Isaiah 5:1-7 Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:… I. THE MOTIVES OR REASONS INDUCING US TO FRUITFULNESS. 1. Every creature in its kind is fruitful. The poorest creature God hath made is enabled, with some gift, to imitate the goodness and bounty of the Creator, and to yield something from itself to the use and benefit of others Shall not every creature be a witness against man, and rise up in judgment to condemn him, if he be fruitless? 2. The fruitfulness of a Christian is the groundwork of all true prosperity. 3. If we be fruitful, bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, there is no law against us (Galatians 5:22, 23). 4. The circumstance of time calls upon us to bring forth the fruits of obedience. Forasmuch as the Lord hath year by year, for so long succession of years, sought for fruit of us and found none, it is now high time to bring forth plenty. 5. If all this will not serve to make us fruitful, that which our Saviour saith in John 15:2, 6, should awaken us. II. SOME PROFITABLE MEANS THAT MUST BE USED TO MAKE US GROW MORE FRUITFUL. 1. See thou be removed out of thy natural soil, and be engrafted into another stock. 2. See thou plant thyself by the running brooks. 3. See thou labour for humility and tenderness of heart. The ground which is hard and strong is unfit for fruit. 4. Beware of overshadowing thy heart by any sinful lust, whereby the warm beams of the Sun of Righteousness are kept from it. 5. A special care must be had to the root that that grow well Faith is the radical grace. 6. We must be earnest with the Lord, that He would make us fruitful. III. THE NATURE AND QUALITY OF THAT FRUIT WHICH WE MUST BRING FORTH. 1. Proper. It must be thy own. 2. Kindly, resembling the Author, who is the Spirit of grace. 3. Timely and seasonable (Psalm 1:3). 4. Ripe. 5. A fifth property of good fruit is universalities. Fruits of the first and second table, of holiness towards God and righteousness towards man. Fruits inward and outward. 6. Constant. (N. Rogers.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: |
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