Well, in a nutshell, that's our
message this morning. Through union with Christ, we
are what he is. John chapter 15, the title of
the message is Union with Christ. Union with Christ. Now, what
does that mean? Union with Christ. Men, take the simplicity of the
gospel. and complicated. We're pretty
good at that. My Bible's about that thick.
God said everything he's got to say in pages that, you know,
about that. I've got a set of commentaries
on this. It's about that big. He can complicate
things. God said everything he's got
to say in just about that. Pages fit in that. So what does
it mean? to have union with Christ. Without
a doubt, it's a very mysterious union, and men have written volumes
on it, the union of Christ and His people. But our Lord, in
a few verses, gives us an illustration of union that makes this union
between Christ and His people so simple to understand if we
would just listen to what God says. So maybe by His grace,
He'll enable us to do that. Here's the first thing we learn
from this text about union with Christ. The believer's union
with Christ is vital. Without that union, there's no
salvation. Apart from this union with our
Lord Jesus Christ, there's no other way to be what God requires
outside of union with Christ. Look at verse 1, John chapter
15. Our Lord says, I am the true
vine. Christ is the true vine that produces true sweet grapes. You may remember our study in
Isaiah. Isaiah talked about that wild
vine that produced small sour grapes. That's a wild vine. That's not Christ. He's the true
vine that produces true sweet grapes. Christ is the true vine. And everything else given to
us in those Old Testament scriptures, and these are the scriptures
that these men knew well. Our Lord's talking to these eleven
men. They knew those scriptures. It's
the only scriptures that they had. Everything else in those
scriptures is a picture of Christ. But He's the true. In John 6,
32, our Lord said, I'm the true bread. That man that your father's
egg in the wilderness, that's not the true bread. I am the
true bread. In Hebrews 8 verse 2, the writer
said that Christ is the true tabernacle, which God pitched
and not man. There is never any life in man.
Life is in Christ the true bread. There is never any salvation
in that tabernacle. Christ is the true tabernacle.
That's where salvation is. It's in Him. All these other
things are just elements that Paul talked about in Galatians
chapter 4. They're physical elements. They're
not the spiritual. They're not the true. Christ
has come as the spiritual and as the true. He's the true vine. Christ is the true spiritual
vine. And everything else is a lie.
If He is the true, everything else is a lie. Every other message,
other than the message of salvation in Christ alone, is a lie. There's no life in any of those
other messages. They're lies. All they have is
death. because they don't have union
with Christ. They're not joined with Christ. In verse 6, this
is what our Lord says about these withered branches. If a man abide
not in me, he's cast forth as a branch. He's not a branch.
He's as a branch and is withered. He's withered and dies because
there's no life in it. And there's no life in it because
he's not joined to Christ, the true bond, the true spiritual
bond. The one and only way a sinner
can be saved is through union with Christ, by being in Christ. There's not salvation in religion.
Salvation's in Christ. Salvation's not in Calvinism.
Salvation's in Christ. Salvation is through union with
Christ. We have life through union with
Him. It's a vital union. Secondly, if you do have union
with Christ, I can tell you why you have that union. It's because
God the Father puts you in Christ. See verse 1? I am the true vine,
and my father is the husbandman." Now, the father is the husbandman.
He's the landowner. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. He owns it all. And the father's
the one who planted the vine. And he takes care of the branches
that grow from that vine so that they're healthy and protected.
The father prepared a body for his son. He planted the vine. When the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us, Father planted that vine. He planted the vine
in the womb of the Virgin Mary. And a grapevine, our Lord uses
the term vine. I'm going to talk something about
a tree. We understand more about a tree trunk and its branches,
but it's the same thing. A grapevine is a very good picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ. From what I read, a grapevine
starts out looking very unpromising. Twig. I mean, it just looks like
nothing. You don't think anything is going
to grow from that twig. Boy, it does. And Christ is the
true vine. He started out as a tender plant.
A root out of dry ground. Just a dead looking branch. Sticking up out of that stump.
The stump of David's house. The stump of Jesse's house. There's
no beauty about him that we should desire. You wouldn't see him
and think, oh, life's in that. No, you wouldn't think that.
It didn't look like anything could ever grow from the mania
of Christ Jesus. Well, that's the way a vine starts
out. But by its nature, a vine is
a spreading plant. You plant that thing, it spreads.
It branches and it just grows and grows until you've got a
whole row from just a little twig, it seems like, looking
thing, you know, that started. That's Christ the true vine.
He started out as a tender plant, but He's a spreading plant, wasn't
He? He spread over the whole earth. There's not a spot on
this earth the grace of Christ has not spread. He spread over
the whole earth. He spread so far, He saved people
out of every tribe, tongue, and kindred, and nation. He's a spreading
plant. And the Father, the Husband,
Put all those people in Christ, in divine, so that they would
have eternal life. Now, if you're in Christ, the
Father put you there. In divine election, He put you
in union with Christ. And you know why He did that?
Because everything God has for a sinner is in Christ. So He
puts you in Christ. So you have all things. We can't
have salvation apart from union with Christ. We can't have forgiveness
of sins. other than having union with
Christ. We can't be righteous, we can't be accepted, except
by being in Christ. So the Father put his people
in Christ. So they have everything that
they need in his Son. Thirdly, if you have union with
Christ, you will bear fruit. Look at verse 5. 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." Now, what's the point of having a grapevine if
it doesn't bear fruit? It's useless, isn't it? We must
bear fruit. In Christ the true vine, His
branches are going to bear fruit. Look in Galatians chapter 5.
The Apostle Paul gives us a very
clear understanding of what the fruit
our Lord is speaking about in John chapter 15. The fruit our
Lord is speaking of is the fruit of the Spirit. That's of the
Spirit. It's His fruit. We just bear
it. The fruit comes from the vine.
The branches just bear the fruit. And here's the fruit. Verse 22,
Galatians chapter 5. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love. And here's the first fruit of
the Spirit is love. A believer loves God. You love
God. You know why you love God? Because
you have union with Christ. And He loves the Father. We love
the Father because we have union with Christ. Because we have
His nature. Because we're joined to Him.
We love Christ. Do you love Christ? Do you love
the Gospel of Christ that tells who He is? Well, you know why
you know that Gospel? Why you can identify it? Why
you love it? Because you have union with Christ, who is the
subject and the author of the gospel. We love the brethren. Of course you love the brethren.
If you're in Christ, He loves them. You do too if you have
His Spirit. If a man says, I love God and
hates his brother, he's a liar. He's not in Christ. If you're
in Christ, you love the brethren. Because He loves the brethren.
The fruit of the Spirit is love. Now that's not our spirit, is
it? That's not our fruit. It's not our nature to love.
So where does it come from? It comes from Him. We love Him
because He first loved us. And we love because we're joined
to Christ who is love. And as Paul says, joy. This is
fruit that the branches will bear. Joy. Joy in Christ. Even in times of sorrow, there's
joy. He made peace for us. I'm sorry.
We sorrow over our sin. I jumped ahead of myself. We
have sorrow, sorrow over our sin, but there's joy in knowing
Christ. Because of the sacrifice of Christ,
we have joy. The sin's been put away. Of course
you have joy in Him, in His sacrifice. Then Paul says, peace. This is
a fruit that a believer will bear, is peace. And someone who's
in union with Christ has peace. They're a peaceable person. Because
Christ is the Prince of Peace. You have that peace because you're
joined to Him. He made peace for us through
the blood of His cross. So if we have union with Him,
not only do we have peace and we enjoy peace, we're a peaceable
person. Someone who seeks peace and pursues
it. That's a fruit of the Spirit that just comes naturally by
being joined to Christ. Then there's long-suffering.
Patience. And we patiently wait on the
Lord. This is the fruit of the Spirit. I'm the most impatient
person any of y'all know. How am I going to bear the fruit
of patience? By patiently waiting on the Lord. Knowing He's working all things
after the counsel of His own will. And it's going to be right.
And bearing the fruit of the Spirit lets an impatient person
like me be patient with somebody else. How can I do that? Through union with Christ. Because
He's so patient with me. Maybe I'd be patient with somebody
else. We can understand patience for sinners if we have union
with Christ. Because He's patient with us.
Then gentleness. Brethren, seek to be gentle.
Not harsh. It bothers me. A harsh attitude. It bothers me. It comes up in
myself and it bothers me. Seek to be gentle. Not harsh.
Paul said, how did he come to those folks he preached to? He
said, we were gentle among you. We didn't come in bearing the
rod and being harsh. No, we were gentle among you
as a nurse. Cherishing her children. How
she cherishes those babies. That's how we are with one another.
Why would we do that? How gentle is the Savior with
us? See, this gentleness comes because of union with Him. It's
His fruit. We just bear it because we have
union with Him. Then Paul mentions goodness.
It's just being kind and tender-hearted with each other. Why would you
bother? Why bother being kind and tender-hearted
with people? Because you have union with Christ.
And He's been kind to you and He's been tenderhearted with
you. In faith, this is the fruit of the Spirit. Faith. Believing
Christ. We have faith in Christ because
of the faith of Christ. It's His fruit. We just bear
it because we're joined to Him. In meekness. is not being easily
provoked. Meekness is not just sitting
over there being afraid to say something. Meekness is not being
easily provoked. Not having your feelings hurt
easily. And then being easily reconciled. Why would I be easily
reconciled? This person, they've besmirched
my name. They've been mean to my children.
They've said mean things about my wife. I'm not going to be
reconciled to them. Strike three, you're out. and
be easily reconciled. God's reconciled to you in the
person of his Son. We may seek to be reconciled
with one another. And Paul mentions temperance. This being moderate in the use
of the things of the flesh. Moderate in everything of the
flesh. Moderate in the emotions of the
flesh. Through union with Christ. How
did Satan tempt our Lord? With the things of this earth.
With the emotions of this earth. Fame and money and power. All the things of the earth.
Our Lord Jesus Christ would not be tempted with all those earthly
things because He's tempering. He wouldn't be tempted to leave
His Father, to leave the purpose that His Father sent Him to do,
and to forsake the purpose of redeeming His people from their
sins. He showed temperance. We bear that fruit through union
with Him. See how it comes from Him. All
this fruit does not come naturally to us. It's not from our nature.
We can only have it through union with Christ. Look back at John
15, our text, verse 4. We can only have this fruit through
union with Him. In verse 4, our Lord 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 you, except you abide
in me." See, the fruit is Christ's. It comes from Him. It flows from
the sap, flows from the vine into the branches. We bear the
fruit, but Christ produces the fruit. We cannot bear that fruit
other than through union with Christ. Without union with Christ,
Mystical union. You can't bear any fruit. Any
fruit. Without me, our Lord says, you
can do nothing. Nothing. Now that applies to
our physical life. Without Christ, we can do nothing. We can't draw our next breath.
We can't take the next step. Without Him, we can do nothing. We certainly can't do anything
spiritual without Christ. Without Him, we can do nothing. We can't believe apart from union
with Christ. We can't repent of our sins unless
He enables us. We can't love one another unless
He enables us. We won't be thankful unless He
enables us. We can't even think a right thought,
much less do something right. We can't think a right thought
apart from Him. We can't have joy or peace without
Christ. Without Him, we can do nothing. Now there are times, I'd say
every believer here has experienced this. You enjoy peace. Just you enjoy peace. You might
think your life around you is just falling apart, you know,
falling down around your ears. And yet you have peace. And you
know that's not natural to your nature. You know Christ gave
that to you. It's His fruit. It's through
we have that peace, through union with Him. There are times you
understand a verse of Scripture. You may have heard it preached
from a hundred times. And then you read it and you
think, I understand that. I understand that. That means
more to my heart at this moment than it ever has before. How'd
that happen? Through union with Christ, the
Incarnate Word. giving you an understanding.
That's not of you, that's of the Lord working in you. In verse
8, this is why we desire to bear the fruit, our Lord's fruit,
the fruit of the Spirit, because herein is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. Now,
our Lord said the Father is glorified if we bear much fruit. Well,
how do we bear much fruit? We look back up at verse 2. 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. Now this purging is being tried. We're tried. Not because the
Lord's being mean to us. We're tried so we'll bear more
fruit. We're tried so we'll become more
and more dependent upon Him and bear more fruit. And this purging
is done by trials. Now, the word purge here has
two meanings. First of all, it means to clean.
We're made clean by the daily washing of God's Word so that
we bear more fruit. And it also means pruning. Now, this purging or cleansing
or pruning, what that is, it removes everything that hinders
growth. I know very little about growing
anything except weeds, but I know this. Janet does this. She goes
out and deadheads her flowers. She calls it deadhead, right?
That's what you call it. And she picks off the ones that
are drying up and don't look too good, so they're not drawing
something from that plant, so the rest of them can grow pretty.
That's what I remember. She goes out and picks off all
the flowers. I think, well, now what are you
going to do? Or just wait, and it's going
to grow bigger, more beautiful flowers. That's what our Lord
does to us. He comes and purges us. He pulls
off the dead stuff so more fruit can grow. So we can bear more
fruit. We just read the fruit of the Spirit. A believer, you
bear that fruit. Those things I read from God's
Word, you see that. You bear that fruit. You love. You have joy. You have peace.
You're long-suffering, you're gentle, you're kind, you have
faith. Got enough? Or do you need more
love? You have faith, you've got enough,
you need more faith. You're patient, to a point, you
need more patience, you need more long-suffering. It needs
to grow. That fruit we have needs to grow,
doesn't it? So the Lord prunes us and cleanses
us, so we'll bear more fruit for his glory. And if we don't
bear fruit, what happens? Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away. I read a lot of the writers on
this, and you can take this for what it's worth. This may mean,
our Lord may be referring to a believer. A believer quits
bearing fruit for whatever reason, and the Lord takes them home.
Now you notice they don't quit bearing fruit, and he cuts them
off, sends them to hell. The word taketh away here means
lifts up. He lifts them up and takes them
home, lifts them up to glory. It's possible the Lord means
that. It's also possible our Lord's talking about a branch
that just appears to be a branch. It's not really in him. It appears
to be a branch. It's not actually in Christ.
And that branch cannot bear fruit. Without me, you can do nothing.
If the branch is not united to Christ, it can't bear fruit. It might look like a real branch
to you and me, but it's impossible for that branch to bear fruit
if it's not connected to the vine. These are false professors.
They come into the assembly, the church here on earth, not,
you know what I mean, the assembly, not the church, the body of Christ,
but they come into our assembly and they appear to be branches,
but they're false professors. And eventually they'll be revealed,
eventually. Maybe not until judgment, I don't
know. But eventually they'll be revealed because they don't
bear fruit. Look at verse 6. If a man abide not in me, he's
cast forth as a branch. He's not really a branch, he's
cast forth as a branch and withered. And men gather them and cast
them into the fire and they're burned. Now I'm just not real
clear which of this the Lord means. Is he talking about a
believer that for whatever reason quits bearing fruit or is this
a false professor? Maybe he's speaking of both,
I don't know. But this is what I do know. This is the Lord's
work. Let's leave it to Him. The purging
and the cleaning, that's God's work. That's not our work to
go purge one another and we... I'll cut too much. I'll deadhead
Jan's flowers too much. She doesn't trust me to do that.
She does that. This is the Lord's work. We might
think a branch is not united to the vine. We'll cut it off
and cast it in the fire. We were wrong. That's one of
God's children. So we don't do that. This is
the Lord's work. And the point of all this is
this. We can only bear fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, through
union with Christ. We are completely dependent on
Christ. Fourth, if you have union with
Christ, in verse 3, you're clean. Now are you clean? Through the
word which I have spoken unto you. If you have union with Christ,
You're clean everywhere. Now, you look at yourself, you
can't find a clean spot. You'll find sin. But if you have
union with Christ, you're clean everywhere. Because He washed
you. You have union with Him, He's
clean. And you become what He is. He's made you what He is,
so you're clean in Him. We're clean through regeneration.
We're clean by being born again. Having our hearts sprinkled with
clean water. A believer's clean through faith.
Your heart's been purified by faith in Christ. And Christ cleanses
His people by washing them in His blood. Now, if you're washed
in His blood, you're clean, whiter than snow, without spot. And
Christ cleanses His people by His Word. It's by His Word. Now, here's the importance of
the Word of God. I encourage all of us. Make time
for God's Word. Make time for His Word in our
daily life. I gave this advice to someone
the other day. When you're talking to someone, they don't know the
Lord. They may express an interest or, you know, whatever. Don't
talk to them about the doctrine of our fathers. Don't talk to
them about the things that just make sense. The gospel just makes
sense. The gospel of substitution and
satisfaction in Christ just makes sense. But you're not going to
logic them into the kingdom of God. Show them in the word, show them
in the word, and if you if you can't find a verse, get you a
concordance or call somebody who's got one, see if they can
help you. Show them from the word. God's going to clean his
people through the word. This is the seed. If we're going
to be clean, if we're going to be born again, it's going to
come from here. Use the Word. Read it. When you want daily
cleansing, read God's Word. It's God's Word that gives life.
It's God's Word that cleanses. Regeneration comes from God's
Word. What did James say? Of his own
will begat he us. How? With the Word of truth. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3.
Salvation comes from the Word of God. I told that story to our children
at the opening of our service. Here's a verse that backs up
what I was telling you. 2 Timothy 3, verse 15. And that from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and all scripture is profitable
for doctrine for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, he may be
matured, throughly furnished unto all good works. The word
of God gives salvation. The word of God gives sanctification.
Ephesians 5, 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the
washing of water by his word. The word gives spiritual growth
and spiritual life. Do you want growth? It's in the
Word. 1 Peter 2, 2, as newborn babes,
desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. Feeding on this Word will give
you life. It all comes from the Word of God. You have union with
Christ. If you have union with Christ,
you're clean through His Word. Fifth, if you have union with
Christ, you will abide in Him eternally. This union will never
be separate. You abide in him eternally. Look
at verse 4. 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. If you have union with Christ,
that union is eternal. You'll notice this throughout
scripture, a believer, Son of Adam, anybody is never commanded
to be in Christ. Never. But you are warned about
quitting, aren't you? You're warned about turning back.
You're warned about continuing, abiding in Christ, to stay in
Him. The word our Lord uses here means
stay in a given place. You just stay in a given place. You stay in Christ. He's the
given place. We're never commanded to be in
Christ. Because we can't do that. That's
God's Word. But you are commanded to stay
in Christ. Commanded to abide in Him. Don't
leave Him. Abiding in Christ is just like
coming to Christ. You don't come to Christ one
time and then that's it, do you? We're coming to whom coming.
Abiding is the same thing. I'm constantly coming to Christ
and constantly abiding in Him. Alright, what's that mean? What
does it mean to abide in Christ? Well, it's very simple. To abide
in Christ means to remain dependent on Christ. Just dependent on
Him for everything. It's dependent on His strength
to do everything, never depending on my own strength or my own
knowledge, no matter how much I may learn. I'm constantly,
always dependent on Him. To abide in Christ is to remain
dependent on Christ our righteousness and never any so-called righteousnesses
of my own. To abide in Christ is to remain
dependent on His grace, not my abilities. To abide in Christ
is to abide in worship. To remain dependent upon worship. I need to worship Him. Look in
Hebrews chapter 10. Here's a solemn warning. Don't
be indifferent about worship. Don't become indifferent about
worship. What a blessing that God's given
us a place where we can worship. How long? All of our lives. All of my life long and longer. There's been a place in Ashland,
Kentucky, where you can come worship. He ever took it for granted?
Don't take worship for granted. Don't be indifferent. Hebrews 10 verse 23. Let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he's faithful
that promised. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love, give somebody a reason to love you, provoke
unto love into good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another,
and so much more the more, as you see the day approaching.
We play a dangerous game. We start to play at worship.
We start to play at religion. When a person begins to be careless
about the public worship service, he's playing with fire. Because
when you begin to play and become indifferent at worship, you're
very close to drawing back into perdition. And the only way we
won't draw back from Christ is through union with Him, because
He won't let you. That's the only way. Now, we're
warned, abide in Christ. Don't leave. We know this now. A believer can never lose his
salvation. This union is eternal. It can
never be lost. You can never lose your salvation.
But we can become unfruitful, can't we? Can we become unfruitful? Well, we become unfruitful when
we neglect public worship. We become unfruitful when we
neglect prayer. We become unfruitful when we
neglect God's Word. A believer wants that union with
Christ. He wants to remain in Christ.
He wants to bear this fruit for this reason. Because the Father
is honored when we bring forth much fruit. And our Father is
dishonored when we bring forth little fruit. Well, if we start
taking ourselves away from the means of grace, we're taking
ourselves away from the sap of the vine. And we'll become unfruitful. Union with Christ is to abide
in Him eternally. Sixth, if you have union with
Christ, you are what Christ is. He's in you and you're in him. Verse four, abide in me and I
in you. Verse five, I'm 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. Christ in you and you in Christ,
you are what He is. Now, when you see a tree, you
don't see a joint where the trunk stops and the branch begins.
It's not like my elbow, my forearm ends here, my upper arm begins
here, there's a joint there. When you see a tree, there's
not an elbow, there's not a joint, there's not a knee joint, a hip
joint. It's all one. It's a smooth transition from
one to the other. It's just smooth. And if you
cut that branch, and you look inside of it, and then you come
to the trunk and you look inside of it, it's the same thing. One's bigger than the other,
one's more mature than the other, but they're both the same thing,
the same material. The fibers from that trunk just
run smoothly right off into the branch, and it's the same material. They're just the same. The branch
is what the trunk is in every way. The branch gets its life
from the trunk of the tree. But more than that, the branch
gets its DNA from the trunk of the tree. It is what that trunk
is. Now, this is a whole lot more
than the sap from the vine. Going up and somehow covering
the branches, or maybe even somehow being in the branches, but the
branches are still dead, and they're rotten, and they bring
forth sour fruit, and they're not worth anything. They're just
withered and dead, even though somehow some of the sap of the
vine's in them. No. No. It's so much more than
that. The branches, they do have the
sap of the vine flowing through them, but they're also made of
the same material that that vine is made from. They are what the
trunk is. The branches of a tree are what
the trunk is. The branches of a vine are what
the vine is. And this is what our Lord's saying.
This union is me and you, and you and me, so that we're the
same body. And when God saves a sinner,
He doesn't leave us the way we were. We were born a dead branch.
We were born a branch that can't bear any fruit. But God doesn't
leave His children that way. He doesn't say, well, you know,
I'll act like they're holy and righteous even though they're
not. He makes his people holy and
righteous. He makes us what Christ is. God makes his people exactly
like his son by making his son and his people one so that we
are what Christ is. The branch and the trunk, the
branch and the vine, they're one. When you see a tree, you'd
never say, huh, look at that trunk. and look at those branches. You say, look at that tree. Isn't
that tree beautiful? You look at the trunk and the
branches as one. When the father looks at his
son, he doesn't say, look at the vine and look at the branches. He says, look at my son. There's one body, the head and
the body. Look at my son, in whom I'm well
pleased. When God sees his people, he
sees his son. You are what Christ is if you
have union with him. Can I say that one more time?
What is Christ? What is he? He's righteous. So are you if you're in him.
What is Christ? He's holy. You are too, if you're
in Him. What is Christ? Accepted of the
Father. So are you, if you're in Him.
Because you're one with Him. The body and the head are one. The vine and the branches are
one. You are what He is. Seventh, if you have union with
Christ, the Word of God is in you. Verse seven, 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 over at James chapter 1.
The word in you. This is very simple to understand.
You can't separate Christ the incarnate word from Christ the
written word. If Christ is in you, his word
is in you, his promises are in you, his gospel is in you, and
it affects your conduct. It affects who you are. Because
God's Word is engrafted in you. Look at James 1, verse 18. If
his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should
be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my
beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak,
and slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the
engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls." That engrafted
Word saves your soul and it affects your conduct. So that when we
pray according to God's Word, when our prayers are for the
glory of God, according to the Word of God, the Father will
always answer that prayer and always give you what you pray
for. That's what our Lord says here in verse 7 of our text.
You ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Now don't
go home or sit where you're at right now and pray the Lord will
give you a million dollars and expect Him to give it to you.
That's not according to His Word. That's not according to the revealed
way of God. But, if you ask the Lord to bless
His people through the preaching of the gospel, He'll give you
what you ask for. If you ask the Lord, Lord let
me grow in grace through the preaching of your Word, through
an understanding of your Word, He'll grant that. If you pray,
Lord save your left through the preaching of your Word, He'll
answer that prayer every time. And if we have that desire, if
that desire is truly in our heart and we pour that prayer out to
God, you know where that came from? the engrafted word that's
in us. That's not natural to us, it's
the word that's in us. And last, we have union with
Christ for this reason, so that the Father be glorified. Verse
8, Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and
so shall ye be my disciples. Now the more fruit that you bear,
it's just more evident that you really are a trophy of God's
grace. You know, and everybody who knows you knows, that fruit
doesn't come from you. That's not natural to you. The more
fruit you bear, the more evident it is God's grace works in you. That you have union with Christ.
So the more fruit you bear, the more glory the Father gets in
your salvation. Now our Lord says, so shall you
be my disciples. Bring fruit that will make you
a disciple. You can fake that fruit to each other. We can fake that fruit. I ain't
fake humility. I ain't fake patience. I can
fake love to you. I can fool you for a while. But
buried fruit is evidence. It's evidence that God's already
made you his disciple. Well, is it real fruit or is
it fake fruit? You know, we find people with
the fake fruit, maybe we'll kick them out. You know, it's fake
fruit. Just wait. Just wait and see. It'll be alright.
Remember, this is the husbandman's job. He'll deal with the fruit
and the branches and so forth. He'll prune them and clean them
and take the false ones out. Just wait and see. When that
branch is pruned, does it produce more fruit or does it wither
and die? It'll be evident. When God visits,
it'll be evident. The Father saved a people. He
put those people in union with His Son for the glory of His
name. So the Son would be glorified. And the Father gives his people
growth and grace for the same reason, that he be glorified. Could be. Could be. If we pray
for the Father's glory, we might see it. Maybe we would. Let's bow in prayer.