The Power of Patience, James 5:7-11

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! 10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. 11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

OUTLINE:

1.     ENDURANCE

2.     ESTABLISH

3.     EDIFY

What do you like better:

Red lights or green?

Stop signs, or yield?

How may I help you or, please hold?

We’ll have your results today or, we should know in three weeks?

Come on in, or please wait?

We don’t like to wait.

I disliked waiting so much when I was a teenager, I dug up a stop sign on the road I traveled into town every morning. My road was straight as an arrow at the junction where another road joined at a right angle. For some dumb reason my road had a stop sign and the road coming in from the side had the right of way. That was wrong. It made no sense. Why should I have to stop for a road interrupting my straight smooth sailing?

So, one night me and Sean Barnes, snuck out there and dug up the sign, post and all. It took some time because every time a car would come, we’d dive in the ditch and hide.

Finally, we replanted the sign on the side road—where it belonged.

I just knew once they saw how smart we were by moving the sign, they’d realize how dumb they were and just leave it there.

No more waiting!

It was awesome.

For a day.

The next day, they replaced the sign back on my road, but this time bigger and beefier with two posts instead of just one.

We were afraid they booby trapped them, so that sign is probably still there to this day, making innocent straight shooters waste their time stopping for some dumb sidewinder road.

We think waiting is a waste of time.

But the Bible says otherwise.

Good things come to those who wait. 

Isaiah 40:31
 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Heb. 6:12
 Through faith and patience we inherit the promise

Matt. 24:13
 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

James 1:2-4
 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect (teleios: full strength, clarity, maturity) work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Patience is a powerful and important characteristic of a mature Christian.

Impatience shows immaturity in Christianity.

If you lay on the horn the moment somebody sits too long when the light turns green, or they pull in front of you in traffic... you’re showing your diaper.

Notice how many times our text points to patience:

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! 10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. 11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

 

1.     ENDURANCE

See how the farmer waits.

Waiting like a farmer is work.

They don’t just plant in spring, harvest in fall, and sit around for the rest of the year.

Their waiting is preparing and repairing, equipment and fences and barns, fertilizing and watering and weeding and feeding and sometimes without eating or sleeping.

Farmers actively wait, like Jesus busy about His Father’s business, preparing for Harvest.

Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him. Heb. 12:2.

Godly patience is passing time productively, not passively.

Galatians 6:9, Weary not in well doing for in due season you shall reap if you faint not.

It’s not sitting idle watching the clock, waiting for this or that.

It’s living intentionally with Eternity in view.

Walking not by earth’s chronos clock but by Heaven’s Kairos time. Siezing the moment, ready in season and out, knowing our days are but a vapor, the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few.

We have no time to waste on petty, earthly, foolish, debates and wranglings. Titus 3:9.

Waiting like a farmer, is working for God’s Great Harvest.  

 It’s easier said than done.

The world is drifting downstream toward the lake of fire. Waiting like a farmer is walking upstream against the current of the world.

So, it takes more than physical endurance, a good work ethic, or sheer will power.

It takes inner strength of the heart.  

2.     ESTABLISH

Establish your heart.

Establish: stérizó: Root of the word: steroid. To establish, strengthen, fix, set firmly.

Not just waiting like a farmer on the outside but also on the inside, in the heart.

This is where Power comes from.

Establish your heart. Strengthen your heart.

How?

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Psalm 16:11
 You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Nehemiah 8:10
The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Proverbs 16:3
Commit your works unto the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.

So, if we faithfully follow the Lord, obey His Word, do what we know He wants us to do, He will direct our path, give us His strength, and joy, and the desires of our heart will be established.

Yeah, but Doug, you don’t understand. I have trust issues. I have a hard time with commitment. I have desires at times that are anything but Godly.  

We all battle the flesh. But don’t put your stop sign on the wrong street. Don’t admit defeat.

Remember, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Saying, I have trust issues. I can’t commit. I have ungodly desires. I. I. I... is claiming that your flesh is in control, that your flesh is who you are.

That is a demonic deception, from gender dysphoria all the way to, “it’s just my Irish temper, I can’t help it, it’s who I am.”

HOGWASH. NO! IT’S NOT WHO YOU ARE!

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14.

You are created in the image of God. Genesis 1:27.

If you are a Christian, you are a new creature. Born again. A child of God. A child of The King! 2 Corinthians 5:17, John 3:3, John 1:12.

You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous Light. 1 Peter 2:9.

You are a spirit, you have a soul, you live in a body.

Your spirit does not like the things of the flesh but wars against them. Galatians 5:17, Matthew 26:41.

Therefore, do not say, “I have trust issues. I can’t commit. My desires are ungodly.”

Instead make your words agree with The Word:

I Trust in the Lord with all MY heart, I lean not on MY own understanding; in all MY ways I acknowledge Him, and He directs MY paths. Proverbs 3:5-6.

You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11.

The joy of the Lord is MY strength. Nehemiah 8:10.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13.

I Delight myself in the Lord and He gives me the desires of my heart. Psalm 37:4.

I commit my works to the Lord, and my thoughts are established. Proverbs 16:3.

I’m glad when they say, let's go to the House of the Lord. Psalm 122:1.

I rejoice in the Lord always. Philippians 4:4-8.

My will is to do the will of my Father.  John 6:38-39.

I am blessed of the Lord, I love His Word, and nothing by any means offends me.  (Psalm 119:165.

My flesh may like to drink and smoke and cuss and chew and go with those who do...

But I don't.

From the abundance of the Godly heart will flow, not grumbling and complaining, but Life-giving edification.

3.     EDIFY

Do not grumble lest you be condemned.

Ephesians 4:29-32
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Do you want to hear a scary Scripture that ought to cure anybody of grumbling, gossip, idle, evil words?

Matthew 12:33-37
 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. 34 Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. 36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

God really dislikes grumbling and complaining.

Numbers 11:1-3. After God delivered Israel from Egypt, on their way to the Promise Land, they grumbled and complained. God sent fire that consumed many of them.

Numbers 16:31-35, When 250 leaders complained against Moses and Aaron’s Authority, the earth opened and swallowed them.  

Numbers 16:41-50. Then, the next day they complained about the leaders being killed, so God sent a plague killed 14,700 grumblers.

Numbers 21:5-6. They grumbled again against God and Moses, because they were tired and hungry and thirsty and sick of the same old food. So, God sent venomous snakes and many more died.

Numbers 14:26-38. After 10 of the 12 spies gave a fearful report regarding their chances of taking Promise Land, the multitude grumbled against Moses. So, God decreed that every Israelite 20 years and older would die in the wilderness. All but Joshua and Celeb, the two spies who gave a faithful report.   

The 10 fear mongering spies dropped dead on the spot.

Thus, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, on a journey that should’ve been less than two weeks.

Take your time. Do it right. Don’t complain. You’ll avoid undue delays and have a much more harmonious journey.

Now, in closing, let’s look one more time at our text and notice the overriding purpose and theme:

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!

 

Endure until the coming of the Lord.

Establish your heart, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Edify for the Judge is standing at the door.

How do we endure, with a strong heart, without grumbling, in this upstream battle?

Look to Jesus who is coming soon, yes, standing at the door.   

Hebrews 10:36-37
For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry.

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, help us to follow Your example, not complaining, edifying, ever planting toward Your Harvest. Waiting, like a farmer. Making heaven crowded.

Thank You Lord.

We love You, forever.

Amen.

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Fraud, Waste and Abuse, James 5:1-6

 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! ² Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. ⁴ Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. ⁵ You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

The minister, which all Christians are, should speak to both sinners and saints. Not only in an echo chamber to like-minded believers.

James speaks to beloved brothers... and others; adulterers and adulteresses, sinners, double minded. (James 4:4,8).

Jesus said we are to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15.

So, here James speaks to the filthy rich, emphasis on filthy. Those wealthy by ill-gotten gain.

 James had undoubtedly heard Jesus’ words to the wicked wealthy:

Matthew 23:15-24
 ¹⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

¹⁶ “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ ¹⁷ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? ¹⁸ And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ ¹⁹ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 

They weren’t exactly His favorite people.

He went on to call them.

Whitewashed sepulchers full of hypocrisy and lawlessness, serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

Rather than viewing the provision of God to further the work of God, they saw it as a means of gain, to consume upon their lusts.

Jesus condemns them without so much as a call to repentance.

James does the same. Notice he says, weep and howl, not weep and repent. Weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you, where there will be weeping and howling and gnashing of teeth.

Their relationship toward God was revealed by their relationship to money.

Where I put my money, paints a picture of my heart.

Good or bad.

It justifies or condemns.

It condemned the filthy rich, the greedy scribes and pharisees, but it justified the woman who put in her two cents worth.

Mark 12:41-44
Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. ⁴² Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.

⁴³ Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. ⁴⁴ For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

Then, she walks outside, bumps into the rich young ruler, it’s love at first sight, they get married and live happily ever after 😉.

The rich young ruler is the one that asked Jesus what good thing he must do to have eternal life.

Jesus told him to obey the commandments.

He said, “I’ve done that since my youth.”

Jesus looked at him, loved him, told him to sell what he had, give to the poor, and follow Him.

The man went away sad because he had great riches.

Then, Jesus told His disciples, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

Matthew 19:16-24, Mark 10:17-27

My money trail, paints a picture of my heart.

What does it look like?

Does it show that I love God?

Or...? Fill in the blank.

I love... Food? Clothes? Family? Fun? Travel? Reading? Hobbies? Gardening? Golf? Fishing? Smoking? Drinking? Drugs? ...? Puzzles?

What if entrance through the Pearly Gates required an audit of my discretionary spending to verify my relationship with Jesus.

Would I pass the audit?

Doug, hold on! Get real. You can’t see a heart by looking at a checkbook.

Oh really?

Let’s ask Jesus.

Where your treasure is there your heart will be also. Matt. 6:21.

Well, that settles it.

My relationship toward God is revealed by my relationship to money.

Where I put my money, paints a picture of my heart.

The numbers don’t lie.

Just in case you’re wondering. No, we can’t have both. We can’t love the world and the Lord.

There’s no two-timing God.

Jesus says it like this:

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Matt. 6:24.

Now, just to be clear. It’s a heart issue, not a money issue.

Money is not the root of all evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. 1 Tim. 6:10.

The love of money is why we have overwhelming debt nationally and individually.

The love of money is why we have fraud, waste and abuse, in our nation.

If we could eliminate the love of money we’d fix the dept crisis.

Fraud waste and abuse was also in our text (James 5:4-6), did you see it?  

⁴ Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

The Lord of Sabaoth, is not the Lord of Sabbath, but literally the Lord of Hosts. God is Commander in Chief of Heavens Armies.

He hears the cry of those frauded by the filthy rich, lawless, brood of vipers.

Today every tax paying American citizen is being:

Frauded out of free and fair elections.

Frauded out of multiplied billions upon billions of dollars.

Our children are being frauded out of the Truth of a Godly education including:

·       America’s Godly Foundation built on Biblical Judea Christian Principles

·       Biblical Truths regarding marriage, gender, life, liberty.

Fraud is deception.

Deception is of the devil, the father of lies. John 8:44.

The Lord of Hosts knows it and hears our cry.

 ⁵ You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

We’ll follow James and Jesus’ example and speak directly to the fraudsters, wasters, abusers.

You know who you are.

You had opportunity to do good, to make a difference, instead you wasted it, on the passing pleasures of sin for a season.

The corrupt treasures you’ve heaped will rise in witness against you.

Your wasted position and wasted life will haunt your wasted soul with the pain of fire eating your flesh, forever.

Such a waste.

 ⁶ You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

To cover your own corruption, you abuse, you condemn, you murder, you assassinate, the innocent, and he does not resist you.

But make no mistake, don’t think you got away with your fraud, waste and abuse, your stealing, killing, destroying.

Don’t think he does not resist you out of weakness.

Tremble knowing it’s because you’ve been handed over to the Lord of Sabaoth.

Your filthy riches, your putrid power, will not help you when you stand before the Judge of the wicked and the dead.

Jesus puts it like this:

Revelation 3:14-22

“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,

‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: ¹⁵ “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. ¹⁶ So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. ¹⁷ Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 

This is where my flesh thinks the story should end with the filthy rich being vomited into hell.

But the depth of God’s love is beyond understanding, and He’s not done.

¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. ¹⁹ As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. ²¹ To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

²² “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” 

Lord Jesus, thank You for telling us this life is but a vapor, this world is passing away. Thank You for giving all things that pertain to Life and Godliness. Please help keep our priorities straight, with Eternity in view, pressing ever onward closer to You. So that of all those You’ve given us, none are lost.

Thank You.

We love You, forever.

Amen.

Prayer Requests:

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This was feed for you to read. Now it’s Seed for you to sow.

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The Outcast Vine, Ezekiel 15

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ² “Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any other wood, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest?

 ³ Is wood taken from it to make any object? Or can men make a peg from it to hang any vessel on?

⁴ Instead, it is thrown into the fire for fuel; the fire devours both ends of it, and its middle is burned. Is it useful for any work?

⁵ Indeed, when it was whole, no object could be made from it. How much less will it be useful for any work when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned?

⁶ “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem; ⁷ and I will set My face against them. They will go out from one fire, but another fire shall devour them.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I set My face against them.

⁸ Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have persisted in unfaithfulness,’ says the Lord God.”

In all sorts of ways from about 592 – 586 BC, the Lord warned through Ezekiel: Repent! Judgement is coming, is coming!

Jeremiah and Daniel were warning as well.

Over a century before Isaiah was sounding the same alarm.

God does nothing without first revealing His plans to His prophets. Amos 3:7.

For six years Ezekiel warned.

For six years they rejected.

They thought they were chosen, above correction.

So, once again, the Lord stopped by, to talk to Ezekiel.

This time there are no visions to see, or drama to act, or commands to complete.

Just a simple conversation between Ezekiel and his Lord.

You know what it’s like. That simple yet profound, priceless, powerful, personal, private time, each of us intentionally, purposefully, sets aside, every day, to invest with the Lord.

Like Jesus told us in Matthew 6:6: when we pray (not if), get alone, in secret, and pray to God who sees in secret, and He will reward you openly.

Even if we don’t know what to say, we just do like Dottie Rambo:

I didn't come here to ask You for anything
I just came to talk with you Lord
You've answered a million prayers or more
That I forgot to thank You for
I just came to talk with You Lord

Maybe tomorrow there'll be trouble and sorrow

And a thousand teardrops may fall
But until I face tomorrows task
I have no special favor to ask
I just came to talk with you Lord.

Okay, so, here we are, listening in on a 2,600 year old conversation that’s just as timely and relevant as the day it was spoken.

In a nutshell, the Lord just compared Jerusalem to a fruitless grapevine destined for fire. 

Israel in Scripture is referred to as a grapevine.

Psalm 80:8. You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it. (God brought Israel out of Egypt and planted them in the Promise Land).

Jeremiah 2:21 Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?

Have you ever met anyone with great potential, going to waste?

Countless people packed full of potential, sit in prisons, back alleys, on barstools, recliners, couches, even Church pews, killing time, wasting away, breathing in, breathing out, waiting to die.

Potential unused becomes impotent.

Worse, it becomes sin.

To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. James 4:17.

Be doers of the Word not hearers only. James 1:22.

Faith without works is dead. James 2:14-26.

We were created by God, in the image of God, with a mandate from God.

Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, have dominion and subdue it. Genesis 1:28.

God created us with Divine Eternal Purpose and Potential and Calling.

He demands faithfulness that leads to fruitfulness.

Israel the nation, born of God, packed plumb full of potential to be the nation to bless all nations.

Israel’s potential came not from their own power or prowess, but from God’s promise.

God saw before time began, a man who would willingly, faithfully, obediently, offer his son, believing the Lord would raise him back to life.

God called that man, Abraham, and made an everlasting, unbreakable covenant promise with him, because of his faith, his Seed would bless all nations of the earth.

And so, along came Isaac, then Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel.  

And Israel, became the nation chosen by God to give birth to the Savior of the world.

In Israel is JerUSAlem, the city destined by God for greatness.

The shining city on a hill.

Where the glory of God dwelt in the temple.

Where king David, a man after God’s own heart, penned beautiful Psalms we read to this day.

Where Solomon ruled with wisdom from above.

The place where the King of kings will return to rule and reign for 1,000 years.

They were blessed by God from sea to shining sea...

As long as they remained faithful to their Founding Father, the Almighty Creator.

But like many, their blessing, became their idol.

They worshipped their leisure, their pleasure, their gold and silver.

They bowed to what they’d been given rather than the Giver.

To whom you yield yourself servant to obey, his servant you are. Rom. 6:16.

Thus, they became barren, fruitless, a worthless vine destined for destruction and fire.

The value of the vine is in its fruitfulness.

Jesus cursed the fig tree that looked fruitful but had none, immediately the tree withered. Matthew 21:19.

As the Lord was speaking about the vine being cast into the fire Ezekiel might’ve remembered these words from Isaiah:

Isaiah 5:4-7. What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? ⁵ And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. ⁶ I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.

There it is.

That sums it up.

That’s the verdict.

I’ve done all I could, but you refuse to bear good fruit, so I will cast you into the fire.

Now if we stopped the story right here with Israel as the vine, and failing miserably, all we’d have is a great big hopeless ash heap.

But God made a promise.

God is a promise keeper.

So, He did what He’s always done throughout HIStory. He found a Way to weave His scarlet thread of redemption through the wicked ways of man and...

Jesus became the Vine.

 Even though chapters and verses were not necessarily Divinely inspired, perhaps Ezekiel 15:1-8 and John 15:1-8, had a bit of Divine orchestration. The same chapters and verses both talking about the vine. Ezekiel exposes the problem; John reveals the Answer.

John 15:1-8

The True Vine

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ⁸ By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

 

Israel, JerUSAlem, you and I, as the vine, have a destiny of fire.

But God made a promise.

Seven times He repeats, if you “abide” in Me, the True Vine, you will bear much fruit, and thus, rather than being thrown into the fire, we will be gathered to His Home.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, thank You for showing us the hard parts, like Ezekiel 15, and giving us the Good parts, like John 15:1-8. Help us to abide in You. We invite You to abide in us. We ask You to prune us, whatever it takes, so we glorify You by bearing much fruit. So, of all those You’ve given us, none are lost.

Thank You.

We love You, forever.

Amen.

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This was feed for you to read. Now it’s Seed for you to sow.

Thank you for sharing.