Open your Bibles if you would
to Hosea chapter 10. The name of the message is God's
Chosen Vineyard. God's Chosen Vineyard. Hosea chapter 10. Let's read verses one to eight
to start this message. Israel is an empty vine. He bringeth forth fruit unto
himself according to the multitude of his fruit. He hath increased
the altars according to the goodness of his land, and they have made
goodly images. Now, what they've done is they've
established altars when the only altar is supposed to be in Jerusalem.
And they put them in high places. And they're also putting up altars
of false gods as well. Their heart is divided. Now shall
they be found faulty. He shall break down their altars.
He shall spoil their images. And remember, this is all before
the Babylonian captivity. For now they shall say, we have
no king because we feared not the Lord. What then should a
king do to us? They've rejected the one true
living king, the king over all. My. They have spoken words, swearing
falsely in making a covenant. Thus judgment springeth up as
a hemlock in the furrows of the field. The inhabitants of Samaria
shall fear because of the chaos of Beth-Avon, for the people
thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that
rejoiced on it for the glory thereof because it is departed
from it. It shall also be carried unto
Assyria for our present to King Jerob. Ephraim shall receive
shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. As for Samaria,
her king is cut off as the foam upon the water. I was thinking
that. You know, we used to live near
the ocean and we see it here in the Great Lakes too, when
the waves come in and they cause a little foam and then the foam
just is gone. Just gone. The high places, this is where
they've been setting up, these are actually high places of wickedness.
The high places also of Avon, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed.
The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars, and
they shall say to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall
on us. It sounds similar to what people say in Revelation when
the lamb appears. Very similar language. Now we
see in verse one, as in other Old Testament scriptures, Israel
is portrayed as God's chosen vine or vineyard. It says in
verse 1 again, Israel is an empty vine. He bringeth forth fruit
unto himself. According to the multitude of
his fruit, he hath increased the altars according to the goodness
of his land. Have they made goodly images?
Now turn, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 5. Isaiah chapter 5. And then put your finger in Psalm
80. Isaiah chapter 5, Psalm 80. I'll
read you a verse in Jeremiah 2. I'll read this to you, 21.
It says, Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then
art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto
me? Jeremiah 2, 21. And look at this. In Isaiah 5,
verse 1. Now will I sing to my well-beloved
a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved
has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it and gathered
out the stones thereof, and planted it with a choiceless vine, and
built a tower in the midst of it, and made a winepress therein. And he looked that it should
bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. My, oh my. Then look at verse
7 of Isaiah chapter 5. For the vineyard of the Lord
of hosts is the house of Israel. And the man of Judah, his pleasant
plant. And he looked for judgment, but behold, oppression, for righteousness,
but behold, a cry. And then over in Psalm 80, verses
8 to 10. Look at this. We're going to
again see Israel's described as a vine. Just like they are
in Hosea 10.1. Look at this. Psalm 80 verse 8. Thou hast bought
a vine out of Egypt. Who did God bring out of Egypt?
Israel. Thou hast cast out the heathen
and planted it. Thou preparest room before it,
and didst cause it to take deep root and fill the land. The hills
were covered with the shadow of it, and the boroughs thereof
were like goodly cedars." Now, the church is a garden, enclosed. And remember what Christ said
about himself. He said, I'm divine. You're the
branches. So again, keep our eyes looking
to Christ. In our natural state, we're like wild grapes, aren't
we? Oh man, we just don't, we're just doing whatever we want to
do. But the Lord has a vineyard. And he plants, his people are
like plants in that vineyard. In that garden. Fenced off, it
says, and I believe in Song of Solomon. Fenced off. watched over, taken care of.
That's how our Master is, the Lord Jesus Christ to us. Isn't
that wonderful? It's absolutely wonderful. Though
we are sinners before we're saved, and though we're sinners after
we're saved, and yet He still cares for us so dearly. So dearly,
like a tender plant. My. It's absolutely amazing. We see here in Hosea chapter
10, Fruits fruit is pictured as idolatrous religion and notice
Notice what he says here Israel is an empty vine. He bringeth
forth fruit unto himself. Look at that Any fruit that we
bring on to ourselves is bad fruit, isn't it brothers ain't?
It's bad fruit. It's fruits of the flesh So Israel sin in here When we were dead in trespasses
and sin, we brought forth bad fruit. And even now that we're
saved, we can't bring forth fruit, but the Holy Spirit grows it
in us. I heard an excellent point this morning. I was listening
to some fellows this morning. And Donny Bell always used to
say that Satan can't counterfeit the love of God in Christ. And
you can know God's people by the love they have for one another.
It's absolutely incredible. And I mean, it's true love. It's
love that shed abroad in our hearts by God. And it's truly
amazing. I believe we have that here within
our body. I believe that. And what thrills
me is our little prayer list. And we see each other praying
for each other and concerned and asking about one another.
And it just shows you the love and the care and concern we have
for one another. It's just amazing. It's amazing. My. But that's worked in us by
the Holy Spirit of God, isn't it? That's one of the fruits
of the Spirit, is love. Love and joy. Joy. Why do we enjoy hearing the gospel?
Why do we enjoy when we think about Christ? Because that's
fruit that the Holy Spirit's working in us. We can't muster
that up. Isn't that amazing? We're more
in love with Jesus now than we've ever been before. Who caused
that? The Holy Spirit of God. Isn't
that wonderful? It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. So look at this. Their fruit
is pictured as idolatrous religion. Israel is as an empty vine. He brings forth fruit unto himself
according to the multitude of his fruit. He hath increased
the altars. So here they are building false
altars. Going against what God said.
What a picture of us in our natural state. Right? And remember the picture of Gober
going off with other lovers. Well, here's Israel. They're
committing spiritual adultery. That's really what they're doing.
Because there's only one true God. He delivered them. We saw
him. He said, I bought you out of
Egypt. Thou has bought a vine out of Egypt. Thou has cast out
the heathen and planted it. Planted it in that land, right?
In Canaan land. He did that. All they did was
go forward. But he even gave them the strength
to go forward, didn't he? Isn't that amazing? Oh my. And despite them not obeying
him, he still cleared out most of that land for them, didn't
he? He did. And he protected them. And think of this. When the Babylonians
came and captured them after this, he didn't let the Babylonians
destroy them. They came back to their land.
Remember Nehemiah, the sword and the trowel? God didn't forget
them, did he? No, he brought them back. He'll
never leave his people. And they're a picture of God's
people. He'll never leave us. It's wonderful. Look at this. Of his fruit, he
hath increased the altars according to the goodness of his hand,
his works, their own works. and they have made goodly images.
Look at this, verse two, their heart is divided. Now shall they be found faulty.
Oh my. He shall break down their altars,
he shall spoil their images. We see here that their heart
is divided and it's deceitful, beloved. It's deceitful. The word translated deceitful
Literally means smooth. If we apply it to speech, we
translate it as slick or double-tongued. You ever met somebody who has
slick speech? I used to be a salesman, and
I tried to just be who I am when I did my sales. But I'll tell
you what, some of the guys I worked with, they had slick tongues,
man. And they would talk people into
stuff they didn't even want. That's awful. That's awful. Think of how slick false preachers
are. How double-tongued they are.
Right? Oh my. And the idea is that the people
went through the motions of doing one thing when they were intent
on doing something else. Oh, I'm serving God, but we're
putting up all these false idols. They have a divided heart. And do we not have that everywhere
in religion, even today? It's nothing new under the sun,
right? Let's remember that. Everything that's happening today
in religion, and it's getting crazy, has already happened in
the past. It already has. People are so
shocked. Oh, look what's happened. It's nothing new under the sun,
Solomon told us. And we see it right here. Man
trying to work his way. And these are the ones who have
the oracles of God given to them. My, which is the scriptures. Now the first area which shows
that Israel has a divided heart and a deceitful heart is her
supposed love for God when she is actually unfaithful to him. They supposedly have a love for
God, and yet they're unfaithful to him by setting up these false
idols. And by even directly disobeying
him and setting up other places where they say, well, you can
worship here. When they're told to go to Jerusalem. So they say, oh yeah, we love
God, we're his chosen people. And then on the other side, Their lives don't match up to
their profession, does it? Jim, you and I have talked about
that. We have to be careful as believers in the way we walk,
in the way the world sees us. We do not, Jane, we talked about,
we do not want to bring shame unto Christ and his gospel. We just do not want that. And how this is illustrated,
this spiritual adultery is illustrated in Hosea's wife, Gomer. She went off with her lovers. And she would have said, oh,
I'm not being entirely unfaithful to Hosea. I still love him. But that's not true love, is
it? That's not true love. And a love like that has no place
in a marriage. And yet you see Hosea's long
suffering with her. And he's giving her gifts the
whole time. She thinks she's getting them from her lovers.
How much before the Lord saved us was he taking care of us the
whole time? And we thought it was either by our own doings
or by someone else helping us out. And the whole time it was
our king. Grace before grace. Isn't that
wonderful? My, my. Love, true love, a marriage before
God is exclusive. It's exclusive, isn't it? One
man and one woman faithful to one another in plenty or in want,
right? Whether we're rich or we're poor,
and we all go through different stages, don't we, in our marriage?
In joy or in sorrow, in sickness and in health, still faithful to one another. My, in plenty or in want, in
joy or in sorrow, in sickness or in health, until death do
us part. My. And then when another comes
into the marriage, That love is betrayed. It's betrayed, isn't it? My. And this is what Israel's
doing. This is what Israel's doing,
just what Gomer was doing. Gomer's a picture of Israel at
that time, going after other lovers. My. My. She would pretend, Israel would
pretend to worship Jehovah and said Jehovah was their God. But
even while they're saying that, they're over here making false
altars to false gods. Or building an altar where their
leaders and their princes and their kings said, hey, you can
build that there, it's fine, we're all for that, go for it.
And God's not in that, is he? That's just, see it shows you
the man, the heart of man, the flesh. And man can be very religious. Trust me, I was there. And people
could say, well, surely you were saved. And you can go, you of
all people know whether you were saved or lost, right? And go,
I didn't know nothing. I didn't know no grace. Now I
marvel at God's grace. I didn't know love. I was always
critical and bitter. Now I pray for folks. My. What a picture of today's religion,
too. You know, there's millions of so-called Christians who say,
we go to church and we worship Christ. But the Christ they say that
they're worshiping is not even worthy of worship. You know that? I'm not trying
to pick on anyone. It's true though that God is
not even worthy of worship because he can't do anything He can't save unless you let
him He can't exercise his sovereign
will unless your will is exercised first That's not the God of the Bible.
And they won't even say His sovereign will, they'll just say, well,
He can't save you unless you exercise your will. Now, do we
have a will? Absolutely, we have a will. I
never deny that. But again, our will is tied to
our nature. And if we're not born again, all we're gonna do
is choose sin, and all we're gonna do is find a way to justify
ourselves by something we do. See, the believer says, away
with that, don't we? I can't be saved by anybody but Christ.
I can't be saved by any of my works. Praise God, the Holy Spirit
revealed that to us. Isn't it wonderful? And then
gave us faith to run to Christ, the true and living God. The
one who saves whom he wills. The one who accomplished salvation.
He's not saying, now the rest is up to you. As a matter of
fact, if the rest was up to us, no one would be saved. So he
says that it's finished. It's already complete. By His perfect, sinless life
and death, through His blood and His righteousness. It's absolutely
amazing. The god of religion has no power
unless man allows him to have it. He's at the hands of, think
of this, they say that God, who rules the universe, who's spoken
into the existence, is at the beck and call of their decision.
Now I'm not, I was there, I was there. I was there, I prayed
the prayer. I thought I saved myself, but
I found out I didn't do nothing. I was lost, but I was religious
and lost, you see now? Now, before I was a Catholic
and I was a 2-4, right? You guys know what 2-4s are.
Catholics who are 2-4 go twice a year to church, Christmas and
Easter. That's what I was. And the whole
rest of the time, I just lived in the flesh, whatever I wanted
to do. But I kept that little badge, right? But then, then
I got religious. But I was still lost. And I was peddling the God who
he cast a vote for you, and the devil cast a vote for you, and
now the rest is up to you. That's absolutely horrible, isn't
it? I still ask God to forgive me for that, even though I've
asked him a hundred times. I know he has. I know he has,
but I'm ashamed that I did that. My. Turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter 1. So the God of religion is powerless. He's a weak Christ. He's trying
to save people, but he can't unless they exercise their will.
or unless they make a decision. He can't accomplish salvation. See, but we preach Christ already
did it, didn't he? Salvation's already, it's already
complete, isn't it, Brother Brian? He obtained eternal salvation
for us. It's done. We just look to Christ by God-given
faith. And that's a miracle all by itself.
Hey, you must be born again. He regenerates us and gives us
faith to believe at the same time. And repentance before God.
People put out, oh, you gotta repent. Well, I'll tell you what,
when God gave me faith, I believed and I repented. Did you? Brother,
are we still repenting? All the time, aren't we? All
the time. It's not a one-time thing. Okay,
I stamped it, I'm good now. No, no, no, we live a life. We
live a life continuously telling the Lord, oh my, please forgive
me for that, Lord. Why did that thought come into
my mind? Oh, it's so vile. Please forgive me. Oh, why did
I think that about that person? Please forgive me. My. And look at here in Galatians
chapter one. The Jesus of religion is an idol. He's a false altar,
beloved. And you know there's a curse
on anyone who preaches the gospel of man's will over the sovereign
power of our great God. Which in the end, do you know
what that kind of preaching does? It makes people feel good. It
makes them feel like they have power. The preaching of the gospel
shows us we got no power. But that, the false religion
says, well, it's up to you. It's up to you. And they give
man the power rather than God. Now, the amazing thing is, and
I'll say it again, I'm gonna say it every sermon I can. Do
we run to Christ? Absolutely. Because we're made
willing. And we run to, you could hook
a tractor trailer up to us, couldn't you, brother? We'd pull that
thing right over to Christ. Wouldn't we? Oh my God, give us the power.
Oh my. So they, it makes them feel good. And they, because they're taught,
and this is what I was taught in religion, that really, and
they don't say this, but in saying it's up to you, they're teaching
that you're the sovereign. Rather than God being the sovereign
one. And we being at his mercy. Look at this in Galatians chapter
one. Look and hear what Paul says about false preachers. But
though we, or verse eight, Galatians 1.8, but though we are an angel
from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, that's mixing
man's works with grace, unto you, than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. That's anathema in
the Greek, let him be damned. That's how, and remember who
the true author of the scripture is, God the Holy Spirit. God is jealous over his glory. God is jealous over his gospel.
God is jealous over his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. As we
said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you that you have received, let him be accursed, for do I
now Persuade man or God? Or do I seek to please man? For
if I yet please man, I should not be the servant of Christ.
But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ." So we see that there's a curse upon those who preach
a false gospel. So we preachers, we best make
sure we have the right gospel. And the gospel, the right gospel,
is salvation through Christ alone, by God-given faith alone. And it's all, Christ did all
the work. The faith we receive just allows us to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a gift from God, not
a works list any man should boast. So true worship is worshiping
the God of the Bible. And there's only true worship
where the almighty sovereign Christ is victorious. See, if all the rest is up to you
and me, then Christ wasn't victorious at the cross. Then the words, it is finished,
are really meaningless. No, but that's not true, is it?
The God of the Bible, the Word of God, God who became a man,
the Lord Jesus Christ Christ, it is finished. He is victorious. over our sin and over death,
and even over the wrath of God, and over the law that was against
us. He conquered over Satan and all
his minions. He conquered them all, beloved. Listen to this. For as the Father
raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son of Man
quickeneth whom He will. Who? That's John chapter 5, verse
21. The Son of Man quickeneth whom
He will? That means the Son of Man regenerates
whomever He wills. Praise God, He regenerated us. We couldn't do anything like
that. He saved us, didn't he? Praise his mighty name. Now,
church people say they love Christ, and then they build altars to
false Christ. They are slick or double-tongued,
these false preachers. And think of this. Think of this. I was thinking about this today.
No one loves Christ who's denying his ownership and absolute control
over all things. How can you really love somebody
when you're denying that they're in total control? When you read God's word and
say, I don't believe that. Or someone reads it to you and
you say, I don't believe that. Well, is that not an indication
of the heart? When I was in religion and someone
showed me election, I got mad. I've told you guys that many
times. I did not love the Savior then. I thought I did, but I
found out I didn't. Now, I'm not saying you have
to embrace certain doctrines to be saved. I'm not saying that
at all, because we don't learn everything all the time. But
when we're confronted with the fact that God is absolutely sovereign,
and we recoil from that, there's a problem. There's a problem. My, oh, my. Because the scripture even says,
he even sows the sun quickeneth whom he will. Who are we to argue
with that? See, God chose certain angels,
right? No one has a problem with that. You talk to people, say,
well, God chose angels because there's angels that fell and
then there's other angels called the elect angels. Oh, yeah, no
problem. And then you tell them, well, God chose Israel out of
all the nations around them. And they're like, oh, yeah, no
problem at all. That's fine. That's fine. And then you tell
them God chose a people for himself, that he redeemed that Calvary's
cross, and they recoil. What? And I tell you, I've heard
this 1,000 times. This happens every time, right?
What about my free will? It's like the hammer hits them
right on the top of the nail. Right? And you're not even aiming
for the nail. You're just putting scripture
out there. Oh my. And I know I was there.
I recoiled at the truth. But now I embrace it, praise
his mighty name. It's wonderful. Election is my
favorite doctrine in the Bible. One time I recall, I love it.
It's my favorite doctrine. Because I know if God had chosen
me and you, we'd never choose him, would we? Not one of us,
no. My. My. So let us be sure we not only
say we love Christ, but we actually love him and show it in our lives. As we've talked about, Brother
Jim, show it in our lives. Loving one another, bearing one
another's burdens, loving the gospel, loving Christ, and knowing that the only reason
we do those things is because of God and God alone. Now, let's take note of the change
of circumstances in the church. Think of this. Israel here is
talked about being an empty vine. Turn, if you would, to John 15.
Israel is talked about being an empty vine. Now, take note of this. Take
note of the change of circumstances in the church, the Israel of
God, who, by reason of the Lord Jesus Christ coming for the salvation
of his people, Compared to what is said of Israel by this prophet
in this verse, is opposite. Israel's empty, they're doing
it all themselves. Look at this, John 15 verses
one to five. I am the true vine, and my father
is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away. In every branch that beareth
fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now
ye are clean through the word, which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine. See, Christ is the
vine. Oh, my. No more can ye accept
ye abide in me. I am the vine, and ye are the
branches. He that abides in me, and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye
can, or you, can do nothing. And God reveals that to us, doesn't
He, Brother Brian, Sister Linda? He reveals that to us, that we
can't do nothing without Him. I used to think I could do something
in religion. I used to think I was something. And I found
out I was nothing. Nothing. And God keeps us there,
but you know what? We are very special to God. We're
jewels in His eyes. You know where it says, precious
in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his people? That means
valuable. You know how valuable we are?
He shed his blood for us. He gave his life for us. That's
how valuable we are to him. Isn't that wonderful? He values
us so much, he loves us with an everlasting love, an unchanging
love. Why? That's amazing. Now Jesus is a vine and his people
are the branches. In him, there's no emptiness.
Think of that. So in our text, Israel is a vine and there's
emptiness. In Christ, there's no emptiness,
says the brother Zane. We have all spiritual blessings
in him. Everything we need, everything a sinner needs is found in Christ.
Oh my, there's no barrenness, there's no poverty, but we can
be poor in this life, meaning that there's no spiritual bankruptcy. As in Christ, all spiritual blessings
are the Lord's people. And all the fruit comes from
Christ, comes from the vine. All the nourishment comes from
the vine. The leaves can't produce fruit of themselves. It all comes from the vine. Thus,
the Holy Spirit is the one who causes us to bear fruit. And
we don't even know when we're doing it. It's amazing. People, I remember being religious
and thinking, well, you know, I need to love God more. Okay,
and I need to love people more. You know, every time I tried
that, I fell flat on my face. You know, but God has worked
that now in us, right? He's worked that in us. We find
ourselves, wow, I love the Lord's people even more now. I love
the gospel even more now. I love Christ even more now.
It's all here. And we say, look what you've done, Lord. Look
what you've done. This is wonderful. It's all you. Despite myself, you've done all
this, right? Oh my. Now let's read Hosea chapter
10 verses 3 and 4. For now they shall say, we have
no king because we feared not the Lord. What then should king
do to us? They have spoken the words, swearing
falsely in making a covenant. This judgment spring is up as
a hemlock in the furrows of the field. So the second deceit here
concerning Israel's profession of truth. See, their first profession
was of love. It was not true. This one is
of truth. They were actually lying to themselves. by setting up these false idols.
Saying, oh, we love God, and setting up false idols at the
same time. Not holding the truth. And that's a picture of us in
our natural state, isn't it? We may have been God people,
right? I was a Catholic, remember? Didn't know nothing. Never read
the Bible, had no interest in the Bible. Nothing. Nothing. In Israel, they pretended to
speak truthfully, making agreements that could be trusted and then
breaking them. They attempted to cheat others
for their own sake. This is natural man, for private
gain. But Jehovah is a God of truth,
isn't he? He's a God of truth. His word
is true. And therefore, let us not take our standards from the
world. Let us take our standards from the word. Let this guide our lives. Not
what the world says to do. Because the world will try to
tell you what to do. And this word says this. And
I often have people say, well, I believe this. Well, that's
against this word. Well, people don't like to hear
that, do they? Say, well, that's my opinion. And I said, well,
it doesn't matter compared to the word of God. Your opinion
makes no difference. This is what the word says. Like
abortion. Talk to people about abortion.
They say, well, that's not murder. The word of God says it is. Period. End of story. There's no debate
about it, is there? Scripture says if you murder
a lady who's pregnant, you've killed two people. Period. End of story. There's no arguing
with that. That's not my opinion. That's
what the Word of God says. I've had people come at me with
that and said, no, this is my final authority, not you. Right
here. And this is where our standards
come from, isn't it? From the Word of God. From the
Word of God. My. And isn't it amazing that
that's not where our standards were before? They were of ourselves. And now we say, if it doesn't
say thus saith the Lord, that's it. What a change God wrought
in us. It's just a miracle. So let us take our standards
and our principles for life from the word of God. And how often
do we, who are the Lord's people, still have a divided heart? Saying,
we've talked about that, our different struggles. And that's
the war with the flesh, isn't it? And we will have this battle
within us until the day we die, beloved. It's not gonna go away. But I'll tell you what we can
do. we can look to Christ. That's where without him we can
do nothing. Live in our life every day, every
single little mundane thing in our day. Without me, he says,
you can do nothing. Praise God for strength. Praise
God for life. Praise God for breath. Praise
God for family. Praise God for friends. Praise
God for A wonderful church family, right? My, what a gift. My, oh my. Now let's read verses
five to eight of Hosea. Hosea chapter 10. The inhabitants
of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethan. For
the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof
that rejoice on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed
from it. It shall be also carried unto
Assyria for a present to King Jerob. Ephraim shall receive
shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. As for Samaria,
her king is cut off as the foam upon the water. The high places
of heaven, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed. The thorn
and the thistle shall come up on their altars. So after years
of decay, thorn and thistles come up. And they shall say to
the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall upon us. Now
here's the third area of Israel's deceit, was her profession of
righteousness while actually practicing evil. in going to what's called the
high altars there in verse 10. Places of wickedness that they
built to offer sacrifices. My oh my. And they pretend to
be the personification of goodness. Remember that Pharisee? Lord,
I thank you that I'm not like that publican. That's all pretend,
isn't it? Self-deceit. He's deceived himself. And there's that publican. He'd
been showing something. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Think of this. Who else but the
supposedly good would be so religious? You know, you talk to religious
people and they tell you they're good. You talk to grace folks and people
who have truly been saved, and we say, I'm just a sinner saved
by grace. And I'm so thankful God has mercy
on me. And we're like that publican.
We won't even lift our head up, will we? Oh, God, you've had
mercy on me. Praise your mighty name. But think of this. These pretenders, they don't
fool God. They may fool man. They may fool
man. And they may profess a righteousness
of their own. But listen to what Galatians
6, verses 7 and 8 says. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. The only righteousness God will
accept is what? The righteousness of Christ,
right? That's it. Be not deceived. These
people think they're good and they're going to get to heaven
by their supposed good works. Be not deceived. God's not mocked
for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. He sows to
his own righteousness, he's going to reap destruction. All right? For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And we say, we're
nothing without Christ. He's all I need. He's everything
to us, isn't He? He's everything to us. Look at
in verse 8 here of Hosea 10, it says, High places which are
sinful, we see them called the sin of Israel. So they have a
Picture of outward picture of goodness, but inward they're
just raving Wolves remember the Pharisees were called that Lord
said you you whited sepulchers You've cleaned up the outside,
but inside you're raving wolves That's natural man. That's where
we all were My you you get natural man religious look out Religious people who aren't born
again are some of the meanest people in this world. They are. My. Look at this in verse 8. The
high places also of Avan, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle shall
come up on their altars. And they shall say to the mountains,
cover us, and to the hills, fall on us. Notice he warns that their
high places of wickedness will soon be destroyed. God's not
mocked, is he? No, whatsoever man soweth, that
shall he also reap. Just like all the pretenders
of religion today, they will soon be destroyed. They will
be. And the text here, is speaking
about religious wickedness. And I'll tell you what. As Jack Shanks said one time,
he said, now there's nothing in this world as evil as religion
without God. That's true. They will tear you
to shreds. You know, we in grace, when a
brother or sister falls, we come alongside them and try to help
them up. Right? Because we could be in the same
position as they are. Religion, man, they'll kick them
while they're down, excommunicate them. Not grace people. Come on, brother. Come on, sister.
Let me help you up. Come alongside you. Listen to this. Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited
sepulchres or whited graves, all cleaned up, which indeed
appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead man's
bones and of all uncleanness. Even so, Ye also outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and
iniquity. My. That's from Matthew 23, verses
27 to 28. What a picture of us in our natural
state. Now turn back to John 15. We're
going to close with these few words here in John chapter 15. So the Israelites were like people
in religion who spoke that they loved God, and yet they were
unfaithful. They pretended to be truthful
while practicing lies, and they pretended to be righteous, and
yet were unrighteous. That's the state of religion
today. And the only one who's made us
to differ is God. And remember this, despite our
unfaithfulness, which we admit now, he is faithful. Praise his mighty name. Let's
go here, John chapter 15, back here again. John chapter 15.
Oh my. Look at this. Verse one, I am
the true vine and my father is the husbandman. You know, our
Lord, Our Lord told his disciples and others on previous occasion,
I am the door, I'm the way. If any man shall enter in, he
shall be saved. There's no other door to heaven.
There's no other door to the Father, but the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he said, I'm the true bread from heaven. I'm the water of
life. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh under
the Father, but by me, period. And everything that God has spiritually
and eternally for the believers in Christ. In Christ. By Christ and through Christ's
acceptance, forgiveness, salvation. Through Christ we have, before
God, acceptance. We have salvation, eternal salvation. We have eternal life, which is
ours by a living union with Christ. He's the vine, we're the branches.
Believers are the branches that have life and grow and bear fruit
only because of our union with the living vine, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And note with respect to the
vine and the branches that are in the vine, the Lord Jesus Christ
proclaims, my father is the vine dresser. He's the husbandman.
He takes care of it. It's he who purposed salvation.
It's He who planted us. It's He who supports us. It's
He who chose us in Christ. It's He who sent the Son to redeem
us. And all for the purpose of His
will and for His own glory. Now look at verse 2. Every branch
in me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away. And every branch
that beareth fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more
fruit. Now this verse here has caused
a lot of people A lot of professed Christians, even a lot of true
believers, has caused some to fear and quake. But this isn't
talking about true believers. This is talking about professors.
Notice they don't bear fruit. You ever met someone and you've
known them for years and they profess to be a Christian and
yet there's no grace and no mercy the whole time? And you keep
thinking, what's wrong? What's wrong? Why don't they
love God's people? Why are they so mean? Well, there's
something wrong in there, isn't there? There's definitely something
wrong. Look at this here. Every branch
in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and every branch
that beareth fruit, he purchased it, that it may bring forth more
fruit. That the tree, the church, the
elect of God may bring more fruit. That's why those branches are
pruned off. Oh my. Now there's many religionists. Think of this, Judas, Simon,
Magnus, Demas, and many others. who even appear to be in Christ
by association, by outward profession. They give to the church. They
take care of things. They perform church duties, but
they bear no spiritual fruit. There's no love. There's no joy. There's no peace. There's no
mercy. and religious duties and what,
you know, do you know men call religious duty sometimes fruit?
Look what I've done. Vicki saw a young lady from a
local church that had on the back of it like a concert tour,
all these different things that they've done over 24 years, bragging
about what they've done. We don't need to do anything
like that, do we? We just say, look what the Lord's done. This
is amazing. And we rejoice. My, because it's all Him. Any
good that comes out of us or this church is all of Him. He's
the one that makes the gospel go out in the world, and He's
the one who makes it fruitful. He's the one who blesses us when
we hear the gospel. He's the one who blesses my studies,
and I get blessed by putting the messages together, and then
you guys get blessed by the preaching, because the Holy Spirit's working
in all of us. And we go, hallelujah! Look at the Savior! He's amazing. He's amazing. So think of this, religious duties
and what men call fruit, they can be produced without real
spiritual life. They can be. Oh, they can be. Remember Judas? People look at him and say, well,
sure, that fella's saved. No. Demas. Demas was with Paul
going around doing all kinds of missionary work. He said,
Demas has forsaken me, having loved this world. My! So, these mere professors are
dead branches which will eventually be exposed and taken away. Taken
away. And the true spiritual branches,
the true branches which are savingly rooted in Christ, right? Rooted
in Him, by the Father's will, not by anything we do, all by
the Father's will, and through genuine God-given faith, not
only bear spiritual fruit, but we're constantly being pruned. Right? Think of the trials of
our lives. It's pruning us, beloved. He's
conforming us to the image of Christ. Think of the church. The church is being pruned. My, and who's doing the pruning,
Brother Zane? Amen! Christ, he's doing the
pruning, isn't he? God the Father, he's the husbandman.
Oh my, he's taking care of that vine and those branches. My, oh my. And how are we pruned
and cared for? Well, through trials and teaching
and afflictions that we may grow and bring forth more fruit. You know, it's in times of affliction,
I believe, we grow the most. We don't see it in ourselves,
because we're down there going, oh, Lord, I need you so bad. Right? We're just casting ourselves
upon Him. Sometimes when we're healthier, we're thinking, well,
I'm doing pretty good. Don't ever forget, we need the
Lord all the time, because without Him, we can do nothing, nothing. My, look at verse three now. Now you are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. When he says this, do you
know who's not there anymore? Judas. Judas is not there at that time
when he says that. He told his disciples over in
John 13, 10, he said this, that they were clean but not all. Judas was with them. Here he
says, now ye are clean through the word. Judas is no longer
with them. He's talking to his people, isn't
he, Brother Brian? Now you are clear, clean, through the word
which I have spoken unto you. Christ could now say to the 11,
you are clean. He couldn't say that when Judas
was among them, and he won't lie, so he says to them, you're
clean, but not all, when Judas was with them. Isn't that wonderful? And here
he says to his disciples, you're clean, the 11. That's us too,
isn't it? Washed in the blood of Christ.
They're not clean by works or by the law or by any ceremony
that they took part in. They were clean, regenerated,
sanctified, and justified by Christ's blood, and through his
righteousness, and through the word preached and believed. My,
these men were all true branches that he was speaking to. They
were all true branches in the true vine. Were they already
in Christ? Yes. They were already in Christ
from before the foundation of the world, right? Paul said,
I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. My, just like we were in Adam
when Adam fell, we were in Christ when he accomplished our salvation. He's our substitute. It's amazing. It's amazing. And these men would never be
separated from Christ, and neither shall we who believe. Never. Look at verse four. 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.
So it's true that once a man's saved by God's grace, he will
remain forever saved, a man or a woman. Yet the scriptures warn
us, don't they? They warn us. They're full of
warnings to believers against unbelief, which plagues us all
the time, against drawing back. We're told, don't draw back.
Don't draw back. We're to continue in the faith,
and we're not to neglect His Word. And isn't it amazing that
He keeps us? He keeps us. He keeps us desiring him. He
keeps us desiring to hear the gospel. It's wonderful. And abiding
in Christ is abiding in his word, abiding in his love, abiding
in his spirit, and abiding in Christ. It's not a condition
which man fulfills. See, people look at that and
say, well, I gotta abide in Christ. It's not a condition that we
fulfill, beloved. We're in Christ. Christ gives
us life. And abiding in Christ is a result
of Christ's gift of life and true evidence that we have the
life of Christ. Branches on a grapevine do not
bear fruit by themselves, do they? I look at those apple trees. I love looking at those all the
time. I'm constantly reminded. Those apples, they didn't come
because the branch made them come. No, they came because the
nutrients that came up to the trunk, and the trunk gives them
life, and then out pops this fruit. As a result of all that
nourishment going up the trunk. What a picture. What a picture. My. So by their union with the vine,
they have life. And no man can bear, or produce,
or possess any spiritual knowledge, life, gift, grace, or holiness
except through Christ. That's the only way. Except through
Christ, and abiding in Him, and His abiding in Christ. We abide
in Christ because He keeps us abiding in Him. It's amazing. Now look at verse
5. I am the vine and ye are the
branches. That's so clear, isn't it? He that abides in me and
I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. So he's telling us
if you abide in him, in Christ, then you're going to bring forth
fruit. And much for it. And then he
says this, I love, this is one of my favorite portions of scripture.
This phrase right here, for without me, you, or ye, can do nothing. Boy, how that humbles us, doesn't
it? If we think we're something, we just need to read this verse.
But praise God, he has mercy on us. Isn't that wonderful?
Now there's three things I want to bring forth from this verse,
and then we'll close. Number one, Christ himself is the vine.
He's the vine. We're branches. He's the fountain. He's the spring. He's the source
of life, of mercy, of grace, of peace with God, of righteousness
before God. And we're branches who have no
life and no power and even no existence apart from him, apart from Christ, as without
him, We have and can do absolutely nothing. Nothing. Number two, the second point
here, believers are truly one with Christ. We see here the
union that they have with Christ. He's the vine, we're the branches. We have a union with him. Remember
when Paul was persecuting Christians and the Lord arrested him on
Damascus Road and he said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Well, he was persecuting Christians. He's the head, and we're the
body. I'll tell you why. If someone hits your hand, your
head's going to know it, isn't it? It's going to send a nerve
signal up to your brain. Your brain's going to instantly
send one back going, ah! Right? Oh, yeah. Remember our kids? Don't put your hand on the oven,
stove. Ah! Right? In that instantaneous,
that's how Christ was. He persecuted his people, you're
persecuting him. Oh my, what a vital union. What a vital union. So when we
look at a vineyard, or a tree, apple tree, or any kind of tree
that bears fruit, look at that and go, that's a picture of us. And the only reason that it has
fruit is because of that vine. And look at this, these branches,
the third point, which abide in Christ will surely bring forth
fruit. It's a fruit of the Spirit. It's
a work of the Holy Spirit of God. All through the Holy Spirit,
His presence in our life, His power in our lives. And the Spirit
begats peace, doesn't it? Peace with God through the Lord
Jesus Christ and His blood and righteousness. and true love,
true love for God, true love for His people, true love for
the gospel of God, His grace in Christ. And all we can say
is glory be to God. Glory be to God. Look what He's
done. Glory be to our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Amen and amen. My. Brother Zane, can you close
us in prayer?