What More Could God do for You Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What More Could God do for You Part 1. He will be reading out of Isaiah 5:1-5.

I have seen this in families after families. God blesses them and he continues to advance them They get promoted at the job and all of a sudden you can’t find them in church anymore When the bank account is full and they’re blessed in immeasurable ways. They don’t have time to seek the Lord Hello, this is pastor Mike Sanders and I’m welcoming you to the hope worth having radio program We believe it’s one of the best out there and we hope you are taking the opportunity to grow in your faith today We’re gonna be in Isaiah chapter 5. We’re just kind of tracking through the book of Isaiah it’s gonna be an incredible journey as we tackle this great book of the Bible and The message today is what more could God do for you? Isaiah chapter 5. Let’s begin our study If You have your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in the book of Isaiah Isaiah chapter 5 we’ve been tracking through the book of Isaiah for a few months now and we are finally made it to Isaiah chapter 5 remember that as we go through this book chapter 2 chapter Things are always different and in one chapter the Prophet is speaking about today’s Circumstances meaning the times that he’s living in in dealing with Judah and Israel and Jerusalem and Then he’ll take us to the future of what is to be What is to come to pass and the hope that we have? The Prophet never wants us to be overwhelmed He never wants us to be discouraged But he certainly wants to address the ills of society in the day that he is living and So it is that he keeps bringing us to that Hope that is found in God in the future and what he is to bring about For those who love him for those who live for him We come to Isaiah chapter 5 Isaiah chapter 5 I’ve entitled the message.

What more could God do for you? What more could God do for you? the Apostle Paul appealed to the gifted but troubled Corinthian Church in 2nd Corinthians 6 1 He said we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain What does it mean to receive? The grace of God in vain to answer this question we must understand the doctrine of God’s grace We know that there is saving grace We understand that there is sustaining grace and even speaking grace and serving grace One theologian said this in defining grace That it is God’s determination To do good to people who deserve his wrath Let me explain it. Maybe a little bit more simpler God bestowing his goodness upon us Unfolding his goodness upon us even though we do not deserve it That is what grace is It has the idea of a king or a person of royalty stooping down So it is in God’s wonderful grace He has stooped down and he has pulled us out of that miry clay of sin And he has set our feet on the solid rock of Jesus Christ what a wonderful thought and yet The Apostle taught the Corinthians not to receive the grace of God in vain There are several ways in which God is bestowing his goodness upon even all of humanity It is referred to as common grace I Made a list here of just some things in which God’s common grace is Lavished on to the world we can start with the beautiful sunshine We can continue with the beautiful rain that God gives and refreshes and renews the earth we think about the food that he provides the clothing that he gives We think about shelter family friends health Education and even the written Word of God as a common grace made available to all of humanity It is possible to receive all these common graces in vain if We fail to take advantage of the opportunity of God’s grace being bestowed upon us and yet we choose to follow a life or a lifestyle that Contradicts the Word of God and it refuses to be thankful for God’s goodness and grace upon us In a real way Then we are taking the grace of God in vain and God’s grace that is bestowed upon us even as believers is being wasted Because we rise up we complain We find fault with the day we don’t enjoy the goodness that he bestows upon us and This is exactly what happened to the nation of Israel in Isaiah’s day And this is what he confronts in Isaiah chapter 5 is a people who have been so blessed blessed beyond measure That they have taken the grace of God in vain So Isaiah starts out He starts out with a song. I Song Might empty the house.

Amen We let those who can sing sing and those who can’t to stay seated. Amen, but in this Song, it’s a song About an owner of a vineyard. We’re gonna read about it here in just a second And he’s doing everything that he can to make it possible for this Beautiful vineyard to prosper and to be blessed and to grow and to just continue to do well But what does it yield Worthless grapes It doesn’t yield the sweet fruit of all the goodness and the grace of the owner So it is that God is exposing He’s exposing the many sins of a richly blessed people and He is reminding us that what is the judgment upon those who will not? Acknowledge the goodness and the grace of God.

This is what we understand. It’s taking place in Isaiah chapter 5 so let’s begin reading in verse 1 now. Let me sing to my well-beloved a Song of my beloved regarding his vineyard My well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill He dug it up and cleared out its stones and planted it with the choicest vine He built a tower in its midst Also made a winepress in it.

So he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes And Now Oh inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judge, please between me and my vineyard What more could have been done to my vineyard? That I have not done in it Why then? When I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth? wild grapes And now please let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will take away its hedge and it shall be burned and break down its walls and shall be Trampled down I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned or dug But there shall come up briars and thorns. I Will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and The men of Judah are his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold oppression for righteousness, but behold a cry for help as We begin to analyze this chapter this morning.

I want you to first see God’s Gracious or his lavish grace upon the people and this startling question that is presented to us What more could God do for you? What more could he have done to make this vineyard such a success and yet it was not a success Isaiah Wants to relay a message through this song to the people He wants to remind the people of Jerusalem and Judah directly that What is it that God could do more in your life? What is it that God could do more to bring you to a point where you would bring glory to his name and you would? Praise his name and give thanks to God every day of your life that he has blessed you with in this effort to help the people to become self-aware of Their lack of response to the goodness and the grace of God He proposes for them to consider who’s right and who is wrong go back to verse 3 in the song of Isaiah chapter 5 and he says and now Oh inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judge, please Between me and my vineyard Discern Tell me who’s right and who’s wrong. It’s not that God doesn’t know It’s not that even the Prophet doesn’t know but this is the point trying to drive home to the people for them to come To the conclusion on their own for the understanding to hit to their minds and their hearts What God is saying to them? Directly So in this beautiful song He’s speaking to us Particularly he begins speaking to Jerusalem to Israel to the men of Judah He’s speaking to them and saying what is it that God did that somehow would cause you to respond? with no fruit towards the Lord and The truth is nothing Has not God done all that he could do to bring us to true salvation Has not God shown the path for us to find the blessing and the fruitfulness that is found in a relationship with him and Yet what has been our response? What has been our response? God is calling us to evaluate and to discern in our own hearts and We think about our nation as a country we think about America has God not been good to America Has he not blessed this nation beyond measure? People like to be hard on America But I tell you no nation has been blessed like America in the sense of all of its wealth and resources a nation that has always Shown up to other nations tragedies and provided finances and materials and people to help to resolve their Challenges if a hurricane hits another country America is there right How is it that America could do that? Does she has so much wealth She has so much resources as God Not provided for America in such a beautiful way That our response should be one of gratefulness and thankfulness Has he not shed his grace on this land in profound ways? certainly I Want you to look in verses 8 through 23 We see the six clusters of bad grapes that manifested themselves in Israel as well as in Judah and I want you to first see because what he pronounces are the six woes We’re gonna go through these we won’t be able to dive down deep on each of these because we’d never make it in all the Things that we need to cover in Isaiah. We just would never get to the end of it But I hope that always my sermons prompt you to study more to research more and to search the scriptures more But let’s look at these woes if you’re taking notes.

First of all, the first woe is Aggressive greed verses 8 through 10. Let’s read that together in chapter 5 He says woe to those who join house-to-house They add field to fill till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land in my Hearing the Lord of hosts said truly many houses shall be desolate great and beautiful ones without Inhabitants for 10 acres of vineyards shall yield one bath and the homer of seed shall yield one ephah What he is trying to show us here is that the people have become so greedy That they’re constantly just adding and adding and adding and it’s not that God is against wealth or that somehow God is against you Prospering the Bible teaches us in 1st Timothy 6 that God gives us all things that we might richly enjoy them God blesses you with material things tangible things and these are wonderful and I don’t want you to misunderstand the scriptures I want you to know that God Provides his blessings and he shows his goodness to us not only spiritually but he shows it to us physically and he shows it to us in many different ways and he calls on us to richly enjoy them, but We must recognize Where do they come from? Where do these blessings come from? Whatever God has given you you must give him thanks and glory and the second thing that I think is what’s happened to the folks here in Israel is they Were allowing these things that they were being blessed with To be more important to them than their relationship with God Almighty And this is what the prophet is pointing out that they have accumulated houses and lands, but they have compromised Their relationship with God Almighty. Yes, they have become wealthy And yes, they have a lot of stuff and they have financial success which we see in verses 8 through 10 But they have put God on The back burner and how many times as a pastor that I have seen this in families after families God blesses them and he continues to advance them.

They get promoted at the job They have new opportunities that open up and all of a sudden you can’t find them in church anymore Because the things of this world are more important than the things of God They don’t have time to read their bible like they used to when they were poor and desolate They could barely rub two nickels together and find a way to pay the bills at the end of the month They were praying to God seeking God to help them But all of a sudden now when the bank account is full and they’re blessed in immeasurable ways They don’t have time to seek the lord anymore. It stands as a warning to all of us The second woe that we see in this text in verse 11 and 12 is the sinful excessiveness Of the people we pick up in verse 11. The bible says woe to those who rise early in the morning That they may follow intoxicating drink who continue until night till wine inflames them the harp and the strings the Tambourines the flute and the wine are in their feasts, but they do Not regard the work of the lord Nor consider the operation of his hands What the prophet is pointing out is the people are living for all the pleasures of this world rather than Dedicating their life to god They’re so passionate and so dedicated In pursuing the things of this world and the pleasures of this world They even get up early so that they can have another drink so that they can enjoy All that they have in the pleasures of this world.

They run after drinks And they call For the new tunes and the new harps and the new songs They want all of this so that they can enjoy the pleasures of life, but they would never rise up early to Seek god They would never rise up early to pray They would never rise up early to give glory to god or to give thanks to god Their life instead of being filled with the spirit Is filled with intoxicating drink Meaning you remember the scriptures teach us To not be drunk with wine in contrast to be filled with the spirit rather than letting the Substances of these things to control our thoughts and our minds We should let the spirit of god fill our hearts and minds and we should be so passionate to be led of the spirit to Walk in the spirit that that’s what we desire To guide our decisions and our choices and rather than pursuing the things of this world and the pleasures of this world Our passion as believers should be to pursue our savior Jesus taught us Blessed are those who hunger and thirst After god meaning they thirst after the righteousness of god. They shall be fill My friends your feeling is always In connection to your passion of pursuing the righteousness of god And the question is what is your priority today? Nothing wrong with these things that are out there and I want you to enjoy the blessings of god But the question is is your pursuit of god more important is the glory of god more important? What has god done For you to bless you in so many ways That you could not even take the time to worship him to dedicate your heart to him The third woe we look in verse 18 and 19 we jump down to this third woe he is what we call the self deceived enslavement and the mocking of god Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity a sin as if with a cart rope That say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsel of the holy one of israel Draw near and come that we may know it. What he is saying is that they have deceived themselves.

They have become slaves to sin As if they were beasts of burdens who are slaves to the master And in this case, they are mocking god. They are not pursuing god, but they are mocking god They are questioning god. They are challenging god.

They are defying god They are demanding that god carry out what they want and when they want it Very disappointing To see people defining god the way they want it to be Rather than saying I want to see the revealed god in his word and in his truth And worship him for who he is not what I want him to be That he’s just a god who is to be a genie in my life And he just responds to my demands and wishes and he immediately accomplishes what I want him to do in my time Rather than recognizing him as being transcendent and sovereign And all powerful and omniscient That we are his servants He is the source of all that is good in our life. And who are we to demand from god? Who are we to dictate to god what kind of a timetable he is to operate by? We see the fourth woe Remember what I told you how many woes were there? six Hang in there church. I have good news for you at the end I know it’s hard Just be glad you weren’t the one that had to study and put this sermon together Look at verse 20 We’re very familiar with this one Woe to those who call evil good And good evil Who put darkness for light and light? for Darkness who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter If there’s ever been a passage of scripture that defined our culture and our society, I think it’s isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20 And I could stand up here and rant and I could rave about the different things that are Destroying the fabric of this nation and this society and this culture and you would all agree with me And I know it to be true And I don’t deny any of that But I want you to know it all starts in our own hearts And it’s easy for us To scream at the darkness and to yell at the wicked But what really isaiah is calling us to do is to look at our own hearts Are there moments and times in our life where we are compromising our own integrity? And we are calling what is wrong right? Are we in our own hearts failing to love god and make him a priority? Are we sending the wrong message to our families to our children and to our grandchildren? When we choose to do what we want rather than honoring the lord jesus christ in our life god Is using the prophet To not only call out a nation and rightly so church But he is also using this prophet to call out the people directly in their own hearts Yes, we live in a post-modern world a world where They believe everything is relative that there is no absolute truth That whatever you say is true is true to you.

And whatever I say is true is true to me You and I know that they are constantly trying to redefine What is truth? We know the scriptures teach us that jesus is truth Amen, jesus said I am the truth the life and the way and no man comes unto the father But by me, we know that christ and his word is truth. That is the measurement. That is the standard and so we see That even what used to be common sense Among a general society in america has been flipped on its head And now we’re trying to figure out You know what’s going on I was down in baltimore area friday night being a part of a renewal vow service And as I was coming back that night I was listening to the radio.

I heard a news report about a young girl just outside of st. Louis Missouri they were all in up arms because she went to school and she took a test and on the test She had failed this test and the parents were all upset because one of the questions was how many genders are there? And the little girl having common sense said there’s two and she Failed the test. It’s crazy And I saw the other day that in pennsylvania, you could have 50 different options for your gender in your license You know and I mean maybe somehow we could come up with You know Don’t worry.

Don’t worry about me church. Okay. I’m a two-gender guy But maybe somehow we could dream up two or three or four or five six I don’t know.

But how do you come up with 50 plus genders? I mean, that’s just a heavy lift seems to me And so here we are in crazy times where children are mutilated And The government sponsors all this and if a parent steps in and tries to say I don’t want my child to be mutilated And they’re not old enough to make this kind of a decision that all of a sudden you’re put in prison for this That if you stand up and you say i’m pro-life and I want to stand for what’s right and I would just like to go across the street of the abortion clinic and just pray for those moms and those children who are being aborted that you would be a threat and thrown into jail Do you think there’s no way this is happening? Is happening all the time I’m, not making it up church. Like i’m not coming up here just swinging from the hip and hoping something sticks to the wall I’m actually telling you things that are happening and they’re not in other countries They’re in america You The book of isaiah in chapter 5 opens with a song It’s a love song and isaiah is using this song about a vineyard to relay the lord’s message to his people And reminding them what else could god do for he has already done so much and he certainly Lavished his grace on us and extended his grace so that we could have eternal life So what else are we looking for? Sometimes we are like the old saying what have you done for me lately? And we have to be careful that we don’t fall into that trap as believers But that we’re always grateful full of joy and excited about what god has already accomplished on the cross for us And that we are experiencing his redemption through his great work of the cross and the resurrection I want to encourage you to check us out on hopeworthhaving.com There we have some newsletters we put out some newsletters and you can kind of keep up with our ministry what’s going on How things are happening? And if you have questions Feel free to go to the website and just hit that contact button and you’ll be able to find out more about our ministry This is pastor mike sanders reminding you that in christ. There is hope worth having