The Lord's Whistle

"Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” Alexis de Tocqueville

Pulpits flamed with righteousness.

The absolute debauchery that the United States Government is preaching isn’t the problem in our nation.

The problem is in the pulpits and in the pews.

The flame of righteousness is but a flicker.

The church has become comfortable with our lukewarm Christianity.

And so God’s judgement is being poured out on the United States of America because of it.

Go ahead and open your Bibles to Isaiah 5.

Chris Barnes read verses 1 - 7 earlier and in that text you heard what the Lord’s judgement looks like on a rebellious people.

Yes, it’s Old Testament but the parallel with the Lord’s judgement in Romans 1 is striking to say the least.

In Romans 1, the Lord says three times, “God gave them up...” to various things.

He didn’t call fire down from heaven.

He didn’t explode Vesuvius and wipe out the entire Roman empire.

He simply, “gave them up.”

He simply walked away.

That’s what you heard in the first 7 verses of Isaiah 5.

The vineyard is Israel - and the Lord says He planted it.

In verse 2, “He dug it and cleared it of stones...”

Here is a picture from Mt. Arbel.

This wasn’t one of our pictures, it’s one of Andy Cook’s.

That’s the Sea of Galilee in the background - beautiful isn’t it?

It’s also smaller than we imagine.

One of those little towns - I’m not sure which one - is Magdala.

Mary Magdalene was from there - Jesus taught in her synagogue.

But the purpose of showing you this picture is - notice the rocks.

It’s green as all get out up here, right?

But everywhere you look is rocks - that’s the entire country.

It’s the rockiest place I have ever seen.

So, if you were going to plant a vineyard, as the Lord is doing in Isaiah

You’d have to pick up each one of those stones - and you’d stack them into a wall.

But think about it guys - if any of us has ever been digging in our yards and hit a rock

Sometimes you can’t just pick the rock up, right?

You have to dig it out to get it loose

And if it is big enough - you have to get help to move it.

Your work is very deliberate - you do it on purpose.

You aren’t simply tossing the rock out of the way.

That’s what the Lord wants us to understand here.

The work he did for Israel - the work he did establishing our country - it wasn’t an afterthought.

It wasn’t simply seeing a rock and stopping the lawnmower so you don’t hit it.

It was seeing a yard full of rocks.

And taking a lot of time to clean it up and put it together just right.

He built a watchtower so someone could look out for danger.

“[He] hewed out a wine vat in it.”

Hewed - that means he carved it out of solid rock - again - a very deliberate, time consuming work

Work with an expectation that it would be used - On purpose - He meant to do it.

And He did it all because He expected something - “and he looked for it to yield grapes.”

The Lord is so simple.

For us, He’s not so complex as we’ve made Him out to be.

He planted a vineyard - He planted a nation - and He expected fruit.

He expected Godliness - He expected people who would follow Him.

That’s all He was looking for - that’s why we were created.

“But it yielded wild grapes.”

The literal translation is “stink-grapes.”

Sounds kinds of 5th grade humorish - but you get the picture.

Some of you gardeners know what I’m talking about.

You plant a crop, but for some reason, the fruit just doesn’t grow right.

I planted watermelons once.

I had 5 or 6 pretty good size melons - but when I went to pick one up, it popped like a balloon.

Some kind of fungus or something - it was “stink-fruit.”

Unusable - worthless.

That’s what Israel had become.

Now let me say this about that - I’m not equating Israel and the United States.

But what I am saying is the Lord doesn’t change.

How He operates is the same over time and there are things in this scripture that are happening right now.

So let’s look for them and let’s start right here:

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.

For the longest time the almost complete majority of Americans considered themselves Christians.

Schools taught reading from the Bible.

Teachers led students in prayer.

Even as recently as my childhood, Ms. Brill, my favorite teacher ever in the fourth grade

Made us memorize scripture.

We prayed a blessing before lunch.

And we ended our prayers with, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight

“Oh Lord my strength and my redeemer.”

I didn’t know it, but that is Psalm 19:14.

And then we quit - court ordered.

But - don’t misunderstand - it wasn’t that prayer and the Bible were taken out of the schools that caused the issue.

The Bible reading and prayer showed that we knew - that we knew

Just like the writers of the Declaration did - that there is a single, omnipotent God

To whom we owe our lives and our allegiance, who gives us our rights

And a group of people didn’t want that anymore so they got loud

And the church of Jesus Christ remained silent.

So the focus shifted.

Instead of God being the star around which we orbited

Man became the star.

Our orbit changed from around what God knew was best for us

To what we believed was best for us.

We became wild grapes - stink fruit.

And from what I’ve seen in the media, I think stink fruit is an apt description.

So - what can we expect now that we have declared as President Obama said on June 28, 2006

Obama, June 28, 2006 (as delivered): Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation – at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers

Isaiah 5:5 ESV

And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

He will remove its hedge of protection

He will break down its wall

Now envision this - this isn’t the act of a hostile force rampaging over a conquered foe.

It is the farmer simply stopping to care for the vineyard.

He’s not going to be there to protect it.

And if you don’t do maintenance, what happens?

The fence - the wall - breaks down.

Any of you ever have a wooden fence?

Didn’t you have to repair it ever so often?

I did mine.

Isaiah 5:6 ESV

I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

He’s going to make it a waste, but how?

He’s not going to care for it anymore.

What happens when you don’t care for your garden?

Briers and thorns grow - weeds take over.

And He’s not going to irrigate it anymore.

No water - no fruit .

Everything slowly dries up and turns brown.

It’s going to die.

This sounds amazingly like Romans 1 - the Lord gave them up.

He walked away.

His judgement wasn’t fire and brimstone.

It was - it is simply - you don’t want Me here?

Not a problem - I’m out.

That is where we are.

It is undeniable.

How do I know?

The Lord tells us.

Isaiah 5:7 “...he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!”

One person said, “He looked for right but what He found was a riot.”

Do you need a visual?

Do you remember the riots during Covid?

Were those really angry people protesting for justice?

Do people who truly are looking for justice

Do they commit injustice in their quest for justice?

Is that not contradictory?

In order to protest what I perceive as wrong, I’m going to commit the same wrong against you?

And even as all kinds of people were saying all kinds of things - the church was silent.

We don’t want to be involved.

We don’t want that to come here.

We don’t want to talk politics.

Silence.

“He looked for right but what He found was a riot.”

In the remaining 23 verses, the Lord calls them out with explicit examples and it all deserves to be handled a verse at a time.

You really should read it when you get home and listen closely to it.

This is where we are - it is what is happening - this is how the Lord is dealing with us.

You might ask, “How can I be so certain?”

It’s because the Lord shows us the evidence.

He told us He looked for right - for justice - and all He found was a riot.

We can get screen shots if you need them.

But the Lord gets more specific.

In this text, the Lord gives us five questions that we can use to see if we are stink fruit.

Number 1, do we abhor sin or revel in it?

The first illustration is low hanging fruit - verse 11 - people whose life revolved around alcohol.

“They run after strong drink” - “Wine inflames them.”

Isaiah 5:12 “They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,"

You’ve seen this right?

The second illustration is more difficult to dig out because it deals with how they viewed property - land.

But we can sum it up pretty easily, “It’s all about the dollar.”

Case in point - when we flew to Israel, we flew on Turkish Airlines - the Turks are primarily Muslim.

You could see that on the planes.

They served us two meals on the flight to Istanbul.

They gave us a pillow, blanket and sleep kit with slippers, a mask and some other things.

They gave us headphones.

All included in the price.

They smiled - they were gracious - they were happy we did business with them.

Contrast that with domestic airlines.

You get a pack of Biscoffs and a small glass of soft drink or juice.

Anything else you pay extra for.

Everywhere you go in America, there is a charge.

Because it is all about profit.

People are merely a means to profit - and that’s not Godly.

That’s not how the Lord planted us.

We are stink fruit.

Number 2, Is God revered or flouted?

Verse 19 essentially says, “If God is God, then He needs to hurry up and prove it.”

With the implication that we know there is no God so hush.

If you’ve watched any of the videos “Red Pen Logic with Dr. B,” you’ve seen this.

Video after video of him taking every day people’s Tik-Tok and showing

How their views of God are skewed or just plain wrong.

And tell me, in the halls of government, just where do you see God or anything resembling Godliness?

On June 10th of this year, hanging from the White House columns were three flags.

On the left flank and right flank were the American Flag

In the center, in the place of importance, was the gay pride flag.

It was heralded as the largest Pride Month Celebration ever at the White House

The government of the United States spit in the face of God.

Which brings us to question number 3.

Number 3, Who decides what is good and who decides what is evil?

Isaiah 5:20 ESV

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 you are going to have laws, you have to have a law giver.

Who is the law giver?

If you are going to have morality, then there must be moral laws.

And if there are moral laws, there has to be a moral law giver.

Around the world, the United States Government has taken on the role of moral law giver.

From the conflict in the Ukraine, to pushing abortion all over the globe

To pushing homosexuality and transgenderism all over the world.

To being the largest exporter of pornography on the planet.

In our country, everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

That is anti-God.

That is anti-Christ.

Number 4, What is the goal of human achievement?

Isaiah 5:22 “Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,”

Who are our heroes?

Who do we want our kids to grow up to be?

Whose goal anymore is to be a productive member of society?

To help our fellow man - to make this community a better place?

Everyone now wants to go viral - to get their 15 minutes of fame.

And some kids have died trying to do it.

Eating stupid Tide Pods.

I can say this with certainty, the goal is not to be Godly.

The admired goal is not to be a Christ follower.

Number 5, Does the society guarantee the punishment of sin and the vindication of innocence?

Isaiah 5:23 “who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!”

I do not agree that there is systemic racism.

I do agree that there is systemic ungodliness.

Hunter Biden’s sins have been all over the news for years.

If your child had done what Hunter has done, your child would be buried under the courthouse.

Criminals are released without bail to terrorize people again.

I don’t need to list them - you see it - you know it.

All of this proves that the fertile soil of the United States has yielded “stink fruit.”

And the Lord has removed his protection.

He has ceased cultivating and he’s not irrigating anymore.

He’s “given us up.”

But there is one more think He will do - and He did it to Israel.

Isaiah 5:26 ESV

He will raise a signal for nations far away, and whistle for them from the ends of the earth; and behold, quickly, speedily they come!

That’s a funny thought, isn’t it - God whistling?

Like a someone calling a dog.

“Here, boy, come over here. Sic’em”

There are two therefore’s, one in verse 24 and one in 25.

Therefore He will cause natural disasters to occur.

Therefore He will call in conquering armies.

The Lord has done everything on his list except one - we haven’t been physically conquered yet.

Although I’m not so sure.

I have no clue who is running our country - none.

It’s not Joe Biden - He’s a victim of elder abuse.

But whoever it is - is evil and anti-Christ.

And the church is silent.

Elisabeth Noelle-Newmann coined a term back in the 70’s called the “Spiral of Silence.”

Basically, what she said was this:

It refers to the idea that when people fail to speak, the price of speaking rises. As the price to speak rises, still fewer people speak out., which further causes the price to rise, so that fewer people yet will speak out, until a whole culture or nation is silenced.” (Metaxas, Letter to the American Church, p. 52)

The church of Jesus Christ has been silent so long that we are terrified to speak.

The price to speak in Jesus’ name in the public square has become very high.

In some places, I believe you could lose your job if you spoke out.

If you speak out in certain schools, you can be punished.

But what is our choice?

Have you noticed that much of the Bible isn’t addressed to sinners?

The book isn’t written to the lawless or the unGodly.

The book is written to the church.

The Redeemed Rebels are studying Revelation in Sunday School.

They’ve noticed that the seven letters from Jesus are addressed to seven churches.

Not 7 NGO’s.

Not 7 senators or 7 parties or 7 states.

7 churches.

Because it is only the church of Jesus Christ that will be able to save us.

Listen, my opinion here - not gospel - but my opinion - I do not believe we’ll be able to vote ourselves out of the mess we’ve created in this country.

While we must vote - it is a Godly responsibility - it won’t matter until we repent and speak up.

2 Chronicles 7:14 is written to God’s people.

Isaiah 5:1-30 is written to God’s people.

Jesus told His followers, “Matthew 5:13-16

Matthew 5:13–16 ESV

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

You are the light of the world.

You are the salt of the earth.

Let your light shine for what reason?

That people will give glory to God.

We must put our orbit around God again.

Because the answer is not Biden or Trump

The answer is God, not man.

The price to speak is going to be very high.

But we must pay the price - we must speak up.

One day we will all stand before Jesus to be judged for our works.

I don’t want to be ashamed because we were silent.

I want to be proud

On that day, I want to be able to say, “I spoke the name of Jesus”

And Jesus will say, “Yes, yes you did and your voice changed someone’s life.”

Brothers and sisters, we were created for such a time as this.

Psalm 31:23-24 “Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride. Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!” Amen.