Psalm 80: 8-15 The Lord’s Vineyard CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
This topic relates to Israel, on the one hand, and to the church, on the other. We will look at both applications.
Israel
The Lord planted his vineyard [Ps 80:8-16] when he planted Israel as a vine brought out of Egypt – he planted it in the land of Canaan – that vine had a good start and spread out well – but it yielded wild grapes [Is 5:1-10] and the pastors ended up destroying his vineyard [Jer 12:10] – so the Lord allowed it to be beaten down by wild beasts – when it brought forth fruit to the Lord, he sent his servants to receive the fruit and eventually sent his Son Jesus – yet the husbandmen killed the prophets and Jesus when they came for the fruit [Matt 21:33-41] – so the Lord destroyed those husbandmen – eventually, in the restoration of Israel following the second coming of Jesus, the vine will spread out and flourish in the earth.
In I Ki 21, the death of Naboth at the hands of Jezebel and her men so that Ahab could possess Naboth’s vineyard pictures the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and the taking of his vineyard by the Pharisees – it appears that antichrist has been in possession of the vineyard ever since [the spirit of antichrist is already here, 1 Jn 4:3].
The Church
When Jesus came, he said that he was the vine [Jn 15:1-8] – so you can readily see that Israel and the church are completely different entities – in no way is the church the replacement for or the continuation of Israel.
Since Jesus is now the vine, it is very important to recognize who the other key people are and what their function is:
- The Lord Jesus is the vine, Jn 15:1
- The Lord God is the husbandman, Jn 15:1
- And we are the branches, Jn 15:5
As the branches we are:
- To be connected to the same vine, Jn 15:5 – it is evident by the number of professing Christians who are not saved that there is another vine that is not the Lord’s vine [Deut 32:32] – eventually this other vine is gathered and thrown in the winepress [Rev 14:18-20]
- To bear fruit – much fruit – this glorifies God – Jn 15:2, 4, 5, 8 – therefore, the Lord said, “You can tell them by their fruits,” Matt 7:15-20
- To be purged by God, Jn 15:2 – this is the Lord’s work and not the branches’ work
- To be taken away by God if we are not bearing fruit, Jn 15:2 – notice the Lord God does the purging and the taking away – this helps you to understand how some Christians can quit producing fruit and then quit having anything to do with Christians who are producing fruit
- To remain separated – according to Deut 22:9, divers seeds will defile the fruit of the vineyard – that’s why we can’t allow perversions of the gospel or the Bible or sound doctrine or the right kind of music to enter in – these will defile the fruit
- To be protected – vines can be trampled, eaten and wasted by wild beasts, Ps 80:13 – thus the devil and his crowd have to be kept out of the vineyard [2 Cor 2:11; Eph 4:27, Tit 3:10]