Title: The Vineyard of the Unwise
[Explanation of Proverbs by Min Byeong-seok] 53 The vineyard of the unwise
Text: (Proverbs 24:30 - 34)
Today's sermon on Proverbs is to receive grace by saying, “The vineyard of the unwise.” Today's verse is written as a lesson in King Solomon's visit to the country one day when he saw a vineyard abandoned by a lazy farmer in a rural vineyard and became a warning. King Solomon said that the owner of the field was lazy and lacked wisdom, and he cited the condition of the field as an example. In verse 31, it says that thorns were spread over the field. And coarse grass covered the ground, and the stone wall collapsed. And when King Solomon saw this, he said that he was thoughtful and received instruction.
1. Two lessons from these words
This lesson has two implications. One is a warning about the consequences of carnal laziness. As a conclusion to this matter, verse 33 says, “As you sleep a little longer, join hands and lie down, your poverty will come like a robber, and your poverty like a soldier.” The following verses about this vineyard have a spiritual lesson for us. Today, we are going to interpret these words spiritually and use them as a lesson in our religious life and church life.
(1) First, the fact that this vineyard can be compared to a church spiritually. The parable of the vineyard or the vine is found a lot in the Old and New Testaments. In most cases, the vineyard is used to symbolize Israel or the church of God, and the vine is used to represent God's people figuratively.
In Isaiah 5, there is a song about a beautiful vineyard. In verses 1 and 2 we read, “I will sing in the vineyard of my beloved. They built it and dug a winepress in it, hoping it would produce good grapes, but it did bring forth wild grapes.'
God said that he had planted the finest vines in good vineyards. However, because of the wrong management of the vineyard, the owner of the vineyard was angry because he disobeyed the owner's expectation of producing good fruit and produced wild grapes.
In verses 1 and 2 of these words, God's devotion and deep love for cultivating the vineyard are revealed. The church is a fertile land and a beautiful place because it was bought with the blood of our Lord. Therefore, God sang about the church, which is a vineyard, saying, “My beloved vineyard.” For the church, which is a vineyard, God gave His Son as a regeneration sacrifice, gave the Word of God as food, sent apostles, and sent many servants to inspect the vineyard and produce good fruit.
But the fruit they bore was not the fruit of the true grape, but the fruit of the wild grape. In these words we can see God's plan for the vineyard and His will. First, it shows that God loves the church very much. This is because Christ is the head of the church, and the saints purchased with blood are each member of the body. God fills the church with the Holy Spirit with His love and grace to the extent that He cannot do it any more.
Then why was God disappointed with this vineyard? Because it was against God's expectations. What does God want for the church today? In Isaiah 5:4, he lamented, “I waited for good grapes to bear, but how did the wild grapes produce? God wants us to produce good grapes. However, the people of Israel who were compared to vineyards did not bear good fruit and produced wild grapes.
2. The Ruins of the Vineyard
Then what kind of vineyard will fall into such a miserable place and be abandoned by God? Regarding this, if you look at today's text, three facts are pointed out. It is said that thorns have spread. And it was covered with coarse grass. Next, it was said that the stone wall collapsed.
(1) You said that thorns have spread, but what does the thorns mean? Why did thorns spread in the Church of God? In the parable of the seed that fell among thorns in Matthew 13:22, Jesus compared the world's cares and the deceitfulness of wealth to a state of being unfruitful to thorns. The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth do not bear fruit. When we look at the circumstances of all the churches around us today, we are living a life that is more and more deviating from the Word. The life of Christians who shun the Word is said to be a secular life.
Jesus warned the end-time church that their lives would be secularized. “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be with the coming of the Son of Man. People were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark before the flood, and they did not realize it until the flood came and destroyed them all. ' That's what you said. Eating, drinking, marrying, and getting married are examples of a life that is far from God, a life that is secularized.
The message of the church today is a blessing of the world. The saints do not like to hear the words of God that are heeding doctrines and judgments because their ears are thin and itchy. They want to enjoy the sweet worldly blessings, and they long for such words and enjoy listening to them. The world has become a world where we cannot hear the words of pure truth. It is not pure and pure wine, but cheap wine mixed with water, and the world has become a world where people enjoy drinking the wine of fornication intoxicated with the ups and downs of the world. Therefore, thorns have spread in the church today. Without removing these thorns, the good vine cannot bear fruit.
(2) Then it was said that the vineyard was covered with coarse grass. Grass is the food that feeds the sheep, and it is the food of life. Psalm 23 contains a famous Davidic psalm. It says, 'The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing; he makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters.' there is. The pool should always be clean. It is harmful if it contains poisonous herbs or grasses that should not be eaten. In these grassy vineyards the sheep cannot live and milk cannot be milked.
(3) Next, it was said that the stone wall collapsed. The stone wall refers to the sheepfold. In John 10, Jesus told a meaningful message about the sheepfold. “Truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but goes through another way is a thief and a robber, and he who enters through the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” A vineyard must have a fence. The life of the sheep is in danger if we are not well guarded, as evil beasts trying to eat the sheep are hovering around the sheep.
Our new church members must be wise servants. They must be diligent servants. Then, what kind of saints are the wise Sangdo? In Matthew 25, Jesus told the parable of the foolish virgins and the wise virgins, saying that the virgins who prepare their lamps and oil can welcome the coming Lord again. Why did these virgins prepare lamps and oil? It was done to wait for the groom. With the hope of the Lord's second coming, the saints who adorn themselves with the Word of God and live in the grace of the Holy Spirit can welcome the Lord who comes again.
Conclusion: We are the workers of the vineyard. Workers in the vineyard must be diligent. Be diligent and not be lazy. However, if you do not have a heart in this life of faith and are busy with worldly affairs and focus only on the life of the flesh, you will eventually become a foolish virgin and the vineyard will become a vineyard for those without wisdom and eventually be abandoned. We hope we can take a deep look into our hearts. Is there really no thorn bush like this in my heart? Is there any rough grass? Was the stone wall not collapsing? It's something you should be able to look at. We hope that our new church will be able to grow into a beautiful vineyard. Let's pull out the spread thorn vines. Let's grow coarse grass. Let's rebuild the broken stone wall. Let's make it a church that can produce good fruit that is pleasing to God and can be given to God at the right time. God has established a new church here in order to establish such a church. I pray in the name of the Lord that we can all work together to become saints who make beautiful vineyards that are truly pleasing to God.