MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(REVISED: 2022)
TEXT: Isaiah 5:1 7; 1 Peter 2:9; Matthew 6:10; 1 Corinthians 10:6
A. 18 years ago, down in TX, I spent 6 days on jury duty, most of that time as a juror in a child custody case. The father of a 12 year old boy was seeking primary custody of his son from the boy's mother.
It was quite an eye opening experience, & I want to tell you about it. The mother, 31 years old, had 5 children by 4 different men, & was never married to any of them. She & her children had moved often, living with different men each time.
At times the children had been parceled out to live with her mother who had had 3 children without benefit of marriage, or with her sister who had 2 children & had never been married, either.
This young mother had been arrested frequently for public intoxication, & had disappeared for days at a time, leaving her children behind.
She had often been fined for public intoxication & for traffic violations, but had never paid any of the fines. So there were outstanding arrest warrants with her name on them.
Even though some of these warrants were 5 years old, she had never been served, possibly because then the court would have been responsible for taking care of her 5 children. And the mother knew it.
Shortly after the boy in question was born, the boy's father had moved away & straightened out his life. He started attending church, began a business, developed a good reputation, & gotten married.
He acknowledged his responsibility for the boy & for years had regularly provided child support. As a result, for most of the boy's life, the father had been allowed custody of the boy each summer.
But when the boy was 10 years old the mother told the father that she would never let him see the boy again. So he began this child custody lawsuit.
Meanwhile, the mother & her 5 children & her sister with her 2 children were living together in welfare provided housing.
A few months before this trial a man had moved in with her, & a couple of weeks before this trial started they got married. Five days later, both of them were arrested for selling cocaine.
And it wasn't for the first time. A month before that he had been arrested on exactly the same charge. Now he was in jail again. But the authorities dismissed the charges against her so that she could take care of her children.
Of course, I'm skipping a lot of sordid details, but you've heard enough to get the picture. So when the case was turned over to the jury, I assumed that it would take just one vote to turn the boy over to his father. But I was wrong! The first vote was 9 to 3 for the mother!
As we discussed it, I was amazed that more than half of the jury saw nothing wrong with the mother's lifestyle, the large number of men she had been involved with (a lot more than just those who fathered children by her), & her many arrests for public intoxication.
“After all, I like to party on weekends, too!” said one juror. Another juror, a social worker, said, “There's nothing wrong with her. That's the way everybody lives today.”
Only one juror on her side expressed concern at all about the drug dealing & the items seized by the drug agents. Here they were, living on welfare, & in their welfare-provided housing they had 4 expensive TV's, 4 top of the line VCR's, 3 camcorders, numerous cameras, gold jewelry, lots of cash, & many other costly appliances, some of which were just stuck away in the closets.
One juror said, “After all, we don't know that these items were bought with drug money. Maybe she just saved money from her welfare checks. Anyway, there's no evidence the boy has been harmed. He makes average grades in school, so the way she lives hasn't affected him.”
Yet, his report cards showed that 7 of his last 10 teachers in elementary school marked him “unsatisfactory” in “Conduct” in his attitudes & actions at school.
The jury foreman was an Asst. Principal, & he & the social worker were the most vocal in saying that the mother's lifestyle had no effect on the boy. He also said the boy’s “unsatisfactory” marks in “Conduct” were probably the result of poor teachers rather than anything the boy did.
“Besides,” he said, “we had lots of drugs in our house when I was growing up, & I don't see anything wrong with that.”
Their primary argument, though, was that taking the boy away from his mother & turning him over to his father might harm the boy emotionally. They argued that they didn't want to witness the terrible scene when the verdict was read if we gave the child to the father.
“It would be chaos with the mother & child screaming & crying together as he is torn away from her there in the courtroom,” they said.
Of course, those of us who voted for the father also expressed our views, & I pled that the boy be given a chance to be exposed to a more normal home environment during his crucial teen years. “He needs better role models than what he has been getting,” we argued.
Well, during the next few hours we voted again & again, & when it came time for the court to be closed for the day we were deadlocked, 6 to 6.
I went home that evening sick at heart, afraid that it was going to be a hung jury. From what had been said it seemed unlikely that anyone would change their vote. There were at least 3 of us who believed that to decide for the mother would virtually doom the boy to a dysfunctional, drug ridden home life.
And although I didn't say it out loud, there was no way I could vote my approval of her lifestyle, & send him back into such a Godless environment.
Sleep evaded me most of the night. I prayed some, & then stayed up until the wee hours of the morning carefully organizing thoughts that I hoped might help some of the jurors reconsider their attitude & their vote.
Well, the next morning we met back in the jury room, & I sat there ready to discuss what had occupied so much of my time the night before. But before anyone else spoke, the foreman stated that during the night he had considered our plea to “give the boy a chance” & had decided to change his vote. Then 3 others said the same thing.
Without any further discussion we voted, & by a vote of 10 to 2, which was all that was necessary in a child-custody case, we voted to make the father the primary custodian of the boy.
The interesting thing is, that in the courtroom when the decision was announced, the mother just shrugged, & the boy didn't show any bad reaction at all. Instead, he just leaned over & started talking with his father.
Yes, there were tears - tears of joy by the father & his parents. The only emotion from the mother was her shrug. One of the 2 jurors who had held out for the mother because of his fear of that traumatic moment, expressed consternation. “Maybe we did the right thing after all,” he said. And I think that we did.
B. Now what is my point in telling you all this? Well, there are two.
1. First of all, what caused 4 of the jurors to change their vote? They’d been so adamant the day before. We had spent almost 7 hours in the jury room, & over & over again they had made it quite plain that they weren't about to change their vote.
Yet during the night all 4 of them had come to the same decision for exactly the same reason. What happened?
The only answer I can come up with is that God’s Holy Spirit intervened & answered our prayers. All my sleepless worry & all my notes went for naught, because God stepped in & answered prayer. God can do that, & I'm convinced He does so far more often than we realize.
2. 2ndly, as I said at the first of this message, it was an eye opening experience for me. But really, it shouldn't have been.
So this morning we're going to look at a passage of scripture in the O.T., & I want you to notice just how current, how up to date, that passage is.
It's a picture of a corrupt society that sounds very much like today. The obvious fact is that human nature hasn't changed much through the centuries. Nor will it change unless it is touched by the Gospel of Christ.
C. Turn your attention with me to one of the few parables in the O.T. It is found in Isaiah 5:1 7, & I want us to look carefully at it. The first 6 verses are as follows:
“I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up & cleared it of stones & planted it with the choicest vines.
“He built a watchtower in it & cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.
“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem & men of Judah, judge between me & my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?
“Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, & it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, & it will be trampled.
“I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, & briers & thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”
These 6 verses tell of a vineyard planted in a fertile field. The field is fenced, the stones removed, & it is planted with the finest vines. A protecting watchtower was built, & a winepress set up. Altogether, a tremendous amount of labor had been lavished on the vineyard.
After this work was done the owner expected a harvest of good grapes & is disappointed when only “bad fruit” was produced.
In vs. 7 Isaiah explains the meaning of the parable. “The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, & the men of Judah are the garden of His delight. And He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”
D. When Isaiah began his ministry immorality had utterly destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel & had eaten like a cancer into the southern kingdom of Judah. The worship of God had sunk into obscurity, & heathen idol worship with its immoral ceremonies set up in its place. It was a time of moral degradation.
Up to this time God had always cared for & protected the Jewish nation. In every national emergency a way of escape had been provided. When God led them out of Egypt, He sent Moses to show the way & gave them His written law. When Moses was gone, God provided Joshua as their leader.
When Joshua was gone God provided 400 years of leadership through the Judges. Then, contrary to God's will, they wanted a king. But not even then did God forsake them. No wonder Isaiah called Israel the well cared for vineyard of God.
It isn't strange then to read that God exclaimed: “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?” In other words, after God has done everything possible to promote right living & right thinking, why will man persist in living on the level of animals or worse?
Israel is not the only nation that God has blessed. He guarded & guided them, & He was going to use them for a very special purpose. But other nations & peoples have been the objects of God's care, too, & God must also have expected something from them.
I. AMERICA STANDS UNDER HEAVY OBLIGATION
If in God's sight, the receiving of His blessings calls for greater responsibility, then we in America must stand under heavy obligation.
I believe that the God who showered His blessings & protection on Israel of old has done the same for us. And as He looked for a harvest of righteousness & justice from Israel, so is He also looking for such a harvest from us.
But what does He see? He now sees in our nation a standard of morality totally foreign to His will! There are “bad grapes” aplenty in the American vineyard.
ILL. A generation ago the drinker was held in disrepute. Now the one who will not drink is pictured as an odd ball.
A few years ago the gambler was frowned upon. Now, many cry out that gambling is the only way to save our states from financial collapse. Magazines, movies, & TV glorify sexual relationships outside of marriage. They tell us we're only animals, & so many act like it!
It is said that each generation sets its own moral standard, & the unchanging divine moral standard of Jesus is completely ignored. No wonder the God of the vineyard asks, “Where are the good grapes?”
APPL. We need also to realize that the lesson of the parable of the vineyard does not just apply to Israel & America.
II. THE CHURCH IS ALSO UNDER OBLIGATION
A. This lesson applies to the church, too. Over & over Jesus speaks of His kingdom, His church, as a vineyard. Besides that, in 1 Cor. 10:6 Paul tells us what happened to Israel was written down for our warning. Listen to his words, “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”
And Peter says of the church: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).
B. God has great expectations of us. He has done all that could be done to produce the right kind of harvest. He gave Jesus, heaven's best gift, that “(His) kingdom (might) come, (His) will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10)
He gave heaven's best guide, the Holy Spirit, & the world's most wonderful book, the Bible. Having done all this, He looks at His vineyard expectantly. He expects us to bear good fruit. “Freely ye have received, freely give,” He tells us (Matthew 10:8).
He expects a different lifestyle from us than from the rest of the world. “Come out from among them & be separate,” (2 Corinthians 6:17) He tells us.
He expects an evangelized world. Surely He expects His command, “Go into all the world & preach the good news to all creation” (Matt. 28:19) to be obeyed, or He would not have given it.
SUM. Yes, the harvest the Master expects of His followers is written so clearly that anyone can see it.
B. But the question comes, “Is God disappointed in the actual harvest?”
In place of the harvest He is looking for, He sees indifference, & a harvest of “bad grapes” that must break His heart. In place of “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (1 Peter 2:9), He sees selfishness, envy, unforgiving spirits, & a general lack of dedication.
In place of an evangelized world, the Master, after nearly 2000 years, looks upon a world in which millions still have not heard the good news about Jesus. And the sad thing is that many are not concerned about it.
ILL. A famous Russian story tells of a lady who wept great tears in a theater over fictitious suffering, while her coachman froze to death outside in the cold.
Are we like that? Are we touched by a sermon & then walk out & quickly forget about the plight of our lost neighbor?
CONCL. The lesson in this parable not only applies to Israel of old, to America & the Church, but it also applies to individuals. Our nation will be changed for the better only as individuals are changed. The church will be revived only as its individual members are revived.
Do you remember? The parable of the lost sheep teaches that even one lost soul is precious in God's sight. Heaven gave its greatest gift so you & I might be saved. His cruel death upon the cross was endured so you & I might live.
So if you live a life without Him, or worse, go into eternity without Him, you do so in spite of all that He has done for you.
INVITATION
