Welcome to our program. Now the
day I'm going to be preaching from the book of John chapter
15. This is a precious chapter full of the truth of Christ.
And the title of the message today is Christ the true vine. Now, in verse 1, the Lord is
speaking to his disciples in the upper room. This is just
hours before he goes out to the Garden of Gethsemane and before
he is arrested, all leading up to the death that he would die,
his suffering and obedience unto death for the salvation of his
people. And he tells his disciples, he
says, I am the true vine. Now, this is another one of those
great I am statements of the Lord of glory. where Christ identifies
himself as the Son of God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity,
truly God and truly man, and where he identifies himself as
the God of the Old Testament. You see, God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and the Father reveals himself
through the Son. Even back in the Old Testament,
he revealed himself through the Son. In the pre-incarnate appearances
of Christ, He appeared unto Moses on Mount Sinai. Moses asked him
to tell him his name so that he could tell the children of
Israel who it was that sent Moses unto them. And he said, Moses,
you tell them I am that I am. I am the God who was, who is,
and who ever will be. The self-existing God, self-sufficient
God. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God and man in one person. And that's an amazing truth.
It's a truth that goes far beyond our meager understandings. But
we know it's so because God reveals it in his word. And anyone who
denies either the deity or the sinless humanity of Christ does
not know this one who is the true vine. So he says, I am the
true vine and my father is the husbandman. Now there that word
husbandman means the keeper of the garden, the keeper of the
fields, and what he's showing there is that he came from the
Father. We've spoken of this before,
how the Son, who is equal with the Father in every attribute
of deity and in the nature of his deity, but he is subservient
to the Father for the purpose of redemption. And it is the
Father who is revealed in the Scripture as representing the
sovereign authority of the Godhead, the One who chose a people before
the foundation of the world, and in the everlasting covenant
of grace made a pact with the Son to save those people according
to His strict justice and His holy law. sent the Son to be
the Redeemer, and the Son willingly became the servant of the Father
in order to redeem his people." So he says, I am the true vine. Now look at verse 2. Now these
words are so important to understand. He says, 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,
the vine. Christ is the vine. That is,
he is the life-giving vine, for all life proceeds from Christ. The Bible says he is the author
of physical life, and that he is the creator in that sense.
But more important, and what he is speaking of here specifically,
especially in light of his going to the cross, is that he is the
giver and the sustainer of eternal life and spiritual life. You see, men by nature, we by
nature, are born into this world spiritually dead. That's why
Christ told Nicodemus, you must be born again. But you see, life
is not just some entity or mystical quality that's floating around
there out in the air that you can grab. Life has to come from
a source, and the source is God Himself in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the giver and the sustainer
of all life. The Bible says that not only
was this world created by Him and for Him, but by Him this
world subsists and consists. This world is held together in
physical nature and life by Christ. But, my friend, the kingdom of
life, eternal life, and spiritual life, is from Christ, who is
the life-giving vine. The vine is the source of life,
you see. Now, the vine produces fruit.
The fruit is the result. That's his children. That's his
people. That's his redeemed ones. But
the vine is the source of the life. You might see a vine somewhere
and leaves sprout on that vine. You see, it's the vine through
which the life flows and from whom the life flows, not the
leaves. You see, the vine comes first
and then the leaves. Well, Christ is the vine. Now,
why do we need life from him? Because we're creatures. And
not only that, we're fallen creatures, fallen under Adam's sin, condemned
in Adam and born into this world as sinners. By nature and by
practice, that's all we are. Job's friend asked this question,
how can a man born of woman be clean? We're born filthy in our
sin. We're not born innocent. We're
born dead in trespasses and sin. And the reason is, is because
sin demands death. Sin demands death. You see, where
sin is accounted, or where sin is charged or imputed, The law
of God must pronounce the sentence of death. And as a result of
our fallen Adam, when we're born into this world, we're born without
spiritual life. We have physical life. We have
lungs and a heart and a brain and eyes and ears. We see, we
smell, we hear, all of this, we breathe. But we don't have
spiritual life. Spiritual, eternal life is that
quality. of eternal life that comes from
Christ alone. The Bible says, for as sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by our Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 5.21. So as sin reigns unto death,
where sin is charged, where sin is is present, there's death,
you see. Even our physical bodies, even
the physical bodies of a believer, a sinner saved by grace, that
body is going to die because of sin. That's what Paul said
in Romans chapter 6. The body is dead because of sin.
This physical body, we see the marks of this death every day
that we're alive as we grow older. This body of humiliation, you
see the marks of death on it as we grow old. But the thing
we don't see with the physical eye is that by nature we're spiritually
dead. And the only way that we can
have spiritual life and live eternally with Christ in glory
is through the life-giving vine. Right sin demands death. Righteousness
demands life. We do not have righteousness
on our own. We're not born righteous. We're
not even born innocent. We're born sin. And we cannot
become righteous or be made righteous by our works. Our best efforts
to keep the law will not make us righteous or holy. For by
deeds of law shall no flesh be justified. That means to be made
righteous, declared righteous in the sight of God. No flesh
shall be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge
of sin. All the law of God can do to
you or to me, based on our works, is condemn us and pronounce death
upon us. But my friend, in Christ, the
life-giving vine, there is life. There's spiritual life. There's
eternal life in Christ, everlasting life. And it's because of what
he did and he did alone. It's because of his obedience
to the law, not mine. It's because of His suffering
unto death to pay my debt on the cross of Calvary. The debt
of my sin was charged to Him and He paid it in full. It's
His suffering, not mine, not yours. It's the righteousness
of Christ. It's the righteousness of God
because God purposed it, God provided it, God accepted it,
and God will give it to His people. He gave it to them on the cross
of Calvary when Christ put away sin. And from Christ comes life. Now, also, the wages of sin is
death. Romans chapter 6 and verse 23
tells us. Now that's what we can earn.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. So death is what we earn by our
works. Life is what is given by the
grace of God in Christ. And let me tell you something.
Outside of Christ, there is no spiritual or eternal life. He
said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. We read that back in John
chapter 14 and verse 6. He told Martha, Lazarus' sister,
he said, Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. You see, there
is no eternal spiritual life apart from Christ and his blood
and righteousness alone. Now that's what he means here,
I am the true vine. Now he says in verse 2, 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 much fruit. Now there are two applications
I want to deal with in this verse. First of all, when he says every
branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away. And the
key to that is, is every branch in me. Now, what does that mean?
Well, we know, we know that the Jews under the old covenant,
in a temporal, in that covenant of law, the Mosaic law, the law
of Moses, the nation Israel, under that covenant were the
people of God in a temporal, physical, ceremonial way. That was a covenant that was
instituted by God through Moses at Mount Sinai, and it lasted
about 1,500 years until the Christ, the Messiah, came to fulfill
all of its requirements. And that nation Israel, now there
were many people in that nation over the 1,500 year period, but
as a nation, and there were many whom God saved out of that nation,
Isaiah said a remnant. That means a small part. Paul
dealt with that in Romans chapter 11. A remnant according to the
election of grace. You see, they were not saved
eternally and spiritually because of their physical connection
with Abraham. They were not saved because of
their physical circumcision. They were not saved because they
kept the law of Moses, for they broke that covenant. But that
nation as a whole, which were known as the people of God in
a temporal, temporary, ceremonial, physical way, civil way. They mainly, on the whole, rejected
God, and that was shown in their treatment of the Savior. Now,
it's not just blaming the nation Israel for how Christ was treated
here on earth. I blame myself. I blame you.
All mankind is represented as turning against Christ. It's
not just the Jews. You see, by nature, we all hate
the gospel. I'm going to deal with that next
week. By nature, we all hate God's Son. But somebody, I heard
a preacher say years ago, when he was preaching on the crucifixion
of Christ, he said, if I had been there, I would have tried
to stop it. And I said, I thought to myself,
you fool. My friend, if we'd have been
there, we'd have been right with the crowd who said, crucify him,
because that was fallen humanity. represented in opposition to
Christ. But here he's showing that the
Jewish nation, who were the people of God in that civil way, that
ceremonial way, they did not bear any fruit, the fruit of
life from the vine, and therefore they were taken away. God destroyed
that nation. But now another application of
that would be this. It would be that the one who
makes a profession of faith in Christ, one who merely says by
his word that I'm a believer, but he bears no fruit, no fruit
of faith, no fruit of repentance, no fruit of love, no fruit of
obedience, no fruit of worship, none of the fruit of the Spirit.
In other words, he bears no fruit within his soul and his mind
and his heart. That person is a false professor,
and he'll be taken away. Now, somebody wants to say, well,
they were saved, but they lost their salvation. Oh, no. They
had a mere profession. What does the Bible say of those
who are taken away or who leave the gospel? It says in 1 John
2, in verse 19, so plainly, it says, they never were saved to
begin with. My friend, if you're saved by
the grace of God, if you're truly in Christ by the power of God's
grace, you will never leave Him. And I'll guarantee you this,
He will never leave you. He will keep you until the end.
We believe in the eternal security of the saved because salvation
is by grace. And if it's by grace, it cannot
be lost. You didn't earn it. You cannot
send it away. Somebody says, well, that means
that people can go out and sin as much as they want to. Oh,
no, it doesn't. What you do with grace is your
problem and your responsibility. But I'm going to tell you something.
Where God infiltrates a sinner's heart and mind with his grace
by the power of the Spirit, there will be fruit. Now, outside of
Christ, the only kind of fruit we can bear is fruit unto death. But look at what he says in verse
2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and
every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth, he purges it, that
it may bring forth more fruit. Just like a plant that you have
to prune. It'll grow leaves, it'll grow
fruit, it'll grow flowers, and it has to be pruned at a certain
time so that it'll bear more fruit. And I want you to notice
something about this. Those who are in Christ savingly,
those who are saved by the grace of God, washed in his blood and
clothed in his righteousness, those who have been regenerated
by the Holy Spirit in whom the Holy Spirit indwells with the
Word, they all bear fruit and they are fruit bearers. They're
not fruit producers. You see the difference? You see,
when God saves us, we don't produce fruit. We're not fruit producers. Christ is the fruit producer. We're the fruit bearers. He's
the vine. We're the branches. And as we
grow in grace and knowledge, He'll prune us. He'll prune us
by growth in grace and knowledge. He'll correct us. He'll chastise
us when we need to be chastised. That's not payment. Chastisement
is not payment for sins. Christ paid for our sins on the
cross. Chastisement is punishment for correction. And He'll wean
us away from the world. He'll cause us to grow. And that's
how He purges us. But it's the purging of love.
It's the care of the Savior for His people. You see that? He
says in verse 3, he says, Now ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you. That refers to the work of the
Holy Spirit in cleansing our consciences, our minds, and our
hearts by the word of God. And that cleanliness is not a
sinless perfection that exists within us, but it's looking to
Christ to have our hearts and our minds purged and purified
by faith. You see, that's how we come to
know Christ. and to rest in him, and to depend
upon him for all life and all sustenance. Not only is he our
Savior, but he's the bread of life. He sustains us, he feeds
us, he cares for us, he carries us. He carries us to the end. He's able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto God by him. He is able, the scripture says.
And we're clean through the word. In other words, as we look to
Christ, we see our cleanliness in Him. We don't see it in ourselves. In ourselves, we're still full
of the flesh, full of sin. We have a warfare. We have evil
thoughts. We have evil motives. We have
to fight those, you see. But as we continually look to
Christ and His righteousness and His blood and what He accomplished
on Calvary 4, When we continually look to him as our advocate on
the throne, at the right hand of the Father, making intercession
for us, we see our cleanliness. And then he says in verse 4,
he says, Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
you abide in me. Now what he's showing here is
the union of Christ with his people. He says, you abide in
me. That is, we're one with Christ
in the eyes of God's law and justice. We're one with Christ
in heart and mind. We're united to him. We look
to him. We rest in him. We submit to
him. We follow him. He is our all
and in all. And then he says, he abides in
you, in us. Christ liveth in me, the scripture
says. Now, that's not a mysticism,
and people get into trouble when they go to trying to explain
that in a theological manner. But what it simply means, if
you look at the Scripture, and go strictly by Scripture, it
means this, He indwells us by His Spirit and by His Word. You see, Christ is God-man. He
is God and man in one person. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father, but when he went away, he told his disciples,
I'll send unto you another Comforter, another Comforter, the Holy Spirit,
another of the same kind, who is God, the third person of the
Trinity. And he indwells his people by
his Spirit and by his Word, and he'll never leave us. So we abide
in him, we continue in him, that's what that means, and he abides
in us. He continues in us. And he says,
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, just like I said,
a branch is not the one who is the source of life. The vine
is the source of the life, Christ. He said, accepted, abide in the
vine. No more can ye except you abide in me. My friend, he said,
without, listen, without abiding in Christ, there is no fruit. There's no life. He said, without
me, you can do nothing. He says, and that's in the next
verse, he says in verse 5, I am the vine, you're the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without me you can do nothing.
Literally, that means severed from Christ, you can do nothing.
Severed from Him, you can do nothing. Just like if you see
a vine with a beautiful flower, a branch and a flower on it,
you cut that branch off and it's going to die. So you can do nothing
without Christ. He says in verse 6, if a man
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withered. Now
that man may have appeared to be a branch for a little while,
he may have claimed to be a branch, but if he doesn't abide in Christ,
if he doesn't continue in the faith, he is cast away, he is
cast forth as a branch and he's withered. He never was saved
to begin with. And he says, and men gather them
and cast them into the fire, and they're burned. You see,
there's no life there. There's no power there from the
Lord. Without Christ, the vine, there
is no life. And he says in verse 7, if you
abide in me, and my words abide in you. Now, you see that? How
does he abide in us? He says, if you abide in me,
and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and
it shall be done unto you." My friend, you know there are many,
many people who claim to be believers, who claim to be disciples of
Christ, who claim to be followers of Christ, who claim that Christ
abides within them, who deny His Word, His plain Word in the
Scripture. They'll deny His sovereignty
and make salvation conditioned on man's free will. They'll deny
their sinfulness and make salvation a matter of them working in order
to earn God's favor, self-righteousness, you see. But he says, if you
abide in me and my words abide in you, his truth, you shall
ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. That is according
to his word. That doesn't mean you're going
to get every desire that you want. Some of your desires, some
of my desires, are not good. and even evil sometimes. Some
of my desires may be the result of vengeance. Some of the things
I desire, though not evil in and of themselves, would not
be good for me, and I just don't know it. But my Father in heaven
knows better. So if you ask according to his
word, it shall be done unto you. In verse 8 he says, Herein is
my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so shall you
be my disciples. You see, the true disciples of
Christ will always bear fruit. And what is that fruit? Well,
we mentioned several of them earlier, the fruit of the Spirit,
love, peace, joy, temperance, all of the things that Paul listed
in Galatians chapter 5 as the fruit of the Spirit. All of that,
the fruit of obedience and love, the fruit of prayer, the fruit
of worship, the fruit of fellowship, all of these things, growth in
grace and in knowledge. Now, listen to me. The fruit
that we bear is not our righteousness before God. Christ, the true
vine, is our righteousness before God. He is our righteousness,
you see. He is our holiness. The fruit
that we bear, which is the operation of the Spirit within, is the
fruit of what Christ has accomplished. We have that fruit. We bear that
fruit. But we still don't have it in
perfection yet because we're still sinners. Everything that
I do in trying to keep the law of God falls short even now. It's corrupted by sin within
me. And therefore it can only be
accepted before the Father by the blood of Christ. All, listen,
what I am and what I do can only be accepted in the Beloved. And
therefore I cannot claim any righteousness or holiness within
myself. I have to look to Christ. Now,
one day I will be righteous and holy within myself. But he said
it, herein is my Father glorified. That's you bear much fruit. And
he says, so shall you be my disciples. You see, in bearing fruit from
the true vine, Christ the true vine, it's not the man who is
glorified, it's not the branch that is glorified and honored,
it's the Father who is glorified through the Son. It's like he
said over Matthew chapter 5 and verse 16 in the Sermon on the
Mount, when he said, Let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works and glorify your Father which
is in heaven. You see, the bearing of fruit
is not a testimony to man's goodness or man's power or man's holiness. It's a testimony to the goodness
of God, the power of God, and the holiness of God in Christ. You see the difference there?
So whatever fruit that I bear, it is not so that I can stand
upon Christ and boast of my own works and efforts and cooperation.
It's a testimony to the grace of God that comes to me through
Christ the true vine. I hope that's been helpful to
your understanding of the Scriptures. If you'd like to get a copy of
this message, listen to the announcer and he'll give you the details.
The title of this message is, Christ the True Vine. And I hope
you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word.