CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Read John 15:1-11. Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman," the one who cares for the vine. The word "true" would not be used if there were not a false vine, a wild vine. We, by nature, were born in sin, and all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Israel was a vine planted of God, but when He looked for the precious ripe fruit, behold, it brought forth wild fruit. God said, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, than I have not done in it? . . . I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof . . . and it shall be trodden down," until the time of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. We are now in the time of the fulfilling of the time of the Gentiles. God is dealing with Israel as a nation now, the fulfilling of the Scripture. We were all on the wild vine. Every child or person out of Christ is on the wild vine. We that are born again are grafted into Jesus, the true vine. We cannot grow into it; we cannot work and get into it by works. We must be born again.
Suppose we fix in our minds a picture of two vines. One is the vine of the world; the other, Jesus, the true vine. Imagine them as two grape vines. If the branches of the world vine would grow until it covered the other vine, it still would not be a part of it. The one would be wild, the other tame, and any judge of fruit could tell, by the fruit, the one from the other. Even the leaves do not look the same. Now there is no way that we can be branches of the true vine, only by the help of God, by His Holy Spirit convicting us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Old-time conviction will be as a sharp instrument in the hands of the Holy Ghost to cut us loose from our habits and the world.
Then He will help us into repentance, and if we stay in repentance, the Holy Ghost will bring us to Jesus. But we must stay right in the vehicle called repentance until the Holy Ghost -- not some person -- helps us out. When He helps us out, He will graft us into Jesus, the true and living vine. He will wrap the promises of God around the place of grafting, and, at once, the nature of the true vine pours into the branch. He said that His Spirit would bear witness with our spirits when we become children of God.
Some talk about giving up the world to get sanctified. Nonsense! Can't you see that one has to be cut loose from the world in order to be grafted into Christ? We can no more be saved and be of the world than that branch can be grafted into the true vine and still be on the wild one. The Bible says, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." There is something in being cut off, in genuine heart repentance, and in being born again that transforms one and makes him a new creature in Christ Jesus. We are not only transferred but transformed and made new creatures -- not made over, but made new; not reformed, but transformed; not of ourselves, but God in us. We at once produce the fruit of the Spirit -- love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Every branch that bears this fruit, the Father, God, purges it that it may bring forth more fruit. More of what kind of fruit? More of the same kind. He purgeth, makes holy, when? Not at the grafting, but after it has become a fruit bearing vine. That definitely shows two distinct workings of God in the heart of those whom He receives. Some people say, "Once in grace, always in grace." Listen to what Jesus has to say, "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he (God, the Father) taketh away." Those branches are gathered and cast into the fire and are burned. That is what Jesus said -- not man.
In the purging, God takes out the old man -- the carnal mind -- the thing that is not subject to the will of God, neither indeed can be. And He perfects our love for God and holiness and His will in our hearts. He fills us with His Spirit. We receive power that Jesus said we should. He said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter." He prayed that promised prayer in St. John 17:1-26. He prayed, "They (His disciples) are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world (meaning from the earth), but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil (that is in the world)." Then He asked the Father to sanctify them. Why? "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee." Some say the disciples were not saved until the day of Pentecost. Listen to Jesus' own words, "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition (referring to Judas)." Now if they were not converted until the day of Pentecost, how could Jesus say they were not lost? For all unconverted people are lost after they have reached the age of accountability.
He told the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they should receive the promise of the Father. When they received the promise, they must have received that for which Jesus had prayed for them. That would only be sensible to believe. At the day of Pentecost where were the disciples? They, about one hundred twenty in all, were tarrying for the promise. They were continuing in prayer and praises when the promise was fulfilled and they were all filled with the Spirit. What happened? Jesus had prayed, "Father, sanctify them," and He did just that very thing. You cannot separate the sanctifying power from the baptism of the Holy Ghost, for it was when they were sanctified that they were filled.
John the Baptist testified concerning himself that he was not the Christ, but he also said, "I indeed baptize you with water: but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? I will tell you right here, it is the cure for deadness and formality and carnality. It will take the laziness out and put the go in you, and you will go wherever He leads. It will take the fuss out of you, the fret and stew, it will put God's will first in your life and give you victory over the world the flesh, and the devil. Holiness is the passport to heaven. Hallelujah! Glory to God! It is bigger than man's program. Thank God it is the highway to heaven. "Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." It is in answer to God's demand, "Be ye holy, for I am holy."
What does holiness do for us? It perfects our love. It gives us boldness in the day of judgment. It was the plan of God from the beginning. He could not have created us in His own likeness and not have made us holy. According to Luke, we are to serve God "in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life." I am glad it says, "Before Him."
A little article was sent to me by a very special friend. I will relate it here. The world is color blind, scoffing wrongfully. A minister was asked by a Quaker woman, "Does not thee think that we can walk so carefully, live so correctly, and avoid every fanaticism so perfectly, that every sensible person will say, 'That is the kind of religion I believe in'?" He replied, "Sister, if thee had a coat of feathers as white as snow and a pair of wings as shining as Gabriel's, somebody would be found somewhere on God's footstool with so bad a case of color blindness as to shoot thee for a blackbird."
A few years ago, the man who had said he was going to do all he could to kill my influence and get me out of the work, intended to spend a three-day vacation at the home of a friend of his and of mine. At the same time I was in a revival and staying at this friend's home. The friend knew how this man had felt and did not know what to do. I said, "Let him come. I would love to see him." The man and his family arrived about supper time. We all went out to the car to meet them. We shook hands, and greeted them, and I said, "We are in a meeting and will be glad to have you attend while you are here."
The Lord wonderfully anointed me for preaching that night. In the message I related the incident of a half-truth -- the story told by Joseph Smith. At family prayer the next morning, the visiting brother was given the Bible and asked to read. He turned to a good chapter and began to read. His eyes filled with tears. He came to me and asked me to forgive him, saying, "I have made it hard on you. Forgive me." We hugged each other and I said, "From my heart you are forgiven." Shouting and weeping took place for over an hour. It was a great day and I love that man. But who will be responsible for the souls of the people that, no doubt, would have been saved where my influence was hurt and where those letters had been written to stop me in meetings that I was to have conducted? Notwithstanding, the Lord kept me busy. Who is man that he will rise up to oppose God's elect, God's called?
Cain rose up and slew Abel. And when has there ever been a time when such hasn't been done? In Jeremiah's time they rose up and said, "Let us slay him by the sword of our lips." How is that? By gossip and slander. Liars were even hired against Christ. Look at Joseph -- sold by his brothers, made a slave, lied on by a woman, and, no doubt, many died thinking him guilty. All he could do was to suffer until God vindicated him. Oh, folks, we have no excuse to do it no matter what Satan puts in the minds of people to do or to say. Jesus said "Follow me." Now, if you do, you may expect to suffer wrong and have persecutions. Beware if all men speak well of you. If you are doing something for God and His cause you can expect Satan to oppose. He will hit where it will be the most felt and do the most damage. By God's help I don't want to be found fighting God's children. Jesus said that it would be better to have a millstone hanged about our necks and we be drowned in the sea than to harm or offend one of His little ones. Oh what will the judgment reveal? Jesus said, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father."
If you follow Jesus, there will be some who will despise you. The closer the cross you get, the more you will feel the weight of a lost world, and you will say like Jesus, "Not my will, but thine be done." With ninety people dying each moment, so I am told, and only a small percent ever having heard the gospel of Jesus who is able to save to the uttermost, millions perishing that you and I will have to answer for at the judgment, what can we say if we haven't done our best to reach them. Oh, may God wake us up! It will soon be too late.
Can I sit idly by while souls are perishing and not give of my means, and my prayers, and myself, for the Lord to use to help rescue them? Am I my brother's keeper? Yes, I am responsible to live for God so that I may help reach the lost. The Bible says, "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion." These are days when the devil is doing all he can to put the church folk to sleep, and to keep those whom he has put to sleep from waking up. But the Bible says again, "Awake thou that sleepest." May God help us to awaken before it is too late.
The five wise and the five foolish virgins were all asleep when the call came -- "Behold, the bridegroom cometh." Remember, they were all virgins; they were all going to the same place. When the lamps were trimmed, the foolish ones' lamps had gone out; they had been burning. That is a type of conversion. They had all been converted, for they all had lamps and they all had been burning. The record says they all arose to trim their lamps. The five wise had taken oil in their vessels besides in their lamps. Oil is a type of the Holy Ghost. Notice, the foolish said, "Our lamps are gone out" -- a confession, "We are in the dark. Give us of your oil."
Listen to the answer, "Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves." It was midnight, the farthest hour from light, and the most unlikely time to find any place to buy oil. Notice those foolish virgins. Their lamps going out indicates that they lost out, backslid, on their way to meet the bridegroom. When they returned from seeking oil, the door was shut. They knocked but the master said, "I know you not." He had known them, but his words, "I know you not," proves they had backslidden. If he would have said, "I never did know you," it would mean that they never had been saved. It was when the wise virgins began to fill their lamps that the others saw they did not have enough oil. May God help us holiness folk to trim our lamps and get a refilling, to show the professor without holiness his need of more grace. Unless we get a refilling, we will not be shining when He comes.
One time I had a dream that Jesus had come. We were going up to meet Him and I saw a brother holding on to something His feet were straight up in the air. I spoke to him, "Let loose and the Lord will take you. He is trying to." He said, "I can't let loose." It was such a small thing that I could not see what it was. He said again, "I can't let loose. God wanted me to let loose when I was converted and I wouldn't. Now it is holding me and I cannot let loose." Friends, we had better to let loose of everything that will keep us from being our best for God, that we cannot do to please Him, or that we cannot take with us when we die or when the rapture comes.
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