Jesus The Vine
The most important thing in each of our lives is the love of God. It’s not so easy for us to understand what that love is because we are all messing up our lives as we run and search and look, trying to find it.
Life is found in only one person and that is Jesus Christ. He came and gave His life that we might have life; but the main thing we need to seek is His love. As we seek after His love we are going to find it and it is His love that will satisfy us. We are satisfied when we give our lives to Jesus and let Him bring His love into us and let the others go. Nothing else can live in us with His love. He doesn’t want sin in us and will not tolerate it; He will not live in us if there is sin.
John 15:1. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every [branch] that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide
in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5. I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast [them] into the fire, and they are burned.
7. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
11. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and [that] your joy might be full.
12. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17. These things I command you, that ye love one another.
18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you.
19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep your’s also.
21. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
23. He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
24. If I had not done among them the
works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25. But [this cometh to pass], that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
26. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
27. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”
The Lord said, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” Why did He choose us? He chose us that He might live in us with His love, peace, joy, righteousness and love. What does He expect of us? Jesus said, “I am the true vine and you are the branches.” The vine cannot bear fruit of itself it has to have the branches to bear the fruit. The fruit can not be born without the vine; the vine and the branch must be one. How can it be one? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.” There is no other way back to the Father except through Jesus Christ. There is no other way of life except through Jesus. Jesus came and said, “I am the light of the world;” without him there is no light. Jesus gives us His love, for without His love we can do nothing. He is the true vine but the vine without the branches is barren. What is His purpose in this world? To bring forth fruit from the earth!
Christ is the true vine and we are the branches and I used to tell the people that the fruit is on the branches. No, the fruit comes off of the branches to the earth. What is that fruit that has to come from that branch to the people on the earth. The fruit is the people who are saved and delivered as a result of the love that flows from the vine through the branches.
We say want his love; but He wants to give us His love more than we want to receive it from Him. Do you think God is happy if we are filled up with all this junk? We don’t know how to get rid of it. He is saying, “Come unto me all ye that labor and I will give you rest.” He will give us His love and that love brings forth fruit. When there is someone that is filled with God’s love, you can sense it because there is no conflict. You feel the peace and the joy; you feel something because His love in us brings us into his peace and joy, into His kingdom.
What is the reason for His love? God is love! It is long suffering, gentleness, kindness and patience. “Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another.” It shows us that God’s love is in us; it affects how we talk and act with one another. The most important verse I have taught is “Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another.” Sometimes we miss it so badly. When we fight and argue we’re not showing that love. The main thing I’ve taught is “Be ye kind one to another.” What are we producing here; forgiveness and love or something else?
When our children are spitting and fighting, somehow, God’s love wasn’t manifested to them and it isn’t in them or coming through them. Because His love is what is going to change man and we show this love in many ways. Sometimes, we might not like to do certain things; but ever since we have been here in this place the Lord has said, “Hear my voice and obey it and I will be your God and you will be my people. Love one another and forgive one another and be kind to one another.” Just open up your heart and let the Lord’s love come in. He won’t come in with a lot of garbage in there.
Turn to Isaiah 26. He speaks of other lords that are in our lives. Let’s stop and consider what other lords live in us and what we can do about it. He is aiming to take all these lords out and He will come in with His love. We will abide in Him and He will abide in us; this is the ultimate that God has for us. This 26th chapter is called The Righteous Nation.
2. “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
3. Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on thee]: because he trusteth in thee.
4. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH [is] everlasting strength…”
He is talking about this righteous nation that he is forming in us.
12. “LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
13. O LORD our God, [other] lords beside thee have had dominion over us: [but] by
thee only will we make mention of thy name.”
14. [They are] dead, they shall not live; [they are] deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.”
That is saying that you make the decision that you don’t want these lords in your life and that only Jesus can be Lord of your life; only Christ can live in you. He takes the other lords and pronounces them dead. Don’t say you have to carry this garbage around all your life; because when we acknowledge Christ and He is in our life, God takes these lords. All you do is tell them you don’t want them anymore, then the Lord takes them out and he destroys them and causes their memory to perish. They are no longer a part of your life for He visited and destroyed them.
Why does He visit and destroy them and cause their memory to perish? Because we made the decision that Christ alone is the lord of our lives therefore they cannot live. The Lord takes them out, only He can destroy them, we can’t. We have to give Him the right to do it. He caused their memory to perish; never hang onto anything in your life, let go of it and he will destroy it. It is hard for man to stop. Jesus takes it and he causes the memory of it to perish. What is our battle with it? The Lord takes it and he causes the memory to perish. He causes this miracle in every human being who commits their life to Him and lets Him take everything out that’s not of Him and replace it with His love and He, Himself, takes charge of us.
We think we have to run our own lives and we think about what we want to do. All we have to do is invite Jesus to come in. He isn’t going to come into our empty vessel. We have to give Him permission to clean our empty vessel and He does it very emphatically. He states, “They are dead, they shall not live, they are deceased and they shall not rise. Therefore, hadst thou visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish.” How many of you have had Jesus do that for you? He wants to do it for every one of us!
15. “Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed [it] far [unto] all the ends of the earth.”
What is he talking about? This nation that He is talking about is you and I. He has taken us out of this world of sin and placed Himself in us and we became this righteous nation. Jesus is sending us to the ends of the earth with the gospel of the kingdom and He is in charge. He has given us the hour to radiate His love, His glory and His provision; everything is going to come because He is in us and we are in him. This love He has placed within us makes us to love others and draws the people to us. Jesus, in us, can show the world who God is.
“If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.” We try to trust ourselves but we are complaining because we don’t know what to do. He wants us to know Him and have His love in us and allow Him to abide in us and develop our lives. He is the one in charge! It is difficult at first because the world we have in us desires more of the world.
If we really know Jesus it spoils us for anything out there; because this love far surpasses anything the world has to offer. This love can’t be described. He is saying to us, “If we will allow Him to take His place in us, He will clean our house; but we have to give him permission.
If you want His love all you have to do is have him clean your house. The former lords have no place to stay so they have to flee. Jesus is in authority, through His love, and He does the work. We want Jesus to live in us with His love, His peace and righteousness and do all these things that He wants to do for us.
He wants to do a creative miracle in our lives so we have no hangovers. We still think we are in the world; but we are a new creation. The old things are passed away and have been destroyed and in their place are His love and peace and joy and righteousness.
The greatest thing in the world is that Jesus, with His love, is abiding in us; He is that true vine and we are His branches. He wants these branches to bear fruit; but they won’t if they aren’t connected with the vine. He said, “If you abide in Me, I will abide in you and I promise that you will bring forth much fruit.”
The Father is the Husbandman; but what does a husbandman do in an orchard? He prunes it so it can bring forth more fruit. His fruit is on the vine and these branches are very important to him, but He has to do some pruning so that His love might be more manifest. Sometimes we think He is going to skin us to death and cut off too many branches but he is only pruning us so we will bring forth more fruit.
I love the 4th chapter of Isaiah where he speaks about our day; I’m talking about today. It says, “In that day the branch of the Lord…” not the big branch but the little branches. 2. “In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious.” What is going to make it glorious? Abiding in the vine will for the vine is glorious! As we abide in Him this branch is going to “…be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.” We are going to take this gospel of the vine and branches to the ends of the earth.
As we go we are going to demonstrate God’s glory and love by what we do, how we act, how we show His love and how we forgive one another. His love will be evidenced in us that He has charge of our ‘branch’. He said that in this day it is going to be beautiful and glorious and the earth is going to be filled with this fruit. Here comes the harvest and it is full of His love.
He is saying, “Come unto me all ye that labor and I will give you rest.” We are hungry for God’s love. We have to come to Him and make Him the Lord of our lives; there never can be anyone else. As He imparts to us and we walk with His love, not our human love, it is going to affect a lot of people. God’s love is perfect; it doesn’t matter what people think when His love is in us. His love is going out, you don’t have to consider whether it is or not because He is in charge. Give your life to Him and let Him be the King of Glory in you; because His love is going to show others who He is.
God is preparing to take us to the nations and He is going to declare to these nations that He is God. This righteous nation, filled with his love, glory, peace and rest, will teach them to enter into His rest, also. This new nation is being formed so we can go into the world and proclaim Jesus and His love.
Zephaniah 3:14. “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
15. The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, [even] the LORD, [is] in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil
any more.
16. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: [and to] Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.
17. The LORD thy God in the midst of thee [is] mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
18. I will gather [them that are] sorrowful for the solemn assembly, [who] are of
thee, [to whom] the reproach of it [was] a burden.
19. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.
20. At that time will I bring you [again], even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your
captivity before your eyes, saith the LORD.”
For so long God has pleaded with Israel to enter into His rest and they wouldn’t do it. They went on with their problems and went on into captivity time and time again. He is saying to us, “Come unto me all ye that labor and I will give you rest.” He pleaded with the children of Israel to rest, but because they didn’t rest, God couldn’t rest. God tried to talk them into resting. “And the lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty.” That is number one, to come to Him! He saves us and takes us out of the law of sin and death and places us under a new law “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”
He is waiting for us that He might save us and rejoice over us with singing and give us everything that pertains to life and godliness. Then He will rejoice over us with joy. How long the Lord has waited for the day, for that branch of the Lord to be beautiful and glorious. He is worthy of our honor and praise; for as we abide in Him and He abides in us He can rejoice over us with joy as we worship and come into that rest in him. He said, “You are My love and you are My rest so cease from your labors and rest in my love.”
He wants us to know Him and be in Him to such a degree that the rest of the world means nothing. He just truly shows us His love and He will sing over us here because of His love for us and our love for Him. As we rest and let Him work in our lives, He is enjoying it while He works through us. God is love but He had no one to give it to so He decided to create a world and put people in it that they might choose to walk with Him.
When the enemy comes, Jesus comes and gives us the Father’s love as He abides in us with His love. “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask what you will…” As we abide in Him and He abides in us, we can ask what we will of the Father and He will give it to us.
“I am the true vine and ye are the branches.” This fruit is the most important thing in our lives because He has to become Lord over us. Therefore, we have to abide in Him as He abides in us. It doesn’t matter what we have gone through, He gives us life and it surpasses anything that we could have desired; because His love isn’t like human love. Human love can get so upset by one another because it is fallen man. Then we have to get Jesus to come and save us and do what Isaiah 26 says and fill us full of His love.
He is going to show the world who He is and that He loves them. With His love in us we will find that He has changed our lives, if we yield ourselves to him, then we will see this wonderful, glorious and beautiful fruit that comes forth. You want to be like that. Be what Jesus wants you to be and begin to reflect the love of Christ. The true vine will bring forth our branch with His love flowing through us. We will be beautiful because we have allowed the pruning of the Father over our minds. Then the world will come to know who Jesus is and His love will flow out and around this world. It will make them realize that He created this world and they will come to know Him.
That is why it is important to let Him bring His love forth, He wants to shape us and fill us with this love so that the world can come to him. You are his glorious, beautiful branches and the fruit on the earth shall be excellent and beautiful to be desired. I praise the mighty God! It doesn’t matter who is around us, it only matters who is in us. Are we abiding in Him and is He abiding in us?
This is His desire, especially in this day, because Jesus is going to come forth in a people. His love and glory and provision is in all of us that we might know who He is; that we might be used the way He desires. Jesus is going to use you! He is going to do exactly what He says He will do. I want you to hear what Malachi is saying. Because it is important for us to realize that God is going to do something very special.
Malachi 3:16. “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard [it], and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.”
Think about what it means for each one of us. Let Jesus come in as the King of Glory and fill us with His love and glory and take us to the nations.
4:1. “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”
How many are familiar with putting calves in a stall and opening the gate? They are going to run and you can’t catch them. Jesus is going to do that for us as He arises within us and sends us forth. What is going to happen?
3. “And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do [this], saith the LORD of hosts.”
Who wins? They will be ashes under our feet and God will be glorified. The wicked don’t want God; they don’t want anything to do with Him. He wants to use us in these last days when he shows the world who He is.
Psalms 24:1. “The earth [is] the LORD’S, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
2. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
3. Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4. He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”
How do we enter into that place? We accept Christ!
5. “He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6. This [is] the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
8. Who [is] this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 9. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift [them] up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
10. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he [is] the King of glory. Selah.”
We know that “…the earth is the Lord’s and the world and they that dwell therein.” The world now is trying to forget God; but He is going to show them who He is. He is going to tread down the wicked and they shall be ashes under the souls of His feet. We are going to have this glorious privilege of bringing the nations to the knowledge of Lord; but the wicked are going to come down. You won’t find them they will be ashes under the souls of your feet.
Can we with our little finite minds know what God is placing before us? He created this world and every last person to have His love. Jesus came and died that the whole world might know who the Father is. He has given us this glorious privilege of coming with him and bringing us into His glory, with His love and provision. God wants to show the world how great a love He has for them; He didn’t die for just a few; He died for the whole world.
He can use us as He arises in us; the King, the Sun of Righteousness, arises in us to show the world. We will have the privilege of seeing their ashes “and of His Kingdom there is no end.” What an honor we have tonight, there should be a bubbling up in us of who Jesus is. What you are going through right now isn’t important. What is important is that Jesus becomes the head of you and your house and that He and His love are in charge.
It is up to us what we do with this. If you have a need tonight just come and abide in Him and let Him abide in you and your needs will be met. It is up to us to show His love to those around the world. This is a deep word but it is what we need. In Jesus name! Amen.
Rev. Agnes I Numer
March 13 2003
