God's Demand and Judgment upon the Vine Page 4
And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:20-21)
God forbid that the whole crowd in the church, denomination or ministry should be an empty vine with all their many altars or branches which bring forth no fruit unto perfection before God.
Four
God’s Demand Upon The Vine
He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down (Luke 13 6-9)
The Lord has sent several of His servants to bring the fruit of the vine unto Him, but the husbandmen were so wicked that they have turned the vineyard of God unto their personal business because of wealth and fame, this make them to deny the Owner, their Employer, His right, the fruit of the vine. Instead of dressing the vineyard in such a way that would bring forth fruit worthy of the Owner, they did it in their own way and brought forth wild grape that is not acceptable to the Owner because of the selfishness and the greediness of the husbandmen. See the altitude of the husbandmen,
How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them (Isaiah 1:21-23)
And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him (Micah 3:1-3).
There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully (Ezekiel 22:25-29).
When a pastor is invited into another church to minister and they pay him hundred of thousands of naira and I even learn that some are demanding for certain amount of money before they can come to minister in a place. The host pastor will equally ask the minister he is inviting whether he has fond-raising anointing while others will tell the officiating ministers to raise prayer and raise money so that he will give him some percentage of the total amount realize. Some always tell the people that are expecting major breakthrough to come and sow seed so that they will have quick breakthrough, and several other ways the ministers use to extort money from their members. Can they speak the truth after they have collected the kick-back? No, they will just say what the pastor-in-charge wants them to speak or what the congregation want to hear, they will not preach soul saving and regenerate message that can cleanse them and make them to bring forth good fruit unto God. The Lord Jesus says,
Ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you (John 15:3).
Do you know some hard speeches the disciples of our Lord had been receiving and enduring for the period of three years before it cleanse them and brought forth some fruit in them? But these husbandmen have no interest in feeding the flock with solid Word of God that can bring the transformation of life and produce good fruit unto the LORD. It is not part of their vision to make the tree good so that its fruit will be good. All what they are interested in is the gold and the silver of the flock while they left their real assignment of making the tree good through the concentrated truth of the gospel. The Lord makes a demand upon the vine to bring forth fruit worthy of Him less; His judgment will sound upon both the husbandmen and the vine upon their failure to produce good fruit. The husbandmen themselves have not first swallowed the Word of truth and live by it and plant the same into the life of their members but what their greedy heart dictates to them is what they are doing and are equally passing across to them.
And the minister like the Pharisees after ignoring the weightier matter think that they can bribe God with their tithe and offering and sacrifices but the LORD rejected their offering.
I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel (Amos 5:21-25)
But the Lord Jesus Christ put it this ways,
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone (Matthew 23:23).
As it was in the day of Amos so it was in the time of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord issued the same rebuke to them because the husbandmen have misplaced the priority. They have put the cart before the horse. How many churches today that have sophisticated sound system, offering big tithe and offering and other sacrifices, but are part of those that corrupt the church of God and the society by their life and practices. If you say you are pastor, the people of the world will just look of at you as a devil because they are hearing what some pastors are doing in their churches. The way they embezzle money in the church of God, commit adultery, practice occultism. The Lord rejected all other things they were giving to Him and demanded from them the fruit of righteousness, judgment, faith, mercy and love. Let us tell the people the truth. Meats for the belly and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. (1 Corinthians 6:13)
Yet the Lord demand upon the vine to bring forth fruit unto Him, a perfect and holy fruit that He has shed His blood to redeem. He needs the fruit of the vine, though the husbandmen want to convert it to their personal business. He wants them to have the second thought and remember that they are part of t
he fruit, if the live according to His Word and feed the members with the same. The Lord wants His flock to be fed with the gold, silver, and the precious stone of the Word not with psychology or mere motivational sermon so that they will be good fruit in Him.
Five
The Universal Open Door
But last of all He sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof (Matthew 21:37-43).
The