Let's turn again to John chapter
15. John the 15th chapter. I've given this title to my message. Warnings or Promises. Warnings or Promises. I have no question at all that
the word of God issues warnings to us, warnings we are to heed. But warnings given in the scriptures
are clearly set forth to those who believe not. To those who
believe, God sets forth his word in blessed, blessed promises. On that solemn night before the
Lord of life and glory was delivered into the hands of wicked men
to be crucified according to the purpose of God, He gave His
disciples everything that might be needed to comfort their hearts. God commands His servants, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. It is the business,
the responsibility of gospel preachers to take the things
of God and by His Spirit show them to His people for their
comfort, for their consolation, for your peace and your blessed,
blessed peace in Christ Jesus. He says, speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem. Speak to the heart of my people. Tell them their warfare is over.
Tell them they shall receive double for all their sins. And so our Lord Jesus, the great
master preacher, he who truly preached effectively to the hearts
of men, on this last night before his death, speaks to his disciples. And in chapters 13 through 18
of John's Gospel, everything that is here recorded, both of
the words he spoke and the deeds he performed, everything is intended
to give us comfort, to secure and comfort the hearts of his
disciples at that time, and to secure and comfort the hearts
of his disciples today. Now, understand to whom he is
speaking. He's speaking to men who in just
a few hours would everyone, with fear and trembling forsake him. He is speaking to men redeemed by
his blood, saved by his grace, chosen by him in everlasting
love before the world began. But men who like us, chosen,
redeemed, called by his grace, were sinners still. And what
he says and what he does that whole evening is intended to
give them comfort. His final discourse is filled
with things intended to encourage their faith and ours in Him,
to give us confidence and assurance in Him. Throughout these chapters,
He is saying to them and to us, let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. Well, how are we to Interpret
those words. How are we to apply those words?
Every time you need them. In whatever circumstance, you,
my brother, my sister, may have a tendency to be afraid and be
troubled in your heart. The Savior says, let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. If ever there was
a time during the whole of our Lord's earthly ministry in which
he wanted to minister comfort and peace to his beloved disciples,
it was on this solemn night, like the 23rd Psalm. John 13,
14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 are intended for the consolation
of God's people, especially in times of trouble. On that solemn
night, The Lord Jesus made this statement three times to his
disciples. Three times. You know what the
statement was? I have chosen you. Three times. I have chosen you. Oh, there is not a more soft
blessed pillow upon which to lay your heart when your heart
is heavy and vexed with trouble, even the inward trouble caused
by your own sin, than this blessed, blessed word of his free, sovereign,
immutable, electing love. I have chosen you, the Master
Savior. He told them that one of them was a betrayer.
the son of perdition, that he would deliver the Lord Jesus
himself up to be crucified by a betrayer's kiss. And he tells
them specifically, and I've told you this before it happens, so
that when it comes to pass, your faith won't be shaken. When it
comes to pass, now you'll know, I've already told you, this is
what this man's going to do. He's going to betray me into
the hands of wicked men. And when it happens, don't be
disturbed by it. He told them again of his impending
death. In verses 31 through 33 of chapter
13, he told them that he would, by his death, glorify God his
Father. And by his death, he would be
glorified by his Father. And then our Lord turned to his
disciples. I'm filling in now from Luke
22. He said, Satan has desired to
have you, that he may sift you as wheat. He wants every one
of you. He's gotten Judas, and I left
Judas to his hand because he's the son of perdition, but he
wants you all. But don't let that disturb you
too much. I have prayed for you. I have
prayed for you that your faith fail not when Satan would sift
you as wheat. And then he turns to Peter. And
he told Peter plainly that before the night was over, he would
deny him three times. Now that assertion is immediately
followed by his comforting assurance, you will be converted. You will be recovered. He didn't
say you will recover yourself or you will convert yourself.
He said, when thou art converted, you will be converted. And when
you are, strengthen your brethren. He would be converted and he
encourages Peter, even in anticipation of the horrible, horrible sin
he would commit in denying his Lord three times. He said, Peter,
don't be shaken. Don't be shaken. Let me read
it to you one more time. Look at the last verse in chapter
33. No, chapter 13, verse 38. He says, The cock shall not crow
till thou hast denied me three times. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. Let not your heart be
troubled, neither let it be afraid. Throughout these chapters, the
Lord Jesus is saying, believe me. Believe me. Believe me. No matter what you
experience. No matter what you feel. No matter
what you do. Believe me. Trust me. He's not saying believe in me,
but believe me. He's not saying believe my doctrine,
but believe me. Trust me. Lean the whole of your
soul on me. Believe me. He assures these
disciples, I'm going to prepare places for you. That's where
I'm going. I told you I was leaving you,
and I'm going to prepare places for you. And I assure you, since
I'm going to prepare places for you, I will come again, and I
will receive David and Betty Burge unto myself. I assure you I will. I assure
you I will. Just as surely as you believe
me, where I am, there you shall be also." And he said that to men who were
about to forsake him. And leave him utterly alone in
the hands of wicked men. I remind you again, The difference,
the only difference between what Judas did and what Peter did,
what these disciples did, and what you and I do in our many
betrayals and abandonings of our Savior, the only difference
is not the act performed. For Judas, it was a sin unto
death. But for believers, there's no
such thing as a sin unto death. Not for sinners who trust the
Savior. Cannot happen. Cannot happen. But what's the difference? The
Lord Jesus prayed for you. He didn't pray for Judas. He
chose you. He didn't choose Judas. He loved
you. He didn't love Judas. He redeemed
you. He didn't redeem Judas. And that's
the only difference. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Our Lord
then assures us, though we must ever Be kept aware. I started to say it, I changed
it when I wrote it down. We must ever be aware. No, we
must ever be kept aware of our sinfulness. Ever kept aware. And He will keep us aware of
our sinfulness constantly. Constantly. Lest we be exalted
above measure. He will keep us aware of our
sinfulness, making us constantly to know what we are by nature. That we may find our all in Him.
And though we must be kept aware of that fact, he would have us
ever to trust him and have us to hear his word. He declares, whatever you ask
my father, he'll do it to you. Ask anything and I'll give it
to you. He's talking now about our hearts
desires. He said that which you desire
of me is yours. It's yours, because you're mine.
And as he anticipated the weakness, the failure, the sin of those
beloved disciples, he anticipated all the weakness,
the failure, the sin that you and I experience and do as we
make our pilgrimage through this world. The Lord Jesus assured
them, and He assures us, I will not leave you. I will not leave
you comfortless. He abideth faithful. He cannot
deny Himself. I will come to you. My Father
will come to you. God the Holy Spirit will come
to you. We will dwell in you and abide
with you forever. Nothing shall ever separate me
from you or you from me. Nothing outside you and nothing
in you. Does the Son of God really intend
that sinners saved by his grace, washed in his blood, should actually
be assured of his mercy and grace even when they fall and grievously,
grievously do those things that displease our God? Indeed he
does. Indeed he does. Many would have
you to Believe Christ and trust Christ when you think you have
done good, when you feel that you have prayed enough, walked
closely enough with God, read your Bible enough, when you feel
on a higher spiritual plane. When you think of yourself that
way, and I know you do, I do too, Our trust is in ourselves and
not in Him, and it'll soon be broken to pieces if we're His. He won't let you trust yourself. Not if you're His. It won't happen. He says by His servant John,
these things write I unto you that you sin not. And if any
man sin, if any man sin, that's kind of like saying, If the sun
shines in the morning, if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the
propitiation for our sins. What's he telling us, my man? What happens when the believer
sins? What happens? In our hearts,
I say when the believer sins, when we're made aware somewhat
of our sin, much happens. Much happens. But between us and God, in our
relationship with God our Savior, nothing changes. Can you get
hold of that? Can you get hold of that? Hear this message on tape and
some worksmonger will say, well, you can't preach that. That will
lead to licentiousness and evil. Bear me witness, will you? Is
there anybody here who has even the slightest thought, if God
is so gracious, that He will never look upon me any the less
graciously because of my sin, let me sin that grace may abound."
Anybody? Not a one who knows God. Folks
who think like that, think like that because they don't know
anything about grace. Our acceptance with God is entirely
in the doing and dying of Jesus Christ our Mediator. Nothing
else. Then our Lord assures us of his
abiding love in John 14, 21, and tells us that he will manifest
himself to us. He says, I'll come to you and
I'll make myself known to you. I will manifest myself to you.
And he promises us that he will give us his Holy Spirit to be
our comforter, assuring us that he will teach us the things of
Christ, that he will take all things of our Savior and show
them to us. And our Savior again says, I tell you all these things that
you might believe, that your faith be not shaken, that your
confidence and assurance of my mercy and my grace may never
be shaken. He that believeth shall not be
ashamed. He that is built on this rock
shall not be confused, shall not be confounded. Now, let's
look at chapter 15 again. In this chapter, the Lord Jesus
gives us a wonderful, blessed description and an assuring description
of our everlasting union with him. Read with me the first six
verses. I am the true vine. all across the hills in Judea.
The hills were, it's like going through Napa Valley, California,
only this was on the hillsides. It was just full of vineyards. Luscious, luscious vineyards
with bountiful clusters of bursting grapes, fruitful on every hill
all around here. And the Lord Jesus, walking in
the midst of these with His disciples, He said, I'm the true vine. I'm the true vine. And my Father
is the husbandman, he is the keeper of the vineyard. Every
branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. Now I'll
get to that in a little bit. And every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now
you, 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 states it positively. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye
can do nothing. 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. Now the first
thing to be learned from this statement by our Redeemer is
the fact that there is between God our Savior and chosen sinners,
between Jesus Christ and believing men and women, between Christ
the Mediator and those for whom he is a surety. There is a union,
a union profound, mysterious, but real, eternal, and vital. It is a union that cannot be
severed by any means under any circumstances. It is the union
that's compared to a vine and branches. You go out there in
the front yard and you'll see a few trees. Pick any one you
want to, one of the popular trees, one of the maple trees, one of
the oak trees, and just go over there and you say, go over there
and touch that tree. It doesn't matter whether he
touches the leaf. Or a small, small new twig just coming out
in the spring? Or whether it touches one of
the limbs? Or one of the old boughs in the tree? Or it bends
down and grabs hold of one piece of the root? Whatever it touches,
that's the tree. Now that's the union between
Christ and your soul. And it's a vital union. It's
vital to us because we draw all life from him. Without me, you
can do nothing, he says. All that we have, we have from
him, in him, and by him. And it's vital to him. Because
the vine cannot be complete without the branches. He says in Ephesians
1.23 that we are the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Without us, our Mediator is incomplete. If there is one for whom He stands
as Mediator, one for whom He is surety, one for whom He bled
and died, one for whom He lived and lives again, that is not
with Him, He is not complete. Ye are the fullness of Him that
filleth all in all. Now, turn back to the song of
Solomon, if you will. Song of Solomon, chapter 1. Here in the Song of Solomon,
when the bride sang her nuptial love song to her beloved, this
is how she refers to it. Song of Solomon, chapter 1, verse
14. My beloved is unto me as a cluster
of kephir in the vineyards of Engedi. Now, the translators must have
had a difficult time translating this, because the word could
be read at least a couple of ways. Our Savior is not just
a blessing. He is a cluster of all-blessedness,
so that all blessing is in Him. who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. The Lord God
Almighty in Christ has blessed us from eternity with all spiritual
blessings. He's chosen us. He's adopted
us. He's predestinated us. He's redeemed
us. He's accepted us. He's justified
us. He's glorified us. He's sanctified
us. All spiritual blessings given
to us in Christ before the world began. But this word that's translated
cluster might be translated, my beloved is unto me the man
that is all things. Or as Hawker suggests, it might
be translated, my beloved is unto me the man that has atoned
and is all things a blessing. So that either way, the passage
is telling us that Christ, who is divine, is the cluster of
all blessedness from whom all blessedness comes to us. Our
Lord Jesus, when he would sing his nuptial love song to his
beloved bride, uses the same analogy. He says, I am the bride,
I am the vine, ye are the branches. And it's often used this way.
Often in the scriptures there are numerous illustrations of
our union with Christ, but this one is used a number of times
and used distinctly. We read in Psalm 80 how this
union is such a real close union, such a union as You can't really
separate the mediator from his people. You can't really separate
the believer from the one whom we believe. You can't really
separate Christ who is our life from us who get life from him. It can't be done. So much is
that the case that in the 80th Psalm where we read about this
vine, you and I are called divine. He calls us divine. Do you remember
in Jeremiah 23.6, where the scripture says, this is his name, the Lord
our righteousness. And then in Jeremiah 33.16, the
scripture speaks of you and me, his body, his church, we who
are the branches. He says, this is the name whereby
she shall be called, the same thing. Jehovah shall continue,
the Lord our righteousness. Look here in the Song of Solomon
again, chapter 7. Chapter 7, verse 11. The analogy is maintained
here. Come, my beloved, let us go forth
into the field, let us lodge in the villages, let us get up
early to the vineyards, let us see if the vine flourisheth,
whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth,
there will I give thee my loves. And you won't give it to him
anywhere else except in him and because of him. Chapter 8, verse
11. Solomon had a vineyard at Balhamin. He let out the vineyard unto
keepers, every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand
pieces of silver. My vineyard which is mine is
before me, O thou Solomon, must have a thousand. And those that
keep the fruit, there are two hundred. Thou that dwellest in
the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice, cause me to hear
it." This is the thing I want you to see, and see clearly.
This union, back here in John 15, this union of Christ and
His people. is just as close, just as real
as the union of the vine and the branches. In ourselves we
have no life, no strength, no ability of any kind. All we are,
all we have, all we do spiritually comes from Christ the vine. We draw the sap of life. We've
been grafted into Him by the supernatural work of God the
Holy Spirit, and now grafted into Him, we are one with Him.
And because we're one with Him, vitally joined to Him, here we
stand, and here we live, and here we function in life. There are multitudes who seem
to speak of God's grace as if it were some kind of a self-perpetuating,
self-operating principle in man, so that believers are constantly
whipped and threatened and bullied into doing things in the name
of Christ, in the name of religion, in the name of honoring God,
in the name of evidences of grace, so that they rather are brought
under the yoke of the law, rather than understanding that grace
is the continual work of God in us. It's not a once-for-all
work, a continual work. It is God which worketh in you,
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Our Lord tells
us, From me is thy fruit found. He said, I've chosen you that
you should go and bring forth much fruit. He said, My Father
is glorified. and that you bring forth much
fruit. And he tells us plainly that the fruit is not something
we produce, but it is something that is born in us by his grace. You understand that? The fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and so on. The fruit of the Spirit,
this is that fruit that flows from the vine into the branches,
that fruit which God gives and only God can give. The picture
is delightful and comforting. This is what it means. We who
believe, knowing our sin, knowing the
depravity of our hearts, knowing the corruption of our nature,
knowing the violence of our thoughts, and knowing the actions we perform,
we who believe, Trusting Christ, believing Christ, being joined
to Christ, never have any reason at any time to be in doubt or
fearful of our everlasting salvation with Christ. Because He lives, we live, and
it will never change. No matter what. No matter what. It will never
change. When I am weak, then I am strong,
Paul said. And His strength is made perfect.
That is, it is manifestly made perfect in my weakness. What on earth does that mean?
What does that mean? Look here, look here, look right
up here. This is what that means. If this
man, if this man is saved, it's all together the work of Christ. That's what that means. When
I'm weak, then I'm strong. And His strength is manifestly
made perfect in such a thing as I am. But there's something
else to be learned from this. I told you we'd look at verse
2 in just a moment. 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. Every branch in me. Well, it
looks like that there are some of the branches that are going
to be cut off after all because they're not very fruitful, not
very productive. In fact, the word productive
is often used when talking about the vine and the branches. That's
not what it's saying at all. Our Lord is saying there are
multitudes just like Judas, the son of perdition, who are in
me in name only, in me by profession only. in me by their word, but
not by the experience of grace. Not really in me. They are in
me like if I had a vineyard out here and somebody walked by and
threw some dead branches over in my vineyard, that's, they're
in the vineyard. They're there. That's all. Not
joined to me. Not in me. Not really in me. Just dead, useless debris. Nothing else. Nothing else. They
bring forth no fruit. Oh, they may produce great works. They may be highly esteemed. They may be greatly valued in
the eyes of men. The people of God may think we
just can't possibly get along without you. But they're just
in me in name, and all that they are and all that they do is just
debris that will be gathered up and burned. But those who
are truly in me, the branches that are in me, they shall be
pruned by my Father, purged by the husbandman, and he will cause
them to be fruitful. Briefly, let me show you some
things our Lord here assures us of. In verse 3, and look what
it says. I want you to see clearly that
what I'm telling you is what's taught in this passage. Our Lord says to these folks,
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.
If the Son of God were sitting down right beside you, and He
said to you personally, Bob Duff, you're clean. Because I've made
you to hear the word of my grace, and I've given you faith in me.
You're clean. You reckon it'd be alright? That's
just what he said. You're clean. Through the gospel
you've heard, I've made you clean. Now that is an assurance. You
believe him? Do you believe him? Do you trust
the Son of God? You're clean. You're clean. Brother
Don, I feel so dirty. Me too, but I'm clean. But I
have behaved so vilely. Me too, but I'm clean. How can
you say that? Because He said that. Look at
verse 9. Here's another word of assurance.
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. I take that
to be good. I've loved you. Now I know everybody
these days thinks God loves everybody. Convince somebody that God loves
them, and you've convinced them that everything's alright. Because
if God loves them, one of two things are true. Either God is
useless and His love useless, or everything is well with their
souls. Do you know of another option? I love you. I love my wife. I love my family. And that means
as far as I am able to do so, I'm going to secure the greatest
possible good for the objects of my love all the time. Now listen to me. As far As He
is able to do so, God Almighty, our Almighty Omnipotent Savior,
secures the absolute best good for your soul all the time, who
are the objects of His love. That's assurance. Look at verse
11. He said, I've told you all these
things. that my joy might remain in you. I want you to rejoice
in me. Rejoice in the Lord all the way.
Again I say, let us rejoice. Now, that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be full. To interpret the passage any
other way looks to me like doesn't give much joy. I had a fellow
some years ago, came by here several times, He was sitting
in the backyard one night. We were talking. He had been
listening to me on the radio up in New York. He was talking
about going to church. And he said, you know, when I
go to church, I just feel so beaten down. You remember? I said, if I were you, I'd quit
going where I'm beaten down every time I go. He looked at me just
kind of shocked. Religion beats you down. Religion keeps you under. Religion suppresses. Religion
buys. Religion brings you under law. Christ sets free and gives joy
and will have his joy in you to be full in you. Verse 13, greater love hath no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
And then in verse 15, he says, just in case you wonder who I'm
talking about, I've called you friends. You're my friends. In
verse 16 again, he says, I've chosen you and ordained you for
this purpose, that you should go and bring forth much fruit
and that your fruit should remain. And whatsoever you shall ask
of the Father in my name, he'll give it you. That's assurance. Verse 26. When the Comforter
is come, whom I will, not my will, send unto you from the
Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,
he shall testify of me. And then he says, and you shall
also bear witness. Now, there are several things
in this chapter that are commonly interpreted as warnings, great
warnings. We dare not be too confident.
We dare not sing, Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste
of glory divine. Our Lord says in verse 4, Abide
in me and I in you. In verse 5, He says, I am 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. Verse 6, If a man abide in me,
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withered. Verse
7, if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall
ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Verse 10, if you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love. Verse 14, you are my friends
if you do. whatsoever I command you. Are we to understand these things
as conditions that must be met by us before we can have confident
faith in Christ? Are we to understand these things
as words of warning given by our Savior to us to tell us that
we must meet certain qualifications by our behavior or else we'll
lose His grace and can't have it? Hardly. Hardly. Let me remind you of something
I put in the bulletin several weeks ago. Last October, down
in Cherokee, Brother Rupert Reichenbach made a tremendous, tremendous
statement. It's worth remembering. I promise
you, as you read this book, it will help you. This is what it
said. If all the ifs in the Bible hang on Christ, did you get that? If you abide, if you keep, if
you do. If all the ifs hang on Christ,
then the believer may claim them all as promises. And let me tell you something,
they all hang on Christ alone. When our Savior says, abide in
me and I in you, and these other things are commonly interpreted
as conditions that we must meet if we are to have confidence
of our union with Christ. He is not giving us precepts
to obey as conditions, but rather promises of grace. He is assuring
us that we shall abide in Him, we shall continue to keep His
commandments, continue to believe on Him by His Spirit who seals
us, the Comforter who takes the things of Christ, shows them
to us, affirms them to us and in us, The word is much like
that which our Savior used in John 20. He breathed on them
and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Now, when that
happened, did He? Now there He is if you want Him.
No, no, no. He. And they got Him. He's not giving
a command, you reach out and get the Holy Spirit and He'll
be yours. He breathed on them and because
He breathed on them, they received the Holy Ghost. Our Lord Jesus
here tells us that God the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, will continually
testify to believing souls of the things He has done and we
will continually by His grace abide in Him. He is assuring
us that He has undertaken for us and we are secure in Him. Turn to one more passage. Let
me show you. Jeremiah 32. This is the language
of our great surety. He says in verse 40, I will make
an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away
from them to do them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts, that they shall not depart from me." He says, I will not,
and they shall not. Brother Don, aren't we supposed
to look at our evidences for assurance? Oh no, no. Don't ever look at your evidences
for assurance. That will lead you to nothing
but self-righteousness and meanness.