Here we have in John chapter
15 this glorious description of the Lord's work and it's a
glorious description of the work of God the Father and God the
Son as recorded by God the Holy Spirit. We have a triune God
And here at this culmination of the Lord's ministry coming
that next morning as he's hung on that cross of Calvary and
in the afternoon he cries out those glorious words, it is finished. The work of salvation, the work
of glorifying the Father, the work of gathering his people
to himself, the work of making them so holy that they're fit
and proper to be in the very presence of God. I am the true
vine. I am the true vine. He describes himself as the door.
I am the door. There's only one way into the
very presence of God, and he's the door. I am the shepherd. There is just one shepherd, there's
one true shepherd. He's the water of life. He takes
the simplest things that we have and uses them to remind us of
the simplicity of the Gospel that we declare. We're declaring
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're declaring Him as God Almighty. We're declaring Him as the absolute,
sovereign, successful Saviour of all the people that the Father
gave Him, all of those who are His sheep. all of those that
he came to live for, all of those that he came to die for, we're
just declaring Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. And here he says, I am the true
vine. It's a common picture in the
Old Testament. Israel is declared to be a vine
and they are rebuked by God again and again throughout the Old
Testament as being a vine that produces the grapes of Sodom
and the grapes of Gomorrah. He says... I'll have inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men in Judah. Judge, I pray you, betwixt me
and my vineyard. What could have been done more
to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I
looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild
grapes. It brought forth the grapes of
idolatry. It brought forth the grapes of
man-made religion. There is one true vine. And that
means that every other vine is not true. He says, I am the true
vine. There is just one. He is the
way to the Father. And this is another repetition
of what was so prominent on the Lord Jesus Christ's heart. In
verse 8 he says this, Herein is my Father glorified. He prays for the glory of his
Father to be revealed in his work and in the work of the people
of this vine. This parable that the Lord brings
to us, brings to the apostles and brings to us here, is a picture
of the union between the Lord Jesus Christ and the believer. And it's a picture of the union
between the resurrected and reigning and ruling and present Lord Jesus
Christ and his people. And it speaks of evidences, isn't
it? The evidences of our abiding in him, that there will be fruit
from that union. The Father will purge the branches. The Father is a husbandman. I
love the fact that our God, the Father, is the husbandman and
he tends the vine. It's his job to do the pruning. It's his job to cause the fruit
to come forth. It's a glorious, glorious picture. And God's children bring forth
the fruit of the pruning of that husbandman. And I just want to
remind you of where we've gone in this last while, looking at
John 13, and we look at what the fruit is. In John 13, 34,
the fruit is love. In John 14, 1, the fruit is faith. Faith is not something that comes
naturally to us. Faith is given by God. In John 14, verse 6, there's
a knowledge of the way. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. In John 14, verse 12, there are
greater works done by the apostles and the church than there was
done by the Lord Jesus Christ. just in number, but they also
reflect Him. John 14, 21, part of the fruit
is to be loved of the Father. 14, 23, it's to keep my words, and for him to dwell
in his people and with his people, and for his people to know the
union there is between them and the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1429
they are taught the words of Christ by the Holy Spirit. In
1427 there is peace. And 1428 there is a rejoicing
in him going and going back to his father. And at the end of
chapter 14, as you read earlier, there is the knowledge that he
loves his father. The vine and the branches. What
could be more simple? There it is, a vine. They probably may have been left
the upper room and they just walked past a branch, but there's
a branch. There's a branch, and there's...
There's the branch and there's a branch that comes off it. What
could be more simple? It was just part of everyday
life. He's talking obviously about the grapevines that are
pruned and you have to keep pruning grapevines all the time. And
you've probably seen those pictures of grapevines that are hundreds
of years old. And all they are is a stem with
almost like a ball on the top of it. And out of that each year
comes all the grapes that people make wine from. And without the
pruning, there is no fruit. But the vine and the branches,
the life that's in the stem is the life that's in the branch,
isn't it? The sap that feeds the branch
and feeds these leaves right at the top and produces the fruit
comes from down here, doesn't it? It's just such a beautiful
picture, isn't it? I love what Job said, the root
of the matter is in me. There is a life-giving sap and
there is a life-giving reality to the fibres of life that come
from the Lord Jesus Christ to his people. And there is a place
where they connect. They're joined together and so
often in the scriptures it speaks of people being grafted in and
people are grafted into the Lord Jesus Christ and when there's
a graft there is a wound. You wound a main stem and you
wound a branch and And then you join those two wounds together
so that the sap in the stem flows into the branch. What a simple,
simple picture, isn't it? In the wounding of the Lord Jesus
Christ there is created this extraordinary reality of a union
between Him and His people, an eternal union. All the branch's
life comes from the vine and comes from the root. There's
no life and there's no fruit if there's no union. You break
one of these off and all of a sudden, what's going to happen to that?
It'll be dead in no time at all, won't it? And it'll be withered
up and tossed into the fire. He says, I am the true vine. I am the vine, verse five, and
you are the branches. If any man, if any man, he that
abideth in thee, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit. And I love what the end of verse
5 says. Just read it with me. I want
you to see this. It's such an incredibly important
phrase from our God. Because we were injected and
it became part of our very being in the garden that you will do
and live. you will be able to do and live. Do this and live
is the religion of all humanity. If I do this, God must reward
me. That's what we all believe. That's
what we're all taught, aren't we? And if you do this, you'll
stay in the vine. If you do this, you'll go to
heaven. If you do these things, listen to what the Lord Jesus
Christ says. For without me, ye can do nothing. Without me, the word do there
is the word we get for dynamite. It's the word for power. Without
me you have no power. How far can you take a statement
like that? How far can you take that statement? There is absolutely no limit
to that statement, is there? No limit whatsoever. Without
me, you cannot live. Without me, you cannot breathe. Without me, your heart doesn't
beat. Without me, the synapses of your
brain don't happen. Without me, you can't do anything. Throughout the scriptures, God
is in so many, many, many ways wanting to undo the self-righteousness
and the self-sufficiency of humanity. You would think that we would
have learnt that we are not independent creatures who rule our own world. You would think that something
as small and insignificant as a common cold or a virus that
brings us down in no time at all. We can't control the tiniest
things, can we? Without me, you can do nothing. The great sin of humanity is
the sin of pride, isn't it? I can. Satan says, I will, I
will, I will, I will. And humanity ever since the fall
has said, I will, I will, I will, I will. And every event, almost every
event of our lives says, no, you can't. We applaud the self-made
man, don't we? We applaud the man who is independent
and can do as he wishes all the time. The scriptures cause the
people of God to know that they're absolutely and utterly dependent
on God Almighty. Who keeps that sun up there right
now? Who keeps that sun at the perfect
distance away from us? And the moon at the perfect distance
away from us? And this earth tilted at the
perfect angle from the sun so that we have... Who does it?
He upholds all things by the word of His power. Without me, you can do nothing. is where we get to do all that
we do. It's a union of abiding. There is no life, there is no
spiritual life from God except there is this abiding. This being united to him. And the evidence of abiding is
in verse seven, if you look at it with me. If you abide in me
and my words abide in you. It's just told us, without me
you can do nothing. Religion is continually telling
people to do and do and do and do good things and God will reward
you for the good things that you do. Without Him you can do
nothing that's good at all. So Christ is the source of all
spiritual life all of the time. Eternal life is knowing this
Christ. And my father, he says, I am
the true vine. And as I said earlier, it's a
great picture of humility, isn't it? He depended on his father
all of his life. He lived a life of perfect faith. He says, the words that I speak
are the father's words. The deeds that I do are the father's
deeds. Completely and utterly dependent
upon his father. My father is the husbandman. Every branch in me, verse two,
that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. He taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purges
it. He cleanses it, He purifies it,
that it might bring forth more fruit. As I said earlier, the
Father does the purging and the Father does the cleansing. In
Hebrews chapter 12, the Father does this purging and pruning
hurts. Pruning hurts, doesn't it? but in the hands of the great
physician, he says, no chastening, no purging for the present time
seems to be joyous but grievous. God will wound his people to
make them alive. He will break them to rebuild
them. He will strip them to clothe
them. He will take away their self-righteousness
and their self-sufficiency and bring them to be a vine that
leans on a rock. No chastening for the present
seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness. How much rest does your soul
have to know that all of my righteousness is in the Lord Jesus Christ?
And in that chastening, in that purging, the Lord Jesus Christ
has just taken away some rubbish. Taken away some rubbish of my
self-righteousness, my self-will, my doing, my doing. The peaceable
fruit of righteousness unto them which exercise thereby. The purging
is not going to be pleasant, because the disease is very deep
and very serious. I love what the psalmist said
in Psalm 119 verse 75. He says, I know, O LORD, that
thy judgments are right, and that thou in faith hath afflicted
me. Isn't that a lovely thing to
think of? It's not what normally comes to mind, is it? But without
Him we can do nothing and He does all things and He does all
things and He works all things for the good of those He loves
and those who are called according to His purpose. Thou hast afflicted
me. He purges us to make us lean,
to make us cling, to make us rely upon Almighty God. We need
to be purged from the religion of Satan. You shall be his gods.
You can make your own way to God by your good dirt. You'll
be purged from your false notions of God. You've got to be purged
from your false notions. of how God saves sinners. People
think that it's a cooperative activity, that God does his little
bit and God begins the process of salvation and unless we actually
continue the process of salvation it's not going to work because
it's all up to us after God has done his initial work. In fact someone
wrote to me just the day before yesterday quoting these verses.
as evidence that true children of God can fall away because
of their behaviour. Now, where did he pick that up
from? Someone taught him that, didn't they? In fact, these verses
are declaring exactly the opposite to that. We're purged in that
purging. How often How often do we call
out to God in our prosperity? How often do we really pray when
everything in our garden is shining and the flowers are there and
the birds are twittering away? How seldom do we actually thank
God in prosperity? The purging is uncomfortable. How often, when things are good
for us in this physical world, do we not really think much or
care much about communion with the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you
miss him? Do you long and hunger for righteousness? Do you long and hunger for fellowship
with him? What's the evidence of being
in the true vine? Abiding in there, just abiding
with him. Who will abide? Those who had nowhere else to
go. John chapter 6, you know it in
verse 68. There's a great crowd of people,
maybe 10,000 or more, left to the Lord Jesus Christ. They'd
seen, they'd eaten miraculous food and heard miraculous words
from God Almighty. And then he told them who God
was. and how God really saves sinners. And then they turned from him
and said, we won't have that God to rule over us. We won't
have that man to rule over us. And he said to the apostles,
he said, you can go to doors there, you can go. And Peter
declares what all believers declare, isn't it? All abiding people. To whom shall we go? He doesn't say to what shall
we go, but to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal
life. There is a purging and there
is a great declaration in verse three. Just look at it with me.
Now you are clean. And how are they made clean? through the word which I have
spoken unto you. In John chapter 13, at the beginning
of this last supper meal, the Lord Jesus Christ washed the
disciples' feet. And he says, you're now clean,
but not all of you. And now that Judas has gone out,
he can now say, now you're all clean, you're clean. You are
pure in God's sight. God creates reality by speaking. All reality. He creates spiritual
reality as well as physical reality by speaking. Now you are clean. Is that how I feel? Never. Never. Never. The most clean I ever feel is
when I'm hearing the preaching of the Gospel. in God's speak. Is that how I
am? If it's not how I feel, is that
how I am? Absolutely, because God declared
it. This is God's word, isn't it? You are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you. And then he issues this glorious
statement, doesn't he? He says abide. 10 times in 10
verses he says this word abide. You abide in me. To abide is
simply to stay there. It just means to stay. It means to remain. It means to endure. It means to stand, to continue. It means to dwell. means to dwell there with him. You know the stories in the Old
Testament in the Ark? How were you saved? You abided
in the Ark in Egypt. Where did you abide? in the house
with the blood over the door. There's no way in the world I
would have put my nose outside of that door that night to see
what was going on out there. I would have stayed in there,
trembling probably, but I would have stayed in there. You stayed
in the city of refuge and you stay in the apostolic company. You stay with the apostles and
you stay with the doctrine of Christ. In 2 John they went out
from us because they were not of us in 1 John. But in 2 John
he says, Whosoever transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine,
in the teaching of Christ, in the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, doesn't have God at all. He that abideth in the doctrine
hath both the Father and the Son. Where do you want to be
found? Where do you want to abide? When God comes looking for me,
I want to be found exactly where the Apostle Paul wanted to be
found. O that I may be found in Him. not having any righteousness
of my own, because I don't have any, to be found in him, not
having mine own righteousness, Philippians 3.9, which is of
the law, which is of all the doing I do. I don't have any
righteousness from my... Has God put you there? Have you
been pruned of that righteousness so that you cling to him? But
that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith, by faith. Abide. Abide in me and I in you,
as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in
the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me. There is no fruit. There is no Christian fruit.
unless there is an abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you
know those verses at the end of Galatians and in Ephesians,
there is these lovely descriptions of the fruit of the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit,
do you listen to them? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, Gentleness, goodness, and faith. Meekness and temperance. Do you know what characterizes
every single one of those fruit of the Spirit? They are all internal. and they are seen by God and
they are His fruit, aren't they? A true branch and a false branch
can look as if they are both in the vine. And that's exactly
what this picture is, isn't it? The abiding ones are clean. The abiding ones have the Lord
Jesus Christ abiding in them. And what about the branches that
are cut off? You listen to these verses and
people have been terrified by these verses, isn't it? Every
branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. In verse 6, If a man not abide
in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather
them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. People want to use these verses
to say that true believers can fall away. That's to deny the
deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, deny all the promises that he's
made. Everyone that cometh to me, everyone
that the Father gives me shall come to me, and everyone that
comes to me I will in no wise cast off. These are branches
which the church has been aware of and these apostles had a witness
to it that very night. For three and a half years Judas
looked like the genuine article. He performed miracles, he preached
amazing messages, he witnessed great things, he was in the company
of all of those people and he fell away. And he was cast away,
the husband and the father cast him away. The apostles didn't
cast him away, it wasn't their job. He went out from us because
he was not of us. In the Church of God there are
those who for all the world and in the sight of the apostles
appear to be the genuine article again and again and again throughout
the scriptures. You know the names of them, don't
you, Deotrephes and Alexander? You know the name of them, Demas.
Demas. Demas was Paul's fellow labourer,
and then in 2 Timothy chapter 4, Demas has forsaken me, having
loved. It says that that's all he ever
had loved, and for all of those years, to Paul and to others
around, he looked like the genuine article. I was talking to Norm
about Ananias and Sapphira. It's fascinating, isn't it? Extraordinary
that at the very beginning of this church age you should have
these people witnessed to all of God's church. Ananias and
Sapphira, they were people being generous like Barnabas, selling
land and giving it to the church, and Ananias sold some land, and
then they pretended that they had given away all of the land,
but they kept back some money for themselves. They weren't
all in with the Lord Jesus Christ, but also they were lying to God,
weren't they? And Ananias is killed by God
the Holy Spirit. No warning whatsoever. I can't
help but think of how his wife spent that day. She might have
been having morning tea or lunch with the ladies in the church
there in Jerusalem, and they would have been saying, aren't
you so generous? And she would have been very
pious and say, well, it's nothing really. We have all this, and
God has given us so much, and aren't we just wonderful? And
thank you so much for being so kind and telling me how wonderful
I am. and all the time hell was just there. And she died in an
instant. Listen to how God describes the
growth of the early church. They were edified, Acts 9.31,
they were edified walking in the fear of God. Part of abiding is being fearful
of not abiding. I don't want to be found anywhere
else. I don't want to stand before God with a single thing that
I've ever done, a single thought that I've ever thought, a single
sermon I've ever preached, a single prayer that I've ever prayed.
I just want to stand before God hidden in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I just want to be found in Him. walking in the fear of the Lord
and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. They were multiplied.
The fruit grew through the fear of the Lord and the comfort of
the Holy Ghost. God will grow his people. The evidence is abiding. The result of abiding is fruit. I just want to close with some
thoughts that I've picked up from my friend, Gabe, the other
day. Part of the word abiding means my dwelling place. I have a house, you all have
a house. In my home, I have my family. In my home, I have my clothes. In my home, I have my food. In my home, I have any small
valuables that I might have. carpet. I can go to every room. I can go all through that place
and say, I have perfect freedom here. I have access to all. In
my home is my bed where I can take my rest. and find my comfort. In my home I can be as I am. I don't have to put on any show
like most of us do most of the time. In my home I can just be
as I am. I have this lovely freedom in
there. In my home I don't have any threats. In my home my friends are welcome
and my family is welcome. Abiding in Christ When I'm dwelling in Christ,
Christ is my home. And Christ and his people are
my family, my real family, my real family. In Christ, my clothing
is there, isn't it? I'm robed in his righteousness
alone. In Christ, all my food is there.
I feed on him. I feed on him and his worth. I feed on the glory of who he
is. In Christ, all of what I treasure is there, isn't it? In Christ,
I have this glorious liberty, the fruit of being able to love
him, the fruit of being able to believe him, the fruit of
being able to just lean as a vine upon him. I have all of my rest. I can
rest upon Him. In Christ, I am at peace. And in Christ, I welcome my friends
and family to join with me in Him. He's everything. Without me, you can do nothing.
If you have Christ, you have everything. If you have Christ,
you have everything. The gospel says come, the gospel
says come and lean and rest on the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. None who come can be lost. None who the Father gives can
be lost. All that the Father gives abide
and remain. May that be our portion.