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Bible, book, divine, precious treasure, you are mine.
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And please be seated. And for our New Testament reading...
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Chapter 2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
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But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
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Righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
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And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. Whoever says,
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I know Him, but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps
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His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him.
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Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
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Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning.
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The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
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Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
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But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
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I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His namesake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know
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Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
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I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know
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Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
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Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
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Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and pride of life, is not from the
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Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires.
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But whoever does the will of God abides forever. Children, it is the last hour.
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And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour.
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They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
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But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
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But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
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Who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist, who denies the
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Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the
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Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the
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Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He made to us, eternal life.
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I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you receive from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you.
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But as His anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in Him.
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And now little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame that is coming.
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If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.
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Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
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You for this morning. We thank You that we can gather together, even in the midst of great turmoil in the world.
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Lord, we are safe in Your arms because You are a sovereign God. And it is
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Your hand of providence that guides us and leads us. And Lord, we thank You for the
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Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You for His work. We thank You that we are one man in Christ, that we are fellow citizens, that we are fellow members of the same household, that we are members of the same temple, the same body.
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Lord, all of these blessings come to us in Christ Jesus. And for that, we are very thankful.
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Lord, help us now as we open up the Word and as we hear the Gospel of John proclaimed to us.
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We pray that we would be free from distraction, that we would be able to focus our attention on the words being spoken, and that Your Spirit would teach us exactly what we need to do, how we need to behave in order to best please
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You. So Lord, in the power of the Spirit, we just pray that You would teach us these truths. We thank
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You for this time together. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, let's turn in our
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Bibles, please, to John 15 as we continue our study. And by the way, with John 15, verse one, we are now beginning the last third of the book of John.
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We've accomplished two thirds, John 1 through 14, and now we're entering the last third of the book,
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John 15, verse one and following. And today we'll give attention to the first eight verses,
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Lord willing, of this chapter. We again are reading the last words of our
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Lord Jesus to His apostles just before He was arrested and taken from them, of course, to be crucified.
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Here, our Lord Jesus speaks to His disciples that He is the source of life, even a fruitful life for His people.
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And here we learn of the blessings of abiding in Jesus Christ as well as the consequences for failing to do so.
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And so may God give us greater understanding of our union with our Savior and the greater desire and appreciation to experience more fully the blessing of abiding in Him.
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And that's the major theme here. And so here are the words of Jesus. We have two paragraphs in the
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New King James Version, 10, but rather, verses one through eight.
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I had originally hoped to get through verse 10, but we're not doing it that. We're getting through the first eight verses,
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Lord willing. So Jesus declared, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.
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Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
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You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you.
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As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine and neither can you unless you abide in me.
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I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit.
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For without me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned.
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If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.
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And by this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit so you will be my disciples.
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Many commentators when they come to John chapter 15 attempt to explain these words, depicting the
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Eucharist, the Lord's Supper. They see a reference to Jesus as the bread from heaven back in John chapter six.
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And they see the vine here in John 15 is setting forth the wine of the cup. But this interpretation, although a very common one, is not warranted.
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As one wrote, there is prescient little to support this interpretation. There is no hint of believers drinking the fruit of the vine.
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Indeed, there is no mention of wine at all. Still less a connection with Jesus's blood. The truth is that John is speaking of union of believers with Christ, apart from whom they can do nothing.
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This union originating in his initiative and sealed by his death on their behalf is completed by the believer's response of love and obedience and is the essence of Christianity.
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And so, John is not talking about the Lord's Supper here, not talking about the
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Eucharist. He's talking about our relationship with God through Christ and our union with Christ in particular.
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Now, in order to assist us in better understanding these words of John 15, one through eight, we want to consider just these two divisions, paragraphs in this translation.
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And here we see, of course, the close and intimate relationship of the disciples to their
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Savior that's expressed in the first four verses. And then secondly, we read of the fruitful life of the one who abides in Christ.
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And that would be in the second section, the second section of four verses.
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And so let's consider first the close and intimate relationship of the disciples to their
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Savior, John 15, one and following. Our Lord Jesus declared he is the source through which his father imparts life to his people.
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He declared in verse one, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.
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Now, although Jesus set himself forth as the primary subject of this passage,
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I am the true vine, he shows that the father is the primary actor. Yes, I'm the vine, but the father is the vine dresser.
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The gift and benefits of life come through Jesus Christ, even as the father is imparting that life through him.
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Jesus is the vine through whom the vine dresser gives life to his people.
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Notice first, Jesus declared, I am the true vine. This is the seventh and last of seven, we've considered them all as we've been going through John's gospel.
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These seven formal I am statements are emphatic descriptions of the person and ministry of Jesus Christ.
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I am declaring that he is God, God incarnate. And so they contain the highest and loftiest descriptions of the person of Jesus Christ as eternal
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God incarnate. Jesus is the eternal son that revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush.
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Notice the Lord Jesus declared that he is the true vine. There's that adjective, that qualifier in front of the word vine.
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This is suggestive of a false vine or a vine that failed to provide spiritual life for its members.
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In contrast, Jesus is the true vine. Our Lord was comparing and contrasting himself with the physical nation of Israel, which by intimation he declared to be a false vine.
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He said, I am the true vine. The false vine Israel had failed to give life to its branches.
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The vine was a common metaphor, is a common metaphor for the nation of Israel in a number of places in the
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Old Testament. I cited just a few here in our notes and we'll just read these rather quickly.
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And as I do, not only do I want you to pay attention to the reference to the vine as the nation of Israel, but also
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I want you to read the, or consider the context in which the vine is being judged by God for its unfaithfulness, for its unfruitfulness.
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And so Psalm 80 verses eight through 16, you have brought a vine out of Egypt, obviously
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Israel coming out at the exodus. You've cast out the nations, planted it, you prepared room for it, caused it to take deep root, it filled the land, the hills were covered with its shadow, the mighty cedars with its bows.
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She sent out her bows to the sea and her branches to the river. That'd be the Euphrates River.
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Why have you broken down her hedges? The appeal to God. Why has this happened? The judgment of God.
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So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit. The boar out of the woods uproots it.
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The wild beast of the field devours it. Return, we beseech you, O God of hosts, look down from heaven and see, and visit this vine and the vineyard which your right hand has planted, and the branch that you've made strong for yourself.
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It is burned with fire. It is cut down. They perish at the rebuke of your countenance or your presence.
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And so Israel's the vine, but again, it's the vine under the judgment of God for having failed to bring forth fruit.
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Isaiah 27, two through six. In that day, sing to her a vineyard of red wine.
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I, the Lord, keep it. I water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I keep it night and day.
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Fury is not in me. Who would set briars and thorns against me in battle? I go through them.
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I would burn them together or let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me.
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Those who come, he shall cause to take root in Jacob. Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit.
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There's an anticipation of a fruitful vine. Fruitful Israel, probably prophetic of the
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Lord Jesus himself. Jeremiah 2, 21, 22. Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality.
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How then have you turned before me into a degenerate plant of an alien vine?
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For though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the
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Lord God. Again, Israel's failure. Ezekiel 15, one through eight.
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And the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any other wood?
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The vine branch, which is among the trees of the forest. Is wood taken from it to make any object?
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Or can men make a peg from it to hang any vessel on? Instead, it is thrown into the fire for fuel.
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The fire devours both ends of it and its middle is burned. Is it useful for any work?
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Indeed, when it was whole, no object could be made from it. How much less will it be useful for any work when the fire has devoured it and it is burned?
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And therefore, thus says the Lord God, like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which
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I have given to the fire fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem and I will set my face against them.
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But another fire shall devour them. And then you shall know that I am the Lord when
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I set my face against them. Thus, I will make the land desolate because they have persisted in unfaithfulness, says the
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Lord God. Prophecy, of course, of the Babylonian exile, the judgment of God coming upon Jerusalem and Judah.
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And then there's Ezekiel 19, 10 through 14. Your mother was like a vine in your bloodline planted by the waters, fruitful and full of branches because of many waters.
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She had strong branches for scepters of rules. She towered in stature above the thick branches and was seen in her height amid the dense foliage.
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But she was plucked up in fury. She was cast down to the ground and the east wind dried her fruit.
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Her strong branches were broken and withered. The fire consumed them. And now she is planted in the wilderness in a dry and thirsty land.
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Fire has come out from a rod of her branches and devoured her fruit so that she has no strong branch, a scepter for ruling.
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So in each of these passages in which the metaphor of the vine is used for the nation of Israel, there is a display of the corruption and failure of the nation to produce what
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God had desired and designed for his people. It had failed to bring forth fruit among the people.
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It also illustrates that the nation was under the judgment of God, that it had warranted his wrath upon it.
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And so in Ezekiel 15 passage, Israel is shown to be a vine that deserves to be burned. In Ezekiel 19,
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Israel the vine, which was at one time fruitful was in need of being torn up by the roots and thrown into the fire.
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But in contrast to Israel of the Old Testament as the corrupt unfruitful vine,
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Jesus declared, I am the true vine. He set it himself forth as the faithful son of God.
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Israel as having been the unfaithful son of God. The unfaithful Israel in Jesus is the true
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Israel, the faithful son. As one wrote, this title describes the quality of the true vine.
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How Jesus accomplished everything the Israel of vine was unable to do. He thrives and bears fruit.
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The qualification of true is intended to contrast forcefully Jesus with Israel.
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Jesus is the fulfillment of the Israel vine and the one who completes its mission. The gospel of John has already taken great care to describe how
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Jesus fulfills and replaces the old covenant persons and institutions of the temple, chapter two.
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Sacred places and mountains, remember Mount Gerizim, chapter four with the woman at the well in Samaria, Jacob's well.
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Of Moses in chapter five. Of the Jewish feasts, chapter six.
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As a true vine, Jesus also supersedes Israel as a center and source of God's people.
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The places, in other words, the land and the people, you know, earthly, fleshly
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Israel, Jewish bloodlines, priestly heritage, have been fulfilled and replaced by the one person,
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Jesus Christ. And so this is an ongoing theme that we have in John's gospel.
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Or as another put it, under the image of the vine, Israel gives way to Jesus.
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If you understood this reality and this truth, it'll affect your view of eschatology, won't it?
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Rather than zeroing in on a national Israel as being the future fulfillment and end time desired goal of God, it is centered in his son,
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Jesus Christ, as a true Israel of God. Now, after Jesus declared himself to be the true vine, he further stated in verse one, and my father is the vine dresser.
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God the father superintends all that's accomplished through Jesus Christ. It was in the father's purpose and work that Jesus Christ as the true vine replaced the corrupt vine of Israel that had failed to bring forth its fruit in season onto him.
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As one commentator once wrote, Lightfoot says, hitherto Israel had been the vine into which everyone that would worship the true
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God must be grafted, but from henceforth, they were to be planted into the profession of Christ.
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That identifies the people of God. Jesus Christ is the vine, and the branches are his people that are graft into him.
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Our Lord had once given a parable to demonstrate the failure of Israel as a fig tree, not as a vine, but a fig tree.
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There you have the idea of vine, which was intended to bring forth fruit unto God, but failed to do so.
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And so in Luke 13, we read, he also spoke this parable. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
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And then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, look, for three years, I've come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none.
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Cut it down. Why does it use up the ground? King James, if I remember. Why does it cumber the ground?
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But he answered and said to him, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around and fertilize it, and if it bears fruit, well, but if not, after that, you can cut it down.
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Speaking about the ministry of Jesus, going to the lost sheep of Israel, waiting, watching for fruit to come forth, and it failed to do so.
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Cut it down. And that's what happened, of course, with the judgment of God upon Jerusalem.
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And so not only was the physical nation of Israel destroyed for its failure to bring forth fruit unto
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God, but Jesus Christ replaced Israel as a true vine that would bring forth fruit unto
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God. But again, it was all God's doing. Again, Jesus said,
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I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Our Lord next declared in verse two, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.
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And every branch that bears fruit, he proves that it might bear more fruit.
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Here, our Lord was describing the work of his father as the husbandman, as the vine dresser.
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He is the one that assures the true branches are in vital connection with his vine, the
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Lord Jesus, and that they are bearing fruit. All true branches of this true vine will bear fruit.
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That's what they do. We have, however, what is meant by fruit.
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Actually, the meaning of fruit is not specifically found in these verses, it's not defined for us.
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We can assume, however, it speaks of the kind of life that should characterize true disciples of Jesus Christ.
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As one wrote, the fruit is not defined here, but we need not doubt that qualities of Christian character in mind as elsewhere in the
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New Testament. And then he cited some parallel passages. Some have argued that to bring forth fruit is to evangelize, and that fruit would be souls that you win to Christ.
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But the fruit here is not a metaphor of new Christians. If that were the case, we'd be making new branches, wouldn't we?
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But rather, fruit here is the exhibition of true Christian character.
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The metaphor of fruit with regard to the Christian life is a common one found in the New Testament. Consider these passages.
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The fruit of the spirit is listed in Galatians 5 .22 and following. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long -suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.
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Hebrews 12 .11. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful.
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Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. In other words, the fruit is righteousness, the way we live, to those who've been trained by it.
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In Philippians 1 .9 -11 record, it's my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
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Fruit speaks of the holy life that should characterize the disciple of Jesus Christ. It speaks of lives of righteousness.
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And later in the passage, we read that bearing fruit is linked to keeping God's commandments. R .C.
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Sproul commented on this matter in this way. What is the fruit Jesus is concerned to see in our lives?
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There's been much debate about that. Some believe that only the fruit Jesus is concerned about if people come into saving faith in him.
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In other words, bearing fruit means leading people to Christ. Others argue that the fruit is obedience to the law of God.
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Certainly both of these aspects are important and both are involved in bearing fruit, but the central emphasis on the fruit in the
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New Testament has to do with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. This is the fruit of a changed life, a changed character, a character that is strengthened and nurtured by the source of holiness,
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Christ himself. Jesus said the work of his father, the vine dresser, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.
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Not only do the fruitful branches need God's attention, but so do those branches that do not bear fruit.
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God the Father takes them away. Judas Iscariot could be counted as one of these that the father took away.
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Only fruit bearing branches are allowed to be in Christ. That's what true branches are designed to produce, fruit.
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Interestingly, in Jesus' statement, there is a play on words here in the Greek language.
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It's not picked up in the English. Jesus said every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.
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And the verb takes away is the Greek word ire. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, and the
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Greek word for prunes is kathire. Ire, kathire, that it may bear more fruit.
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And so the first word, ire, means to cut off. The second word, kathire, is a
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Greek word from which we get the English word catharsis, which means cleansing. Now, there've been many proposals of various doctrines based on some of the details of parables of our
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Lord, parables such as this one. Armenians tend to look on this verse as teaching that true
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Christians, that is true branches in Christ, can be removed by the father. In other words, true
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Christians can lose their salvation. The father takes them away. They were true branches and the father removed them.
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What is the point of our Lord's statement? He's indicating that his father will not allow a non -fruit -bearing branch to be joined to his vine to Jesus Christ.
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That's the point. All who are in vital union with Jesus Christ will be fruit -bearing.
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J .C. Ryle commented on this. The true meaning of the verse, I believe, to be this.
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My father deals with my mystical body. This is as though Christ were speaking. And my mystical body would be the church.
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Just as the vine dresser deals with the vine and its branches. He will no more allow any of my members to be fruitless and graceless than a vine dresser will allow barren branches to grow on the vine.
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My father will take care that all who are in me give proof of their union by their fruitful lives and conversation.
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He will not tolerate for a moment such an inconsistent being as an unfruitful believer if such a being could be found.
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In a word, fruitfulness is the great test of being one of my disciples. And he that is not fruitful is not a branch of the true vine.
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And that's the whole point, is that the father makes sure that everyone that is connected with Christ, that is, who truly has salvation, is buried fruit, is showing forth their connection to Christ in the way that they think, the way they live, their attitudes, their actions, their words.
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Fruit -bearing. And so the father is principally concerned that the disciples of Jesus Christ are fruit -bearing.
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He takes steps to do so. A non -fruit -bearing branch is no Christian, although he may appear to be one.
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He looks like a branch just like the others. But in actuality, he is a hypocrite whose life bears no witness, that is, bears no fruit, that he is a true branch vitally connected to Jesus, the vine.
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But not only does the father remove unfruitful branches, we read that every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
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This speaks of the ongoing work of sanctification that the father affects in the lives of the
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Lord's disciples. Pruning is not necessarily a pleasant process, but being cut and trimmed is a necessary process for fruit -bearing vine.
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I talked to Peter Mortison, of course, who is, you know, he works several apple orchards in the area.
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He's just gotten through the winter, a time of pruning trees. And they're ready now for, you know, the spring and the blossoms, and shortly will be the time of spring.
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But all winter long, that is basically what he does through the winter, is pruning these trees so that they will bear fruit.
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And this is what the father does. Pruning is not pleasant, but it's necessary.
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J .C. Philpott wrote of this in his lengthy written sermon, Winter Before the
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Harvest, or A Soul's Growth in Grace. I've referred to this in the past.
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Philpott was, he had his little quirks, but boy, he sure had an understanding in the nature of the
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Christian life. And he began his sermon by saying that the seasons of the soul is different than the seasons of the agricultural world.
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And you look at the world, there is spring, summer, great growth, and then fall, and there's harvest, and then there's winter.
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He said, but that's not the way the season of the soul works. For the season of the soul, there's spring, and then summer, but not harvest, there's winter.
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And then after winter, then's the harvest. And he describes this as different stages of life that the
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Christian goes through. And so this stage of the winter of the soul is this pruning process in which the
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Lord brings his people low to help sanctify them. And he bases this, he tended to allegorize, but he based this on Isaiah 18, five and six.
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Before the harvest, when the bud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he,
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God, shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, take away and cut down the branches, and they should be left together unto the fowls of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth, and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
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And then he goes on to talk about the harvest that comes as a result of this difficult winter that God brings upon his people.
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Philpott began his message speaking of the wonderful joys of the early Christian experience. Having come forth from perhaps deep conviction of sin, the new believer in Christ experiences a profound, uplifting sense of pardon, of being brought into familiar relationship with the
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Lord. He has new life, which is characterized by new desires and delights of new companions and new experiences of peace and comfort.
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But then Philpott addressed what often follows this early period of great joy and grace as a
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Christian, and this is one of doubt and difficulty, of failure and frustration.
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And so Philpott wrote, who would not think this happy soul, this is the young Christian, near to heaven, when it seemed to be thus on the very borders of it, but it may be near it and yet not enter into it, as the children of Israel were very near the land of Canaan 40 years before they took possession of it.
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40 years of weary wandering in the wilderness after their first pitching at Kadesh, which was the outermost border of Edom and therefore close to the
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Holy Land. There are lessons to be learned of which the soul at present knows little or nothing.
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There is an experience to be passed through, little, little dreamt of, a road to be traveled, as yet but little, little known.
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Harvest does not succeed summer in the kingdom of grace, in the kingdom of nature, before a long and dreary winter intervenes.
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And with winter comes the pruning knife of the heavenly husbandman, who purges the vine, that it may bring forth more fruit.
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Notice he's quoting John 15 too, in our passage here. Before the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches.
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Why should this wintry season be necessary? What need of this sharp and severe discipline?
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Why should not the soul go on as it has begun? Why should it not proceed from strength to strength, and increase in faith and hope and love, until its peace should be as a river and its righteousness as the way of the sea?
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Why is this? What is God doing? And here Philpott set forth the need of God's pruning activity at this stage of life for the
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Christian. A little spiritual insight then into the human heart may explain the reason for this severe discipline is needful and unravel this mystery.
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Together with the spiritual graces that had first budded, and afterwards under the warm beams of the sun burst forth into flower, there had shot unperceived and undergrowth of self -righteousness and spiritual pride.
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Counterfeits too, and imitations of divine operations had sprung up as the offspring of a deceitful heart, or as delusions of Satan transformed into an angel of light.
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And side by side with spiritual trust, fleshly presumption had imperceptibly crept up.
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Under the shadow of divine hope, vain confidence had put forth its rank shoots.
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Natural belief, in other words, just normal natural of the flesh, natural belief had grown rapidly up with spiritual faith.
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Fleshly ardor with heavenly zeal, universal charity with divine love, and the knowledge that puffs up the head with the grace that humbles the heart.
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Above all things, pride, accursed pride, that spirit by God abhorred was taken occasion by the very grace of God to feed itself to the full.
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But beside these more obvious and glaring evils, we may remark that self was a yet little known.
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It is the Christian really didn't know himself. The deep recesses of a desperately wicked heart little fathomed.
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The helplessness, beggary, and bankruptcy of the creature little felt. The unspeakable value therefore of Christ's blood.
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The breadth, length, depths, and heights of distinguishing love. The riches of the goodness forbearance and long suffering of God.
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The depths of misery and degradation to which the Redeemer stooped to pluck his chosen from death and hell.
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All these divine mercies in the experience of which the very marrow of vital godliness consists were little known and less prized.
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Judging from my own experience, I believe there is at this time an indistinctness, a dimness, a haziness in the views we have of Christ.
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Though the soul loves and claims to him with purpose of heart, yet it does not see or feel the depth of the malady and therefore not the height of the remedy.
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It has not yet plunged into the ditch till its own clothes abhor it, nor cast into deep mire where there's no standing.
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The fountains of the great deep of the human heart have not yet been broken up. The exceeding sinfulness of sin has not yet been fully manifested.
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The desperate enmity and rebellion of a fallen nature have not yet been thoroughly discovered. For the wounds, bruises, putrefied sores of inward corruption have been experimentally laid bare.
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And thus, as the knowledge of salvation can only keep pace with the knowledge of sin, Christ is yet but half a savior.
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A lesson, therefore, is to be taught, which the soul can learn in no other way. Books here are useless,
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Christian friends of little value, ministers ineffectual, and the letter of the word insufficient.
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A certain experience must be wrought in the soul, a peculiar knowledge be communicated, a particular secret be revealed, and all this must be done in a way for which no other can be substituted.
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This then is the reason why winter comes before harvest and why the sprigs are cut off with pruning hooks and the branches taken and cut down.
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The discipline thus exercised by the heavenly husbandman consists of two distinct parts.
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The first is that which is immediately and peculiarly exercised by himself. He, that is
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God, will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches. And two, the second is that which he leaves to be accomplished by other agents.
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They shall be left together under the fowls of the mountains to the beasts of the earth, and the fowls shall summer upon them and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
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And he goes into great detail as to what each of these, how each of these can be illustrated in the
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Christian's life. It's fascinating, a fascinating treatise that he puts forth.
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But all of this experience is expressed in the few words of our Lord. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it might bear more fruit.
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Everything Philpott said, Jesus said in that one expression. But then the
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Lord Jesus declared to his disciples, they're standing before him. Verse three records, you are already clean because of the word which
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I have spoken to you. And what is meant by clean in this passage? Here, of course, being clean speaks of salvation.
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They are already experiencing and enjoying a vital living relationship with the Lord. It had already occurred, they were clean.
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It indicates they were living branches in him who had received and were receiving spiritual life from him and through him.
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What brought this blessed condition? Jesus said, you are already clean because of the word which
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I have spoken to you. The word that Jesus had spoken to them had resulted in them having become clean.
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His word had brought them to saving faith, cleansing them from the guilt and pollution of sin.
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They were no longer filthy and defiled, but they were now clean and dwelling in him.
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His word had accomplished in them this work of saving grace. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
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And so here his word should be understood as the totality of his instruction and his example before them that had led them to true faith in him, as one wrote.
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In this case, the word must imply the entirety of his message. The term could even have been translated as message.
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Jesus is the word and his work has been to make God known. And this has been done for his disciples.
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You're clean through the word that I have spoken to you. Well, Jesus then gave them instruction in verse four.
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Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine and neither can you unless you abide in me.
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The word abide may be simply translated as remain. Jesus was telling his disciples remain in me.
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It may also carry the idea of dwell or stay or continue to live in me.
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How is this done? To abide in Christ is to be continually connected to him in faith and fellowship.
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It's to continue in faith in him, relying upon him for our life, looking to him as the source and strength of our life in him.
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As one wrote, the term abide has become a technical term in the gospel.
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Though its meaning and function is fully established in this pericope here in John 15.
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Wallace suggests that the aorist imperative, that's the form of a Greek verb, is a constantive.
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In other words, it's a solemn command and carries the idea of being constant in your life, which stresses the urgency of the act as if it is as if the author says, make this your top priority, abide in me.
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Remain in me. This command serves to introduce the primary category by which the
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Christian relates and communes with God. This is the foundational manner of Christian existence.
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This is the nature of salvation. It is what the church has long described and defined by several theological terms, perhaps primarily union with Christ.
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Abide in me. Thomas Boston, a Scottish pastor, wrote of the mystical union between Christ and believers, which he based upon verse five of our passage,
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John 15, five, the entire message, which ran many, many dozens of pages.
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He prefaced his words on this subject by stating, I proceed to speak of the change made in them in their union with the
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Lord Jesus Christ, in opposition to their mutual relative state, the state of misery.
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And Boston went on to write of the true believers union with Christ in the following ways. He said, it is a spiritual union.
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I condensed, you know, about five pages here in about two and a half inches of text.
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It's a spiritual union, man and wife, by their marriage union become one flesh, Christ and true believers by this union become one spirit.
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Second, it's a real union, for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his body.
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Third, it's a most close and intimate union, believers, regenerate persons who believe in him and rely on him have put on Christ.
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Four, though it's not a mere legal union, yet it is a union supported by law.
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Christ is a surety, Christians as the principal debtors are one in the eye of the law. And fifth, it's a dissolute union, once in Christ ever in him, having taken up habitation in the heart, he never removes at his leaves.
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And then six, it's a mysterious union. The gospel is a doctrine of mysteries. It discovers to us a substantial union of the three persons in one
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Godhead. And this makes saints a mystery to the world, yay, a mystery to themselves.
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And Boston then described them who were in a state of grace are engrafted in and united to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And they're taken out of their natural stock, cut off from it and are now grafted to Christ as the new stock.
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We are branches grafted into Christ and we're receiving our life, mediated to us from him and through him.
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We might answer the question, how is this abiding in Christ done? Or how do
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I know if I am abiding in Christ in a right manner? Several verses may speak to this,
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John 5, 38, but you do not have this word abiding in you. There's the word abide, because whom he sent, him you do not believe.
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To abide in his word is to abide in him. John 6, 56, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.
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That speaks of course about our dependence upon him as the crucified savior. We abide in him when we reflect upon our relationship with him secured to his death.
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And John 8, 31, Jesus said to those Jews who believed on him, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed.
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And so first to abide in Christ is to have his word continually before you, reflecting upon it, always believing it and attempting to apply it to your thinking and living.
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And second, we would say that to abide in Christ is to have always before you your belief in and dependence upon his life and his death upon his cross as central and foundational to your abiding relationship with him.
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You abide in him when you continue in faith in your relationship characterized by these things.
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Well, if a Christian fails to abide in Christ day by day, his spiritual health and vitality will suffer atrophy.
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His devotion will cease to be as it once was. His desire and delight in Christ will not be as it was formerly.
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His concern for the things of Christ for the furtherance of his kingdom and glory will wane. His burden for the eternal wellbeing of souls will diminish.
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His strength and resolve to resist sin will weaken. As he continues to live for Christ, but apart from abiding in Christ, he'll give forth a struggle here and there, now and then, but nothing will seem to change for the better.
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He may even become critical toward others he once admired and emulated. In short, the life that is in Christ alone begins to fade and grows faint.
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It is a common action that our Lord takes in such cases to confront that wayward one, perhaps through some great trial or calamity which serves to awaken and restore that one to his favorite fellowship.
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Life is much more pleasant, peaceful, to abide in him continually and enjoy the spiritual vigor and robust infusion of life that comes from one's connection with him.
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It's a lot better to abide in him than to have to recover that relationship, right?
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After we've defected due to our own failure, perhaps. Well, then lastly, we consider this fruitful life of the one who abides in Christ, verses five through eight.
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Jesus went on to say to his disciples, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for without me, you can do nothing.
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If anyone does not abide in me, he's cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned.
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If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, it shall be done for you. By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit so you will be my disciples.
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With Christ, a Christian can do much, bears much fruit. Apart from Christ, even a believer can do nothing.
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Without me, you can do nothing. This is the conclusion and application of the whole parable here in John 15.
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So long as we are separate from him, we bear no fruit that is good and acceptable to God for we are unable in ourselves to do anything good.
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You can know the Bible, you can know all the commandments, you can know all the principles and whatnot, but if you're not vitally connected with Christ, it's not going to bring you true fruit.
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It might lead you to think you are, but only
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Christ can truly bring forth fruit of righteousness within our thinking and within our lives.
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And so here we see that everything we are as Christians, everything we attempt as Christians, all things that we accomplish as Christians is due to Christ working in and through us.
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As one wrote, this is Ralph Robinson, I found this book online,
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Christ All and In All. I found it on eBay yesterday for 130 bucks.
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I had it already in digital though, you know, I was so close to pulling the trigger. I said, oh no, I've already got it.
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And each chapter talks about how Christ, you know, is a metaphor.
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Christ is the door, you know, and there's a chapter on Christ is the vine.
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And he wrote here in regard of the influential communications from him to the branches.
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This is that which is especially meant in this place. In other words, John 15, believers are compared to branches,
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Christ to the vine. As the vine does communicate sap and nourishment to the branches, so does
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Christ communicate spiritual sap and nourishment to believers. All the church's springs are in Christ.
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Psalm 87, seven, believers have nothing, but what comes from him. Believers can do nothing that is good, but by assistance from him.
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He is the strength of their strength, the wisdom of their wisdom. God has put all their stock and portion in his hands.
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They have their dependence on him. They have all their supply from him. And this is what that, which is laid down in verse five of this chapter, without me or rather severed from me, ye can do nothing.
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So again, the Bible is a book of instruction. It should be our desire and delight to attempt to keep every preset.
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We pray to the Lord, you know, give me understanding. I shall keep your law. Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart, but we are in a far more need than just instruction to direct and guide us in the course of faith and obedience.
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Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. We're in need of being in close fellowship with our savior for in our connection to him is spiritual life received, developed and enriched.
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Paul certainly understood this and proclaimed it. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.
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And then our statement of faith talks about good works and how this is done by us as Christians.
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Their ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the spirit of Christ that they may be enabled there unto only through our connection or a vital connection and fellowship with Christ do we have ability, power, motivation to infuse us to live the
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Christian life. I like what Charles Spurgeon wrote as we wrap things up here.
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It was based on put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its loss.
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He's talking to Christians. Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is find in Jesus your strength.
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Although you are saved and are quickened by the Holy Spirit so as to be a living child of the living God, yet you have no strength or heavenly duty except as you receive it from above.
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Go to Jesus for power. I charge you never say I shall do the right because I have resolved to do it.
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I am a man of strong mind. I am determined to resist this evil and I know I shall not yield.
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I've made up my mind. There's no fear of my turning aside. Brother, if you rely upon yourself in that way, you will soon prove to be a broken reed.
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Failure follows at the heel of self -confidence. Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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I charge you do not rely upon what you have acquired in the past. Say not in your heart,
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I am a man of experience and therefore I can resist temptation which would crush the younger and greener folk.
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I have now spent so many years in persistent well -doing that I may reckon myself out of danger.
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It's likely that I should ever be led astray. Oh sir, it's more than likely. It's a fact already.
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The moment that a man declares he cannot fall, he's already fallen from sobriety and humility. Your head is turned my brother or you would not talk of your inward perfection.
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And when the head turns, the feet are not very safe. Inward conceit is the mother of open sin.
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Make Christ your strength and not yourself nor your acquirements or experiences. Put you on the
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Lord Jesus Christ day by day and make not the rags of yesterday to be the raiment of the future.
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Get fresh grace. Say with David, all my fresh springs are in you. Get all your power for holiness and usefulness from Jesus and from him alone.
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Surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Rely not on resolves, pledges, methods, prayers.
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Lean on Jesus only as the strength of your life. We're to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And then the Lord gave this warning. If anyone does not abide in me, he's cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned.
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If we had time, we could go back in those Old Testament passages about the corrupt vine. Fire is its destiny, isn't it?
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And just about in every one of those passages we read. I was reminded of John the Baptist. He didn't speak about a vine bringing forth fruit, but he spoke about trees needing to bring forth fruit.
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Every tree, he's talking about individual responsibility. Every tree that bears not fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
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And here Jesus is saying the same thing. You know, any branch that's not bearing fruit, cut down and thrown in the fire.
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He's no Christian that is not bearing fruit. You know, righteousness, true
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Christian spirit, true Christian life. On the other hand, verse seven, the promise, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it should be done for you.
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Anything you need to live the Christian life, any degree of enablement and power and counsel and wisdom, it'll come your way because you're abiding in Christ.
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And then the passage concludes with this word in verse eight. By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so you will be my disciples.
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Only a disciple in the Bible is a true Christian and a disciple by definition is one who is fruit bearing.
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That is, gives forth in his or her life a fruit of righteousness. Right thinking, good thinking, right spirit, dependence upon Christ, a humility, a godliness, a desire even when that person is being plagued and troubled with sin.
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We're connected with Christ and we're his disciples and we show forth through Christ's disciples by bearing fruit of righteousness that Christ alone produces within us as we rely upon him.
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Very basic here, is it not? John 15, but it's something that we all need to take to heart and keep before our minds continually.
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Quickest way to fall is self -confidence. We have to have confidence in our
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Lord, let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you, Father, clarity and the simplicity of the words of the
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Lord Jesus before us. And we ask our God that you would help us to abide in your son.
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We thank you, our Father, that you're the vidresser and that you're accomplishing this good work in us through your son.
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Help us, our God, to be responsive. We pray to your word and to him.