Good Fruit or Wild Grapes - Eric Troyer

Well, good morning. It's good to be in the house

of God this morning, and good to be with you all.

I want to greet each one in the name of Jesus.

And I enjoyed the singing, the song selections this morning,

and I enjoyed Brother Dan's thoughts on council meeting and

why we are here today. I had some of the

same thoughts and I won't try to repeat everything that

Brother Dan said. But I was looking at some of

those verses as well, thinking about what is council meeting

and why do we do this? It also stood out

to me, he mentioned the phrase of proving oneself. And

that word proving means to test and to scrutinize and

to try yourself. Examine yourself and see if you are

in the faith. Are we walking in the faith this morning?

Are you faithful? The Bible says to examine yourself. It

does not say to examine your brother or your sister.

You're to look inwardly at your own life, at your

own thoughts and your intents. You know those better than

any one of us do. And as Brother Dan mentioned,

I hope that you have examined your life before arriving

here this morning. Hope that you have spent some time

with God examining your life. The reason we examine ourselves...

Is because in 1 Corinthians 11. It talks about eating

and drinking unworthily. And the reason we examine ourselves. Is

to try to make sure that that does not happen.

That we do not eat or drink unworthily. We should

not rush in. To the communion service. We should take

time to analyze our lives. To approach this time with. reverence,

and respect. And if there are things found in our life,

we need to make those right with God and with man.

The title of the message this morning is Good Fruit

or Wild Grapes. For a text this morning, I'll be

reading from isaiah chapter 5 i read these verses some

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

time ago and they they really grabbed my attention they

really stood out to me and i thought that maybe

at some point this could be a message but i

wasn't sure if there was enough here uh to make

a message but then as i started studying i figured

out that there was plenty here maybe more than enough

um There's a lot of good things that we can

pull out of here, so we'll try to do that

this morning. Isaiah chapter 5, verses 1 through 6, I

Isaiah 5:1–6

will read those at this time. It says, Now will

I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved

touching his vineyard. My well-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 winepress 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, betwixt me and my vineyard, what could

have been done more to my vineyard that I have

not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it

should bring forth grapes, brought 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 down. No rain

upon it. This morning I want to think about vineyards.

Vineyards were a very important part of these people's lives

and their culture. Vineyards were vital to the economy and

to people's sustenance of their diets. and so on. They

relied heavily on vineyards. Vineyards were considered a sign of wealth,

a sign of stability, a sign of peace, a sign

of settledness. No war, people are settled, we're at peace.

And one of the main products of of a vineyard

was wine, obviously. There were other things that were produced

from these grapes as well. But wine was the main

thing that was produced. And the reason wine was very

important was because their water sources were not always clean.

If the water did not come from a fresh spring,

it was often tainted. And they would get sick off

this water. And so wine was very important to help

sustain life. When the water was bad, they would drink

the wine. It was safe to drink. Wine was also

used as a cleanser in wounds and so on. They

also took the grapes from these vineyards and they would

dry them in the sun. And they would make raisins,

raisin cakes. from these grapes. They would also take some

of the fresh juice that was extracted from these grapes

and they would boil it down into a thick syrup.

And they would either eat that syrup or they would

mix it with water to make some sort of a

flavored drink. And so it was very important to their lives,

to their livelihoods. And One thing about these vineyards, which

I think is, there's some similarities with our hazelnut orchards,

is that it took significant investment and it took time

before these grapes could be harvested. There was a lot

of work went into these vineyards and a lot of planning,

a lot of sweat and tears, a lot of money. Also,

under the Levitical law, given in, or this can be

found in Leviticus 19, God commanded the Israelites that they

were not to eat the fruit of the vineyard for

the first four years. The first three years of grapes

were considered forbidden. They were considered uncircumcised. In the fourth year,

the harvest was considered holy. It was to be an

offering to to God. And finally in the fifth year

they were allowed to harvest these grapes. And so it

was a long time before they were able to enjoy

the fruits of their labors. So I want to draw

some comparisons from this story of this vineyard and apply

it to our lives today. I want to think of

a vineyard as my life and as your life today.

Your life is like a vineyard. We are God's vineyard.

These vineyards were often planted on hillsides, and I don't

know if you've ever wondered why a vineyard is on

a hillside. But there are several reasons for this. One is,

There's better drainage on a hillside from the rain and

the moisture, and it helps protect the plants from getting

rotted out, from the roots getting waterlogged. When these plants

are on a hillside, they can receive more direct sunlight

than they could if they were on the flat land

or a valley floor. The hillside also was a protection

from frost, and I don't know if you've ever been

up in the mountains in the In the morning or

the evening when the thermals change. In the evenings, when

you're up there, you might be on the side of

a hill and all of a sudden you can feel

cold air coming down and moving past you. And that

is exactly why these vineyards were on hills. It helped

protect from the frost. The cold air would move down

to the valley floor away from the grapes and it

would help to protect them. The hillsides were also good

for better air flow. The air flow helped to keep

the grapes healthy and to combat mold. and rot. It

also helped the fruit ripen more evenly. Also, these hillsides

were generally not suited for other food crops such as grains, cereals,

that type of thing. They would not grow the wheat

and the barley and crops like that as well as

they would grow grapes. And so those very fertile lands

in the valleys were left to the other crops, and

the grapes were planted on these hillsides where they could

contend with the elements a lot better than the other crops.

And so we see here in these verses that God

was very intentional about where he planted this vineyard. He

chose good ground on a very fertile hill. He wasn't

careless about it. but he was very purposeful in where

he planted these little plants. He knew exactly what kind

of soil and what kind of conditions it was going

to take for these plants to succeed and to be fruitful.

He knows just what we need in our lives today

as well. Before this vineyard could be planted, There's some

preparation needed to happen. In verse 2, it says, He

fenced it and gathered out the stones. Now, fenced here

probably does not mean what you think it means. It

was not a fence. To fence it means to dig

it up, to cultivate it, to till it, to work

up the soil. And no doubt when they did that,

they brought up some rocks. These hillsides were rocky. Rocky.

But before they could till up the ground, they would

have to clear off the brush and the thorns and

the briars and put them on a pile and burn them,

get rid of them. After the ground was tilled, they

would go in and they would pick up all these rocks.

And the interesting thing is that they would repurpose these

rocks for something useful. On steep slopes, they would build

terraces with these rocks, and these terraces allowed for these

steep hillsides to be more easily farmed, and they helped

with erosion. As these grapes would begin to grow, these farmers,

if the terrain allowed it, would would come through with

their plow, and they would plow the dirt in between

the rows to help combat the weeds. And no doubt

as they plowed that soil, they probably turned up more rocks.

And the rocks had to be picked up and hauled off,

maybe to build more terraces or to build a wall

or something like that. We'll get to the wall here

in a bit. But Just thinking about this preparation of

the vineyard, there's some similarities I see here in our lives.

When we give our lives to Christ, it is like

the land that is being prepared for a vineyard. The

brush has to be cleared off. The briars, the thistles,

they need to be cleared away. The rocks of sin

need to be dealt with. They need to be gathered

up and removed. from the vineyard. I believe that clearing

our lives of this brush and these rocks is a

crucial part to bringing forth good fruit in our lives.

I don't have to tell you this, but in the

Christian life, sometimes new stones come to the surface. Picking

up the stones is usually not a one and done.

New stones surface. New things come to the light. And

we need to deal with those things. We need to

clear them away. Some stones are on the surface where

they're easy to spot. Some stones are maybe below the

surface where no one can see. What do we do

with those stones that are buried beneath buried beneath the

soil about the stones that are hidden in our heart

what do we do with those things do we try

to remove them or do we just leave them there

what do we do with the stones that are laying

on the surface they're right there we can see them

do we take care of them or do we just

leave them lay and every time we walk by we

stub our toe and we stumble over them and we

fall I believe we need to gather up those stones

of sin in our life. Whatever it may be. It

may be pride. It may be unforgiveness. It may be

a bad attitude. It may be lust. Moral failure. Whatever

it may be, we need to gather those stones up.

And if they're below the surface, we need to dig

them up and get them out into the light. And

if the stone is too big, We may not be

able to move it ourselves. We may need to ask

for help to have others come alongside us and help

us remove this stone from our life. We need to

take those stones and lay them at the feet of Jesus.

And just as some of these stones were repurposed in

this story here, sometimes Jesus chooses to use the stones

from our lives And make something beautiful out of them.

Make something useful. Or he may decide just do away

with them. And we never see them again. But you

know the important thing is not what Jesus does with

the stones. The important thing is that you gather up

the stones. And you bring them to the feet of Jesus.

Proper preparation of the soil. is crucial to harvesting a

good crop. I want to look now at the wall

and the tower. It says that he built a tower

in the midst of the vineyard, And along with the tower,

they would often build a wall or plant a hedge

around the perimeter of these vineyards. If they built a wall,

it was often the stones that were gathered out of

the vineyard, as we talked about already. If it was

a hedge, they would plant some kind of a thorny,

brushy hedge around it. the outside, and usually this hedge

was very unpleasant for anything that would come in contact

with it. And oftentimes if they built a stone wall,

they would lay thorns across the top of the wall

to help deter wild animals and wandering individuals, thieves, and

so on. The reason they wanted to keep these wild

animals and these thieves out obviously they wanted to protect

the fruit that was growing there this fruit was precious

they didn't want to lose it they didn't want wild

boars and foxes and jackals and birds and so on

to come in and to eat the fruit they didn't

want thieves to come in and haul off with a

bunch of grapes this fruit was precious The purpose of

the tower was also to help protect the crop. These

towers were often 15 to 20 feet high, and this

would give the watchman that resided in this tower a

vantage point where he could watch over the vineyard. Sometimes

this watchman was the farmer himself, It wasn't always the farmer,

but there would always be a watchman in this tower

while the grapes were ripening. And sometimes it would be

the farmer himself. And from what I read, sometimes if

this farmer had a family, his whole family would move

into the tower, and they would live there together. through

the time of ripening and be there until harvest was complete.

And they would watch over this crop. They would look

out for these wild animals and for these thieves that

were coming to try to steal the fruit. They would

watch for danger. These towers were also a shelter and

a protection from the weather and the elements. And I

would like to liken the wall and the tower to

God's Word. God's Word is like a wall that helps

us know good from evil. It is like a boundary

that lets us know where we can go and where

we cannot go. His Word is like a tower that

warns us of trouble that may be coming our way

or trouble that is on the outside of the wall.

Our God is a hedge of protection around us. He

watches over us. He keeps us safe from sin and evil.

God is jealous and carefully guards the fruit of our lives.

Our God is a strong tower. Proverbs 18 verse 10 says,

Proverbs 18:10

The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The

righteous runneth into it and is safe. It's a place

of refuge. A place of comfort. And it's a fortress.

I believe these towers signify God as our refuge in

time of need. Our God is a rock. and a

shelter from the storms of life. The end of verse

2 here, it says, He planted it with the choicest vine. Sorry,

that's not the end. In the middle of verse 2,

He planted it with the choicest vine. God did not

want just any old grape vine for His vineyard. He

was very careful about about what he planted. He wanted

the very best for his vineyard. He wanted to give

his vineyard the best chance at producing the best fruit

that it could. I want to look at a few

verses from John chapter 15 in relation to this. John

John 15 · chapter mention John 15:1–4

chapter 15, verses 1 through 4, says this. This is

Jesus speaking here. Jesus says, I am the vine, and

my Father is the husbandman. So we see God the

Father as the husbandman taking care of his vineyard. And

here is his choice vine. I am the true vine,

and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me

that beareth not fruit he taketh away. and every branch

that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring

forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word

which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and

I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,

except it abide in the vine. No more can ye,

except ye abide in me. So we see here that

Jesus is the true vine. Jesus is the choicest vine.

And if we are not connected to this true vine,

We are going to bear wild fruit. Or, I suppose,

potentially no fruit at all. But either way, the result

is going to be the same. In verse 2, every

branch that does not bear fruit, he takes away. If

a branch is not producing, if a branch is not useful,

he takes it away. But then the next phrase kind

of caught my attention. It says this, that every branch

that does bear fruit, he purges it, he prunes it.

And the word purge means to cleanse, to purify, to

take away. What is undesirable? God purges us sometimes. Sometimes

we need to be cleansed. We need to be purified.

We need to take away those parts that are unfruitful.

What is the purpose? He does it so that we

will bear more fruit. Even the branches that are bearing fruit,

he purges so that they bring forth more fruit. And

I think we should stop and consider when we feel

God pruning, so to speak, in our lives, taking away

those branches and pruning them back, we should stop to consider,

is this because I am unfruitful? Or is he cleansing

a fruitful branch so that so that it can bear

more fruit. And if it's because we are unfruitful, then

I think we should sit up and pay attention and

do what we can to become fruitful. And if he

is purifying a fruitful branch, to not let that make

us become bitter but rather to let those experiences build

us up and bring forth better fruit. The wine press.

The wine press was a very important part of the vineyard.

These wine presses were generally hewn out of a big

flat stone And they would hew this out, and they

would cut a drain in the bottom for the juice

to run out. And the juice would run out into

a big vat. They would collect it that way. There

was often a big beam or something above this wine

press where they could attach ropes. And these ropes were

used for the people that would tread out the wine

for them to hold on to so they wouldn't lose

their balance. So they would bring grapes and they would

dump it in the wine press and there would be

several people in there in their bare feet and they

would hang on to these ropes and they would tread

out the wine. Wine presses were built with the expectation

that there was going to be a harvest. If there

wasn't going to be a harvest, what is the point

of a wine press? Why go to the bother? I

believe the wine press represents God's rightful expectation that there

will be a harvest of fruit in our lives. The

time of harvest was a very happy time. From what

I read, there was a lot of singing, a lot

of laughing, a lot of joy and gladness at harvest

time because of the abundant fruit and the blessing. And

here again, I think the wine press can represent the

gladness and the realization of the anticipated harvest. God is

looking forward to the harvest, and he will receive it

with joy. God is glorified by our fruit bearing. as

long as it is good fruit. I believe the wine

press also represents the end of time and a coming judgment.

A time when the harvest is complete. As we see

in these verses, God was expecting a harvest. And we

see God coming to his vineyard looking for fruit. But

what did he find? It says he did not find

good fruit. He only found wild grapes. And can you

imagine the disappointment of investing all this time, all this money,

all this blood, the sweat and the tears, and waiting

for years for this good fruit to be able to

enjoy it. And you come to these branches and you

pull back the leaves and you look at the fruit

and it's wild grapes. Something undesirable and useless. Does no good.

In verse 4. Seems like this is God lamenting here.

And he says what could have been done more to

my vineyard. That I have not done in it. What

more could I have done. What more could I have

given this vineyard. Than I already gave it. God has

provided everything we need. to produce good fruit, and to

live holy and righteous lives. He gave us the tender care,

the nurturing. He gave us the nutrients. He was the

wall of protection around us, the tower protecting us from

sin and evil. He spent time pruning and purifying. He

sent the rain. He has shown us the way to salvation.

He's given us his word, the Bible. He gave us

his only begotten son who bled and died for us.

He paid the debt for our sin in full. He

gave us the Holy Spirit, the comforter, to guide us

and direct us and convict us of sin. What more

could God do for us? You know, possibly the only

thing God could have done to ensure good fruit is

to make us spiritual robots without a choice in the matter.

God could have done that. But that's not what he wants.

It's not what he chooses. He gives us that free choice.

He gives us everything we need to bear good fruit.

He wants us to choose to love him. To choose

to be connected to the true vine, Jesus Christ. To

choose to bear good fruit and not wild grapes. And

he wants us to choose when he comes along and

he prunes us back. He purifies us. To let those

experiences bring forth better fruit. To not be bitter. But

to bring forth fruit abundantly. Woe to us if we

produce wild grapes. As we can see here, the end

result of producing wild grapes is not one that is desired.

The end result is not one of joy and happiness.

That fruit was not met with the happiness of a

good harvest of good fruit. We see here God taking

away his hedge of protection. He broke down the wall.

It was trodden underfoot. He let the vineyard go to waste.

He did not continue to prune it. He didn't plow it.

He didn't pick up the rocks anymore. He did not

try to control the weeds that sprung up. It simply

was not useful to him anymore. He withheld the life-giving rain.

That he had sent before. Those whose fruit is wild grapes.

Is not going to be met. With the joy and

the happiness of harvest. But rather with the realization. Of

time and energy wasted. And if we find wild fruit

in our lives. I would beg of us. To get

rid of that wild fruit. To bring those things to God.

To confess them. And to make sure that we are

connected to the true vine, Jesus Christ. And so my

hope and my prayer is for all of us this

morning that as we have examined our lives and as

we make expression of that this morning that it can

be that of good fruit. And that as we share

We can experience the joy and the happiness and the

encouragement of lives that are connected to Jesus, the true vine,

and bearing good fruit. Let's kneel for prayer. Father in heaven,

we come before you. We thank you that you are God.

Thank you for Jesus and his blood and for what

he did for us on the cross. I just pray

your blessing on this service this morning and pray you

bless our time of sharing. Pray that our hearts would

be open and just pray that you would work in us.

I pray that our lives would be found with good

fruit and not wild fruit. And Lord, please help us

if there is wild fruit in our lives to purge

that fruit out and to be connected to the true

vine just help us to walk in your will help

us to walk in your way i pray that you

be at the remainder of the service just pray your

blessing upon it and just pray you go with us

today guide us and direct us in jesus name we

pray amen Let's sing number 846.