Good morning, everyone. Wonderful
to be here, isn't it? As I've often said, this is an
oasis for us. We come here and worship together
and worship our King. And one day, those of us who
believe, one day we'll all be in glory worshiping the King.
Worshiping the King. Turn with me, if you would, to
John chapter 15. John chapter 15. Today we're going to look at
the vine and the branches. Now when reading these verses,
we must always remember that they contain a parable. And when
interpreting a parable, we must not forget that the great rule
that applies to all Christ's parables is that there's a general
lesson of each parable. And it's the main thing to be
noticed. And as we read this, the main theme from here is Christ
and believers. The union between Christ and
believers. And the union that we have in
Christ. John 15, verses 1-7. The Master says, I am the true
vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit
he purgeth, 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. Look at this marvelous
statement by our great king, by the king of the universe.
For without me you can do nothing. That's a humbling verse, isn't
it? But it's true. 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 fire and they are burned.
If ye abide in me, in my words abide in you, ye shall ask what
you will and it shall be done unto you. So the main theme of
this parable is the union between Christ, the union between Christ
and His people, the union between Christ and His elect. And think of this, the union
between the branch of a vine, the branch or the main stem the trunk of a tree in a branch,
it's one of the closest unions that we can see. We see it in
everyday life. We see it all over. Every tree
you pass, you see it. You see the trunk or the vine
and then the branches that come off of them and the union. They're
united together. But remember this, I was pondering
this and I said, it was kind of something funny, I said to
Vicki, hey, have I ever told you? And she said, yeah, you've
told me before. But think of this, and this is amazing, the
trunk can live independently of the branches, right? You can
cut branches off a tree and the tree will still live. What will
it do? It'll sprout new branches, won't
it? But the branch can't live independently of the trunk. So
keep that in mind as we're going through this. All the life is
in the trunk, in the vine. So the whole reason that the
branch has life is because of the vine, or because of the trunk.
And think of this, the branch receives its beauty, the branch
receives its life, the branch receives its nourishment, the
branch receives its strength, and its fruitfulness all from
the vine. All from the vine. It can't make
any of its own. And think on this, and we have
all the trees out here, and it's just constantly thinking about
it. It's so amazing. And I know in the spring, they're
going to bloom and blossom. All that comes from the trunk,
all that nourishment, all that for the branches. And think of
that as we enter into our spring season. We're going to see it
right before us. And as I said, the branches separated
from the trunk or from the vine have no life, no life at all. The sap and the juice that flows
from the vine, and the maintaining of all the leaves and the buds
and the blossoms and all the fruit, all stems from the vine. Finds its source in the vine. Cut off the stem, cut off the,
if you cut that vine down, if you take that vine, everything
dies. This week I had an interesting
conversation. Some folks asked me about what
we believe as Grace Believers, what we believe on eternal life. And a man asked me a question.
He said, what do you guys believe on eternal life? And I proceeded
to tell him what we believed and showed him some scriptures.
And we went to John chapter 6. Actually, turn there if you would.
John chapter 6. And he asked me, what do you
guys believe about eternal life in the sense of can you get it
and then lose it? And I said, no, I don't believe
that a man can, if he's saved, that he can lose his salvation.
And he said, he brought up a weird way of saying it. He says, well,
what about if a man lives a sloppy life? And, you know, you got
to, whenever somebody talks to you about and asks you questions,
always, always qualify them. What do you mean? I learned that
from Brother Henry. What do you mean? What do you
mean by that statement? Well, his statement was you could
go out and live your life however you wanted to. And I said, I
don't know any preacher and I don't fellowship with any believers
who think you can live like that. But see, that's what they think.
When we believe that once you're saved, you're always saved, they
think, well, you guys can just live a riotous life. No. No. Turn if you would. Keep your
finger in John 6.37, but put your finger also in 2 Corinthians
5.14. Do you know it's the love of Christ that constrains us
from sin, right? That's what constrains us now.
2 Corinthians 5.14 says this, For
the love of Christ constraineth us. For the love
of Christ constrains us. Why don't we go crazy after we're
saved and live a life that, because the love of Christ constrains
us. It constrains us. We have a new master, a new Lord. Love of Christ constrains us
because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're
all dead. Now the Greek word constraineth
here is defined as to hold together and hold fast. To confine, to
shut up, to close. And then I like this last statement,
to confine as a besieged city. So the love of Christ constrains
us. Constrains us. We don't want
to sin like we used to. We still sin, unfortunately,
but we don't want to sin like we used to. And God restrains
us, and He keeps us rested and entrusted in Christ. And then
turn, if you would, over to John 6, verse 37. And believing that you should
always answer a question that anyone asks you, and he asked
me this on Eternal Life, you should always answer a question
with Scripture. Always. Always. When it's about matters
of the Lord, and matters about salvation, and matters about
eternal life. And I took them here, John 6,
37 and 39. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I come down from heaven not to do mine own will,
but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's
will which has sent me, that of all which He hath given me,
I should lose nothing. But you'll raise it up again
at the last day. At this point, the conversation got real interesting
when another fellow came in and proceeded to say, I know, I know scripture says
we're in the father's hands, and I know scripture says that
we're in the son's hands, but you can jump out. Where I proceeded to just, what? What? See, this is a religious
man speaking what he really believes. And people really believe this.
They believe that even though Christ has you in their hand,
they're not believers, but even though Christ has you in their
hand and God has you in their hand, then you can jump out.
And I looked at him and I said, you're adding to Scripture. You're
adding to Scripture. And if you believe that way,
you're lost. You're absolutely lost. Because all that the Father
gives to the Son, the Son shall save. You can't jump out, and a believer
doesn't want to jump out. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy, till the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory, majesty, dominion both now and forever. Amen. Well,
then he proceeded to go to this parable right here. And you're going to get, the
reason I bring this up is because you're going to get people asking
you questions about what we believe. And you're going to get people
using scriptures and ripping them totally out of context. And saying, well see, a believer
can be cast away. Let's look at our text again.
Let's look at this wonderful parable here. Between Christ
and his people. And we, let's pray that the Holy
Spirit will illuminate the scriptures for us. And teach us, teach us,
Look at this, I am the true vine, verse 1, and my Father is the
husbandman. Here we have declared who is
the vine? It is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the God
of the universe incarnate who has become a man. And this is
our Master speaking. He is the vine. There is none
other. This is the Ancient of Days speaking. In the flesh. Sovereign, majestic
God of the universe. What condescension. What condescension
that God would become man and die for the sins of his people. So our master by his own words
says he is the vine. He is the vine. The vine and the branches are
connected. Connected. They are one. God
becomes a man. Fully God, but yet fully human. And he is the head of the body. He is the vine. And we are the
branches. And notice he states the true
vine. Which means there are false vines. Think of this in light of religion.
The false vine of a Jesus who's waiting for you to make a decision
by praying a prayer or walking an aisle. That's not the God
of the Bible. Or the false Jesus of religion
who wants you to come to Him, but He doesn't have no power
unless you allow Him to save you. No, the one here speaking, the
one here speaking is the true vine. The one who has all power. The one who has all majesty. The one who keeps his people.
The one who nourishes his people. The one who feeds his people.
The one who we feed upon. All through the pilgrimage of
this world, He cares for us. We're in Him. They abide in the vine. The believers
abide in the vine and are fed through the vine. And we have
our being in the vine. He is the real vine. The trustworthy
vine. The true vine. He is opposite to that which
is false. He is opposite to that which
is counterfeit. He is opposite to that which
men work up in the imaginations of their minds. He's the true
vine. He's the true vine. God in the flesh. And the true vine is Christ. And we are joined to him. In
a mystical but real union. I am the true vine, he says. He's the divinely appointed vine. The root and stem upon which
the branches depend. He's the superior vine, in which we, the inferior, the
branches, depend upon. As I said, a vine or a stalk
survives even if the branches are cut off and left to die. But the branches, when cut off,
They perish without the vine. Do you see
how dependent we are on our Savior? Every second of every day. Every second of every day. We
are dependent upon Christ. He's not dependent upon us. Now,
religion makes folks think that, that Christ is dependent upon
them. The church isn't church without you. You ever seen those
silly signs? Oh, gosh. We are so dependent upon our
great king. And for that man to make that
statement about jumping out, that's like a branch saying,
you know what? I'm just going to fall off now. If that could happen. It can
happen. Ridiculous, isn't it? It really
is. It really is ridiculous. But this is what folks believe. What do you do when you see a
dead branch on a tree? You cut it off, right? It doesn't
have any more life. And we'll look at that more later
on. Continues, I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman.
My father is the vine dresser. Our master says he is the husbandman,
the one who purposed and planned and supported the vine. in all
the branches. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not,
but a body hast thou preparedest me. Hebrews 10.5 And that was all
done according to the purpose of the Father's will and for
His glory. Let's look at verse 2. Every
branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every
branch that beareth fruit he purgeth, that it may bring forth
more fruit." And let us look closely at this
verse and remember that no true fruit can be bought forth but
in Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Lots of things can be bought
forth that look like fruit, And we may call it fruit, man may
call it fruit, but it may be bought forth without any true
spiritual union with Christ. And think of this, people can
be very moral, right? Very moral. Man can reform themselves. Turn with me if you would to
Matthew chapter 23. They clean up the outside. They have a checklist,
like we've been talking about. They have their checklist, and
they say, well, I don't do this, and I don't do that. And it's a checklist, a standard
that they hold themselves to, and to others. And they base themselves being
a Christian, and they base others supposedly being a Christian,
upon the checklist. Matthew 23, verses 25-28. Now remember, these men, to the
outward folks thought they were it. They were the religious,
the uppity-ups of religion of their day. And look what our
Master says in verse 25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you make clean the outside
of the cup and of the platter, but within are full of extortion
and excess. So outwardly, they're moralistic
men, religious men. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but they are within
full of dead man's bones and of uncleanness. Even so, ye also
outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of
hypocrisy and iniquity. Now, from an outward view, some men may seem to be believers. To us, they may seem like believers. But God can see right through
a false profession. He can see right through a false
profession. We can't, but He can. But He knows His sheep, beloved.
He knows His sheep, and His sheep know Him. Oh, they know Him. They know Him. So there are branches
in the vine which appear to be joined to the parent stem, appear
to be joined to the trunk, and yet bear no fruit. No fruit at
all. And there's been many, many religious
men who appeared to be in Christ by association with a church,
or by an outward profession, or by performance of certain
church duties, but they have no fruit. No fruit of the spirit. No love. No joy. They're like the Pharisees who
we looked at. Outward appearances, wow. But full of dead man's bones.
And see, this is a scripture that folks often use to say,
well, see, you can be lost and then saved. Or saved and then
lost. I got it backwards there. Oh, and you know these branches
that don't bear fruit, they know doctrine. I knew doctrine before
the Lord saved me. I was a full-on five-point Calvinist.
Didn't know grace. Had my checklist. Had my checklist. These branches are dead. They're
graceless. They appear to be members of
Christ, but they're graceless. And they have no vital union
with Christ. Look what it says again in our
text. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh
away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it
may bring forth more fruit. Let's now look at those who have
a union with Christ, who are saved by Him, by His precious
blood. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. And notice, fruit is singular.
Turn if you would to Galatians chapter 5. Do you notice it says,
that beareth fruit, singular. Folks often say the fruits of
the Spirit, but it's singular. It's the fruit of the Spirit. Look in Galatians chapter 5. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love. Verse 22. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy. peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
And they that are of Christ have crucified the flesh with the
with the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit, let
us also walk in the spirit. But the fruit, singular, of the
spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. And only the branches which are
savingly rooted in Christ, who is divine, will through genuine
faith in Christ have this fruit. And notice that the branches
are constantly pruned. Look it. In every branch that
beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more
fruit. The branches are continuously being pruned. Oh beloved, when we go through
trials and tribulations or sicknesses or things, we're being pruned. And this is all done through
that. James says this, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall
into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
James 1, verses 2-4. We're pruned by the husbandman,
by the father. is we go through various trials
and tribulations. Look at our text again. Every
branch in me, verse 2, 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 Greek word here for purge
means to cleanse of filth and purity. To cleanse. We're being
cleansed. We're being conformed to the
image of His Son. We're growing in grace. And this language is clear and
plain for us. As the gardener prunes and cuts
back the branches of a fruitful vine in order for it to what?
To be more fruitful, right? So God prunes believers by circumstances
of life in which he places us. And the pruning brings forth
more fruit, more of the fruit of the Holy
Spirit, more love, more joy, more peace. I remember talking
to a dear saint here, and she said, Brother Wayne, the trials
that I'm going through, I'm closer to the Lord now than I've ever
been. He works this in us. The Holy
Spirit works it. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
More long-suffering. More gentleness with people.
More goodness. More faith. More meekness. More
temperance. Now we're sinners. We are. We
struggle all the time. But we're not what we were before. And we're not what we're going
to be. Oh, this is all the work of the
Holy Spirit of God in us. It's marvelous. We can't produce
the fruit on our own. And since we know that this fruit
is from the Holy Spirit, we can conclude that the fruitless branches
were never in Christ. Never in Christ by grace, never
in Christ through faith. They appeared to be. They were
professors and not possessors. John 15.3, Now ye are clean through
the word which I have spoken unto you. Our Master says, Now
ye are clean. An interesting side note here
is that Judas Iscariot is not among them. Turn, if you would, to John 13. Verse 9-11, look at this. Keep in mind what he told us
in chapter 15. He said, Now ye are clean. Look
at John 13, 9-11. Simon Peter saith unto them,
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and head. Jesus saith
to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but
is clean every whit. And ye are clean, but not all. where he knew who should betray
him. Therefore said he, ye are not
all clean. I didn't see that till this week.
It's amazing. And verse 11 tells us why. Why
he said, but not all. And then go further down to 26,
Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have
dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop,
he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. He then receiving,
verse 30, he then receiving the sop went immediately out, and
it was night. So Judas has left. When our Lord
makes the statement back to John 15.3, Judas has left. when He says, Ye are clean. Now ye are clean through the
Word which I have spoken unto you. They're not clean by their
own works. They're not clean by the law.
They're not clean by traditions, which they have, being Jews.
But they are clean. and regenerated by the Holy Spirit,
sanctified and justified by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And how do we hear this wonderful
word? By the word preached. And God
grants us faith to believe. These men were all true branches.
They were true branches who were in the vine. The Lord Jesus Christ. And they believe by the grace
of God as we believe. They look to Christ just like
we look to Christ. By God's grace, they believed
in Christ. They love Christ. And they're
in Christ by God's grace, never to be separated from Him. Let's turn with you, if you would,
to Hebrews chapter 13. This is a verse which for me
personally has just been a, you know, some verses just really
speak to your heart through different circumstances, different things
you go through in life. And this is a verse for me that
has meant a lot to me through the years. Let your conversation, verse
5 of chapter 13, Let your conversation be without covetousness, and
be content with such things as you have. For He has said, speaking of our Master, I will
never leave thee. I'll never leave thee, nor forsake thee. The interesting
thing about this word, never, In the Greek, and what great
comfort this can bring for us as believers, in the Greek it
means never, certainly not, by no means. Doesn't sound like a believer
could lose his salvation. If the master, the God of the
universe says, I'll never, Certainly not, not at all, by no means
leave thee, nor forsake thee. What comfort for us, eh? What
comfort to our hearts and souls. Others may leave, may leave us. Friends may forsake us. Sometimes family members too.
Sometimes dear friends. But Christ says to the believer,
I'll never, not ever leave you, nor forsake you. Never? Why? Because we were given to
Him by the Father in eternity. And He's loved us with an everlasting
love. We don't deserve it, do we? Oh,
we don't deserve it at all. Turn if you would, again, John
chapter 15, again, look at verse 4. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself. So we abide in Christ, right? The branches abide. Think of
a tree, like I say, the tree goes up the trunk, and then a
branch comes right out of that trunk. And they abide together. But as I said, all the nourishment
comes from the trunk. All the life comes from the trunk.
As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, so no one, and this
is why I keep saying we can't muster up the fruits of the Spirit.
We can't. In religion, folks try, I know,
because I used to try. And you can't muster up love
for the brethren. Or goodness, or faith, or...
you can't. But God can work it in a believer. Oh. A branch cannot bear fruit
of itself. Except what? It abides in the
vine. Remember? All the nourishment comes from
the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me. Here are three
things to remember when looking at this verse. Christ himself
is the vine, he's the source of life. The branches have no
life and no existence apart from him. So without Him, we can do absolutely
nothing. Number two, believers are truly one with Christ. And
this union is shown to us right here. Turn with me, if you would,
to John chapter 17. A few chapters over. A couple
chapters over. Verse 21 to 23. that they all may be one as Thou,
Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in
us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me, and the
glory which Thou givest me I have given them, that they may be
one even as we are one, I in them, and Thou in me, that they
may be perfect and one, that the world may know that Thou
hast sent me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. God
loves his people as he loves Christ. And think of this, too. Next
time you look at a tree, we don't consider a tree being separated,
the trunk or the vine being separated from the branches, do we? It's
a tree. It's one, such as we are in Christ. And remember this, that one must
first be in Him before he can abide in Him. One must be first
in Christ before we can abide in Him. And we are in Christ
by the Holy Spirit of God regenerating us. Therefore, if any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are becoming new. Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. A.W. Pink says it this way. We are
in Christ by a union effected by the creating power of God
in which can neither be dissolved nor suspended. We are in union
by Christ, affected by the creating power of God, born again of the
Holy Spirit, and of which can neither be dissolved nor suspended. And the third point about this
verse is, these branches which abide in Christ will surely bring
forth the fruit of His Spirit. John 15, 5 says, I am the vine. Look at the next verse that we're
in. 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. Here's the sum of it at the end
of this verse. Without Christ we can do nothing. Without Christ we cannot be saved. We'll perish in our sins. Without
Christ we have no spiritual life. We come into this world dead
in trespasses and sins. Without Christ, we cannot be
justified before God. It's not possible. Without Christ, we cannot be
redeemed. As I said earlier on Sunday School,
you can't pay for one sin, can we? Not one. on our own, but Christ pays it
all for the believer. Without Christ, I have no forgiveness
of my sins. And without the Holy Spirit drawing
a man to Christ, none would come. Without God, the Father electing
people in eternity, none would be saved. So what's the sum of
all that? Without God, we can do nothing. That's why we're to give Him
all the glory, beloved. Oh, we'll be quick to give Him
all the glory, and all the praise, and all the honor, and what mercy
God has towards sinners such as we. Look at verses 6 and we'll look
at verse 7. 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. Here's a
very sobering verse. A.W. Pink says there's two kinds
of people in church, possessors and professors. And we know not everyone's saved
who comes. This is why we proclaim the Gospel.
As preachers, this is why we meet together to hear the wonderful
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who can save sinners, the vilest
of sinners. He can save them, if He wills. Now notice, it does not say,
if a man abide not in Me. These branches do not abide in
Christ. If a man abide not in Me, So we've already established
that God's people abide in Christ, right? If a man abides not in Me, if
he's not a believer, he's cast forth as a branch and is withered,
and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are
burned. These men appear to be in Christ, but like the wheat
and the tares, it takes the eyes of God to discern the real difference.
And remember, Beloved, we form our opinions by outward, you
know, a man makes a profession and we believe him. By outward signs. But God looks
on the heart and He will expose the counterfeit. And He does. Verse 7, If ye abide in me, and
my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall
be done unto you. It says, if you abide in me and
my words abide in you. Do you love Christ? Do you love his word? Oh, his word is truth. His word is truth. The gospel. His promises, His precepts and
grace is called the Word of Life. Look at Philippians 2, verse
16. And put your finger in 1 Peter
1 also. If you abide in Me and My words
abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done
unto you. Look at Philippians 2, verse
16, "...holding forth the Word of life, that I may rejoice in
the day of Christ. I have not run in vain, neither
labored in vain." And the Word of God is the seed of life. It's
a seed of life. Look at 1 Peter 1, verses 23-25. This is wonderful. Being born again, verse 23, not
of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever for all flesh is grass. And all the glory of man is the
flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you." God's people love His Word. And
we abide in His Word. You cannot separate the incarnate
Word from the Scriptures. A man cannot abide in Christ
who knows not, and loves not, and obeys not His Word. We love God's Word, don't we? So, if someone ever says to you and
uses this parable to say, well, see, someone can be saved and
lost. The Scripture is very plain,
isn't it? The branches that are cut off never abided in Christ. So beloved, this wonderful parable,
and let us think on this this week. Let us think on this as
we, you know, we got trees everywhere. It's a constant reminder of us.
For us as believers, we abide in the vine. Let's think on that, let's just
be filled with awe in the sense that even the fruit that we have
in our lives comes from God. It's marvelous. And this shows us, this wonderful
parable shows us the union between Christ and the believer. It's
an intimate union. And it also shows us that eternal
life is in Christ Jesus, and not in ourselves. Because
remember, He said, without Me, you can do nothing. Oh, as we think about this this
week, may we just praise His name. May we just praise His
name. May we ascribe all glory to Him.
in all honor to Him, because He hath done great things. Rejoice, beloved. Rejoice if
you're saved. Oh, we don't deserve it, do we? But He is merciful. He is merciful
to us. Brother Jonathan.