Where Did the Wild Come From? - Pastor Stacey Shiflett

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Where Did the Wild Come From?

Isaiah 5:1-6

Intro: I preached from this passage back in 2021 a message entitled Wild Grapes.

In this story, just to review quickly, we see the making of a vineyard.

               A. The Picture – the vineyard is Israel (see verse 7) but is a great picture of the church. (1 Cor. 3:9; John 15:1-6)

               B. The Potential – vs. 1 a very fruitful hill

               C. The Parameters – vs. 2 and he fenced it

               D. The Purging – vs. 2 he gathered out the stones thereof

               E. The Planting – vs. 2 planted it with the choicest vine

               F. The Protection – vs. 2 built a tower in the midst of it

               G. The Planning – vs. 2 and also made a winepress

               H. The Problem – vs. 2 and it brought forth wild grapes

               I. The Pain – vs. 2 and looked… SEE verse 3, 4

               J. The Punishment – verses 5-7

We understand that these grapes were not wild, and then they were.

So this begs the question – Where Did the Wild Come From?

I. The Source of the Wild

We can agree on several things:

               It did not come from within the vineyard.

               It did not come from the husbandman.

               It did not come from the caretaker.

               It had to have come from OUTSIDE the vineyard.

It came from grapes that didn’t have a fence, or a tower, or a winepress.

It came from grapes that did not have a relationship with authority

II. The Spreading of the Wild

It had to be cross pollination.

It had to be carried by the wind over the fence.

Satan is called “the prince of the power of the air.”

Remember- Satan pollutes and corrupts everything God makes.

The Apostle Paul warned the church about the winds of false doctrine.

·        Ephesians 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

The wind carried the DNA of wild grapes over the fence and cross pollinated the vineyard of God.

I contend tonight that the WILD that I’m preaching about is in the air.

The WILD that polluted and corrupted the vineyard:

·        Came from grapes that did not have any respect for the boundaries.

·        Came from grapes that did not have a fence.

·        Came from grapes that did not have a tower.

·        Came from grapes that did not have an overseer.

·        Came from grapes that did not have a winepress.

·        Came from grapes with no authority, no purpose and no value.

NOTE: The overseer in the midst of the vineyard CANNOT SEE EVERYTHING!!

He cannot see that WILD that you’re playing around with at your house on your phone!

The cross-pollination that takes place is coming at us THROUGH THE AIR.

·        Internet; WIFI; 5G

·        Hollywood; Netflix; Hulu; YouTube

·        Social media apps; chat rooms

·        Video games; Xbox and Nintendo consoles that access internet/conversing with strangers/pedophiles

·        Public schools/secular colleges/some Bible colleges is where the cross-pollination takes place

·        Romans 16:19 …but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

EVIL – of a bad nature

SIMPLE – unmixed  

III. The Stealing of the Wild

The Bible is clear – the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. (John 10:10)

Look what Satan stole from Adam and Eve!

Look what Satan stole from Cain! – whose punishment was to be banished into the WILD.

That WILD that came floating over the fence:

A. Stole their Favor – I looked that is should bring forth grapes…

B. Stole their Fruit – vs. 6 I will lay it to waste

C. Stole their Freedom – vs. 6 now strangled and choked out by briers and thorns

D. Stole their Future – never left the vineyard; never made it to the winepress.

E. Stole their Fulfillment – never became what they were planted to do and to be

F. Stole their Flourishing – I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it

Notice what happens to those that are “carried about of winds…”

Jude 1:12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

They HAD fruit, but it withered and died because they were CARRIED ABOUT OF WINDS. 

Two Illustrations of what the WILD will steal from you.

ILLUSTRATION #1 – Old Testament – SAMSON – Judges 16:4

Samson was without a doubt, a choice vine.

Notice where Delilah was found.

Sorek – meaning a choice vine

Satan has a choice vine picked out to cross-pollinate God’s choice vines.

NOTE: When it comes to grapes, Satan hates competition.

Look at verse 5 – the lords offered her 1,100 pieces of silver EACH.

That’s 150,000 times??? = approximately a million dollars or more if there were more than 6 or 7 of them.

The devil was willing to pay a million dollars to make Samson AVERAGE.

All it would have cost Samson to remain Samson was 1 girlfriend.

NOTE: Samson was not a teenager; he was middle aged.

He judged Israel for 20 years (Judges 15:20)

He valued the touch of a girl over the touch of God.

He had the LORD, but he gave Him up for LUST.

God’s will for you is to strong and exceptional.

Satan’s will for you is to be weak and like everybody else.

The WILD stole:

               1. His Might – vs. 20

               2. His Sight – vs. 21

               3. His Rights – bound him and made him a slave.

ILLUSTRATION #2 – New Testament – DEMAS – 2 Timothy 4:10

Demas chose THIS PRESENT WORLD and it robbed him blind.

He lost:

A. His Man of God

Paul forced him to choose the world or him; he couldn’t have both

And he didn’t just lose a man of God; he lost the Apostle Paul as his man of God.

Most people in the world don’t even have one; he had the best and TRADED IT for the WILD.

At least Paul made him choose; most preachers and churches today ARE the present world!

B. His Mates – he travelled with Luke the Physician, John Mark, and others. (Philemon 1:24)

They say, “But…I want to go hang out with my friends…”

I want to say, “What are we? Chopped liver???”

C. His Mentoring

There are no pastoral epistles written to Demas like the ones Timothy and Titus received.

He could have had access to the greatest Bible College in the world, and the WILD stole it from him.

D. His Ministry

There was no more traveling with the team and investing and impacting lives.

He was called a “my fellowlabourers.” But not anymore!

He’s not a SERVANT, he’s a STATISTIC.

He’s not a LABORER, he’s a LOSER.

He’s not the source of HELP; he’s the source of HURT.

E. His Mission – he was never deployed to do great things for God like Timothy and Titus.

I wonder what Paul might could have sent Demas to do if he hadn’t fallen in love with THE WILD.

Paul sent Titus to Crete. He sent Timothy to Philippi.

Demas never got sent on a special mission because the WILD robbed him of his future and his fulfillment.

The Lord’s vineyard is not made up of WILD GRAPES!!

Conclusion: Everything you need is inside the vineyard!

And you are not a grape – you have a choice!!

·        Psalms 101:3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

You can evade the poison of the wild grapes by hating the work of them that turn aside, and it will not cleave to you.