I Heard It Through The True VinePastor Ben Ford, Senior Pastor of The Peoples Community Christian Church, invited Pastor Landis Fisher to be a guest speaker for their 72rd Church Anniversary this year. Listen in as he delivers a message that is encouraging and thought provoking concerning the role of the true church going through perilous times and where our focus must be as we approach the eminent return of Jesus Christ in a message he has titled: “I Heard It Through The True Vine”
Old Testament Scripture Reading: Ezeikiel 15:1 – 8 (KJV)
Ezek 15:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ezek 15:2 Son of man, What is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?
Ezek 15:3 Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?
Ezek 15:4 Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it meet for any work?
Ezek 15:5 Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work: how much less shall it be meet yet for any work, when the fire hath devoured it, and it is burned?
Ezek 15:6 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Ezek 15:7 And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them.
Ezek 15:8 And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD.
New Testament Scripture Reading: John 15:1 – 17 (KJV)
John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
John 15:2 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.
John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
John 15:4 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.
John 15:5 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.
John 15:6 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.
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
John 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
John 15:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
John 15:10 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.
John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
John 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
John 15:15 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.
John 15:16 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.
John 15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
Transforming Power Statements:
1) Through out the history of mankind on the Earth since the ‘Fall’, there has always been a tendency to listen to false information; rather than obeying the voice of God which results in the greatest blessing and prosperity.
2) Israel is pictured as God’s vine, but failed to produce the fruit God sought from the human family to glorify God as a nation; but Jesus Christ the fruit of Israel came to produce that fruitful outcome bringing abundant life grace and truth not only for Israel but also for the Gentiles.
3) The symbolism of the ‘Vine’ has deep roots in redemptive history that illustrate God’s provision of perpetual supply of miraculous grace and sustenance for the covenant people and was personified by our LORD Jesus Himself as He proclaimed Himself to be the “True Vine” Who is the actual ultimate outcome of the promises of God from Adam to the Law even unto the New Covenant and into eternity.
4) Much of humanity has chosen to be governed by ‘hearing through the grapevine’ rather than hearing through the TRUE VINE, {The unadulterated WORD of GOD} which has been the very cause of every false course leading the masses to the broad road that leads to destruction rather than to the strait gate that leads to life.
