I invite you this morning to
turn back to the passage that I read to you earlier in John
15. It is my lot in the kingdom of God
to minister, as do the angels, to those who shall be heirs of
salvation. That's why sometimes he refers
to his ministers as angels. The angels of the churches he
talks about in the book of Revelation. He's talking about those pastors. It's my lot to watch for your
souls. To watch for your souls. What
is that? That's to discern problems. To discern the enemy's work in
you, about you. It's to discern deceit. It's
to discern troubles, things that trouble you, just like you watch
for your children. You was a child once. I told
my kids once, I said, I've been down the road. I fell in every
pothole in it. Now, I can tell you where the
potholes are. But if you want to, there's the rope. Go down
and fall in them just like I did. Pastors know where the potholes
are. And they try to tell you. They
try to tell you. I watch for your souls. But I
can't watch for your souls when you're not here. I can't discern
just in common conversation. I never try to pinpoint somebody
or Somebody's sitting back in the
back and I'm just looking at them and I'm just hammering.
I try never to do that. I try to deal with that problem. Not necessarily even when I realize
what the problem is, but I'll wait a little bit and I'll deal
with that problem. Because we all have it. We all
have it. We all fight it. But that's what
pastors are. We minister to those who shall
be heirs of salvation. We watch for your soul. And hopefully
I can set before you a meal. We feed on it. Peter, do you
love me? I love you. Lord, you know I
love you. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. That's what we
do when we gather. We're being fed. We're being
fed. And I often wrestle over what
to preach to you because of these things. You and I just have one
soul. We have one soul. And this soul is eternal. This
body's going back to the earth from which it was taken, but
the soul will live forever. It's gonna go on forever. And
the word of God only speaks of two places where those eternal
souls shall abide. They're gonna abide in this body
just so long and then this tent is gonna dissolve, it's going
back to the earth from which it was taken. But the soul's
not going into the earth, the soul's gonna come up before God. There are two places that he
talks about this soul abiding, in heaven with Christ, with God,
the holy angels and all the saints. Heaven, what must it be? What must it be? Sin has never
tainted heaven. Not any sin. Not the thought
of sin. Not the presence of sin. No sin. No sin. And all the things that
are attached to sin, labor, disease, you can go on and on. Not in
heaven. Not in heaven. Heaven is a place
of eternal bliss. Heaven is a place without anything
attached to sin. Or an everlasting punishment
in hell with Satan and the fallen angels and with all those who
would not receive the love of the truth that they might be
saved. The scripture said, he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Now these things are so, I'm
not just saying, don't receive these things just as words. They're
not just words. I'm giving to you the very word
of God. The very word of God. These things
are gonna be. They're gonna be. He that believeth
on the Son, the Scripture said, hath everlasting life. And he
that believeth not the Son shall not see life. He's not even gonna
perceive life. He's not gonna taste of it. He's
not gonna experience it. He's not gonna feel it in his
soul. He shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him. How so? How so? Does God smote him with leprosy? Does he walk around in this world
diseased, tormented? How is it that the wrath of God
abideth on this man who will not believe the Son of God? By giving him over to strong
delusion to believe a lie and be damned. The wrath of God abideth
on him. Wrath of God abides on unbelievers,
and it's not always seen in their suffering and death, though sometimes
it is. But it's seen mostly in their
ease. It's seen mostly in their prosperity. It's seen mostly in their confidence. In Psalm 73, David was envious
of the wicked. He was envious of them. He said
there's no bonds in their death. John Gill said this on Psalm
73. He said they had nothing that
causes them distress. They're not worried. They have
nothing that causes them distress concerning God and judgment.
They're holy at ease and quiet in heart. I'm all fixed up. Like
those ones Isaiah said, we've made a covenant with death and
with hell we're at agreement. They're not in trouble. They
have no respect for death. They take no consideration of
it, no care or concern about it. They put it far off out of
their mind. They don't like to talk about
it. My sister who's dead now, she never wanted to talk about
death. They put it far out of their
mind. There's no bands in their death, but their strength is
firm. What strength? He's talking about that strength
that has to do with their hiding place. A strong man arm keepeth
his palace so that his goods are at peace. They're not in
trouble, David said, as other men. The mere fact that there
is a hell of judgment and people already in it ought to make their
hair stand up on our neck. But the wicked are not troubled,
because the wrath of God abideth on them, and they believe a lie,
and their confidence is in a lie, and they rest in it as their
hope. They're not plagued, David said, as other men. No curse of God on them. They
never think about God's curse being on mankind. You know all
mankind's under the curse of God? Huh? You know, to save his elect,
he said he'd become a curse for us. Why? Because we were cursed. We were cursed. They're not plagued, they don't
have a depraved nature. They don't consider their every
thought wickedness before God, tainted with sin. No being under sin. Paul said,
I before proved both Jew and Gentile. They're all under sin,
under its influence, under its reign. Sin hath reigned unto
death. They don't consider that. They
never consider that they're dead and dying. On death row, that's
mankind. He's on death row. He's already
been judged. He's just awaiting the sentence. They scoff at the thought of
sinners being cursed and added. And these are all evidences of
the wrath of God abiding on us. In Ephesians 2, Paul tells us
of the walk of dead sinners, saying that they walked according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation. That word is behavior. And we
had it in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature, now listen, children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
and for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ. raised us up together
with him and made us sit together with him in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. And he did that that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We're his workmanship. He has
worked much here. John 15 verses one through 12
is a parable from which our union in Christ can be seen and taught. It's a parable. It's something
that he gives. It's an earthly story with a
heavenly meaning. He gives us a picture here, things
that we can understand, common, ordinary, everyday things, a
garden, a vine. branches, gives us everyday things,
to teach us heavenly truth. So first of all, let me begin
with this. I want to begin with the question,
why? Why? Why would God ordain an eternal
union of vile sinners with His Son? Why would He do that? Well,
the first reason given to us in verse one of our text, Christ
said, my father's the husband man. This whole thing is his
garden. This world is his garden. And
then the reason why he has this garden, because he has a vine,
and he's gonna put that vine in the center of that garden,
and everything that's gonna glorify him gonna be connected to that
vine. If it's not attached to that vine, burn it. That's what
he says. If that branch doesn't abide
in me, gather it up and throw it in the fire. That's all it's
good for. That's his whole world. That's
the reason why we have a being. That's the reason why you look
up at the sky and you see the planets and the stars and days
and nights and everything that's around you, everything that is,
is for this cause, because God has a garden. And in the middle
of that garden, he said, this is my vine. How come? Because it's his garden. Why
does God do this? It's his garden. My neighbors
come by all the time and they look up over the fence and they
look at my little garden house and my raised beds and stuff
and they look and go on down the road. And one asked me one
day, he said, some of them things have covers on them and some
of them don't. And he said, how come? I said,
because it's my garden. If I want to put chicken wire
on it, I'll put chicken wire on it. If I want to take it off,
I'll take it off. It's my garden. If I want to plant peas, I plant
peas. If I want to plant mustard, I plant mustard. It's my garden.
You see what I'm saying? I'm going a long way around,
but I'm trying to make a point. This is God's garden. What's
he going to put in it? He's going to put a vine. He's going to put a vine. Why? Because he's going to glorify
his name. You're going to glorify his name.
You know, you drag one of those big California wonder peppers
about that long, about that big, and you drag him out in a bowl.
Man, you got a green thumb. I'll bring glory to your name,
don't I? That's what God said, this is
my vine. This is my vine. You want to
see some fruit? I'm going to show you some fruit. This is
my vine. Everything connected to that vine going to bear fruit.
What kind? My kind. My kind, what I determine. We're His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good work. How come you believe you're His
workmanship? Ain't something a natural man
can do. It's the gift of God. It ain't works. You can't conjure
up faith. Faith is a gift of God. It's
the gift of God. He's the husband man. God has
a garden. It's His garden. The place he
plants it belongs to him. The seed he plants is his seed.
The fruit he purposed to have is of his design. And what he
does with his garden is his business and no other. And it's never
the lot of man to determine anything about God's garden. Man's part
in the garden, Genesis 2.15, was to dress it and keep it.
He already planted it. Everything that was in the garden
was in the garden when Adam entered into it. He didn't plant anything.
He put him there to dress it and to keep it, to till it, to dig around what
God planted. God planted it, watered it, commanded
what to eat and what not to eat. There was a tree of life in the
midst of the garden which they were bidding to eat. But a tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, which they were forbidden
to eat. Why'd they forbid them to eat that? Because knowing
the good, they wouldn't be able to do it. And knowing the evil,
they wouldn't be able to resist it. He said, don't eat that tree. Don't eat that tree. Long story
short. The woman ate the forbidden tree
and the man followed suit, not willing to be separated from
his bride. And in that, Adam is a picture
of Christ. The only thing that saved them
and their children was this eternal union with Christ. The sweet
truth of God's everlasting union with his people is that he's
long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. That's the sweet truth of this
union. And God came to Adam in the cool
of the day, and he reconciled him. He reconciled him, he slayed
a lamb, put it on the altar. The Lord said, I am divine, I'm
the beginning, my father's the husband man. The reason for it, God's eternal
purpose of grace. His reason for it is to preserve
chosen sinners for the glory of his name. And then the second
thing I want us to see in this text is the means of it. Christ
is the means. He's the means. We think about
means, we think about preaching, prayer, all kinds of things,
and those are means, but the main means of salvation is Christ. They said, we don't know the
way. We don't know where you're going,
we don't know the way. I am the way, I am the truth. And he said, I'm the mind. I'm the mind. I don't care what
you do, I don't care how much you give, how busy you are, you
cannot and will not in yourself produce any fruit in God's garden
except by way of this union with Christ. Listen how simple the
Lord says it. I'll go on for 30 minutes trying
to say it. He said it in a few words. He said, without me, you
can do nothing. What's he mean by that? It means
you can do nothing. Yeah, but what's he mean? He
means you can do nothing. That's what he meant. That's
what he said. And that's what he meant. John 15.2, he said, every branch
in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. What's he talking
about there? He's talking about false professions
of faith. False professions of faith. They've never been attached
to the vine. They just said they were attached
to the vine. Every branch that beareth fruit,
he purges it. that it may bring forth more
fruit. But these others, if it bears not fruit, he takes it
away. Well, how do you know that you're
attached to the vine? You bear fruit. You bear fruit. We bought an old farm when I
was just a kid, just a little farm. It was a portion of an
inheritance that somebody had, and they were selling it off,
and we had 10 acres. But we had the old home place of the guy
who owned the farm. And he evidently loved to graft
stuff. And he had one tree out there
that had five grafts on it. And all produced different kinds
of fruit, different kinds of apples and things on one tree. And the first time I seen it,
I thought there's something wrong with it. Some of them apples
were red, some of them was yellow. Some of them come in early, some
of them come in late. And my dad took me over and showed
me where he grafted it. He showed me that big thing on
the side of the tree. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he takes it away. And this verse is talking about
our profession of faith. You say, I'm saved. I'm saved. I believe. But you don't grow
in grace and knowledge of Christ. You don't thirst after that life-giving
water. That can only be gotten in the
vine. Your nature's not in union with the vine. There's no fruit
under the glory of God. It's found in the branch. There's
nothing in it, just leaves. God takes that branch away. That
branch, verse six, which is nothing more than a withered mess. is
cast into the fire. Every branch must be grafted
into God's true vine. A lookalike won't get it done.
It has to be grafted in. A substitute won't get it done.
Another Jesus won't suffice. Abide in me, he said, and I in
you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in a vine, no more can ye except
ye abide in me. Life comes from him, real life. 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.
The means of life is the person of Jesus Christ. He's the true
vine. He's the only plant God himself
ever planted. Think about that. Here's a master
gardener. If ever there was a master gardener,
it's God. He can grow anything. I mean,
look around you at the stuff that was created. Just look at
it. But God himself has one garden. He only planted one plant, Christ. He put that vine right here.
And he said, this is what's gonna glorify my name. Means of life is the person of
Jesus Christ. He's the true vine, the only
plant God ever planted. And we're the branches. And because
of our union with him, we're afforded everything we need to
produce fruit under the glory of God. It's all in him. It's all in him. Don't get this
idea that you made a profession of faith and I'm all fixed up
for life no matter what I do. That's a bunch of booey is what
that is. Everybody he grafts into that
vine, everybody he's gonna save, he's gonna graft into that vine,
and every graft that he does in that vine is gonna produce
fruit. They're gonna produce fruit. If they don't, he said, they
never grafted in. They never grafted in. But that union with him is how
we're afforded everything that we need to produce fruit. And
outside the vine, you're just left to yourself, left to the
old wild olive branch, left to draw from a corrupt tree with
an evil root. The means of fruit, the fruit
of eternal life is Jesus Christ, our Lord. And then thirdly, I
see in our text that there's a fruit approved of God and one
that is true evidence without which it means we never grafted
in. What is that fruit he keeps referring
to? He just keeps talking about fruit.
That vine, those branches attached to that vine are gonna produce
fruit. What's he talking about? Galatians 5.19 said, the works
of the flesh are manifested, which are these. These are works.
This is what man produces. You wanna know what works are,
real works? Here they are. Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance. What's that mean? That means
you like to argue about stuff. Means you like to debate about
stuff, you're contentious. Emulations, that's jealousy. Seditions, heresies, envying,
murders, drunkenness, revelness, and such like, of which I've
also told you in time past that they which do such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. Now watch this, verse 21, Galatians
5. But the fruit of the Spirit It
is love, love, joy. When you hear the gospel, when
you hear how our blessed Lord died on that cross to save your
soul, does it bring joy to your heart? Or is it just another saying?
Do you rejoice in that? That He grafted you into that
vine? Does that mean anything to you?
Don't that disturb your heart? That He found you on your way
to hell, guilty, already cursed, but He intervened because He
loved you. And He wasn't willing to let
you perish. and he gave you everything you needed to be his son. Read
John chapter one. To them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Huh,
does it bring joy? Oh, that's the fruit. You wanna
know something about this fruit? When that vine, here it is and
it's flourishing. It's God's vine. It's not corrupt. It's not evil. It's a perfect
vine. It's the vine that God himself
planted. And he takes that branch and
he grafts it into that vine. Oh, that vine is going to produce
love. Yes, it is. He's going to love
because God loves him. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. God is love and joy. Joy. We continue in rejoicing. That's what it says. If we're
at his house, we continue rejoicing. Fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace. I'm not at war anymore. Peace. Peace with God. Peace with God. Long suffering. What's that mean?
That mean putting up with. Anybody here know what that means?
Putting up with. Why would a believer just put
up with stuff? Huh? Because God put up with
him. That's why. He draws from that
vine. He draws from that vine where
the Lord put up with us. God commended his love toward
us and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, and all of these things together describe
that fruit. That fruit. That's the fruit
of the Spirit. How? How is that fruit produced?
The Spirit of God takes the things of Christ and shows them unto
us. He shows them unto us. John 16, 14, he shall glorify
me, he's gonna receive of mine and show it unto you. John 15,
eight, herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit, so
shall you be my disciples. And this fruit cannot be produced
by any branch not grafted into the vine. Everything that it
needs to produce fruit is in the vine. A fella told me not long ago,
he said, now listen, listen, he said, I want you to understand,
I've known this man for 40 years. He said, I think the gospel's
important. You do? I think it's necessary. Don't
get me wrong, he said, I believe those things. But he said, we
need a little law. Not if you're grafted into the
vine, you don't. You're free from the law. You
don't need the law. The law is not made for righteous
men. I'm righteous in Christ. I have His righteousness. I don't
need the law. What I need is love. What I need is love. Love is the keeping of the law. Did you know that? You're not
going to disregard His commandments because you love Him. When's a wife gonna listen to
her husband when he sees his love for her? If she loves him,
she gonna obey him. We made one with the vine. We
draw life from the vine. It's not a work, it's a fruit. What does a branch draw from
the vine? Everything purposed of God, it draws from the vine. Everything, everything. You can't come to Christ and
be ignorant of his love. He chose us in Christ that we
might always be before him, being loved. You cannot be grafted
into Christ and be without joy, peace, gentleness, long-suffering,
or have faith. All these things come from Him.
Salvation's in Him. And because they came from God's
vine, He's glorified. He's glorified. I'm the vine,
you're the branches. How do we know that? How do we
know it's just not an empty profession of faith? Because we've been
grafted into the vine. And this faith and the fruit
of it produces The faith that it produces manifests our election
of God. Listen to this. Paul said to the Thessalonians
in 1 Thessalonians 1, he said, I know your election of God. I bet you if you ask every one
of them, nobody in there would have said, I know my election
of God. But Paul knew it. He knew it. He looked at them. He said, because our gospel came
not unto you in word only. It didn't go in this ear and
out that ear. You didn't memorize it like you did the alphabet. Huh? It didn't come in word only. It come in power. It came in
the Holy Ghost, and it came with much assurance, confidence in Christ as an all-sufficient Savior.
And you become followers of us, he said. When will a congregation
follow their pastor? When the gospel comes to them
in power. And they submit to God, and they see that pastor
as God's man, then they'll submit to him, they'll follow him. In
the Lord. You become followers of us and
the Lord. Not distant acquaintances. You're
filled with joy, even in your afflictions. You become examples
of faith. You sounded out the gospel. You
turn to God from your idols, and you patiently wait for Christ's
return. None of these can be merely chosen
and brought to pass by a natural man. Natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. You
mean to tell me that all I need is Christ? That's exactly what
I'm telling you. Oh, we need a little Lord? No,
you don't need anything. As you receive Christ Jesus,
the Lord so walk ye in him. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, you're complete in him. He's the head
of all principality and power. What else do you need other than
Christ? What takes priority in your life?
Your life or Christ? Who is your life, huh? Herein is love, not that you
love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And he says in 1 John 4, 11,
beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also love one another. As the father hath loved me,
Christ said, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. And then in John 15, 9, he said,
if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even
as I have kept my father's commandment and abide in his love. And keeping
his commandments is a twofold work. We keep the law of God
with the mind of Christ, seeing that law exalted and honored
in Christ. We honor that law by faith. I
can't keep it. I don't want to keep it. I'm
glad I'm not under the law. But my peace comes from seeing
that law exalted and honored in my substitute, in my representative,
Christ. That's the only way you can serve
the law. With the mind, Paul said, I serve the law of God,
the mind of Christ. And we keep his commandments
to the church by submitting to his rule over us. Love is the
keeping of the law and if you love me, you'll do what I told
you. That's what he said. Verse 11, these things have I
spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy
might be full. We don't have any joy apart from
his. It's when I see his joy, that's when I rejoice. We joy in him. Our love comes
by knowing him and whatever fruit we produce comes from him. He's the vine. We're the branches. May God give us a true understanding
of what that means and what that fruit is. May the Lord bless
his word and his gospel for Christ's sake. Lord, we'd ask this morning
that you take this gospel and press it upon our hearts, especially
this one who's spoken it. Press these things upon my heart.
And for Christ's sake, those who are gathered here to hear,
this is the answer to every problem we have. This is the very food on which
we grow. Bless it now for Christ's sake.
Amen.