Our subject is the true vine. But I want to go back and pick
up the last statement of the previous chapter. And when I
looked at this, I thought, this is really an unusual statement
with which to begin a message. It's more of a fitting statement
to end a message. Because look at what the statement
is, the last statement of chapter 14. Arise, let us go, hence. So if you follow that, it seems
like that would be a good statement to use at the end of the message
rather than now. But our Savior spoke these words
to his disciples. You will, of course, remember
that Judas has now been departed from the group He has gone out
to betray the Savior. And now no one remains but these
11 who love Him and who believe Him and who rest in Him. And our Lord, after giving these
words of consolation in chapter 14, and chapter 14 is the consolation
chapter, After he speaks these words to them, he now says, and
remember they're in the upper room, they have eaten the Passover
meal, they've partaken of the Lord's Supper, which the Savior
instituted there, and now he's spoken these words of consolation,
and so now he says to them, arise, Let us go hence. Now, where is
he going? Well, number one, he's going
immediately to the Garden of Gethsemane. And it would appear
that as they go, he continues to speak to them. He continues
to teach them. That's chapters 15 and of course,
chapter 16. When they get to the Garden of
Gethsemane, He will pray this, which is the high priestly prayer,
that which is very correctly the Lord's prayer. This is the
Lord's prayer when we get to John chapter 17, that prayer
in John or in Matthew chapter six. Yes, chapter six it is. That's the prayer that our Lord
gave to his disciples. will arrive at the Lord's prayer
in John chapter 17. So he is saying, arise, let us
go hence. And as they make their way to
the Garden of Gethsemane, he continues speaking to them and
he continues teaching them from his word. But he's also saying,
arise, let us go hence for this reason. I have a work to do. I have a death to die. There's
no reluctancy on His part. He isn't hesitant at all. He
knows what awaits Him. He's already stated to His disciples
that this one, the Son of Man, He said, I must suffer many things
from the chief priests, and I must die and rise again the third
day. And now He says, arise, let us
go hence. He's all business. He knows what
he's got to do. He knows what's before him. There's
a people to be saved. There's a justice to be satisfied. There's a God to be honored. And he goes forth to do this
work. And he's all about it. He's ready. He's ready to go. Arise, let
us go hence. You remember He said in Luke
chapter 12, He said, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how
am I straightened till it be accomplished? In other words,
I earnestly desire it. I crave this. I have an urge
to finish this work And so he says to these men after he had
finished what he wanted to say to them in the upper room, he
said, let's go. Let's go. He knows what's ahead
of him. He knows what he's got to do.
He's going to meet the enemy of all enemies. He has said in
chapter 14 and verse 30, if you'll look there, Chapter 14, verse
30, he says, Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the
prince of this world, he cometh and hath nothing in me. He's
coming, he's coming. He's not gonna find anything
in me, nothing with which to work. He finds lots in us with
which to work, but he's not gonna find anything in the Redeemer,
but he is going to bruise his heel. in fulfillment of Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 15. He knows there's an enemy out
there. There's an enemy who is, he's
already got some folks lined up. Judas is going to betray
him. Judas has had the enemy, the
evil one has entered into him. The Savior knowing this all awaits
him. He still is earnest about going
forth. This is an urgency to him. He's ready and willing to meet
the great foe of his people. He's ready and willing to bear
all the guilt of his people. He's ready and willing to pay
the debt. This is the time when our debt
came due. We read in Romans chapter 5,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly. It's the due time now. It's due. Payment is due. Here's
a group of people, rotten to the core, rebelled against God. They're dead. They're dead. The justice of God says it's
got to be paid. It's due and payable. The Savior
says, arrive. Let's go. I'm ready to pay it. I'm ready to do the work. I'm
ready to endure the sufferings. There's no reluctance on His
part. There's no hesitation. He's spoken
about peace. He said, My peace I give unto
you. And now He says, Arise, let us
go hence. I'm going to make peace. I'm
going to make peace with God for you. and I'll do it by my
blood, by my sacrifice. John chapter 15 verse one, he
says, I am the true vine. I'm the true vine. I am. I am. That's certainly not the first
time the Lord Jesus has used these words in referring to himself. He said to the Pharisees there
in John chapter eight, He said, before Abraham was, I am. They took up stones to stone
him. They knew exactly what he was saying because they knew
their history from Exodus, the third chapter, when Moses was
out in the wilderness, out in the desert. and he saw a bush
that burned and it wasn't consumed, and he started walking near it,
and then a voice said, take your shoes off of the ground, you're
standing on his holy ground, and he did. And the scripture
said it was the angel of the Lord spoke to him. And ultimately,
the angel of the Lord said, I'm going to send you to lead my
people out of bondage in Egypt. And Moses said, well, when those
people say to me, who told you that you're to lead us? What's
his name? The angel of the Lord said, you
tell them I am that I am had sent you. The God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, he's the one that sent
me. The God who is forever the same,
he's the one who sent me. And that God is none other than
the great I Am, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of
the Trinity. And our Lord did not hesitate,
especially in the Gospel of John, to identify himself as being
God manifested in the flesh. And so we find specifically seven
statements where he used I Am. And you know these. We've spoken
about them before and you've heard them many times. He said
first of all in John chapter 6, I am the bread of life. He said it in John 8 verse 12,
I am the light of the world. He said in John 10 9, I am the
door. He said in John 10 11, I am the
good shepherd. He said in John 11 25, I am the
resurrection and the life. He said in John 14 6, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. And now he says in John 15 1,
I am the true vine. We know our Lord made use of
earthly things in order to set forth spiritual truths. And in
each of these declarations about himself being I Am, he spoke
in words that people could understand, identifying some object that
they were very familiar with and then relating that to himself. For instance, the issue of bread,
certainly. was right at the surface and
on their minds. In John chapter 6, when our Lord
fed 5,000 men plus women and children, He fed all of these
people with five little loaves and two fishes. And then He announced
to the people, I am the bread of life. In John chapter 8, He
was in the court of the women at the temple. It was at the
feast of the tabernacles. There in the court of the women
was a massive candelabra. And at night, it illuminated
all of the outside of the temple. even illuminating much of the
city of Jerusalem. And all of the people were very,
very familiar with that candelabra because when they entered or
when they came toward the city, they would see the lights of
the city and they say, oh, the lights are burning. This evening,
there's a great candelabra. But there was a light much brighter
than that. And he was the Lord of glory.
And he stood there and said to them, I am the light of the world. This is the light, that candelabra,
that's the light of the temple. I'm the light of the whole world.
Isn't that amazing? I'm the one who illuminates people
all over the world. And he's illuminated your heart,
hadn't he? Where there was just darkness
before and ignorance, He's brought forth light. Then in John chapter
10, He says, I am the door to the sheepfold. And all of them,
they were very familiar with the fact the sheepfold had one
entrance, one door. And actually it was the shepherd,
especially if they were out in the wilderness and he kind of
got them in a cave area that had an opening, he was himself
the door. The shepherd was the door. He
said, I am the door to the sheepfold. I am the door. If any man enter
in, he shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture.
And then speaking about sheep, and they were all familiar with
sheep, he says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. And then in John chapter 11,
there's the presence of death. There's Lazarus who had died. And Martha is weeping and she's
sad. Lord, if you had been here, my
brother hadn't have died. And he said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He said that in the context of
death. And then in John chapter 14,
he had been saying throughout chapter 13, I go, I go. And then he says, I go. I go
to prepare a place for you. I go to the Father's house. I
go. Thomas said, we don't know where
you're going. We don't know the way. We wanna
know the way to where you're going. He said, I'm the way,
the truth and the life. I'm the way to the Father. Because
he said, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. And now we come to the last one
in John chapter 15. Now keeping in mind that every
time before, he's always used something as an example, and
then he drew from that the bread, the light, the door, etc. Well, why would he, what led
him to say, I am the true vine? He's just administered the Lord's
Supper. And he said to them, I'm not
going to drink of the fruit. of the vine. Remember he said
that? I'm not going to drink of the
fruit of the vine till I drink anew with you in my Father's
kingdom. And this immediately brought to their mind vineyards. And I suspect also as they left
the upper room and began their journey toward the Garden of
Gethsemane, they walked by vineyards. Because there are a bunch of
vineyards in Israel. And as he undoubtedly passed
by one of these vineyards, and they looked at the vine, they
looked at the branches, they looked at those young grapes,
he said to them, I'm the true vine. There's a vine, but I'm
the true vine. I'm the true vine. Now, in this
message, they've been said before you several things. First of
all, let me talk to you about the true vine. And then I want
to talk to you about the husbandman. Then I want to talk to you about
the branches. Then I want to talk to you about the fruit.
And then fifthly, I want to talk to you about useless branches. And then last, Number six, a
lesson, a brief lesson on prayer. First of all, the true vine.
Our Lord Jesus identifies himself. We're not left to doubt who is
the true vine. He says, I am. I am the true
vine. As wine comes forth from grapes
when pressed, The wine of the gospel comes forth from our Lord
Jesus because he was pressed in the wine press of the wrath
and judgment of God. Our Lord Jesus said in Isaiah
chapter 63, I've entered into the wine press alone. Alone. He was pressed by the wrath of
God. He had to die just as though,
just as there will be no wine, no wine unless the grapes are
pressed. There'll be no wine of the gospel
unless our Lord Jesus is pressed by the vengeance of God, by the
wrath of God, by the justice of God for the sins of his people.
And just as wine makes glad the heart of man, Psalm 104 and verse
15, so the wine of the gospel makes our hearts happy. It makes
our hearts glad because the wine of the gospel, the golden elixir,
these glad tidings of great joy that come to us. They announce
forgiveness of sins. They announce justice has been
satisfied. They announce righteousness has
been brought in by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
said, I am the true vine. He's the source and fountain
of life. I am the true vine, one of a
kind, one of many, not one of many, but one of a kind. He says, I'm the true vine, true
vine, nothing false about it. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. John says over in Revelation
chapter 19, I saw heaven open and behold a white horse and
he that sat upon him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness
doth he judge and make war. I am the true vine. One translation
reads this statement, I am the vine of truth. All truth comes
from him. He's the very origin of all truth. He is the true vine. And all
life, all spiritual, if I put it this way, sap, all spiritual
sap, all fruitfulness has to come from Him. We've got to be
connected to the vine. If we're not connected to the
vine, we're not going to have any life. So he says, I am the
true vine. Secondly, the husbandman. The
latter part of verse one says, and my father is the husbandman,
or the farmer, or the owner. He's the property owner, the
father is. In other words, the existence
of the vineyard is due to the father. There would be no true
vine There would be no Savior. There would be no Redeemer. There
would be no salvation. There would be no glad tidings
apart from God the Father and His eternal purpose of salvation. It's the Father who chose a people
unto salvation. So we read those very eloquent
words in Ephesians chapter one. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. The Father began it
all. So our Lord Jesus says, I am
the true vine, but my Father, who's the owner of all things,
He is the husbandman. This all started with the Father
in His graciousness, The Father designed salvation by Christ. The Father gave us the true gift
of His Son. Did He not say that even we were
given to Him by the Father? He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I'll in
no wise cast out. It's the Father who chose the
true vine. It's the Father who, in His grace,
sent the true vine. And it's the Father who accepted
the death of the true vine as being fully sufficient. to pay the debt that his people
owed. So we know who the true vine
is, we know who the husbandman is. Thirdly, the branches. Verse
two. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit,
he purgeth it or prunes it that it may bring forth fruit. Now,
it wasn't difficult to determine who the true vine is, that Christ
wasn't a challenge to figure out who the husbandman is because
that's the father. They've been identified, but
it isn't perhaps so easy to determine the identity of the branches. Here's what is very obvious.
There are two kinds of branches. Those who do not bear fruit and those that do bear fruit. First of all, those that do not
bear fruit. Who are these that do not bear
fruit? I think there are three possible
answers. Number one, the nation of Israel,
from whom God had a right to expect fruit. Kevin to read that passage from
Isaiah chapter five for us, those first seven verses. God, in essence,
he said, what more could I have done for you, Israel? And I expected
grapes from you, but all I got was wild grapes. Hosea chapter 10 in verse one,
the Lord said, Israel is an empty vine. It's an empty vine. In other words, it didn't bring
forth any fruit. And therefore, as we've been
learning in our Bible classes, God sent the gospel to the Gentiles. Because Israel bore no fruit.
Secondly, and I think there are three things here that we can
understand, by which we can understand this. Now, here's the second
thing. Those who profess faith in Christ,
but they bear no fruit like Judas. Like Judas. He professed to be
a branch. I believe the Savior, he was
a preacher, he had gifts, but he didn't bear any fruit. And
he was taken away. The teaching is not that salvation
is yours one moment and then you lose it the next moment.
It isn't like that. That's not what this is teaching.
But then there's a third interpretation of this. And before I tell you
that one, let me show you two important expressions. Here's
the first one in verse 2. Every branch in me. Don't miss that. Every branch
in me. In me. We love to read Ephesians
chapter 1. How many times does the Apostle
Paul write being in Christ or in him, in whom? And now the
Savior says, in me. In me. That's the first very
important two words. Two little words in me, but they're
very heavy. They're very weighty in this
verse of scripture. Here's the second expression
is taketh away. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away. If you don't have a good concordance,
I would recommend you get one and the best I believe is Strong's. Strong's, Young's is a good concordance. But I believe Strong's is the
best. Look up this word taketh. You'll
find This is what Mr. Strong gives as the meaning of
the words, take it away. He raises up, he lifts it up,
he draws it up as a man would draw up a fish out of water. That's how strong defines these
words. Now let me ask you this. As you think about our union
with the Lord Jesus Christ, who would you say those are who
are in Christ but bear no fruit? Well, I can tell you who they
are. They're the elect who haven't been found yet. They're
already God's people. But the reason they don't bear
any fruit is because they haven't been drawn to the Savior yet.
Listen, there is an eternal union of the Lord Jesus with His people. He is the head and we are the
body. We were joined to Him in old
eternity by God's eternal purpose of grace. We're in Him. He says,
every branch in Me. That's where we are. You say,
well, was I in Him before conversion? Oh, yes. You were in Him before
you ever heard the gospel. You were in Him before He ever
died for you. You're in Him by God's free and
sovereign grace. He appointed you. He appointed
you to grace. And He gave you to Christ Jesus. He joined us together as husband
and wife in union forever. But before the Lord finds us,
before we're regenerated, before we're quickened, By omnipotent
grace, we bear no fruit. You see, as of yet, in our unconverted
state, we haven't been drawn to Him. You know what effectual
grace is? Joe and Jill took Nancy and I
out fishing back in October. Sure was fun catching fish. Someone would bend over with
that net and drop that fish, drop that fish out. That fish,
he didn't want to come in. We brought him in, didn't lose
a one-up. We had absolute power over the
fish. That's the Lord with us. He draws
us in by effectual grace. He never loses a one. That's
what He does with His lost sheep. He takes us away. He takes us
away from the world, from Satan who holds us captive at His will. And the Lord Jesus takes us sovereignly
and effectually and says, this one's mine. Can't happen. These branches that bear no fruit
of verse two of the Lord's elect, who've not yet been drawn to
him effectually by grace. They will be. In that time noted
by the apostle Paul as when it pleased God, who revealed his
son in May. This is one of his branches and
he's going to have it. But there's another kind of branch
here The second kind of branch bears fruit. Well what happens
to the, says every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it
that it may bring forth fruit. Branches that beareth fruit,
what does it do? He purges them, he prunes them. You know yourself. You have fruit trees. You want
to have more fruit the next year? Prune them. Lop them a little
bit. They'll thank you for it. They'll
thank you by giving you more fruit. And the Lord sends us
afflictions. He sends troubles and trials
to us. That's how he prunes us. That
will bring forth more fruit. Well, what is this fruit? Go to Galatians chapter five
quickly. Galatians chapter five. What
is this fruit? Well, it's the fruit of the Spirit. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
Let me read here for you. Let's talk about the fruit. Galatians
chapter five. And by the way, he also prunes
us by the word of God, as it says there in verse four. He prunes us by afflictions and
he prunes us by the word. But let's talk about this fruit
just a little bit. Galatians chapter five, verse
22. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. What's that? That's moderation.
Moderation in all things. Against such there is no law. This is the fruit. But watch,
it's the fruit of the Spirit. You don't actually produce it.
You know where the fruit comes from? The vine. And the vine
uses the branches to bear the fruit. But it's not the branches. The fruit in and of itself isn't
of the branches, it's of the vine. And that's the way we are.
It's the Lord Jesus working in us and working through us. That's
why we have a passage such as, look at Philippians chapter one,
verses nine through 11. Philippians one, nine through
11. Here the Apostle Paul writes, and this I pray, that your love
may yet, may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in
all judgment that ye may approve things that are excellent that
ye may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ. Watch this, being filled with
the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ. Well, I
thought it was by me. Well, you're wrong. It's by Jesus
Christ. These fruits, these fruits that
the branches bear, is a result of the vine that is the Lord
Jesus. Let me give you one quick reference
again. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And look at verse 10. A marvelous
verse of scripture. Quite often it's misquoted. Because
there are a lot of people who read this and then they'll give
it back and they'll say, you know, the Bible says, I am what
I am by the grace of God. That isn't what it says. It doesn't
start with I. It doesn't start with I. It says,
but by the grace of God. It starts with the grace of God.
It doesn't start with I. It doesn't start with you. It
doesn't start with me. It starts with God's grace. But
by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was
bestowed upon me was not in vain. Watch this. But I labored more
abundantly than them all. I worked harder, I labored harder,
I preached longer. Watch it though. Yet, don't miss
this. Yet, not I. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. But the grace of God, which was
with me. We can't take credit for anything
except for our sin. You know that? That's all we
can take credit for. And if we manifest the fruit
of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, et cetera, if we labor, It isn't us. It's the Lord. That's the reason all the rewards
go to Christ Jesus. Well, He's the only one deserving
of them. He's the only one deserving of
praise and honor. Well, go back to our text quickly
there in John 15. Let me see if I can kind of wrap
this up. So he says, Speaking about fruit,
he says in verse four, abide in me and I in you as the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more
can you except you abide in me. He says, 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. Now, here's the fifth thing I
want to show you. This is a useless, these are
useless branches. 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, they're burned. These are false
professors. These are false professors. They
really aren't joined to the vine. They're fit only to be gathered
together and burned in the fire. That's all they're good for. Now, here's the last thing. A
brief lesson on prayer. And I'll tell you, these words, these are more words that have
been misused over the years. He says in verse eight, herein
is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you
be my disciples. Now, he sees the fruit, and we
perceive to a degree the fruit, but make no mistake about it,
we're not fruit inspectors. We're not fruit, we were never
called to be fruit inspectors. Only the Lord sees the heart. But here's the last verse. Herein
is my Father glorified. Excuse me, verse 7. If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, here's what I'm getting at. Ye shall ask what
ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Now people have taken
that statement and have said, here's a blank check. Fill it,
whatever you want. I tell you, the biggest mistake
that's made when it comes to Scripture is lifting it out of
its context. Lifting a chapter of a book out
of its context. Lifting a verse from a chapter
out of its context. What is the context? Bearing
fruit. Bearing fruit. And here's what he says. Ask
what you will. It'll be done for you. Ask for what? Love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, goodness, meekness, faith, moderation. Ask for the fruit. That's what
he's talking about. Oh God, help me by your grace
bear fruit for your glory. But Lord, you'll have to do the
work. But use this branch. I have no
sap except that which Christ gives me. I have no life except
that which Christ gives me. I will have no fruitfulness except
that which Christ gives me. Oh Lord, use me as one of your
branches to bear fruit for your glory. And as that fruit is born,
you know what happens? Others are blessed. Others are
blessed by the fruit. He's the true vine and we're
the branches. Well, let's sing a closing song.
All right.