If you would you want to follow
along please turn to John chapter 15 And I'm going to read a little
bit about the vine and the branches John chapter 15 verse 1 I am
the true vine and My father is the husbandman Every branch in
me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. Every branch that
beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more
fruit. Now ye are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. 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 ye abide
in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye
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 ye abide
in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. And I'm going to stop right there. I've stated it here, and I believe
both Walter and Paul have also stated this. You cannot preach Christ high
enough. And you cannot preach man too
low. Now I said it again, and I will
again later, I'm sure. But here's the thing, we are,
as human beings, even as believers, who know Christ, and know somewhat
of his doctrine. Somewhat of what's revealed in
the scriptures we know but we are incapable of truly comprehending
and much less relating to you his incredible incomprehensible
glory And we are actually incapable
of detailing the real depravity of a man We don't know how bad
we are. Now we may know we're bad. We
may know we sin. And we may know we have sin within
us. We have in still. As a believer, you still have
an unbelief. We still doubt God. But we don't know us the way
God knows us. And we don't know Christ the
way he really is. We do the best we can with what
he's revealed in his scriptures. The truth, understand this, the
truth is hard for men. For Jesus Christ, it's natural.
For us, it's unnatural. And I want to start this sermon
with a hard saying. It's the truth, but it's hard. And it's hard for men to quite
lay hold of and to grasp hold of. And really, to be honest,
this is one of the reasons why people reject most of what the
scripture states. And here's the hard statement.
God doesn't need you. You need God. We have such an
opinion of ourselves. Even when we're, Even when we're
being humble. You know what we think? Boy,
that was pretty humble. I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good
at that. God doesn't need us. We need
him. We need him. I'm not here for
your self-esteem. I've got nothing against self-esteem
when one worm's comparing himself to another worm. But when you
start putting God in the mix, you ain't got no self-esteem.
You have nothing to be proud of yourself for before God. I'm here to tell you the truth
of God as revealed in his word here. Jesus Christ said, I am
the true vine. Now what does that mean? This
is an example he has given, an illustration he is using, and
he is saying, I am. the true vine, I am. I am the
good shepherd's, another one he said. Oh, the father is the husbandman. So you understand, I'm gonna
be talking a little bit about vines and branches, not much,
but I'm gonna be talking a little bit, but what I'm talking about
is Christ, the father, and men. The life is in the vine and the
vine, the life is in you if you are a branch attached to that
vine. Now if you are unattached from
that vine, he's already said it. If a man abide not in me,
he is cast forth as a branch and not only that, is withered,
withered. Dried up, dried out of no value
except for the fire. And what? Men gather them and
cast them into the fire and they're burned. You know why? Because
that's what you do with dead branches. That's the purpose of a dead
branch is to be burned up in a fire. So what's he saying? The purpose is if you're not
in the vine, you're gonna be burned up. And that's the truth
of scripture. He is the true vine and if you're
not in the true vine, you're fit to be burnt. That's part
of the depravity of man. That's part of what we don't
want to tell ourselves and what we don't want to think about
our relatives or people we care about, but that's the truth of
God. But what I want to speak from is verse five. I am the vine and ye are the
branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit. And this last statement is my
title. For without me, ye can do nothing. Nothing, nothing. Now I know
to start with, I keep harping on this and I also know that
I will keep harping on this and keep repeating it and keep repeating
it because I have found out that I am far better at forgetting
important things than I am at remembering important things.
And I suspect you might be the same. Matter of fact, from talking
to some of you, I know you are, because you just do the same
thing. But here it is. There is only one true vine. You can stop looking for anything
else. There's the true vine, and there's nothing else. That's
what Christ said. I am the true vine. I'm not talking
about the garden. I'm not talking about the field.
I'm talking about one vine. One vine, there's only one vine.
Deuteronomy six and verse four says this. Hear, O Israel, the
Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with
all thy might. That's Deuteronomy six and five.
There's one Lord, love him with all your heart, your mind, and
your soul. All your strength. Hear all you believers. Hear
all you believers. There's only one vine. There's
only one vine. There's only one true vine, and
that is the Lord Jesus Christ. I know. No, I'm not gonna go into that. He
that abides in me, and I in him. There's only one vine. In that
vine, there's only one life. There's only one life. That's
why I harp on it. I mean, there's only one olive
tree, there's only one vine, there's only one good shepherd,
there's only one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. Our Lord is one Lord. And if
you're not in that vine, you have no life. But here's the
great thing. If you are in that vine, that
branch is alive. That branch is alive. You understand? He didn't say, I'm the vine,
you the branches. He that abides in me and I am
him. If he's a really, really good branch, he's gonna bring
forth much fruit. No, he says, if you're alive
in me and I'm in you, you're gonna bring forth fruit. You
understand? There's no doubt. You wanna know
why? The Father is the husbandman and Jesus Christ is the vine. Now if you think there's gonna
be any sickly branches, no, there's not. There's not. If he abides in you and you abide
in him, you are going to bring forth fruit. And it's not gonna
be of your own work. I'm gonna tell you that here
in a minute. There is life in Christ. There is light in Christ. In him is no darkness. At all. At all. At all. I love that. You understand? Because in me,
I have both light and darkness. Still to this day. Been believing
Christ for 34 years or so, or 35 years, since 1982, whatever
that is. I don't know, I can't count.
Doesn't matter. But still in me, there is darkness. Still in me, where there is life,
there is also still my flesh. And in my flesh, what, dwells
no good thing. And that which is flesh is flesh. But thank God also that which
is spirit is spirit. Oh my. He that abides in me and I in
him, he's the light, he's the life, and if I have any light
or life, and life, It's because of him. It's because of the true
vine. It's not because I'm such a good branch. And thank God
it's not because I'm a bad branch. I just wanna be his branch. That's
what I wanna be. I wanna be a branch in the true
vine. I wanna attach myself. No, I
can't do it. I wanna be attached to Christ. I want him to abide in me and
I in him. because he is the life. And it
says, bring forth much fruit. Now I know the first thing people
think about, maybe not here, but I've been in other places,
thank God not for a few decades, but when they talk about fruit,
they talk about being a soul winner. No. Brings forth much fruit. What
do we know about fruit? Well the fruit of the spirit.
is love, joy, peace. Long suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. And what do we know about those
things? Against such, there is no law. I like that. If you are abiding in the vine,
and the vine is abiding in you. You will have love, joy, and
peace. You will have, you will be long-suffering,
you'll have gentleness. And maybe you won't be very good
at it. I understand, that's the way I am. But goodness, faith,
meekness, and temperance. What does it mean to bring forth
much fruit? You love Jesus Christ, and one
another. One another. You have joy in
Christ. We rest in Christ in peace. In peace. Because he is our peace. And by his faith, the fruit of
the spirit, the gift of God, we believe him. We believe Jesus
Christ. We bow to him, we believe his
word. In him abiding, living in Christ
Jesus is much fruit. And because of him, because of
his love, because of his grace, because of his faith, oh my,
you will follow him, you will. You may not follow well, you
may follow haltingly, but you will follow him. And when you're
not following him, you'll want to. When you think you're not
following him, you want to. And when you think you're not
following him, you may be following him. Because that's how depraved
we still are. Oh my, you'll assemble with the
brethren when you can, when you can. You will preach his gospel
if you're a preacher. You will hear his gospel if you're
a believer. You'll even sing his songs, songs
of praise. And you must not forget, and
I don't think you will forget. that this is all because you
are a part of the true vine. It's because of him. It's because
of him. Abiding in him, living in him,
outside of him. Wait a minute, I'm starting to
say that. That's wrong. That's wrong. For without me, you can do nothing. I know this is something that
I think I've said it here before. I know I've talked to Walter
about it some time ago, and it's still there in my head. There's a very real sense in
which no one and nothing is outside of Christ. There's a very real
sense. Because if you look at the scriptures,
here's what it says, for without me. You understand? There's two
states. in Christ, but it's not out of
Christ. It's without Christ. Because
you understand, the Father has given Him power over all flesh. Now that's those in Him, and
that's those without Him. He has power over all flesh,
what? To give eternal life to as many as the Father gave to
Him. Do you really, I mean, I know it's a fine point, but it's one
of these things that is stuck in my head. There's a really
fine point to where no one is outside of Christ. No one is
out of his control. No one is out of his power. But
here, what he's saying here, for without me, you can do nothing,
nothing. That's the serious truth. That's
the hard lesson. Without me, without Jesus Christ,
you can do absolutely nothing. And I'll put a word on the end
of that, good. Cuz you understand, granted,
we do many things. We do many things. But without
him, we can do nothing good. John Gill put it this way he
says that is of any spiritual good and That is exactly right We may do many things But without him we can do nothing
that is of any spiritual value Without me without Christ without
the true vine I You're a dead branch. You're
a dead branch, fit for the fire. You can do nothing. You can do
nothing. Now, am I talking about before
you're saved, or am I talking about after you're saved? That's
a good question. And there's one answer for it.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Before during and after
salvation without Christ You can do nothing He didn't put
any qualifier there, and I'm not going to put any qualifier
there He just says without me I can tell you this from the
scriptures You cannot come to Christ without
without God. John 6, 44 says this, no man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him and
I will raise him up at the last day. John 6, 65 says this, same chapter. And he said, therefore said I
unto you. I'm gonna reiterate what I just
said to you in verse 44. Therefore said I unto you that
no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my
father Now these two verses had a profound
effect on me when I first read But these two verses had a profound
effect on the people that Christ preached them to Says this, from that, many of
his disciples, his disciples went back, went back. And not only did they go back,
they walked no more with him. Understand? Don't be like those
to whom Christ preached this He asked the disciples he looked
at the disciples and asked him the 12 will you also go away? Understand Jesus Christ didn't
try to stop him Jesus Christ didn't say let me explain myself,
so you'll understand it better No Here's the thing about the scripture
And here's the thing about our Lord Jesus Christ that the world
doesn't wanna know. Jesus Christ said exactly what
he meant, and he meant exactly what he said. He was speaking to them, and
they left him because of what he said. I know there are those who might
hate this, that no man can come except it be given to him of
the Father. I did the first time I heard it. But I came to the
same conclusion, I was given the same answer, that God gave
to Peter. Because when Christ looked at
him and said, will you also go away, Peter said this. Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Do you know the true vine? Because if you do, you're a branch. And you're gonna wanna stay in
the true vine. And you know he's the only true
vine. He didn't try to explain to him.
He didn't try and stop him. He said what he meant, and he
meant what he said. And those that left, left because
he said what he meant, and he meant what he said. That's why
they left. They heard him, and they left
him. That's how depraved we are. God
himself, manifest in the flesh, preached a message and told these
men that it takes the power of God to save a soul. And they
didn't like it. They wouldn't have it, and they
walked away. You understand, this was not
a misunderstanding. They knew exactly what he said, and that's
why they got mad and he left. And he said what he said, knowing
full well they were gonna walk away from him. Understand, nobody
surprised Jesus Christ. He knew what was in Ben's heart.
He knows what's in our heart. But he also knows without him,
we can do nothing. Without him, we can do nothing.
And not only that, you know, I can tell you something else. I know you've heard this, but I'm going to put it this
way. No man can make a decision for Jesus. I've heard that. I've made my decision for Jesus.
What did Jesus Christ have to say about that? John 15, 16,
just a little further down. Ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you. That ye should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, and that whatsoever
ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
But what did Jesus Christ say there? You have not chosen me. You can put a period right there. I have chosen you. I have chosen
you. Walter, you mentioned that, read
that thing from Pink about the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign in all things. And I'm gonna tell you this,
God is sovereign in salvation. I get tickled, what was it, Henry
said one time, I think it was Henry, he says, people will make
God sovereign with the weather, or whether or not you break your
leg, or whatever you want to, but the one thing they will not
have is the subject that's nearest and dearest to God's heart, the
work of his son. the work of his son, the sacrifice
and offering of his son, and what that sacrifice and offering
did. They won't have God's sovereign
in that. You've got to leave it up to me whether or not I'm
gonna be saved. If it's up to me, I wouldn't do it. Because
I was blind and didn't see the light. I was blind and I didn't
even know there was light. If our gospel is hid, it's hid
to those that are lost. Whom the God of this world has
blinded their minds so that they can't see. And they can't come unless it
be given to a mother father. And you understand when Jesus
Christ said this, you've not chosen me, I've chosen you, he
was speaking to his disciples. Judas was already gone by this
time. Judas left in chapter 13. This is chapter 15. Jesus Christ said, I've chosen
you and ordained you. And he said that after he already
said, without me, you can do nothing. I've chosen you. You didn't choose
me. So let me preach something here
just for a minute. I'm about done. because I wanna tell you
what you and everyone in this world need to know about self-sufficiency. You don't have
any. That's what you gotta know. And it doesn't matter who you
are, it doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter what
you are. You have no self-sufficiency
toward God. toward God. We are not sufficient
in any way, shape, or form. That's the truth of self-sufficiency.
There is none. It doesn't matter what we think.
It doesn't matter what you believe. It doesn't even matter what you
want to be true or what you've been told all your life. Because there's a scripture in
here where it says, some are given strong delusion that they
should believe the lie. Here's what I know. Jesus Christ
has spoken, and he said, without me, you can do nothing. Now,
you'll either believe him or you won't. I... I told Debbie this the other
day, because I was thinking about this, and it's like, I pulled
myself up by my own bootstraps. Have you ever heard anybody say
that? I mean, I have. You understand, the answer to
that is no, you didn't. I don't care what you think,
I don't care what you believe. But here's the thing, even if you
did, where do you think bootstraps come from? They don't want to acknowledge
the sovereignty of God in any way, shape, or form if they can
get out of it. Because here's what you also
need to know about free will. Without Christ, you can do nothing. There's your free will. You understand? You have a will, but it ain't
free. You have a will, you have a desire,
you have a life that you want to live and you want to live
it your way. And God may let you. He may let you. Understand, I think I've come
to a conclusion where some people are cursed, and I mean this cursed
with prosperity. They don't have no need of God.
They got their bootstraps or whatever. Yeah. There's a song out there. All the fitness he requires is
that you feel your need of him. And there are people out there
that feel absolutely no need for God. They might thank God
for how good they but most of them don't even do
that, I don't believe. You've got a will, but that will's
not free. Your will, man's will, every
single man, woman, and child, with the exception of one man,
Christ Jesus, their will is influenced by their heart. What? Desperately wicked, deceitful
above all things, That's what's running my will when it's my
will. Oh my. So what am I saying about
free will? Without Christ Jesus, you can
do nothing. That's all I'm gonna say. Let's be clear. There's nothing,
nothing being added to God. Nothing. God needs nothing. Matter of fact, you understand,
God's not even getting glory. You ever heard that? And I have
a problem, it's just that word. Like getting saved, what you
said last week. No, you gotta be saved. You can't get saved,
you need to be saved. And Christ needs to save you.
God's not getting glory by saving his people, he's manifesting
his glory. Because you understand, he's
already the God of all glory. and He is manifesting His glory
and saving His people in His Son, in the Son. As believers walk in this world,
walk in this spirit, we can only do that in Him. Without Him,
we can do nothing. We can't even walk. Where's that
in here? Philippians 2 and 12, wherefore,
my beloved, as you have always obeyed and not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence. Work out, oh, wait a
minute. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. Now I know people who preach
that and they'll stop right there. But that ain't all Paul wrote.
Work out my own salvation? How can I possibly do that? Paul
tells us, Paul tells you. For it is God, for it is God,
for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of
his good pleasure. See, understand, without him,
you can do nothing. But, Paul also wrote a little further
on in Philippians, I can do all things. What? I can do all things
through Christ, which strengthens me. He has not left us alone. Where
two or three are gathered, there he is in the midst, yes. And
yes, he abides in us. The glorious thing, we abide
in Him. But another glorious thing, He abides in us. Without
Him, we can do nothing of any spiritual value. But in Him,
I can do all things, through Christ, through Christ, through
Christ, which strengthened me. They're both true. That's the
beauty of it. But here's the thing. This is one of these things,
you can't have one without the other. And you can't have anything at
all without the true vine. But with the true vine, in the
true vine, you can do all things. Thank God for that. Our Heavenly
Father, thank you, Lord, for your blessings in Christ Jesus, for your glory, which you have
shown to us in the salvation of our souls. Your son, our Lord,
came and lived and bled and died and rose from the grave to redeem
his people, to purchase them. and he is bringing them in one
at a time. It is his good pleasure, your
good pleasure, calling them out by name. Thank you, Lord. Bless all that wanted to be here
but couldn't. Bless all of us here with your
knowledge, your wisdom, your grace. Help us, Lord, as we go
on. Be with Walter as he comes to
preach your word. And in Christ's name we pray,
amen.