(John) Fruit Bearing — Willie Mullan

John's Gospel, chapter 15, and we're just dealing with the first eight verses this evening. John 15, and we're going right through from 1 to 8. And I think it would be good for us to read it through, just eight verses.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cometh bare fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, thee if him bringeth forth much fruit, for without me he can do nothing.

If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned, if ye abide in me. And my words abide in you. Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Hearing is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples. Now I want you first of all to get the setting of where our Lord gave this wonderful discourse in John 15. You remember, for the past weeks we have been in the upper room with the Master.

What a wonderful time it has been. In John 13, as he taught from the great lesson of seat-washing, and then into John 14, as he proclaims his going away and coming again, as he talked to Thomas and put out some points for Philip, and then right down through that difficult portion of last week.

And when we came to the end of John 14 last week, the last verse, the Master said this,. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do arise, let us go hence.

And at the end of John 14, he is leaving the upper room. Somewhere along the pathway that led from the upper room to Gethsemane, somewhere along the pathway, he uttered these never-to-be-forgotten words of John 15.

Someone has said it may well have been as he passed the beautiful gates of the temple. And I believe that coming from the upper room, he would most surely pass the beautiful gates of the temple going to Gethsemane.

Someone has said he may have noticed the vine engraved on the gates, and took this for the subject. One can't be sure. But somewhere on the pathway from the upper room to Gethsemane, as they walked along, the Master gave this great message, I am the true vine, and ye are the branches.

The Setting and Audience of the Vine Discourse

Now, having set the scene where the message was proclaimed, we must be very careful about who he's talking to. That's also very important. When you're going to examine a subject, try to find the place, the person who's preaching, and then do, for any fix, find who he's preaching to.

That's very important. And he's preaching to the eleven apostles. Judas is gone. Judas went out in John 13, and the eleven followers, believers, are getting his message. That's very important. And unless you see that, you're going to get difficulty.

So you see where the stage is being set on the way to Gethsemane. The Master is the preacher, and the eleven followers, believers, apostles, are the foundations of the Church, the congregation that he's preaching to.

And in these eight wonderful verses, I want to point out five things for you this evening. First of all, I want to deal with the picture our Lord painted. I want to have a look at the vine, and then I want to have a look at the husband-man, then I want to have a look at the branches, and I want to have a good look at the fruits.

You see, we're going to deal first of all with the picture, the Master painted, the true vine, husband-man, the branches, the fruit. Then I shall take time to underline for the meeting the precept our Lord picked, because he said something here, that every believer must learn afresh every morning.

Christ’s Sufficiency and the Call to Dependence

I would say the first thing to learn when you open your eyes in the morning is this, that without Christ you can do nothing. The Master preached. You don't only need to learn it first thing in the morning, you need to remember it at every moment of the day.

And the Master preacher would need to remember it now. I'm old-fashioned enough, you know, I can pray and preach at the same time. I've been trained to do that. And as I preach, I pray. As I expound, I hold on.

Well, it's not I, you know, but Christ the Count. And this lesson, without me, you can do nothing. So that we shall take time to underline the precepts, our Lord, and then we shall come to the principle our Lord proclaimed.

I shall point out to you tonight that in seven and eight verses, in eight short, simple verses, you've got the word abide seven times. That's the perfect number. So that there would be no trouble finding the principle subject this evening.

Principle subject of the eight verses is this abiding life. And so we'll get into the abiding life this evening. And then having touched the principle our Lord proclaimed, I shall take time with the possibility our Lord presented.

Because he said in verse six, If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. And that's the possibility our Lord presented.

And then I shall finish with the production our Lord praised. He said, Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. You see, the life that bears much fruit is the life that glorifies God. And remember, the deep end is to glorify God.

And unless you're bearing much fruit, you just haven't got there, that's all. And so we have a tremendous theme in our hands just now. Let's have a look at this picture our Lord painted. Our chapter opens with those remarkable words, I am.

I wonder how many of you could go back in memory through John's gospel and pick out all the I am's. I could do it without any trouble at all. You remember that when in John chapter six, the great cloud came round and he tested Philip, when shall we buy bread?

You remember that he came out with this tremendous statement, I am the bread of life. You remember in John chapter nine, when the man who was blind from birth was before him, that he came out with this tremendous statement, I am the light of the world.

You remember in John chapter 11, when he stood before the grave of Lazarus, that he said, I am the resurrection and the life. That in John chapter 14, when Thomas is trying to find his way out of the fog, that he said, that Christ said, I am the way.

Let's go through this book very carefully, and you'll find the deep, dire, desperate need of any man or any cloud. And you'll find at the psychological moment Christ's answer. And here are his disciples, the seven of them.

And they've given their hearts to him. And they long to live for God. Answer still. When he said, I am the true vine, he's just placing before them the super sufficiency that in him to meet every need.

You're bound to know that the great I am can meet all needs. And the bread is their hunger. I am the light of your blind. I am the life of your dead. O friend, whatever the need, and if we need to live a spiritual life for the glory of God, Christ's the true vine.

I think that many of you will remember where we found the word true in his gospel. You see, I am the truth. Oh, many could quote that without me turning to it. Well, you remember that when John the Baptist appeared, you remember that he came as a witness of the light, capital L.

Not that light. That was, when it speaks of John the Baptist, it says, he was a burning and a shining, and the Greek word there should be lump, the burning and the shining lump. But Christ was the true light.

You remember that Moses gave all fathers bread from heaven? They ate manna in the wilderness. That was wonderful. But Christ said, I am. He brought them through the Red Sea and through the wilderness, and he brought them into the promised land, and the book says in the book of Psalms that he planted them in the land of wine, something to bring glory to his name.

But they failed, it says, the true vine. So that you're getting a picture of the super sufficiency that's in Christ to meet the need of saints and sinners for time and for eternity. What a lovely thing.

I am the true vine. Then he went on to say, my father is the husband man. You know, we mustn't buy that very quickly. You know, if the vine brings forth the picture of the super sufficiency of Christ, why, the husband man touches the expectancy of the father.

You know, when we look at the true vine of the father as the husband man, you know, God expected great things of Christ. Oh, he did. And Christ didn't fail him either. No, he finished the work that the father gave him to do.

But you know, God also expects great things of the branches. Yes, he's the husband man of the whole tree. Because there's a sufficiency provided to produce this ring. And so there's an expectancy here.

When we touch the branches, that brings in the possibility of the believer. Are you following me? The vine speaks of the sufficiency of Christ. The husband man speaks of the expectancy of the father. The branches speak of the possibility of the believer.

Ye are the branches. If you go down this wonderful discourse and have a look at the branches, it will teach you something. Watch this one. Verse 2. Every branch in me, of deris not fruti, take it away.

And again, many of the scholars have come in to reopen, and they believe that this would be a better rendering. Every branch in me, that no longer bereth fruit, he taketh away. I think that's dead on the Greek.

Kenneth West says so. Dr. Schiffle says so. Dr. Ironside says so. Arthur Pink says so. Dr. Brunger says so. But actually the phrase should be, every branch in me, that no longer bereth fruit, he taketh away.

That's the branch that has become barren. You know, we're not talking, there are no unbelievers here in this passage, you know, that he's talking to. He's talking to these branches that are around him.

Ye are the branches, and every branch in me, that no longer bereth fruit, my Father taketh away. Because the very words that's in me, would tell you that it's believers that he's talking to. That's a wonderful thing, you know, to be in Christ.

But you know, there's a difference between being in Christ and abiding in Christ. I hope you know that. Well, there's a vast difference. There are thousands in Christ, but there are quite a number out of the thousands not abiding in Christ.

That's exactly what he's teaching on the page just now. But you know, this is a very serious thing, because this is a branch that has become barren. This is a barren branch. Now, scholars are after which end about this word, he taketh away.

Actually, it could be translated by another phrase, he lifteth up from the earth, or he lifteth away from the earth, or he taketh away from the earth. Mind you, I believe this. I believe that we're at something that's taught in another part of the book.

That for a believer, there is a sin unto death. A very serious one. You know, I saw this once in life. I was saved 27 years ago, just a tramp on the roadside. And in the very week that I was saved, another young fellow was saved in Queen's University.

Oh, nobody would know him here, so I'll tell you his name. His name was James Kerr. And however James Kerr and I got together, I just couldn't tell you. But we became pals. And after a few months, we would go to the open-air meetings, and James Kerr could teach the gospel in those days like nobody I'd ever heard since.

And he was only a student. And we piled up, and he used to try to coach me to preach, but I wouldn't venture off. And we would sit in the prayer meeting, and he could pray. And he used to hit me with his elbow and say, pray, my.

But I never prayed, you know. But he was a great fellow. And I believe that he was one of God's really, truly gifted men, and would have done a great job for God. And we grew up spiritually together, and we walked the roads together, and we went out at night together, and we turned over things together, and we were baptized together, and all the rest of it.

After about 9 months, maybe 12 months, when I was beginning to preach, and he was a real preacher, a young worldly woman set her eyes on James Kerr, and she got him. Old elders at the meeting, and they were godly men, and I'm proud of them.

I know they went round and begged him not to go through with this. This will wreck your spiritual life.

And they brought God's word.

Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. But he got his teeth into something unlike Samson. He wasn't turning back. And he married her. And three months after he married her, he was laid on the broad of his back with TB of a certain kind.

It was called commonly galloping consumption, which actually means in the medical term, from the day you get the germ until the day you die, it's just exactly 12 weeks, and there can't be any more. When 10 weeks had gone, I went to see him.

I can remember going into the room. He's just bones now. There he is in the bed. I can see his white fingers over the end of the blanket. And he looked at me. He said, Willie, I'm going to die. I said, yes, you are.

He said, you know why I'm going to die?

He said, I turned my back on God. And he's taken me home.

And God took him home. He was taken away from the earth. He had become a barren branch.

You young folk, you'll not forget that.

If you become a barren branch, God will take you away. It's all full about with God, you know. Dr. Ryan said this to me once. He said, did you ever see that lad who's playing in the street? One wee fellow's rougher than the other, and he hits the wee fellow, and he comes to his mother's door and says, Mrs. Johnny Hitley.

What did Johnny hit you for? Nothing. She looked out and she said, Johnny, if you do that again, I'll bring you in. And she shut the door and went in. You know Johnny's not playing ten minutes till he hits another one.

And he comes to the door. Johnny hits back. He said, Johnny, now I've warned you. Shut the door. And he's out at the gate. John Morrow brings him in. And God will speak to you. And God will shout at you.

Between your teeth. You've become no use to God. Oh, forget that. Let's get on with this. Oh, that's the barren branch. Did you see that? Verse 2, every branch in me that beareth fruit no longer, he taketh away.

And every branch that beareth fruit, the barren branch, that's a bearing branch, isn't it? Purchase it. Now watch what for. That it may bring forth more fruit. Now remember that neither fruit nor more fruit is what is after.

Do you remember how the passage ended? Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. We're just looking at a branch that's bearing fruit. And the Father wants it to bear more fruit. But the idea is it must bear much fruit.

There's only bearing fruit now. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it. You know, this is a wonderful word. And it has got two senses to it. I know that many people run to the pruning idea.

That's purging in a sense, of course. But actually, you know, this is actual cleansing, this here. It's purging. You know, all the germs that would gather on the branch, they have to be washed off. It has to be purged.

And there's only one way for purging a believer. And that's through God's Word. When you talk about being cleansed again in the blood, has it lost its power? I wonder what you're talking about. You would think that, wouldn't you?

My, you've really let the power of the blood down, don't you? My dear friends, the blood that was shed on rugged blood-stained palm trees will never lose its power. Advocations for all eternity. What you need when you don't do what you should do is to get brought face-to-face with God's Words.

Because that's where you're going wrong. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, listen to, by taking heed thereto according to his words. And you folk that talk about sanctification so much, let me tell you what you'll be finding in John 17 when you come to it.

You'll find our Lord looking towards heaven and saying, Sanctify them, selfless acts, that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water. By the Word, please, by the Word. O lover, you sanctified folk are afraid of your life of getting baptized.

Well, it's your Lord. And it's the truth of this book. And if you would like to take me up on it, I'll lift all my butter in the lake again with the Word of God. Because I can just quote every verse in the book on believer's baptism without opening the Bible at all.

You test me, do you see? But some of you have taken. You weren't brought here for me to fiddle around with you. If you start to obey God and to bring forth fruit, money will teach you a whole lot more, that you may bring forth more fruit.

And to prove that I'm right, here's what Jesus said in the next verse. Now ye are clean through the Word. That's what purges you. Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you. It's the Word of God that cleanses the bearing branch, that it may bring forth more fruit.

And then, just let's pass on, you see, there is that blighted branch in verse six. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, the blighted branch. I'll keep that to expound it in a moment.

I'm only showing you the branches. You see, there is the barren branch that's taken away. There is the bearing branch that is purged. There is the blighted branch that is burned. But when you come to verse eight, you get the blighted branch.

Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. What branch art thou? Are you no longer bearing fruit? And your testimony being blighted? Are you just a bearing branch? You've got no fervor? God wants you to be a blessed branch.

These are much fruit. These are the branches. Now, remember this, that the vine brings forth the super-sufficiency of Christ, and the husbandman speaks of the expectancy of the Father, and the branches speak of the possibility of the believer, and the fruit speaks of the glory of life.

That's life indeed. You know, there is a life that's more abundant. And you know, when you're living, that your whole character glorifies God. Then, indeed, you're bearing fruit that's glorious. We'll get into that in a moment.

The Abiding Life: Trust and Obey

Now, that's the picture of the Lord's angels. Let's have a look at this precept. Verse four, Abide in me, and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me.

I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. Now, let's take what time here. When our Lord Jesus Christ looked at these eleven disciples and said, Without me ye can do nothing.

Is that nothing in the absolute sense? I can go over thirty pages backwards to Matthew chapter seven, and I'll get you this. When the door is shut, many shall stand without knocking, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, for in thy name we have eaten and drunk, and in thy name we have done many wonderful works of religious activity, but in God's sight are mounted to nothing.

But be careful. You see, you can do so much in the flesh that looks like real service for God, but at the end of the day, why Christ will say to so many, Depart, you never even knew me. Nowhere without Christ.

And they were doing a whole lot. You know, on that very street not so long ago I met a fellow when some of these great healing campaigns were going on, and he was all excited. He said to me, Mr. Mullins, I should meet you.

Tell me this. When a man's casting out devils every night, is he at the peak of his spiritual power? I said, he might be on his road to hell. Oh, that shook the labels, you know. It was nearly sacrilege, wasn't it, as far as he was concerned.

He said, you know, this is shocking. And this I said, well, have a look at this book in my pocket. So I brought it out, turned it over, made him read it. He really fainted on the street. He was very careful.

There's so much religion. Damned for all eternity. Damned by time. But he's talking to his own, and he's saying to them, Without me, ye can do nothing for the glory of God. Without Christ, ye can do nothing for the glory of God.

Only when Christ has got absolute control, and is flowing through the branch, will there be fruit produced at the other end for the glory of God. And without Christ flowing through, there'll be nothing for God.

B. Mayer said this, For Christ that cometh, it's hope that cometh. All your activity amounts to nothing for the glory of God. No wonder we need to learn the precept, Without me, ye can do nothing for the glory of God.

But let's come to the principle. Now, this abiding is the whole subject this evening. I've already pointed out to you that there is a difference between being in Christ and abiding in Christ. You see, in Christ, that means union.

The day that I trusted the Lord Jesus, I became united with Him, and that's for all eternity. That's union. Being in Christ is communion. It will glorify God. So we're not touching the union. We're just after the communion.

It's this word abiding. Now, he took a very wonderful illustration here, didn't he? He took the branches and the vine. I think that even the smallest boy here this evening would notice that in spring, summer, autumn, winter, the branch has to depend entirely, completely for all its sustenance on the vine.

And that brings in the word dependency. You see, that's just trust. That's all that is. That's just trust. You know, here's something I think that the young people ought to know. That the day that I stood in my rags and I trusted Christ, that was a net of faith.

And it brought me union with Christ forever. That was a net of faith. But when I talk about the branch depending on the vine, that is a massitude of faith. Massitude. Lord, now, yes, of course I am. And I'm trusting him to guide me through this message, right down to the last detail.

And I'm trusting him for so many things. I need words, I need wisdom, I need guidance, I need grace, I need power, I need blessing, I need answer. And I'm altogether depending on him. And that's how I live every day.

That's a matter to the faith. Doesn't the Bible say that we believers walk by faith? Do we? I hope you do. People always talk about the act of way back yonder, you know. There's a massitude tonight. I'm trusting him now.

Now, wait a minute. We need to get this disentangled a little bit more. You see that word abide? It's a lovely one. It's a Greek word. And it's translated by our English word abide. But, you know, that same Greek word is translated by many other English words.

Here's one, for instance. Look at 1 John. 1 John chapter 3. 1 John 3, and the way down the chapter there, at verse 24. 1 John chapter 3, verse 24. And he that keepeth Christ's commandments.

Dwelleth in him. See, the word dwelleth.

Well, it's the very same Greek word as the word that's rendered abide in John 15. But any small boy would know that to abide and to dwell is just the same thing, isn't it? Well, wherever you're abiding, you're dwelling.

You know that. Or just the same thing. But here's the difference here. That you've got to keep his commandments to dwell in him or abide in him. And when I have examined the Greek subject of abiding that makes your life produced to the glory of God, I bring it down in its simplicity to this.

It amounts to trust and obey. And the hymn writer was right when he said there's no other way. I've searched the Scripture through. I've come to it again and again. Don't tell me you can close your eyes in the bathroom and forevermore just be everything.

You've got to obey God's word.

That he can trample God's word under his feet and behold it as a liar. In worship with a God you disobey. There are two wings here. And one is trust. The other is obey. I'll tell you this. There needs to be more said about it than much.

It needs to be a continual trust. And it needs to be prompt obedience. That's what it is. And you'll never know what it means to abide in Christ if there's not a continual dependence on him for everything.

And if there's not a prompt obedience to his word you'll never experience it. You'll be in Christ all right. But you'll not be abiding in Christ. Now, that's the principle. You see, that's the practice of the abiding life.

That's trust and obeisance. Now, here's the promise. Let's get back to John 15. Here's the promise of the abiding life. This is the bit that thrills me. Watch this. We're down the chapter where Lord Jesus Christ is speaking.

And here's what he said down there at verse 5. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abides in me, and I in him, the same. It doesn't make a matter what your age is. It doesn't make a matter what your academic standards are.

It doesn't make a matter what school you went to. It doesn't make a matter whether you're no Greek or not. It doesn't make a matter where you are or where you come from or what you may be. Here's the Lord's Word, and it was good enough for me 25 years ago.

I can remember when I sat up in a little upstairs attic, and I reasoned all this out, and I chiseled it out, and I pulled it asunder.

And I heard the Lord saying,.

If you trust me continually, I'll obey thee promptly. You, for me, should be good enough for you, son. He's not asking you what college you went to. No, he's not asking you what degrees you've got. God took me from the ignoramuses that I see with the degrees.

He's not asking you what your academic standard is, or did you even pass the 11th muster, and you let them worry you. Listen to your Lord, man. Everything, for everything, is in Him, unless you obey Him.

Young preacher here, my son, your brain is full of much foolishness. That's the promise. You've got to practice, haven't you? Did you get the promise? Well, the promise is a good one. Now have a look at the power.

Prayer, Promise, and the Power of Abiding

See this one, verse 7. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. I say there's some power enough. That's the power. Did you hear it right, did you?

Ye shall ask what ye will. Many of you are living there. Many of you in the prayer meeting are living there. That's living in the place where God answers prayer. That's what that is. You say, mister, to be honest, I've prayed for things that would never happen.

Maybe you're not abiding, son. I think the best thing I can do with the text is to do what I once did with it. I owe so much to him, I have to refer after him. But he told of this. He said, you know, when I went through the Moody Memorial, he said, I found a young girl there, and she was a flame for God.

He said, I saw a young woman filled with the Holy Ghost and who was living for the Lord Jesus 24 hours every day. And after watching her life for nearly a couple of years, I began to see her easing off.

She didn't come to the meetings so much now. It wasn't at the prayer meeting, her voice wasn't heard. And then I heard little stories about her. I heard she was going through a certain downfall, and I heard that she had been to the picture house once or twice.

And I thought it was time that I went round and put my arm round her and had a wee chat to her. So I said, I dropped in one afternoon and I found her in the drawing room all alone. I said, Mary, you're not as bright as you used to be, you know.

She hung her head. He said, I've been hearing about you being through this downfall which belongs to the world. And I hear you go to these worldly sexual pictures too. She didn't used to do that. And he said she gathered some courage from somewhere.

She said, Pastor, I'm living my own life my own way and I don't want you to interfere. He said, well, you'll remember that I came round to talk to you. You know, my dear, if you belong to the Lord, he'll deal with you.

Good afternoon. He said just a few months later, her dear old father whom she loved was laid on his deathbed. And as she saw him suffer excruciating pain, she came to her senses. And then she went away and looked for her Bible that she hadn't had for so long.

And she opened it in the dark there. And then she came to this verse, ye shall ask what you will. And she got down on her knees and she held up her hands and she prayed the whole night through, pleading his promise for hour after hour after hour after hour and pleaded and pleaded and pleaded.

And when the morning came, her father was dead. She said, I went round and took the funeral and then after the funeral a few days I went to see her. I said, Mary, I've come to have another chat with you.

She said, you needn't trouble. I'm finished with God. But she opened her Bible and said, do you see that promise? Well, I just held on to that. And I knelt and she told him this whole story. She said, Mary, you were pleading a promise you had written.

It was like taking a check to the bank that wasn't in your name. She said, do you mean to tell me that you were abiding in Christ at the downfall? Do you mean to tell me that his words were abiding in you at the picture house?

The whole word is this, you know. Check is made out to a certain crowd of people. I don't know whether he or not made out to a certain crowd of people. He abided in me. His words abide in you. He shall ask what you will.

Then Mary, Mary started to weep. She said, oh dear, if I'd only lived on, if I'd only lived on, I could have saved my father's life. It was wise, you know. She said, you know, you're swinging the pendulum to the other side now.