Okay, I want to turn to John
15. I'm going to be bringing a series of messages from John
15, because as I study this, I find it's too difficult for
me to get through the whole teaching here in one sermon and do it
justice. John 15, we're going to be looking
at the first few verses today, focusing primarily on just the
first few words of verse one. I don't mean to belabor it, but
today's Today's message will be entitled, The True Vine. The True Vine. And I want to
read through these verses with you and set the context for this
message and the ones that follow and hear what our Lord says to
us in these words. We're going to read from verse
1 and through verse 14. I, Jesus says to his disciples,
I, am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. 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 you are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. 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. 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 abide not 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. If you abide
in Me, 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. As the Father hath loved Me,
so have I loved you. Continue ye in My love. If you keep My commandments,
you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments
and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto
you, that My joy might remain in you and that your joy might
be full. This is My commandment. that
you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do
whatsoever I command you." And we can keep reading here.
In fact, let's just read the next couple of verses too. Henceforth
I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what
his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends, for all things that
I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you. You have
not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that you
should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain,
and that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name,
He may give it you." And then one more. These things I command
you, that you love one another." What a blessed passage of Scripture
this is. And it's not a Scripture that
is in the middle of nowhere. It turns out that Jesus was going
to the cross when he spoke these words to his disciples. He had
eaten the last supper with them in the upper room, and then Before
the Passover, before the Feast of the Passover, he had, if you
recall, taken off his garments and girded himself with a towel
and taken a basin of water. And at the end of supper, he
washed all of his disciples' feet. He took the position of
a servant and he washed every one of his disciples' feet. And
I can see him there, almost, with his hands on their feet,
dirty from their walk, and him taking the water as a servant,
looking at their feet, applying the water to each foot of each
disciple as he looked into their eyes and looked on their feet
and washed the dirt away. And Peter was troubled by this,
as we might have been, recoiling in pride that he would ever touch
his feet. And Peter said, You're not going
to wash my feet. And Jesus said, if I don't wash
your feet, you have no part in me. And Peter immediately said,
then wash everything, my hands and my head. And Jesus said,
if you're clean, you don't need to wash but your feet only. And
so he went on to talk about Judas, who was not clean because he
was the one who would betray him. And then He told His disciples,
you call Me, and this is in John 13, you call Me Master and Lord,
and that's good. You say, well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master,
have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
So He told them and He taught them by what He did. This was
ever the case with the Lord Jesus. Everything He said, He also worked
out Himself. He never commanded or led from
behind, as the modern phrase is. He was the one who laid down
His life for His people. And He served His own. He loved
His own and He served them. Love always serves. Love always
gives. Love is a purpose of heart. and a will and an affection for
those that loves and it gives of itself, always giving of itself. And so he says to his disciples,
you humble yourselves and you give as a servant to those whom
I have loved. Don't keep a separate set of
books. God's got a set of books. Christ has blotted out from those
books the sins of God's people. Don't keep your own books. Forgive
one another and don't Don't regard, don't count, don't reckon their
sins against them. Forgive their sins just as God
did for Jesus' sake. And then Jesus gave the sop to
Judas and Judas went out. So only the eleven were with
him. And then Jesus began in John 14 to tell his disciples
that he was going away. The reason he was going away
was to prepare for them a place with the Father, a place in the
Father. And his going away was going
to the cross, going to death and judgment and then rising
again. He would go himself into heaven.
He himself being now both man and God would be in heaven and
he would send his spirit. who could dwell in all of his
disciples at the same time, and he himself would come to them
in his own spirit. So he tells them, I'm going away,
but I'm sending to you a Comforter, one to teach you, to guide you,
to lead you into all truth, to remind you of the truth, and
to show my things to you, to take the things that are mine
and show them to you. On the way, on the truth, on
the life, no one comes to the Father but by me." And this is
what the Spirit of God would do. It would teach His disciples
that through Christ, they come to the Father. In Him, they're
accepted by the Father. And they were to remember this,
and they were to remember these things when Jesus left the world. And the Spirit of God would come
to them and teach them these things. And He reminded them
again. to love one another and to keep his commandments. And
then at the end of chapter 14, of John chapter 14, he says,
I leave my peace with you. He says in verse 27, peace I
leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives,
give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. You heard how I said to you,
I go away and come again unto you. If you love me, you would
rejoice because I said I go to the Father, for my Father is
greater than I. And now I have told you before
it come to pass that when it is come to pass, you might believe."
So these are the words of Christ before He goes to the cross,
explaining to His disciples everything that was going to come to pass,
even though they wouldn't understand it. If they loved him, he said,
you would rejoice because I go to my father because he's greater
than I. And therefore, they would be saved to the uttermost because
he and his father would reign and his spirit would fulfill
the results of the covenant he established in his blood and
bring all things to pass in their experience. And then in verse
30 of John 14, Jesus said, Hereafter, I will not talk much with you,
for the prince of this world comes and has nothing in me.
He's coming, but He has nothing in me. He can't find anything
in me. There's no sin in me. He can't
find anything to accuse me. He can't find a way to tempt
me. And therefore, He's going to overcome the wicked one. And
He has no part in what Christ is doing for His people. But
then Jesus said in verse 31, But that the world may know that
I love the Father, And as the Father gave me commandment, even
so I do. Arise, let us go, hence." So
at this point, Jesus is telling His disciples, the Father has
given me a commandment, and I love the Father, and so that the world
may know that I love the Father, let's go. He's going to the cross
to fulfill all His Father's will. And this is the way the world
would know that Jesus loved His Father He would keep all of His
commandments, not keeping them as a slave, but keeping them
in love as a son who loved his father and would do all his will.
And so they rise up from supper, the place they were, that upper
room, and they left. And as they're leaving, John
15 is spoken by the Lord. I don't know at what point they
were on their journey. But I do know this. It was spoken
somewhere between the upper room and the cross, between the upper
room and the garden. Judas is not with them. And so
these words open up in John 15 as the Lord Jesus Christ about
to give his life, but to leave his disciples. And he wants to
leave with them these words. He wants to speak these words
in their very presence. And when the Spirit of God would
come, He would remind them again of these words. Can you imagine
the Lord Jesus Christ as one who is leaving in death, but
not in death permanently like our loved ones leave us, but
nevertheless leaving His last words with His disciples as the
one who's making the last will and testament and sealing it
in His blood. And so He opens John 15 as He
has in John 13 and 14 in the most tender tones in the most
tender words to his disciples, but not just words of. Of affection or words of poetry,
but words of of exhortation and commandment and words, and I
want to focus on this words of promise. Because when we read
these words, if you're like me, your first response when you
hear the Lord Jesus give us command, like he says in verse four, abide
in me and I in you, immediately two things happen. Question marks
come into your mind. What does that mean? And number
two, how do I do it? Because I find in me such a small
heart and such a slowness to respond in the right way, a dullness
of heart, a coldness of heart, so that I don't want to do the
will of God, or I find it not in me. So, when we hear these
words, we immediately tend to shrink back. But we shouldn't,
because these are the words of Christ given to His people. If
the Lord Jesus Christ loved His people and gave Himself for them,
is it not also true that His people then can go to Him for
everything? If He gave His life for them,
would He not also give them His grace by His Spirit to do what
He's commanded? And will He not also explain
His own words to us by His Spirit and lead us into all truth? This
is our hope and this is what we depend upon. That He who loved
us and gave Himself for us will give us all things. And the Father
Himself will give all things to us for whom He gave His Son.
So John 15 opens up with these words. And try to put yourself
in the place of the disciples who were there hearing the Lord
Jesus. at this time, going to the cross. They probably don't understand
it yet. I'm I'm certain they don't. What's
going to happen? And yet he has explained it to
them in type, in word and in and over and over again. And
so he tells them in these opening words, I am the true vine. I am the true vine. Now, when
we first look at this, sometimes we just see the word vine, and
we skip over the word true. But the words here are together.
I am the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. It immediately
begs the question, and we should do this when we read the Word
of God, what does He mean, the true vine? Why did He say, I'm
the vine? Or, I'm the vine and you're the
branches. Or, I'm the vine and my father's
the husband. No, he had to emphasize this,
I'm the true vine. Now, there's several places in
Scripture, especially in the New Testament, where Jesus adds
the word true to describe himself. He says in John 6.32, I am the
true bread. Remember? And then in John 1.9,
he said, I am the true, he is the true light. This was spoken
of him by John, who wrote the Gospel of John, but he wrote
about Christ. He is the true light. He's the
true bread. He's the true light. And he's
the true vine. These things are true of the
Lord Jesus. What does this mean? And why
did he say true? Now, the first thing we think of when we think
of the word true is the opposite of it, the word false. He would
never say I'm the false vine, but it does imply if he's the
true vine, there is a false vine. But it's not entirely the reason
he used the word true to contrast true with the false, as you will
see. Throughout Scripture, for example,
in Hebrews chapter 8, it says that that Christ is the high
priest, the minister of the true tabernacle. The true tabernacle. When we see those words in the
book of Hebrews, we immediately understand he's referring to
the Old Testament, right? The Old Testament. He says in
Hebrews 8, 2, that Christ is, in verse 1 and 2, he says, now
of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have such
a high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the
majesty in the heavens. Not a high priest on earth, a
high priest in heaven. Not just a high priest, but one
who sits on the throne, a king. And not just a king, but one
who reigns over heaven and earth and all things. He sits on the
right hand of God. sharing the throne with God,
his throne reigning with him. And he's a priest on that throne.
And then he says in verse two, a minister of the sanctuary and
of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man.
So there's the words true. We understand by that he's talking
about the tabernacle. That was prefigured by the tabernacle
on earth, and that the tabernacle on earth is not the true. It's
only a shadow of the true. One is a shadow, the other is
the substance. The one in heaven is the real
thing. The one on earth was just a figment
of the real, a shadow of it, a type, a prefiguring, a foreshadowing
of it. And so that's, I think, the primary
reason that Jesus says, I am the true vine is because he's
contrasting himself with the vine that was not the real vine
in the Old Testament. And what vine was that? Well,
in the Old Testament, there was a nation of Israel. And if you
look at Psalm, a few verses of scripture in the Old Testament
with me to see this Psalm chapter 80 and verse eight. And I love Psalm 80. It's one
of those psalms that I think about frequently. Here's the
verse I like. One of the verses that's repeated
and I like in this psalm in verse 3. It says, Turn us again, O
God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. We must
be turned. God has to do it. The way he
does it is by showing himself in his saving grace towards us,
causing his face to shine, showing Christ to us, and then we shall
be saved. But look at verse 8. He's speaking
here in the psalm. He says, Thou hast brought a
vine out of Egypt. And what would that have been?
Well, that's the nation of Israel. They were brought out of Egypt.
All the children of Jacob who went into Egypt multiplied there,
became a large nation, and they were brought out of Egypt. And
he says, and now has cast out the heathen and planted it. So
Israel as a nation was planted in the land of Canaan. But now
look at another scripture in Hosea chapter 10, because something
happened to this vine, this nation of Israel. There was something
about it that made it not the true vine. It never was intended
to be the true vine. But you can see this in Hosea
chapter 10. He says in verse 1, Israel is
an empty vine. He brings forth fruit. to himself
according to the multitude of his fruit. He has increased the
altars according to the goodness of his land. They have made goodly
images. What did Israel do? They were
called a vine. God brought them out of Egypt.
But instead of bearing fruit to God and giving glory to God,
because that's what fruit bearing does, it glorifies God. Remember,
Jesus said in John 15, Herein is my father glorified that you
bear much fruit. And here, Israel does not bring
forth fruit to the glory of God, they bring forth fruit to themselves. They bring forth idolatry and
the works of men's hands. And they worship the works of
their hands, they worship God in hypocrisy, and they worship
God in the righteousness of their own doings, instead of in the
obedience of Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness.
So Israel did not bring forth fruit to God. They were an empty
vine. They were fruitless. Now look
at Isaiah 5, and you see the same thing there. Just a few
verses. These references to Israel as
a vine are really throughout Scripture. But in Isaiah chapter
5, he says in verse 1, Now will I sing to my well-beloved. a
song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath
a vineyard in a very fruitful hill." So my well-beloved would
be the Lord Himself who has planted a vineyard. He has a fruitful
vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered
out the stones thereof, and planted it with a choicest vine, and
built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress
therein. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and
it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of 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 at it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild
grapes. In other words, God took the
best vine that he could find in men's terms, terminology,
and he planted it in a very good place and he built a tower there
to protect it. And he built a wine press in
the middle of this vineyard to take the fruit of it. But the
fruit, the vineyard didn't bring forth good grapes. It brought
forth wild grapes. And now, in verse five, go to. I will tell you what I will do
to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge, and it shall be eaten
up and break down the wall, and it shall be trodden down, and
I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned nor digged,
for there shall come up briars and thorns. I will command the
clouds that they rain, no rain upon it. For the vineyard of
the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah
his pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment, but
behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, a cry." So here you
can see that the nation of Israel, especially the leaders, the religious
leaders of that nation, twisted the word of God. They did not
bring forth judgment, as he says here, because judgment is declaring
that God's righteousness is fulfilled for his people by Christ the
Lord. He's the one who brought forth
righteousness unto judgment. But instead of righteousness,
which is the righteousness of God, there was nothing but a
cry from those who were weary of the bondage they were brought
under by the religious leaders. And so in Matthew 21, where we
read earlier, Jesus gave a parable of the nation of Israel. He said,
There was a landowner who had a piece of land and he planted
a vineyard and built a tower and put a wine press and planted
a vineyard. And then he rented it out to
these husbandmen who were supposed to bring him the fruit of it,
but they didn't bring the fruit of it. They actually stoned and
killed his servants when they went to get the fruit and eventually
stoned and killed the son himself. And God said, in Christ through
this parable that he was going to. In fact, look back at Matthew
21. I'm going to look at the conclusion of that parable. What
would happen to these people who were given the responsibility
of taking care of this vineyard? He says in verse 43, Therefore,
I say to you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you.
taken from the nation of Israel and given to a nation, bringing
forth the fruits thereof and whosoever shall..." And then
he talks about the judgment of those who didn't believe Christ.
They would be crushed to powder. So here God is saying in these
passages that we've referred to that the vine, the vine in
the Old Testament was the nation of Israel. But in the Old Testament,
Israel as an external nation didn't fulfill the type of the
vine themselves, because they served idols and they trusted
in the works of their hands. And they brought forth fruit
to themselves. The Pharisees and the scribes
were hypocrites. They didn't preach Christ, they
preached themselves, they preached their own works. And they brought
people into bondage and laid heavy burdens on them. They didn't
bring forth the fruit of the vineyard to God, to God's glory. And because of that, God, the
Lord Jesus said that He was going to take away the vineyard from
them and they would be destroyed and that vineyard would be given
to another nation who would bring forth the fruits thereof. Now
that is what John 15 includes in this words, I am the true
vine. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one who fulfills the type that Israel as a nation only prefigured. The nation of Israel did not
and therefore could not fulfill the requirement of bringing forth
fruit to God. And the fruit to the glory of
God could only really be brought forth by the true vine, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's why he says, I'm the
true vine. And then he doesn't say that this vine is going to
be rented out to other keepers. He says in John 15.1, And my
father is the husbandman. So now that's all good, but the
disciples don't see it yet. But he's going to go on to say
in verse five, if you look at that, I am the vine, you are
the branches. And then you see in this that
very clearly that the Lord Jesus identifies in this parable of
the vine, He's the vine, His people are the branches, His
Father is the one who takes care of the vine and makes sure that
the vine brings forth fruit, and the fruit that is brought
forth brings glory to the husbandmen of the vineyard. And so, if you
put these things together, you see that The purpose of the vine
is to bring forth fruit to the glory of God. That's the reason
for the vine. In fact, do you know a vine?
And this is not something that I've figured out on myself. God
says it in Ezekiel 15. But the vine is a very interesting
kind of wood. The vine is made of a wood that
they don't build furniture out of. It only has one purpose.
The purpose of the vine is to bring forth fruit. And that's
its sole purpose. And let me show you this in Ezekiel
15, just so you can see how God has so revealed the truth through
these parables and these figures. And the Old Testament has been
very patient and long suffering in doing so. In Ezekiel 15, it
says, The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, what
is the vine tree more than any tree or than a branch which is
among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be taken thereof to
do any work? Or will men take a pin of it
to hang any vessel thereon? So the vine tree isn't good for
anything, not for making furniture or wood, or you can't even make
a peg out of it to hang your hat. He says, Behold, it is cast
into the fire for fuel. The fire devours both the ends
of it in the midst of it and is burned. 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 has devoured it and is burned?
So now he goes on in verse six saying that the vine tree among
the trees of the forest, which I've given to the fir to the
fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem."
Because they were the false vine. They were the vine that didn't
bring forth fruit, and God's going to burn them up. But they
weren't even good for anything, because they didn't bring forth
fruit to God. But now, the Lord Jesus Christ
in John 15 says, I am the true vine, and you are the branches. My Father's the husbandman. And
He's looking at His disciples. You are the branches. I'm the
vine, and you're plugged into me. You're grafted into me. You're
part of me. You're in union with me. And
because my Father is the husbandman of the vine, and I'm the vine,
and you are the branches, guess what? You're going to bring forth
fruit, and that fruit will be to the glory of the husbandman.
Someone visits the vine, they look at the fruit, and they say,
What beautiful fruit growing on the vine. It's the work of
the husbandman. They look at the farmer who takes
care of that crop and they say, the husbandman must be an excellent
farmer because he's the one who cares for and has made sure that
the vine was protected. and that it was properly watered
and fertilized, everything necessary and pruned in order to bring
forth fruit to God. God Himself is the husbandman. And the Lord Jesus is the vine.
And the people of God individually are in the vine. And this is
the way they bear fruit. Now, this is a beautiful picture.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is trying to describe this. But
what does this mean so far? Well, so far we see that Israel,
the nation, was a complete failure because in order for them to
bring forth fruit, they had to do something that only Christ
could fulfill. They had to bring forth the fruit
of the vine. And what is the fruit of the
vine? Look at Matthew 26. Jesus tells us there what this
is in the first and most significant case. He says in Matthew 26,
in verse 26, as they were eating,
Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to
the disciples and said, Take, eat. This is my body. And he took the cup and gave
thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this
is my blood. of the New Testament, which is
shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I
will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until
that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."
Now, the Lord Jesus gave the fruit of the physical vine to
his disciples and he said, drink this. And he said, this is my
blood. The fruit of the vine pointed
to the blood shed, the Lord Jesus Christ's blood shed for the remission
of the sins of His people and the ratification, the fulfillment
of the new covenant. Therefore, when Jesus says, I
am the true vine, in the first place He's saying, Israel could
never fulfill this. Israel could never bring forth
this fruit to God. The fruit that fulfills all the
conditions of the covenant, and therefore all the promises of
God are brought to His people. They never did. Because they
failed. That old covenant required the
obedience of sinful man. And they could never bring that
obedience to God. And they didn't recognize that.
They didn't look to God to fulfill His own covenant. But they continued
trusting in their own righteousness and they ended up so degraded
that they served idols, the works of men's hands. But Christ came. And he himself is the vine, and
not only the vine, but out of him came this shedding of blood,
which actually fulfilled the covenant and took away the sins
of his people. And that brought forth fruit
to God. And when Jesus told the Pharisees
in Matthew 21, He was going to take from them the vineyard and
give it to another nation. He's talking about the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ being given to the Gentiles. The gospel
of Christ's blood shed for His people for the remission of sins
and to fulfill God's covenant for them and giving them all
the promises summarized by these words, eternal life. The Lord
Jesus Christ gives the fruit to God out of himself. He fulfills it. Look at Judges
chapter 9. There was a man named Gideon,
if you remember, and he had 70 sons. And of his sons was one named
Abimelech, who was a very wicked son. And this son, after Gideon
had died, set out to kill all 70 sons of his father Gideon. But when he went to do that,
one of his sons escaped named Jotham. But Gideon, I'm not Gideon,
but Abimelech was so wicked and these other men were also wicked
and they they wanted to make Abimelech. I mean, they. I'm sorry. Abimelech was so wicked
and the sons, I mean the men of Shechem were also wicked and
they wanted to make Abimelech the son of Gideon who tried to
kill the 70 sons of Gideon. They wanted to make him king.
But in the process of doing this, Jotham, the other son who escaped
of Gideon, he went and he cried out and he says, In Judges chapter
9, if you look at this in verse 7, and when they told it to Jotham
that Abimelech had killed all the sons of Gideon and he only
had escaped, when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood
in the top of Mount Gerizim and lifted up his voice and cried
and said unto them, Hearken unto me, you men of Shechem, that
God may hearken to you. The trees went forth on a time
to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree,
Rain thou over us. And he's referring to like Gideon
and so on. And the olive trees said to them,
should I leave my fatness wherewith by me they honor God and man
and go to be promoted over the trees? And the trees said to
the fig tree. Now the trees in this are the
men of Shechem. The trees said to the fig tree,
come thou and reign over us. But the fig tree said to them,
should I forsake my sweetness and my good fruit and go to be
promoted over the trees? And then said the trees unto
the vine, and this is where I wanted to focus the attention, Come
thou and reign over us. And the vine said to them, Should
I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and goeth to be
promoted over the trees? So the vine had one purpose,
to produce wine. And the produce of the vine,
which was the wine, had this, the quality of the wine, cheered
God and man. Now, when the Lord Jesus in Matthew
26 refers to himself, he says, take this cup and drink it. This
is my blood, which is shed for the remission of sins and of
many for the remission of sins. And it fulfills the New Testament.
He's saying that my blood is the wine, the fruit of the vine. And that fruit cheers God and
man. It cheers God and His people,
the elect of God who believe Him. And that's the only thing,
the only true fulfillment of the vine that you'll find is
the Lord Jesus Christ is the true vine, the one whose blood
cheers God and man. But there's another aspect to
this vine. The vine didn't live. and produce
the fruit of the vine, which is the wine, and Christ shedding
His blood only. But there was something else
about this vine, and that's what Jesus is also teaching in this
parable. Because He says, as I already
read to you in verse 5 of John 15, I'm the vine and you are
the branches. Now, in the Old Testament, Israel
was the vine, but in the New Testament, in the fulfillment
of that picture, which Israel miserably failed at, Christ is
the vine, and His people, the elect of God, who throughout
time are growing out of the vine, in part in union with the vine,
and together Christ and His people actually fulfill the goal of
the vine, which is to bring forth fruit to the glory of God. And
when we see that, I think we'll see here the unfailing nature
of the vine. There's no possibility that the
vine is not going to produce the fruit that the husbandman
intends. And so there's several questions
that we're going to need to answer as we study this particular passage
of Scripture. First of all, who are the branches? Which is pretty clear. Jesus
says, you are the branches. Secondly, what is the fruit?
And let's go ahead and read back through here in the verses that
follow, I'm the True Vine, and see some of the questions we
need to answer. He says, Every branch in me that does not bear
fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit,
he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Why would Jesus
say this in verse 2? Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he takes away. Who takes away? The husbandman
takes away. The husbandman takes away the
branch in me that doesn't bear fruit. And why would he say the
branches would be taken? Well, they are. But in this particular
case, what's the context? Remember, Jesus is headed to
the cross. His disciples are with Him. Judas
has left. The disciples are about to go
with Jesus to the garden. And in the garden, they're going
to see Judas coming again. But this time, Judas is coming
as the betrayer. as the betrayer. And they're
going to see him and they're going to see, ah, this is the
one Christ meant when he said, the hand of him which is at the
table with me will betray me and be against me. And Jesus
is saying here, the one who doesn't bear fruit in me is taken away. First and foremost, this is talking
about Judas Iscariot. who didn't bear fruit to the
glory of God. He was like the nation of old.
He wasn't the true Israel. There's the true vine, and there's
other things that are true, and one of them was the true Israel.
The true Israel are the branches. They're the ones who are plugged
in to the Lord Jesus Christ in the true vine, and they bring
forth fruit to God. But those who are taken away
are not the true branches. So there are true branches, just
like there's a true vine, and there are those who are not the
true. And those who don't bear fruit are not the true branches.
They're taken away by God the Father. But other questions we're
going to need to answer, and we're going to look at this,
is what does it mean to be purged to bring forth more fruit? And
what does it mean to abide in the vine? And what is this fruit
that we are to bear and all these things that go with this? And
I want to take some time to go through these things with you.
But before we finish today, I'd like to look at this word true
in a little more cases as it occurs in the New Testament,
because this, I think, helps me at least understand the meaning
of the words true here. I've already showed you that
Jesus is the true vine and Israel was not the true vine. But there's
something about the true that we need to know, and that is
this, is that the true tabernacle, the true vine and all these other
things are always what we need. The true tabernacle is what we
must have, the true vine we must have. The true is the fulfillment
of the old, and in the old we never... We never received from
the Old Testament anything that did us any lasting good. Remember,
he says in Hebrews chapters 8, 9, and 10, that those sacrifices
could never take away sin because they weren't the true. But Christ,
who is the true offering to God, did make remission for sins. So, one thing you keep in mind
when you think of the true is that the true does what God requires
and what His people need. The true is like that. He gets
the job done. He fulfills the promise, the
true vine. And so listen to these things
that God has said about the true. He says there's other things
that are true, and I'll just quickly go through these that
I found in the New Testament. It says that Christ already mentioned
is the true light and the true bread. He's also called the true
witness. And you know why he's a true
witness? You know how he's known as a true witness? Because he
doesn't seek his own glory, but the glory of the one who sent
him. He's a true witness. And because all who do that are
true messengers or true witnesses. If a man seeks his own glory,
he's not a true witness. You must seek the glory of God.
This is the earmark, the evidence that you're a true witness. Christ
sought His Father's glory. That made Him the true witness.
And all of His people also seek His glory, which makes them true
witnesses. But it also says that God is
true. It says in Psalm 119, verse 160,
it says, Thy word is true from the beginning. And so God's word
is true. God Himself is true. It says
Jesus said his record was true in John 8, 14. He is true. He says his judgments are true
and his father is true. And his church, as we read in
Hebrews 8, 2, is called the true tabernacle. So the church is
true. And we already made mention of
this in Galatians 6, 16. It says that the church of God
is called the true Israel. So all these things are true.
But also there's other things that are true. And that is in
Luke 16, verse 11, it says, If you have not been faithful in
the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true
riches? The true riches. Now, the true
riches, what are the true riches? Well, the true riches of the
gospel. Just take a pause here. Brad
will take care of it. What are the true riches? The
true riches are the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The riches
of God's mercy, the riches of His grace to sinners in Christ
and by His blood and righteousness making them God's son. That's
the riches, isn't it? That we would be made the sons
of God, that we would be brought to glory and we would be perfected
before God by the one offering of Christ as our high priest.
That's true riches, isn't it? Being rich in God. And then in
John 4, there's the true worshipers. Jesus said to the woman, the
Father seeketh such to worship Him. The true worshipers worship
God in spirit and in truth. The only way we can worship God
is in spirit. God Himself, the Spirit of God,
has to give us this life in our souls and faith to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We cannot otherwise worship God.
In Psalm 116 it says, We take the cup of salvation and we call
on the name of the Lord. The way we worship God is in
His salvation. That's the true worshipers. And
then there's true holiness in Ephesians 4.24. It says that
you put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. True holiness. What is true holiness? True holiness is a holiness God
has created. Christ Himself is called our
sanctification, our righteousness, and our redemption in 1 Corinthians
1.30. The Father has made us holy in
His electing love. Christ has made us holy in His
one offering on the cross. The Spirit of God has brought
to us what Christ has done and given us a holy nature and faith
in what Christ has done. And Him working in us produces
in us an outward conformance to Christ in our soul and in
our body so that we are those who are called true holiness. God Himself, Christ for us, the
Spirit of God in us, and Him working in and out of us produces
that holiness. And then in Hebrews 10, 22, it
says, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. What is a true heart? A true
heart is a heart that looks to Christ only, confessing ourselves
as sinners, knowing our need and recognizing our impotence,
our lack of any strength before God. We call upon God at all
times and look to Christ only. That's what a true heart does.
And so we draw near to God because Christ is what God accepts. And then
in 1 Peter 5.12, listen to this, he says, By sylvanus, a faithful
brother to you, as I suppose, I've written briefly, exhorting
and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you
stand. And if you look at those verses
in 1 Peter 5, what you'll see is that the true grace of God
refers to God's electing grace, His redeeming grace, His regenerating
grace, His keeping grace, His grace that conforms us to the
image of Christ and ultimately brings us to glory. And this
grace works in our lives through affliction. And in affliction,
we are taught to believe Christ only. And in believing Christ,
we're brought to to trust him more, and God conforms us into
his image through his word. That's what the true grace of
God does. The true grace of God does all things for us and in
us because of Christ's work and by the Father's work in us by
his spirit. So all these things were brought
out in this word's truth. The thing to remember here is
Christ is the true vine. He's the one who is true because
he fulfills all of God's will for his people. He brings to
pass the will of the Father, the husbandman who brings forth
fruit on the vine. And the people of God bring forth
fruit because Christ has shed his blood and satisfies God and
he himself cheers God's heart and the heart of each one of
his elect. And when we look at these verses, as we do over the
next few weeks, I think we're going to see some very comforting
things and wonderful things that God is going to do. And this
is the thing I love about grace. God does His will. In spite of us, in spite of our
weakness, in spite of our sin, he brings us to himself. And
that's what we're going to see here is the command of Christ
to abide in him. We can only fulfill by the grace
of God. And hence, this is turned into
a promise. We're going to abide in him as
he abides in us. I want to look at one verse with
you. And before we close here, look at Jeremiah 32 and verse
40, perhaps if you've If you don't retain all the other
things we've said, look at this and rejoice in God's grace toward
us. Jeremiah 32, verse 40, God says
this, And I will make an everlasting covenant with them. You see,
this is the I wills of the covenant. God is going to do something,
an everlasting covenant. And in this covenant, God requires
nothing from his people. Everything comes from God in
Christ. He says, I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them. Do you see that? Here's his promise. I will not turn away from them
to do them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts, in their inward parts, not just outward conformance,
but inward, that they shall not depart from me. Why do we not
depart? Why do we abide in Christ? Because
He will not turn away from us. And there's the promise of God.
Isn't that a promise? It's a promise that God is going
to fulfill. When the Lord Jesus says in John 15, verse 4, Abide
in Me, and I in you. Think about this. How can you
abide? How can you get Christ to abide
in you? You cannot. You cannot get the living God
to abide in you. But he says, abide in me. This
is a promise of God. He will not depart from us, therefore
we will not depart from Him. We're going to stay. That's what
the word abide means, to stay. And we'll look at this in more
detail next time. But I just leave you with that. Remember
that the promises of God are sometimes cast as commandments
to us. But the commandments given to
the child of God cause him in his heart to cry out with the
man whose son was demon-possessed Lord, I believe, but help my
unbelief, because you've said without me you can do nothing,
and therefore we come like the woman at the well was commanded."
Jesus said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is
that says you give me to drink, then you would have asked Him
and He would have given you living water. So when you hear these
words of Christ, abide in me, take them to the Lord in prayer.
and ask Him, Lord, cause me to abide in You, and then You abide
in me. And the wonderful thing here
is, is that when you look at these things, in religion, the
focus is on results. Business is like that. We want
results. I remember working, it doesn't
matter what you say you're going to do, what really counts is
what you got done. And there's something to be said
for results. But in this chapter, notice, the focus of the disciples
is to be towards Christ. Abide in me. And the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ are going to produce the results bearing
fruit. This is the way it works. We
look to Christ. He does all things for us and
in us. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you that you've made our Lord Jesus Christ the true vine. And from him you have brought
forth the wine of his blood, which cheers your heart, and
cheers ours because we are saved by his blood. We thank you, Lord,
that we can take the cup of salvation. the promises and the covenant
that you have fulfilled in his blood and take it to you and
cry out to you in worship and thankfulness in our heart. We
know, Lord, that our salvation comes entirely from you, performed
by our Lord Jesus Christ, worked in us by the Spirit of God, taught
to us and brought to our minds in giving us faith and life in
Christ. Lord, we pray, cause us to abide
Help us to bring forth fruit to the glory of God. Help us
not to be like a false witness who seeks their own glory, but
a true witness who seeks the glory of our Savior and our God. We pray, Lord, that You would
give us the true holiness, that You would give us the true grace
of God, the electing, redeeming, regenerating, keeping, preserving
grace, conforming grace, and that You would cause us to look
to You in Your true as the true God in whom is eternal life,
that we might be found to be true men in You. We pray, Lord,
that we would confess who we are as sinners, come to You as
helpless in ourselves and insufficient for all things, but looking to
You who are sufficient for all things in us. And, Lord, we pray
that we would trust Jesus and He would be our Savior, our King,
and our Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.