Brethren, I promise you we're
going to get to Romans 15. I've been wanting to preach from
this for several weeks, but Brother Scott just read something that
really opened something to me. Turn to Ezekiel 15. I want to preach this instead
this morning. Ezekiel 15. It says, The word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Son of man, what is the vine tree more
than any tree? And he's talking about, when
he says the vine tree, he's talking about a grape vine. He's talking
about a grape vine. You've seen a grape vine. Not
very big. It's a small little vine. What
is the vine tree more than any tree? Or than a branch which
is among the trees of the forest? Now this is one of the questions.
We've been looking at questions God asks of a sinner. Here's
a question that God asks Ezekiel. And he asks a series of questions
here. First he says, what is the vine tree more than any tree?
or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest." It's
not more. It's the least of all the trees. You wouldn't even call this grapevine,
you wouldn't even call it a tree. But it's a tree, but it's so
small in comparison that you wouldn't even consider it a tree.
He says, "...shall wood be taken thereof to do any work?" Or will
men take a pin of it to hang any vessel their own? You can't
do any work with this vine tree. You can't make a nail with it
to hang things on. Behold, it's cast into the fire
for fuel. The fire devoureth both the ends
of it, and the midst of its burn. Is it meat for any work? Behold,
when it was whole, it was meat for no work. How much less shall
it be meat yet for any work when the fire hath devoured it and
it's burned? You see, it's useless. This vine tree is useless unless
it bears fruit. That's the only way it's useful
is if it bears grapes. It's not useful any other way.
Now, last time we looked at Ezekiel 14 and the Lord said, In verse
12, the word of the Lord came again to me, saying, Son of man,
when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously,
then will I stretch out my hand upon it, and will break the staff
of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will
cut off man and beast from it. Now that's the judgment of God. He goes on there and he speaks
in verse 15 about noisome beasts. If a man sin against me and trespass
grievously, God says he'll send noisome beasts to pass through
the land. He says in verse 17, I'll bring
a sword upon that land. War. He says in verse 19, I'll
send pestilence into that land. That's virus, that's disease,
what we're experiencing in our day. He says in verse 21, for
thus saith the Lord God, how much more when I send my four
sore judgments upon Jerusalem? He says, if you can't escape
one of these, what if I send all four? And what does he call
them? My four sore judgments. What we're experiencing in our
day, God has sent judgment into our land. Why? Why has he sent
judgment into the world? Verse 13, he says, Son of man,
when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously. Well, don't we sin all the time? Yes, we sin all the time, but
he's speaking here of trespassing grievously against God. What
is that? That's what I want to show you,
what that is. But I want you to see here that this is judgment
against man for sinning against God. Now, some may say, well,
this is not judgment against man for sin. Let me give you
a word of caution. I think that sometimes people
will say things like that because the vain religious world Men
like to preach against anything vain religion says. And you don't
want to preach against what vain religion says. You want to preach
what God's Word says. And here's why. If you preach
against what vain religion says, most of the time, you'll be preaching
God's Word. Because most of the time, vain
religion preaches contrary to God's Word. But occasionally,
even vain religion says something that's true according to God's
Word. And so if you just preach against what vain religion says,
and they say something that's true according to God's Word,
and you preach against it, then you're going to preach contrary
to God's Word. But preach God's Word, you don't
have to worry about what vain religion says. You've heard Brother
Don say this, I don't care if the Buddhists say it, if it's
true according to God's Word, it's true. So we preach God's
word, we don't care what men say. And God says clearly right
here, this is judgment against men for sinning grievously against
God. Now I want to show you what this
grievous sin was for which God sent this judgment to Jerusalem
and we'll see what it is for which God has sent this judgment
in our day. He says there, Son of man, what's
the vine tree more than any tree or a branch which is among the
trees of the forest? You see, Israel was nothing. That nation was nothing. They
were taken captives in Egypt and they were nothing. And God
chose to save a people who were nothing to show that salvation
is entirely of God. It's not of man. So they were
nothing. They were absolutely nothing.
You and I who God has chose to save, we're nothing. We're nothing
in comparison with other men in this world. They're far greater
than we are. We're nothing compared to others
in this world. And God chose nobodies, nothings
to save to bring to naught things that are. Isn't that what He
said in 1 Corinthians 1? He's chosen the vain things.
He's chosen things which are nothing. Ignorant things. Things with no strength. He's
talking about me and you, brethren. And He's chosen these things
so that no flesh should glory in His presence. We can only
glory in God because salvation is entirely of God. He says, shall wood be taken
there to do any work? You and I can't do any work to
save ourselves. Like a grapevine that's worthless
for any kind of... It's a wood you just don't use
for any kind of work. That's you and me by nature.
We can't do any work to please God. We can't do any work for
God. We're absolutely worthless to
be used of God in and of ourselves. We have no strength. We have
no spiritual life. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We fell in Adam. There's nothing
useful about us. He says, will men take a pin
of it to hang any vessels thereon? Remember in Isaiah how God said
He was going to take His chosen servant and make him a nail in
a sure place? Who's that nail in a sure place?
That's what He means by pin, a nail in a sure place, a peg
that you make and put in a wall and hang stuff on. He said, a
grapevine can't even be used for that. You and I can't even
be, we're not a nail in a sure place. You can't hang anything
on us and trust it's going to be steady and sure and stable. Christ is that nail in a sure
place. He's that nail in a sure place.
And then he says, what if it's cast into the fire and burned
for fuel? The fire devours both ends of
it and the midst of its burn. Then is it meat for any work?
He said, when it was whole it was meat for no work. How much
less shall it be meat for any work when the fire hath devoured
it and it's burned? He's saying to Israel, after
the flesh, to natural carnal Israel, he said, you were not
worth anything before I chose you. And he says, after I've
burned you in the fire of chastening, in the fire of correction, you
still aren't going to be worth any use for me. Why? Because
God had not given the Spirit to those who were carnal. He
had not given the Holy Spirit of God to everybody in Israel.
And without the Spirit of God, God, He said in Isaiah, He said,
Why should you be stricken anymore? Why should you be chastened anymore?
Why should I stretch out my chastening hand upon you anymore? You're
sick from the top of your head to the sole of your foot. And
he said, you weren't any good for anything, any work before,
you won't be good for any work after. That's what we are by
nature, brethren. We're totally useless for God,
to God. We're useless. We're sinners. We're sinners. But, here was
the offense. Here's the grievous trespass.
Now, you're familiar with chapter 16. Let's begin reading there,
Ezekiel 16. Again, the word of the Lord came
to me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. Now here, he's going to cause
us to know what the sin of Jerusalem was. And here, this is what the
sin is of men in our day. for which God has poured out
this pestilence, right here. He says, Thus saith the Lord
God in Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of
Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, thy
mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the
day that thou was born, thy navel was not cut, neither was thou
washed in water to supple thee. Thou was not salted at all, nor
swallowed at all, nor did I pity thee to do any of these unto
thee, to have compassion upon thee. But thou was cast out into
the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that
thou was born. God says, now this is where you
were. He's talking to Jerusalem, talking
to the children of Israel. He said, this is where you were.
You were like a child cast out into an open field. That's what
he means when he says, is the grapevine better than any other
tree? Was there some value in you that
made me choose you? He's saying here, no, you were
cast out. You were cast out. Now understand
when I say God chose Israel, we're not talking here about
God saving, electing grace. We're talking about God choosing
them to use them as a picture. He chose that one nation to use
them as a picture. That doesn't mean that he elected
unto salvation everybody in that nation. So I don't want you to
understand, I don't want you to think that God can choose
some and then they fall away. That will never happen. That
will never happen. What he's talking about here
is choosing them to use them as an illustration here. He said,
your nation was nothing. You were in bondage in Egypt,
and that's a picture of us. That's where we were. We were
nothing. We were in bondage under sin when God chose us, truly
chose us, elected us into salvation. When He found us, we were in
bondage in sin. Alright, now watch. Verse 6,
When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood,
I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood lived, Yea, I said
unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood lived, I have caused
thee to multiply as the bud of the field. And thou hast increased
and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments.
Thy breasts are fashioned, thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast
naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love, and
I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy neck in this, yea,
I swear unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee, saith
the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. As far as natural Israel is concerned,
when God did this, it was all a covenant of works. God chose
them as a nation, and He entered into a covenant of works with
them. He said, if you do this, then I'll do such and such. When
God chose up His people, His true elect, the Israel of God,
He entered into a covenant with us. But it wasn't a, if you do
this, then I will do that. It's a covenant of grace. I will,
God said, and you shall. But he's showing us here a picture
of that used in Israel. And he said, Verse 9, he said, Then I washed
thee with water, yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee,
I anointed thee with oil, I clothed thee also with broided work,
shod thee with badger skins, I girded thee about with fine
linen, I covered thee with silt, I decked thee also with ornaments,
I put bracelets upon thy hands, a chain on thy neck, I put a
jewel on thy forehead, earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful
crown upon thy head. Thus was thou decked with gold
and silver, and thy raiment was fine linen and silk embroidered
work. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil. Thou was exceeding beautiful,
and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness,
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. Now just consider
Israel as a nation. God took them out of Egypt. God
did it all. He took them out of Egypt. And
God adorned them as a nation. He gave them the oracles of God.
And all this description here of being decked is a picture
of all that God did for Israel to make them this great, mighty
nation. God did all of that. And that's
a picture of what God does for His people. When He calls us
out of bondage, out of Egypt, and He covers us in the robe
of Christ's righteousness, He reveals to us that Christ has
put away all our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And everything that
we have was given freely to us from Christ our Lord. All our
beauty is of Christ. All our adornment is of Christ.
Our righteousness is of Christ. Our holiness is of Christ. Our
redemption is of Christ. Our wisdom is of Christ. Everything
that adorns God's child and adorns God's church, His people collectively,
everything is Christ the Lord. It's of Him. It's through Him.
It's by Him. And it is Him. It's the Lord
our righteousness that adorns us. Now, you take Israel here,
he's not talking about Israel that he saved effectually. He's
talking about this people as a nation that he adorned and
beautified as a nation. That's a picture of what God
does effectually for his people when he saves them. Now here's
the grievous trespass. Here's what the children of Israel
did. We usually stop right there.
We usually stop there. We preach a message on how Christ
found us polluted in our blood and how God quickened us, said
live and we became alive. He regenerated us. He brought
us to faith in Christ and He clothed us with the garments
of righteousness. That's what we normally preach from that
and that's a beautiful picture of that. But we stop there usually. Now we're going to go forward
here and see this was the grievous trespass that Israel committed.
Verse 15, But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, And you
played the harlot because of thy renown, and poured out thy
fornications on every one that passed by, his it was. And of thy garments thou didst
take, and deckest thy high places with different colors, and played
the harlot thereupon. The like things shall not come,
neither shall it be so. You took thy fair jewels of my
gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and made us
to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them.
And tookest thy broided garments, and coveredest them. You took
your garments that I gave to you, and covered these idols
you had made. and set mine oil and mine increase
before them, my meat also which I gave thee, fine flour and oil
and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before
them for a sweet savor, and thus it was, saith the Lord God. It
goes on to describe, you can read the rest of this chapter,
there are some ugly, ugly things portrayed in this chapter. I
wrote some things one time, an article, And I sent it to a brother
and he told me, he said, these things can't be published. He
said, it's just too bad. He said, these things will turn
people's stomach, the things you wrote. And I wrote it that
way on purpose because of this very chapter. Why did God tell,
you go on and read the rest of that chapter at your leisure.
It's an awful description. He describes Israel as a harlot. And not a harlot that takes payment
from her customers. A harlot that pays her customers.
That's how bad he describes what Israel was. It's some foul things
he puts in here. And God used that kind of language
to wake up these sinners who had their eyes closed and were
asleep to show them this is the sin you've committed against
me. Now brethren, this grievous sin, this grievous trespass against
God is, God has given this world, He's given us, He's given us
His witness, He's given us the oracles of God, He sent Christ
into this world. He's sent His gospel into this
world. He's taken His church, His true
church, His elect. He's adorned His people in Christ's
righteousness and He's done all these wonderful things for us.
But religion, vain men have taken the things God's given. And rather
than worship God who gave them, We're not talking about God's
true elect. They'll never fall away. But we're talking about
vain religion. They've taken the things of God. And rather than worship God through
those things, they worship the things. They make an idol out
of religion itself. Here, God's given the word. Here's
an example. God's given His word. He gave
this word to teach us who Christ is. Teach us He's the Son of
God, come down from heaven, made flesh like unto His brethren.
He's the God-man, mediator. He's given us this word to teach
us that Christ worked out a righteousness for His people in the earth and
put away our sin and He is our only righteousness. He's given
us this word to teach us that we're sanctified through the
power of the Holy Spirit brought to see Christ as all our holiness. He's our sanctifier and our sanctification. Redemption, everything, this
book teaches us of Christ. And yet men will take this book.
and say, now you need to read so many passages in a day, you
need to read it ever so often, you need to read, if you don't
do that, you're not going to be saved. They turned the book
that was given, the word that was given to teach us Christ
and bring us to worship Christ, and they make the reading of
this book to be salvation. The act of reading this book
itself to be salvation. And they do that with every other
thing God gave us to teach us Christ. We have church. Church is God's people assembled
together by God, the spirit dwelling in each member, and God sends
forth His ministry. He stands up, He preaches the
gospel, and God, through the preaching of the gospel, blesses
it to the hearts of His people, and we worship God that way.
It's all of God. Men say, now, if you don't come
and gather here together, then you're sinning, you're not worshiping
God. They'll tell you, you gotta assemble
so many times and not miss any, you gotta pay your tithes, you
gotta, all these different things you gotta do. They take the gathering
of God's people and make it salvation rather than the purpose of it,
which is to gather to worship Christ. You get what I'm saying?
You see what I'm saying? They take the things, the garments,
and the jewels, and all of these things God's given us that show
us Christ, and they worship those things rather than Christ. They
worship the means rather than the end. Am I making that clear? I hope that's clear to you. And
that's the grievous trespass. And what you see in this world,
the world over, is men have turned religion into not a thing whereby
you use all the means to see Christ, they've taken the means
and worshipped the means. Go to Romans 1. Here it is right
here. And this is what Paul's talking about right here in Romans
1. Romans chapter 1. Verse 18, this is what we're
seeing right now. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. That's what we're seeing with
this coronavirus right now. the wrath of God revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth and unrighteousness. To hold the truth and unrighteousness
is to do what Israel did, is to take the means and worship
the means rather than the God of the means. You get that? That's
what it is to hold the truth. They had everything that was
to point to the truth, but they worshipped those things rather
than Christ the truth. And look, drop down Verse 21, here it is. When they
knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful,
but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. God said,
you were a vine that was absolutely worthless. You were a vine that
was not good for anything, and you've taken the things I've
given you and professed yourselves to be wise. And in doing so,
you've become fools. He says, you've changed the glory
of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible
man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. That's
what we read in Ezekiel 16. He said, you took my gold and
my silver and you made idols for yourself, likened them, looked
like men and looked like birds and four-footed beasts. And you
took everything I gave you to worship me and you've used them
to worship these idols. Wherefore God also gave them
up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor
their own bodies between themselves. Because here's what they did.
They changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and
served the creature more than the creator who's blessed forever.
Amen. That's what has happened in this
world. We've gone all these years and
past 100, 200 years in this country All the preachers have been preaching
man rather than preaching God. We've been teaching men to worship
and serve the creature more than the Creator. And there's such
a thing in Scripture as filling up. You fill up the cup. You
fill it up to the point that God says, enough. And He'll send
forth His judgment in the world. Now understand, When I talk about
this virus being the judgment of God or a judgment of God,
it's not the judgment. The judgment took place at Calvary. The judgment is when God poured
out his wrath on our substitute in place of his people and put
away our sin and brought in everlasting righteousness. The judgment will
be in that final day when God will declare all his people are
righteous in Christ and he will declare to the workers of iniquity,
depart from me, I never knew you. But God sits like a father
in his house. And when his children are disobedient
and a faithful father corrects his children, God will correct
his children. And when this world is worshiping,
serving the creature more than the creator, he's going to correct
his true children. He's going to send forth his
judgment, be it famine, be it a sword, be it to noisome beasts,
or be it pestilence. He's going to send forth his
judgment, and it's woe to the wicked. Have you noticed in all
of this that men of this world don't see anything as coming
from God. They don't see this as being
the hand of God at all. We broke it, we'll fix it. That's
man's philosophy. We broke it, we'll fix it. They
get nothing from this. Who's going to get something
from this? God's people. He's correcting his children. He's correcting his children. Paul said, if we would judge
ourselves, If we would examine ourselves and correct ourselves
for our sin, then we would not be judged. But, he says, when
we are judged, we're chastened of our Father. We're chastened
of our Heavenly Father so that we will not be condemned with
this world. That's what God's doing in that
He's using this this virus to correct you and me who believe
on him and teach us not to worship man, not to take the things of
God and worship them, but to worship God. Let me show you
that. Go back to Ezekiel. Go back to Ezekiel 15. I want you to notice something
here. This will really open this up for you. Watch this. Verse
6. Ezekiel 15, 6, Therefore thus saith the Lord God, As the vine
tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire
for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And
I will set my face against them, and they shall go out from one
fire, and another fire shall devour them. Now notice what
he said there, I will set my face against them. And that's
what God did. He set his face against Jerusalem
and Israel. We really see it when our Lord
came and our Lord said, how often I would have gathered you as
a hen gathers her chicks in her wings and you would not. You
refused. You rejected me. So your house is left to you
desolate. It's left to you desolate. But what we see in this world
today is God's poured out this judgment on men who worship and
serve the creature more than the creator and he set his face
against them. And he said there in chapter
14, it's to cut off man. It's to cut them off. And he
said that's what I'm going to do to them. But now watch this,
verse 7. shall know that I am the Lord,
when I set my face against them. And I will make the land desolate,
because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord God." Do you see
there? You're going to know I'm the Lord. Who's he talking to?
He's talking to his messenger, Ezekiel. and he's talking to
his true elect amongst Jerusalem, who God chose before the foundation
of the world. He says, I'm going to pour out
this judgment, and those that are worshipping and serve the
creature, they're going to get nothing from this. They're going
to be cut off, and they're going to get nothing from it. Just
like today, you listen, you turn the news on, you hear the world,
they're getting nothing from this. But he says, you, you,
my people, you, my people, you shall know that I am the Lord.
That's who God's benefiting through this. When God sends judgment
into the world and correction into the world, it's not for
the reprobate. It's not for the wicked. It's
for his people. It's for our good, brethren.
That's why at the end, go back to the end of verse 14, He said,
verse 22, Yet there shall be left a remnant that shall be
brought forth, both sons and daughters, both they shall come
forth unto you. He said, I'm going to bring mine
elect under the sound of the gospel. They're coming to you,
son of man. They're coming to you, son of man, and you shall
see their way, and you're going to see their doings. When they
come, when God brings His elect under the gospel and He saves
us, what do we see? What's their way? They profess Christ is their
way. and they profess their doings
are the doings Christ did. His doings are my doings. I'm
not trusting my doings, I'm trusting His doings. And you shall be
comforted concerning the evil that I've brought upon Jerusalem.
When that happens, God says, and I bring my, use this to save
mine elect, that's going to bring you comfort and that's going
to make you understand why I sent this judgment. He says, even
concerning all that I've brought upon it. And they shall comfort
you when you shall see their ways and their doings." Before,
he said, they're going to come talking about their way, Christ
the one way. Here he says, and they're going
to talk about their ways. We talk about our ways. When
God saves us, when a child of God is converted, he says, all
my ways are sin. All my ways are iniquity. All
my ways are wicked. And all my doings are vile. And what does that do? It makes
his people know, you shall know that I've not done without a
cause all that I've done in it, saith the Lord God. That when
he brings, if God, when he uses, now you and I may not see this,
we may not see it happen, but when God uses this judgment,
And he causes one of his lost sheep to come under the sound
of the gospel. And God makes them to begin to
confess Christ their way, Christ their doings, and begins to make
them take sides with God against themselves and say their ways
and their doings are all sin. That's comforting to us and we
realize now, ah, I see why God sent this judgment. Does God
really do that? A few, I preached from Ezekiel
14 and I was talking to Brother Gabe about it. And he said, he
said, that's interesting that you preached that. He said, he
said this past Sunday, they met, just him and somebody to work
the camera. And he said, and everybody else
in Kingsport was, all the other churches had their doors locked.
And he said, just before we started, he said, a man walks in And he
introduced himself and he said, I was just driving around trying
to find a place I could go worship this morning. And he said, y'all
the only place that's got the doors open. And so Gabe said,
well sit down, have a seat. And he sat down and he listened
to him preach the gospel. When he got finished, the guy
came up to him and he said, I have never in my life heard that message. He said, that's better news than
anything I've ever heard. And he came back that evening.
He came back that evening to hear the gospel preach. Now I
don't know what happened to him. I don't know where it went. Now
they're not meeting together so hopefully he's still watching
from home. But see what I'm saying? That's what God said. When I
work this, I'm going to bring my people under the gospel. And
you're going to know. You're going to know. Look at
Ezekiel 15 verse 7. He says, And you shall know that
I am the Lord when I set my face against them. See, He's not set
His face against you and me, brethren. God, when He sends
judgment in the world, it's never against His people. He sent judgment
on Christ at Calvary and poured out punishment on His Son in
place of His people so that that's finished, that's done. Now, what
God's doing in this world, it may feel like punishment, Because
God's correcting hand can be hurtful. It can be sorrowful
to you and me. But it's not that judgment of wrath on His people.
It's loving correction for His child. It's not against you.
It's for you. You see that? But now it's against
them. It's against the reprobate. It's
against the wicked. It's against them. But it's not
against His people. Now I want you to notice something
here. The Son of Man. The Son of Man. Why does He call
Ezekiel the Son of Man? That's who the Lord Jesus is.
He's the Son of Man. And He's the Son of God. He's
the God-Man. And God says here, you're going
to know, O Son of Man, and my people over whom you ministered. They're going to know. Now go
with me. I'm going to show you this. Go
with me to John 15. Here's what the Lord is teaching
Ezekiel. John 15, verse 1. Christ said, I am the true vine. See, He called out Israel and
He told them, you're a vine. You're a grape vine. How were
they a vine if Christ is a vine? They were a vine in Adam. Adam
was a vine. But see, Adam fell in sin, and
so them being in Adam, they were a fruitless vine, a worthless
vine, totally worthless without the Spirit of God. But all God's
people are in Christ the vine, and He's the vine who's of great
value. Look, I'm the true vine, my Father's
the husbandman. Do you think that if God the
Father is the husbandman of this vineyard, do you think it's going
to be fruitless? Not hardly. Not hardly. If Christ
is the true vine, you think he's going to be fruitless? No. Now,
Adam and the vine that was the natural children of Israel, they're
fruitless. Because all natural men are fruitless. That's what
vain religion is today. It's vain religion is the vine
that's in Adam, and it's fruitless. But God's true church is in Christ
the vine, and it's full of fruit. Now watch. Christ said, Every
branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and every
branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit. Now that's not to frighten you
and me, brethren. That's a promise. There's not
going to be a single branch in Christ that's not going to bear
fruit. Not a one. Not one that's really in Christ.
Now there may be some that appear to be in Christ, that profess
to be in Christ, that never were called by God's grace, and never
were quickened by His Spirit, and they're not gonna bear fruit.
And they will be taken away. But all those God has engrafted
into Christ, they are in the vine. And they'll bear fruit.
And look here, that fruit's, what does the branch do to bear
fruit? Nothing. Nothing. But one thing, It abides
in the vine. It abides in the vine. And it's
from the vine that the sap comes and produces the fruit. So, by
God's grace, we're in Christ and it's from Christ that the
sap comes. It's from Christ that the life
comes and we bear fruit. And the God here, the husband,
he purges that vine, that branch to make it bear more fruit. That's
what this judgment is. That's what this coronavirus
is. It's God purging the branch from all the suckers and everything
that would take away the nutrients, everything that would distract
you from Christ and take you from Christ. Don't you see how
God has used this to make us focus on Christ more? God's used
this virus to center our focus on Christ and to make this thing
serious to us. What's he doing? God's purging
the branch. You ever see a tomato plant,
and you'll have the real branch, and then in between the real
branch and the vine, you'll have this little branch that comes
out, and it looks like a branch, but it's not a branch. It won't
ever bear fruit. It's a sucker. That's what we
used to call it, a sucker, and you just snap it. You don't even
have, you try to break a real branch, and it's hard to get
that real branch off the vine. You snap that sucker, that sucker
will snap right off. It comes right off, because he's
not really connected to the vine. God's removing the suckers is
what He's doing so that the branch can get all the nutrients. Look.
Now you're clean through the word which I've spoken unto you.
That means you're never going to be unclean. You're clean.
Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
except it abide in the vine, no more can you except you abide
in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you
can do nothing. If a man abideth not in me, he
is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them,
and cast them into the fire, and there burn." God said that's
what He was doing with Jerusalem. You're worthless, I'm just going
to cast you into the fire and burn you. That will never happen
to one of God's elect. That will never happen to one
of Christ's redeemed. Why? Because you're clean. You've
been justified. God won't pour out justice a
second time. You've been sanctified. You're holy. You can never be
separated from the vine. So you're going to abide him.
If you abide in me, verse 7, and my words abide in you, you
shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein
is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit. So shall you
be my disciples. Listen, brethren. Here's what
God has sent this judgment for. It's to correct you and me. It's to make us know that the
only way we bear fruit is to stay on Christ, is to stay in
Christ, is to worship Christ alone. That's the fruit. The
fruit God bears is He makes His child give all the honor, all
the glory, all the praise to Christ alone. We worship the
Creator. more than the creature. We give
all the glory to Christ for doing this salvation. And it's in Him
that God makes us bear that fruit. And we go forth into this world
telling other sinners this message, this gospel. And He brings others
and makes others to see they're in the vine and brings fruit,
makes fruit, produces fruit in them. This is what God does. And that's why we're out now
what this virus is. It's just like if you walked
out into your garden and you took a tomato plant and you started
snapping off the suckers and making sure that those real branches
are getting all the vital nutrients. That's what God's doing with
this virus. He's snapping off those that aren't the branch
and He's making sure His people are in the vine and produce fruit. And He won't fail. He won't fail.
You see what? That's why He sent this. This
is judgment. It's not a bad thing to say something
is judgment. Why did Paul say that we're judged?
So that we shall not be condemned with this world. He's going to
turn you from looking at this world and from starting to get
carried away into this world and He's going to turn you back
to Christ and make you stay on Christ and not lose one. That's what He's doing. God bless
His Word. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we thank you for this word. Thank you and bless it
to our hearts. Make us truly see what you're
doing in this world today. Make us see it's for our good,
it's for Christ's glory, it's right. Lord, make us abide under
your wings. Know that nothing will come to
your people. You're going to protect us. You're going to provide
for us. This is for us. It's not against us. Lord, settle
us with that and make us rejoice. If we have everything in Christ,
you've promised us, Lord, when it comes to the economy, when
it comes to employment, when it comes to these things, you're
going to provide the lesser things. If you spared not your only son
for us, but delivered him up to justify us and make us righteous,
then you will with him surely give us all things. Lord, make
us see that and know that, that you're our Father in heaven,
you know what we have need of, you're gonna provide it. You've
already provided full righteousness and full salvation in Christ,
you should provide the lesser thing. Make us to remember that
when we become troubled and sorrowful when this world begins to turn
us to the creature. Lord, turn us back to Christ.
Keep us remembering these things. Keep us bearing fruit for your
holy name's sake, for your honor and your glory. It's in his name
we pray. Amen.