Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, we again thank you for the privilege of being here around the person of Jesus Christ and trying to saturate ourselves with the mind of Christ through the word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. And Father, we ask that this would not just be a Sunday morning thing, but that your word and your spirit would control us day by day throughout the week, that you would use us however you want to use us, and we would walk worthy by your grace as a calling with which we've been called. So Father, we ask that you take your word this morning and use it to teach us and inspire us, correct us, reprove us, Father, whatever you know is necessary. In Jesus' name, amen. We've been looking at the names of God, and we've been studying Jehovah, Yahweh. And remember that that is, that means I am. I am that I am. The eternal one, without beginning, without end. the great I Am. And we found that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, claimed to be. So here you've got the whole Old Testament, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah. In many of our translations, that's translated Lord. But all the way through the Old Testament, we have Jehovah, the great God, Jehovah, the great I am. And the Lord Jesus Christ said, before Abraham was, I am. still sends chills down my back. Such a grand, grand statement. But then as we look farther, we find out that there are certain things that he said where he took those words, in the Greek they're ego eimi, he took those words and he linked them with something else. I am the good shepherd, okay? I am the bread of life. I'm the true bread of life that came down out of heaven. And so he linked those things together in this beautiful way, and then we could go back into the Old Testament, see how God laid it out in the Old Testament, and what the lessons are there for us. So today, Just for a brief moment, I want to take you to the passage in John chapter 15, because we've got a lot of work ahead of us to get a greater understanding of this. So here in John chapter 15, our Lord said, The true vine. The thing, I hadn't gotten the magnitude, I guess I would say, the importance of that little word true. I am the true vine. So when we go back to the Old Testament, which is where we're gonna be for quite a while, I mean this morning, we find out about how God has, through those hundreds of years in the Old Testament, talked about the vine, the vineyard, and Israel as his vine. Okay, so let's start in Deuteronomy chapter 31. Deuteronomy 31, and all the way to the end of the chapter, which is gonna introduce us to chapter 32. But 31, verse 30, says this, then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly, so remember, They've been in the wilderness and came out of Egypt. They've been in the wilderness 40 years. They're poised to go across under Joshua and conquer the land that God is gonna give them. And Moses is gonna die here shortly because he struck the rod the second time on that rock situation where he was supposed to speak to it. And he didn't treat God as holy in that situation. And so God said, you can't go into the land. And so both he and Aaron have died, or will die, he will die, Aaron has died, or will die shortly before going into the land. All right, so this tells us, verse 30, then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song. We don't have the music. We have the lyrics. This would be quite a song to learn, because you can see how far. The whole chapter 32, or a good bit of the chapter 32, is this song, okay? And so let's go right into that. I'm gonna start in verse one. I'm not doing this whole, I hope you'll be incited to read this 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy, maybe this week, because it's an incredible revelation of what God is, what God says is gonna happen in Israel. A lot of it's prophetic. Some of it stretches all the way into the New Testament times and the time of the church. Okay, so Moses says, give ear, O heavens, and let me speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain. My speech distills the dew as the droplets on the fresh grass and as showers on the herb. For I proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. For the rock, his work is perfect. For all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is he. But then verse five. Speaking to Israel, he says, they have acted corruptly toward him. They are not his children because of their defect, but a perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is not he your father who has bought you? Think of the Passover. He has made you and established you, All right, then let's go down to verse 12. It says this. This is talking about how God dealt with Israel and how he's gonna deal with them. The Lord alone guided him. And then it says, and there was no foreign God with him. No idols at that point, okay? And then it says, He made him ride on the high places of the earth. Oh, he had quite a place. And he ate the produce of the field. He made him suck honey from the rock and oil from the flinty rock, curbs of cows and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs and rams, the breed of bation and goats, with the finest of the wheat and of the blood of grapes. You drank wine. Here's the problem. God's a nickname for Israel, Jeshurun, okay? But Jeshurun grew fat. and kicked. You have this picture from animals, and raising animals, and domestic animals. I saw on the falconry thing, as long as that bird's a little hungry, it responds really well. It does what you want them to do. But when he's not hungry anymore, I would fly this bird the whole season. He would be bonded to me. In the spring, I would put him in this room—it's called a muse—and feed him up so he could grow all new feathers and drop all the feathers and so forth. There'd come a day when this bird, I could hold my fist out when I was flying him with a glove on and have him come a mile immediately. Drop out of the sky, whatever, just be there. And there'd come a day when I'd walk into that muse, that room, and he would act like, you terrify me. And he'd fly away from me and hit the wall and bounce off the wall. And I think, what happened to my buddy? What happened? And so this verse, this is such a picture of us. I'm sorry, but this is a picture of us. So many of us in the United States, believers, Jeshurun, we had everything, curds of cows and milk of the flock and all these wonderful, wonderful blessings and freedom and so forth. And it says, but Jeshurun, like I said, God's nickname for Israel, grew fat and kicked, kicked at God, okay? You are grown fat, thick, and sleek. Then he forsook God who made him. Really thought, I've got everything I need? I don't need God. And so then they started worshiping the gods, the false gods, the demons of the idols of the surrounding nations. They made notice. They made him jealous. with strange gods, with abominations. They provoked him to anger. Their behavior was horrible. They sacrificed the demons who were not God to gods whom they have not known, new gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread. You neglected the rock who begot you and forgot the God who gave you birth. And the Lord saw this and spurned them because of the provocation of his sons and daughters. Then he said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be for they are a perverse generation, sons in whom is no faithfulness. Now get this, this is one of the places, this stretches all the way into the New Testament epistles. Notice what God says. They made me jealous with what is not God. He's talking about when they, God said, you made me jealous when you forgot me and started worshiping a piece of stone or an engraved piece of gold or silver or whatever it was. They have made me jealous with what is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their idols. So, I will make them jealous. Get this. I will make them jealous with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. That's pretty powerful. Let's go over to Romans chapter 11 and verse 11. Paul's talking about Israel, what their future is. And he says, he's talking about how they stumbled, but he says in verse 11, I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall. In other words, to go down and never come back. Did they? May it never be. But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles. We must be that foolish nation. Okay? I'll make them jealous with a foolish nation. The people that the Jews called the dogs, us, are talking and adoring and worshiping and saved by their Messiah. You know, oh, why do I let, why do these things slip my mind? I metmessiah.com. Go on there on the internet, on YouTube, is it? Yeah, YouTube. And they're all just one after another, you can choose them, hundreds after hundreds, maybe a hundred, yeah, okay, anyway. All these testimonies of Jewish people who came to faith in Christ, and every once in a while one of them say, I was talking to this guy, and of course he's a Gentile that he's talking to, and he says, he's talking about Our Old Testament, he's talking about the people of Israel. He's talking about the Messiah. He knows, he talks about him like he knows him. And so Paul says, Salvation has come to the Gentiles to make them jealous. You tuck that away in the back of your head. If you ever get an opportunity to witness to a Jewish person, I think it's good to say, Your Messiah is my Savior. He's the one, that's Jesus Christ. And possibly, Paul says, I magnify my ministry to the Gentiles to make them jealous. Okay, back to Deuteronomy, chapter 32. And let's now go to verse 32 and 33. Now notice what the Lord says. He's talking about Israel. He says, for their vine, Israel, for their vine is from the vine of Sodom. What a statement. And from the fields of Gomorrah. We're gonna see where God says, A great vine, a perfect vine. And the grapes, this vine is bad. Starting to see the connection? Jesus Christ says, I'm the true vine. What we see God Starting off, it looks like this is gonna happen. This people, sons of Abraham, the Jewish people, they're gonna be God's vineyard. But they're a bad vine. And it keeps talking about that in the Old Testament. Okay, so let's go next to Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 1. Isaiah 5 verse 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. He dug it all around, removed its stones. He planted it with the choicest vine. He's doing it all right. And he built a tower in the middle of it, and he hewed out a wine vat in it. Then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones. What a story. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? The Lord says, I set this vine up perfectly. I put a good vine in there, fertile ground, did it all. Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless ones? So now let me tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard. Picture Israel, I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed. All the surrounding animals and beasts and so forth are going to come in there and trample it and eat it. What happened? God dispersed the Jews and they went out into the different nations, but before that, the nations came in one after another. I'll remove its hedge, and it will be consumed. I will break down its wall, and it will become trampled ground, 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, for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. The men of Judah, his delightful plant, Thus he looked for justice. This is the kind of grapes he wanted. Thus he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed. For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress. All right? Now let's go to Psalm 80. And in Psalm 80, Let's start in verse 8. What a picture this is. Thou didst remove a vine from Egypt. Where were the Jewish people? Remember, they went down into Egypt, followed Joseph down there. were there as slaves for 400 years, and then God brought them out, remember? And so he says, thou didst remove a vine from Egypt. Thou didst drive out the nations. Think of what happened under Joshua, okay, when they came into the land. Thou didst drive out the nations and didst plant it. Thou didst clear the ground before it. And it took deep root and filled the land. It's this tremendous picture. The mountains were covered with its shadow, and the cedars of God with its boughs. I believe this next verse is talking about under David, under Solomon. It was sending out its branches to the sea, Mediterranean Sea, and its roots to the river, the Euphrates. Why hast thou broken down as hedges. Think of when Nebuchadnezzar came in and first the Assyrians in the northern kingdom and then Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. That was broken down as hedges so that all who pass that way pick its fruit, a boar from the forest, eats it away, and whatever moves in the field feeds on it. And then, oh God of hosts, turn again now we beseech thee. Look down from heaven and see and take care of this vine. Even the shoot which thy right hand has planted, and on the sun, notice it has us looking to the Lord Jesus, and on the sun whom thou hast strengthened for thyself. It is burned with fire, it's cut down. They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, again, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, upon the Son of Man, who thou didst make strong for thyself. Then we shall not turn back from thee. What a prayer, revive us. and we will call upon thy name. O Lord, God of hosts, restore us. Cause thy face to shine upon us, and we will be saved. And then, if you'll go over to Jeremiah chapter two. Jeremiah two. And we're gonna start in verse 19. The Lord says concerning Israel, your own wickedness will correct you. Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God. the universal application of your own wickedness will correct you. Isn't that our prayer in this nation, where the wickedness is just running rampant? But wherever you have wickedness running rampant, you have a train wreck. You have just this terrible mess because you've moved away from truth, you've moved away from reality. How could we be saying that the sex that God gave you at birth isn't what you're going to have. And how could we be, as a government, promoting that and saying, you really need to respect that. You really need to go along with that. How does that work? I was thinking the other day, what happens when a police call goes out? Is it going to reach the point where you can't say, it's a man because it's a, you know? So this stuff gets really crazy, you know? And I think your own wickedness will correct you and your apostasies will reprove you. Know therefore, get it, know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God and the dread of me. not in you declares the Lord God of hosts for long ago I broke your yoke and tore off your bonds but you said this is when he brought him out of Egypt I believe took him out of slavery but you said I will not serve not going to serve the Lord for on every high hill and under every green tree you have lain down as a harlot. You get this picture over and over again in the Old Testament. This idolatry stuff, for the Israel, it's an unfaithfulness to God, but at the same time, what's going on is a rampant unfaithfulness in the marriage relationship. It's all kinds of abominations that are going on. You've got this picture on every high hill, they did had sexual relationships, but they also did what? They also worshiped idols up there, you know? So you've got this double adultery kind of thing going on or double immorality and forsaking of the Lord, okay. So for on every high hill and under every green tree, you have lain down as a harlot. What does the Lord say? Yet I planted you a choice vine, a completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before me into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine? Then, let's go over to the New Testament. Let's go to Matthew 21. Matthew 21, and we're gonna start in verse 33. So now our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking, and there's Jewish leaders who are listening to this. It says, listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it. Doesn't it sound an awful lot like what we're looking at in the Old Testament? And put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey. Get the picture, the vine growers are the people, the religious leaders right now when he's speaking there in Israel. And when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine growers to receive his produce. He wanted wine. And the vine growers took his slaves and beat one and killed another and stoned a third That's such a wonderful picture, sad picture of Israel's dealing with God's slaves who were the prophets in the Old Testament. Remember what Stephen said before they stoned him? He says, which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? You know? And so this is, Jesus Christ is giving this in a parable. He took his slaves and beat one, killed another, and again he sent another group of slaves. I think of the Old Testament passage where God says, I kept warning them, rising up early. But here he says, and he sent another group of slaves, larger than the first, and they did the same thing to them. beat some, killed some. And afterward, he sent his son to them, saying, they will respect my son. So here's Jesus Christ as their Messiah, in their midst, okay? Speaking this parable, and he's speaking his parable about himself, okay? All right. And afterward, they sent his son to them saying they will respect my son. But when the vine growers saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance. Remember what Pilate said? Pilate said he knew that the leadership had given Jesus up because of what? Because of jealousy. They didn't want to share. They didn't like the fact that people were coming to him. People were following him. People were being healed by him. They didn't want that. It eclipsed them, okay? So, verse 39, and they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Jesus Christ going to the cross. And he says this, therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, when God comes, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine growers? And you can see the crowd is incensed over this parable. That is a terrible thing. And they're right in the middle of doing it. But it says, then they said to him, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard to other vine growers. To what? To make them jealous. See that connection? Okay. who will pay the proceeds at the proper seasons. And then this powerful, Jesus said to them, did you ever read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected? This became the chief cornerstone. What's he talking about? You cast the son out of the vineyard and killed him, but he is going to be resurrected and he's going to be the center of everything, okay? the stone which the builders rejected. This became the chief cornerstone. This came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation, Old Testament, a foolish nation, the dogs, the Gentiles, and taken away and given to a nation producing the fruit of it. Think of the Holy Spirit comes, and what do we have? The fruit of the Spirit, okay? So that the Lord can get his problems from the vineyard. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they understood that he was talking about them. And when they sought to seize him, He's talking about them, and he's talking about the casting out of the vineyard and all of this horrible thing that they're doing what? They're saying, we've gotta do this. We've gotta seize him, and of course, when they seize him, their whole idea is to put him to death, through which God took that thing, the most evil thing, and out of it brought our salvation. by the hands of sinful men. Okay. And when they sought to seize him, they became afraid of the multitudes because they held him to be a prophet. Okay, then finally, all the way to our main passage, John chapter 15. John 15, verse one again. Jesus speaking in the upper room discourse to his disciples, I am the true vine, and the Father, and my Father is the vinedresser. Did you ever think about this? You know, you look at Israel in the Old Testament and you see that early on God said, you're gonna be a kingdom of priests to me. A kingdom, you're all gonna be priests. But then what happens? It all falls away. And there's not even, even though we call it a priestly tribe, there's only one family, the family of Aaron in the tribe of Levi that are priests. The kingdom of priests, they didn't measure up. And so, Looking at this vine, God said, I wanted a vine, a vineyard that would produce. It's looking at the whole nation. But when we get to chapter 15 and verse 1, who's the only one who fulfills that vine? Who's the only one that can be the vine? You get what Jesus Christ, I'm the true vine. In the Old Testament, we got all this stuff that's bad, but it all comes down to Jesus Christ. And where does the priesthood go? To Jesus Christ. You see, who's the great prophet? The one raised up like Moses. Jesus Christ, he's the one who fulfills everything that Israel was supposed to fulfill. And unless we feel smug, we find out that really, Israel is just a test case for the whole world. Because there in Romans, what does it say? It says that the law was given to Israel through Moses, And then it says that every mouse might be closed. In other words, their failure looks at us, and it's, I probably shouldn't even go there, but it's very much to me like Adam is our federal head, and he acted on our behalf, and he did, don't ever think about this the wrong way, he did what we would have done had we been put your own name in there instead of Adam, the whole race would fall in you. Okay, we'll continue next time. Father, how we thank you for the true vine, our magnificent savior, who meets every one of your demands, perfectly fulfills every aspect of it, Lord. May we glorify you through him. as that true vine, how we thank you for him and how we thank you for our place in that vineyard as part of that vine, branches on that vine. Oh Lord, we thank you for these things in Jesus' name, amen.