THE
GRAPES OF WRATH
BREAD
1 I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My
loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. 2
He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the
choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then
he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. 3 “Now you
dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 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? 5 Now I will tell
you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it
will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned
nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the
clouds not to rain on it.” 7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and 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.
Isaiah 5:1-7 (NIV)
10 The land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the
land lies parched and the pastures in the desert are withered. The [prophets]
follow an evil course and use their power unjustly. 11 “Both prophet and priest are godless; even
in my temple I find their wickedness,” declares the LORD. 12 “Therefore
their path will become slippery; they will be banished to darkness and there
they will fall. I will bring disaster on them in the year they are punished,”
declares the LORD. 13 “Among
the prophets of Samaria I saw this repulsive thing: They prophesied by Baal and
led my people Israel astray. 14 And
among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: They commit
adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one
turns from his wickedness. They are all like Sodom to me; the people of
Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.” 15 Therefore,
this is what the LORD Almighty
says concerning the prophets: “I will make them eat bitter food and drink
poisoned water, because from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread
throughout the land.” Jeremiah 23:10-15 (NIV)
21 “‘This is what the LORD
Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your
other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! 22
For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to
them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23 but I gave them this command: Obey me, and
I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command
you, that it may go well with you. 24 But
they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn
inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. 25 From the time your forefathers left Egypt
until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. 26 But they did not listen to me or pay
attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their forefathers.’” Jeremiah
7:21-26 (NIV)
9 He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went
away for a long time. 10 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they
would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and
sent him away empty-handed. 11 He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and
treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. 12 He sent still
a third, and they wounded him and threw him out. 13 Then the owner of
the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps
they will respect him.’ 14 But when the
tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let's
kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What
then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and
kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When the people
heard this, they said, “May this never be!” Luke 20:9-16 (NIV)
16 This is what the LORD
says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where
the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you
said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on
what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If
the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he
would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready,
because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. 45 Who then is the
faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in
his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for
that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 I tell you the
truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that
servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’
49 and
he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.
50 The
master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an
hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the
hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew
24:42-51 (NIV)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NIV)
15 So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the
eyes of the arrogant humbled.
16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness. Isaiah 5:15-16 (NIV)
16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness. Isaiah 5:15-16 (NIV)
BUTTER
“God’s wrath is
His righteousness reacting against unrighteousness.” J. I.
Packer
“We came into this
world wretched, miserable, and undone creatures, in cruel bondage to sin and
Satan, under guilt and under wrath, hostile toward God—the fountain of
blessedness—and in a state of condemnation leading to everlasting destruction.
But when a man is converted, he is brought out of that state of woe and misery
into a sure title to glory, honor, and peace forever. When once a man is
converted, all this blessedness that we have heard of is his; he has an
absolute right to it. God’s work is accomplished for it; His faithful promise
is given.” Jonathan
Edwards
“A Christian is
beloved of God and a sinner. How can these two contradictions be harmonized: I
am a sinner and deserve God’s wrath and punishment, and yet the Father love’s
me? Christ alone can harmonize these
contradictions. He is the Mediator. Do you now see how faith justifies without
works? Sin lingers in us, and God hates sin. A transfusion of righteousness
therefore becomes vitally necessary. This transfusion of righteousness we
obtain from Christ because we believe in Him.” Martin Luther
“In the greatest
display of obedience (and love) that will ever be known, Jesus took the full
chalice of Man’s sin and God’s wrath, looked shuddering, deep into its depth
and in a steel act of his will, drank it all.” Kent
Hughes
“What are
believers saved from? From their former
position under the wrath of God, the dominion of sin, and the power of death;
from their natural condition of being mastered by the world, the flesh and the
devil; from the fears that a sinful life engenders, and from the many vicious
habits that were part of it. How are
believers saved from these things?
Through Christ, and in Christ.
Our salvation involves first, Christ dying for us and second, Christ
living in us and we living in Christ, united with Him in His death and risen
life. This vital union, which is
sustained by the Spirit from the divine side and by faith from our side, and
which is formed in and through our new birth, presupposes covenantal union in
the sense of our eternal election in Christ.”
J I Packer
“The Gospel is a message about God. It
tells us who he is, what his character is, what his standards are and what he
requires of us, his creatures. It tells us that we owe our very existence to
him…the gospel starts by teaching us that we, as creatures, are absolutely
dependent on God, and that he as Creator, has an absolute claim on us. The gospel is a message about sin. It tells us how we have fallen short of God’s
standard; how we have become guilty, filthy and helpless in sin, and now stand
under the wrath of God…the gospel is a message about Christ. Christ is the Son of God incarnate; Christ is
the Lamb of God, who died for sin; Christ is the risen Lord; Christ is the
perfect Savior…The gospel is a summons to faith and repentance. All who hear
the gospel are summoned by God to repent and believe”. J.I.
Packer
“‘Enter ye
in at the strait gate.’ We can only get
to heaven through Jesus Christ and by no other way; we can only get to the
Father through Jesus Christ, and we can only get into the life of a saint in
the same way….Heavenly places in Christ Jesus is where God raises us. We do not get there by climbing, by aspiring,
by struggling, by consecration, or by vows; God lifts us right straight up out
of sin, inability and weakness, lust and disobedience, wrath and self-seeking –
lifts us right up out of all this, ‘up, up to the whiter than snow shine,’ to
the heavenly places where Jesus Christ lived when He was on earth, and where He
lives to this hour in the fullness of the plenitude of His power. May God never relieve us from the wonder of
it.” Oswald Chambers
“God
soon turns from His wrath, but He never turns from His love.” Charles Spurgeon
HEART
SAVOR
- · God is not only a God of love but also of wrath. He is longsuffering with us yet His righteousness demands purity which only can come through faith in His Son.
- · God desires for us to walk in the good way. Indeed, He knows that is for our very best. Pray that your heart desires God above all because He desires you above all. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NIV)
- · 2 LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. Habakkuk 3:2 (NIV)
