God's song is a sad song of disappointment when his people, like a vineyard, fail to produce the fruit he expects. Despite meticulous preparation and care, the house of Israel and men of Judah brought forth wild, poisonous grapes instead of the expected fruit. This failure led to God's judgment and desolation of the vineyard, serving as a solemn warning that God tolerates unfruitful lives only for a time. The sermon concludes by urging listeners to examine their own lives for fruitfulness and to seek God's pardon and renewal to live according to His will.
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I sing because I'm happy I sing because I'm free For if I assume the sparrow And I know he watches me Why should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows come? Why should my heart be lonely and long for heaven and home?
When Jesus is my portion, my constant friend is He. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. Whenever I am tempted, Whenever clouds arise, When song gives praise to sighing, When hope within me dies.
I draw the closer to him, From care he sends me free, His eye is on the sparrow. And I know he watches me. His eye is on the Pharaoh. And I know he watches me. Well, I sing because I'm happy.
I sing because I'm free, For his eye is on the Pharaoh, And I know he watches me. Why should I sing of lesser things and things that pass away When I've a friend like Jesus now To sing about each day He is the theme of angels' song that fills the heavens above, should I not join their chorus sweet and praise the Lord I love.
I have no song to sing, but that of Christ my King, To him I praise I'll bring forevermore. His love beyond degree, his death that ransomed me, now and eternally. I'll sing it all.
I find no more delight in other songs. My melody of love to Christ beloved. have no song to sing, but add up Christ, my King, to him my praise I'll bring, forevermore.
When I opened my heart's door to Jesus, He filled me with joy never known, a joy that abideth forever. is centered in Jesus alone. Deep down in my heart, the love of Jesus is singing. Deep down in my heart, his peace and joy are springing.
Deep down in my heart, sweet hope is comforted, bringing love, peace, joy, hope are singing deep down in my heart. He gave me a hope never dying, A seeing his face some glad day, And I on my way go rejoicing with joy, Peace and hope as might stay.
Deep down in my heart the love of Jesus is singing. Deep down in my heart his peace and joy are springing. Deep down in my heart Sweet hope, its comfort is bringing love, peace, joy, hope, Our singing, sit down in my It's number three hundred and sixty-six.
And it might interest you to know that although these were two generations ago, Lucy Dex, who is now Lucy Shaw, also seems to have inherited this poetic gift and is her self-writing poetry these days. Mary J. Walker was a sister to George Deck, and she wrote this well-known hymn, Jesus, I will trust thee, trust thee with my soul, guilty, lost and helpless, thou canst make me whole. Three hundred and sixty-six, and we'll rise in a moment to sing. Let's stand and sing.
And you sang so well this morning. You have to sing better tonight because there are a few more of you here. Sing it out now. Jesus I will trust me, trust me with my soul. If they love me, help them, but that makes me whole. There is God in heaven, sure, and that's my way. Love has died for sinners, therefore for thee. In my love I'm finding, I will sleep thy face.
Lord, it's best for glory, for thy husband's praise. Me, because I just trust thee, trust me with my soul. Here we love can help with the fountain's way home. Dream of life and swathe me, found my written word. Since my voice was heard, I have entered. When my spirit is speaking, till my faith comes to sleep. Only say thy heart and say, now I see.
In thy love confining, I will be like me, Were you tender, surely, Don't sit down. Although she didn't write this one, we're going to sing a verse of number one. How great thou art. Don't open to it, because you don't need. Oh, Lord my God, when I in awe of someone.
Oh, Lord, you know, when I in awe of the Lord. that my hands are ready. I feel God. I feel calling on the earth. I walk with love. My universe will pray. This is my hope. I fear God will see. I'll praise God. How great thou art!
This is my love, my Savior God will be! How great thou art! How great thou art! Now, tucked away in our tape room down here, we have a gentleman who chided me this morning. But more about that later. I'm going to give him another headache now. How many members of the choir do we have here tonight? Let me see. Put your hands up. Members of the choir, put them right up where I can see them. All right. Well, let's have you up here and bring your hymn book with you.
Will you please? Oh, the Anglican Church is home On my death was given so I can teach the more I know While it goes the winter is long I'm an anchor, safe and sure Let me live the morning do And you go, I can go Do you love the land you give?
Do your heart with soul and prayer? Are you free to doubt your prayer? Are my angels home? Now my angel home Ninety nights upon this day, Heaven's earth within the deep, And we come to take a stride, And to stand with light and light, Will I stand at this and shine, For my efforts will lift the rock?
And you know what I can tell you. Do you follow what I will give? On my heart to call and pray. I be praised, but shall not be. For my air and air. And go home. This morning we sang a new chorus, an old chorus that's a new chorus.
Glory to God, He lifted me up. He lifted me up, I know. He reached down His hand and He lifted me up. That's why I love Him so much. I love Him more and more. I love Him more and more. And when it lasts, I reach the other shore. I love Him more and more. Let's try it together again. Glory to God, He lifted me up. He lifted me up, I know. He reached out His hand, and He lifted me up. That's why I was in school. I love him more and more.
I love him more and more. And when at last I reached the other shore, I love him more and more. Together, Thank you, Jesus, for all you've done. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for victory, Lord. Oh, thank you, Lord.
for thy love and tender care, for thy word and answer prayer. Thank you, Jesus, for all you've done. Thank you, Lord. and the man who is tucked away in our booth here, and he can see me and I can see him, but you can't see him. He chided me because he was trying so hard to record the whole service, and then I blew it by calling for testimonies from the floor, and there was no microphone, and so he was left high and dry.
However, he tried to get his own back by saying to me that I had not spoken of the sweetest song, and he didn't know, but he was giving me my introduction for tonight. Let me read to you a verse that he gave to me, not for the first time, incidentally, but it's a very appropriate one. Both he that sanctifies... And they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
Now we've been talking and we've been singing about our singing, and here is a reference to his singing. And he gave me a little poem here. by a man named R. Henry, whom I do not know, but it's a very beautiful poem, so I'm going to open with it. What's the sweetest song in heaven? Not the angel choir I know, nor yet those blood-washed sinners who whiter are than snow. They shall sing of him who is worthy, and bought them with his blood, ransomed them from every nation, made them kings and priests, to God.
But when Jesus looks with gladness at that glorious ransomed throng, who are there because he suffered, in their midst he'll sing a song. Such a note of praise so glorious, and there was heard since Adam fell. But the Son of God victorious triumphed over death and hell. Whiterode, the saints shall then be silent, angel hosts, shall fold their wings. T'will be heaven's sweetest music when the Lord of Glory sings. And so there it is, the sweetest sound in heaven.
But that's not the only occasion where we read of God singing. Let me read to you another one. It's in Isaiah chapter five. Some three years or so ago I sought to put this chapter for some of you into perspective here in the prophecy of Isaiah. But tonight we're just going to concentrate on these early verses. And God begins, now will I sing. We have been thinking about music. And we talked first of all about the history of music among the people of God.
And then we talked about the importance of music to the people of God. And this morning the experience of music within the people of God. And tonight we're going to talk about the sadness of music about the people of God. And I may have been preaching in the early part of the service But tonight is the night when I start to meddle. Because all of this is meant to speak to our hearts. There is a verse that I think is appropriate and that perhaps I should read to you first.
And it goes like this. And the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man... What is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? Or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel. The fire devoureth both ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it meat for any work? Now, chapter five of Isaiah.
Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein, and he looked that it should bring forth grapes. And it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you be to exme and my vineyard.
What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes. And now go to. I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up. And break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. And I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned nor digged. But there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain, no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant.
And he looked for judgment or justice, and behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cross. And then come a series of woe unto Israel. will I say. And God's song here is a very sad song. In that coming day of which we read, it's a very triumphant song. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied, hence the song that we read about in Hebrews chapter two.
But not here. There's a question asked in the New Testament. Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruits thereof? It's unheard of. It's not for a moment to be thought of. Look at us. Look at us to even think of the idea. It is a ludicrous thought, but it's what happens here. And I want you to notice the care of the vineyard owner. the vineyard. But of course, because of course it is his vineyard, now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard.
There's absolutely no question of ownership, it is his very own. And the purpose of a vineyard is to produce fruit. That's why we read in the other verse that A vine has no other use. You cannot even make out of those gnarled and twisted branches and trunk even a pin on which to hang a jacket. All it's useful for, if it doesn't produce fruit, is fuel for the fire. It has no massive trunk, like the oak tree has, to produce useful timber.
It doesn't have a pleasant wood, like the ash, to provide decent fuel. It doesn't have luxurious fronds, like the palm tree, to afford welcome shade. It doesn't even have stately beauty like the poplar to please the eye. The purpose of the vine is to produce fruit, and it has no other. There is no substitute for the fruit of the vine, no fruit, no use. Now we are told here that God is speaking of the house of Israel and the men of Judah.
But these words are written for our learning, and they are written also to be a challenge to our hearts. If God expected his people in the past, to be a fruit-bearing people, then God expects His people in the present to be a fruit-bearing people. And wonderful as the situation of this vineyard was, it was no more wonderful than our situation as the vineyard of God today. Its situation was on a hill. Now those of us who've been to Israel... and have traveled by bus around Israel, have noted the vineyards always on a hill, and on a hill that faces in the right direction so that it gets the right amount of sun and the right amount of shade.
This was such a hill. But it was not only a hill chosen for its special situation. but a very fruitful hill. That is, it was a hill with fertile soil, a very fruitful hill. Not just a fruitful one, but a very fruitful one. Everything that was conducive for the vine to grow and to produce. There was no excuse for lack of fruit from this vine. because its situation was perfect.
Now when the word of God speaks of our being as children of God in Christ, we are immediately brought face to face with the fact that our situation is perfect, like the vine on a hill, on a fruitful hill, on a very fruitful hill, for in the Lord Jesus Christ there is everything that we need to... to have victory in our lives and to produce the kind of fruit that God has a right to look for. The situation is perfect. And you'll notice that the separation is just as perfect.
It says the vineyard was separated from outside evil and it was separated from inside evil. The things that would hinder from the outside were barred, and the things that would hinder from the inside were removed. It says he fenced it. That was its protection from the outside. Do you remember when Satan came with the sons of God and presented himself before the Lord? Don't ask me why the Lord allowed him to do that. I don't know. But he evidently did, because the word of God tells us so, and God challenged him, hast thou considered my servant Job?
And Satan's reply to God was, does Job serve God for naught? You put a hedge about him. And Satan was absolutely powerless to breach it. Now God gave him permission to test Job and put Job into special circumstances. But Satan said, thou hast put a hedge about him. The word of God speaks of our being sanctified. That means being set apart. And that involves being fenced in from the evil things that would intrude upon us from the outside.
And then it says, He gathered out the stones thereof. Now again, if you have visited Israel, you know that the land is full of stones. Before a man can start to do anything as far as crops are concerned, he has to spend hours and hours and hours backbreaking hours taking the stones out of the ground so that he can plant therein. That's the reason why there are so many stone walls in Israel. They didn't know what else to do with the stones, and there were so many of them that they built low walls all around their fields, and even when they divided their fields up.
They made use of the stones. Here the vineyard is protected from the outside, and it is separated from the evil on the inside. And that is not all. Here we have a vineyard on a hill, on a fruitful hill, on a very fruitful hill. We have a vineyard that is fenced around, and the soil of which has had to give up all of its stones so that its fertility might be used to the utmost. But then it said, it says, He planted it with the choicest vine.
The vineyard owner was not sufficient, it was not sufficient for him that the situation should be perfect, and that the separation should be complete. He planted it with the choicest vine. The moment you said, Lord Jesus, come into my heart and be my safe. The Spirit of God took up his abode in your heart. God has planted it, that is your heart, to the choicest vine. Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost?
Don't you realize that because of where you are in Christ and because of how you are, protected and separated, and because of what you have in the Spirit of God, God has every right to look with expectancy in your direction for fruit. Now there are many different kinds of fruit, and some believers are fruitful in one way, and some believers are fruitful in another way. Some believers are fruitful in different ways yet again.
But there is no substitute for fruit of some kind in the life of the believer. He planted it with a choicest vine. Now all of that involves the preparation for this vineyard or of this vineyard. But now I want you to notice the attention given to It says that he built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine press therein. Now the vineyard owner fully intended that the vineyard should be closely watched and carefully supervised, and its supervision was done from a tower.
And do you know that there is nothing in your life that escapes the eye of God? You know that there is nothing in the way you live that God misses. You know that everything about you is well known to God. Your life is constantly and continually supervised. God has a deep, deep interest in you. The moment you were saved and received the Spirit of God into your heart, God did not say, well, this is it. Now you're on your own. There's never a moment that he closes his eyes. There's never a moment when he turns his back.
He built a tower and he digged a wine press. And the wine press speaks of his expectation from the vineyard. I wonder how much fruit there is from your life passing through his wine press. The attention given to it was as detailed as was the preparation for it. He looked that it should bring forth grapes. I want you to look at the harvest received from it. It brought forth wild grapes.
Now the words there mean something that smells bad. poisoned berries that smell bad. It's a very sad thing, but it's very true that there are some believers' lives who in the nostrils of God smell bad. And sometimes nobody knows anything about it but God. He looks that it should bring forth grapes and it brings forth poison berries. that smell bad. You know that there is nothing, there is no such thing as a barren Christian.
We speak sometimes of barrenness in the lives of Christians, but there isn't any such thing because every believer's life produces. And if it doesn't produce what is good, then it produces what is bad. If it doesn't produce what smells good, then it produces what smells bad. Every believer's life produces. But the question is, what? God's song here, God's music here is sad music because of his desperate disappointment when he had every reason to expect the very best. And instead, he got the very worst.
Instead of that which was nourishing, that which was poisonous. Instead of that which was refreshing, that which was nauseating. It's a very solemn thing to realize that God looks into our lives with the same sort of expectation as he looked into the lives of the people of Israel and the men of Judah. And as they disappointed him, so sometimes do we disappoint him. The story doesn't end there. The preparation for it was very detailed. The attention given to it was very particular.
The harvest received from it smelled very bad. And so it's not surprised that the next thing we read about is the desolation that was wrought upon it. What shall I do to my vineyard? I will take away the hedge. I shall break down the wall. I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned or digged. There shall come a briars and thorns. And the clouds shall not even rain. They rain upon it. There's a very solemn lesson to be learned here. And that is that God only for a certain length of time tolerates.
Christians whose lives smell bad. God has a way of tolerating only for a certain length of time those whose fruit is evil and nauseous. Do you remember that solemn word in First Corinthians? Speaking of the sin of the believers there, we read, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. I really believe, and I say this solemnly, that it's possible for a Christian to die before his time.
Now think about that. If we do not meet... God's expectations and if instead our lives militate against everything that God has in mind for the blessing and salvation of others we put ourselves in a very very perilous position God removed the protection from this vineyard he caused it to be divinely and entirely neglected and eventually it dried up because there was no rain I can almost hear the sob in the voice of God as he says now will I say we have seen how that the orchestra of Israel was a great orchestra four thousand instruments and how the singers sang in their twenty-four divisions.
We have seen how they rejoiced in their singing and how their song was always a time of rejoicing. How tragic that for God it should be so different. I'm praying that I may, and that you may along with me, but we... may search our hearts tonight and ask whether God is disappointed in us, whether God is looking in vain into our lives for the things that he has a right to expect, whether we are putting ourselves in a perilous position because instead of grapes, there are wild grapes.
God enables us to do just that. There is never a day so dreary, There is never a night so long, But the soul that is trusting Jesus will somewhere find a song.
Wonderful, wonderful Jesus, in the heart he implanted the song. A song of deliverance, a courage of strength. In the heart he implanted a song. There is never a guilty sinner.
There is never a wandering one. but that God can in mercy pardon through Jesus Christ, his Son. Wonderful, wonderful Jesus, in the heart he implanted a song. a song of deliverance, a courage of strength, in the heart he implanted a song.
Shall we pray? There is never a guilty sinner, there is never a wandering one, but God can in mercy pardon through Jesus Christ, His Son. And our Father, Speaker and Hearer alike, we are conscious of our shortcomings. We are conscious, O Lord, of the disappointments that thou hast found in our lives, or through our lives, As time has gone by, we realize tonight there may be things that thou art anxious to deal with in our lives, and we pray they might by thy spirit be made very clear to us, so that as we confess them, as we bring them to thee, as we grow concerned about a fruitlessness in our lives, perhaps, or of sin in our lives.
that we may be able to confess these things, turn from them, and then receive from thy gracious and merciful hand the pardon that has just been sung about, so that we might start out afresh with our hands in the hand of God, to conquer where we were defeated, to win, where in the past we fail. Our Father, we thank thee that nothing is impossible with thee. Deep down in our hearts, every one of us, Lord, wants to be what you want him to be.
Satan is so anxious to spoil the plans that you have for us. We ask that he may be totally defeated and that we might find ourselves in the center of thy will and ready to pay whatever price is demanded to do what pleases you.