'THE WILD GRAPES"
‘THE WILD GRAPES”
Isa. 5 and 27
Sunday, July 21, 2013, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Isa. 5:1: “I will sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard”.
In Texas, it is the season of the ripening of grapes. This past Wednesday evening, Sandra and I drove up to the cattle gate to the church. I got out to unlock the gate and directly over my head hanging from the Fir tree was hanging boughs of wild grapes.
On Tuesday, I had preached from Isaiah 5, which is the parable of the Lord’s Vineyard.
On Wednesday evening, the Lord gave me a sign straight out of heaven of the “wild grapes”.
“My well-beloved (God= Father, Son and Holy Spirit) has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill (Zion). He fenced it, gathered out the stones thereof, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the midst of it, made a winepress therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.”
In preparation to teach this message, I did my due diligence of study and applied it as present truth to the church, our leaders (spiritual and governmental), our nation and nations of the world who are not producing the fruit of the Kingdom of God.
However, as I began to bring the message forth, it became clear that just as this is the season of the ripening of grapes, this message was indeed present truth for a spiritual defect in our society of the nation as a whole. The Lord is not pleased with the outcry over the Martin/Zimmerman trial.
Isaiah prophesied this message in Isa. 5 as a rebuke to the nations of Judah and Israel for the sins of their leaders (spiritual and governmental). The sins listed are: covetousness, drunkards, who have no regard for the work of the Lord, neither consider the work of His hands; those that multiply sin; those that have no sense of right and wrong because of depravity; woe to those who do evil and mock God. Woe to those who are proud and wise in their own eyes. Woe to those who take away the righteousness of the righteous.
5: 22:23: “Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink; which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.”
The sins of the United States are many.
(1) – Taking prayer and honor of God out of schools and public places.
(2) - Abortion
(3) - Legalizing same sex marriages.
(4) - Legalizing drugs.
(5) - Sex Trafficking
(6) - Prostitution
(7) - Legalizing gambling.
(8) - Pornography
(9) - Sexual abuse of children.
(Just to name a few)
Due to the politicizing of the Martin/Zimmerman trial, we again see the purposeful and intentional opening of the wound of racism by our political leaders for their political agenda.
I personally do not believe in “racism”. I don’t have a drop of it in me, nor does Jesus. Racism in no way profits the Kingdom of God. If it does not profit the Kingdom, it does not profit me. I was not raised in a racist home, nor were my children raised in a racist home. I have stayed “aloof” to the trial, turning off the TV when the news media be-labored it.
However, as I began to preach the message, the Holy Spirit began to preach the message that there is a “blight” in the Sprit of our nation and it is the spirit of liberalism that is stirring the strife and wounds of racism.
Isa 5: 3-7: “O inhabitants of the United States of America (inhabitants of the world), I pray you make a distinction between me and My vineyard. What could I have done more for your nation than I have done in it? I looked that it should bring forth grapes, but you have brought forth wild grapes. I will tell you what I will do to you inhabitants of the United States of America (inhabitants of the world), 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. I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned, not dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. Fir the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is His Kingdom and the church His pleasant plant. He looked for judgment, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry.”
The word for “cry” here represents riots, clamor of blood-shedding, lawlessness, etc.
The highest governmental office of this land has purposely incited the people to riots and demonstrations to change the laws and to “take away the righteousness of one who has been declared righteous in a court of law”.
After preaching this message on Tuesday morning under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, I began to second guess myself. I know there are those who will read this who are so spiritual they would never second guess themselves. Well, like I said, I personally am “aloof” to this whole situation and did not want to address it. However, I re-typed the message exactly the way the Holy Spirit gave it to me on Tuesday and posted it.
All day Wednesday I am in a battle between my “aloofness”, wanting to disassociate myself and certainly our church from this whole unpleasant blight in our society and the Spirit of God asking me to not let His Word (Sword) fall to the ground. “After all Lord, we have a conference next week and I need a “sweet sermon”.
Wednesday evening – drive up to the church---- I see the wild grapes are ripe and hanging from the tree (over my head) where I could not miss seeing them getting out of the car. I wasn’t looking for wild grapes. I was hoping for a “sweet sermon”.
Yes, I knew it was a “sign”! This is the time of the ripening of the wild grapes. It is also the time of the ripening of the wild grapes of this spiritual blight in our nation. In the eyes of God, this is not “racism”, or “politics”, it is “spiritual”. The Lord is sending an “on-time” message to our nation.
You would think after receiving a “sign”, I would be so excited to preach an “on time” message.
I still didn’t want to preach this message. I knew I would. However, I also knew I had to spiritually get to the place where I could stand and preach it regardless of the outcome with a “Thus saith the Lord”. I also had to be absolutely sure it was a message from the Lord, and not my own fallacy of being too intense.
I asked the Lord for some fun, laughter, sense of humor, not taking myself too seriously, and lighten up. I went to the Keith Miller conference in Houston. I got a good dose of all of the above from Bobby Conner, Dusty Kemp and John Kirkpatrick.
Also, a lady, whom I had never met, walks up to me and tells me, “There is something the Lord has asked you to do and you are walking all the way around it, to get right back to what He asked you to do in the first place.” I thanked her.
God’s judgment against the fruit of wild grapes in His vineyard 5:25: “The anger of the Lord kindled against His people, and He has stretched forth His hand against them, has smitten them; and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.”
The judgment for Israel was the destruction from the Babylonians and/or the Assyrians (history is unclear). In verses 5: 26-31, Isaiah vividly portrays that God is in full control of international history. The armies of the earth march at his bidding. 5:25: “He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far…”
As I was closing out the message on Tuesday, a prophecy came forth:
“Satan has three of his strongmen: Islam, Liberalism and Socialism, who are powers and principalities controlled by demonic powers of equal authority in the kingdom of the cosmos. Communism is a lesser power under the control of Socialism. All are under the over-all power of the spirit of anti-christ. These are the present day demonic strongholds that are sent to destroy the fruit of the Vineyard of the Well-beloved.”
I shared this Wednesday night at our prayer meeting. Terry Deckard said what does this mean for us to act on this? My replay, “I don’t know”.
However,
Isaiah 27: ‘IN THAT DAY, the Lord with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan, the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”
- The piercing serpent
- The crooked serpent
- He is a sea serpent
He is king over all the children of pride
Leviathan is symbolic of Satan.
There are three adjectives to describe the Lord’s sword (His Word):
- Sore
- Great
- Strong
Some may interpret this as triple judgment upon the supernatural powers of darkness behind the oppression of His Vineyard.
In chapter 5, Isaiah sang the funeral dirge of God’s vineyard. Here in chapter 27 is a joy-song of triumph of the Vineyard coming to life again after he silences all of the enemies of His Kingdom. These enemies are symbolized by Leviathan. The three are a reference to the beast, the false prophet and Satan, the unholy trinity.
It is the Lord’s Vineyard (His Kingdom, His purpose) that is in view here. The nations of the cosmos and their leaders are only in place to serve the purposes of the Lord.
“Isa. 27: 2-5: “IN THAT DAY sing you to her, a vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it. I will water it every moment; less any hurt it. I will keep it night and day. Fury is not in Me; who would set the briers and thorns against Me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. Or let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.”
The Lord Himself will with absolute certainty defend, protect, restore and bring forth the wine (Holy Spirit) of His Vineyard. It will be kept by Him, and watered every moment. The plant of his choice shall fill the face of the world with fruit! The broken and scattered people are to be brought back at the sound of the trumpet, and are to realize their highest vocation, which is to worship the Lord in the heights of Zion!
The Lord is not angry with His vineyard anymore. He challenges His enemies whom he likens to briers and thorns that would burn by the fury of God in battle. Or if the enemy does not want to be burned like briers and thorns in the fire, let him take hold of the strength of the Lord and make peace with Him. If the enemy will do this, he will be blessed with the Vineyard.
Isa. 27:6: “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.”
Jacob stands not only for the nation of Israel, but for the Kingdom of God which has been planted by the Lord to fulfill this prophecy that the Christian church fill the face of the world with fruit. From Israel came the Holy Scriptures and Jesus Christ. From the United States has come missionary fervor and evangelism filling the face of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Pilgrim and Settlers went forth by the wind and will of God to establish this nation as a land that will worship God.
27: 7-8: “Has he smitten him as he smote those that smote him? Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? In measure, when it shoots forth, you will debate with it, He stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind. By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged. This is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.”
The answer to these questions is that God did not destroy His people as He did their enemies who sought to destroy them. He punished them for their sins but He will redeem and restore them, whereas He destroyed their enemies.
The false branch man is described in verse 11: “When the boughs (harvest will dry up) thereof are withered, they shall be broken off; the women come, and set them on fire, for it is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor.”
27: 12-13: “It shall come to pass IN THAT DAY, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. It shall come to pass IN THAT DAY, that the great trumpet shall be blown (to announce Jubilee of Luke 4:18), and they shall come which was ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.”
Today, Christians and Jews in Egypt and throughout the Middle East are being martyred and persecuted for their faith. There is a day, an appointed day when the Lord will gather them unto Himself.
For the Christian, the holy mount at Jerusalem is Mt. Zion.
“Zion is the place where praise to the Lord is perfected; a praise which arises out of a perfect rest in the Lord, so much so that silent expectation becomes praise in Zion. Zion is the realm of perfection. Zion is where God reins in the now. It is the realm from which the scepter (Rod) of His strength is stretched forth. The mercy-seat in the Most Holy Place is the throne of grace from which this new life issues. Zion is the most established and sure place in the world. No government, nation, refuge, or stronghold of this age can compete with it. Zion has a King who reigns forever in a Kingdom which extends to all generations. He is alive. His name is King Jesus!
Isa. 4: 5-6: “The Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory shall be a defense. There shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.”
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V.