I. Look AT THE FIGURE WHICH UNDERLIES THIS EXHORTATION. We find in other parts of Scripture passages curiously rich in illustration of the emphatic exhortation here. Turn to Isaiah 5:1-7: here is presented to us the picture of a vineyard protected by a fence against marauders and wild beasts, planted with the choicest vine, and tilled in the most complete and careful manner. But when the vineyard, in spite of all care, only yields wild grapes, then the hedge and the wall are taken away and the cultivated land lapses into wilderness. Psalm 80. contains a very similar passage, save that it is the language of appeal from a suffering people instead of a warning from a disappointed God. God is described as having cast out the heathen to make room for the vine which he had brought from Egypt. And in the land where he planted it, it grew downwards and upwards and outwards, spreading far and wide. "Why then," say the people, "hast thou broken down her hedges, so that all which pass by the way do pluck her? The bear out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it." Once again, there is a very striking passage in Proverbs 24:30, 31. The wise man passes the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and finds it full of thorns and nettles, and the stone wall thereof broken down. Hence the vineyard, with its need of a strong wall kept in good repair, comes before us almost as distinctly as if it were a familiar sight.

II. CONSIDER NOW THE EXHORTATION ITSELF. The wall round this vineyard of God, even this vineyard which he so plainly set apart and has cared for so much, is to be broken down. We have not far to seek for the reason. The branches of the vine are not Jehovah's. "I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?" (Jeremiah 2:21). The wall is not yet in such case as that round the vineyard of the man void of understanding. It has not dropped to pieces through sloth. Its fate, it may be said, is even worse, for it has to come down by an act of judgment. Protection is a mockery and reproach when the thing protected fails to reward the care that has been lavished upon it. God breaks down the fence that he may make a clear way for the removing of the branches. The branches, one may say, are fixed in a true vine and draw nourishment from good soil; yet wild, sour, deluding, discreditable grapes are all the result. The branches, therefore, are to go, but only the branches. A full end is not to be made. The trunk, the roots, still stay. For indeed a word has, by-and-by, to be spoken by Jesus, concerning the vine and the branches, and the branches which are to abjure in the vine that they may bring forth fruit. God will destroy all profitless connection with himself. If men avail themselves of the strength and opportunity which he gives to bring forth fruit, not such as will glorify him, but such as suits the perverted taste of men, then all the branches on which such fruit comes must be unsparingly cut away. And what a thought that fruit which men so much value is after all in God's sight, which gives the true estimation, a sour and worthless thing! - Y.

I. I shall regard this text as spoken concerning THE CHURCH. The Church has very often gone to king Jareb for help, or to the world for aid; and then God has said to her enemies, "Go ye up against her; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the Lord's. She shall not have them. I am her battlement. She is to have none other."

1. The Church of God has sometimes sought to make the government its battlements.

2. There are churches who make battlements out of the wealth of their members. Now, we do love to have wealth and rank in our own midst; we always thank God when we have brought among us men who can do something for the cause of truth; we do bless God when we see Zaccheus, who had abundance of gold and silver, giving some of his gifts to the poor of the Lord's family; we like to see the princes and kings bringing presents and bowing before the King of all the earth: — but if any church bows before the golden calf, there will go forth the mandate, "Go ye upon her walls; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the Lord's."

3. There are some other churches relying upon learning and erudition. The learning of their minister seems to be a great fort and castle. Never let it be said that I have despised learning, or true knowledge. Let us have as much as we can. We thank God when men of learning are brought into the Church, when God renders them useful. But the Church nowadays is beginning to trust too much to learning; relying too much on philosophy, and upon the understanding of man, instead of the Word of God.

4. But I think that the worst battlement the churches have now is an earthwork of great and extreme caution. It is held to be improper that certain obnoxious truths in the Bible should be preached; sundry reasons are given why they should be withheld. One is, because it tends to discourage men from coming to Christ. Another is, because certain persons will be offended on account of these rough edges of the Gospel. God's Church must be brought once more to rely upon the pure truth, upon the simple Gospel, the unalloyed doctrines of the grace of God. Oh, may this Church never have any bulwark but the promises of God!

II. We shall now address the text to the CHRISTIAN — THE REAL CHILD OF GOD. The true believer also has a proneness to build up sundry "battlements," which "are not the Lord's," and to put his hope, his affection, in something else besides the word of the God of Israel.

1. The first thing whereof we often make a fortress wherein to hide is — the love of the creature. The Christian's happiness should be in God alone. He should be able to say, "All my springs are in Thee. From Thee alone I ever draw my bliss." We fix our love on some dear friend, and there is our hope and trust. God says, "What though ye take counsel together, ye have not taken counsel of Me, and therefore I will take away your trust. What though ye have walked in piety, ye have not walked with Me as ye should. Go ye no against her, O Death! Go ye up against her, O affliction! Take away that battlement — It is not the Lord's."

2. Many of us are too prone to make battlements out of our past experience, and to rely upon that instead of confiding in Jesus Christ. There is a sort of self-complacency which reviews the past, and says, "There I fought Apollyon; there I climbed the hill Difficulty; there I waded through the Slough of Despond." The next thought is, "And what a fine fellow am I! I have done all this. Why, there is nothing can hurt me. No. If I have done all this, I can do everything else that is to be accomplished." What does God say whenever His people do not want Him; but live on what they used to have of Him, and are content with the love He once gave them? "Ah! I will take away your battlements." He calls out to doubts and fears — "Go ye up upon his walls; take away his battlements, for they are not the Lord's."

3. Then again we sometimes get trusting too much to evidences and good works. We often get a pleasing opinion of ourselves: we are preaching so many times a week; we attend so many prayer meetings; we are doing good in the Sabbath school; we are important members of the Church; we are giving away so much in charity, and we say, "Surely I am a child of God. I am an heir of heaven. Look at me! See what robes I wear. Have I not, indeed," a righteousness about me that proves me to be a child of God?" Then we begin to trust in ourselves, and say, Surely of your graces, Christians!

III. Now, to bring the text to THE YOUNG CONVERT, to the man in that stage of our religious history which we call conversion to God.

1. In the forefront of the city of Mansoul frowns the wall of carelessness — an erection of satanic masonry. It is made of black granite, and mortal art cannot injure it. Bring law, like a huge pickaxe, to break it: you cannot knock a single chip off. At last a gracious God cries out — "Take away her battlements, they are not the Lord's." And at a glance down crumbles the battlement. The careless man becomes tender-hearted; the soul that was hard as iron has become soft as wax; the man who once could laugh at gospel warnings, and despise the preaching of the minister, now sits down and trembles at every word.

2. The first wall is surmounted, but the city is not yet taken: the Christian minister, under the hand of God, has to storm the next wall — that is the wall of self-righteousness. How hard it is to storm this wall! it must be carried at the point of the bayonet of faithful warning; there is no taking it except by boldly climbing up with the shout of, "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

3. Thus the double rampart is passed, but another still opposes our progress — Christ's warriors know it by the name of self-sufficiency. Oh! blessed day when God directs His shots against that.

IV. I take this passage as it respects THE UNGODLY AND THE SINNER AT LAST. How many there shall be at the last great day who will sit down very comfortably behind certain battlements that they have builded! There is one man — a monarch: "I am irresponsible, says he; "who shall ever bring anything to my charge? I am an autocrat: I give no account of my matters." Oh! he will find out at last that God is Master of emperors, and Judge of princes; when his battlements shall be taken away. Another says, "Cannot I do as I like with my own? What if God did make me, I shall not serve Him. I shall follow my own will. I have in my own nature everything that is good, and I shall do as my nature dictates. I shall trust in that, and if there be a higher power He will exonerate me, because I only followed my nature." But he will find his hopes to be visionary, and his reasons to be foolish, when God shall say, "The soul that sinneth it shall die"; and when His thundering voice shall pronounce the sentence — "Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire." Again, there is a company of men joined hand in hand, and they think they will resist the Eternal, yea, they have a plan for subverting the kingdom of Christ. They say, "We are wise and mighty. We have fortified ourselves. We have made a covenant with death and a league with hell." Ah! they little think what will become of their battlements at the last great day, when they shall see it all crumble and fall. With what fear and alarm will they then cry: "Rocks, hide us! Mountains, on us fall!"

( C. H. Spurgeon.)