The Vine and Branches: Separation of People

"If you love Me, keep His commandments." What are His commandments? The Father's, the Torah, the Father's commandments. And if it's not, then you have people who have big problems with understanding theology and eschatology and how the Father and the Son are echad, or one. John 15:1-8: The Vine and the Branches. Now we come to another powerful connection. John 15:4: "Abide in Me, and I in you." Yeshua identifies Himself as the true vine and His Father as the vine dresser. His disciples are the branches. A branch cannot bear fruit unless it remains connected to the vine and the vine dresser. And neither can a disciple bear spiritual fruit apart from Yeshua. So, again, let me say something really quick. So, again, think about that, my friends. That's why, please go revisit John 14 and John 15. Very important. Look at what He says here. If we're connected to the vine, if we are the branches, He is the vine.

We're connected to Yeshua. Amen. We're also connected to the vine dresser, which is the Father. So, why is Christianity disrespecting the Father's commandments and dishonoring Him? Why? That's a question to ask Christianity. Why are you disrespecting the vine dresser? Go to John 15 and ask them that. Go ask your pastor that. Go ask your preacher that. Go ask your rabbi that, whoever that is. Why? Why are the Christians disregarding the vine dresser who has produced the vine, and we are the branches? Why? That's my question. Because again, if you're connected to Yeshua, you're connected to the Father. And then that makes it even more treacherous that they're not keeping the Father's commandments and they're connected to Yeshua. The Jewish people are keeping the commandments, but there's no Yeshua, so the same thing. They're darkness as well until they come to Yeshua. Christians are darkness as well until they start following the commandments.

So, again, this is very—no offense to people—but at the same time, that's what it says. It says what it says. And people love their rebellion. They love their uncircumcised heart. They love the world. They love everything in the world, and they don't even know the separation of the world. And God says, "Do not be in the world." Jews and Christians, and the world. You know, of course, God's people are always disobedient until He drops the gavel on all of us. And guess what, friends? It looks like the gavel is here, and it's only going to get worse. Not to be negative, but that's just reality, not the reality show that you see across these worldly leaders that we're seeing here today. So, obedience is not presented as a way to earn salvation independently of God's Yeshua's blood and His grace. Rather, John consistently describes love and obedience as inseparable expressions of genuine fellowship with our Master.

John 15:1-8: The Vine and the Branches. We've read through that again. If we're connected to the vine, we're connected to the vine dresser. Please, my Christian friends, whoever is out there doing this, quit disrespecting the Father. Quit disrespecting the vine dresser. Quit disrespecting the One who was, is, and who is to come, the Father, and of course the Son. Please, quit disrespecting the Father. And for the Jewish people, please quit disrespecting your Savior, your Master, your Messiah, your brother, your King, your Holy One of Israel. So, both parties have a lot of disrespect going on to God and His Son, to the vine and the vine dresser. The Christians and the Jews have a lot of disrespect and a lot of dishonor going up to heaven because of their behavior and their conduct and how they view either the Father's commandments (Christians) or Yeshua (the Jewish people). So, both parties, get ready, because that's why you're going to be put into the seven-year purification, not the seven-year tribulation.

Seven-year purification for Jews and Christians and whoever else that wants to be a part of the kingdom. So, it's called the Time of Jacob's Trouble. That's what it's really called, the last seven years of the age. They call it the seven-year tribulation period. Great. It's not really that. It's called the purification, and it will be tribulation, but it's more about the believers being purified because, look around, see what's going down with the believers. All right. So, let's be connected, my friends, to the vine and also to the vine dresser, please. The Connection with the Children of Light. Remember 1 Thessalonians 5:5: "You are all sons of light and sons of the day." Paul identifies who believers are: the light. Paul identifies who the sons of the light and sons of the day are, which are the ones who keep the times and the seasons. So, if you weren't with us before that, my friends, in 1 Thessalonians 5, it says, "There is no need that I should come to you about the times and the seasons, the calendar, and the feast days, because you yourselves know that the day comes as a thief in the night, the Day of the Lord." So, he's saying the ones who know the times and the seasons are the sons of the light, the sons of the day.

We understand what's going on. We know the Day of the Lord. We know how it's going to go down with the feast days and all of these things. Paul is identifying that with darkness and light. Light: the ones who do keep the commandments, or the times and the seasons, the calendar, the feast days, the Sabbath. And the ones who do not are darkness. Very hardcore stuff. Very hardcore stuff. But that's what the scriptures do say. And we are here to pronounce the truth of those scriptures to the best of our ability. Friends, please go study this light versus dark thing through these scriptures and make your own opinion about these things. But for me, it's very clear that He is separating creation, light and dark, and then people, light and dark. And that depends on their belief in Yeshua, the Holy Spirit, and following the commandments. And if not, that person is darkness. I was in darkness, or not.

I was not in darkness; I *was* darkness, as it says in the scriptures. So, again, we're not walking in darkness; we *are* darkness or we *are* light. One or the other. Wise or foolish. One or the other. Hot or cold, one or the other, not lukewarm—spit you out of His mouth. Good or evil. All throughout the Bible, it makes a distinction one way or the other. There's no gray or hedging my bets or none of this stuff. No, it's either get in or get out, is what He said. Hot or cold, good or evil, wise or foolish, light or dark in this circumstance. So, all throughout the Bible, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, there's a separation of light and dark depending on loving God and keeping His commandments. It's very important, my friends. As we all know, you are all sons of light and sons of the day. Paul identifies who the sons of the light and sons of the day are. John 15 explains how disciples must live: remaining in Yeshua, keeping His Father's commandments, and bearing fruit.

1 John 1:7 calls believers to walk in the light. These passages complement one another. Being a child of light is not simply a prophetic identity; it involves an ongoing relationship with Messiah and the Father that produces visible spiritual fruit. John 15:6: The branches that do not abide. This is where the separation theme becomes especially clear. John 15:6: "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered." How do you not abide in Him? Well, if you read John 14:15, read it for yourself: keeping the commandments, keeping God's commandments, you will abide in Him. And then anything that you ask, you will receive because you are in alignment with the Father. So, again, if we read it, and if we have time, we'll read it together throughout John 14 and 15 together. And it's just a really beautiful piece of scripture that people really need to understand. That is really theology.

John 14 and 15, in two chapters, you can find your theology as a Christian of what you should be doing. And that is following Yeshua. And what did He do? And He had to do, and He must do, to be the Jewish Messiah, He had to follow the Father's commandments. Do you think He's going to send a rogue son, a prodigal son, down here? Of course not. Of course not. He's going to follow the Father's commandments. Please read John 14 and 15 for that confirmation. "If anyone does not abide in Me"—not follow My commandments, do a different route, be rogue, start a new religion, and all this stuff—"he is cast out as a branch and is withered." Yeshua then describes the branches being gathered and thrown into the fire. Compare this with the separation passages we've been studying. John 3:19-21: Those who love darkness refuse the light. John 15:6: Those who do not abide in Yeshua are pictured as branches removed from the vine.

Revelation 21:27: Nothing that defiles enters the New Jerusalem. Revelation: Those who enter the city are the ones who keep the commandments of God, contrasted with those who are excluded because they are not keeping the commandments of God. Please again, read that for yourself. These passages are not identical descriptions of the same event, but they share a theological distinction between genuine fellowship with God, true fellowship with God, and separation from Him, which is false fellowship with God, a vain relationship. Because in Mark 7, He is talking to the Jewish leadership, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all these people. And the disciples did not wash their hands before they ate. So, the Pharisees and the Sadducees had a problem with that. And what did Yeshua tell them? We all know what He told them. But He said this: "You keep the traditions of men over God's commandments." You know, you replace it.

You place your oral traditions over God's commandments. So, He wasn't just talking about washing hands. He says, "You keep your traditions of men over the commandments of God." So, He's not just talking about washing hands. He's talking about any oral tradition that is overriding the commandments of God. That's why He said what He said in Matthew 23. What did He say in Matthew 23:1? "Whenever they sit in Moses' seat," Yeshua says this in Matthew 23, "listen to them and do everything they say because you're following the Torah." But when they do not, and they teach you the Talmud, they teach you Kabbalah, they teach you Mishna, they teach you whatever, don't listen to them because serpents, vipers, hypocrites." I don't say that; He said that. So, please go read Matthew 23 if one is offended by what the Messiah said, because that's what He said. When the Jewish people teach you the Torah, He says, basically the Jewish leadership, listen to them and follow the Torah.

But when they start talking all this other stuff, don't listen to them because they're hypocrites, serpents, vipers. He says that seven times, everybody. Seven times. Spiritual perfection, by the way. That's why He said it seven times. So, again, we have to understand, very important for the Jewish people and the Christians to believe in Yeshua and follow the commandments. It's a very simple concept to understand in Genesis 1 through Revelation 22. If one has the proper heart position, if one is circumcised in the heart to receive this. And unfortunately, from what I see today, we have a lot of our Jewish friends and a lot of our Christian friends that they don't have a circumcised heart. They want to do their thing in Judaism. They want to do their thing in Christianity. And okay, how's that going for everybody? I don't think too good, but okay, that's just my personal opinion. But we're going to find out who loves God.