THE Church in the Song of Solomon had to say, “My mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.” The latter part of this statement is the bitter complaint of all the Lord’s true people. Whatever their station may be in the Church of God they are not satisfied with how they perform their duties, but more especially is this complaint vented in connection with how they come short in the important business of keeping the heart. The Word of God says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life,” but all who have attempted that duty have found that over all their efforts may be written, “Mine own vineyard have I not kept.”
The command to keep the heart with all diligence has in it the sum and substance of that Moral Law written on the heart of man at his creation, and, though man changed through having fallen from a state of innocence yet the law of God has not changed and never will, therefore, the law of God demands perfect obedience of us as it demanded of Adam before the Fall, and all who are truly taught of God realise this. They further realise that if there were reasons for issuing a command to keep the heart to man in a state of innocence there are infinitely greater reasons for that command in a fallen state. They have through the work of God’s Spirit realised, what they never realised in an unregenerate state, that they were by nature under the power of the carnal mind which is enmity against God. That carnal mind fills the soul with all manner of wicked suggestions, making it a fertile ground for the roots of sin which are there to spring up and pollute many. There are also the temptations of Satan to be reckoned with. Christ in the days of His humiliation could say, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me,” but God’s people cannot say this for they are bitterly conscious of a God-hating nature and a desperately wicked heart to which the temptations of Satan will readily appeal.
The vineyard is to be kept with all diligence, and this diligence ought to manifest itself in a continuous search for “any root of bitterness” which is ready to spring up. The dresser of a vineyard, literally, must have a quick eye to detect anything that would be injurious to the vines. Weeds will soon grow and use up the sap which should go to the bringing forth of fruit, and if they are not taken away will soon make the vineyard a wilderness. Of all the weeds that grow in the vineyard of the heart, “self” is the most harmful and sometimes the most difficult to detect. It sends out its roots, deep and wide, so that it enters into duties and motives, and often puts on the garment of humility which makes it very difficult to detect. If left uncurbed it will ruin a profession of religion, wither the soul, give many a broken bone, and make the careless keeper of the vineyard loathsome, even in the eyes of the godless world.
In giving orders that the vineyard be kept God has given an infallible guide to direct us how this should be done, and the first business of the child of God ought to be to consult this guide continually. This infallible guide is the Bible, and it shows, not only that the vineyard is to be kept, but it shows what fruit is required, turns its searchlight on the blemishes, shows the cause of these blemishes and reveals the remedy. The fruit required is, holiness of heart, self-loathing, loathing every appearance of evil, a holy life and the giving of a diligent and loving service to Christ in endeavouring to advance His kingdom in the world. Thus we have a very high standard set before the one who would keep his own vineyard.
This vineyard is not kept when “the sin which doth so easily beset us” is not laid aside. There are sins, the heinousness of which, the child of God may be blinded to in a measure. Many factors contribute to make them small in his estimation, yea, he may be so far left to himself as to excuse his indulgence in them, because there may be certain elements in them which make them particularly pleasing to him. He does not realise that they are sins, and that they deserve the wrath and curse of God both in this life and in that which is to come, forgetting for the time being that sin harboured and cherished in the heart will act like a poisonous serpent—it will bite and cause eternal death, if God’s mercy does not intervene, for “When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Sin has very strong roots in the heart and although one might think that these roots were broken yet they appear again and again, showing the need there is of keeping the vineyard.
Another way in which the vineyard is not kept is when a right use is not made of privileges and opportunities. This happens when their real value is not properly realised. Jesus of Nazareth is passing by in them but how often even the true child of God comes to these means of grace in a frame of mind not conducive to fellowship with Christ. There is so little real desire after Him, and so little seeking of grace in secret to subdue our corruptions, that when we come to the courts of God’s house we come there without Christ’s fellowship, and thus we are contrary to the Church in the Song of Solomon when she said, “I held Him, and would not let Him go, until I had brought Him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.” Little wonder, therefore, though we should have to complain, “Mine own vineyard have I not kept.” Further, we forget that every opportunity which passes away will never return. Fresh opportunities which are past will never return. If people would realise this, and think of the uncertainty of the future they would be seeking more diligence in the business of keeping the heart.
Those who would keep their own vineyard find that the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life, together with Satan’s temptations are too strong for them. Some of them thought at one time that they were sufficient for these things themselves, but a very short while of an honest endeavour to keep their own vineyard convinced them of how utterly impossible this was, and constrained them to cry with the Apostle, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Well, it is for such that a Saviour is provided who not only suffered in their room and stead, but who keeps the vineyard which His own are painfully conscious that they cannot keep, and, therefore, they go to Him with the prayer of the Psalmist, “Unite my heart to fear thy name.”
In endeavouring to keep their own vineyard they discovered that they have wandering eyes that continually go after their idols and this causes them to pray, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.” They have ears that are too ready to hear other things than that which “God the Lord will speak,” and a knowledge of this constrains them to cry, “Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust”; they have mouths ready to speak vanity, and they have realised that Christ alone can cause their mouths to speak His praises. In short, they have realised that “how to perform that which is good” they cannot find and have to cast themselves wholly on Him who can do all things for them, and it is when they are in that condition that He reveals that His grace is sufficient for them, and His strength is made perfect in their weakness. When they thus get a view of how adaptable His grace and strength is to their needs they are enabled to say with the Apostle, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me.” It is in this way that their vineyard is kept, but often, however, they do not see the work that is going on, and the way by which Christ is keeping their vineyard for them. They see the injurious things which are growing there but they no not see the fruit, and the older they get the more they are harassed with a view of their own hearts as a vineyard that is not kept, and if they were to speak according to their feelings they would say that there was nothing in their vineyard but “trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.” This causes them to write many a hard thing against themselves.
The vineyard which the Lord’s people have not been able to keep is being kept by their Lord. As He says of the Church, “A vineyard of red wine, I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” Therefore, all the glory belongs to Him, and when the Lord’s people will at last reach Heaven and see how they had been kept and prepared, it will cause them to sing for ever and ever the praises of Him who did such wonderful things for them.—J. C.