The True Vine

by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2014, all rights reserved.

Chapter 1

Jesus is the true vine, as he says in the following passage of scripture:

___John chapter 15

1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper.

2 Every branch in me that doesn't produce fruit, he takes away.  And every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, so it will produce more fruit.

3 Now you are clean through the word that I've spoken to you.

4 Remain in me, and I in you.  As the branch can't bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, no more can you, unless you remain in me.

5 I am the vine, you are the branches.  He that remains in me, and I in him, the same produces a lot of fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

6 If a man doesn't remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you'll ask whatever you want, and it shall be done to you.

8 In this, my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.  In that way, you'll be my disciples.

9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, continue in my love.

10 If you keep my commandments, you'll remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments, and remain in his love.

11 These things I have spoken to you, so that my joy will remain in you, and so your joy will be full.

12 This is my commandment, that you love each other, like I have loved you.

13 No man has greater love than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends.

14 You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.

15 From now on I don't call you servants, for the servant doesn't know what his lord is doing, but I have called you friends, for all things that I've heard from my Father I've made known to you.

16 You haven't chosen me, but I've chosen you, and ordained you, so that you'll go and produce fruit, and so your fruit will remain, so that whatever you ask from the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

17 These things I command you, that you love each other.

18 If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20 Remember the word that I said to you, the servant is not greater than his lord.  If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.  If they've kept my sayings, they will keep yours also.

21 But they will do all these things to you for my name's sake, because they don't know him that sent me.

22 If I hadn't come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin, but now they have no covering for their sin.

23 He that hates me hates my Father also.

24 If I hadn't done among them the works that no other man did, they would not have had sin.  But now they've seen and hated both me and my Father.

25 But this happens so that the word is fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a reason.

26 But when the Comforter has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, who is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he'll testify about me.

27 And you'll also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning."

___John chapter 16

1 "I have spoken these things to you so that you won't be offended.

2 They'll put you out of the synagogues.  Yes, the time will come, that whoever kills you will think that he's doing God a service.

3 And these things they'll do to you, because they haven't known the Father, nor me.

4 But I've told you these things so that when the time comes, you'll remember that I told you about them.  And I didn't say these things to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

5 But now I go my way to him that sent me.  And none of you asks me, Where are you going?

6 But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.

7 Even so, I tell you the truth, It's best for you that I go away, for if I don't go away, the Comforter won't come to you.  But if I depart, I'll send him to you.

8 And when he has come, he'll reveal the sin of the world, and will show righteousness, and will show justice.

9 Of sin, because they don't believe on me.

10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you don't see me anymore.

11 Of justice, because the prince of this world is judged.

12 I still have many things to say to you, but you can't cope with them now.

13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatever he shall hear, he will speak.  And he'll show you things to come.

14 He'll glorify me, for he'll receive of mine, and shall show it to you.

15 All things that the Father has are mine.  That's why I said, he'll take of mine, and shall show it to you.”

Chapter 2

Jesus is the true vine, and God the Father is the vineyard keeper.  Those who are not fruit-bearing branches are taken away.

Ch 15:4, We can’t bear fruit unless we remain in Jesus.

Ch 15:5, Without Jesus, we can do nothing.  Someone might say, “But what about unbelievers, don’t they accomplish some things?”

Actually, I believe that the Lord helps unbelievers some.  Not as much as He would if they were Christians.  If unbelievers do honest work, I expect the Lord is helping them provide for their families, but I expect God’s help will taper off as they get older if they resist the things of God.

Even Christians could lose out on some of the Lord’s help if they don’t pray, if they don’t get the word of God, if they become lukewarm, like the Laodiceans in Revelation chapt 3.

The Lord was so displeased with the Laodiceans that he said he would vomit them out of his mouth.

Ch 15:10, To remain in Jesus, keep his commandments.  But how can we keep his commandments if we don’t know his commandments?  And how can we know his commandments unless we read the Bible?

Ch15:17, Christians should love each other.  And in one place, the Apostle Paul writes that Christians shouldn’t sue each other, but should just put up with the wrongdoing if a Christian wrongs them.

Ch 15:20,  If they’ve persecuted Jesus, they’ll persecute us.  But be cheerful, Jesus has overcome the world.

Ch 15:26, The Comforter is the Holy Ghost, who came on the Day of Pentecost, about 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead. (Acts chapt 2)

Ch 16:2, The time will come when he that kills you will think that he’s doing a service to God.  Some of the Muslims think that if they kill Christians, they’re performing a service to God.

They’re mistaken, of course.  The Muslims don’t know God, and they don’t know Jesus.

A Muslim neighbor of mine, when I lived in Houston, TX, said that Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God.  He’s quite mistaken.

Jesus, in the Bible, claimed he was the Son of God before the Jewish High Priest, and also before Jesus’ disciples, especially Peter.

Why didn’t the Muslim man know that?  Because he reads the wrong book.  He reads the Koran, but he needs to be reading the Bible.

Ch 16:7, Jesus said it’s better for Him to go so that we can have the Comforter (Holy Ghost).  Jesus is saying it’s better for us to have the Holy Ghost than to have Jesus’ physical presence on earth.

In view of the fact, then, that the Holy Ghost is so important, every Christian ought to ask Jesus to baptize them with the Holy Ghost.  “When you pray, believe that you receive the things you ask for, and you shall have them.” (Mark 11:24)

The evidence of the Baptism with the Holy Ghost is the speaking in unknown tongues (languages).

Charles Stanley has said that the Baptism with the Holy Ghost has been done away with.  You’re dead wrong, Charles Stanley.  If the Baptism with the Holy Ghost has been done away with, how did I get it when I was 13 or 14?

___James chapter 1

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are dispersed around, greetings.

2 My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations,

3 Knowing this, that the testing of your faith works patience.

4 But let patience have its perfect work, so you'll be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God for it, who gives to all men liberally, and won't find fault, and it shall be given to him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.  For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.

7 For let that man not think that he'll receive anything from the Lord.

8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted,

10 But the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he'll pass away.

11 For the sun has no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower of it falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for after he's been tested, he'll receive the crown of life, that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any man,

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then when lust has conceived, it produces sin, and sin when it's finished, produces death.

16 Do not err, my beloved brothers.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.

18 He chose to father us with the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

19 So, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger,

20 For the anger of man doesn't accomplish the righteousness of God.

21 So, lay apart all filthiness and the unnecessary naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man seeing his natural face in a mirror,

24 For he sees himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

25 But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26 If any man among you seems to be religious, and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is for nothing.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

___James chapter 2

1 My brothers, don't have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

2 For if a man with a gold ring comes to your assembly in fancy clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes comes in also,

3 And you have respect to him that wears the fancy clothes, and say to him, "Sit here in a good place," and say to the poor, "Stand there, or sit here under my footstool,"

4 Aren't you then partial in yourselves, and have become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my beloved brothers, hasn't God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

6 But you have despised the poor.  Don't rich men oppress you, and bring you before the judgment seats?

7 Don't they blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called?

8 If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor like yourself," you do well,

9 But if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as sinners.

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

11 For he that said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not kill."  Now if you don't commit adultery, yet if you kill, you've become a breaker of the law.

12 Speak in such a way, and do, as those who'll be judged by the law of liberty.

13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has shown no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment.

14 What does it profit, my brothers, though a man says he has faith, and doesn't have works?  Can faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister needs clothes, and lacks daily food,

16 And one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you don't give them the things that are needed for the body, what good is that?

17 Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead, being alone.

18 Yes, a man could say, "You have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works."

19 You believe that there is one God, you do well, the devils also believe, and tremble.

20 But don't you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son on the altar?

22 Do you see how faith worked with his deeds, and by works faith was made perfect?

23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God."

24 You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

25 Likewise also wasn't Rahab the prostitute justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

26 For like the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

___James chapter 3

1 My brothers, don't be many masters, knowing that we'll receive the greater condemnation.

2 For in many things we offend all.  If any man doesn't offend in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

3 See, we put bits in the horses' mouths, so they'll obey us, and we turn around their whole bodies.

4 Look also at the ships, which though they're so large, and are driven by fierce winds, yet they're turned around by a very small helm, wherever the captain wants.

5 Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things.  See how great a matter a little fire kindles!

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of sin, so is the tongue among our members that it makes dirty the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.

7 For every kind of animals, and of birds, and of snakes, and of things in the sea, gets tamed, and has been tamed by mankind,

8 But no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With it we bless God, the Father, and with it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God.

10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be.

11 Does a fountain send out at the same place sweet water and bitter?

12 Can the fig tree, my brothers, produce olive berries?  Or a vine, figs?  So no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh.

13 Who is a wise man, possessing knowledge among you?  Let him show out of a good lifestyle his works with meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, don't glory, and don't lie against the truth.

15 This wisdom doesn't descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be reasoned with, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is planted in peace by those who make peace.

___James chapter 4

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from?  Don't they come from your lusts that war in your members?

2 You lust, and don't have, you kill, and desire to have, and can't obtain, you fight and war, yet you don't have, because you don't ask.

3 You ask, and don't receive, because you ask wrongly, so you can consume it on your lusts.

4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.

5 Do you think that the scripture says for nothing, "The spirit that lives in us lusts to envy?"

6 But he gives more grace.  So he says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he'll run away from you.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and cry, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift you up.

11 Don't speak evil about each other, brothers.  He that speaks evil about his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil about the law, and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy, who are you that judges someone else?

13 Go on now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we'll go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and make a profit,"

14 Actually, you don't know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is a puff of steam, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

15 For you ought to say, "Lord willing, we'll live, and do this, or that."

16 But now you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil.

17 Therefore to him that knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.

___James chapter 5

1 Go on now, you rich men, cry and howl for your miseries that shall come on you.

2 Your riches are corrupted, and your clothes are moth eaten.

3 Your gold and silver are rusted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire.  You've heaped treasure together for the last days.

4 See, the wages of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which you've kept back by fraud, shouts, and the shouts of those who've reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.

5 You've lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, you've nourished your hearts, like in a day of slaughter.

6 You've condemned and killed the just, and he doesn't resist you.

7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.  See, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and latter rain.

8 You also be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is getting near.

9 Don't grudge against each other, brothers, so you won't be condemned, see, the judge stands at the door.

10 Take, my brothers, the prophets, who've spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

11 See, we count them happy that endure.  You've heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

12 But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, not by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, so that you don't fall into condemnation.

13 Is anyone among you afflicted?  Let him pray.  Is anyone merry?  Let him sing psalms.

14 Is anyone sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven.

16 Confess your faults to each other, and pray for each other so you'll be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man is does a lot of good.

17 Elijah was a man subject to the same kind of passions that we are, and he prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

19 Brothers, if any of you strays from the truth, and someone converts him,

20 Let him know, that he that converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.