Abide in the Vine — Phil Beach Jr.

Okay. Father, we thank You so much for Your presence. We thank You for the Holy Spirit. We thank You for the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hearts are filled with gratefulness. Our hearts are filled with gratitude.

Our hearts are filled with thanksgiving as we grow in our capacity to see Your beauty, Your goodness, Your plan, Your awesome and unchanging ways. And so, Father, we pray that this morning You would now help us, Lord, as we look into Your Word.

Take the Word of God, Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit and impart life. Impart that life, Lord, that comes to us through the very power of Jesus Christ. Help us to see, Lord, more and more. And in our seeing, Lord, help us to be changed and transformed and break any shackle and any bondage and any chain that is binding our spirits from fully participating in the divine nature that You have provided us through the new birth.

And so we pray, God, that You'll do this and we look to You to perform the work, Father. In Jesus' name, Amen. We're going to begin by reading in John chapter 15. In John chapter 15, we're going to go to several Scriptures, but we're going to begin in John chapter 15.

Jesus’ Teaching in John 15 and the Ephesian Church

And we're going to look at John 15 and just read down several verses, ok? Now, as we read John chapter 15, we're reading the words of Jesus Christ. And in John chapter 13, the latter part, all the way through to the end of John chapter 17, Jesus is bringing a very important message, firstly to His disciples, but secondly, the message carries over to everyone who will ever read this account that John wrote.

Most believe that John wrote this account while in Ephesus, the book of John, and also the three epistles. John the Beloved was in Ephesus most likely at the time of his death, somewhere around 100 A .D.

John lived several decades longer than Paul did. And so, it's very likely that John was able to read many, if not all, of the epistles that Paul had written. Since Paul died somewhere around 62 A .D., and John continued to live on through until about 100 A .D.

And John was one of the ministering members in the church in Ephesus during his older years. And also, Paul had a significant ministry that he brought to the church in Ephesus. As we know, in the book of Acts, Paul visited the city of Ephesus, and a mighty work of God was birthed in the city of Ephesus through Paul and those that were laboring with him.

So significant was the work in Ephesus, you remember, that the Lord created such miracles in the hearts of the Ephesian believers that they turned from serving the goddess Diana. And Diana was a god that people worshipped, and there was all kinds of immorality that went on in this worship.

They were under the mistaken belief, the Ephesians, but also they cried out that Diana was worshipped by all the world. So the whole Roman world fell prey to this lying deception. And Diana was a false god, and it was the belief of the people that she was the one who gave power to prosper in their crops.

Back then, agriculture was a very, very important part of their life. And if the weather was nice and they had crops, then they were prospering. They prospered in selling and trading their crops, and if the weather was bad, they couldn't prosper.

So, therefore, people were prone to look to some false god who they believed had power to control the weather. And so what they did is they tried to please their god, Diana. And they tried to please her by creating a whole system of worship in the temple.

Not the Jewish temple, but a heathen temple. And they tried to please this god by immoral acts. And in doing this, they believed that Diana would be pleased and she would bring prosperous weather. And in bringing prosperous weather, then their crops would be good and that they would be able to sell their crops and they would be able to make a living.

And what happened was, the men got together in the city and they said, well, people really love this goddess Diana, but the actual statue of goddess Diana in the temple was a huge statue. Very huge. It was probably huger than this room.

And they recognized that there was a market. They needed to somehow take this huge statue and reduce her to a pocket-sized statue so that people, after they worship her in the temple, can take her home in a statue form and worship her while they're out shopping or worship her in their home.

So what they did is they created a small version of this goddess Diana and the whole city went wild and purchased these statues of Diana and it was a little miniature. And so when Paul came to Ephesus and he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, these Ephesian believers were turning from the false god Diana.

And there was such a radical change in their lives and in their priorities and the eyes of their heart were opened. And there was such a renouncement of the evil, immoral, corrupt behavior that they were engaged in before they come to know the Lord Jesus Christ that the city began to feel it financially in this way.

The believers stopped worshiping Diana. Not only did they stop worshiping Diana, they stopped purchasing the little statutes that the merchants had created which was making them, according to their own testimony, very wealthy.

And so when Christianity came in its infancy, those who embraced it experienced radical changes in their life. They made a complete break. One hundred percent break from everything that was not according to the truth of God's Word.

They were taught from the apostles who were taught from who? The Lord Jesus Christ Himself. That God is light. God is light. And in Him there is no darkness. And to embrace Christ as the light of the world, but not just the light of the world, but Christ is the very representation, the very image of God Himself.

To embrace Christ is to embrace the light of God. Now when the Bible says that God is light, it doesn't mean physical, although God can manifest Himself with a physical light if He wants to. But light is indicative or represents, listen carefully, the moral character and excellence of God's person.

God is light. That is, God is morally perfect. And in Him there is no darkness. In God there is nothing contrary to His moral excellence. He's altogether pure, altogether right, altogether holy. There is nothing in God that is crooked.

There's nothing in God that is dark. There's nothing in God that is devious. There's nothing in God that would, in any shape or form, point toward what is in the devil. You see, God and the devil are the opposites.

What is in God is not in the devil, and what is in the devil is not in God. God is light. Jesus said concerning the devil that he's the father of lies, and there is no truth in him. Everything he speaks is a lie.

And so when the Ephesian believers gathered around the Lord Jesus Christ, they gathered around a Christ who they saw, because they were properly taught by the apostles, who were properly taught by the Master Himself, the Lord Jesus, they gathered around a Christ, a living Christ, that was pure light.

There was no darkness in Him. This necessitated, when they became new creatures in Christ, this necessitated parting from, departing from, letting go, putting off, putting away, distancing themselves from every deed, every practice, every word, every engagement, every endeavor, every plan, every business proposition that they were in.

That had the slightest hint in it of darkness. That's what Christianity is. And so when John wrote this epistle, or this book of John, he most likely was in Ephesus. It was after Paul had already died.

The foundation had been laid. It was near the time when the book of Revelation was given to John. And John writes these words. And these words are connected to the true meaning of Christianity, the true understanding of Christianity.

Christianity as Christ Living in His Body

Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is not a movement that men get together and promote. Christianity is not a denomination. Christianity is not an organization. Christianity is not earthly. Christianity is heavenly.

Christianity is Christ. Christ and Christianity are one. Christianity is Jesus Christ living through the power of the Holy Spirit in redeemed human beings who have been cleansed by the blood, made new creatures in Christ Jesus, and now have become, by a supernatural act of God, the very body of Christ Himself.

Christianity is a living thing. It's a living expression of Christ Himself. If Christianity becomes something other than Christ, pursuing Him, knowing Him, loving Him, expressing through the power of the Holy Spirit in ever-increasing measure who He is and what He is in and through our lives, if it becomes something other than that, then we're falling into error.

And so when John wrote John 14, the latter part of 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, the Holy Spirit was unveiling to John for you and I, the revelation of what Christianity is all about. And so when we read 15 here, we're not just reading an interesting story.

We're reading a spiritual reality that the Holy Spirit wants to reignite into our hearts. He wants us to see this is what Christianity is, what we're about to read. And if we get this revelation, as Brian was reading in Colossians 1, brothers and sisters, it is a life-changing revelation.

It is a life-altering revelation. It is a revelation of the Son of God. It's all about Jesus Christ. And as you see Jesus Christ and who He is, not only to God the Father, but who He is in you and to you and through you, the very power and presence of Jesus Christ is in that revelation to transform you, to free you.

There is no power in heaven, no power in earth, no power under the earth that is able to defeat or destroy or undo the power of Jesus Christ. Remember what He said on the cross? It is finished. It is finished.

That is, the debt has been paid in full. When Jesus hung on the cross, He said, Father, forgive them. He demonstrated the perfection of His lamb nature. He demonstrated the depths of God's heart towards humanity.

Forgive them. Forgive them. But then He said, It is finished. That is, God, you are able now to do what you planned to do from eternity past. Dying on Calvary was the redemption necessary in order to loose us from our sins, to qualify us to come back to God the Father so God could accomplish His original intention for you and I.

Humanity’s Calling to Display God’s Glory

The original intention of God to display, listen carefully, the original intention of God. And when we see this, our souls grow in their capacity to hate and loathe the world and the things in the world and what the world is doing.

Because God's purpose, God's intention in everything that He does is to reveal who He is. He does it in creation. All you have to do is get up one night at three in the morning and if it's a cloudless sky, you look up and you see the stars in the sky and if you're in a dark area and there's no city lights, I can remember many times going to work in the morning at three o 'clock in the morning.

What an ungodly hour to go to work, huh? Three o 'clock, 3 .15 in the morning. But I would see shooting stars go through the air and as I would see these stars, tears would roll down my eyes and I'd say, glory to God!

What an awesome God we serve. What a majestic God we serve. So creation reveals the glory of God. The universe reveals the glory of God. The birds in the air reveal the glory of God. Everything God has done reveals His glory.

However, He has reserved a special mission for man. Man reveals the glory of God in a way that no other created being can. Did you know that? Did you know that? Every one of us here today are called by God to do something that no other created being can do.

No other created being can do it. As glorious and majestic as the angels are, as Gabriel, the angel that stands for the sake of Israel. Every time you see Israel in the Bible and an angel appears, who is it?

Michael, I'm sorry. It's Michael. Gabriel is the one who announces what? He announces the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the angel that comes and announces the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. But listen carefully.

As wonderful as these created beings are, there is a special calling, a special plan that God has for mankind. And that special calling and special plan for you and I relates exclusively to God's passion to do something.

God's passion, because He's God, is that He wants to make known to all the created universe and all created things, He wants to make known the splendor, the excellence, the supremacy, the moral beauty of who He is.

And so the calling that we have as human beings is this. But because of the fall, that calling was ruined. Man is not making much of God. He's making much of who? Himself. Not only does man make much of himself, but he mocks God.

He denies God. He denies God in word and deed. He curses God. He makes accusations that to believe in God is foolish. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the creature lifting his fist to the Creator and saying, you don't exist?

And then you see that you and I are in that group who have lifted our fist at one time and mocked God. And then you recognize the beauty and compassion of Jesus Christ. And so God sent His Son. And we learned this last week.

God's purpose by revelation was given to Paul in Ephesians. And the revelation that God gave Paul was before the world was created. Before anything was created, God's purpose is that He would have a family just like His only begotten Son who was with Him from all eternity.

The Son was always in the bosom of the Father. And there's numerous Scriptures that reveal to us that the Father and the Son together with the Spirit enjoyed intimate, lovely fellowship one with another.

But it was God's heart from the beginning not only to enjoy this fellowship that He had with His Son, but that He would have a family of sons. Brothers and sisters, please listen to the Spirit of God and the Word of God this morning.

God has called us in Christ not only to receive the forgiveness of sins as our dear brother read, not only to know that we've been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son, as wonderful as that is, as glorious as that is, as much as that could cause a song to arise in our hearts, that is not an end in itself, but that was the means to a greater end.

The greater end is now that we've been forgiven. Now that the sin debt has been canceled because of the perfect death of Jesus Christ, we can now enter into fellowship with Jesus Christ and begin to discover the real reason why we were created.

It's not about us. It's not about me. It's not about my name and making myself something. It's about God in His Son revealing the beauty of who He is and now the church. The church is the body of Christ.

And the church should be the what? The visible representation. The visible body of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth right now. Our calling, our calling to fellowship with Jesus Christ is in accord with God's eternal purpose to have a family.

And so everything, everything that God has done through His Son on Calvary, has this in view. That Jesus Christ might perfect in us His loveliness, His beauty, His moral excellence. And that leads us to John 15.

The True Vine and the Branches

You didn't think I was going to read it, did you? John 15. This is Jesus speaking right now. And in light of what we just learned from the Word of God, read it with new eyes. Read it with a new heart.

Oh, how amazing, how staggering this thought is. Jesus said, I am the true vine, the real vine, the genuine vine. I am the vine in whom in whom there is only reality. In whom, listen, in whom there is no falsehood.

Whenever you see the word true in the epistles, Paul uses the word true a lot. It is always a word demonstrating the quality of who God is or who Christ is. And with that, there is an emphasis of not only the quality of who He is, but the absence, the absence of that which is contrary to truth.

I am the true vine. Listen, and my Father is the husbandman. My Father is the vinekeeper. So God the Father is the great vinekeeper and Christ is the vine, the vineyard. Jesus is saying, I am the true vineyard.

What is a vineyard planted for? The pleasure of the vine owner. A vineyard is planted for the pleasure of the vine owner. It is great joy for a vine owner to go out and find nice, thick, fat, juicy, sweet grapes and to pick one off there and enjoy that.

I mean, that is awesome, isn't it? This is what the Holy Spirit is trying to put substance into this. This is a relationship now we are talking about. Jesus said, I am the vineyard. My Father is the vinekeeper.

He is the one who cares for the vineyard. Every branch in me that is continuously not bearing fruit is taken away. And every branch that is continuously bearing fruit, He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you abide, no more can you except you abide in me.

Now listen to verse 5. I am the vine. He said that in verse 1. But now He adds something very amazing. I am the vine and you are the branches. What is Christianity? What is church? What has God wanted to do from eternity past?

Right here it is. I am the vine and you are the branches. Now let's look at this for a few moments and let's ask ourselves some questions and let's pray that the Holy Spirit will give us the capacity to see by revelation of the Holy Spirit what the Word of God is teaching us right now.

Now, keep your finger there and go to Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1, beginning in verse 15. Everyone there? Ephesians 1, verse 15. Ready? Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

And so here we see Paul is praying for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. This is not a prayer for extra biblical revelation. This is not a prayer for extra special knowledge that nobody has.

This is a prayer simply that we would be given the capacity by God to see ever so clearly what has already been done, what has already been written, what has already been established through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That's what this prayer is all about. God would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Verse 18, The eyes of your heart, being enlightened or flooded with light, that you may know what is the hope of His calling.

The hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, now listen closely, and has put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church.

Now what is the church? Verse 23, which is what? His body, the church is His body. 1 Corinthians 6 says what? It says what? Know ye not that ye, plural, the church, know you not that ye are the temple of the living God and that God dwells in you by His Spirit?

You've been bought with a price. You are not your own. You are God's property. Do you treat your body or do you treat your brothers and sisters like they're your personal property? Do you treat your body as if you have the right over it to do with it what you want?

Or do you offer your body to the Lord acknowledging that your body together with all the other members of the body of Christ are members of Christ Himself? What was that? Members of who? Christ. We are members of Christ.

One new man, Paul said. Ephesians 2. One new man. Head and body. One man. What does it say? Which is His body? The what? The fullness of Him that filleth all and all. God has planned to take the body of Christ and make it the depository into which the fullness, the full divine nature, not deity, we are not gods.

We do not become gods. This is not partaking of the deity of Christ. It is partaking of the divine nature that was revealed in His human life. But the church is to be the depository through which the full expression of Jesus' divine nature is manifested in this lost and dying world.

So, when we go to John 15 and we read, I am the vine and you are the branches, we see what? Let me ask a few questions and let's just start answering them and start understanding here. Is the branch part of the vine or separate from the vine?

It's one. It's one organic plant. One organic plant. Now, without the branches, the vine couldn't do what? Without the branches, listen, without the branches, the vine could not express its fullness. The fullness of the vine is what comes out of the branches, correct?

So, what comes out of the branches is not something the branch is generating. It's not like the branch has this separate little generation power system here and the branch starts generating and the branch starts bringing forth fruit and then the branch says, hey vine, check this out.

Look at the fruit that I just bore and the vine goes, good job buddy. Encourage your other branches to somehow start generating. By the way, where did you get that power to generate? That's not what happens, is it?

What does the branch do when it starts bearing fruit? It humbles itself and says, oh my, look at the beautiful fruit of this vine being expressed through me because I'm part of the vine. The branch is part of the vine.

If you break the branch off and throw it aside, can that branch still keep bearing fruit? What happens to it? It dies. It dies. For without me you can do nothing. I wonder why Jesus said that. You know why?

Because it's really true. Because without Him, without the vital union of becoming one with the vine, that's what the new birth is. That's what the reception of the Holy Spirit is. When God saves you, you become part of the plant, Christ.

Now, in His person as the head and God, the man Christ Jesus, He remains distinct. He's separate. He will always be the man Jesus Christ that we fall down and worship because He's our God. He's our Creator.

However, while that is true, the other side of the coin is just as true and that is this. All that He is in life, all that He is in character, all that He is in nature, all that He is as far as the life that He has, He has given to whom?

Us. So that we can become an expression of who? The branches express what? The vine. And this is in line with God's eternal purpose. What was God's eternal purpose? He wants a family of sons. So how is He going to pull this off?

How is He going to have a family of sons? Well, if I want sons, I mean, if I want biologically, if I want a son that's got the same genes that I've got, I've got to what? I've got to have children. Well, God brought forth His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in the Lord Jesus Christ, God saw everything that ever pleased Him, that could ever please Him in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, as His Son, He pleased the Father. Matthew 3. This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Matthew 17. The Father said at the Mount of Transfiguration, This is My Son in whom I am pleased. Hear Him. Listen to what He has to say. So God over and over confirmed that when Jesus came, never did He ever see a man from Adam, and never will we ever see another man that pleased Him like His Son did.

So God stopped looking. When He saw His Son, He stopped looking for anyone to really please Him. Listen, He found someone. So He took His Son, and not only did His Son offer Himself as a sin offering, because remember, God had to deal with the sin problem, and because Christ was a perfect Savior, and He never sinned, He cancelled sin by dying for paying the penalty for what you and I deserve.

But that's not all. Not only did He do that, but He died, He rose again as a man, He walked around on earth as a man, 40 days later He ascended as a man, He was set down at the right hand of the throne of God as a glorified man.

He never stopped being God. He still is eternal God, but He's man too. Why? So now that man, that man in whom God is totally pleased, becomes the prototype, the pattern, out from which God will create a whole new race of people called who?

The church. The church. Where did God take Eve? From Adam's where? From Adam's rib, from part of Adam. Part of Adam. You see, God didn't form Eve from the earth, from the trees, from the ground, from the stars.

He went inside, listen, He took something outside of Adam. He took something from Adam and from that material, He formed Eve. And when Adam looked at Eve, he said, Wow, woman, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, my counterpart.

When Adam looked at Eve, he said, She's different than me, but she's the same. She's different. She's a woman. I'm a man, but she's made from the same stuff I'm made of. And when God said, I'm going to create a family of sons, just like my son, He had in mind, His only begotten son coming as a man and then being glorified as a man, sending the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Spirit, in the new birth, in that miracle of new birth, there is a miracle that takes place in regeneration and the miracle is, Romans chapter 6, we become one plant with the vine.

We become one with Him organically. That is, the life and nature that He has as a glorified man is imparted to the believer. Why? So that that believer, from that moment on, can fix their eyes on Jesus Christ and grow up into salvation, into full maturity, which is all that He is in His excellent moral beauty being made known through the body of Christ, the splendor of His majesty.

I am the vine. My Father takes care of this plant and you are the branches. I love you so much that I have incorporated you through a creative miracle into my life, into my humanity and now we're one.

You've been divorced from being in union with sin. You've been divorced from being in union with self. You've been divorced from being in union with the world. You've been divorced from being in union with following your sinful desires.

You've been divorced. God broke it and has supernaturally united your spirit to God's spirit. 1 Corinthians 6 He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. This is the power of the gospel. This is what the Ephesians got a hold of, Norman.

This is why their lives were so radically transformed. This is why the whole city shook. This is why people mobbed around Paul and wanted to stone him. They weren't preaching some dead religion. They weren't preaching some legal system.

Hi, I'm Paul. I'm a great teacher. Come and revolve around me and I'll teach you how to live. No! Paul said, When we can, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus and Him crucified. When the apostles showed up in a city, men saw earthen vessels through whom the great treasure was being seen.

And that's the way God wants it for you and I. We are a living church. Christ is our life. Listen, all that God has made Christ to be is for us now. Righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, redemption. Let's close by turning to 2 Peter.

Partaking of the Divine Nature

This is Christianity, beloved. This is it. The Word of God. Christianity. God giving His Son a living church. 2 Peter 1. Verse number 3. 2 Peter 1. Verse number 3. According as His divine power. Now read it carefully.

This is the revelation of John 15. This is the revelation of Ephesians 1 and 2. This is the revelation of Colossians 1 and 3. This is the revelation of Galatians 6 and 5. This is it right here. There's only one revelation in the New Testament.

Watch this. According as His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue. Whereby, watch this, are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of what?

Of the divine nature. Right there it is in the Word of God. What does it mean to be partakers of the divine nature? It's so simple. It's not some deep mystical truth. Make it clear right now, up front, this does not mean we become God.

It doesn't mean that we become gods or that we partake of deity. The divine nature that it's talking about is the divine nature that was manifested in the humanity of Jesus Christ when He came as a man.

Partakers of divine nature is this. The branch is a partaker of what? The nature of the vine. So that when you look at the branch and you look at the vine, you don't see separate entities. You see what?

One organic plant. One organic plant. One organic plant. The same nature in the vine is the same nature in the branch. And that which is seen through the branch is an expression of the nature in the vine.

That's what this means. Partakers of the divine nature. Christ, the glorified head, the church on earth, through the mystical and supernatural union of the new birth, become one in spirit, one in nature.

Partakers of the divine nature. That means God-like character. God-like character. Divine nature. God-like character. Partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

How do you escape the corruption of the world? How do you escape the corruption that is even in your own flesh? How do you escape it? Abiding in Him. That's it, Eric. Jesus said, Abide in Me. I am light.

I am truth. John said in 1 John 3, If any man abide in Me, he will not practice sin. If any man abide in Me, he will not be seduced continuously by sin. Your way of escape from your flesh and from the devil and from the temptations of the world and from all the powers of the devil is Jesus.

Run to Him. And you know what? You don't have to go somewhere to find Him. It's not a geography thing. What God has done is not geography. Oh, if I can only get to Brazil. I know I can meet God in Brazil because they tell me God's moving in Brazil.

Or if I can only get here or there. Brothers and sisters, the new birth has united us to Christ. It's not geography. It's not a spatial thing. It's a spiritual thing. Now, now, Ephesians 2. And you who were dead in sins and trespasses, what does it say?

God has made you alive with Christ, raised you up with Christ, and has set you down together with Christ. That's where? Well, where has Christ sat down? At the right hand of the throne of God. Above all principality, above all power.

That includes the power of your flesh. That includes that sin that is tempting you right now. That sin. What is that sin right now that torments you? What's the sin that gets ahold of you every once in a while?

And you say, Oh God, this is a horrible thing. I've even yielded to it, God, and I feel so ashamed. Confess it to God. Find someone you can trust, your mother, your father, or a brother in the Lord. Tell them about your struggle.

But don't just stop there. Then run to Jesus, who has open arms to those who come to Him as sinners. And He'll not only forgive you, but He'll show you the secret of overcoming that sin. And that secret is, He is.