Open your Bibles up to John gospel
of John chapter 15 John chapter 15 starting verse
1 And here Lord Jesus Christ God in the flesh He's talking
to His disciples. Judas Iscariot is not with them
right now. He's gone off to betray the Lord. Soon will. Our Savior will make manifest soon all that
the Father had given Him to do. and accomplish for our salvation
and for His glory. Verse 1, I am the true vine and
my Father is the husband. As the title of this message
is the true vine, I didn't see where it would be any better
than that. It's a beautiful picture that
the Lord has given us. And He's talking to His disciples.
Like I said, Judas is not there. So these are His chosen, His
true believers, His true followers. And He's been making Himself
known to them. They don't fully understand everything
yet, but He's been making Himself known to them. He's setting up
His, as we see here, His kingdom. He's setting up His church, his
New Testament churches. He's setting up his preachers
to preach the gospel to his churches. And he declares here that I am
the true vine and my father is the husbandman. This is God's
work. This is all of God. This is all
His doing. This is all His purpose. His
providence. Because in the beginning was
God. And praise God, He made a covenant
with Himself. A covenant of grace. A covenant
of mercy. That He would choose a people.
He would choose Himself a people to love. To show His love, His
mercy, His grace. and make them his own. He is teaching his disciples
here, election, predestination, and regeneration. And yes, this was done in the
beginning. But it had to be made known,
it had to be manifest. And that's what all the scripture,
all the scripture is about. It's His coming. Christ coming
in the flesh, the Messiah coming to redeem His people. Because
when God chose, God the Father chose those people. He put them
in Christ, His Son. Wrap your mind around that. And
hold on to it. And it's a beautiful picture
when you go out here of the vine. My father is the husband. This
is all the work of God. His purpose. His purpose in getting
His glory. For He is a sovereign God. He
is a just God. He is a good God. He only does
good. We know that the Lord knows do
good and well because He purposed it. God does all things. He uses His creation. He created
all. for His glory and for the saving
of His elect. That's the only reason He created
anything. And He put Jesus Christ as the
cornerstone, as the way, as the door. As the just, the only one who
could be just, come in the flesh, born of the Spirit of God. He's
God! Come in the flesh, Just as He
made Adam, He made Adam. Let's make Him in our image.
We make man in our image. Why? Because God had already
prepared a substitute. He'd already prepared a Savior
because He knew that Adam would fall. Why else would He say,
on the day that you eat of the tree of the good, the fruit of
good and evil, I'm sorry, that you will surely die. You die
spiritually. And we, we're in Adam, that first
representative. We're in him. And we are born spiritually dead. We don't know the things of God.
We don't know the mind of God because only God can reveal that
to us. Only God can reveal spiritual
things. We are flesh. We are born with
a fleshly nature that hates God. But before there was an Adam,
there was the last Adam, the second Adam. And God chose a
people. And He put those people in His
Son, Christ Jesus, to be their substitute. And we're in Him. We didn't know it until He made
it known. But He put us in Christ. Sanctified
us. Set us apart to love. Show His grace, His mercy. I am the true vine, and my Father
is the husband. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, He taketh away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, He purgeth it. that it may bring forth more
fruit. Salvation is all of God in his
sovereign grace, his free and sovereign grace, and his purpose
in Christ Jesus to save his people. There are those that profess
to know God. We are born with a sinful nature. We do not know the things of
God. It has to be revealed to us. And there are those all along,
God has always purposed it, that there are those among us who
are not his. You and I don't know who they
are. We're warned not to separate
the wheat and the chaff because it's not for us to do. Work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling. Because it's that faith, it's
that God-given faith is the only way you'll have spiritual life.
It's the only way you'll understand things of the Spirit. And only
God reveals Himself in you by His Holy Spirit. And He's setting His disciples
up. Christ has preeminence. He's
the first. He's getting ready to lay down
His life for His sheep. And just as, like I said, it
was done in the beginning, when God put us in Christ, when He
put His chosen people in Christ, He declared Him to be the Lamb
of God slain before the foundation of the world. Salvation is in Him and Him alone. And you can fake faith. You can profess. It says if you
profess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you accept, right? That's a profession that Jesus
Christ come in the flesh and He's the Son of God. I won't
tell you who else knows that. Satan knows that very well. Knows
that very well. So there are people who profess
to be in the faith. They profess to be in the vine.
That true vine. But God knows who His people
are. And He knows who's not. And I've got notes scattered
over here and I don't know. Known. Known to God. are all His works from the beginning
of the world. That's in Acts 15 verse 18. God purposed all things. He created
all things as it were to play everything out, to make it known
in His own time and as it pleased Him to do so. And here we have
the disciples that He chose Judas Iscariot's gone. He's not with
them right now. Soon God would go to that cross. He would suffer. He's already
brought in the obedience. And he's gonna do that unto death
and bring in that perfect righteousness for us. Because we're in him. We're in him right here. Right
here, we're in him. We're in this true vine. This
is several years ago before any of us were Created in the flesh
We were in him When he goes to that cross When he suffers when
God pours out his wrath on him as our substitute who voluntarily
Took us and keeps us He suffered and died for us we died In him That old nature is still with
us. It is. And it will be till God separates
it. And it wars against that new spirit. That new creation
that God creates in us. He doesn't reform your flesh.
He creates a creature in you. The one born of the Spirit. The
one that He put in Christ in the beginning. Christ being the firstborn. When
he died, we died in him. When he was buried, we were buried
in him. And praise God, he who laid down
his life, he who knew no sin, who became sin for us, bore our
sin in his flesh, paid that ransom, because we were in bondage. We
were born in bondage and sin. He paid that price in full to
redeem you. You're bought. You're His. You're
His possession. He rose again from the dead victorious
over death, victorious over the grave, victorious over Satan
and sin. It has no more dominion over
you. Because God put you in Him in the beginning. And you were
with Him. You were in Him. What does it
mean to be in that vine? It means everything. Every branch
that beareth fruit, He purges it. That it may bring
forth more fruit. The vine. That true vine, Jesus
Christ. That cornerstone, the chief cornerstone. The head. He's the head of the
church. We're his body. We make up his
body. His limbs. He's incomplete without us. We're
nothing without him. That's the way God made it. It's
the way God purposed it. How beautiful. And look at this
picture. Said he came down, and there
was nothing comely about him, nothing beautiful that you would
desire in him. It's like a vine. But oh, what
beauty. And limbs. He calls his branches. Branches in the vine. What's
a branch do? A branch is nothing without a
mind. Can it brag that it brought forth
fruit? No. Cut it off and lay it down
on the ground and see what it does. It's gonna wither and die. It was dead. You're grafted in. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity. We were made a new creature.
Our hearts were circumcised by the Holy Spirit of God. He called
us by his gospel, this gospel that he has given to these disciples.
They're witnesses. We're grafted in. We're put in
him by the Father. And all grace and all truth,
all the blessings of God are yea in Him. And we draw our life from Him.
Just picture it. The vine. You're the branch. In this vine, you now have life that you didn't
have before. spiritual things He's revealing
himself to you he's revealing you in him he in you You're just there He's allowing
you while you're in this filthy evil flesh That new creation
inside you that He's put in you, Christ revealed in you, is watching
that fruit. Watching His fruitfulness, His
grace flowing through. And you get to see a glimpse of it.
He let you see that. It says through a glass darkly
right now. And what do you do? You rejoice that God has put
you in Him. You rejoice in that vine for
all the life, all the grace, and all the promises that are
given to you in Him. We're fellow heirs. We've been
predestined to be conformed to His image. We've been predestinated
to be the adopted children of God in Him. We're fellow heirs
with Christ Jesus, the Son of God. And in this flesh, in this vine,
as branches, we get to see the fruitfulness of God being made known. Do we glory in ourselves? Did
we produce that fruit? Did we have anything to do with
it? We are His workmanship, created in Him under good works that
He has before ordained us to. We're recipients like a branch. We're holding on to Him with
a death grip. But He's got us. He's always
had us and He always will. The faith of Jesus Christ. The faith that He gives us in
Him. We hold on to Him tight. He's
already done it all. God already trusted Him first. Because He put us in Him. He
knew. That's surety. You couldn't have
no better surety. He said, I will not lose one.
He can't fail. Because like I said, God's already
purposed it. He is incomplete without us.
But oh, we're nothing without Him. He tells us that. Here now you are clean through
the word which I have spoken unto you. That's the gospel of
God. That is the regeneration That
is he's telling them in clear language than has ever been spoken
There's nothing new This was done before the world began this
all the scripture Talking about this Christ crucified Christ
comes in the flesh the Messiah is coming He's gonna save his
people. He's gonna redeem them And here
he is in the flesh With his disciples his preachers
setting up his church What you have now My father will make our abode
in you. I'm not gonna leave you comfortless Comfortless back
in in in in chapter 13 He tells them I'm gonna send you another
comforter That another comforter It's one
just like me says I and my father will make our abode in you And I can't find my notes in
a but I My father will make our abode in you. I And my father
are one how many times did he tell them that I and my father
are one? We serve one God Who is three God the Father God
the Son God the Holy Spirit They all are one they all agree in
one I will send the comfort, the
Holy Spirit, my spirit, me revealed in you. He'll teach you all things. What
does the Holy Spirit do? He points you to Christ. He tells you of Christ and what
he's done for you. What does Christ do? What my father has told me, that's
what I tell you, and I've left nothing out. And what does the
father say? This is my beloved son, and who
I am well pleased. He's the only sacrifice acceptable
to God. And he, when he rose again, He went into ascended up into
heaven into the holies of holies After he was seen of the disciples
After he was seen the 500 at one time He ascended back into
heaven where he descended from And he is our high priest our
eternal high priest after the order of Melchizedek Presented
himself High Priest presented himself as the offering for sin, as the
atonement for sin. His blood shed for the remission
of sins, for the forgiveness of sins. He put them all away
because he bore them in himself. And because there was no sin
in him, he didn't seek corruption. He was raised again. You cannot,
God will not kill a guilty man. Or I mean, I'm sorry, an innocent
man. And he will not let sin go unpunished. He punished him to the uttermost.
He punished him till he was satisfied. It pleased him to bruise him. And oh, despising the shame,
but oh for the joy, he voluntarily became our substitute. and lay
down his life for the sheep. And he presented himself to the
father as the sacrifice that God, the only sacrifice that
God's pleased with. And he sat down on the right
hand of the throne of God. where he is today and he rules
and he reigns and he rests because his work is finished. We're in that true line. He's given us faith. He's gotten
us by his gospel, which he said he would do. He said, I'll send the preachers
and I'll send the gospel to you. And that's how I'm going to call
you by my Holy Spirit. I'm going to give you life, spiritual
life. And I'm going to give you a knowledge.
And I'm going to give you, because I'm going to sprinkle his blood,
that sin atoning blood. Your conscience is going to be
guiltless. Your heart. You're going to have
a heart. I'm going to write my words on
your heart. He's setting up his witnesses.
They're listening to him. This is his followers. And we're in this true line.
And he says, abide in me and I in you as The branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can ye, except
ye abide in me. And listen here. I am the vine. Ye are the branches. He that
abideth in me. This is not, this is not for
you to decide. This is not a, What is it called,
a conjunction? This is not something that you
can do. You don't choose to abide in
the vow. This is a promise of God. If you're His, you will
be in Him, you will abide in Him, and you will be fruitful. Because you're His. You're bought
with a price. You're no longer yourselves.
We get so wrapped up in this worldly flesh and these worldly
temporal things, I do. We act like we got a whole life
and eternity just waiting ahead of us. In the flesh, you don't. You don't, thank God you don't.
Spiritually, everything God does is forever. Isaiah 45 17 But Israel shall
be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation You shall
not be ashamed Nor confounded world without him everything
God does is forever Everything God does is eternal He puts you
in Christ You will be saved You will abide in Him and you will
be fruitful. You're His. He loves you. And that's the commandment that
He gives you. That you love one another as He loves you. You're of the Spirit now. Sin
has no more dominion over you. You've been freed from the curse
of the law of the holy law of God There's no combination there
is nothing that God Can charge you with because his son paid
it all If you don't believe that You
don't believe in God You don't believe that Christ is enough
that what God purposed in him, he didn't fulfill? No. Those are the branches that get
cut off. Those are the branches that,
there's some little piece of glory that I must have out of
this. There's something I must do. Look at the fruit I did. Look here, I am the vine, you
are the branches. Oh, this is beautiful. He that
abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Look here, for without me ye
can do nothing, nothing. If a person comes up and tells
you that, Jeb, without me, you can do nothing. Well, that just takes away all
your glory, all your self-worth. In our flesh and nature, we're
going to get mad. Are you angry with God when He tells you this?
Oh, I hope you're not. I hope you praise Him for it.
Because that's the sweetest thing He could tell you. You can't
screw it up. Because you didn't do nothing.
You ain't going to do nothing. And you never will do nothing.
And you never will be anything. But oh, in Him, you're a child
of God. In Him, He loves you. In Him,
you are one with God in Christ. You are joiners. All the blessings
of God are yours. Eternal life. Eternal salvation. Eternal glory. Oh, bless God. Without Him, we're
nothing. Oh, glory, if you don't glory,
you glory in the Lord. Without me, You can do nothing. Oh yeah, that takes that fleshly
pride. Oh, that brings you low. It does. That strips you. That strips
you of all confidence you have in your flesh and anybody else,
your pastor, your preachers, your teachers, your mama, your
daddy, yourself, your strength, your ability. Where does all
that come from? comes from Him. You're dead in
trespasses and sins. You're spiritually dead. He made you alive because He
purposed you in Him in Christ His Son before the foundation
of the world. If a man abide not in me, He
is cast forth as a branch and is withered. And man gather them
and cast them into the fire and they're burned. There is a judgment
day. Christ is coming again. Matter
of fact, as soon as he ascended, he'd already purposed to come
again. There's no signs to look for. Nothing's got to be done or happen. He's coming again. And we don't
know when. But we're supposed to be watching.
We're in him. Because he comes as a thief in
the night. But His elect, He will make willing
and ready. But those branches that are just seeming to be in
Christ, those with a false profession of faith, Those who put their confidence
in man, in their own abilities, in their works, because you're
saved by grace, through faith, and not of yourselves. It's a
gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Flesh. That flesh. Mortify those deeds of the flesh.
And you can't do that. But in Christ, He does it for you. Those with that false profession
on that judgment day, when God, when God separates, Because God
separates, God divides. It's His creation. You are His
chosen elect. He knows who are His and who
are not. And He will, He will divide the wheat from the chaff.
He alone will separate the goats from the sheep forever. One day, when He comes to gather
all, that are His, in Him, and our faith becomes sight. Right now, to just live by faith,
by faith in Christ, believing in Him, in His accomplishments,
His finished works that the Father gave Him. Because there are enough in those
black branches, we rest in Him. There's nowhere else to go. There's
nothing else to look to. Because without Him, we can do
nothing. We rely on Him solely for everything. And He's worthy of our trust. He proves it over and over and
over. But that false profession of
faith will be no good in that day. For many will come and say,
Lord, Lord, haven't we cast out devils in your name? Haven't
we done all this? Haven't we done all that for
you and for you? And haven't we, haven't we, haven't
me, me, me? Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, for I never knew you. You're never mine. God never
put you in me. God doesn't tempt anybody. Don't ever think that. Do not
err. You're spiritually dead. You're
born spiritually dead. You're already condemned. God will give you what you want.
He's good. He only does good. You don't
want God to be your God? You hate God? You don't want
to hold Him in your thought process? He will leave you alone. He will
leave you to yourself. And on that day, you won't have
anybody to blame. When He says, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you, you'll say,
you were right, oh God, you were just and holy. Because every knee will bow.
Every knee will bow. You need to do it now when He
brings you low and brings you to your knees. And He strips you and He convinces
you of your sinfulness and of your need for righteousness that
you don't have because yours are filthy rags. In your works,
there's nothing you can do to please God. It says the flesh
can't please God. Can't blame God. There's a gospel call that goes
out to all. Believe on Him. While today is the day, while
that door is open, while you can still seek Him and He can
be found, you come to Him begging for mercy, you come to that mercy
seat, you come to that throne of grace, you bow to Him, you
submit to Him, He is your all in all. Without Him you are nothing
and you can do nothing. He don't turn away anybody that's
come to Him begging for mercy. But you had to be put in Him.
You had to be put in Christ in eternity. You had to be called by his gospel. By his Holy Spirit. He had to born you again. Making that new creation in you.
Christ revealed in you the hope of glory. has made you perfect before God. He and he alone is your justification. He and he alone, God has made
him to be wisdom, sanctification, righteousness, redemption. Gotta be in him. He's gotta put you there. And
He reveals Himself to you. And you believe Him. You trust
Him. And there's a continuum. He is
our high priest. "'Cause if ye abide in me and
my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will. And it shall
be done unto you. We have a high priest, an eternal
high priest after the order of Melchizedek. We have an unction
with the Father. We have a mediator, one who has
brought peace. The God-man has brought peace
between God and man. Mediator. We have an intercessor. We don't even know how to pray.
We don't know what to pray for. We have an intercessor, we have
an advocate with the Father. And that's our
high priest, Jesus Christ, the one who ascended that one time
offering of himself offered Himself to God, our propitiation, our
substitute. He offered Himself one time and
God pleased. He offered Himself for all that
the Lord God had given Him, all His chosen elect. God's pleased
with that. That's why He can look at you.
You are covered with that atoning blood. He reconciled you to Himself
through His Son. He sees His Son, because He sees
you clothed in His righteousness. That robe He put on you, you're
sealed. He sanctified you. That Holy Spirit, witnessing
with our spirit, I and my Father will make our
abode in you. Now, O branch that is in that
true vine that's been put there by the Father, what do you want? What do you want? You are no
longer in this flesh. You no longer serve sin. You're
in the light. He's put you in the light. He's
made you a child of God. He's in you. You're in him. He is in you. You are one with
the Father in Christ Jesus. What do you want? Let's look
over, turn over Matthew. You know where we're going, Matthew
6. Matthew chapter 6. Start over here in verse 5 And when thou prayest Thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are For they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets That they
may be seen of men Verily I say unto you They have their reward
we saw what that was Those branches are the ones that get burnt the
ones that God separates But thou, when thou prayest, enter into
thy closet. When thou hast shut the door,
pray to thy father. He has made us to where we can
cry, Abba, Father, which is in secret. And thy father, which
seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. But when you pray,
use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do, for they think
that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye
therefore like unto them for your father knoweth what things
you have need of Before he asketh He's in control of everything
he knows the minds he knows the intents of the thoughts and intents
of the heart Everything is naked before him There's nothing that
you gonna hide But you're in it He's in you. Now, what do you want? Well,
let's see. After this manner, therefore,
pray our Father. He has made us to where we can
call him Abba Father. Which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. You hold him in high regards. He must be exalted and we must
be abased. You hold him in the highest reverence
for he is God. He is your creator. He is your
God. He is your salvation. Hallowed be thy name. You lift him up. Thy kingdom come we want his
kingdom to grow We want his gospel preached to all creatures. We want our brothers and sisters
To be born again of the Holy Spirit We want them to be saved
we want those that are in Christ we want Christ revealed in them
And God says I do it by the gospel by my gospel We want his kingdom
to grow. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. We want his will to be ours. We want to be consecrated to
him. Totally subject to him. No, we're not gonna be. We're
in the flesh. We're gonna fight ourselves. We're gonna be, but
we don't want him to leave us to ourselves. Yes, it's necessary. Or we wouldn't be in this flesh.
We need to be reminded daily. We need to be reminded all the
time what we are. See it and nothing but see it.
It's all we can do. It's all we know how to do. But
bless God. Bless God for that new creation
that he's created in us. That new creature. Some of the
spirit born of the Spirit Christ has preeminence. He's the forerunner.
He's the firstborn But we've been predestinated to be like
him To be adopted children to be fellow heirs to be conformed
to his image We want his will to be done In
us and on earth and isn't in heaven Give us this day our daily
bread. We want grace sufficient. We
need his grace sufficient. We need his grace daily What is sufficient give me what
is sufficient for today, oh lord For tomorrow's not promised yesterday's
gone I need grace for now right now I need to know that I'm in
Christ. I need to be brought to his feet.
I need to go to that mercy seat. I need to be brought to that
throne of grace, that throne of mercy. God, I'm not worthy
to be thy child. And before you can even get out
of your mouth, he picks you up and he points you to Christ Jesus.
You're in him. He's already done it all. He's
enough. Oh, thank God. Forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors. We want forgiveness. We want
forgiveness for ourselves. We need it. We need it daily. And we need to forgive. We need
to love. We need to love one another. That's His commandment. Love
you one another. You want to be like Christ. You want to be conformed to His
image. That's what you want. Sinner saved by grace, that's
what you want. Because that's what He's made you. One day we'll
know. One day we'll know. He's coming
again. He's going to collect us all.
And we'll know Him as we're known. We'll know Him as He is. sinful flesh And lead us not
into temptation God tempts no man We're led by
the old nature through our lust We love seeing we love it more
than we do God Because we hate God in the flesh And that old nature is there
and it wars don't think you don't You'll turn just like it You
know you will. But he's there. You have a high
priest who knows your infirmities because he came in the flesh.
He came in the flesh and he suffered every temptation that you'll
ever suffer and ones you haven't, but your brethren may have and
may and He's there to secure you,
to help you in your time of need and trouble. You have somewhere
to go. His name's Jesus Christ, your
high priest. Lead us not into temptation and
deliver us from evil. Who has ever delivered any of
us from evil? Only God has. He's been delivering
His elect, His chosen, never ceases never ceases for
thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever from
eternity to eternity i don't know what eternity means but
it's a long time ago and it's a long time coming and he time
don't mean nothing to him But He is forever, and we are
forever in Him. Amen, it is the truth. Hurry along here. For herein
is my Father glorified, that ye bear fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. Pick up your cross, follow me. Be ye followers of Christ. Believe on Him. Come to the throne of grace,
the throne of mercy. While today is today, harden
not your heart. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall have eternal life. Or you never know that. But we
don't know who God's elect are. Only he does. He's promised not
to lose any. And he will not fail. All that
the Father have given him, he will save. He's already done
it. But he makes things known to
us in his time. when it pleases Him. I hope that's a blessing to you.
May God get His glory.