David very seldom ever makes
any comments, but his comments tonight were very good. I appreciate
what he had to say and the truth about the joy of meeting together
with God's children. What a blessing it is, and I
really feel like some people one day will realize what they
missed by not being faithful. in attending upon the word of
God and worship services. Let's open, or let's turn tonight
to John, the gospel of John chapter 15. I want to speak to us this evening
on the vine and the branches. John chapter 15, and we'll read
verses one through eight. I am the true vine, and my father
is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit
he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are
clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide
in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
you abide in me. 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. 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. If you abide
in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will,
and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified
that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. This we recognize, of course,
as one of the I Am passages in the Gospel of John. You know,
he begins his gospel narrative declaring the deity of Christ. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word
became flesh or was made flesh. Then sprinkled through his gospel,
we find these these passages where the Lord Jesus Christ confessed,
I am. I am. There's several of them. And
there are two words that every Jew, now the Lord was speaking
mainly to Jews. These are two words that every
Jew would recognize immediately. Every Jew would know exactly.
They could not miss his meaning. what he was saying, what he was
declaring when he confessed to be, I am. They all would know
that when Moses asked God's name at the burning bush, when God
commanded him to go into Egypt and deliver his people, you remember
Moses said, well, what is your name? They're going to ask me
your name, what am I going to say? And God revealed his name,
I am that I am. Jehovah, a self-existent one,
eternal one. The Lord Jesus Christ was not
hated and he was not persecuted to death because of his good
works. It wasn't because he opened the
eyes of the blind. or gave strength to the legs
of the cripples. That wasn't why the Jews hated
him. But they confessed themselves.
Why? Because thou being a man makest
thyself God. I and the Father are one. We love to look at these passages,
and I would encourage you to read through the Gospel of John.
Note the various times that the Lord Jesus Christ declared himself,
I am. My message tonight has two parts. First, I want to say a word about
the vine. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the vine. And then secondly, I want to
say a few words about the branches and the fruit that the branches
bear. First you notice in verse five
he said, I am the vine. Now we all recognize, I don't
think anyone has any trouble recognizing that the Lord is
using a metaphorical speech when he says I am the vine. He's not
confessing himself to be literally a vine. You know, a metaphor
is a similitude without a word of comparison. If he had said,
I am like a vine, then you have that word of comparison there,
like, that would be a similitude. But he's speaking a metaphor. I am the vine. When he said,
I am the door, In John chapter 10, I am the door. By me, if
any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and find
pasture. When he declared that, no one
understands that he is saying there that I am a door like these
wooden doors that we have on this building or these metal
doors, no one. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
said, except a man eat my flesh and drink my blood, no one should
understand him as saying that we literally eat the flesh and
drink the blood of the God man. No, he's speaking in a metaphor. The bread pictured his flesh,
which was broken for us. And the wine pictures his blood
which was shed for us. And when we partake of the Lord's
table, we are confessing our faith in him. And we are showing
forth his death until he comes again. When the Lord here said,
I am the vine. Now, I have two comparisons that
I want to mention to us about a vine, how a vine may picture
the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, a vine is a lowly
plant. A grape vine is a lowly plant. In Ezekiel chapter 15, the Lord
God asked his prophet Ezekiel this question. He asked him a
question about a vine. Shall wood be taken thereof to
do any work? Will men take a pin of it to
hang any vessel thereon? Will men take wood from a vine
to build them a house? Well, of course not. Why? Because
a vine is a weak plant. It is small. It's a lowly plant. If the Lord Jesus Christ had
said, I am a cedar of Lebanon, a great tree, a beautiful tree,
a strong tree. Well, the Jews who heard him
preach, they would have liked that. Why? Because that's the
Messiah they were looking for. That's the Messiah they were
expecting. But he comes and he declares,
I am poor. I'm meek and lowly, just like
a vine. This is the way a vine pictures
the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Psalms, in Psalm 118,
we read this. And here the Lord is pictured
as a stone in this verse. The stone which the builders
refused, that is the leaders of Israel, the priest, They all
turned hands down, thumbs down on the Lord Jesus Christ. The
stone which the builders refused has become the head of the corner. This, and here's my point, this
is the Lord's doing. It didn't just happen by accident.
It all took place according to God's purpose and God's determinate
counsel. This is the Lord's doing, and
it is marvelous in our eyes. And I ask us the question tonight. Is it marvelous in your eyes? Is it marvelous in my eyes that
the eternal Son of God would come into this world, be made
flesh, and would be meek and lovely? Be like a vine, pictured
by a vine, No one would take wood from a vine to build a house. God said, would you even take
it to make a pen? You know, people used to take
pieces of wood and carve them out and put them in the wall
along there. I guess they still do that, but people would hang
their jackets on it or hang a pot on it or something like that.
And God said, would you do that? Would you use a vine to hang
a pot on? And of course, The answer is
no. Why? Because the vine, the wood
from a vine is weak and it's not strong. Well, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he became weak. We see his humiliation, don't
we? His condensation, condescension
for us. Let me read that in Philippians.
Philippians chapter two. Chapter two of Philippians in
verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and
took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness
of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself. and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
things in earth, and things under the earth. So that's the first
thing that appears to me. A vine is a lowly plant. And
we see the Lord Jesus Christ as he was made flesh and came
into this world as a man. And a vine pictured him as being
meek and lowly. The second thing about a vine,
a vine is a fruitful plant. Now I read a few weeks ago about
a vine. I think it was a queen. I forget
exactly who it was, but she had a vine that she had cultivated. And of course, she didn't do
it, but her workers did. And they said that this vine
produced enough grapes to make 100 gallons of wine. That's fruitful,
isn't it? One vine, 100 gallons of wine. But when we think about the Lord
Jesus Christ and how fruitful he is, how can we, we have no
way of measuring that, of gauging that. In Hebrews chapter two,
the apostle said, for it became him for whom are all things and
by whom are all things. Now listen, in bringing many
sons to glory, Not just a few, not just a handful, but in bringing
many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings. Someone might read that verse
or hear that verse read and they would ask, well, I thought he
was perfect. What does that mean there, to
make the captain of their salvation perfect, make him perfect through
sufferings? What does that mean? It means
that he learned, by His obedience, and He is now the perfect Savior. We're not talking about Him becoming
perfect as the God-man, the Holy One that He was. He's always
been that. But by the things that He suffered
in this life, He became the perfect Savior that you need. perfect Savior that I need. Perfect. He can be touched with the feelings
of your infirmities. Whatever your need is, whatever
your problem is, He's a perfect Savior. Perfect Savior. But my point is, like a vine
is fruitful, so the Lord Jesus Christ, in bringing many sons
to glory, not just a handful, but many, Someone might say,
well, how many? Well, we know that John saw a
number that could not be numbered in heaven, but I'll tell you
how many. Listen to his words, the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 6, verse 39. And this
is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. How many? As many as the Father
gave him. That's how many sons he's going
to bring to glory. Not one. Not one that he was
given in that eternal covenant of grace is going to be missing. Well, let me say a few words
now about the branches in verse five. I am divine, you are the
branches. The purpose of a branch is to
bear fruit. And in verse eight, if you look
again, we see our Lord said, herein is my father glorified
that you bear much fruit. So we see here that when the
Lord saves an individual, when he saves us, it's not simply
that we be forgiven our sins and saved and on our way to heaven,
but that we should glorify him by being fruitful, by being fruitful
in every good word and work. You know, there's nothing higher,
there's nothing higher in our aim and spirit than to bring
glory to His name. You say, well, can we glorify
Him? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ here said, herein is my Father
glorified that you bear much fruit. And yes, the Lord is pleased,"
the scripture says, he is pleased with the sacrifices of his people,
the sacrifices of praise. The Lord has saved us by his
grace, if we're saved tonight, and our desire should be to bring
forth fruit. Because in this way, our Father
is glorified. And that's what we desire to
do. That should be our prayer. That should be our aim. Every
day when we wake up and get out of bed, Lord, today I want to
glorify Thee. I want to bring forth fruit to
Your glory, to Your honor. The Apostle Paul, in his letter
to the church at Philippi, part of his prayer was, that they
be filled with the fruits of righteousness. Be filled, not
just have, but be filled with the fruits of righteousness.
Well, here are some things that we should keep in mind about
bearing fruit. Number one, it's vital that we
be in a living union with Christ. Now, that's just vital. That's just so necessary, so
easy to see. A branch apart from the stem
will never bring forth fruit. It will never bring forth fruit.
And this is the first thing we need to recognize. It is vital
that we have a living union with Jesus Christ. The Bible reveals
that there are several ways that God's children are in union with
him. He's the head, we are members
of his body. He's the husband, we are his
spouse. There's many different unions that are pictured to us
in the word of God. With John Gill, I was looking
at his various unions, and he said at the beginning, I'm not
going to deal with any unions, any time unions. I'm not going
to deal with any time unions. In other words, he was only going
to deal, and he did so, with the union that began in eternity. And he has, I believe it's four
or five. But concerning this particular union, This vital
union, the branch and the vine, this begins in time. We haven't
always been in union with this vine. There comes a time, we
call it salvation or conversion, whatever term you want to use,
but there comes a time when we come into union with Christ. And it's a vital union if we're
going to bring forth fruit, because the branch cannot bear fruit
apart from the vine. You say, well, how is this union
brought to pass? By faith. By faith. We are in Him. We are in union
with Him by faith. And He is in union with us by
His Holy Spirit. A vital union. This living faith
means that I'm able to say like the bride in the Song of Solomon
said, my beloved is mine and I'm his. A living, vital union
with Christ only established by faith in him. A second thing to bring forth
fruit, I must constantly abide in union with him. Notice this
is what he says in verse four. abide in me and I in you, as
a branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the
vine." So first of all, there must be a union between the branch
and the vine, but then that branch must abide in the vine. Now, it's a mistake for us to
think or us to assume or believe that when we first come to Christ,
And we accept and come to know Him as our Lord and Savior, as
His sacrifice to put away our sin, His righteousness to justify
us. Then, all of that we're depending
upon Christ, but then we imagine that now by my own strength,
I'm going to bring forth fruit. That's a big mistake. That's
not going to happen. We must continue to rely upon
Him daily, daily for strength, daily for mercy, daily for grace
and power to serve Him acceptably. I must begin. You must begin. We must begin. We must continue
and finish our course by looking to Christ. We must abide in Him. The Apostle Paul might be an
example for us in this. He rested upon God's word of
promise. My grace is sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient for thee. Do you believe that? I know you
believe it in your head. I do too. But when we meet something
that It's out of the ordinary, maybe,
some trial. Do we rely upon that? My grace is sufficient for thee,
whatever it is, whatever God brings your way. And remember,
trials and difficulties and problems, they don't just rise up out of
the ground. No, this is part of God's purpose
and plan for you. To know, to abide in Christ,
to know always. God says my grace is sufficient
for you. How do we abide in Christ? Well,
first of all, we abide in his word. We must abide in his word. And as I thought about that,
I believe it's more than just reading the word of God. Some
people, and I'm one of them, Over the years, I've liked to
read through the Bible every year. And I had a plan, have
a plan, three chapters a day, you go through the Bible. But
I believe it's more than just reading the Bible. Yes, that's
important. But it's important to think upon
what we're reading, to meditate upon the word of God. You know,
when you read through the through Psalms, for for instance, and
you see the Psalmist crying out and asking what, what's his problem? What's what's his need here?
What's he going through? How can I identify with that?
To think and meditate upon his word. So first of all, we should
abide in his word. And then second, we must abide
in his love. And by that, I mean we must be
cognizant, we must realize, keep this fresh in our minds, God
loves me. God loves me. He loves you. You know, Paul prayed for the
believers in the church at Ephesus that they might know the love
of Christ, which passeth knowledge. And then he went on to say that
we might comprehend the breadth, the length, the height, the depth
of his love. Keep yourself in the love of
God. Keep reminding yourself, keep
thinking and meditating upon the fact that God has loved you
from when there was no time. when there was no time. Before
time, God set his love upon you. Why? Why would he do that? Well,
don't look in the mirror. You'll never find any reason
there. No. He loved you because he would
love you. That's what the scriptures teach.
That's what God declared. He told Israel, I didn't choose
you because you were the The largest nation? Probably the
smallest nation. No, I chose you because I would
choose you. We must abide in his word, we
must abide in his love, and we must keep his sayings if we're
going to bring forth fruit. In John 13, he told his disciples,
if you know these things, happy are you if you do them. I didn't say if you know these
things, you're happy. No, if you know these things,
happy are you if you do these things. Three things in in closing
about fruit bearing fruit. Fruit is found on low ground. You don't find grapevines growing
in the Alps, growing in the Mount on Mount Everest, Everest or
Mount in the Himalayas, no vines grow in the valley. And you know,
by first not going to be found on the mountain of pride. That's
something that we all have to deal with. It's amazing. When we have nothing, absolutely
nothing to be proud of, the only thing we can really call our
own is our sin. And yet we're tempted to pride.
Be proud. Look down on somebody else. Think
I'm better. Fruit doesn't grow. In the high
places, it grows in the valley of humility. And you know something else about
fruit, it's often hidden from the eye of man. You can't see
it, but God does. I think about those that our
Lord speaks to in Matthew chapter 25, that he said, you fed me
and clothed me and visited me and Lord, When did we see you
hungry? When did we do that? They don't
see it in themselves. Fruit, many times, it's hidden
from our eye. I know myself, I have always
like to have a small garden, and sometimes you go out to pick
something, and you think you've picked everything, and your wife
will go out after you and say, I found this beautiful tomato
here. Why didn't I see that, you know?
I mean, sometimes fruit, it's difficult to see. And I think
for all of God's children, it's difficult for us to see fruit
in ourselves. It may be you're just being in
submission to God's will, and it may be something that's difficult,
very difficult, a heavy burden that God has placed upon you,
and yet you're patiently bearing this, patiently bearing the wrongs,
maybe, that other people commit toward you. Other people cannot see that
fruit, but your father can. And you know, the fruit that
the Apostle Paul names in Galatians chapter five, the fruit of the
Spirit, for the most part, the natural eye can't see. Love,
joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And one last thing about fruit
bearing. The father prunes the branches. That's what our Lord
says, isn't it? He prunes. How does he do that? He has so many different ways
to prune the branches. I couldn't even begin to name
how the many different ways he prunes the branches, but he does. And the purpose is not to hurt
us, although it does hurt the flesh many times, but for our
good, that we might bring forth more fruit for his glory and
his honor. When I was preparing these notes,
I thought about the words to John Newton's hymn. You know,
most people know he wrote Amazing Grace, but he wrote a number
of hymns, and one hymn and this came to my mind, I asked the
Lord that I might grow. I asked the Lord that I might
grow. And listen to the words. I hoped
that in some favored hour, at once he'd answer my request,
and by his love's constraining power, subdue my sins and give
me rest. Instead of this, he made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart, and let the angry powers of hell
assault my soul in every part. Yes, more, with his own hand
he seemed, intent to aggravate my woe, crossed all the fair
designs I schemed, blasted my gourd, and laid me low. Lord, why is this? I trembled
and cried. Will you pursue your worm to
death? Is this the way? This is the way the Lord replied. I answer prayer for grace and
faith. These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set you free. and break your schemes
of earthly joy that you may seek your all in me. God's way of giving us and causing
us to grow is not always the way we might choose. He takes
out the pruning hook and prunes the branches that are in union
with his son. that we might bring forth more
fruit. Let's sing a hymn, David.