Lord’s Vineyard
195
Lord the fruits of His vineyard.
To us God’s messengers come at the bidding of the Master. They
come demanding, as did Christ, obedience to the word of God. They
present His claim to the fruits of the vineyard, the fruits of love, and
humility, and self-sacrificing service. Like the Jewish leaders, are not
many of the husbandmen of the vineyard stirred to anger? When the
claim of God’s law is set before the people, do not these teachers use
their influence in leading men to reject it? Such teachers God calls
unfaithful servants.
The words of God to ancient Israel have a solemn warning to the
church and its leaders today. Of Israel the Lord said, “I have written
to him the great things of My law; but they were counted as a strange
thing.”
Hosea 8:12
. And to the priests and teachers He declared, “My
people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected
knowledge, I will also reject thee; ... seeing thou hast forgotten the
law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”
Hosea 4:6
.
Shall the warnings from God be passed by unheeded? Shall the
opportunities for service be unimproved? Shall the world’s scorn, the
pride of reason, conformity to human customs and traditions, hold the
professed followers of Christ from service to Him? Will they reject
God’s word as the Jewish leaders rejected Christ? The result of Israel’s
sin is before us. Will the church of today take warning?
“If some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild
olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the
root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not.... Because of unbelief they
were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but
fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also
spare not thee.”
Romans 11:17-21
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