Hedged In To Prosper
PPT 1 Sermon Title "Hedged in to Prosper"
PPT 2 Alternate title, "Grape Expectations"
This is week 3 in our study of spiritual hedges, we have looked at Job and how hedges provide protection, we also discussed what happens if your hedge comes down, and how to rebuild your spiritual hedge. This week we will be looking at a hedge as a necessary part for optimum fruit bearing. I mentioned earlier in this series the 3 purposes of spiritual hedges.
PPT 3 3 Purposes of Spiritual Hedges
1. Protection (Job)
2. Prosperity (Job & Isaiah 5)
3. A Path to bring alignment with God's Purposes (Hosea)
In the book of Job we mentioned briefly how the hedge of protection also allowed him to prosper financially. In a protected environment his assets grew astronomically. This week we are going to look at Isaiah 5, and John 15, and discuss how God uses a hedge as one part of an overall plan for optimum fruit bearing. God likes fruit, God does everything He can that we would produce abundant fruit. "Herein is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit..". John 15:8. Abundant spiritual fruit bearing is the epitome of what it means to be prosperous. You can be financially prosperous and go to hell, but if you are dead broke and yet spiritually prosperous heaven will be your home.
PPT 4 Walled Garden
A spiritual hedge helps us prosper in two ways, it frees us of worry about enemies, and we can then expend our efforts in other areas.
Here is a passage from the Song of Solomon that speaks of the abundance of blessings found in a walled up, or hedged in garden.
PPT 5 text
Song of Solomon 4:12 A garden enclosed and barred is my sister, my
Song of Solomon 4:13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates or a paradise with precious fruits, henna with spikenard plants,
Song of Solomon 4:14 Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all the chief spices.
PPT 6 pic of Jesus guarding sheep pen.
Notice the sheep grazing, not standing at the wall guns in hand to fight the enemy. (There is a time for that, but the hedge frees us to put our hand more fully to other things).
Let's now read the first 4 verses of Isaiah 5.
PPT 7-8 text
Isaiah 5:1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
Isaiah 5:2 And He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it, And hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.
Isaiah 5:3 "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard.
Isaiah 5:4 "What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
We begin by observing everything God said He did so that His vineyard was very fruitful. It is important that we understand that God had a purpose and a goal. He wants good grapes and He is very serious about it. In the case of Israel, God throws up His hands in exasperation and says, "What more could I have done?!!!"
Return on His investment is something spoken of over and over again, whether it is the parable of the vineyard, or the parable of the talents, or give account of your stewardship, it is all about God's expectation to enjoy the benefits of His work in the garden. You don't plant a garden so deer can eat, and bugs can destroy, you plant it so you can have food on your dinner table. So we read in Isaiah everything God did was for optimum fruit production.
1st was the location chosen. The best site possible was where God began, but it didn't look that way when He started. God sees what can happen once the site is cleaned, we see the mess and say they doesn't look too promising, aren't you glad God doesn't simply see things as they are, but how they can be with the work of a master gardener.
2ndly He put a hedge around it. V.2 says he dug it, but the word can also be understood to mean a hedge was dug in and put around it. In Verse 5 the hedge is clearly mentioned as being there, God saying he would remove it in His frustration about the grapes. So as soon as the site was chosen the protection went up.
I want to show you 2 very short video's that demonstrate modern vineyard hedging.
PPT 9, 10 Videos
Link1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5_pH0Z3KBA
Link 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=972GT4lrEFU
In those videos the people in the vineyard are, pruning the vines, (Hedging, cutting it to the optimum size) and netting the vines (Video 1). They prune them to get more and better fruit, and they net them to protect the fruit. Netting was not available in bible times so they built hedges to protect the fruit. Same purpose different method, in both cases you are putting up a barrier to keep out the varmints that want to get at your fruit.
3rdly He removed the stones. Stones In the Old testament stones were used as a weapon to ruin fields for usefulness to crop/fruit production.
PPT 11 text
2 Kings 3:18 And this is but a slight thing in the sight of the LORD; He shall also give the Moabites into your hand.
2 Kings 3:19 Then you shall strike every fortified city and every choice city, and fell every good tree and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.'
Think about it this way, no heavy equipment, so you use lots of soldiers to bring in big stones and the field is no longer useful for crop production.
Since God wants abundant fruit that is the reason He removes stones from the land. I want to show you a couple of interesting verses and tie them in to the idea of destoning the land.
PPT 12 text
John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
John 15:2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.
John 15:3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Have you ever thought about verse three? To get the full meaning you need to connect it to verse 2. In verse 2 God is saying that He takes away things that hinder or do not produce fruit, and in that context He says you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you. We could say that the word of God removes the stones from our vineyard. That it cleanses us and makes us better able to produce fruit.
In Ephesians we read the word washes and cleanses us:
PPT 13 text
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Ephesians 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So how does the word cleanse us. It cleanses us by convicting us of what is wrong and by counseling us of what is right. It removes wrong and carnal world views. In context what Jesus is saying is that submission to right doctrine is His means of pruning us, especially of the stones of worldly values and ideas. Now let me show you a very interesting verse in the book of Leviticus, we could call it the law of fruitfulness
PPT 14 Text
Leviticus 19:23 And when you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten.
The fruit on newly planted trees was considered unclean for the first 3 years. It is believed that the Jews would remove any fruit during those first three years as a way of forcing the tree to grow deeper roots and develop as a stronger and more fruitful tree. 3 years the trees were considered unclean, but in the fourth year they were clean, and acceptable for consumption and to offer to God as part of their first fruit sacrifices. So what does that have to do with John 15 and you are clean through the word I have spoken to you? This was said in the 4th year of Jesus' training of the disciples. 3 years of His teaching had cleansed them, now they were in a position to let fruit bearing really rip. I don't think Jesus was saying their fruit was unacceptable up till that time, simply that the cumulative effect of His 3 years teaching had put them in a very fit place to produce fruit. The stones so to speak had been in general removed from their lives, and their roots had gone deeper.
Next we are told He planted the choicest vine. On a very fertile hill. Calvary is the fertile hill of God's grace and Jesus is the best vine there ever was. What more could He have done? And to what purpose was it done? To produce fruit. We read that in verse 4 that God looked for grapes and all he got was wild grapes.(KJV) A grape is a grape right? No the Hebrew is very emphatic what we read as wild grapes literally means stinky grapes. The word used here is derived from a verb that means "to be offensive, to corrupt, to putrefy";
Next God built a tower. This was so that the people who worked in the garden would have a good view of the garden and could see dangers and issues from a better vantage point. It was there so that they would protect God's fruit.
Then we read God put in a winepress. This is what it is all about. God wants fruit. God is serious about His desire for fruit. Interestingly in the NT on a fertile hill called the Mount of Olives, was an olive garden, and the name of that garden was Gethsemane. Gethsemane means oil press. So we a fertile hill, in a choice location, named oil press and out of Jesus was squeezed the sweetest fruit that was ever produced on this earth. "Not my will but Thy will be done." You cannot miss the allusion to Isaiah 5. In Isaiah 5 it is the garden that failed, Gethsemane is the garden that succeeded
5. He made a winepress. Arranged for the squeezing of the fruit.
6. God wants fruit for us and for Him
7. You do not want the rest of the story.
PPT 15, 16 text
Isaiah 5:5 "So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.
Isaiah 5:6 "And I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it."
Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
PPT 17 grape expectations
Close: God wants fruit. He has grape expectations. How are you doing in that area? Pray for more fruitfulness and for those who may be convicted they have been producing wild grapes. Make books available on how to pray effectively for the lost.
