The Impossibility of the Christian Life — Paul Washer

The Impossibility of the Christian Life — Paul Washer

Let's open up our Bibles to John chapter 15. In a moment, we're going to stand and read from the text. But before I do, let me explain a few things about the reading of Scripture in church. Maybe some of you are from churches where not a great deal of priority is given to the reading of Scripture.

And yet, it is commanded in 1 Timothy 4. Paul tells young Timothy to not neglect this important aspect. And I think that the Word of God is no longer read because it's simply reflecting modern attitudes in evangelicalism with regard to the Word of God.

Now, I know that sometimes you may be called upon to stand and to look at the Scripture while a pastor is reading. And you may say, you know, I've done that and I don't get a lot out of it. What does that mean?

What is that saying about you and about me? But let me encourage you, as pastors, sometimes we stand and we read the Word, and maybe we've had to read the same passage several times in order to read it correctly for the congregation.

I want you to see two very important things. One is that we read the Word and we listen to the Word as an act of worship. You know, it's not really biblical to say that we're going to do worship and after worship we're going to have the reading of the Word and preaching.

Because everything is supposed to be worship. Another thing that you need to understand is that when you and I listen, even if we're not comprehending and even if there's a battle raging in our minds in the sense that we're being distracted, but every time we're distracted, we pull ourselves back to the text and we try to listen that much harder.

Do you realize what you're doing? You're loving God with your mind. You are declaring that yes, there is still an aspect of me that's very fallen. Yes, I struggle through this Christian life. But yes, because the Holy Spirit has regenerated me, I understand these are the words of life and by faith I am going to fight to keep my mind centered upon this text that's being read.

Another thing that I would like to point out is the idea of faith. God has set up in this economy in which we live that everything we do practically is by faith. For me to come here to preach, I want you to know it's by faith.

Because it's so often that we preach and we don't see anything. We don't see a changing. We don't see the revival that we're looking for. So do we simply curl up in a ball? Do we give way to these types of things?

No. Our ministry is a ministry of faith. You see, so we come and we preach the Word of God by faith believing that even if we see nothing, something has happened. And when we stand and we read the Word of God, we don't allow our minds just to stray unhindered.

We pull it back. And we say, no, I will bring you into subjection. I will bring every thought into subjection to Christ. So when we stand and we read, this is not some reformed ritual. This is biblical.

And it offers you a greater opportunity right now to worship God than the song that we sang. You see, you were helped in that song by the rhyme and the rhythm and even the accompanying music. You were helped.

But now you have no help when we read this text except the only one true helper, the paraclete, the Holy Spirit. So having said that, let's stand up and let's read John 15. In verse 1, I am the true vine and My Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in Me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit.

For apart from Me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

My Father is glorified in this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that He lays down His life for His friends.

You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard from My Father, I have made known to you.

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you. This command I give you, that you love one another.

Prayer for Power, Hope, and Perseverance

Let's pray. Father, I come before You, Lord, in the name of Your Son. Father, it's His character. It's His righteousness. It's His faithfulness that gives me confidence to pray. He is my Mediator, Father, and I come before You in no other name but His.

Lord, all my righteousness is like filthy rags. Lord, please, for His sake, for the building up of Your people, Lord, use the weak. Use the pitiful. Lord, make Your Word known to Your people that they might live with a new sense of life and a new sense of power and a new sense of purpose.

That they might have hope that they can overcome sin. That they can be more like Christ. That You who began a good work in them will finish it, Lord. That there is a source of life and power in this Christian life much greater than what they've known.

Father, please help us. Lord, everything is rocked. Everything is useless. Everything is weak apart from Your Spirit. Lord, even our sacrifice of preaching, Lord, is nothing unless You sanctify what's laid on the altar.

Father, please, for the reputation of Christ and for the good of these people, out of my own need, Father, I cry that You would speak to us, that You would teach us. In Jesus' name, amen. Lord, you may be seated.

The Christian Struggle and the Hope of Sanctification

I want so much for your joy to be increased. I want so much for your joy to be increased. If you are a Christian, I want that the life of Christ be a greater reality in your life than you've ever known.

I know you because I'm just like you. I look in the mirror. I know what I see. I see the spots and the blemishes and the deformities. I know that many of you, because you have been born again, you have a heart to be more like Christ.

You have a heart to look like Him, act like Him, talk like Him. But then you look in the mirror and you see so much failure and oftentimes you see so little power. And you wonder sometimes, will this just keep grinding on and grinding on and grinding on?

And then I know you turn on the television in desperation and you hear all sorts of wild promises from wild and undisciplined men who do not know the Scripture. And the Scripture they do know, they twist.

And they promise you all sorts of things. But it all turns into nothing. I know what it's like to preach in the pulpit in front of thousands of people. And I know what it's like to see many, many people converted.

And I know what it's like to be impatient with my children and not to love my wife as Christ loves the church. I see the contradiction inside me all the time. But I want you to know that even though the Christian life is a work of sanctification and the progress is sometimes three steps forward and four steps back and sometimes ten steps forward, one step back, I want you to know that there is great hope that you will become more like Christ.

And there is a source of life and power. There truly is. It is an abiding, ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ. And it's laid out for us here in this chapter. I want to understand this chapter, not simply so that I can teach it to you.

I must understand this chapter so that I can live. Because just like you, I grow tired sometimes of so many words and so little power, so much knowledge, and yet finding it difficult to do the most simple things.

I know that until Christ comes and I experience my final glorification with you, I know that the Christian life is going to be a struggle. Yes, I will acknowledge that. A struggle, yes, but not a defeat.

We can go from glory to glory. But it is somehow all uniquely, intimately related to Christ. It is not related to a gimmick. It is not related to a teaching. It's not related to a certain blessing. It is related to a person.

And that's what this text is about. That person and how do we abide in Him. I was looking through my notes yesterday and today, and I just don't know if I'm going to get through this in one sermon. And if I don't, I might have to carry on the next time.

But we need to understand this. You need to. There is so much more out there. And it's ours. It's ours. The promises are ours. Christ is yes and amen for us. We are the ones living in the end, in the last days, in the fullness of time.

The Messiah has come. The Messiah is reigning. Now, as we live here on this earth, we will always be the church in the wilderness. We will always be a people battered and belittled. We will always struggle against this flesh.

Don't let anyone kid you. But at the same time, these are the days of Messiah. These are the days of Christ. The work has been done. But that finished work is not a call to apathy. These things must be fought for and applied.

Christ the True Vine and the Source of Spiritual Life

I want us to look. We begin in verse 1. Jesus says, I am the true vine. Now, in a nutshell, what does that mean? Now, I know this is going to sound cliché-ic, but it could take you a lifetime to actually understand it.

Jesus is the source of all true spiritual life. There is one Mediator. And it is Jesus Christ. So whatever this message is about, it is about you throwing down every so-called teaching and gimmick that supposedly will prop up your spiritual life.

And this is begging you, this sermon, to run to Christ. Like the woman, to grab ahold of the hem of His garment to not let go. Not just, my friend, for salvation in the sense of justification. But to grab ahold of Him and not let go for everything.

Because He is not only our justification. He's not only our redemption. He's our sanctification. He's everything. He is the source of all true spiritual life. Now, whenever you look at a passage like this, one of the things you need to ask yourself is did this just come up at this moment?

Or is Christ drawing on a metaphor found somewhere else? Because you would be amazed if you would study the Old Testament, how much of everything Jesus said is drawn from the Old Testament. It truly is.

And so I want us just to hold our place for a second. I want you to look at something. I want you to go to Psalms 80. As a matter of fact, one of the things that so convinces me, as though I needed some other convincing other than the illumination of the Holy Spirit, but just in a practical, scientific sort of way that the Scriptures are truly the Word of God is the unity of them and how they just flow together.

You can't make this stuff up. But in Psalms 80, verse 8, he's speaking of Yahweh, of God, and the nation of Israel. And he says, you removed a vine from Egypt. You drove out the nations and planted it.

You cleared the ground before it and it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shadow and the cedar of God with its boughs. And it was sending out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the river.

And then it changes. Why have you broken down its hedges so that all who pass that way may pick its fruit? A boar from the forest eats it away and whatever moves in the field feeds on it. And so what do we see?

We see the nation of Israel was a vine that God brought out of Egypt. He redeemed the nation of Israel from Egypt. And Israel, under the blessing of God, walking in obedience, walking in the covenant with God, was to be in a sense a vine that spread out into all the world, giving what?

Spiritual life. And bearing fruit. But then we see all of a sudden a turn where the one who was supposed to be bearing fruit is now being attacked. Is being eaten alive. Why is that? I want us to go for a moment to the book of Isaiah 5.

Israel as the Vineyard in Isaiah 5

Beginning in verse 1. Let me sing now for my well-beloved a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He dug it all around, removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine.

And he built a tower in the middle of it and also hewn out a wine vat in it. When he expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones or wild ones. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

What more has there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why? When I expected it to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless ones? So now, let me tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed. I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. I will lay it waste. Now listen, it will not be pruned or hoed, but briars and thorns will come up.

I will also change the clouds to rain. No rain on it. Now, what are some of the points that I want us to see? First of all, Israel, as many other characters, individual personalities in the Old Testament, were raised up by God as types.

As types of something that was to come that would be much greater. A perfect completion of that thing. And here we have the nation of Israel, which was to be something of a source of spiritual life for the nations and bear fruit unto God, but we see what?

That it failed. That it failed. Why did it fail? Because it was flesh. Because it was man. Because it was dependent upon men. And every time man is figured into the equation, there is failure. But this thing in the Old Testament that we see of this consistent failure is designed to produce in us what?

A looking away from man, who is nothing more than a nose full of breath at any given time. To look away from men and to look to God for all spiritual life. Let me give you an example. We see it all over.

Here we see the magnificent, faithful Noah. But isn't it amazing that in the end, what do we see about him? He fails. Why? Because men are not saviors. And Noah and all his failure is pointing to One who is to come who is greater than Noah.

We have a Moses. Magnificent Redeemer of Israel. One used mightily of God to deliver His people from the land of bondage, but He Himself cannot even enter in. Why? Human failure. So what do we learn from this?

That if there is a vine out there, if there is some fountain to give us life, it is not a man. Nor is it the work of men. It is 100 God. And therein lies your problem. And therein lies my problem. Whether we are trusting in Christ or another man, or another teacher, or another camp, or we are trusting in Christ Himself, whenever man enters into the equation, all you can expect is failure.

Bearing Fruit Through Wholehearted Devotion

Now, another thing that I want you to see in this metaphor of the vineyard and of the vine. Of course, ultimately it is speaking about Christ, but there's also some warning here for us today in the church.

We are not the vine, but we are the branches. And we are to grow and spread and go over walls and bear fruit throughout all the land, that there is a thing that can stop that. And that is our own disobedience.

That is our own failure to see that we have been separated uniquely for God and for no one else. The God who governs over His church is a jealous and zealous God. It is because He loves you. He did all this to bring you to Himself and not to share you.

The men and the women down through church history that have been most used of God have been quite different in their personality and even sometimes in their theology. But they all seem to have one common thing running through their veins.

A sense of separation unto God. That they belong to God and that the fruit they bear is to be bore unto Him and for His glory. I know that you want to bear fruit. I know that you want to do good things in the name of your God.

But you've got to realize this is not I'm going to go 25%, 35%, 75%, or even 98%. You must have a heart that although you will never achieve perfect devotion, you must have a heart that is longing for that.

God, I want to be all for You. I turned 50 a few months ago. My only regret is not what I've given. It's what I've kept. And I hate it. And it hangs on me like canker sores. As we talk about Christ as the true source of all spiritual life, I want you to know it's just talk.

Unless you're willing to go after the major problem, and that is a heart given to Him. All for Him. Everything for Him. Your life for Him. Breathing for Him. Heartbeats for Him. Movements of the hand, feet, nose, mouth, and ears.

All for Him. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. I can teach you absolutely everything possibly you need to know about John 15, but it will do you no good unless a decision of the heart is made.

Unless it comes to you, taught by the Spirit, that you belong to God and you are to bear fruit for Him alone and you say, yes, by the grace of God, this one thing I will pursue. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

So many people think that that has to do with mysticism or some type of monkish purity. No. The word there literally means unalloyed. A heart with no mixture, with no competing loyalties. You see, you can bear fruit and you can be mightily used of God with a bare minimum of information in your head if your heart is pursuing purity, undivided loyalty to God.

Some of you who are young believers, your desire ought to be to pour yourself out for Him, to be His vineyard, to bear fruit for Him, that everything you do, whether you eat or drink or any other thing, you do it all unto the glory of God.

And if you are older, beyond my years, in your 60's and 70's and 80's, your passion should not be diminished. You should still be crying out, I want to give more to God than I have given. So you see, it's not just about learning what does John 15 mean.

It's preparing the heart. Lord, I want to be Yours. I want to bear fruit for You. If You've given me talents, I will not spend them on the world. If You've given me gifts, I will not use them for my own advantage.

If You give me breath, I will return it to You in praise. If You give me strength, it's that I love You with all my strength. You see, we almost need to stop now, don't we? Because a great searching of the heart is required to go on.

If you want to be halfway about this, then the rest of these meetings will do you no good. But to be passionately given over to this one thing, I want to be His. I don't want the world. I don't want its glory.

I don't want its fame. I want to bear fruit for Him. And I want to bear fruit, if God wills it, in front of 5 ,000 people preaching. Or if God wills it, no one knows my name. I want to bear fruit. I'm going to hit a lot of things.

Seeking God’s Glory Rather Than Human Recognition

I'm going to throw a lot of stones. I want you to realize this. If you're a young preacher here today, there is a terrible thing going on. Everybody thinks that being well-known on YouTube or at the book table or in the conferences is a sign of spirituality.

There has never been a greater lie. You do not dedicate yourself to the cause of God so that people might recognize you, even the people of God in this life. You do not do it. You do it for Him. And never forget this.

It's a philosophical question. Would God plant His most beautiful rose, His most beautiful branch in the middle of a forest where no living human being ever walks? Would He do that? And the answer of the first-year seminary student is why no?

How could He get glory out of planting such a beautiful thing in a place where no one passes by? You fool! He gets glory out of it every day because He looks at it. He doesn't need other men to look at it.

He doesn't need other men to applaud. He doesn't need other men to buy books in order to get glory out of an individual. He sees a godly man, a godly woman dedicated unto Him and bearing fruit unto Him.

He sees it and rejoices and He takes the attention of every creature in heaven and pulls it off the one of renown and makes them look at the one no one knows. So be encouraged. We don't live our Christian life just on a stage for men to see.

We live our Christian life on a stage for God to see. And He sees us all. So will you make that decision of the heart? Will you make this a matter of pursuit that I long to bear fruit for Him? To not give off wild grapes?

To not be a wild vine with no order to it? I long to be His and to bear fruit for Him. That's the first challenge. Will you do this? Because if you do not, there's no need to go any farther. So we see here Jesus says that He is the true vine.

Christ Alone as the Exclusive Source of Spiritual Life

He alone. He's not in a conjunctive relationship. It's not Jesus plus something. It's Jesus alone who is the true vine. Now I want you to notice something here that's very important. First of all, Jesus is, and I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again, He is the exclusive source of all spiritual life.

So whatever that means, you should know one thing from the very beginning, that if you are going to live this Christian life with any degree of power, it is going to come directly from your intimate, personal, real, biblical relationship with Jesus.

He is the true vine. But also, He's the bread of life. Listen to what John 6 says. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will not hunger. And he who believes in Me will never thirst.

Let me ask you a question. Do you go through your Christian life many times hungry? Inwardly hungry in the soul? I do. Do you go through your Christian life at times thirsty? Inwardly there's a thirst of the soul?

You feel barren? Do you know what that is? It's not the devil robbing your joy. That is God screaming out to you to run to Christ, to draw in deeper to Christ. I want you to know that those who grab ahold of Him truly and imbibe of Him and drink of Him and feed from Him, they are not hungry.

They are not thirsty. And if you find yourself both hungry and thirsty, it is God screaming out to you to return. To return. I see so many believers that say, I'm hungry and I'm thirsty. So therefore, I'll go from sea to shining sea chasing a word from the Lord.

I'll listen to this new teacher. I'll watch YouTube to find out if there's some exciting personality on the horizon who can help me. And God is screaming at you saying, no! Run to My Spirit. We were in Romania years ago and my wife was teaching over the weeks some of the girls that were there, some of the ladies.

And in the end, they were kind of put out with her. Because one girl said, every problem I have, you give me the same answer. That I need to run to Christ through the Word of God and prayer. And my wife says, I'm sorry, I have no other answer.

But we don't want to do that, do we? We would rather run some in and teaching and procedures and methods and ten steps to get this or that rather than running to Christ. You see, the old saints knew this.

That's why they talked so much about being alone with God in the closet, reading through the Scriptures on their knees, crying out to God. I'm sorry, America. There is no instantaneous Christian power.

There's no microwaves in heaven. There's no instant anything. It is clinging and clinging and clinging and clinging. It is clinging. Do you know in the fall where we see that a curse comes upon the devil?

A curse comes upon Adam. And a curse comes upon Eve. The implications of that. Of course, with the devil it's pure judgment. But within the curse upon man and woman, we also see mercy. Do you know how?

Every time the man goes out, he goes into the field and he works day and night only to lose his own crop. He sweats every day of his life and feels the knife pain, and the futility and uselessness and vanity.

You say, that's the judgment of God. Yes, but mixed in that is the mercy of God. Because every instance of futility, it is God screaming out at him, fallen, fallen, fallen. Return to Me. Return to Me.

Return to Me. There is no life apart from Me. Every time the woman gives birth and screams out with a pain a man has never comprehended, it is God crying out to her, fallen, fallen. Return to Me. Return to Me.

Every time the Christian inwardly feels thirst and hunger, it is God crying out to you, return to Me. Return to Me. But you would not. You'd be led away by some pied piper. You'd be led away by some promise of a certain method that if it's applied correctly, you will be okay.

Nothing, nothing will take away your hunger and your thirst if you're truly regenerate but Christ. Only Christ. You see, if you have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, know this. You are now too high a creature to be satisfied by anything less than God.

You are now too high a creature to be satisfied by anything less than God. And if you can be satisfied by something less than God, it is good evidence you are not converted. God will be the One who will ensure there is emptiness in your soul, chasing after anything except Christ Himself.

Also, He says here that He is the fountain of living water in John 7. It says, now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Now, I want us to look at this for a moment because it's so important to understanding John 15.

It's very important. First of all, I don't need any other text in the Bible to prove the deity of Jesus Christ. This statement is blasphemy. No prophet talks this way. No prophet in the Old Testament.

No apostle in the New Testament. No! You can't say these things, my dear friend, unless you're God. You cannot say these things. Now, on the last day, the great day of the feast. It's the last day. Have you ever been to a great feast?

Even a great religious festival or a great preaching conference? You went there with this great anticipation of just your life being changed, of you being totally filled by some preacher and the wisdom that God has given him, and you get in your car and you drive home and you feel almost nauseous.

Why? Because you seem to be almost as thirsty and hungry leaving as when you came. That's the mercy of God. He's crying out to you. There is only one fountain. And it's Jesus. Now you say, but, brother Paul, I've sought Him.

I hear so many people will tell me this. Brother Paul, I've read the Scriptures and I cry out to Him. And nothing. And my question, even though it may seem too practical, too simplistic, is always how long?

How long? An hour? A day? 24 hours? A week? A year? How long? How long? Most have to just simply put their head down and say I can't even use that language. You see, my dear friend, I wish I could take you through the annals of church history and show you how superficial we are as a people.

We feel a thirst. We feel a hunger in our heart. We decide to increase our Bible study from 5 minutes to 15. We try to sneak in a little prayer. Maybe an hour or two for a couple of days. And then what?

It's gone. Oh, my dear friend, we're such... No. Not only do I tell you to study the Scriptures, I tell you to look at church history. It's never been this way. What do you see? You don't see great saints who were just born great saints.

What you see is desperate men. Desperate women who had no place to go. Who became convinced they could not be satisfied. Who were known to study the Scriptures for months on end. Digging with all their might.

Who were known to wrap themselves up in a closet and cry out to God night after night after night after night. We've developed this thing of He should come. If He doesn't come in a few minutes, well, this stuff just doesn't work.

Oh, my dear friend, it's a lifetime. It's a lifetime. You see, one of the things I think that is so different from the preachers who raised me and the preachers of today... Preachers of today are very smart.

I don't know how much time they spend with God. Preachers of old, like the prophet, they could say, the God before whom I stand. They dwelt with Him. They said upon His Word. They cried out in the watches of the night.

When they couldn't sleep, they saw it as God coming to them and wooing them from their bed to meet with Him. When they were confronted with problems, they ran to God. And they were known to stay there for days.

We're not like that, are we? We'll give a few minutes, a few days, and then say it doesn't work. Something's obviously wrong. Moses on a mountain for 40 days. And then another 40. I'm not saying that's what we have to do, but just look at the comparison between Him and us.

My dear friend, I want to tell you something. These words are true. And that's the thing that so encourages me. They really are true. He says, you come to Me, you will not hunger. You come to Me, you will not thirst.

That means to me, I can go into the prayer closet. I can grab ahold of the horns of the altar. And I can stay there and wrestle with my God until He fulfills the promises He has made. Such boldness God loves.

Loves that. It's almost like every angel passes by and says, you fool, how long will you tarry at this door until you can prove to me my Master's words are not true? He will answer. He will fill me. The problem is we do not tarry.

The problem is we think there's a plan B. The problem is we think there's an easier way. There's no easier way than to trust and obey. Than to seek Him in prayer. Than to join Him in the night watches.

Listen, every time you thirst, it's God calling you to prayer. It's God calling you to the Word. It's God calling you to seek Him. Every time you're hungry, it's God. I don't want to know. Don't talk to me about words.

Talk, talk, talk. Nobody cares. The power to live. See, there's hope, isn't there? There is hope. But this Christian life is not this little thing. It's everything. It's not this little quiet time. It's 24 hours.

It's a wild and wonderful and dangerous, impassioned journey, pursuit, chase after God Who loves to be found. One of the things that I must warn you on more than probably anything else during this sermon time is simply this.

If you look in the Old Testament and you look in church history and you look around you today, you will find that you and I, even the regenerate, even those who are truly converted, we are still prone to chase after false cisterns, false fountains, mirages that truly will not quench our thirst.

And I want you to know that evangelicalism is absolutely full of them. Now let me read something to you. Jeremiah 2 .11 and 13. As a nation changed gods when they were not gods, but My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.