Now open your Bibles with me
to Ezekiel chapter 15. Ezekiel chapter 15. This is a short passage, short
portion of Ezekiel's prophecy, but it all goes together, you
know that. There are some sections that
you can sort of mentally rope off, you know, as fulfilling
the word of the Lord in one passage. But this one goes with what came
before and what comes after. And he's talking here about this
subject, the unfruitful vine. That's the title of the message,
the unfruitful vine. This is what most commentators
call the parable of the unfruitful vine. And this vine, of course,
is a metaphor, a symbol of the inhabitants. He says the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And I believe it applies to all
Israel, all Judea and all Israel because of their spiritual state.
Let's read the first five verses. Here's where he states the parable.
And then in the last few verses, the last three verses, he gives
the meaning of the parable. Listen to what he says, and the
word of the Lord came unto 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? Can you take wood from a vine
to do any work? Or will men take a pin of it
or a peg of the vine of it to hang any vessel thereon? Can
you hang anything on it? Behold, it is cast into the fire
for fuel. The fire devoureth both the ends
of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it meat, or is it
qualified, or is it useful for any work? Behold, when it was
whole, it was meat for no work. When that vine was whole, it
had no use for work. How much less shall it be meat
yet for any work when the fire hath devoured it and it's burned? Now what he's talking about in
this parable is this. He's using the analogy of a vine
tree in the forest and the vines on that tree. And that vine tree
is only good as it bears fruit. That's the only usefulness a
vine has, as it bears fruit. Now, if the vine bears no fruit,
what good is it? It's good for nothing. You can't
use it. You can't use it as a tool. You
can't even make a peg out of it, put it in a wall, hang anything
on it. It's good for nothing. And therefore,
the only usefulness it has is to throw into the fire and burn
up. That's the only way a vine is useful, is it bears fruit.
Now, what's he talking about? Why use that symbolism? Well,
look at verse six. Here's the meaning revealed.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, as the vine tree among the
trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so
will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will set my
face against them. Remember, his face is his glory.
And remember I told you last time, that the glory of God can
either either be against us which is an awful state to be in or
the glory of God can be for us which is a blessed state to be
in now the glory of God the scripture teaches we talk about the Shekinah
glory which you know that word Shekinah means the dwelling place
of God the presence of God and Jerusalem had the temple there
and that was the the place of the Shekinah, above the mercy
seat, well that glory was against them because they had perverted
it. And if the glory of God is against
a person, there's no hope. There's no hope of salvation,
there's no hope of forgiveness, there's no hope of life eternal,
there's no hope of heaven. But if the glory of God is for
us, then there's the assurance of all those blessings of the
grace of God. But how can we know that the
glory of God is for us? And there's only one way, and
that is to be found in Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
himself the glory of the Lord. He himself is the Shekinah, glory
of God. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. So he says in verse seven, I
will set my face against them, my glories against them. They
shall go out from one fire and another fire shall devour them.
They're going to run, but they're not going to escape. And you
shall know that I'm the Lord. When I set my face against them,
you'll know that God is God, that he is who he says he is
and that he will accomplish what he sets out to accomplish. God
means what he says and says what he means. In verse eight, he
says, I will make the land desolate because they have committed a
trespass, saith the Lord God. Now the meaning is revealed here.
Jerusalem, Israel, Judea, all this land was the unfruitful
vine. That's what it's all about. Israel
has been described as a vine before in Ezekiel. Look back at Ezekiel chapter
five. And look at verse five. And this is speaking here, not
of Israel's divine, but as Israel, as she had broken the committed
trespass against God, but this, this is the same issue. Verse
five, thus sayeth the Lord God, this is Jerusalem. I have said
it in the midst of the nations and countries that are around
about her. And remember, he said that she committed a trespass.
She had failed to fulfill her purpose. which was to be a witness
to the nations. And he says, I've said her in
the midst of the nations and countries that are round about
her, and she had changed my judgments into wickedness more than the
nations. As sinful as the Gentile heathen
nations were, Israel was worse. And he says, and my statutes
more than countries that are round about her, for they have
refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.
There was a time that Israel was described by God as a choice
vine. But you can look, and I won't
turn to all these scriptures for the sake of time this evening,
but you can look up the passages, and there's one in the Psalm,
Psalm 80, and there's one in Isaiah chapter five. You can
study this on your own. where Israel is called a choice
vine, planted by the Lord, referring to her redemption out of the
land of Egypt and God establishing her as a nation from Mount Sinai. And she was a choice vine. The
problem was that Israel, as the vine of God, failed. Failed to bear fruit. One commentator
states that the vine here in Ezekiel 15 not only describes
sinful Jerusalem, but also symbolizes unregenerate man in general.
And I believe that's true. And we'll see that. But here's
the point. Israel as the vine failed. Unregenerate man connected to
the vine of Adam, our father, what happens? We sin, we fail. The Lord Jesus Christ calls himself
the vine. And that's what I want you to
turn to John chapter 15. Christ says in John 15 and verse
one, he says, I am the true vine. I'm the real vine. Israel is
a nation under the old covenant was called a vine. But what does
a vine do? You know, when we think about
Christ as divine, it gives you thoughts of many
things concerning him. For example, I thought about
this when I read this passage in John 15. I think about that
Roman six passage that we've been studying where it talks
about if we've been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we should be raised again in the likeness of his resurrection.
You see, a vine has to be planted. And he says in verse one, I am
the true vine and my father is the husbandman. God the father
is the vine dresser. He's the overseer of it all,
representing the sovereignty of the Godhead. God the father
who chose a people before the foundation of the world in Christ
gave them to his son. And in time, he planted his son,
and that planting refers to his death on the cross. You know,
the planting of a seed. Christ used that analogy in John
12. He talked about a seed of wheat falling into the ground
and dying so that it'll bring forth the sprout, it'll bring
forth the fruit. And in the death of Christ as
the vine comes life. Israel as the vine gave no life. They were planted under the covenant
of law. And anytime salvation or any
part of it has anything to do with sinners and conditions sinners
must meet, it's a failure. Having been planted under the
law as sinners, they had to fail because there can no life come
from that. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified. But Christ, as the representative
and substitute and surety of his people as the true vine was
planted, in his death on Calvary and out of his death he established
righteousness which brings life. So Christ is the vine of righteousness. That's what it takes to bring
life to dead sinners. That's why we need him as the
vine. We don't need Israel as the vine. They failed. That's
the unfruitful vine. You can't even take, you can't
even cut a piece of it off and hang, put it in the wall as a
peg and hang a pot on it. It's good for one thing, to be
burned up. And it doesn't really even make
good fuel. Burns up just like that. But Christ as the vine,
is the vine of righteousness. He's the vine of wisdom and He
has made unto us wisdom. He's the vine of righteousness.
He's made unto us righteousness. He's the vine of sanctification,
holiness. He's made unto us holiness. He's
the vine of redemption. In His death, we're redeemed.
His people are redeemed. The price of our redemption has
been fully paid and that's Christ as the true vine. Branches that
Bear no fruit are connected to a dead vine. Branches that bear
fruit are connected to a living vine. You see, that's the whole
analogy and prophecy that God is teaching through Ezekiel to
the elders of Israel that were left. Israel's a dead vine and
it's good for nothing. But Christ here, And also, one
thing about it, anytime you see, like in that Psalm 80 passage
and that Isaiah 5, you know, one of the things when he exposes
Israel as a dead vine, and we're gonna see that in the next chapter
in Ezekiel 16, starting out with the cast-out infant, what he
tells them all the time through the prophets is, look, Israel's
a dead vine, but there's a better vine coming. And here he is,
and he's the true vine, Jesus Christ the Lord. And he is the
vine of everything that we need and must have. Let me just read
through these verses in John 15. I wanna show you some things
here. Verse two, he says, 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 more
fruit." Now who's he talking about here? Branches that bear
no fruit. Now you know as well as I do,
there are some who claim that this speaks of those who can
be saved one day and then lost the next day. But that is not
what it's talking about. This whole statement here is
parabolic, like a parable. And you don't set, you don't
gain your theology and your doctrine from the parables. The parables
don't, don't establish doctrine. They illustrate doctrine. And
we have ample scripture. to show us that once a sinner
is saved by the grace of God in Christ, that sinner can never
be lost again. I know what the world does with
that. They say, well, you're just saying you can sin as much
as you want to. We're not saying that. The Bible doesn't say that.
But it does tell us this, that once you're in the vine, you
stay in the vine. Nobody can cut you off. You didn't
get in the vine by your own works. You didn't get in the vine by
your own will. It was all by the will of God.
It's the planting of the Lord. The branches spring forth from
the vine. But he says, every branch of
me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. Well, there are
basically about three different interpretations of this. Some
say that it's talking about Israel as a nation under the old covenant.
But that wouldn't fit the context of this passage. Here he is speaking
to his disciples concerning themselves. Judas had just left. Judas turned
out to be a false disciple. The Lord said he was, he was
a reprobate from the beginning. And then some say that it's speaking
of those who just make a mere profession of faith, but bear
no fruit like Judas. And that would parallel this
verse with verse six. Look at verse six down here in
John 15. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch. But there's a major difference
between verse two and verse six. In verse two it says, every branch
in me. Now you see that? Every branch in me. Now who is
the me there? That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the true vine. Every branch in the true vine.
That's what he says. What is it to be in Christ? Well,
it means a whole realm of glorious blessings. It means to be in
Christ in divine electing grace. God chose us before the foundation
of the world in Christ. The scripture says, read Ephesians
chapter one. We were chosen. We weren't just
chosen. We were chosen in Christ. You
understand that? In other words, God's electing
grace had nothing to do with any qualification in us. There was nothing that drew us
to him or made us appealing to him. We'll learn more about that
in the next chapter in the cast out infant. Nothing beautiful
about us, nothing good about us. It's called the election
of grace. And that election of grace had
everything to do with Jesus Christ. So in him by election. The scripture
speaks of sinners being in him by redemption. And that's what,
this analogy of the vine is really important there. Like I said
in that Romans six passage, if we've been planted together in
the likeness of his death, you see every sinner for whom he
died had been chosen in him before the foundation of the world,
and when he died, he died as their substitute and their surety,
having their sins charged to him. That's another way we're
in him, by imputation. Our sins imputed, charged to
him. His righteousness imputed, charged
to us. And by redemption, he died for
his people. He didn't die for himself, he
died for his sheep, he said. I lay down my life for the sheep.
And he paid the sin debt. He paid for the sins. He satisfied
the justice of God. We're in him. To be in him is
to be in him by justification. Do you know that if you're in
Christ in the true vine, you cannot be charged with your sins.
You're a sinner. I'm a sinner. But God will not
lay them to our account. He sees no sin in us as to His
infinite, unbreakable law and justice. The law books of God
as to our case as we are in Christ are wiped clean. And not only
that, we have His righteousness imputed to us, accounted to us.
We cannot be charged with sin. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? That's what it means to be in
Him. But there's another way that the branches are in Him.
And that is by regeneration. That's the new birth. In which
we in our experience in God's time, Paul said it this way,
when it pleased the Lord to reveal His Son in me, We are placed
in Christ by our experience as the Holy Spirit in the new birth
gives us life from the Lord and brings us to faith in Him. And
we put Him on. That's what the scripture means
when it says we put on Christ. It means we believe in Him. We
rest in Him. We cling to Him. We're under
His wing. He's our shelter. He's our refuge. And we're in
Him by faith. That's what it is to be in Him.
And those who are in Him by regeneration, you know what He says here? They
all bear fruit. Now look at it again, verse two. Every branch
in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch
that beareth fruit he purges us. Now he prunes us, he chastises
us, he teaches us, he corrects us, he brings us through trials
and tests. Hebrews chapter 12 speaks of
that. And they may not be pleasant,
But afterwards they yield the perfect, the peaceable fruit
of righteousness. What is the peaceable fruit of
righteousness in Hebrews 12? It's I come out on the other
side of it, having been brought out by the power and grace of
God, looking even more to Christ, clinging even more to Christ.
He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit. So what does
this mean? Well, verse two, every branch
in me that beareth not fruit, it says he taketh away. The translation
of that phrase is a little confusing. But you know what it means literally
from the original? Read it this way. Every branch
in me that beareth not fruit, he raises up. Read it this way. Every branch
in me that beareth not fruit, he elevates or lifts up. He raises up from the ground.
He takes them up. He raises them upwards. He, another
translation, every branch in me that beareth not fruit, He
draws them up. Just like casting out the net
and drawing in the fish. Just like the Lord said, no man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me, draw him.
That's what that phrase means. It's not like verse six, verse
six it says, if a man abides not unto me, he is cast forth
as a branch. He's thrown out. That's what
that means. Literally, he's thrown out. But that's not what it means
in verse two. It means he's drawn up. He's raised up. He's lifted up. It's like to take upon oneself
and carry what has been raised up. He bears him up. That's another
way of saying it. That's what that phrase means.
Draw him up like drawing a fish out of water. What does it mean? Who's he talking
about, every branch in me that beareth not fruit? Well, they're
in him by electing grace, they're in him by redeeming grace, they're
in him by justifying grace, but they're not yet in him by regenerating
grace. That's God's elect who have yet
been born again. That's what he's talking about. You see, if you're a child of
God today, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
in Christ, you've been regenerated, you've been born, Christ said
you must be born again. But you know, before you were
born again, you didn't bear any fruit. You were out there just
like all the rest of, what Paul write in Ephesians chapter two,
children of wrath even as others, dead in trespasses and sin. But
one day he drew you up like a fish out of water. One day he raised
you up, elevated you, brought you under the preaching of the
gospel, and the Holy Spirit gave you life from Christ. That's
what he's talking about there. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he raises up. He lifts up. They'll be born
again by the Spirit. They're in him. My friend, if
you're in him, you can't ever be out of him. He'll raise you
up. And those who bear fruit, he
purges. And he says in verse 3, now you're clean through the
word which I've spoken unto you. That's the washing of regeneration.
That's the new birth. That's what he's talking about
here. Now you're clean. He's talking to his disciples
that are left. Judas has already gone out. He's
already turned his back on the Lord. But the rest of them, he
says, you're clean through the word which I've spoken. They've
been begotten again by the word of truth. That's what he does. And he says in verse four, abide
in me and I in you. There's the vine and the branches.
You see, the life of the vine does not come from the branch.
The life of the branch comes from the vine. Abide in me and
I in you. Now, all those in whom Christ
resides by his spirit and by his word, they will abide in
him. And he says, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
That's why I always talk about when we talk about this fruit,
we're not fruit producers, we're fruit bearers. You see an apple
tree and the apples on that branch, where'd that life come from?
Came from that trunk, that root. The grapes on the vine, they
come from the vine. And he said, except it abide
in the vine. Without Christ we're nothing.
He says, no more can you except you abide in me. I'm the vine,
you're the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Now what fruits he
talking about? He's talking about the fruit
of faith, the fruit of repentance, the fruit of love. He's talking
about the fruit of the spirit in Galatians chapter five. He
talks about fruit unto God in Romans chapter seven, which comes
as a result of our being united to Christ. Romans chapter seven. He says, for without me you can
do nothing. Christ is all and in all, the scripture says. That's
what it's all about. The fruitless vine's good for
nothing. But Christ is not a fruitless vine. He is the fruitful vine. Life comes from him. He is our
righteousness. He is our life, you see, and
it's all by the grace of God. And without Him, we can do nothing.
Now, verse 6, if a man abide not in me, he's cast forth as
a branch. He was never a branch. But he's
an unfruitful branch. He's connected to an unfruitful
vine. Who's he connected to? He's connected
to Adam. This is the kind of person who's
seeking salvation by his works or his will. who claims to be
a Christian, but he's cast forth and he's withered. Now you cannot,
the branch cannot wither if there's life in the branch. Where does
the life come from? What did he say here? Comes from
the vine. Where there's righteousness imputed, there has to be life
imparted. Not the other way around. So
the life comes from Christ and he says, as men gather them and
cast them into the fire and they're burned. Now that's what Ezekiel's
telling the folks of his day. This is an unfruitful vine. This
is a dead vine. It's good for nothing. You can't
use it for two or anything. It's good for nothing but to
be burned. And that's what Christ is saying to his disciples. He
says in verse 7, if you abide in me, My words abide in you. You shall ask what you will and
it shall be done unto you. Now that's not the genie in the
bottle analogy of today's false gospel. That doesn't mean anything
you ask to get, you're going to get. What's he talking about?
He's talking about life. He's talking about salvation.
He's talking about the fruit of the spirit. That's what he's
talking about. Lord, let me love more. Let me trust you more. Let me serve you more and better.
All of this. That's what he's talking about.
And the if there is an evidence of life. It's not a condition
that we meet in order to attain life. It's evidence of life.
If you abide in me. That's the evidence of being
a branch connected to the living vine of Christ. The fact that
I'm justified before God. Not guilty. Righteous in His
sight. And that I have life within,
a new heart, a new spirit. He says, my words abide in you.
You can't get away from it. You may stray a little bit, but
he won't let you go. That's another reason you can't
be lost. The vine won't let the branch go. That's what he said
in John 10. He said, no one shall pluck them
out of my father's hand. And he said, it shall be done.
And herein is my father glorified, that you bear much fruit. The
fruit of the vine that comes through the branch does not draw
attention to or glorify the sinner, but it glorifies God. And he
says, so shall you be my disciples. This proves, that's what this
means, this proves you're his disciples, his disciples. Turn over to Romans 7 and I'll
conclude with this. Now again, what's Ezekiel's point? Israel under the law was an unfruitful
vine. Good for nothing. Sinful, fallen, ruined man under
the law is an unfruitful vine. No life. But in Christ, the true
vine, there's life, there's righteousness, there's wisdom, there's redemption,
there's holiness. There's forgiveness. Look at
verse four of Romans seven. Wherefore my brethren you are
also become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Christ our
substitute died under the law for our sins charged to him.
And he did that that you should be married to another even to
him who's raised from the dead that we should what? Bring forth
fruit unto God. Married to Christ in him. Look
at verse five, for when we were in the flesh, that means when
we were unbelievers, unregenerate, emotions or passions of sins
which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth
fruit unto death. And I've always told you that
usually that'll work in one of two ways in the unregenerate
man. These passions of sins which
are stirred up by the law. It'll either work in abject rebellion,
and make a sinner just totally rebellious in the way of immorality,
law-breaking, terrible citizen, perversion, or it'll work in
the way of false religion and stir a sinner up to trying to
establish their own righteousness before God. Both of those things
are fruit unto death. And all you have to do is look
at the thief on the cross. Here was an immoral man. The
woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, the passions of sins. You know,
when the law says don't do it, they're determined I'm going
to do just the opposite of what the law says. And then look at
Saul of Tarsus, who was trying to do his best to keep the law.
Both were fruit unto death. But he says, but now, verse six,
but now we're delivered from the law, but being dead wherein
we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and
not in oldness of the letter. One more across the page there,
verse 20 of chapter six. For when you were servants of
sin, that's an unbeliever, unregenerate, You were free from righteousness.
You didn't have any righteousness to claim, even though you may
have claimed it, but in reality you didn't have anything. Saul
of Tarsus claimed he was righteous, but he wasn't. And he says in
verse 21, What fruit had ye then in those things whereof you are
now ashamed? You weren't ashamed of him. Saul
of Tarsus wasn't ashamed of his human works righteousness until
that now come about. What now? Conversion, regeneration,
the new birth. The Holy Spirit convinced him
of sin. For the end of those things is death. But now being
made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your
fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. That's the
fruit that speaks of Christ, our holiness and our righteousness.
and our life, our everlasting life. For the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord, who is the true vine.