Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved 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? Isaiah 5:1-4

This text which reveals the agony of unmet expectation of a man that deeply sacrificed is well expressed in the lyrics of an old hymn, “I gave My life for thee, My precious blood I shed, that thou mightst ransomed be, and quickened from the dead; I gave, I gave My life for thee, What hast thou done for Me?” It speaks well to the heart of the Lord looking at the state of the church He died for.

To us who see the departure spoken to by Apostle Paul in his writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:1-2, we question how did we get here? Then came the answer explained in depth from verses 7-10, the choiciest vines took a different nature, substituting what was originally planted and produced the wrong grapes (lifestyle) and the end was judgment.

In similitude, the Lord’s parable in Matthew 13:31-32, we see that what is expected to come out of the planting of a mustard seed is a shrub not a tree (check it out)! But this transformed, changed its nature to become a tree, a house of evil birds. A definite possibility that you take on a nature different from what God set you to be and produce what is contrary to what He expected, which He refuses rightly to recognise.

This is the secret to understanding and guarding your life against the coming rejection (Matthew 7:21-23).

Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-23

Is there a pattern of sin and rebellion against God’s commandments often with intent and habitual behaviour, not merely occasional mistakes? How many of your followers or products on account of your lifestyle and testimony (1 Timothy 4:1-2) have fallen prey to the prophecy in 2 Timothy 3:1-5? Food for thought.
 


Pastor Afolabi Oladele