Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow
along in your Bibles with the message today, I'll be preaching
from the book of John, Gospel of John chapter 15, beginning
at verse one, concerning the subject of Jesus Christ, the
true vine. Jesus Christ, the true vine. John chapter 15, beginning at
verse one. Now often in scripture, you'll
see symbolic language, metaphors, types and pictures. And one of
the ways that the Lord describes his relationship with the church
is with the symbolism of farming. And this is one of the, and you'll
see that several times throughout the scripture. A farmer sowing
seed, often the seed is the word of God and it must be watered
with the power of the Spirit. Sometimes the seed just refers
to true believers themselves. In fact, over in John chapter
12, He spoke of himself as being a seed of wheat planted into
the ground, and out of that comes much fruit, and that's his people. So we often see that. Well, here
in John chapter 15, we see Christ identifying himself as the true
vine. Look at verse one. He says, I
am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. And so we
see there another description of the authority and the order
of the Trinity. God the Father is the husbandman. God the Son is the true vine.
God the Holy Spirit is, you might say, he's the keeper, the apply
applicator of this. And this does not show an inequality
within the Trinity. because the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit are co-equal in every attribute of deity. But
what you see is an order of office. The Father, God the Father, represents
the authority, the sovereignty of the Godhead. And then God
the Son, he represents the office of mediator, the savior, the
servant, And then God, the Holy Spirit, as I said, is the applicator,
the applier, you might say, of the benefits of what Christ as
the Son accomplished. But he says in John 15, I am
the true vine, my Father is the husbandman. Look at verse two.
He says, every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh
away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth, You might look at it as he prunes, like
you prune a bush, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now what
he's talking about there is the difference between one who simply
claims to be a disciple of Christ, but who is not a disciple, and
that's known because they bear not fruit. And then he gives
the contrast. There's those who do bear fruit,
and the Lord purges them, he prunes them, and he does that
in several ways. He does it through a growth in
grace and in knowledge of Christ. He does it through chastisement.
Hebrews chapter 12 speaks of that, that we may grow. He does
it through the word by the power of the Spirit. He purges it,
that it may bring forth more fruit. Now, what is this fruit? Well, the fruit is faith in Christ,
it's repentance of dead works, and it's perseverance in the
faith. That's the fruit of the vine. Now, it's important that we remember,
keep things in order, this analogy here is showing us something
very significant. And what it's showing us is this.
In any good study of farming and plants, botany or whatever,
things related to that, we understand that the life comes from the
vine. And the branches gain their life
from the vine, and they bear fruit from the vine. And that's
speaking of the fruit of faith, repentance, and perseverance
in the faith. And if you look over in the book
of Romans chapter seven, we see how this is related to the gospel. If you look at Romans seven in
verse four, The Apostle Paul, writing by inspiration of the
Spirit here, says, wherefore, my brethren, you also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ. Now, first of all, what
is it to be dead to the law? Well, you have to understand
that in the light of the fact that we are all sinners who deserve
death because the law demands death where sin is charged. In other words, if somebody charges
you with a crime, and they come and they arrest you and they
put you on trial, you go into the court of law, and there it's
determined whether or not you're guilty or not guilty. Well, the
Bible teaches us that all of us fell in Adam, all of us are
born dead spiritually in sins and trespasses, and that all
of us have sinned. for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Now that's our case, we're sinners. And the wages of sin is death.
Now the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord who is divine. But the wages of sin is death,
that's what we deserve. See this is what we need to understand
about the biblical revelation of the reality of who God is
and the reality of who we are. God is holy. God is just. God is righteous and he must
punish sinners. You know, people go around and
they say, well, he hates sin, but he loves the sin. No, God,
listen, God must punish sinners to whom sin is charged. So if God, if the law of God
charges me with my sins, then I have no hope. And that means
my only hope is there a way to find some way that God can justly
not charge me with my sin. Now the psalmist David expressed
that back in Psalm 32, when he said, blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. That's Psalm 32, I believe verse
two. who puteth not iniquity, in whose heart there is no guile,
no guilt. And what he's saying there is
that those to whom God does not charge with sin, they're blessed. But now how can God not charge
me with sin? Well, that's what Romans 7, 4
is about. Look at it again. He says, wherefore,
my brethren, you also are become dead to the law. In other words,
dead to the law means that the law's penalty against my sin
is satisfied. Death has already been accomplished. The penalty has been paid. Justice
has been satisfied. Righteousness has been established.
That's what it is to be dead to the law. But now how did,
now I'm a sinner. You're a sinner. How did I become
dead to the law? He says in verse four, you've
become dead to the law by the body of Christ. You see, my death
to the law is not based upon anything I do or anything I stop
doing. It's not based upon, it's not
brought about by reformations of life and character and conduct.
It's brought about by one act, by one person, that's the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. When he
died on the cross for the elect of God, for his people given
him before the foundation of the world, He satisfied the law's
penalty of death against them so that they can claim justly
and righteously in the mercy and love and grace of God that
we're dead to the law. But now how did I get that way?
It wasn't because of what I did or what I don't do. It isn't
because of what I decided or chose. It's by the body of Christ. Now, what's the result of that
death to the law for God's people? Verse four of Romans 7. Wherefore,
my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ, that, or in order that, you should be married to another,
even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring
forth fruit unto God. Now do you see the analogy here? The reason that Christ died was
to satisfy the justice of God, against the sins of His people,
their sins were imputed, charged to Him, and He went under the
wrath of God to pay for those sins. He was a ransom. He brought about redemption.
He died on the cross as my surety. That is, my sins were charged
to Him, and He paid that debt. He was my substitute, the Lamb
of God. See, that's the lamb that takes
the place of God's people, God's chosen people. And he drank damnation
dry, he suffered unto death, giving his own precious blood,
and redeemed me from my sins by his death, the body of Christ. Now he did all that in order
that his people, his church, made up of the individuals that
God chose before the foundation of the world, that they might
be married to Him, united to Him in a love relationship, a
divine love relationship. And that relationship, it is
a faith relationship, but the faith, the life that He gives
His people to bear the fruit unto God is from the vine. That's what happened. And so
we bear fruit unto God. And he says, look at Romans 7
and verse 5. He says, for when we were in the flesh, now that
means when we were in unbelief, unregenerate, the motions or
the passions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth another kind of fruit, fruit unto death. Now
that fruit can take on many forms. What kind of, he mentions the
motions of sins which were by the law there. That's the passions
of sin which were by the law. And I've often said that usually
shows up in one of two ways. It will show up in some to where
they are just out and out rebellious against law, against justice,
against society. There are those who are criminal,
malefactors, the scripture calls them, and they don't care about
anybody but themselves. And that's the passions of sins
which were stirred up, not because of any fault in the law, but
because of their rebellion. And then secondly, and I think
most commonly, The way that the passions of sins that were by
the law show up is in false religion. People trying to keep the law
in order to be saved, in order to be made righteous, in order
to have a right relationship with God. That's fruit unto death
too. Why? Because salvation is not
by works. Salvation is by grace. For by
grace are you saved, through faith, but that's not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. And so, as long as a person is
not united to Christ in God-given faith, all you can do is bring
forth fruit unto death. But he says in Romans seven and
verse six, but now we're delivered from the law. How are we delivered
from the law? The law cannot condemn us. The
law cannot charge us with our sins, that being dead wherein
we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and
not in oldness of the letter. Now, newness of the spirit is
the obedience of grace and love and gratitude. That's the fruit
under God that comes from the vine, which is Christ. And the
oldness of the letter, that's legalism. You know what a legalist
is? It's a person who serves as a
forced slave because he or she is afraid of death or hell or
loss of reward. They're mercenaries. They're
serving in order to gain by their efforts and not because they
love God and love Christ. Well, look back at John chapter
15 now. Now he says, every branch in me that beareth not fruit
he taketh away. Now who's he talking about? He's
talking about false professors. They claim to be in Christ. They
claim to believe in him. But they bear no fruit. The fruit
of faith, repentance, and perseverance. He's not, listen, that fruit
here is not just mere human morality. Because false religion can produce
that. Legalism can produce that. But
he's talking about the obedience of faith. And what he's talking
about is the obedience of one who is resting in Christ for
all righteousness before God. My sins were imputed to Christ. His righteousness was imputed
to me. And every branch that beareth
this fruit of faith, repentance, and perseverance, he purges it. He works with it. He deals with
it. He teaches it. He prunes it. He chastises it. Why? That it may bring forth more
fruit. And now what that's talking about is, again, faith, repentance,
and perseverance. And it goes on and on. It never
stops. He says in verse 3 of John 15,
Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
you. Now, Psalm 119 and verse nine says, wherewith shall a
young man cleanse his way? That's by taking heed to the
word of God. This is sanctification by the
word and the power of the spirit. Clean, meaning this. It doesn't
mean you just cleaned up your act. It doesn't mean you just
turned over a new leaf. It doesn't mean that you just
reformed your outward character and conduct. It means through
the word of God, by the power of the spirit, You've been brought
to faith in Christ, repentance of dead works, and perseverance
in the faith. Your heart, your mind, has been
cleansed by the blood of Christ. Now what does that mean? That
means you see that your sins cannot be charged, imputed to
you. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. You
see that your righteousness before God is Jesus Christ crucified
and risen from the dead. He's the vine. This life that
I had, this spiritual life, is not from me. It wasn't in me
naturally. You see, I was born dead in trespasses
and sins, spiritually dead. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. This spiritual life, we have
physical life, but we're spiritually dead by nature, as we're naturally
born. But spiritual life. evidence
by the fruit of faith, repentance, and perseverance in the faith,
by the grace of God, comes from the vine. And how did the vine
produce this life? Well, this is Christ who died
on the cross, satisfying the justice of God, who was buried,
and arose again the third day. You see, in His death, righteousness
was established. And the Bible says that as sin,
Romans 5.21, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. My sins were charged to him,
his righteousness is charged to me. and I stand before God
in a righteousness that I had no part in producing. It's the
imputed righteousness of Christ and it's the source of my life
which is from the vine, which is from Christ. Now he says in
verse four, he says, verse three, now you're clean through the
word which I've spoken unto you. 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." The
only hope of a sinner being saved, the only hope of a sinner being
preserved unto glory is to abide in Christ and He abiding in us. Now, how do we abide in Him?
We continually look to Him, rest in Him, plead His blood as the
full payment of all my sins, plead His righteousness imputed
as my whole justification, right relationship with God. We glorify
Him. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I have nothing,
nothing worth anything to plead before God, but Jesus Christ
crucified and risen from the dead on my behalf. And that's
how we abide in the vine. And he abides in us by his spirit
and by his word. And he will not let us go. And
that's the only hope of a sinner being saved, being preserved,
and being brought to glory. He says in verse five, John 15,
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. You see, we don't produce fruit.
You know, people, they talk about, well, I've got to see some fruit.
Well, most people don't even know what that fruit is. They
think it's morality, human morality. And listen, when I say that,
I'm not saying that Christians, true believers, should not be
moral people. But the fruit here is something
that is only produced in true believers, which Satan cannot
counterfeit. False religion can make an alcoholic
put down the bottle and never take another drink. Now, I'm
all for all, if you're an alcoholic, you should never drink again.
I'm all for that. But that's not the fruit that
he's talking about here. False religion can make a person
who's a drug addict never take another drug. False religion,
psychology, positive thinking can change people for the better
as far as our life in society is concerned. But it cannot produce
the fruit that is unto God. Only the vine can produce that
fruit. And that's the point of this
message. Christ is the true vine, his father is the husbandman,
and his people, his children, true believers, are the branches.
And they bear fruit. And he says here, he that abideth
in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without
me you can do nothing. Without Christ, you can't do
this. And that proves to you that he's not just talking about
general human morality. because a lot of people do that
without Christ. But what he's talking about here,
as far as bearing this fruit, you can't do it without Christ.
He's the vine. Life comes from the vine. And
we have no life except that which has come from the vine. Christ
said, I am the way, over in John 14, in verse six, he says, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. There's life in the Son, S-O-N. And nowhere else, spiritual life,
eternal life, life everlasting, is in Christ. Now false religion
can produce a lot of things that people call spiritual life, but
it's not. It's fruit unto death. Because
I'm telling you, without Christ, without realizing and knowing
and believing and submitting to him as the Lord our righteousness,
it's all fruit unto death. Even though it may appear ripe
and good, on the outside and to most people. Well, verse six,
he says, 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 a person claims to be a Christian,
but does not abide in Christ, does not look to him, rest in
him as the author and finisher of their faith, but looks elsewhere,
goes other ways, adds to him. He's gonna be cast forth as a
branch. In other words, he wasn't really
a branch of the vine, of the Lord. He just looked like one,
maybe, to other people. But as a branch, that's a key.
And he's withered. And men gather him, cast him
into the fire, and they're burned. So false religion, false professions
will not do you any good. Verse seven 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. Now that's not, passages like
that, those are things that some people take out and they take
out of context and they use them like Christ is a genie in the
bottle. If I want it hard enough, pray
for it hard enough, work hard enough, I can get anything I
want. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about life
here. He's talking about a sinner seeking life through the vine.
And that's what he means when he says if you ask, you can ask
what you will and it shall be done. Well, what is it you will? What will you want? You'll want
life from the vine. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. That's the context. That's what
he's talking about. If you abide in me and my words
in you, what do I want? I want spiritual life. I want
eternal life. He's not talking about wishing
for a pot of gold or a big bank account or even physical health. We do pray for things like that. I pray, Lord, heal me, heal this
person. He may, he may not. But anybody
who asks for life from the vine, according to God's word, the
gospel way, comes to Christ as a sinner who realizes I have
nothing to recommend myself unto God. I have no hope. But God's
grace in Christ, based upon his righteousness alone, you'll receive
it. Because that is a desire that
God implants within his people. And so he says in verse eight,
herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so
shall you be my disciples. And verse nine, as the Father
hath loved me, so have I loved you, continue in my love. Continue. in Christ, continue
in faith, continue in repentance, continue in perseverance. He
says in verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide
in my love, even as I have kept my father's commandments and
abide in his love. Now he's not talking about earning
your salvation by keeping the 10 commandments there. He's talking
about his commandment to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, repent
of your dead works and follow him. And that's an evidence of
His love for His people, here in His love. Not that we love
God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. He's the vine. Life is from the
vine. And He gives it to His people
to bear this fruit. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.