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The Lord Jesus had continued to speak in the most inspiring way to His disciples. He was seeking to bring them to a much more adequate understanding of this new life into which He had called them.

There is an encouraging simplicity in His explanation. Yet there is also a depth and a glory which challenges our continued and diligent meditation and application.

Central to everything that He said was His emphasis on His relationship to His people. Their relationship to Him.

It is from that vitally significant truth that we see flowing the most incredible riches and resources. Such amazing riches and indescribable resources that they far exceed the ability of our finite minds to grasp.

We humbly listen to the Lord Jesus as He speaks. The message which we hear fills our hearts and minds to overflowing with a deep awe. With a great joy. With the spontaneous expressions of worship and praise.

The true believer only wants to be genuinely one with his Lord. Such knows that there is so much that cannot be fully explained. So, the truth is thankfully and humbly received. Boldly applied in sincere faith.

We move on into the fifteenth chapter of John. Here we find ourselves increasingly challenged and inspired.

The Psalmist writes: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river." (Psalm 80: 8 - 11).

The nation of Israel is described as: The vine of the Lord. Redeemed and delivered from Egypt by Him. Planted by Him in the promised land. Greatly blessed by the Lord. Obviously prospering greatly.

Isaiah expressed the same idea. "Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard. My well beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill."

"And He fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein."

"The vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant" (Isaiah 5: 1, 2, 7).

Everything which the Lord did was so positive. The place He chose to plant the vine was "a very fruitful hill!" He took all the necessary preparations. Adequate protection was provided.

The Lord made sure that the vine had the perfect environment for both growth and fruitfulness. He Himself provided it all. Nothing was overlooked. When the Lord called Abraham He told him what His aims and objectives in calling him were.

"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. . .In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed!" (Genesis 12: 2, 3).

The people of Israel had adopted the vine as their national symbol. Emphasizing the blessing of God which was first promised in the covenant which He made with Abraham. They were God's chosen! Chosen to be greatly blessed.

Jesus and His disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Gethsemane. It is probable that they passed the entry to the temple. There they would see, emblazoned on that entry way: The Vine, symbol of the nation.

Israel, was God's vine. Chosen by God. Blessed by God. God's choice vine!

They had forgotten that the vine had only one purpose: to bear fruit!

They claimed God's promise when He said, "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great!" But willfully ignored the words, "Thou shalt be a blessing!"

They exalted themselves in being, "The chosen people of God." But they willfully ignored the fact that He specifically stated this purpose: "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed!"

That attitude attracted the judgement of God. He declares it to be: sin! The sin of claiming special privilege but rejecting the responsibilities which God stated were the reason for the privilege.

He "looked that it should bring forth grapes,” and it “brought forth wild grapes!"

"I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: . . . I will lay it waste!" (Isaiah 5: 4, 5, 6).

He looked for fruit! He had every right to find the fruit which pleased Him. He did not find it.

It is against this background that the disciples heard the Lord Jesus say, "I AM THE TRUE VINE!

Israel had failed. Completely. Continually. Willfully. Stubbornly. Deliberately ignoring all of the patient pleadings of the Lord. Rejecting every attempt which He made in His persistent love to win them back into His plan and will again.

They were no longer "the choice vine" of the Lord. "Israel is an empty vine" (Hosea 10: 1). "I planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into a degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?" (Jeremiah 2: 21).

That tragic and total failure did not, could not, defeat the Lord's plan and purpose: "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

The Lord Jesus came as God's perfect provision to fulfill His promise. He knew that He was, is, "The seed of Abraham" through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed.

Paul states, "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles (all the families of the earth) through Jesus Christ" (Galatians 3: 14).

The Lord Jesus is the seed of Abraham. "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. . . To thy seed, which is Christ!" (Galatians 3: 16).

"I AM THE TRUE VINE!" The ONLY TRUE VINE! The VINE which is utterly and uniquely genuine. Declared to be THE TRUE VINE by God the Father!

"I AM!" - emphasizes the strength and glory of His personal conviction as God The Son! Even as it reveals the amazing depth of His inner assurance.

He KNEW that in the eternal plan of God the Father, all of the promises of the Old Testament come to their true and unique focus in Him. Only in Him! It was in all that He was, in all that He said, in all that He did, that the total message found its true and only meaning.

The people of Israel had emphasized their privilege in being the choice vine, and rejected the fact of their responsibility to bear the fruit the Father required.

The Lord Jesus fully and continually embraced the responsibility of bearing the fruit which pleased His Father.

Instead of their distorted and self-centered focus on their great prestige, His focus was on service. The sacrificial and self-denying service by which the required fruitfulness would be achieved.

He kept central the fact which they ignored. The vine has absolutely no other purpose than: to continue to be fruitful. That was the Father's will.

The cost involved was never permitted to deter Him in His commitment. Others may selfishly seek popularity, praise, prestige, or privilege. He willingly chose to be: "Despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53: 3).

He expressed the reality. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12: 24).

The "much fruit" demanded death! He fully understood that fact. He had not come to save Himself. He had come to save the lost by giving Himself on the cross.

"I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep" (John 10: 11).

He knew that this was all involved in making that affirmation: "I AM THE TRUE VINE!"

His Father is: the Gardener. The Vine-dresser! The One responsible for the Vine!

The Lord Jesus is emphasizing a most crucial truth in this statement. He has willingly and freely entered into this most amazing covenant relationship with His Father. The relationship which required from Him the most total, willing submission to His Father in everything.

Remember Paul's comment? "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:"

"But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant (a slave), and was made in the likeness of men:"

"And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2: 6 - 8).

He willingly set aside all that which He could so rightly claim. He freely and utterly put Himself in every respect into His Father's hands, His Father's will. Which required actually taking the form and likeness of a slave, with all that such a position involved.

"Though He were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5: 8).

His utter and unswerving loyalty to His Father is so clearly demonstrated in the Garden of Gethsemane.

"Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death."

"And He went a little further, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt!" (Matthew 26: 38, 39).

His understanding of His position was absolutely clear. He was in His Father's hands. The one thing which mattered was, His Father's will be done! Even if it cost Him the most agonizing suffering and shame.

If this was the only way He could bear the fruit which His Father sought, He embraced this path of total self-denial and self-sacrifice.

Even if it meant that He was "made . . . to be sin for us!"(2 Cortinthians 5: 21). If through that the fruit of true reconciliation would be provided to all the families of the earth!

He was, is, the perfect demonstration of Job's words, "Though He slay Me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13: 15).

The Lord Jesus knew that for the True Vine to bring forth fruit the Husbandman must always be allowed to have His way. Always.

This fact which is true of the Vine is also always true of the branches! Do we understand that fact?

"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. Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you."

The Father looks for fruit! "He looked that it should bring forth grapes." "What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" (Isaiah 5: 2, 4).

The people of Israel made the mistake which so many Christians today are making. They imagined that the Lord would be satisfied no matter what, if anything, they actually produced. If there happened to be no fruit, then surely He would understand! After all, there are so many other, more important, things which constantly demanded their attention.

Will the Husbandman be so easily satisfied to have to patiently wait? Especially when those who are supposed to be bearing fruit thoughtlessly excuse their delay and failure to carry out their responsibility?

As far as the Husbandman is concerned, the Vine, and therefore the branches, exist for only one purpose. That is: to bear fruit!

"The True Vine" fully understands and accepts this requirement. But do the branches?

The Husbandman always has every right to expect fruit. Even as He fully knows that if there is no fruit, His purposes are being perverted and thwarted.

There are so many Christians today who are very reluctant to acknowledge this spiritual principle. In fact, many refuse to accept it, let alone apply it. Yet, they do have new life in Christ for only one purpose. Who says so? God says so!

He has established this irrevocable fact! The branch must draw on the life of the Vine. It can do so for only one purpose. To use the life of the Vine to bear the fruit of the vine! That, and that alone!

So when He comes to examine the branch, He has every right to find the branch bearing the fruit of the Vine.

Remember this essential reality. The Lord Jesus, as the True Vine, has placed Himself totally in the hands of the Father: The Husbandman. Therefore, every decision is being made according to the Word and the will of the Father.

For the Lord Jesus this meant: "For I do always those things that please Him" (John 8: 29).

Therefore, every branch which is in the True Vine, identified with Him, is bound to accept the same commitment. To say, and to mean, "I do always those things that please Him."

There is only one way to please the Father. Bear the fruit which He has every right to seek!

When He seeks that fruit in the branch which is in the Vine, and does not find it, He receives a very clear message.

The message? That particular branch would much rather please self than please Him!

Such an attitude effectively denies the fundamental foundation for this relationship. God has established the foundation for that relationship. It is: for the branch to draw on the Life of the Vine it must bear the fruit of the Vine.

Thus, the Father rightly decides that the branch has willfully renounced His purpose for it being in the Vine. As the result of such clear and decisive evidence, He takes that branch away.

He severs the branch from the Vine! It can no longer draw on the Vine for its own self-serving purposes!

Nothing could be more right than such an action taken by the Father! Nothing!

The Lord Jesus, as the True Vine, is totally selfless. His is the self-sacrificing commitment to bear the fruit which His Father seeks. The self-serving, self-gratifying branch denies everything the True Vine stands for and represents.

"He taketh away!" He, the Father, the Husbandman, actually eliminates it from the Vine. It is His decision. He carries it out!

He does so, even though in many cases those involved still pretend that they are still in the Vine.

Do we as Christians today really understand that this is the way that it must be? The Father is committed to the glory of His eternal will. The Son fully embraces that will. Everyone who professes to be in Him is also required to fully embrace His will!

So very few Christians have any real idea of the vital principle which is involved in these words. The vast majority have a vastly different concept of what it means to serve the Lord faithfully.

Do we really believe these words of Jesus? That wherever the Father finds a branch which is faithfully bearing fruit, He immediately begins to prune that branch even more?

The most common idea is, if we prove to be somewhat faithful, the Lord would have to use His pruning knife much less! Not more! That we would be required to make less sacrifice. Not more!

To believe that way is to reveal how much we have lost sight of the Lord Jesus!

"I am the True Vine!" As "The True Vine" He experienced the cost and the sacrifice of the pruning knife far more than any other person ever could.

In the Garden of Gethsemane we hear the anguished cry, "Father, if it be possible!"(Matthew 26: 39). He knew the incredible cost and indescribable sacrifice which was waiting for Him.

"Nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done!"(Luke 22: 42). He said it. He meant it. With no reservation!

He willingly submitted to the pruning knife. Until, as He hung on the cross, there was absolutely nothing left to be pruned. NOTHING!

That was the point where He became the most fruitful as the True Vine! When there was nothing left!

Stripped of everything. The final sacrifice offered as He was "made to be sin for us!" In that dark moment, He experienced that utter desolation which was so indescribably stark! "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" The final moment of the severity of the pruning knife!

In that moment of utter personal desolation. At that time of total destitution. Then He became infinitely fruitful! Far beyond the ability of our finite minds to begin to grasp!

If that is the way it had to be with "The True Vine" how much more with the mere branches?

Let the Father prune. Let Him have His way. Embrace the cost. Welcome the sacrifice.

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death" (Philippians 3: 10).

The Father prunes the fruit bearing branch with one purpose in view. "That it may bring forth more fruit!"

He knows the cost of achieving increased fruitfulness. If He responded as so many Christians want Him to, the loss would be so very great.

To fail to prune has the inevitable result. The effect would be disastrous. The life of the True Vine would continue to flow to the branch. Yes! But more and more of that life would be spent in sustaining the branch.

The branch would continue to grow - in its own importance! The bigger that it became in its own estimate, the more that the resources of the Vine would be consumed in maintaining that effect.

Which means: fruit bearing would become less and less. Until at last it completely ceased.

That is not God's way. It is not God's will. The Father is not interested in developing branches which are full of their own importance. No! He is only interested in fruit bearing.

So He prunes the branch. The more it bears fruit the more He faithfully prunes it. He knows what He is doing. As He carries out this vital act of pruning, He is ensuring that more and more of the life of the vine will go into fruit bearing.

More fruit! That is His aim. Therefore, always, less branch! Keep pruning it back.

It is so important that Christians today really begin to understand this essential spiritual principle. Not only understand it. But willingly, continually embrace it. Submit in joy. That the Father be pleased.

The Lord Jesus reminded His disciples: This vital ministry of the Father was already at work in their lives.

They had already begun to experience the impact of the Father's work of pruning. Most often they may have remained unaware of this fact. And of the effect which this pruning was having in their lives.

Yet, as they looked back over the preceding three years they would become aware of real changes. Of those developments which had progressively influenced various areas of their lives and their thinking.

"You have been pruned!" In so many different areas. Values. Standards. Attitudes. So much more.

Their relationships with others had been influenced. Their relationship with the world. With one another. Especially their relationship with the Lord.

That is what the Father was constantly seeking to accomplish. All of it aimed at increasing fruitfulness.

We all need this continuing process. Yielding willingly, submissively to the Husbandman's work. Allowing Him to have His way at all times.

It is by this method that we will become more useful in His service. Therefore, more fruitful for His glory.

The Word is the Key. Remember, the Word which the Lord Jesus spoke was always the Word of the Father. Continuously He had faithfully taught them the Word. Doing so in the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit.

God had guaranteed that His Word would always have an impact. "So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isaiah 55: 11).

The Lord Jesus knew that the Word of His Father which He spoke had that power and authority. The Word of God spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit is the mightiest and most effective force which this world has ever experienced.

"The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Ephesians 6: 17).

"For the Word of God is quick (vitally alive), and powerful, and sharper than any two edgedsword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4: 12).

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect (mature), throughly furnished (completely equipped) unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3: 16, 17).

Pruned, by the Word of God. The Word of reproof and correction. Of teaching and instruction. So that we, as branches in "the True Vine", will be all that the Father wills us to be. And, thus, bear fruit.

"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."

"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"

This is a most glorious invitation extended to the disciples by the Lord Jesus. And to us! In this invitation He reveals more of the amazing wonder and glory of the Father's will for His people.

"Abide in Me!" I do want you to willingly choose to enter into this rich personal relationship. To make this your constant commitment. Enabling Me to continue to be both the center and the circumference of your lives.

It was that very relationship which the Lord Jesus continually had with the Father! "I and the Father are one!"

The Son disciplined Himself to constantly abide in His Father. The thoughts He thought, were the thoughts of the Father. The desires which He felt were the desires of the Father. The love which He expressed was always the love of the Father.

"He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father!" The Father: living! Feeling. Thinking! Acting!

This is His will for us. To so abide in Him, that, with Paul we can say, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2: 20).

What an exciting and amazing privilege this is for us. That is: life abundant! The relationship which involves the most incredible potential.

"I in you!" Think of it! He is saying, "I want to be able to continue to abide in you!" Will we let Him?

"Christ in you, the hope of glory!" (Colossians 1: 27). "That Christ may (continue to) dwell in your hearts by faith" (Ephesians 3: 17).

The Lord Jesus, having His way in us, in all things! In us: influencing every aspect of our thinking so that he will be glorified! Directing our desires so that they always please Him!

In us! As: our peace! Our joy! Our hope! Our righteousness! Our acceptance! Our assurance!

Abiding in us as the abundant source of the life of the Vine providing the increasing fruitfulness.

"As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine."

The Lord Jesus uses the natural vine and its branches to illustrate this crucial truth.

The branch it completely dependent on the vine for both its life and its fruitfulness. It is only as it continues to remain in the vine that the life giving sap of the vine will continue to flow to and through the branch.

The branch has nothing in or of itself by which it could produce fruit. It is strictly limited to being an instrument of the vine by which the vine bears its fruit.

The only reason for the continued existence of the branch is to be in the vine to bear the fruit of the vine.

If that is true of the natural vine and branch, it is even more true of the Vine and us as the branches.

The Father is the Husbandman. He comes to the branch seeking fruit. The fruit which He is seeking is not the fruit of the branch. It is the fruit of the Vine.

It is so important that we discipline our thinking in this vital area. We have nothing, in or of ourselves. Nothing! Some may want to argue that at least we have eternal life. Not in or of ourselves!

"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (1 John 5: 11). Notice that: "this life is IN" and always continues to be IN- "His Son!" It is never ours apart from His Son.

To have life we must continue to abide in Him. We must continue to invite Him to abide in us.

The life is His. He shares His life with us. The fruit is His. He seeks to bear His fruit through us!

If we fail to continue to abide in Him, we can no longer bear fruit. Not the fruit which the Father seeks.

What a glorious privilege we have! To be able to continually bear the fruit of Jesus in our lives!

To do so, we must continue to abide in Him and welcome Him abiding in us. Then, He bears His fruit in and through us! How this inspires us!

The Lord Jesus reveals the situation as it actually is. As we must see it and accept it.

"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly that he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith" (Romans 12: 3).

In reality, we are everything, yet we are nothing! We are so very important while we remain so very unimportant!

While the Lord Jesus is central and preeminent in everything, we are everything, to Him! And in His commitment to use us to bear His fruit. Thus, we are of the highest importance to Him.

When we foolishly lose sight of His place of central preeminence. When we imagine that we are something because of our distorted view of self importance. Then we are nothing, and completely unimportant.

Everything depends on our continued acceptance that the Lord Jesus is all in all!

Here He reveals the glorious continuing fellowship which He is committed to maintain. He faithfully works at developing the amazing fullness of this fellowship, as we allow Him to do all He seeks to do in us.

He always strives to keep us in the very center of His love. Within the very heart of His will and His plan. Inspiring us to continue to faithfully hold Him in the place of total preeminence in our lives.

It is this person whom He can use as His branch, who is His means of bringing forth much fruit. He knows so well the conditions which are requires for the increasing fruitfulness His Father desires.

In verse two it was: "fruit!" Then, in the same verse: "More fruit!" Now: "Much fruit!"

Yes, if we choose, we can go our own way. We can do our own thing. Take control of our own lives.

Yet, that is the old, ugly "I" rearing its head! But, with what result? Nothing! No fruit! The arrogant pompous display, of emptiness! Futility!

There are so many who are so full of their own self-importance. They have deluded themselves into believing that they are something!

So proud of their achievement: utter wretchedness! So quick to boast about: degrading debasing defeat!

Thank the Lord we do not have to know that reality from personal experience.

The Lord Jesus is revealing to us more and more of the wonder of the Father's amazing plan and purpose.

It all centers in Him. He is so completely worthy to be honored as: "the True Vine!"

We are so highly privilege to be called to be: The branches. His branches to bear His fruit!

The response of true wisdom is clear. Humbly, thankfully accept God's will and give ourselves totally to claim it personally.

Yielded to the Lord Jesus! In complete surrender and sacrificial service.

To continue to experience Him bearing His fruit in our lives and service!