The sermon 'He Provided Everything' by Scott Brown delves into Isaiah 5:1-7, where God is depicted as a loving caretaker who has done everything possible to ensure the fruitfulness of His vineyard, representing Israel. Despite God's abundant provision and care, the vineyard yields wild grapes, symbolizing Israel's rebellion and failure to produce justice and righteousness. The sermon highlights God's long-suffering and patience, waiting for His people to bear the intended fruit. However, the lack of fruit results in judgment, where protection and blessings are withdrawn. The sermon calls believers to reflect on God's abundant grace and provisions, urging them to avoid taking these for granted and to actively engage in the blessings and resources God has provided. It also stresses the importance of responding to God's grace by bearing fruit and living righteously, emphasizing that God's provisions are sufficient for life and godliness.

Isaiah chapter 5 verse 1 to 7. Now let me sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst and also made a winepress in it.

So he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge please between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes. And now, please, let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard.

I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned, and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.

He looked for justice, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry for help." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning and we thank you for this opportunity, for this honor, Lord, that you've bestowed upon us, that we can even hear your word. Father, you've given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, as Peter's told us. Lord, You've done everything for us. Lord, You've paved the way.

You've welcomed us into the holy place and we can come before You in worship. And Lord, today our desire is that we would be fruitful. Lord, that we would bear fruit in keeping with your good news and keeping with the gospel. Lord, we pray that you would please help us have ears to hear and attentive hearts today. Lord, that we would not be distracted or taken away in our minds or with the petty things of this world, but help us Lord to have our hearts set.

Lord, it's a fearful thing to fall into Your hands as we see in these scriptures. We just pray that You would give us a healthy fear of You and that we would love You with sincere hearts. And as Mr. Brown comes forward today, Father, we pray that You would bless him, that You would give him boldness and fluidity of speech, that the words would land and hit their mark. Oh God, help us today, we pray.

And bless Mr. Brown as he comes forward to preach to us. In Jesus' wonderful name, amen. Well our text today takes us into the world of the abundant grace of God who gives to His people all things pertaining to life and godliness. It's a picture of such a beneficial shepherd, such a good father.

It's a picture of God doing everything that was necessary and really going beyond anything that would be reasonable for a people. And it's a passage of Scripture that takes us really into the heart of the Gospel. Because at the heart of the Gospel is the love of God for mankind. At the heart of the Gospel is the call for true love from the heart in mankind and a response in that heart that brings forth fruit bearing. It's where a whole life is changed.

And the resources that had been taken in by the believer from the wells of salvation, from the treasuries of its grace, they end up causing the bearing of fruit. But this is a picture here of what God has done for that in providing His abundant care for His people. How He has made many preparations, how He has made many provisions and given opportunities to His people, and how He has hopes for His people. It's a song. It's one of those songs in Scripture.

There are many of them, but It's a song about how good God is. It's a song about His lavish love and how He's given us everything that we need. Just this week somebody sent me a psalm to read, quoted it to me, Psalm 136, Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Oh give thanks to the God of gods, for his mercy endures forever. Oh give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his mercy endures forever.

To him who alone does great wonders, for his mercy endures forever. To him whom by wisdom made the heavens, for his mercy endures forever." And the Psalm goes on and on and on with that same pattern. And Isaiah chapter 5 opens up to us the song of the vineyard, which really speaks of His great mercy. And it speaks of the people who've been given much. And as we read this, I want us to just recognize all throughout the time as we're interacting with the words of God here, what God has done for us.

That we would be asking, what more could God possibly do for us? What is there that God has laid before us, in us, around us, that is designed for such a blessing, but we're not taking advantage of it because that's what was happening to the children of Israel here. It should serve as a warning for all of us who've been graced by so many privileges in the nation we live in and the families that we have and the church experience we're in the midst of. Everything that God has given us, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the provision of His Word, the giving of His church, the provision of brothers and sisters, We could just go on and on and name one thing after another that God has provided that we didn't provide for ourselves. He gave it to us.

We never could have it unless He had actually brought it to us. That's why Paul said, what do you have that God has not given? As we go through this, to think of the helps that God has provided and to thank Him. And to see this picture here of how the Jews had squandered their advantages and yet how God does expect increase, He does desire fruit. And that we would somehow not find ourselves this morning sitting here and realizing that we have received the grace of God in vain.

Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 1, he says, we then as workers with him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Those are the words of God through the Apostle Paul. I think those are the words of God for us today. I plead with you, God would be here pleading with all of us not to receive the grace of God in vain. What abundant grace we've been given.

What treasuries, what wells, what deep minds of beauty and goodness and truth and power has God given to us. I pray that we would somehow, as we are walking through this text, we can see all these things together in parallel. The beauty and the mercy of God. We've just come off of this last section in Isaiah that just is describing the beauty of the Lord, how He makes holy, how He cleanses. He tabernacles with you.

He is your shade in the heat of the day. This is the love of God. And now in this next section of Isaiah, we see this very same theme. I'd like to sort of calibrate us a little bit about this chapter. As you know, we've just finished Isaiah's second sermon in Isaiah that concluded at the end of chapter 4.

Now, we begin a new section where really Israel's wickedness continues where really Israel's wickedness continues to be spoken of here, but in this chapter, the focus is the rebellion in the vineyard, and In verses 1 through 7 is the song of the vineyard. That's what our focus is today. And it speaks of the glory of His abundant grace. It's about grace. You know, God so desires His church to receive His grace.

It's about grace. And then in verse 8 through 24, these woes, these six clusters of rotten grapes that have grown out of the vine, Instead of beautiful grapes, rotten, stinky grapes, as the text makes clear. And then finally, at the end of the chapter, verses 25 through 30, there's an announcement of invasion and destruction. It's always such a tragic thing to reject the grace of God, to reject the voice of God that says, come drink, come eat of my food, come here is my vineyard, work in my vineyard. There's such terrible consequences of it.

And anyone who's not worked in the vineyard will suffer these things. Now notice also that there are three characters in this section. First of all, there's Isaiah, and he's singing. He's singing to his beloved, his God. And then you have his beloved, God himself, who speaks here.

And you have the vineyard. And the identification of the vineyard is in verse 7. It's Israel. And then also notice that there are two voices, but they intersperse. Now I'd like you to look at your Bibles just so you can see the contours of the conversation that God is bringing before us.

Because first of all, in verses 1 and 2, it's Isaiah, and Isaiah is singing a song. Wouldn't you have loved to have heard that song? To hear Isaiah's voice. You know, some people have such beautiful voices, and others, well, who knows what Isaiah sang like? But the first is Isaiah singing, and then in verses 3-6, God speaks, so the voice of God thunders in with a gentle thundering in many ways.

And then in verse 7, Isaiah interprets and he speaks his own mind representing what God is saying. So that's the flow of the conversation here. So let's go to verse one. The song of the vineyard is introduced there in the very first line, a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. My beloved.

Another way to say it would be, to the one I love. And then he describes this vineyard. And then he says, now let me speak of my well-beloved. Three times in verse 1, Isaiah uses that word that word that word beloved well beloved twice beloved once and Isaiah stands really as a as an example of true Christianity. He loves God from his heart.

He loves God. He longs for God. This is the sign of being saved, that your heart longs for God truly. You're not just trying to be somebody, you're not just trying to look like something, but it's in your heart and you long for God. And Isaiah demonstrates this.

Now let me sing to my well-beloved. And it really is the heart of true Christianity. The Lord Jesus Christ says, If you love me, you'll keep my commandments." He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart. Moses says, these things shall be in your heart. And because of that, you shall teach them.

Christianity is about love, it begins with love, love for God. God takes your heart of stone, your heart that hated God, and then he changes it And then you begin to say, Oh Lord, have mercy on me. And you say, Oh Lord, teach me. And you say, Oh Lord, help me. And you say, I want to sing a song to my well-beloved, like Isaiah did.

So it's a very beautiful opening here. The song depicts the relationship between God and the house of Judah. And there are many songs in Scripture. There's the song of Deborah. There are many songs in the Psalms.

There's the song of Moses, the song of Solomon. In Ezra chapter 3, there's a song that was sung responsibly, praising God. Chapter 3, 11 in Ezra. For He is good, for His mercy endures forever toward Israel. Then all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.

Then there's the song of Mary, and there's songs in the book of Revelation, in Revelation 5 verse 9, and they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God. And we shall reign on the earth." What a great song that will be to sing. I'm looking forward to that song when all of the troubles of this world finally pass by. And heaven is before us. What a great day that will be.

In Revelation 14, you see the same language. Then they sang a new song before the throne, before the four creatures. And no one could learn that song, except the 144, 000, which I believe is the church. Revelation 15, They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. That's another song.

The song of the Lamb. Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of saints. Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, for all nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested." Well, Isaiah is singing, really, in keeping with the beautiful songs of Scripture that speak of the wells of salvation, that speak of the goodness of God.

You know, when we sang this morning, we sang of the goodness of God. Wasn't it wonderful to be taken out of our own thinking and out of our own ways and to be brought into giving thanks to Almighty God? What a wonderful thing it is to come with the people of God and be brought out of yourself, to think of your Savior, to consider what a good God He is. Well, that's exactly what Isaiah is doing in his song. And the song is a parable.

It's a story, like Jesus told. You know, God is so kind to give us so many ways to understand his truth. He gives us didactic types of instruction. He gives us poems, and he gives us parables, and he gives us songs. Well, this song is also a parable.

It's a parable of a vineyard. It's the same parable that Jesus spoke of in the Gospel of Matthew. We'll get to that later. But God is so kind to do this. So Isaiah is singing, and it's a tender song that speaks of the abundant provision of such a good Father.

And then the lyrics of the song are given here at the end of verse 1 and end of verse 2. Now he says, My well-beloved, and He's showing again the tenderness of God. He says that this vineyard was on a fruitful hill. In other words, it was capable of bearing fruit. The Hebrew term he uses is semen, and it has to do with fertility.

That it was a place where there was such capability for multiplication and growth. And then it says that he dug it and he cleared out his stones. In other words, he took the unfavorable ground and he removed the obstacles. You can see this around here in the tobacco fields. If you notice on the edges, a lot of these fields around here, they're piles of stones.

And the farmers just continue to move as they uncover stones. And they keep on uncovering them. And they put them to the side. And that's exactly what this father did as he was building the vineyard. He was improving the soil.

He was making it more productive and removing all the obstacles. This is what God does for His people. And then He planted it with the choicest vine. In other words, He gave it the most beautiful capability in its fruit bearing itself. And then he built a tower in its midst.

This has to do with protection. God did not spare any expense with his vineyard. He put absolutely everything that was necessary for fruit production. And it just should cause us to ask, what advantages do you have? What more could God have done for us to make us fruitful in His vineyard?

And what God is saying here in this song through Isaiah is that He did physical things, and These physical things have meaning. And these physical things that He has done bear witness to what He has done for us spiritually in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, in the giving of the Word of God, and providing the church the pillar and ground of the truth, by setting us under His heaven that constantly declare the glory of God. And the fact that absolutely every single thing that happens in the world is done for what? For His glory and as Paul says in Romans, for our good. Because all things work together for good.

So God has done all these things in his vineyard physically to really depict what he's done spiritually. It says that he made a wine press in it. And it seems here that He's made a very expensive wine press. The whole thing dug out of a rock, not assembled together by stones, but actually hewn out of a large single rock. Now, I love rock.

I love to look at rock. I love to see rock hewn. And I have rocks all over my property. Rocks that are big are compelling. And here is a large rock that the winepress was made from it.

He dug it out of the rock. He's withholding no expense. He's providing everything for life and godliness. And the question here is what more could God have done for His people? And the question that we should be asking is, what more could God possibly do for us?

Really, is there anything more He could do that He hasn't already done in providing for us. You know, I think about my prayers how often I'm crying out to God for particular things. And we are commanded to bring our requests before God. It's right to do that. But on the other hand, how much has He already given?

Has He given enough, really? And that's the whole point of Isaiah's song, is yes, He has. He certainly has given enough. He's given more. John Gill says this, with good and wholesome laws which distinguished them and kept them separate from other nations, also with his mighty power and providence, especially at the three yearly festivals when all their males appeared before God in Jerusalem and gathered out the stones thereof.

He's talking about how how God has provided so beautifully. So let's just pause as a church for a moment. Just be silent for a moment and consider. Just consider quietly in your own soul what God has done for your soul. Rejoice, rejoice and be glad of what God has done.

He's provided things that you cannot see, His Spirit. He's provided angels and He said He will give His angels charge over thee. God is so kind. He provides and He provides over and over again. He lays before us everything.

Everywhere we go there's an image of his own name and greatness. You can't look at a tree without thinking of the tree, without having a physical reminder of the tree of life. You can't look at a person without recognizing that God created all men, that He created everything. You can't take a drink of water, you can't eat a piece of bread, you can't look at a thread of cloth that doesn't somehow find its imagery in the Kingdom of Heaven. There's really nothing in this world that God has created that doesn't say something about Him.

And when you add it all up, you have to say, what more could God have done? And yet, how often it is that we say, what have you done for me lately? You know, there's a story of the Dust bowl, the Dust Bowl days when people were moving out of Oklahoma and other places in the surrounding regions back in the Depression. And they were moving because there was no water there. And then it wasn't too long after that that it was discovered that just under the surface was the largest aquifer, the Ogallala Aquifer.

Have you ever heard of that? It's gigantic. It's a huge, vast water table that sits beneath the Great Plains and the southern states, you know, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. And the water was right there. The water was always there.

And they moved. And this is what happens often with the people of God. It is there. God has provided all that's necessary, but they move to serve another God. But the whole point here is that what more could God have done for us?

And then the lesson of the song is in verses 3 and 4, So he expected it to bring forth good grapes. So he expected it to bear fruit. Now, how could he have expected what he didn't get in view of the fact that he is sovereign and that he is omnipotent? How is God just sitting around expecting something that's not going to happen? Well, I think there are a couple of ways to think about this.

First of all, The word that is used here, the Hebrew word for expecting is the word gavach, which the literal translation can mean to wait, to look for, to hope, to expect, to be waiting for, to look eagerly for, to wait for, to linger for. In the King James Version it says, when I looked that it should bring forth the grapes. And the whole idea here is the patience of God. God is pausing. God is waiting for grapes.

God is patient. God is long-suffering. I think that's one legitimate way to think about this, because God absolutely ordains everything that happens in the world. So this is not a slight against the sovereignty of God. It's not an argument against it at all.

But it is an argument for the long suffering of God. And also we can speak of the difference between God's prescriptive will and His decreedive will, that there is a difference. But the fact here is that God planted the vineyard expecting fruit. He was looking for fruit. But he did not see fruit.

So this whole song so far is dedicated to the fact that God could not have done anything more for his people, but he was very lavish and detailed and arduous in his care for his vineyard. But the fruit did not come. But it says, but it brought forth wild grapes. Well, that was the problem. Literally, stink berries.

You know, how strange that is. You know, you would never expect, as someone said in our Bible study on Tuesday, that if you planted grapes that you would get stinkberries. Well that's exactly what happened here. You know, one of the commentators says that a vine is either either good for fruit or it's good for nothing and that's exactly what is pictured here. And we come across this principle that the Lord Jesus spoke of, you will know them by their fruits.

You'll know the stinkberries by how they taste. You'll know them right away. And so they got poisoned grapes. They did not get what they wanted to get. So then at this point now the human voice ends and God takes over verse 3, And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge please between me and my vineyard.

Now he asks, he's asking Judah to judge him. Does that strike you strange? Well, it's a rhetorical command because it's inappropriate for anyone to judge God. Now, when you are invited to judge God, then you must bear witness to the truth. And the truth is that there was nothing more that he could have done.

God is calling for a judgment that he already knows the verdict. And in that sense it's kind of rhetorical. But he asks two questions. First of all, he says, what more? What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done to it?

What more could have been done? Well, nothing more could have been done on the one hand. Nothing more could have been done to be a blessing to the people. However, we might consider this, that the new covenant is also an answer to this question. Because God in His mercy continues to give the better and the better wine until the last.

He's always improving. His blessing always increases. And that's true in your life as a Christian, and it's true in His kingdom in large part as well. But the new covenant brings to us better promises and a better covenant. So there is, God does continue to pour out blessing on His people in increasingly progressively blessed ways.

And that's here as well. But the answer here is that He did nothing wrong. He fulfilled what He already said. No good thing will I withhold. This is how God has always been.

He never withholds anything good. And I just wonder how that rests on your ears. Do you think, well, no, God has given me something bad for me. And if you're thinking that way, you're not thinking right at all. You might think that his chastisements are bad for you, but no, they're actually good for you.

You might think that the things that He has deprived you of are bad for you, but that isn't true either. Or you might think that some of the things that He's given to you, you'd like to give in back. Perhaps some of you who are single today, you think, well maybe God has given me the gift of signals and you want to give it back. You have to recognize that we as His creatures can only be happy If we recognize that He is good in everything that He's given to us, everything that He's withheld from us, and everything He's taken away from us. He's always good in everything that He does.

He is good and He will not withhold that which is good for His people. That doesn't mean that He does not judge and destroy those who hate Him. And that does not mean that He won't discipline His children. Because every son whom the Lord receives, he disciplines. He disciplines those he loves.

Discipline is a measure of love. And what he's saying is that there's no excuse. That's what he's saying in that verse. There is no excuse at all. There's no excuse to say, what have you done for me lately?

Romans chapter 1 verse 20 speaks of this fact, that there is no excuse. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest to them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful. But became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. So that is what happened to Israel. And this is what happens to God's people. And so, you know, the question is, is God just?

Is there a reason to blame God? And the answer is no. There is no reason to blame God. Now, I want you to see the pause that is here. So he expected it to bring forth good graves.

This is the long-suffering, the waiting. So he waited. There is, I believe, here a dramatic pause for us to consider the long-suffering of the Lord and His kindness in long-suffering. He waited. He was patient.

Second Peter 3, 9 says, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." This is the doctrine of the long-suffering of God. Why does God wait? Why doesn't God cut off the wicked? Because He has His long-suffering in order to bring many to salvation. He waits because He loves.

He waits because He's going to turn His enemies into friends. And this is how we became His friends. Because he waited. How long did he wait for you? He waited a long time for me.

Many, many, many years he waited for me. He is patient. You know, 1 Peter chapter three, verse 20 speaks of the waiting of God during the time of the flood. 120 years God waits for eight people and he preaches to the rest. He's preaching to the hard-hearted while He's waiting 120 years to save eight people.

It's remarkable to see the long-suffering of God. This is why Psalm 86.15 says, But you, O Lord, are a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in mercy and in truth. God is long-suffering. And, you know, if you know you do not know the Lord, your heart is still hard toward Him. Here's one thing that you need to know.

You're alive today because of the compassion of God, because of His long-suffering to give you more time, to give you another day, and then another day, maybe even a decade, maybe three decades. But God is patient, And He's long-suffering toward those who hate Him. Isn't that amazing? But most of us are not all that long-suffering to those who hate us. We just want to deal with it.

But God is not like we are. And when Moses went early in the morning to Mount Sinai, it's a very dramatic scene. He gets up and makes his way up Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 34. And when he did that, the Lord actually passed before him. And the Lord said, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

And then, after God said that, after God said that he was merciful and gracious and long-suffering and keeping mercy for thousands and forgiving, after God said that, Moses fell down and he worshiped God because he recognized the greatness of the mercy of God. Moses had kind of a temper. He could have tended to be harsh even though he was the meekest man that ever lived. But he, before God, bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. This is the mercy, the long-suffering of God that's being displayed here in this passage.

The waiting has two purposes, to save and also to fill up iniquity for wrath. Romans chapter 2 verse 3 speaks of that. I won't read it. But God is merciful. That's the point that's being made here.

He waits for that reason. You know, in Acts chapter 17, when the Apostle Paul was on Mars Hill, and he's giving that famous speech, he says, truly, these times of ignorance, God overlooked. He overlooked. In other words, he was patient. He waited.

He allowed the Greeks to be the Greeks in all their debauchery he waited he he overlooked it not in the sense that he didn't see it, but he had mercy. And that's the point that is being made here. And then next God declares what He's going to do, and judgment is pronounced in verses 5 and 6. And now, please let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard in verse 5. You see that?

Now God is going to speak. You know, this sounds a little bit like Job. There's all this conversation going on, and then God speaks at the end. And here's what He will do. First, He will take the hedge away.

I will take its hedge and it shall be burned. That means no protection from animals and varmints that might come in and destroy the crop. And then the wall will be broken down and break down its wall and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it away. So the wall just completely knocked down.

The hedge is destroyed and now the wall. The wall to keep out invaders, attackers, thieves. And then he will not be pruning anymore. An unpruned vine is the result. It shall not be pruned, He says.

That means there's no care to cut out the bad. The bad just keeps getting worse in you. And so there's no pruning. And This is the beauty of the discipline of the Lord, is He cuts off the bad. He catches us in our sin and He reveals it to us, and He prunes it.

What a blessing that is. It might be through a confrontation of a friend. It might be through something that you read in His holy word through preaching or it might be through some means that God has given. But no pruning, no discipline, no sanctification, no care, no instruction. It's no more improvement to the soul.

What a horrible thing that would be. And then no cultivation for the improvement of the soil. And he's not going to dig. No more digging. No more breaking up the foul of ground, no more removing the rocks.

You'll still break your implements in that field. And it will be hard to cultivate and hard to irrigate, because all those rocks. And you won't get what you need in that field. And then, briars and thorns. But there shall come up briars and thorns, hindrances, roadblocks, difficulties.

The Bible says God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. The Bible speaks of it as running against the wind. This is what God is designing to do to His people because they were saying, what have you done for me lately? Because they somehow believed that God could do more for them and they wanted more. They actually wanted something different than what God had provided them.

And then, no rain. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. Here's the sovereignty of God over the clouds. He commands the clouds. He is sovereign over everything.

Inanimate objects. He is sovereign over nature. Every type of, every part of nature, including the clouds. You look up in the sky and you say, why is that cloud there? It's because God Almighty is commanding the clouds.

You see, you can't even look up into the sky without having a witness of God. You can't even look at a single cloud without being reminded that He commands the clouds. You know, do you think God wants to cheer your soul to help you? To be happy that He's in control every time you look up in the sky? So that you'll know that He is in control, that everything he ordains is good, as we sang earlier.

No rain, parched souls, no dew that waters the grass. You know, in the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 it starts out, Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass. Well, all that's gone. That watering to make the plant succulent is no more. And we all dry up without it.

No living water, no heavenly drink. And this is what happens when an unbeliever has rejected God and it also happens when a believer does not take what is in the vineyard God makes life very very hard for the rebellious. Have you noticed that? If you want to rebel against God, this is what happens to you. This is what happens to you.

No protection. Your walls are broken down. You just get worse and worse from no pruning. There's no cultivation or improvement to your soil. The briars and the thorns come up and choke things out and there are roadblocks everywhere because God is opposed to the proud and there's no rain and that's what happens to you when you turn away from God.

And that's why God provided such a beautiful vineyard so that would not happen. He would make it such a well-appointed vineyard that you would have everything you need for life and godliness. Everything for your soul is there for you, but when you rebel, this is what happens to you. This is why we read in Psalm 80 verse 14, Return, we beseech you, O God of hosts, look down from heaven and see, and visit this vine, and the vineyard which your right hand has planted, and the branch that you made strong for yourself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down, They perish at the rebuke of your countenance.

Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the Son of Man whom you made strong for yourself. Then we will not turn back from you. Revive us and we will call upon your name. Restore us, O Lord God of hosts. Cause your face to shine and we will be saved." This is the hope.

This is the hope that's laid out, that there is a man, the Son of God, who's been provided to pour out everything that is needed. And then in verse 7, the vineyard is identified, for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant so that's this it's now decoded now we know exactly who he's talking about So there's the identity of the vineyard, the House of Israel, and then there's also here something that is very surprising to me. Look at the end of verse 7. It's the tenderness of God. He's still calling them His pleasant plant.

Does that strike you as strange? Because He's disciplining them, He's judging them, but He still calls them His tender, His pleasant plant. Again the love of God is proclaimed here. Of course this is Isaiah speaking, he's speaking for God here. He's talking the way that God is thinking.

You can see this in Matthew 20, this long section in Matthew 20. Please turn there, because this really is the fulfillment and the heart of the matter. Matthew 20 verse 1. The Lord Jesus Christ clarifies this song of Isaiah, For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went. Again, he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing idle and he said to them Why have you been standing here idle all day and they said to him because no one hired us And he said to them you also go into the vineyard and whatever is right You will receive So here's a picture of an owner going out to hire laborers. This is the kingdom of heaven. This is the picture in Isaiah chapter 5.

That God, He made this vineyard, He made it so beautiful, He so well appointed it, and then he went and he hired laborers in the vineyard. This is the kingdom of heaven. The owner goes out and he hires laborers, and he brings them to do work in the vineyard, God expects the workers to bring forth fruit. That's why He made the vineyard, because He's desiring fruit. And the landowner is paying, and the first group to be paid only worked an hour.

The second group only worked three hours and the third group worked six hours and the fourth group worked nine hours, but everybody got paid the same. And it's a picture of the mercy of God toward His vineyard. Your reward, at least in terms of your salvation alone, is not connected by how much work you do. Some may put out more work. But God's mercy endures forever.

His mercy overflows to those who are in his vineyard. To a point, to a point, Some of them complain in this parable. But the Lord here in this parable is proclaiming that the Kingdom of Heaven is marked by workers in the vineyard who bear fruit. And that's exactly what Isaiah is saying. That if there's no fruit, there was no root.

And This is the tragedy of a wasted life in the vineyard of the Lord. And then the reason is given for destroying the vineyard at the end of verse 7. He looked for justice, but behold oppression. For righteousness, but behold a cry for help. Now here, he's actually defining certain classifications of fruit, certain kinds of fruit here.

And I think these are broad categories that include lots of subcategories under them. There are many ways that the people of God bear fruit. He says here, he looked, remember he's looking for fruit. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ was looking for when He came into Jerusalem to the fig tree. He was looking for fruit, and He didn't see it.

And here He looked for fruit. He looked for justice. He looked for justice, which is a fruit. But he beheld oppression. He looked for righteousness, but he saw a cry for help.

Now there's a really interesting way that the words are arranged here. He looked for judgment, mishpat, but behold, oppression, mispah, or bloodshed. It's using two words that sound the same, but their meanings are worlds apart. So he looked for one thing, but he got another. He looked for justice.

Justice is doing what is right, having the right response, following the ways of God, bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He was looking for justice. He was looking for the right thing. But he got oppression. This is legal infringement.

This is bloodshed. This is doing the wrong thing. Rather than love, he saw hatred. Rather than joy, he saw despondency. Rather than peace, he saw war.

Rather than patience, he saw rashness and brutishness. Rather than kindness, he saw hardness. Rather than faithfulness, he saw betrayal. Rather than gentleness, he saw Rather than gentleness, he saw brutality. Rather than self-control, he found a raging out of control.

In other words, there was bloodshed. Because the word can mean bloodshed, and it has to do with legal infringement. Rather than justice, oppression, or doing the wrong thing at the right time. Now, there are a number of words that are associated with the word justice in the Bible. When you see the word justice, you see this consistent collection of words around it.

Justice is connected with the widow, with the fatherless, with orphans, with the poor, with the hungry, with the stranger, with the needy, with the weak, and with the oppressed. Justice is almost always connected with these categories of people. So it has to do with the way that you treat people, your relationships with people. You remember in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 17, where He says, Come, let us reason together, though your sins be a scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Calls for repentance and then He calls for the change of your life and He says, Rebuke the oppressor, learn to do good, seek justice, defend the Father, let's plead for the widow.

That's that same consistent usage of this term. It's like Proverbs 24, 11, deliver those who are drawn toward the death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the hearts consider it? Does he not know it? When we get to Isaiah 58, we'll see how this figures in to your life in terms of the times when you fast, when he says, is this not the fast that I have chosen to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and that you break every yoke.

Is there any oppression going on around you? Are you oppressing? Are you oppressing? Or is someone being oppressed? God's people have been put in the world to deal with oppression.

He speaks of partiality. It's about hypocrisy. And then also he says, righteousness, instead of righteousness, a cry for help. And righteousness in the Bible is used in different ways. There's the righteousness of God, His perfect character.

There is the righteousness of God in man through the Lord Jesus Christ as His righteousness is imputed to us. There's that kind of righteousness. And then there is righteous behavior, the righteous deeds of man. Righteousness is used in these different ways. And you just have to see the context to see how it's being used.

And the context here has to do with doing what is right. You know, seek ye first the kingdom of God. And it's speaking of doing the will of God. I think it's connected with what Jesus said in Matthew 5, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." Well, the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees was all on the outside, and there was no truth in the inward parts. John in 1 John 2, 29 says, everyone who practices righteousness is born of God.

That's the kind of righteousness. So instead of righteousness, there was a cry for help. In other words, people are being hurt. How often do we get hurt in this world? How often have we hurt people?

That's the question. Instead of righteousness, there's a cry, and people are crying. Every father has to ask himself this question, are my people crying for help because of my unrighteousness? Every wife and mother has to ask the exact same question. Is anyone in my house crying because of my unrighteousness?

Every person on every level, you know, Siblings often are so hard on each other, and there's a cry for help in the family, but it turns to bitterness, separation. But instead of righteousness, there's a cry for help. These are the things that God sees, and this is the reason He's judging His people. This is the way that He's taking away their protections. This is the reason He's not pruning them.

This is the reason He's not continuing to break up the ground and remove the stones. This is why He's withholding the rain from them. He's doing this to drive them to repentance on the one hand and to destroy them on the other hand as a picture of what he will do with all those who rebel against him. You see how the Gospel just runs through this entire picture. You have the love of God, the beneficial nature of God providing everything that's possible.

He did not withhold his own son. How will he not much more give you all things? He did not withhold anything. What more could he have done for his people? He's such a good and gracious Father.

So let's turn to some applications. The first one, I think you could probably anticipate this one, it's a question. Do we cherish and enter into and take advantage of what God has provided for us. Are we taking advantage of what God has done? I mean, what more could He have done for us, really?

What more could He have given us? But His blessings are so common that we often don't see them. Think of what He has done for you. Give thanks and drink it in. Take it all in.

You know, Isaiah was talking earlier about how the people had become filled up. And he said, you are filled with Eastern ways. And I think that sums up pretty much what was wrong with these people. They just filled their vessel up with Eastern ways rather than cherishing the things that God had given them to fill up their souls, to take advantage of them, to go into the secret place, to open up His holy Word, to listen to the preaching, to go and be with brothers and sisters, to engage in the fellowship of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be filled with the Holy Spirit. All of these things.

To go and be found in the way of His blessings. We always have all these different reasons we don't drink Him in. But the truth is they're all just excuses. We say, how am I going to cry out to God? Well, God gave you a carpet on your floor to fall on your face.

There's a closet over there. There's a pathway. There's a road you can walk on to pray. The truth is that we all pretty much do what we want to do. That's the problem.

It's that our desires are too low. David said, One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple, to love the beauty, to hunger for the beauty, to long for it. I mean, the question is, do you cherish what God has provided for you? You know, Eve's problem, and as a result, our problem with sin, resulted from her desiring something different than God. She wanted a different kind of wisdom, something better than God.

And so she exchanged the glory of God for the lie. And she filled her soul with this alternative lifestyle. Even Eve in her perfect existence, just like that vineyard. Know how well-appointed the vineyard was? How well-appointed was the garden?

Absolutely perfect. I think that just tells us that in our human nature, we are so dissatisfied with God. It's part of the bent of our being. But God has provided everything we need. Here's another application.

I know, I know for a fact that all of us have problems in our lives. All of us do. There's a blindness here, there's an overemphasis there, There's a pernicious sin in another person. They take different contours. They all go back to the exact same issue.

But here's a mistake. And that is to think that somehow, you know, God is to blame for our problems in our personal life, in our family life, and in the life of the nation, you know, that somehow God has not done everything He could do to deal with these things. Sometimes it takes the form of when we say, you know, I'll never change, I'll never be able to change. But the truth is that nothing is lacking. That He has given everything to you for life and godliness.

He hasn't withheld anything to you or me. He has given what we need. We're not imprisoned by our background. You're not imprisoned because you didn't have a nice father. You're not imprisoned because you grew up in a home of licentiousness.

God has done everything you need. Everything. What more could God have done to take us out of the miry clay and to rescue us? What more could He have done? He's given us everything we need and we're not stuck we're not we're not held in quicksand so that will never change God has said no temptation has overtaken you but that which is common to man and he will give you a way of escape he's given us everything here's the third Count your blessings.

Count your blessings. What has God provided? He's provided so many things. You know, Friday night our family went over to the Damies to go sing hymns, And I was sitting there singing those hymns. My heart was so thankful.

And I thought, you know, here's such a very, what a simple thing it is. But what a beautiful thing it is to sing, you know, from your heart with the people of God. It's such a small thing, but it's such a beautiful and powerful thing as well. God has given us so many simple things, like even what we're doing right now. I have some awareness of the weakness of this preaching that you're hearing right now.

But I also know that God has designed that we would be blessed by preaching. You know, I've been listening to preaching, and I think maybe it's probably been the last year and a half or something like that, for years, for decades, I hardly listened to other preachers. And then I thought I should do that. And, you know, just this week I said to Deborah, you know, I heard this message, Deborah, I'm so thankful for preaching. It's so good for my soul.

I was there, you know, tears coming down my face because of my thankfulness to God for what He was saying to me and how He was watering my soul. I mean, that man is no different than any other imperfect preacher who ever preached. I'm sure he has problems in his life just like I do. But count your blessings for the simple things. You know, we come in here every Sunday and we come to sit.

Let it be a holy moment of great anticipation to behold the beauty of the Lord. It is a very special thing that we have here. We so take it for granted. I've been doing this every Sunday, every single Sunday since I was in my early teens. Hardly ever missing a Sunday, Hardly ever.

And it can become routine. Don't let it become routine. Count your blessings. Count the smallest blessing, the greatest privilege. We're going to take Lord's Supper in a few minutes, it's such a privilege.

Oh, take it as a privilege. Take it as the cup of blessing from heaven. We so often take for granted the things that God has given. Let's soak them in. After we conclude our time of worship, we're going to move into a time of fellowship.

Soak it in. Go speak the truth in love. Comfort one another. Be filled with the Holy Spirit and help one another. Be a brother, be a sister, be a good spiritual father to someone today.

God has given us these opportunities, these are holy opportunities, and there are so many of them. And also don't forget that God has destroyed the visible church before, and He may do it again, as He was doing here in this place. Well what more could he have done for us? What more could he have done? He really has done everything for us that we need.

It's all here. And so here we are as the people of God gathered together. In my appeal to myself and to my family and to all of us here as a large family, let's take advantage of every grace that God has given. We've just gone through a passage that is so full of the grace of God. It's so packed with what God has done for his people.

I want to close with a couple of Psalms. Psalm 105. Seek the Lord in his strength. Seek his face forever more. Remember his marvelous works which he has done, his wonders and judgments of His mouth.

How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Psalm 84. So that we, as Peter said, might be his newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, having tasted that the Lord is gracious, coming to Him as a living stone, rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious." Let's pray.

Lord, Lord, you have provided so marvelously and now, oh, that you would give us such desire for that abundance, that you would do a work in our hearts to increase our fruitfulness through our desire. Amen.