Let's turn tonight to John chapter
15. The true vine. John chapter 15. Verses 1 through 11. I am the
true vine, and my father is the husbandman, or vinedresser, 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, and so shall you be my disciples.
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue
you in my love. If you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments
and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. We continue. Tonight, looking
at the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that he spoke to his 11,
his 11 disciples on the night before his crucifixion. One of
the hymns we just now sang, lest I forget Gethsemane, lest I forget
thine agony. He was on his way to Gethsemane
as he spoke these words just before he was on his way to Gethsemane. And I thought as we were singing
that hymn, I wonder if any of us have ever begun to enter into
the agony of our Lord Jesus Christ, to understand any of the agony
that he experienced that night in the garden. The scripture
says that he sweat, his sweat was as great drops of blood in
agony, seeing what was before him. that is, being made sin
for you and for me, carrying that heavy load of sin to the
cross, and God's righteous justice being poured out upon him, the
agony. But these were words spoken before
he left the upper room to go to Gethsemane. The same night
in which He gave them the new commandment to eat broken bread
and drink wine poured out in remembrance of Him. In doing
this, they and all of God's children down through the ages, we have
shown forth His death, and we will continue to do so, God willing,
until He comes again. Now this is the last of the I
Am passages in the Gospel of John. Notice it begins, our Lord,
I am. And when we see this, of course,
we are reminded of the fact that he is the Lord God Almighty,
that he is Jehovah. This name was revealed to Moses. God had used this name before
to his people, but it had never been revealed as it was unto
Moses. At the burning bush, when God
called Moses and commissioned him to go into Egypt to deliver
his people. His people, that is the nation
of Israel. He had heard their cry. He had
seen their misery. God is a God of compassion, isn't
he? And he sent Moses. Now Moses
had attempted this 40 years before without a commission. And it
resulted in a terrible mistake on Moses' part. But God called
him, and Moses then did not want to go. And he asked the Lord
at that burning bush, when I go and tell your people that God
has sent me to deliver them, they're going to ask me your
name. What shall I tell them? And of course, the Lord Jesus
Christ, this is who it was, the second person in the Trinity,
said to Moses, I am. I am that I am. That's my name. Eternally the same. The covenant
God, especially the name Jehovah, is his name that he uses in reference
to that covenant. I am that I am. Our Lord in John
chapter 8 had told some of the Jews, some of those who hated
him and persecuted him while he was here. He said to them,
I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins. And there's no worse place for
anyone to die than in their sins. I've said this before, but you
know, sometimes we see on the news, a baby dies in a dumpster,
dies just thrown out. That's a horrible place to die.
But there's no worse place to die than for a person to die
in their sins. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
except you believe that I am, you shall die in your sins. It's not optional, is it, to
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now in this passage
we're looking at tonight, here in John 15, there are three characters,
if I can use that word. We have the Lord Jesus. He's
divine. We have the Father, God the Father. He is the vine dresser, and we
have the branches, which are believers. And that's the way
we will look at these verses tonight in that order. First
of all, the Lord Jesus Christ confesses to be the true vine. I am the true vine, he says. Now I want to point two things
out about a vine. I'm sure that everyone here knows
more or less what a vine is, what it looks like, what a vine
looks like. But there are two things that
I would say. First of all, a vine has the
appearance of weakness. It does. It has the appearance
of weakness. If you were looking for lumber
with which to build your house, you wouldn't go out looking for
lumber that comes from a vine. You would want a pine or oak
or something of that nature. If you went to California to
see the great and mighty red oaks, you wouldn't go to Napa
Valley. Because in Napa Valley, what
you would see are vines, the wine country, vines. And vines
have the appearance of weakness, not of strength. Not of stately,
strong, stoutly trees, but of weak. And number two, a vine
has this distinction, that is, of being extremely fruitful. Extremely fruitful. One vine,
one vine spreading out its branches may produce many clusters of
grapes. So it's known for its weakness
and for its fruitfulness. Both of these thoughts apply
to the Savior, to the Lord Jesus Christ, when He said, I am the
true vine. As to being like a vine in weakness,
now we know that He is the mighty God. We know that. As God, He
is almighty, all-powerful, omnipotent. We know that. that as a man,
he came into this world, he was made, the scripture says in Hebrews,
a little lower than the angels. In Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter
53, in his prophecy, he described the appearance of the Messiah
as one of weakness. He said, for he shall grow up
before him as a tender plant. Tender plant. as a root out of
a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. An oak tree, a giant sequoia
tree, a pine tree, something like that has a form of comeliness. But the vine doesn't. No. As a root out of a dry ground,
he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there's
no beauty. There's no beauty that we should
desire him. There was no beauty in Christ.
There is no beauty in Christ unless God the Holy Spirit gives
you eyes to see his beauty. And then he's the most beautiful
person that you'll ever see. No one, I like that hymn, no
one ever cared for me like Jesus. God gives you eyes to see, you'll
see He's the most. But in appearance, as He came
into this world, He had the appearance. And He said of Himself, I am
meek and lowly in heart. And then as to fruitfulness,
He had the appearance of weakness. So He is the mighty God. But
as to fruitfulness, all of heaven Think about it. All of heaven
is populated by the fruit of His obedience and suffering. All of heaven. And that's a lot
of people. In fact, in Revelation chapter
7 and verse 9, John said, After this I beheld and lo a great
multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds,
And people and tongues stood before the throne and before
the Lamb. And notice they were all clothed
in white robes and they all had palms in their hands. Now you
know the white robes represent the righteousness of the saints. The white linen, the white robes,
the righteousness of the saints. Everyone had on the same Righteousness. And it's the righteousness of
Jesus Christ, our Lord. His righteousness. And everyone
had a palm in his hand, and that is a symbol, of course, of victory. And everyone there is given victory
over sin, over death, over the grave, and over hell. And everyone
is there because of His fruitfulness, His fruitfulness. And I would
also point out that our Lord had just partaken of the fruit
of the vine when He instituted the Lord's table just before
He spoke these words. And when we think about wine
in the scripture, first of all, Wine represents
the blood of Jesus Christ. Wine does. Grape juice doesn't
represent the blood of Jesus Christ. Water doesn't represent
the blood of Jesus Christ. Wine does. Wine. Wine represents the love of God
the Father. And wine represents the joy of
God the Holy Spirit. Be not drunk with wine, wherein
is excess, but be ye filled with the Holy Spirit. So each person
in the Godhead is represented in the scriptures in some way
by wine, the fruit of the vine. When we think about wine representing
His love, the love, there's no love like God's love for His
people. And the joy of the Holy Spirit,
there's no joy like the joy of the Holy Spirit that is in every
believer. And the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ represented by the blood. What can wash away
my sins? Nothing but the blood of Christ. Nothing. Nothing. In the Scriptures, we find that
wine also cheers, the Scripture says, cheers God and man. Wine does. It cheers God. You
say, how is that possible? I don't know. I'm just telling
you what the Bible says. It cheers God and man. And when we think about the Lord
Jesus Christ, He cheered. His person and His work cheered
the heart of God. God found pleasure, contentment,
satisfaction in the person and work of His Son. Wine cheers
the heart of God as Christ satisfied and gave pleasure unto the Father,
and it cheers the heart of men. That's where we, too, find satisfaction. We sing that hymn sometimes.
Nothing cheers my heart like Jesus. Nothing. So there's the
wine. I am of the vine. Rather, I am
the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ said. Now second, God
the Father is the husband, or the wine dresser. And as you
look at these verses that we read, and it's a metaphor, we
find, or parable, or allegory, we find that the Father, in relation
to the branches, He does three things. Three things that the
Father, He's the wine dresser. It's His vineyard. And He's the
vine dresser. And we find in these words of
our Lord that the Father does three things to the branches. First of all, now listen, He
takes away branches in Christ that do not bear fruit. That's the first thing that we
see that He does. Look at verse 2. Every branch
in me that beareth not fruit, He, who is He, the vinedresser,
He taketh away. That's the first thing that we
see that the vinedresser does in relation to the branches.
He takes away the branches which are in Christ that do not bear
fruit. Now, we must be clear. We must
have a good understanding here of what is meant by fruit. And
it's singular. The fruit of the Spirit. You
know this, but look with me in Galatians chapter 5. Every branch
in me that bringeth not forth fruit, he taketh away. Galatians
chapter 5 and verses 22 and 23. The apostle says, but the fruit,
and doesn't say fruits, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
the fruit of the Spirit. And I would also connect with
the fruit of the Spirit. Repentance is the fruit of the
Spirit. No one ever repented without
the work of God the Holy Spirit. And this is the thing that's
so deceptive about this decisional regeneration that became so popular
in the 20th century in our country. You decide for Jesus. And it's
almost as though it is taught that you repent and that's it. Repentance, my friends, is a
lifelong fruit of the Spirit. He's exalted a prince and a savior
for to give repentance unto Israel. And God, the Holy Spirit, works
repentance in the heart of His people. And it's not just at
the beginning of our Christian experience. It's all the way
to the end. It's all the way. And I would
include faith also, because no one ever had faith apart from
the gift of God. It's a gift of the Holy Spirit
working in us, faith to believe. Now, this must be recognized. In the parable of the sower,
you're all familiar with the parable of the sower. It's told
in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, the seed The same seed,
the sower went forth to sow. The same seed fell on four types
of ground. You know the parable. And our
Lord explained the parable to His disciples because they did
not at first understand it. But here's the thing. There was
good ground here. There was some ground that was
stony. And there was some ground that was pathway. The only ground
where the seed was sown and brought forth fruit was in the good ground. But every, every, everyone brought
forth fruit. The good ground here. Everyone. Now, when we read here that the
Father takes away those in Christ, all of those three types of soil
or places where the seed was sown, and in one place it sprung
up real quick, but it didn't have any fruit. And when persecution
and affliction and trials came, it just withered away. These
that the Father takes away, these branches that are in Christ,
how are they in Christ? They're in Christ by profession. They're not really in Christ,
but they profess to be in Christ. And many of them profess and
profess for a long time. But the Father, if they do not
bring forth fruit, the Father, our Lord says this, not me. You
say, are you teaching a man can lose his salvation? Of course
not. No. Everyone that God gave to the
Son, He's going to bring home, present to the Father. I know
that. But men can be in Christ by profession,
but not having any possession. They don't really know Christ.
They're not good ground hearers, and they do not bring forth fruit.
And the Father, as we read here, takes them away. They are not
vitally, vitally in Christ. You say, well, what do you mean
by vitally? I mean vitally that we are in him by faith, and he
is in us by his spirit. There's a vital union. He's the
head, and we're members of his body. He's the vine, and we're
branches of the vine if we are in Christ. Now, here's the second
thing. that we're told that the father
of the vine dresser does to the branches. He purges the branches
that bring forth fruit. He purges them. Now you and I
recognize that it is the father who puts a person in Christ.
No one puts himself in Christ. Remember in 1 Corinthians 1 verse
30, I believe it is, where Paul said, but of him. Of who? Of God. But of Him are
you in Christ, who has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. So as it is written, He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Amen. All the glory belongs
to Him. He's the one who put us into
Christ. He's the one who made Christ's wisdom to us. Righteousness,
sanctification, And one day redemption when we, our bodies shall be
redeemed from the grave. And all the glory and all the
praise goes to God. And I wouldn't want it any other
way. I know you say the same thing. If you know Christ, you
want him to have all, not most of the glory, all the glory.
All the glory. And he's not going to share his
glory with another either. He purges the branches that bring
forth fruit. It's the vine dresser who purges
or prunes the branches. Now John Gill, he said, the pruning
is done chiefly by afflictions and temptations, which are needful
for their growth and fruitfulness as the pruning and cutting of
the vines are for theirs. You know, if you went into the
wine country, I heard someone the other day who had visited
France, and they grow a lot of grapes and make a lot of wine
in France, obviously. But you know, at certain times,
you can go through the countryside, and they're just so beautiful.
They're lush and green, and the branches are just running on
those lines that they have farmed. But you may come back in a few
months, and They're all cut back. I mean, there's not much left
of them. They're pruned. And that's a picture here of
what the Lord does with his people, the branches who are vitally
in Christ, those who bear fruit. He purges them. Now the word
purge means washes, I understand that, but the concordance at
least, they all say included is the pruning, the cutting back
in this purging. Look with me in Hebrews chapter
12 just a moment. Hebrews chapter 12. You know, the very thing that
you may not like, may be disagreeable to you, may be the thing God
is using to purge you, to cleanse you. Not to cleanse you, rather,
to prune you. So that you'll bring forth more
fruit. Here, Hebrews chapter 12 and
verse 5, And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh
unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening
of the Lord. Now, before we read on here,
I want to point out that the Greek word in this passage is
sometimes a noun and sometimes it's a verb that's translated
chasten or chastening, but it means to educate. It means to
train. This chastening, I remember reading
Martyn Lloyd-Jones had a book on this one time and he said,
God puts his people in the gymnasium. He used a picture, the word picture
of a gymnasium where you go in to train and this muscle is weak
over here so the man puts you on a machine that will especially
build up this muscle or that muscle or whatever. God puts
His people in the gymnasium, in the training place. And He
trains us. He chastens us. And by His chastening,
He trains us. For whom the Lord loveth... Notice
verse 6. For whom the Lord loveth, He
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what
son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Every father, every good
father, he wants to train his children. He wants to educate
his children. Now, he may not be concerned
about somebody else's children. I mean, which is the best for
him? But he's concerned about his children, and God's concerned
about his children. He is. Thank God he is. If you endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not
sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers
of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence,
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of
spirits and live? For they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure. A man, a father, he
does the best that he can. The best wisdom he has, if he's
a good father, he does the best that he can, but he's limited. He's limited because he's a man,
but not God. He's not limited. He knows what
is best, and He knows how to chasten, to train His children.
Now, no chastening, verse 10, for they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit,
that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now, no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous. You take your child into
the, into the room to chasten them and they come out laughing?
That's not the way it works, is it? No. Sometimes they come
out crying. No chastening for the moment
seems to be choice, but afterwards. And notice in this case, God
correcting, God discipling, God training His children Nevertheless,
afterward it yielded the peaceable, and notice again it's singular,
fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. You know this word that I mentioned,
the Greek word that's translated chastened and chastiseth, In
Titus, it's the same word that's translated teaching. For the
grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching. Same word, teaching us. Somehow
people have got the idea, believers, that chastening only has to do
with correcting a believer that is out of sorts, that somehow
has messed up, and God chastens all of his children. He corrects
all of his children. He trains all of his children.
And if a man or woman be without this training, then he's not
a true child of God. He's illegitimate. That's what
the apostle tells us. That word, the grace of God,
hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, godly in
this present world. And it yields a peaceable fruit,
singular, of righteousness. As believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we must expect a life of discipline, a life of training. And here's the third thing the
Father does to the branches. He's glorified by the branches
bringing forth much fruit. Notice that in verse 8. Herein is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. It
will be manifest that you are my disciples. He's glorified. by the branches bearing fruit. And let me just read you this,
these two verses from Matthew chapter five, our Lord speaking
in his sermon, verses 11, well more than two verses. Blessed
are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall
say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice
and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven For
so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. You are
the salt of the earth. But if the salt have lost his
savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good
for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot
of men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill
cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth
light unto all that are in the house, Let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven. So the three things that our
Lord tells us that the vine dresser does in relation to the branches. He takes away those branches
that do not bear fruit. He purges those branches that
do bear fruit. And he's glorified by the fruit
that those branches bring forth. Now here's the third point. There
are two statements. Two statements about believers
as branches in the vine. One is a negative and one's a
positive. First the negative. The branch, you tonight, as a
child of God or a branch. The branch cannot, this is a
negative, the branch cannot of itself bring forth fruit. I believe
that this is the most important truth of this whole passage for
you and I. The most important truth that
we should take away from this passage tonight, the branch in
and of itself It doesn't matter how gifted. It doesn't matter
how gifted a person may or may not be. He cannot bring forth
fruit that glorifies the Father in the energy of the flesh. He
cannot do it. That's what our Lord, without
me, you cannot do anything. Or without me, you can't do nothing.
Now, the fruit is displayed on the branch. Here's that stock,
and it comes up out of the earth, and then those branches, they
just run down there, and there's fruit hanging off, grapes, clusters
of grapes all along. You know, the fruit is displayed
on the branches, but the branches do not produce the fruit. The
fruit comes from the stalk, from the vine, from the vine. In Hosea chapter 14 and verse
8, God said, For me, for me is thy fruit found. It's because
the child of God is in the vine and Christ is in the child of
God. That is, there's that union between
the vine and the branches. The Holy Spirit in you, the hope
of glory that the believer can bring forth fruit. It's Christ
in you. That is a negative. Without Christ,
we can do nothing. But then there's a positive here.
The branch can bear fruit by abiding in Christ. That's what he said, verse five.
I'm the vine, you're the branches. He that abideth in me, I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit. The branch can do nothing,
there's a negative, nothing without Christ, but the branch can bear
fruit by abiding in Christ. Now I have two questions and
I'm finished. Two questions for us to consider and both The answer
to both of these questions concern the written word of God. The
word which is translated here, abide, is the same word in John
chapter 6 in verse 56 that's translated dwelleth. You see,
they're the same, abide, dwell. To dwell, to abide, they are
synonymous. And the Lord Jesus Christ there
said, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth
in me and I in him. Dwelleth, abideth in me. We abide, we dwell in him by
having his written word abide in us. And the word, the written
word continually points us to Christ and we continually Look
to Him by faith, we eat His flesh and we drink His blood by faith. The second question, how does
a branch, a believer, continue to abide in His love? You notice
he doesn't only say that we abide in Him, but he also tells us
to abide in His love. Down in verse 10, if you keep
my commandments, you shall abide in my love. Verse nine, continue
you in my love. So we are to abide in Christ,
to dwell in Christ. We're to stay in the word of
God to continually pointing us to Christ, to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Continually we're eating his
flesh and drinking his blood. To abide in his love, we must
abide in the word of God. The Word of God, which tells
us, and remember that little letter of Jude, one chapter just
before Revelation, he says, keep yourselves in the love of God.
Keep yourself, how do you, keep yourselves in, you can't put
yourself in the love of God. But if God has revealed his love
to you and you are a believer, keep yourself in the love of
God. In other words, stay in the word of God. Meditate upon
the word of God. Hear the preaching of the gospel,
which reminds us and tells us over and over again of his great
love for us. Keep that foremost in your mind. Abide in him. Abide in his love. When Satan comes along, or the
flesh, or the world, whatever, and insinuates into your mind,
God doesn't love you. Don't listen. Abide in his love. Keep yourself in his love. He
does love me. How do you know that? He gave
his son. He gave his son to die for me.
Well, I've taken too long, but I pray the Lord will bless this
message to all of us here tonight. David, you come.