turn back to John chapter 15
the title of the message Christ the
true vine now we see here in the first
verse another I am you notice that I am God said to Moses, you tell the
children of Israel, I am that I am sent thee. Here he is in the flesh. God in the flesh. And he says, I am. I am the eternal
God. I am. I am the true bread, I
am the true tabernacle, I am the true light. Jesus Christ
is no ordinary man. He is the true God-man. He's the only one that can be
said God-man. It can be said of Him, He's God.
That's the sticking point that the Jews had. They didn't have
a problem with Him being a good man. They had a problem with
Him being God and man. They're God and man. That was
their problem. When they looked at Him, no doubt
they thought God would not look like this. The Son of God wouldn't
look like this. You see, our imaginations get
us in trouble, don't they? My imagination always gets me
in trouble. we usually now don't we usually imagine things to
be worse than they are either greater or lesser than they are
our imaginations back in genesis it says the imagination of man
was evil and that continually and when they looked at him he
did not fit their imagination of God. I'll tell you what he
did fit. He did fit the Word of God. He
did fit the Bible, what was written of him, written by him and for
him and of him. It fit him. But it didn't fit
their imagination. Now you and I need to take our
imagination of God and throw it in the trash. And whatever
God says and has revealed himself as in this book, this book that's
who God is if I cannot take the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation
if I cannot take the Word of God and say this is who God is
and read a scripture and I need to leave it alone because God
is not outside of these scriptures We don't have any liberty to
go outside of the Word of God and try to explain God or preach
Him. God has revealed Himself in the
pages of this book. God has done so. If you want
to know who God is, if anyone wants to know who God is, get
in the Word of God. He's made Himself known in His
Word. And here is a revelation. here is a revelation another
revelation of god i am the vine this is another revelation and
what our lord has given to his disciples here he's given to
all his disciples are you a disciple i am i'm a disciple of christ
i can be called a disciple of christ charles spurgeon said
these are instructions for the family this is holy ground right
here He's teaching the family. That's what he's doing. And he's teaching us in these
verses that everything we need is found in him. The vine. You know, a branch doesn't draw
its nourishment from other things, it draws it from the vine. Whatever's
in that vine, the root, the vine is in the branches. Everything we need has been provided
for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are accepted in the beloved
is what it says in Ephesians chapter 1. We are forgiven for
Christ's sake. It is written in the scriptures.
We have salvation in Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation,
I can say it this way, salvation is of the vine, the true vine. You know, there's others who
claims to be divine. There are other all these congregations
that are gathering here this morning in his community throughout
the United States, all these these gatherings, they are claiming
to preach Christ, aren't they? They claim to preach Christ.
Christ said they'll come. Some will say, here's Christ, there's
Christ. Well, everybody is gathering as calls himself Christian. They're
claiming to preach Christ. But not all are preaching Christ.
Some are. I can name some places that I
know that are preaching Christ. But I tell you, the places that
I preach or that I can say that preach Christ, there's thousands
that are not. That's not an exaggeration. There
are thousands this morning that are preaching another vine. Paul
said they'll come preaching another gospel, another Jesus. Another spirit. The devil, evil
spirit. That's why John said, try the
spirits, whether they are God. Because when someone stands in
a pulpit and they open the Bible, they're preaching by a spirit.
It's either the Holy Spirit or another spirit. It's one or the
other. I'm not up here alone, just doing this by myself. It's
either preaching under the power of the Holy Spirit or the spirit
of darkness. It's one or the other. That's
why it's so detrimental. that who you listen to is telling
the truth, telling the truth. Vicki's sister talked to her
yesterday. Her mother is coming down to the end, and they want
me to do the funeral. And I said, the first thing I'm
gonna tell them, the one thing I know I'm gonna tell them, I
don't know all the other outline of it, but I said, I know this. I said, if she could say anything
to me at that time, I said, I know without a shadow of a doubt,
I guarantee you, I know this, she would say this, tell them
the truth. Tell them the truth. All her
children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, big family like my family, big
family. Tell them the truth. You shall know the truth, and
the truth shall set you free. A lie will not set you free.
A lie is like bondage, it's like shackles. But the truth, if God
sends the truth to your heart and my heart, it will set us
free. It'll set us free to worship.
You'll actually be able to worship God for the first time in your
life if God sends you the truth. And that truth is Christ. He
said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. So you not only
tell them the truth, you preach the truth. You preach Christ
to them. That's what you do. You preach
Christ. In all his glory, in all his offices, in all his person,
you preach Christ to them. You'll know the truth and the
truth will set you free. And we see here that it's only
by our union to Christ that we grow spiritually, that we have
life and produce fruit. Now this fruit is the fruit of
the Spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering. That's the fruit
he's talking about. That's the fruit we grow in. And it's only as we are united
to the vine, that we have spiritual life and true spiritual fruit. And we'll see that where there
is no life and there's no fruit, it's a dead branch, and it's
gonna be cut off, and it's gonna be cast into the fire. Where
there's no life, there's no fruit. There's no love, there's no joy,
there's no patience, there's no meekness, and there's no growth
in these things. Where there's no growth in these
things, it's death. It's death. If someone stays
just as mean as ever, it's because they're just as dead as ever.
It really is. And we see here that the branch
never produces fruit of itself. You take a branch, take a branch
off an apple tree laid on the ground. See if it blossoms. See if it produces fruit. It
will wither and die. Apart from Christ, he's telling
us, apart from me, you can't produce anything spiritual. Our
spiritual life, nourishment, and fruit, all comes from Christ
in you. Christ living in you. You in
the branch, and the branch in you. Or the vine in you, and
you in the vine. He says in 1 Corinthians 1.30,
of him are you in Christ Jesus. That's how this branch ended
up in the vine. God put me there. He put me there. And you know something else about
these branches in the vine? They were all in the vine in
its beginning, in its seed. You know, when a child is conceived
in the womb, When that embryo, it becomes impregnated and there's
a person there. You know that every member of
that person's body is in that embryo? Every branch in that
vine was in the vine from the beginning, before the creation of the world.
Every one of them was in him. Now he says in verse 1, I am
the true vine. You just say I'm a vine. I'm
not one of many vines. There's only one vine. There's
only one Lord, one faith, one Baptist. There's only one. Only
one true vine. One true mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. That's who he is. I am the true
vine, and my Father, my Heavenly Father, is the husbandman. He's the one He's the one that
planted me, so to speak. He's the one that planted me. Christ said a body has to be
prepared. Christ was chosen of God in Isaiah
42. He says, behold, what? Mine elect. If you want to talk about election,
you got to start with Jesus Christ first. Don't start with the people
first. Don't start with those chosen
first. You start with Him first. God chose Him and then chose
us in Him. All those whom God chose, He chose in the elect.
If someone doesn't believe in election, you've got to throw
Christ out the door. He's the elect. The election starts with
Him. It doesn't start with me. It
starts with Jesus Christ. He's the elect. He's the true
vine. He's the vine of God's planting.
And the vineyard is His church. And Christ is, let's say, in
the center of his church. He's the vine in the vineyard.
He's the vine in all the branches. Now, there's not up team vines,
you know, Peter's not a vine. The apostles are not a vine.
Christ is the vine in the midst of the vineyard. And all the
branches in that vineyard come out of that vine. They all come
out of that vine. There's only one vine in God's
vineyard. There's not many vines in God's vineyard. There's only
one. There's only one vine in God's vineyard, but there's many
branches that grow out of that vine. My father's the husbandman. You
see, he's the child born and the son given. He's the tender
plant, and yet he's the mighty God. I am the true vine. And the owner of the vineyard
and the vine dresser, he says here, is the husband. He's the one who takes care of
it. He's my father. Everything in
this vineyard is according to the will and purpose of the father. Nothing happens in his vineyard
that he hasn't purposed. This is his vineyard. And it
also shows us here that the Father is active in salvation. He's
not just sitting by. You know, it says in Psalm 80,
verse 8, that He brought a vine out of Egypt. That vine is Christ. That vine is Christ. You know,
sometimes He's called Israel in the Old Testament. that bind
is the Lord Jesus Christ and every branch here in verse two
and this is sobering this is sobering every branch in me that
beareth not fruit he taketh away fruitless professors every branch
that beareth fruit he purges it that it may bring forth more
fruit here we have fruitless professors
An example, Judas. Judas. He was among the 12. He
was among the 12 in the beginning. He was with him for three years,
just like the others were. Followed him just like they did. And then he was exposed. Simon
Magus. It says he believed, baptized.
Then later on, tried to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. He offered
some money. Let me have this gift. This is
a moneymaker. Don't we see that in our day? They make tons of
money off of Christ. Peddling him is some insurance
policy, or he'll bless you. If you give, he'll bless you
beyond measure. No, he says every branch. These
are fruitless professors. You know, in the church, the
scriptures teach us this. There are always tares among
the wheat. Always. Goats among the sheep. Always. There'll always be those
who will make a profession And that's all they have is a profession.
They have no possession of Christ whatsoever. None. And he says here, well, Israel,
I think about Israel of old, they're called the natural branches.
They've broken off. They're broken off and thrown,
burned. Those in the wilderness, you
know, only those 20 years old and younger, except for Joshua
and Caleb entered into the promised land. Everyone else died in the
wilderness. They drank, Paul said in 1 Corinthians,
they drank of that spiritual rock. They ate of that manna
from heaven. But yet they perished because
they believed not. They did not enter in the land
of Canaan because they did not believe God. They were Christians in name only. That's
dangerous. Matthew Henry said this, he said,
the name of a Christian does not mean you have the nature
of a Christian. Anybody can call themselves a
Christian. Some preacher talking, coming
down an aisle and accepting Jesus or repeating a prayer and you're
saved, you're a Christian now. No, you're not. Not if that's
the basis of it. If that's the basis of it, no. If you're born of God and you
truly believe God, you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, yes,
you are a true Christian, Christ follower. And you know how that'll
be told? The fruit you bear, love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, kindness, gentleness, and you'll grow in
these things. Where the life of Christ is,
the fruit of Christ is. And you'll grow. You'll grow.
You know, being conformed to the image of Christ is not me
physically turning into looking like what he looked like. That's
nothing. That's not being conformed to the image of Christ. Being
conformed to the image of Christ is spiritual. It's being conformed
to his love, his kindness, his meekness. His joy, he joyed in
the Lord. He joyed in God, his father all
the time. It's growing in these things.
When you grow in these things, you're being conformed to the
image of Christ. You're being like him. When he was reviled,
what did he do? He reviled not. And when I'm
reviled, and every time I am, and I strike back, and I slap
back, there's a problem. There's a part of you that want
to, I know that, we have a sinful nature. But I tell you what,
there's a point where grace is stronger. When you grow in grace
and the knowledge of Christ, it becomes stronger. Greater
is He that is in you than He that's in the world. And you will grow in these things,
but the fruitless professors, he said, will be cut off. You
know, one time he told that parable about the sower who came in and
sowed those tares. And the reaper said, do you want
us to go out and pull them up? He said, no. You know why? Because you wouldn't know the
difference. They carry the same Bible you
carry. And if they sit in the same congregation, they'll claim
to believe the same things you believe. He said, you leave them
alone. I'll take care of that in the
end. And oftentimes it's taken care of before the end. They
end up leaving, going to another gospel, another place. But now fruitful believers here,
the believers here are purged. They're purged, they're cleansed,
they're pruned so that they might bear more fruit. Brethren, this
is why God sends us trials. This is why God pricks our hearts
through the preaching of the gospel, so that we might bear
more fruit, spiritual fruit, love, kindness, joy. We may grow
in those things and bear more of it and be more like Him. You
know, what's funny is it looks like the fruitful ones are the
ones in trouble. They look like the ones that
are the terrors by the way God deals with them, just like Job
and his three friends said, you got a hypocrite. Job, you've
got to be a hypocrite or God wouldn't be dealing with you
like this. You know, one time we were going
through a difficult situation and Todd Nyberg called me. Todd Nyberg called me and said,
boy, the Lord must love you, you and Vicki. He said, the Lord
must love you to be sending you these trials. The Lord must love
Bonnie. And that family, he must really
love them to send him such a trial. He's pruning them, pruning them,
that they may bear more fruit. I read an article that she wrote
here just the other day. What fruit came out of that article?
Boy, you're talking about squeezing grace out of a grape. Oh, my. That's when the fruit
really shows up. And God said He's going to purge,
He's going to prune His branches that bear fruit. He said He would
purge it, purge it for this purpose that it bear more fruit, bear
more fruit. Now He says in verse 3, You're
clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. You know
God's word has many effects. You know his word this morning
will have an effect on every person in here. He said my word
will not return to me void. Some it'll convict of sin. Some
it'll bless and you'll be encouraged. And some it'll guide you and
turn you. Some it'll answer a question. God's word has much effect, different
effect. It has a pruning effect, it has
a cleansing effect, it has a guiding effect. You know, the word here where
he says, now you're clean through the word which I've spoken to
you. In the Bible, in the word of God, there appears to be a
threefold cleansing that the believer experiences. First,
there's a cleansing by the blood. Now, the others doesn't happen.
two doesn't happen until this is his son there's cleansing
by the blood there's cleansing by the holy spirit in regeneration
when he sets us apart and sanctifies us in regeneration in the new
birth there's a cleansing effect there repentance you know we
ask god for mercy then there's a cleansing effect by the word
He says in John 17, 17, now are you clean through the word? Through
the word. How important is the word of
God to the believer? You can't be saved without it.
You can't grow without it. You can't grow without the word
of God. You can't do it. You had no foundation for that
growth. In Psalm 119, 9-11, listen to
this, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? What? By straightening up? Quit doing
some things? Start doing some other things?
It says here, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed thereto according to thy word. It says, With my
whole heart have I sought thee, O let me not wander from thy
commandments. Thy word have I hid in my heart
that I might not sin against thee. There's a real sense, and I want
you to get this. We're the believers here. There's
a real sense in which you are getting a bath this morning.
There's a real sense in which you are being washed by the word. You're being guided. directed, clenched, and your
focus is refocused. It gets out of focus, doesn't
it? It does. Listen to 2 Timothy 3, 15 and
17. And speaking here to Timothy,
that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. You see, the Scriptures are not
salvation. Christ is. They make us wise
unto salvation. We learn Christ. Take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, His Word, that the man of God
may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. All this
comes through His Word. What was going on when God saved
you? I can tell you exactly what happened when God saved you.
The gospel was preached. The gospel was preached. You
weren't walking through the woods and all of a sudden you just
got saved. You know, that's a, that's a
popular saying among Armenians. I got saved. You get, I got saved
last night. No, that's not, we don't just
got saved. The Lord saves us through the
preaching of the gospel. We are saved, we are being saved,
and we shall be saved. Now, when the Lord says this
to His disciples, Now ye are clean through the word which
I have spoken to you. He didn't say that until Judas was gone,
because there was a branch there that bore no fruit, that had
no part or lot in the vine. And He didn't say that because
in John 13, 10, He said, Ye are clean, but not all. But here,
now that Judas is gone, you're all clean. He can say, you are
all clean. Through his blood, by the preaching
of the gospel, by the work of the Holy Spirit and faith in
Christ, you're clean. Every wit and every way, you're
clean. Now he says in verse four, abide
in me. Continue. You know, the scripture teaches
us that those who continue unto the end shall be saved. Those
who quit, now listen, those who quit are us. Paul said, we are not of them
who draw back, but of them who believe to the saving of the
soul. Believers don't quit. They don't quit. Abide in me
and I in you. See how close this union is?
This is a very close union. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, which is in this little parable here he's giving. I don't
know if I call it a little parable, but it's a parable of this branch
and vine. It's very obvious and very simple
to grasp that the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine.
No more can you except you abide in me. You see, he's told them
he's leaving. And now he's telling them, abide
in me. There's no separation. I'm, I'm
going back to glory. My body's going to go back, but
I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm in you. I used
to in you the hope of glory. I'm in you. And by it means to
stay in a given place, to continue communion, continue
to exercise faith and love in me. You believe in God, believe
also in me, exercise that same faith in me. He's speaking here
of a very close union. Can there be any closer union
than a branch is to a vine? Yes, can there? Can't be. I mean, it grows out
of the vine. That branch grows out of the
vine. As believers, you have grown out of Christ. You have
come out of Him. You are in Him, as I said earlier.
All the, like the members of the body is in that embryo. It's
in that. All the members. And all the
members of Christ are in him. And as time goes by, as time
goes by, you'll see this branch coming out, another branch coming
out, just growing out of that vine, just growing and growing
and fruit, not fruits, fruit. You know, when an apple tree
bears apples, it doesn't bear pears and oranges and all that
other stuff. It bears fruit and apples. That's what it bears. And he
calls it here the fruit of the spirit, not the fruits of the
spirit. It's one fruit and it comes out of that one vine. And
you're the branch that it hangs on. You're the branch that hangs. The branch didn't bear it as
far as making it happen. That comes from the vine. All
the branch does is hang out there and the fruit's hanging on. It's
just out there for the fruit. Isn't it amazing what God's given
us in nature to give us spiritual insight to what's really happening
when he saves us and when we're born of God and as believers,
the fruit is just there. It's there. And it grows as it's
connected to the vine. Apart from Christ, he said, you
can't bear any fruit. You can't bear no fruit. I'm the vine, you're the branches.
This is our position. So he's gonna give us our position
here. I'm the vine, you're the branches. Don't get that backwards.
Don't get that wrong. You'll get everything else wrong. When man promotes his free will,
he is setting himself above the vine. I'm the vine, you're the
branches. Later on in this chapter, he
says, you didn't choose me, I chose you. Let's not get that backwards. I'm the vine, you're the branches.
This is our position. He that abides in me, dwells
in me, continues in me, and I in him, the same, bring forth much
fruit, no question. You know, he didn't say he might,
he says he will. He that's in me and I'm in him,
this one brings forth much fruit. But without me, you can do nothing.
You can't produce this fruit he's talking about. Here's our
position. We're the branches. And the fruit
is his fruit. It's his fruit. There's one vine,
there's many branches. And we never bear fruit of ourselves.
That's why we can never boast. We can never boast. Because the
fruit's of Him. It's of Him. Because He says,
without Me, you can't bear anything. You can't bear any spiritual
fruit. Then He says in verse 6, If a
man abide not in Me, he's cast forth as a branch, withered,
and men gather them and cast him into the fire. and they're
burned. That's serious business. Scripture
says the Lord knoweth them that are his. And the evidence of
it, he said, they'll bear much fruit. The spiritual fruit, the
fruit of the spirit, continues in me. A profession saves no
one. It's union that saves. It's union
with Christ. And last of all, if you abide
in me, You know, it just keeps coming up. It just keeps coming
up. Abide in me, abide in me, abide in me. If you abide in me and my words
abide in you, you shall ask what you will and
it'll be done unto you. Boy, has this been abused, this
verse. Ask what you will. Well, first
of all, do we really know what to ask for? Do you really know
what to ask for this morning? I think God, he does. Our high
priest knows what to ask for. Abiding in Christ is his words
and doctrines abiding in you, the gospel. And he says here,
ask what you will, and it'll be done to you. Your spiritual
request will be granted. The man in whom His Word abides,
here's what this man or woman desires. You desire the will
of God to be done. It's not your desire to ask the
Lord to let you win the lottery. I mean, the whole world asks
for that. But it's to ask the Lord to let
you grow in love and grace, love and joy, peace. Lord, let me
grow in these things. Forgive me of my sins. Make yourself
known to me. Make yourself known to me. Make
yourself real to me, real to my soul. To walk with you like
Enoch did. Any man that prays and he desires
the will of God to be done, that man will, his prayer, that woman,
her prayer will be answered. Everything you need spiritually,
you'll ask for, you'll get it. That's what he said. And that
gives me joy because I ask for forgiveness. I ask the Lord to
make himself known to me daily. I want to grow in grace and in
knowledge of Christ. Because there's coming a day
when I'll be gone, I'll die. I'll be gone, and you will too.
And you know what? The only thing that really matters
is my union to that vine. That's it. That's all that matters. What I accomplished in this life
will mean nothing. It says in the Psalms, speaking
of the lost man, says his honor will not descend after him. He
may have been somebody here, but he's a nobody there. Listen to this prayer in Proverbs
30, 7 and 9. Two things have I required of
thee. Deny me them not before I die. Now what do you think it'd be
if right now you could ask God for anything? Like he did Solomon.
He told Solomon, ask me for anything. And Solomon asked for wisdom
to guide the people. Deny me these not. Remove far
from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient
for me. Lest I be full and deny thee,
and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and still,
and take the name of my God in vain. That's a prayer to pray
for yourself. But now listen to me. That's
a prayer to pray for your children. I don't want either one of them
to be rich, increased with goods, and in need of nothing. That's
the worst way to be, because you don't need God either. Right here's a prayer that we
pray for ourselves, we pray for our children. He said, don't
give me poverty or riches. Don't make me poor or rich. Feed
me with food convenient for me, lest I be full. Listen, and deny
thee. and say, who's the Lord? You
know what Pharaoh said? Who's the Lord that I should
obey you? Nebuchadnezzar goes out on that balcony, look what
I've done, look what I've done. And God put him out to pasture,
didn't he? The Lord kills and the Lord makes
alive. The Lord makes rich, he says,
and the Lord makes poor. He lifts up and he brings down.
The Lord does all these things. He does all these things. Here
is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you
be my disciples. God the Father is glorified when
your love, genuine love is expressed, when you are so gracious and
kind to those who are unkind to you. That's when the Father
is glorified because that's not natural. It's natural for us
to strike back. But to be meek and lowly of heart
and gentle and kind and patient, patient? You kidding? That's
the last thing a human being has is patience. That's why we
have fast food restaurants and fast this and fast that. You
can't even, Vicki gets on me at the red lights. I've tried
to beat the, when it's green, I try to beat it before it turns
red. Can't wait at the light. Have you ever sat there, and
you will probably after I say this, but you sat there and see
how long that light lasts? A minute, two minutes, how long
does this light last? I've done that. We're the most
impatient by nature. Now, now, now. I want my money
now. But when you patiently go through
a trial, When you love one another, when you express kindness and
joy in the face of troubles and trials, you're glorifying God
and you don't even realize it, but you are. All right.