five, at the end of the preface, the vineyard is the place where total destruction 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:52.199 is pronounced. 00:05:52.199 --> 00:05:56.199 The future now seems like nothing but a question mark. 00:05:56.199 --> 00:06:03.399 Where even the Lord's come to the point where he asked, what more can I do for them? 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:11.039 And in chapter five, sin takes away every hope and nothing is left but gathering darkness. 00:06:11.039 --> 00:06:14.839 Now you get that, you get, you get the diagnosis in verse seven. 00:06:14.839 --> 00:06:17.599 This is the song ends in verse six, Isaiah song. 00:06:17.599 --> 00:06:20.480 Verse seven is the diagnosis. 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:21.480 And I want you to hear it. 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:25.120 I want you to hear it, hear it, hear it in the way it was sung for just a moment. 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:28.759 It says the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel. 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:34.519 And God came down and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed. 00:06:34.519 --> 00:06:38.000 He looked for righteousness in Jerusalem, but behold, an outcry. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:41.120 That's an outcry of the oppressed and the poor. 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:45.319 Now just it's important to know this is a song. 00:06:45.319 --> 00:06:46.439 Now listen to what Isaiah says. 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:50.939 He says in the Hebrew text that God came and he looked at Jerusalem. 00:06:50.939 --> 00:06:52.720 He looked for justice. 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:57.120 He looked for Mishpat in God, mis-pah. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:58.200 He looked for righteousness. 00:06:58.200 --> 00:07:02.600 He looks for Sey Daka and God Sey Aka. 00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:06.520 And so it doesn't come across in English, but in the Hebrew, there's only one letter difference 00:07:06.520 --> 00:07:08.360 in those words. 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:13.920 And it's saying that God came down and there's only one letter difference, one slight difference 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:17.520 between light and darkness. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:22.959 One little change in the song moves from justice to bloodshed. 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:24.639 And the question is, what is it? 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:25.639 What's the key? 00:07:25.639 --> 00:07:28.879 What is the thing that made them stinky grapes? 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:32.199 What is the thing that brought them from light to darkness? 00:07:32.199 --> 00:07:34.759 And that's the lesson for us. 00:07:34.759 --> 00:07:35.759 What is it? 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:38.879 Why is everything going totally dark and what can we learn? 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:43.039 Now verse eight to 30 spells that out, but we don't have time tonight to walk through 00:07:43.039 --> 00:07:46.439 that and to get all the details because there's so much. 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:50.199 But there's a thesis statement that tells you everything you need to know in one verse 00:07:50.199 --> 00:07:52.839 and it's in verse 15. 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:57.920 And in verse 15, you've got a thesis and we know it's the thesis because if you look carefully 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:02.000 at the structure, you'll see that there's a break at verse 15. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:07.800 But then also verse 15 is a quote from chapter two, verse nine. 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:14.079 And he says in chapter two, verse nine, and here in verse 15, man is humbled. 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:22.159 Each one is brought low in the eyes of the literally high are brought low. 00:08:22.159 --> 00:08:23.159 That's the point. 00:08:23.159 --> 00:08:25.120 That's what he, that's the problem. 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:29.639 That's why the grapes stink in Jerusalem. 00:08:29.639 --> 00:08:31.399 And it's, it's clear. 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:32.799 He couldn't say it any clearly. 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:37.000 He's saying that the reason the grapes stink is because of pride. 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:41.799 That pride is the problem that has brought Jerusalem from light to darkness, that pride 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:46.479 that the people of Jerusalem, after seeing God, after seeing God deliver them, bring 00:08:46.479 --> 00:08:49.799 them out of Egypt, bring them all the way to the beautiful vineyard of the promised 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:55.079 land, planted to be a light in the midst of the nations, that their, the eyes of their 00:08:55.079 --> 00:09:00.919 heart were lifted high and pride has brought them to this place of being stinking grapes. 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:03.519 Pride is the problem and pride is what's brought them low. 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:04.679 Now what's pride? 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:10.919 Pride is really clear what he means by being high, high in your heart, thinking much of 00:09:10.919 --> 00:09:12.319 yourself here. 00:09:12.319 --> 00:09:18.679 And you can tell when you look at verse 16, it says, you see the play on words here. 00:09:18.679 --> 00:09:25.039 The eyes of the high are brought low, but the Lord of host is high. 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:27.319 You might see a little footnote in your Bible. 00:09:27.319 --> 00:09:30.759 The ESV translates it exalted, but it's literally high. 00:09:30.759 --> 00:09:34.839 It says, see the eyes of man are high, but they're going to be brought low, but the 00:09:34.839 --> 00:09:37.639 Lord really is high. 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:41.919 And he's saying that what pride, what pride is, you know what pride is? 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:48.519 Pride is when you're a bunch of grapes, but you think you planted the vineyard. 00:09:48.519 --> 00:09:53.480 You know, you're, you're the vine and there was a vine dresser that gave you everything 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:56.840 that planted you, that pruned you, that gave you your life, that watered you, that pulled 00:09:56.840 --> 00:09:58.639 the rocks away from your soil. 00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:03.039 But you say, it's when the grape says, I don't want to be the grape. 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:04.399 I want to be the vineyard dresser. 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:05.399 I want to be the planner. 00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:06.399 I want to be the master. 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:08.079 I want to own the property. 00:10:08.079 --> 00:10:09.840 I want to be more than just a grape. 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:16.240 And he said that attitude, when the eyes of the human heart are lifted high, that's when 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:18.360 we become stinking fruit. 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:21.439 That's exactly what's happened in the midst of Jerusalem. 00:10:21.439 --> 00:10:24.879 The grape says, I own this place. 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:28.360 Now that means that the point is, it's actually really simple. 00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:36.120 It's, well, it's to say, it's to say that we were the grapes and we live, we live in 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:39.240 a vineyard that we did not make. 00:10:39.240 --> 00:10:43.879 And we've got to be able tonight to say that I live in a world, you live in a world that 00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:45.279 you didn't make. 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:48.159 You breathe the oxygen that you don't create. 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:49.320 You don't produce your food. 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:51.240 You didn't give yourself your birth. 00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:53.600 You didn't name yourself. 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:58.759 You don't give yourself your body, your mind, your heart, your talents. 00:10:58.759 --> 00:11:02.360 That if you really think about it for just a moment, no matter what you believe in tonight, 00:11:02.360 --> 00:11:07.879 then almost every single thing you have is pretty much a gift from top to bottom. 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:12.360 Even the money you make, maybe you're great at your job, but even the money you make is 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:17.680 completely a product of your environment, the house you grew up in, the drive that you 00:11:17.680 --> 00:11:21.639 were given, the education that you were afforded, all of it. 00:11:21.639 --> 00:11:25.720 It's all a gift from top to bottom that we're completely dependent. 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:27.360 And pride is the opposite. 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:35.080 Just when the grape says, I'm not dependent, I don't want to believe that I'm planted. 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:36.560 I want to say I'm the master. 00:11:36.560 --> 00:11:38.840 I pruned myself. 00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:43.200 And God says here that actually what that produces is nothing but rottenness. 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:48.800 Rottenness and us and rottenness at a corporate level, it takes it to the point that this 00:11:48.800 --> 00:11:55.240 type of pride by verse 20 can create a culture where people say evil is good and good is 00:11:55.240 --> 00:11:56.240 evil. 00:11:56.240 --> 00:11:57.519 And you see how that happens? 00:11:57.519 --> 00:11:59.320 Well, let me tell you how it happens. 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:07.039 It happens because the passage makes a really close connection between pride and idolatry. 00:12:07.039 --> 00:12:11.279 And you can see it, for example, in verse 8, it says, woe to those who join house to 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:12.680 house. 00:12:12.680 --> 00:12:18.680 And it's saying, woe to people who have a house, but then oppress their neighbor in 00:12:18.680 --> 00:12:22.560 some way in the ancient world to acquire an extension. 00:12:22.560 --> 00:12:25.519 They said, I've got a house, but I need an extra sunroom. 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:28.840 And so they kick their neighbor out of their house and they add house to house to house 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:29.840 to house. 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:31.960 And it's saying that, what's it saying? 00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:36.679 It's saying, woe to those who are chasing after wealth accumulation, who are making 00:12:36.679 --> 00:12:42.480 the true master of their life the God of accumulation of stuff, of material. 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:47.639 Or, hop down to verse 11 and 12, woe to the people who rise early in the morning, drink 00:12:47.639 --> 00:12:50.439 all day and party all night. 00:12:50.439 --> 00:12:53.240 Now the point is not that houses are bad, even big houses. 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:57.919 The point is not that wine is bad because God is the great vine dresser. 00:12:57.919 --> 00:12:59.360 He created it. 00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:00.519 It's a gift. 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:05.200 But it's saying, woe because it's saying, what are those who chase after this little 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:11.399 God and make pleasure their master or accumulation their master or whatever it may be. 00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:16.200 And you see there's a close connection here between pride and idolatry. 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:17.200 What is it? 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:20.840 Calvin puts it like this, John Calvin, the great performer. 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:26.519 He says, the human heart is a little miniature idol making factory. 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:32.160 And if you read on in Calvin, he says, and it's because pride is the conveyor belt. 00:13:32.160 --> 00:13:36.560 Pride is the machinery that's cranking the conveyor belt of the heart that's producing 00:13:36.560 --> 00:13:39.360 these little gods, these little idols that we're chasing after. 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:40.480 Why? 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:43.080 Because what does pride say? 00:13:43.080 --> 00:13:49.759 Pride says, there's no God above me and there's no law outside of me. 00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:52.559 I'm going to make my own way. 00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:57.080 Maybe God says I'm a great, but I believe I'm the master of the vineyard. 00:13:57.080 --> 00:13:59.879 And when we do that, that means that we'll chase. 00:13:59.879 --> 00:14:03.639 We'll chase a master that is something other than the true master. 00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:07.200 And that master may be of our own making, our own heart, our own self, our own power, 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:11.840 our own wealth or something outside of us, some person, some relationship. 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:13.559 It could be anything. 00:14:13.559 --> 00:14:19.720 But from Isaiah forward, God has said there's always been a close connection between pride 00:14:19.720 --> 00:14:20.720 and idolatry. 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:26.399 And what happens is when an entire culture embraces what used to be called the pride 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:32.399 of life, the pride of life when the grapes say we're the master, we say, well, if I'm 00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:38.040 my own master, then my own desires tell me what is good. 00:14:38.040 --> 00:14:42.960 And if an entire culture says my own desires, my own feelings, that's the definition of 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:49.040 the good, then you've got a corporate wide systemic pride where eventually all of our 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:53.159 desires become the definition of the moral order. 00:14:53.159 --> 00:14:56.159 And what if our desires are actually evil? 00:14:56.159 --> 00:14:58.279 What if our desires are bent and broken? 00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:00.319 We don't desire the good. 00:15:00.319 --> 00:15:05.159 But if all of us are walking around in the modern world, oh boy, the modern world, and 00:15:05.159 --> 00:15:10.480 we say my desires, my feelings, this is the place where I find out what's truly good for 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:17.319 life, then you can have an entire culture that calls what God says is good, evil, and 00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:20.480 what is truly evil good. 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:26.160 You see, in other words, pride says my feelings are the master of my life. 00:15:26.160 --> 00:15:30.320 And it's when the grapes say to the vine dresser, I don't want to be made. 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:31.600 I don't want to be cultivated. 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:34.320 I want to be my own master. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:39.440 Now Calvin says, he says this as we move on, he says, your mind. 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:46.960 He says, your mind, your mind, my mind, your mind is as full of pride and as full of boldness. 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:54.200 It dares to imagine a God according to its own capacity as it sluggish sluggishly plods, 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:57.120 indeed is overwhelmed with a crassest ignorance. 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:02.720 It conceives ultimately unreality in an empty appearance as God. 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:06.800 Now Calvin says this, that our pride produces idolatry. 00:16:06.800 --> 00:16:10.040 And that means we live in a world of illusions. 00:16:10.040 --> 00:16:14.400 And the very last word he says there is that we are actually living not in reality, but 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:20.079 in unreality that pride produces a world of illusion, a world of unreality. 00:16:20.079 --> 00:16:26.639 There's a temptation here, reading a passage like Isaiah 5 about the vineyard to say how 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:32.679 in the world could a people that were saved by miraculous deeds of God out of the land 00:16:32.679 --> 00:16:39.039 of Egypt, driven along and sustained by manna in the wilderness, planted and defeating the 00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:44.959 giants of Canaan come and get to a place where they disregard the living God. 00:16:44.959 --> 00:16:47.279 Think about what they had seen. 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:53.039 And Calvin like Isaiah is saying, no, no, no, wait, this, don't miss it. 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:56.159 This is the condition of your heart. 00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:01.120 Every single one of our hearts is fundamentally prideful. 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:07.359 And we're idol making factories living in unreality, a life of illusion, a life where 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:10.159 the grape says, I'm the master. 00:17:10.159 --> 00:17:12.000 I planted the vineyard. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:17.799 And that means if we were the Israelites and the Jerusalem and living in Jerusalem in the 00:17:17.799 --> 00:17:22.240 seventh century BC, we would be stinking grapes too. 00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:27.759 That this is us, that this is every culture, every culture gets here where evil becomes 00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:30.079 good and good becomes evil. 00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:31.079 And it keeps happening. 00:17:31.079 --> 00:17:35.159 And it's because, well, George will finish this point and move on. 00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:38.840 George Pinnock, one of the great Puritans, George Pinnock, George Swinnock, I should 00:17:38.840 --> 00:17:40.759 say. 00:17:40.759 --> 00:17:42.080 He said it like this. 00:17:42.080 --> 00:17:46.680 He said, pride is the shirt of the soul, the under garment. 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:52.519 It's the first thing we put on when we're born, and it's the hardest thing to take off. 00:17:52.519 --> 00:18:01.240 Now that leads us secondly to think about how it's actually worse than that. 00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:04.960 It's actually worse than it first appears in this passage. 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:06.880 The problem is pride. 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:08.440 The problem with the vineyard is pride. 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:11.960 But there's something underneath that even. 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:15.240 You come to a passage like Isaiah 5 and you see there's no good news here. 00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:17.920 Where are we going to get some good news from tonight? 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:20.720 And of course we've got to say, well, we've got to go to the New Testament for that to 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:22.480 get the good news. 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:26.319 And obviously the place where we hear about good news is the Gospels. 00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:31.000 And we come to the Gospels, and you might remember the reading we did earlier from Luke 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:32.600 20. 00:18:32.599 --> 00:18:38.000 We come to the Gospels, we come to Jesus Christ Himself, and Jesus told a parable just like 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:39.639 this. 00:18:39.639 --> 00:18:44.079 You come to the good news, the Gospels, and Jesus talks about the vineyard and it's even 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:47.480 worse than Isaiah 5. 00:18:47.480 --> 00:18:54.719 Jesus I think in Luke 20 verses 9 to 18 that we read earlier is actually thinking about 00:18:54.719 --> 00:18:56.759 and expositing in some way. 00:18:56.759 --> 00:18:58.919 Isaiah chapter 5. 00:18:58.919 --> 00:19:01.599 This is the story, the parable he tells about the vineyard. 00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:09.519 He says, a man, a master plants a vineyard and he hires it out to tenant farmers. 00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:12.319 And it comes time for the harvest. 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:18.559 And he sends his messenger to receive some of the crop, the produce from the tenant farmers. 00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:19.559 And what happens? 00:19:19.559 --> 00:19:23.599 The tenant farmers receive the messenger, but they don't want to hear what he has to 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:25.919 say and they beat him. 00:19:25.919 --> 00:19:27.480 And they send him along the way. 00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:28.480 And this happens three times. 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:33.839 Now, who are the messengers that Jesus was talking about in the first century context? 00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:36.120 He was talking about the prophets. 00:19:36.120 --> 00:19:39.559 He was actually talking about Isaiah himself. 00:19:39.559 --> 00:19:43.920 He's saying that the one that told you the parable of the vineyard all the way back, the 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:49.519 prophet Isaiah himself, who came to Jerusalem and you rejected his message. 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:51.660 Let me tell you about the vineyard. 00:19:51.660 --> 00:19:53.599 This is what's always been happening. 00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:59.119 I've been sending my prophets over and over again and they've said and sung the parable 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:00.519 of the vineyard. 00:20:00.519 --> 00:20:04.639 That pride is at the bottom of your heart and you did nothing but beat them to a pulp and 00:20:04.639 --> 00:20:05.639 send them away. 00:20:05.639 --> 00:20:07.519 Now, look, you can go read about Jeremiah. 00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:11.279 Jeremiah was literally beat up when he went to Israel. 00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:15.039 The Israelites actually beat him and cast him out of the city. 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:17.399 Three times Jesus says this happens. 00:20:17.399 --> 00:20:22.000 Now, you see, it's the same exact point as Isaiah five. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:26.359 Jesus is saying, what? 00:20:26.359 --> 00:20:31.720 The tenants, the tenant farmers, they don't want to have a master. 00:20:31.720 --> 00:20:34.720 They want to be the master. 00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:36.400 He's looking out at Jerusalem. 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:37.400 He's talking to Jews. 00:20:37.400 --> 00:20:38.400 He's talking to Gentiles. 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:42.640 He's talking to the whole world and saying, don't you realize you're created? 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:48.960 If you're a bunch of tenant farmers, you've been put in a vineyard and you're leasing it 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:50.079 and I've given it to you. 00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:53.839 The master's given it to you, but you don't want to be a tenant farmer. 00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:56.599 You want to be the master. 00:20:56.599 --> 00:21:00.799 Every time I send somebody to tell you the truth, you just beat them up and they run 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:02.279 away. 00:21:02.279 --> 00:21:06.720 That means the application is the exact same as Isaiah five. 00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:08.480 It's very simple for us tonight. 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:12.839 No matter what you believe in tonight, you can at least come to a place again where you 00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:20.839 can see that you are at minimum relatively dependent to others for most things in your 00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:24.000 life. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:28.339 The parable here is trying to draw us in to say, what if that our relative dependence 00:21:28.339 --> 00:21:33.399 on others actually preaches to us an absolute dependence? 00:21:33.399 --> 00:21:37.439 An absolute dependence that goes beyond all relativity. 00:21:37.439 --> 00:21:41.720 If all of us are relatively dependent on parents, relatively dependent on other people in our 00:21:41.720 --> 00:21:47.360 life to have the goods that we have, if everybody is relatively dependent, then who is it upon 00:21:47.360 --> 00:21:48.920 which we have absolute dependence? 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:51.360 There must be one. 00:21:51.360 --> 00:21:54.640 Jesus is coming to say, don't you see that there's a master? 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:57.960 You're a bunch of tenant farmers, but you act like you're the master himself. 00:21:57.960 --> 00:22:04.240 You're a bunch of grapes and you act like you actually planted the grapevine yourself. 00:22:04.240 --> 00:22:09.680 That means that pride is ultimately seeking control over that, which we don't have control 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:11.680 of. 00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:17.240 This week at my house, something happened that happens pretty regularly. 00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:23.680 We were standing in the kitchen and my youngest, the three-year-old said to my wife and I, 00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:30.080 he said, you're not the boss and mom's not the boss. 00:22:30.080 --> 00:22:31.080 I am. 00:22:31.080 --> 00:22:35.680 Now, what he actually said was, I'm am because he doesn't know the grammar. 00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:37.680 So he says, you're not the boss. 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:38.680 You're not the boss. 00:22:38.680 --> 00:22:39.680 Mom's not the boss. 00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:40.680 I'm am. 00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:41.680 That's it. 00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:46.440 He can't even get the grammar right. 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:49.480 He says that he's the boss. 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:54.360 So I responded and I said, well, that's sort of true, but God's the boss. 00:22:54.360 --> 00:22:56.320 God's the big boss. 00:22:56.320 --> 00:22:59.120 He said, you're not the boss. 00:22:59.120 --> 00:23:00.120 Mom's not the boss. 00:23:00.120 --> 00:23:01.120 God's not the boss. 00:23:01.120 --> 00:23:03.320 I am. 00:23:03.320 --> 00:23:05.600 This is how Paul talks about the problem of pride. 00:23:05.599 --> 00:23:13.519 He says that the movement from pride to humility is the movement from childhood to adulthood, 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:14.639 is the metaphor Paul uses. 00:23:14.639 --> 00:23:16.119 It's not just a metaphor. 00:23:16.119 --> 00:23:17.240 It's true, right? 00:23:17.240 --> 00:23:22.839 That the movement, at least relatively, basic philosophy, that when you grow from childhood 00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:29.399 to adulthood, you've got to grow into a person that realizes that you're dependent. 00:23:29.399 --> 00:23:34.079 It's only the mark of the smallest child that truly thinks they're not dependent. 00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:37.439 And the irony is, of course, that they're the most dependent, that he can't survive 00:23:37.439 --> 00:23:39.519 without us. 00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:43.480 And the movement to adulthood is actually not a movement towards independence. 00:23:43.480 --> 00:23:48.399 It's actually the movement that says, wow, I'm totally dependent. 00:23:48.399 --> 00:23:54.480 You see, it's the movement from pride to humility, that that's the mark of becoming a real adult. 00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:57.960 And that's basic philosophy, but it's religious. 00:23:57.960 --> 00:24:00.359 It's about seeing absolute dependence. 00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:05.159 It's beyond relative dependence that we experience in the life of this world. 00:24:05.159 --> 00:24:14.599 Now, some of you have, all of us have lived a life where we say, I'm independent. 00:24:14.599 --> 00:24:19.919 But some of us have come to a point in our lives where through our suffering, we've 00:24:19.919 --> 00:24:22.679 realized we don't actually have control. 00:24:22.679 --> 00:24:27.519 We lived a life of independence until we hit the wall. 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:31.759 And then in the midst of our suffering, we were forced to say, oh boy, I'm not in control. 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:33.039 You know, I tried to do everything. 00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:34.799 I tried to put all my ducks in a row. 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:36.200 And then that happened. 00:24:36.200 --> 00:24:38.400 And I lost it. 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:42.879 And in those moments, you realize I'm not in control of my life. 00:24:42.879 --> 00:24:48.279 Now, if you're there tonight, if you've come to that point, then you'll be ready to hear 00:24:48.279 --> 00:24:52.559 the harder news, which is the point of the parable as we close. 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:53.920 And here it is. 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:59.480 At the climax of this parable, the parable of the vineyard interpreted as Zayah 5, Luke 00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:06.600 20, the master says, I will send, you know, they keep beating up my messengers. 00:25:06.600 --> 00:25:09.000 I'm going to send my son. 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:17.360 And if I send my son, the heir, surely the tenants will give over the produce. 00:25:17.359 --> 00:25:23.879 And when the son comes to the vineyard, you know, they didn't like the messengers, and 00:25:23.879 --> 00:25:26.759 so they punched them and they kicked them. 00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:32.359 But when the master's son comes, they take him outside of the vineyard and they beat 00:25:32.359 --> 00:25:35.599 him to death and murder him. 00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:36.599 You see the point? 00:25:36.599 --> 00:25:44.559 The point is, boy, they didn't like the messenger of the master, but they hated his son. 00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:49.720 And you see the harder point to realize that's being made in Isaiah 5, that's being made 00:25:49.720 --> 00:25:53.639 here in Luke 20, is that there's something underneath our pride. 00:25:53.639 --> 00:25:56.279 Our pride says, I don't want to be a grape. 00:25:56.279 --> 00:25:58.359 I want to be the vine master. 00:25:58.359 --> 00:26:00.000 I don't want to be a tenant farmer. 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:02.359 I want to own the vineyard. 00:26:02.359 --> 00:26:04.720 But what's underneath that? 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:09.639 What's underneath that the Bible says over and over again is actually that we're angry 00:26:09.640 --> 00:26:16.960 at God Himself, that we are at enmity, enemies of the living God by nature, that when we're 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:19.480 born in this world, we're angry at God. 00:26:19.480 --> 00:26:22.680 We don't want to be made and we were. 00:26:22.680 --> 00:26:24.200 I don't want to be a made person. 00:26:24.200 --> 00:26:26.040 I want to be a person who makes myself. 00:26:26.040 --> 00:26:28.160 And yet there's a God who exists that made me. 00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:30.080 And so I'm angry about it. 00:26:30.080 --> 00:26:33.000 I want to be an independent, but I'm dependent and I know it. 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:34.600 You see the problem? 00:26:34.599 --> 00:26:40.679 The problem is that we all actually know we're dependent, but we don't want to be. 00:26:40.679 --> 00:26:41.919 And so it makes us angry. 00:26:41.919 --> 00:26:46.359 And the symptom of that is the pride of life and the pride of life produces chasing after 00:26:46.359 --> 00:26:51.959 everything else in life, except the true God who loves us and upon the one, the one to whom 00:26:51.959 --> 00:26:55.279 we are absolutely dependent. 00:26:55.279 --> 00:27:00.839 And so the text here say, now you say that that's a harsh diagnosis, but Romans 8, 4, 00:27:00.839 --> 00:27:10.319 Jesus, Paul puts it, he says, the natural person, people by nature are is, it says enmity toward 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:11.319 God. 00:27:11.319 --> 00:27:15.199 You see, it doesn't say we have enmity that we're sometimes angry. 00:27:15.199 --> 00:27:16.799 We're sometimes enemies. 00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:24.359 He says the natural person is enmity is living in enmity against God, the living enemy. 00:27:24.359 --> 00:27:27.039 And it says we will not submit to the law of God. 00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:28.799 Indeed, we cannot. 00:27:28.799 --> 00:27:30.799 Our hearts won't allow it. 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:33.399 Pride is the symptom. 00:27:33.399 --> 00:27:38.440 Anger against the maker is the true underlying reality. 00:27:38.440 --> 00:27:40.359 That's the biblical diagnosis. 00:27:40.359 --> 00:27:41.919 That's what's wrong with us. 00:27:41.919 --> 00:27:47.720 Now here's how it ends as we close the very end of the parable in Luke 20. 00:27:47.720 --> 00:27:51.680 Jesus mixes his metaphors spectacularly. 00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:55.279 He goes from vineyard to the stone. 00:27:55.279 --> 00:27:57.000 He says this. 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:04.519 Therefore, the stone that the builder rejected has now become the cornerstone. 00:28:04.519 --> 00:28:12.400 He's saying the tenant farmers, all the people of this world that I made have rejected me. 00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:18.319 To put it in building metaphor, the perfect stone, the cornerstone of the true foundation 00:28:18.319 --> 00:28:20.359 of reality, you rejected it. 00:28:20.359 --> 00:28:23.180 You threw it out like it was a garbage stone. 00:28:23.180 --> 00:28:25.359 But now that stone has become the cornerstone. 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:27.359 You see what he's saying? 00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:32.279 He's saying that when the tenant farmers kicked out the son of the master and they beat him 00:28:32.279 --> 00:28:36.519 to death and they murdered him, something completely unexpected happened, he actually 00:28:36.519 --> 00:28:41.679 became, he became in that moment. 00:28:41.679 --> 00:28:48.399 He became in that moment the architectural foundation of a new city, a better Jerusalem. 00:28:48.399 --> 00:28:53.759 One built not upon the foundation of pride, but true humility. 00:28:53.759 --> 00:29:00.279 You see, when Jesus was cast outside the vineyard, Jerusalem, and he was murdered by his own 00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:05.759 creation, the grapes, who said, we don't want to be mastered. 00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:10.480 The master himself became fundamentally humble for us. 00:29:10.480 --> 00:29:14.039 He humbled himself all the way to the bottom. 00:29:14.039 --> 00:29:23.359 And now the new cornerstone of a better city, the new vine of a better grapes is humility. 00:29:23.359 --> 00:29:29.240 The foundation of all hope is that the master became the humbled. 00:29:29.240 --> 00:29:34.519 And he says, I and ultimately humility have become a new and fresh cornerstone for you. 00:29:34.519 --> 00:29:37.479 There can be a new city based in humility, not pride. 00:29:37.479 --> 00:29:46.359 There can be a new vine because he's the true vine, he said, based in humility, not pride. 00:29:46.359 --> 00:29:51.439 That God in the midst of our enmity against him is so for us that he would build a new 00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:53.519 thing like that. 00:29:53.519 --> 00:29:59.600 And the point of the passage, he says at the very end, he says this, that either you see 00:29:59.600 --> 00:30:04.400 that and Jesus Christ becomes the cornerstone of your life. 00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:10.059 That humility in him becomes the rock bottom foundation of a better way for you or you 00:30:10.059 --> 00:30:12.240 break against that rock. 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:18.039 It says, Jesus says, all who reject the cornerstone, that they're smashed against it. 00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:19.720 And you see what he's saying? 00:30:19.720 --> 00:30:25.600 He's saying when pride bumps up against such a hard rock like truth, it can do nothing 00:30:25.600 --> 00:30:28.600 but shatter into pieces. 00:30:28.600 --> 00:30:33.160 And that if you come to the truth, you say, boy, I really am absolutely dependent, that 00:30:33.160 --> 00:30:36.960 that's the foundation of a new and better way, a new and better life. 00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:41.660 The true cornerstone himself, the humility of Jesus Christ becomes the city in which 00:30:41.660 --> 00:30:44.279 you now live, in which you now exist. 00:30:44.279 --> 00:30:51.359 Now, let me say two things to you in two minutes to how to respond to this, how to respond. 00:30:51.359 --> 00:30:54.879 Here's the first. 00:30:54.879 --> 00:31:00.839 True faith tonight has got to be categorized as an act of humility. 00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:05.639 You know, if pride is our great problem in enmity against God, then we've got to come 00:31:05.639 --> 00:31:11.639 tonight and say, what does it mean to have faith in this God, the Son of the Master who 00:31:11.639 --> 00:31:12.639 came for us? 00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:18.840 It simply means to put on humility, to stand before the living God and put on the humility 00:31:18.840 --> 00:31:19.840 of faith. 00:31:19.840 --> 00:31:21.440 That's how Paul talks about it. 00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:25.680 He says that faith is just simply humbling yourself tonight. 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:31.240 This is not, if you're a non-Christian tonight coming to explore, this is for you. 00:31:31.240 --> 00:31:35.040 If you're a Christian tonight, this is for you. 00:31:35.040 --> 00:31:41.560 Put on tonight the humility of faith before the living God that you need to survive the 00:31:41.559 --> 00:31:47.839 work week this week, that you need to come to the, to have joy, to know who you truly 00:31:47.839 --> 00:31:52.159 are, to not be the grape that walks through the world and says, I don't want to be a grape, 00:31:52.159 --> 00:31:53.839 I want to be the vine dresser. 00:31:53.839 --> 00:31:56.599 But boy, when you say, no, I'm a grape. 00:31:56.599 --> 00:31:58.720 I'm a grape. 00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:03.519 That's when actually you stop stinking and you start to, you're starting to become sweet 00:32:03.519 --> 00:32:07.639 again because you've given your life away in humility. 00:32:07.639 --> 00:32:09.119 Humility in other words is true sweetness. 00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:10.799 It's true joy. 00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:14.399 It's a life that's really, really fulfillment. 00:32:14.399 --> 00:32:15.399 Pride is emptiness. 00:32:15.399 --> 00:32:21.000 It takes you to the point where you have to eventually realize I'm not in control. 00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:25.720 Now the second thing is very simple and it's obvious and that's this. 00:32:25.720 --> 00:32:30.000 If you've got the humility of faith and you've got a faith that takes you to the place of 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:33.639 freedom and what's true freedom? 00:32:33.639 --> 00:32:39.079 True freedom is to walk the path of life saying, I truly am a tenant. 00:32:39.079 --> 00:32:41.439 I truly am a tenant farmer. 00:32:41.439 --> 00:32:46.399 In other words, it's to say, I actually recognize that there's a moral order above me, that 00:32:46.399 --> 00:32:50.919 there's a God on whom I depend, that I don't get to define the moral law. 00:32:50.919 --> 00:32:56.639 I don't get to live according to my feelings, that I have to actually subject myself to 00:32:56.639 --> 00:32:59.879 the life that God demands of me. 00:32:59.879 --> 00:33:04.519 And the Bible says it over and over again that that is actually the movement from unreality, 00:33:04.519 --> 00:33:07.399 as Calvin put it, to reality. 00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:10.160 Everything in God's vineyard, the way God wants us to live. 00:33:10.160 --> 00:33:15.280 That's the movement from the unreal to the real, from the illusory to the truth. 00:33:15.280 --> 00:33:19.400 And it's in the midst of that again, that you can actually find fulfillment, that you 00:33:19.400 --> 00:33:22.080 can actually find joy. 00:33:22.080 --> 00:33:23.960 It's an invitation. 00:33:23.960 --> 00:33:28.280 This is an invitation tonight on this Sabbath day evening. 00:33:28.280 --> 00:33:36.240 Come to a life of absolute dependence tonight on the living God who's come to rescue you 00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:38.559 from your own pride. 00:33:38.559 --> 00:33:45.160 And if you do that, humble dependence, you're walking in the place of real joy. 00:33:45.160 --> 00:33:47.720 And that's an invitation. 00:33:47.720 --> 00:33:48.720 Let's pray. 00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:58.120 Father, we ask that you would help us to see that without Jesus we're stinky grapes. 00:33:58.120 --> 00:34:05.279 That's strange as that sounds to say, but that's how you put it in Isaiah 5, Lord. 00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:11.279 So we do ask, Father, that as many times as we've bumped up against the rock, the cornerstone 00:34:11.279 --> 00:34:17.480 himself and been shattered in our pride, that tonight we would find in him our architectural 00:34:17.480 --> 00:34:25.920 foundation and that in humility we would completely turn around and say, we depend on you. 00:34:25.920 --> 00:34:28.279 And so that's the cry of our heart, give it to us as a gift. 00:34:28.279 --> 00:34:30.400 And we pray it in Christ's name. 00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:35.400 Amen.