May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 15, and we'll read verses
4 and 5. The Gospel of John, chapter 15,
and reading verses 4 and 5. 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. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye
can do nothing. I'm sure you young people know
that the Bible is full of very easy and simple illustrations
so that we can have an understanding of what the Bible is speaking
to us about. And we have here this morning
a very lovely and simple illustration the Lord uses of a vine. Now I guess all of you have probably
seen vines and seen grapes growing. this time of year as you go around
you'll see many many vines and you'll see the grapes growing
and it's a lovely sight really And you'd see bunches of grapes
growing on vines, and no doubt they'll begin to be harvested
fairly soon. And of course they are used a
great deal. There's many grapes grown throughout
the world. Well, there were many vines in
the land that Jesus lived in. And therefore he was able to
give this illustration to the people. And it's a good illustration
for us today. To think upon a vine. And the Lord tells us here, he
says, I am the true vine. Of course he's not physically
a vine, but he gives us the picture of himself being a vine. And he tells us, my father is
the husbandman. Well, the husbandman is like
a farmer. He goes around looking after
the vines. And of course, the vines need
to be pruned. If vines are left and they're
never pruned, they just grow rather wild and they either don't
have grapes or they do have grapes. They're very small and often
they're rather shriveled. So the important thing is that
the vines are indeed pruned. And therefore, we're told here,
every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. Why? Well, of course, it's no
benefit, is it? If there's no fruit, there's
no point in it being left there. Generally speaking, the wood
of a vine is not very strong wood or good wood. Remember the
importance therefore of the pictures that the Bible gives us. They're
not just there for just a casual reading and to have some natural
understanding. They are always to direct us
to the condition of our spiritual state and you may say well what
does that mean? well let me just clearly tell
us all we know I'm sure all of us have a natural body we all
see that we can see each other as a day can't we? we know what
we're like but we also have a spiritual body or a spiritual soul which
none of us can see, but God sees. And God knows all about our soul. And the most important thing
is that our soul is alive, and that our soul is healthy, and
that our soul bears fruit. A vine naturally bears grapes. And the soul, if it is spiritually
alive, bears spiritual fruit. We'll come on to that in a moment.
But just very simply, therefore, we have these two natures, our
natural body and our spiritual body. Every one of us. Many people
today don't like to think they have a spiritual body. They don't
like to think they have a soul which never dies. They like to
assume that when they die, that's the end. Everything's finished. And that's why many people, forgetting
the health issue, many people like to be cremated. Because they think by being cremated,
All that's left is a little part of ash. And therefore there cannot
be any life. And therefore they assume they've
done away with any possibility of there being life. The reality
is they ignore the Word of God. They don't want to know. about
the Word of God because they don't want to know they have
an ever-dying soul because they realise that if they do they
have to acknowledge there is a God and they don't want to
acknowledge there is a God they want to make an assumption there
is no God and they have power to dispense with any possibility
that there might be a soul. Well, they are ignorantly averse
to the truth of God. They don't want to hear about
the truth of God. But solemnly, the word of God
is true. And everyone will find that the
word of God is true. I've sometimes told you And it's
a very simple and a very true statement. You know what an atheist
is. An atheist is someone who pretends
not to believe in God. They don't want to believe in
God. And they call themselves an atheist. Well, let's be quite clear. There
are no atheists in hell. Because everybody who is not
in heaven will find themselves in hell and will therefore know
that there is a God and what God has said is true. And although
they've been on this earth very brazen and people are proud of
saying they're atheists, a day will come when they will prove
that atheistic religion has no foundation but there is a God
in heaven so we must realize that you and I do therefore possess
a never-dying soul and that's really what Jesus is speaking
about to the disciples remember he was speaking to them just
a short time before he was going to be crucified and in the Gospel
of John we find that the Lord institutes the Lord's Supper
after having partaken of the Passover on that special night
in the Jewish calendar and it was the last time that the Passover
was necessary because It was taken over by the Lord Supper
and having instituted that, having shown the disciples what it meant,
and Judas Iscariot having left the company and gone out to betray
the Lord Jesus Christ, then he speaks to them, and we can read
about it in John 14, 15 and 16, and then of course the wonderful
prayer that Jesus praised his father in the 17th chapter of
John. Well, this 15th chapter, of course,
forms part of what we might say was that wonderful sermon that
Jesus preached to his disciples. And it's wonderful that it's
been recorded in the 15th chapter of John. It's not recorded in
the other Gospels, but it is in the 15th chapter. And therefore
we have these wonderful details. And especially now we have this
illustration of the true vine, which Jesus is, figuratively,
and the Father is the husbandman, figuratively. And so he now comes
and tells us, 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. Well, that's very obvious, isn't
it? It's very simple, isn't it? We can look at a vine, can't
we? And we can look at the branches, and if one of those branches
was cut off, was lying on the ground, what would happen to
it? Would it sprout out and would
it live? Well, there would be no possibility.
Because it's cut off, and the supply of sap that it needs to
live has been cut off. And therefore what's going to
happen? He's just going to die. There's going to be no life. And therefore Jesus tells us
here, the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide
in the vine, and no more can ye. except ye abide in the vine. That means really that we are
to be found part of the Church of God, part of this vine. And therefore, as the Lord goes
on to say, I am the vine, ye are the branches, he that abideth
in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit, For without
me ye can do nothing. It means that the branches in
a vine, what do they feed upon? How are they kept alive? They're kept alive by the sap
that rises up from the root of the vine. If there was no root,
there'd be no sap. If there was no vine, no stem,
there would be no sap. And so you see, the picture is
very clear for us in our spiritual life. To realise that if we do
not receive blessing from God, there is no sap. There is no true spiritual life. and therefore how important it
is that you and I do bear life from the sap the Apostle Paul
tells us something about this when he wrote to the Galatians
and in the second chapter of the Galatians in chapter verse
20 he tells us this I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. What does that really tell us?
It tells us this. It tells us that the Apostle
was united. He was joined to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's so wonderful, isn't
it? And it's so important for all
of us today to know that we are joined that we are united to
the Lord Jesus Christ. How important, how people just
rejected. And the Lord tells us, the last
clause in this fifth verse is, for without me, ye can do nothing. That means if we are not in Christ, We are not spiritually alive.
There is no life in our soul. Our soul is spiritually dead. And let us just remember that
we go right back, and I often refer to it, and it's always
important to go back to the beginning in Genesis, to know that Adam
and Eve, they had a never-dying soul, and when they sinned against
God, You see, the Lord brought spiritual death into their soul
so that they could not therefore create spiritual life naturally
to their soul. But that doesn't mean to say
when they die there wouldn't be any life, because there would
be. But there was no evidence of that life within. They were
spiritually dead. And so the Lord tells us here,
For without Me ye can do nothing. We should not think therefore
that you and I can therefore somehow make ourselves alive. We cannot somehow get ourselves
and put us into that vine. We can't do that physically.
We have no ability. We need the Lord to give us that
spiritual life. It really means that you and
I have to be grafted in to that true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know if any of you have
ever seen grafting but grafting is carried out in vines, it's
carried out in fruit trees it's carried out sometimes in other
trees and what they do, they take a cutting from a healthy
tree, a healthy plant that they want to grow and they trim it
and it's a fresh cutting and they trim it down and they cut
a slot in the existing tree or vine, and they put this nilla
cutting, they push it in to that cutting, and then they bind it
round. And because it's very close and
united to the existing tree or vine, what happens is then that
it gradually links in and gradually grows. therefore although the
original tree they're not part of they're grafted in and they
partake of the sap from that tree and that gives them growth
and that gives them life and therefore they grow in that way
what it's a wonderful thing to observe to be grafted in to the
true vine the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore For without me
ye can do nothing, you and I cannot. But God can take us, and God
can graft us in to himself, so that we are then like this. As the apostle said, he said,
nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and
the life which I now live In the flesh I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So how
good it is and relevant it is that you and I are shown and
have the evidence that we need to be part of this true vine. And then you see the importance
is to be fruitful. That's the important thing. And
as we've read here, the saying bringeth forth much fruit, for
without me ye can do nothing. And if there is no fruit, there's
no value. It's worthless. It may look very
nice, may have some nice leaves, look very pleasant, but it will
be of no value because you can't really eat the stem and the wood
you need the blessing of fruitfulness and so how needful it is that
we are fruitful and as the Lord Jesus says here as the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine There's
no way that you and I can be fruitful out of the vine. And
we need God to bless us if we are grafted into the vine, if
we are part of that vine. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him The same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can
do nothing. So you may say, well, this morning,
what are the real true elements of us being fruitful? First of all, the Lord God gives
faith. The Lord God gives faith to believe
the truth of the Gospel. That is an evidence of receiving
the sap, the goodness of this vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. We receive that goodness. And
what that produces then is life and produces fruit. And one of
those great fruits, one necessary fruit, is faith to believe the
gospel. How important it is then that
we are blessed with faith to believe. Now, God knows whether
he has given us this faith to believe, and whether we are still
an unbeliever. See, every true child of God
is a believer. Every true child of God has received
faith to believe again. It's not something that you and
I can just drum up ourselves, produce ourselves. It is that
which God gives. And it's a wonderful blessing
to receive this wonderful faith. And the apostle knew well the
relevance of it. When he writes to the Ephesians,
he speaks, and in the second chapter he tells us, And you
hath he quickened, that means, and you hath he made alive, who
were dead in trespasses and in sin. So every true believer has
been and is made spiritually alive. They are made alive to
realise that they are a sinner before a holy God. And God gives them faith to believe
that they are a sinner. And they cannot escape from the
evidence that they are a sinner. And then he gives them faith
to believe in himself as their great and almighty saviour. And that faith that he gives
is through his grace. And grace is an unmerited favour. And all of God's people receive
grace. And they all receive faith to
believe. And it is a wonderful evidence
and a proof of being fruitful in the things of God. And in
this same second chapter to the Ephesians, The eighth verse,
which is very, I'm sure, well known, and I hope it's familiar.
For by grace are ye saved. And he goes on to say, through
faith. It's not through our works. It's
not through our own ability. It's through faith. And that
not of yourselves, very clearly stated, isn't it? It is the gift
of God. God gives faith. Now anything that is given to
us, it means we've received it freely. We haven't worked for
it. You don't work and earn a gift. It's something which is given.
That's why it's called a gift. And what an important thing it
is to receive. the gift of God the gift of faith
to believe what a mercy then this morning to have the evidence
of receiving this gift of faith and we only receive it you see
if we are a partaker of the sap that is really the life of God
within whereas we were dead But now,
by God's grace, we are spiritually alive. And what does that mean? It means we are in Christ. That means we are abiding in
Him. Naturally, if we're not part
of the vine, we will not have life, we should die. Spiritually,
it's exactly the same. You and I need to be in Christ. We need to be united to Christ
because we're told as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except
it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in the
vine. So it's a good question for us
to answer today, isn't it? Are we abiding in the vine? Have we received the grace of
God? Have we received faith to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ? Have we been convicted of our
sin before our holy God? And have we been shown the need
of being saved? the need of salvation, the need
of looking to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation,
and therefore to rejoice. And don't forget, as the Apostle
goes on to say, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. Always remember that Almighty
God is a jealous God. He will not allow you and me
to pat ourselves on the back and say well I did this and I
did that. We do those things by and through
the grace of God having received God-given faith to believe. This is the whole way of God
and it is vitally important You and I will not be able to be
proud of what we've done, but we will be proud of what God
has done for us. And we will desire to honour
and glorify his name. Again, it's a very clear evidence
of having received this faith in the desire to glorify God. So there is, the evidence of
having received this fruit of faith and then also to have received
this fruit of repentance every true believer repents of
their sin before a holy God it's not something you just be
ignored and it is God's gift and God's
gift runs along this line as again the Apostle wrote the doctrines
of the Apostle are glorious influenced by the Holy Spirit and in the
Romans the second chapter it tells us this the goodness of
God leads us to repentance And that means when God's Spirit
has shone into our heart as the glorious life of God, the sap
as it were, rising into our branch, and shows to us what we are,
a sinner before God, and shows to us the need of salvation,
what do we observe? God's goodness toward us. God's
love toward us God's mercy toward us what does it do? it draws us to the Lord Jesus
Christ this is the wonderful evidence
of the fruit of the Spirit we read these words, don't we? perhaps
very glibly perhaps very easily, and yet how important and how
vital they are, how necessary they are. When the Lord Jesus
Christ was on this earth and how many wonderful words he spoke
when he was on the earth and he spoke to his disciples and
he gave many many great and glorious words and you remember he gave
this wonderful parable of the sower we won't go through that
this morning but hopefully you remember the types three false
types of hearers and one good hearer where the seed fell in
the good ground and on the in the 18th verse of the 8th chapter
of Luke he tells us this take heed therefore how ye hear for
whosoever hath to him shall be given and whosoever hath not
from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have
you know sometimes people may seem to have a religion They
may seem to have that which God has given to them. And they may
like to proclaim it. They like to vault their natural
knowledge about things. But you see, it may prove to
only be leaves. Only be leaves. No fruit. They're not truly partakers of
the SAP. They're just a false believer. There's just an outward profession,
but there's no possession. It's very vital, isn't it? We
cannot settle down in just an outward profession. We need the possession of the
life of God demonstrating fruitfulness. And that fruitfulness shows to
us and is in us producing God-given faith to believe. God-given true godly repentance. And that brought about by the
Spirit of God revealing to us His goodness and showing to us
our need and directing us to the glorious Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ. It really comes down to this,
doesn't it? What thinking of Christ What thinking of Christ? You see, we may have much head
knowledge of the things of God. You may be able to recite the
Bible almost. But unless you have a personal
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as your
Saviour, as that one, who's died upon the cross at Calvary, to
take away your sin, you are deceived. My friends, we don't want to
end up, do we? As John Bunyan so very ably describes
it in The Pilgrim's Progress, when there was a man called Ignorance,
who thought he was a believer, marched up to Heaven's Gate,
and he was asked to show his certificate. Oh, he pretended
to look for one. He couldn't find it. Why? Because
he hadn't got one. And he was cast out into hell
itself. My friends, ignorance would never
get us to heaven. We may think we're on the right
track, but we need the blessed evidence of the work of the Spirit
in our heart. The evidence of the fruit of
God. And the fruit of God is shown
to us in these things. God-given faith. And you see,
when God gives us faith, we will recognise that it's not what
we've done, it's what God has given to us. And we shall be
very humbled and very concerned to praise
God for it, what he's done for us. The gift of God of eternal
life. faith, repentance, joy in believing,
looking unto Jesus. You know, that's the wonderful
thing. I often think those words of the apostle when he wrote
to the Hebrew church, the Jewish people, and what a wonderful
testimony it was when he gave the wonderful account of that
list of all those faithful people and then he comes on to the 12th
chapter and he tells us this wherefore seeing we also are
compassed about with so greater cloud of witnesses let us lay
aside every weight where there are weights, you know, which
drag us down and weights which cause us to
turn aside from the glorious Gospel. Let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Never, never think,
well of course I can't believe and I can't do this because this
is my besetting sin. You know, some people rest on
feeling they have a besetting sin and therefore they can make
an excuse. There's no excuses with besetting
sins. Never hide under that false place. And the sin which does so easily
beset us And he tells us what we should do. Let us run with
patience. That means to run away from all
that which is false. All that which is of the flesh. The devil will come and say,
well, you know, you've got a difficult case and you've got a hard case
and I shouldn't worry too much, you know. Oh, no. Run away from
everything which is false. and as I say sometimes, God doesn't
leave us in a vacuum isn't that good? what does he tell us? let us run with patience the
race that is set before us looking unto Jesus what a wonderful truth
that is may all of us be found not looking
anywhere else nowhere else looking under Jesus the author and the finisher of
our faith the one who begins in our soul the work of Christ
the one who gives us faith to believe looking under Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God, for consider him. Oh, let us be found considering
him. Yes, we live in a world where
the devil would make us consider many things which do not profit. be found considering Him. We've got up this morning, haven't
we? Have we considered Him this morning? Have we considered the
Lord Jesus Christ? Have we been fruitful in the
things of God? And you know, the great blessing
is, and it's for God's honour and glory, is Fruit is in evidence. You look at a vine, you see the
branches, but you see fruit when it's healthy and when it's been
pruned. It is so important, my friends,
to realise that as God says here, every branch that beareth fruit,
he purges it. It's cut back. It's cut back. We don't like, perhaps, having
anything cut back. Perhaps we're resting in something
which has occurred in our life. We're thinking that was a wonderful
blessing. We're just resting in that. Well,
you know, the true Christian is a believer. And what happens? He grows in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and for this to
be brought into effect we find that we're pruned we're cut back
and what happens when something is pruned often then there is
that period we might say be virtually dormant there doesn't seem to
be any much life, does there? but there is life If you were
to cut a bit further you would find the sap was still there.
It wasn't dry and it wasn't barren. There was life. But it was cut
back. Cut back to make us more dependent
on the Saviour. Looking under Jesus. Praying
under Jesus. Seeking the blessing to be healthy
in our soul. Not to be satisfied. You know,
pressing toward the mark. that's the truth of the Gospel
pressing towards the mark not relying not satisfied with that
which has passed thankful for it but pressing toward the mark
as the Apostle Paul exhorts us looking unto Jesus there will
be those times when the Lord prunes us so that we might be
more healthy in the things of God and you'll want then to know
and to realize the evidence of that life within, as again, the
new growth comes out. Not much to see to start with,
but it's there and it grows and it grows and there's leaves and
then the fruit. Oh, bless God for that. Bless
God for true health in the things of God and may we all know something
of it. The Lord tells us here, it's
only found as we are in Christ. In Christ, the hope of glory.
There's nothing, there's no fruitfulness outside of Christ. No fruitfulness
outside of Christ. Doesn't matter how good you and
I might be and everything else. My friends, it's what we are
in Christ. To partake of His life and that
which brings forth fruit, oh my friends, Bless God for fruitfulness. Bless God for the evidence of
it. And may we all be concerned to be fruitful. Why? Because
it's that which brings forth honour and glory to God. If there's no fruit, what happens? Cut it off. There's no glory
to God. My friends, you and I don't want
to be cut off, do we? We want to be lively and healthy and
fruitful in the things of God. We want to be found abiding in
Him. Let's go on our way this morning,
pondering these great words. They're recorded for our eternal
good. Bless God for them. 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. And don't forget that means looking
to Jesus. That means to looking to his
finished and glorious work upon Calvary. You know, you'll never
be tired of Calvary. You'll never be bored to hear
Calvary spoken of. You'll always rejoice. Why? Because
your heart, your soul will be drawn out in love to the Saviour
because of what He has done in redeeming your soul. You will know what the hymn writer
said, If ever my poor soul be saved, tis Christ must be the
way. Amen.