SPEAKER_01: This term was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: John 10 7.
SPEAKER_00: We read this up on the screen during one of the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: John 10 7, I am the gate for the sheep and I am the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: That's a little later on in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am the resurrection and the life in John 11, 25.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life in John 14, 6, again in the context of the upper room discourse.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, here, I am the true vine.
SPEAKER_00: There is tremendous significance in Jesus using this phrase, I am.
SPEAKER_00: We use this all the time to identify ourselves, right?
SPEAKER_00: I am a father.
SPEAKER_00: I am a husband.
SPEAKER_00: I am a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I am obnoxious sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Not all the time, but sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus uses this phrase not just merely as a careless or meaningless indicator of who he is or identifier of who he is, but rather it's his means of relating himself to the God of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: In Exodus chapter 3, verse 14, when Moses is in the desert of Midian carrying for some sheep.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not familiar with the story of Moses, Moses was an Israelite during the Egyptian oppression of the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: He was put in a basket to avoid to avoid murder at the hands of the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: His mother put him in a basket.
SPEAKER_00: He was found by an Egyptian princess and brought him up in this household of the Egyptian royalty.
SPEAKER_00: He murders a man out of anger who was, this man was abusing one of his fellow Israelites, and he he out of a fit of anger murdered someone, and so he's wanted for murder, and to escape that, he flees to this place called Midian, where he hopes to live out his life in obscurity, and yet God has different plans.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, we see the burning bush appear to Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses, if he was wanting to live life in obscurity, he shouldn't have done this, but he turns to the side and says, I will go see what this is.
SPEAKER_00: And he notices this bush that is being burned up, but it's not being consumed.
SPEAKER_00: It's burning, but the branches are still there.
SPEAKER_00: They're not burning up.
SPEAKER_00: And God speaks to Moses out of this bush and says, I have heard the oppression of my people, I have seen their affliction, and you're the guy who's going to go free them.
SPEAKER_00: Moses, who is not familiar with God, he grew up in the Egyptian household, and so he probably had some form of Egyptian worship in his background.
SPEAKER_00: He asks God and says, Who am I going to tell them?
SPEAKER_00: If you send me God, and they say, Okay, whose authority do you have to come and tell us that we're leaving and tell these Egyptians to let us go?
SPEAKER_00: Who is the one sending you?
SPEAKER_00: God tells Moses, I am who I am.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent you.
SPEAKER_00: God in the Old Testament identifies himself simply as I am.
SPEAKER_00: The meaning of this word, Hayah, and I'm probably saying that wrong, Jason will correct me tomorrow morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like a karate Hayah.
SPEAKER_00: It is Hayah that is translated I am, literally meaning self-existing.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the revered and proper name for God, Yahweh, in the Old Testament is derived from Hayah and is translated as the self-existent one.
SPEAKER_00: So when God says I am, he says, I self-exist.
SPEAKER_00: And when the Israelites identify with God in the most reverent way possible, they refer to him as the self-existent one.
SPEAKER_00: He is the God who simply is and will be.
SPEAKER_00: He's not dependent on anyone or anything.
SPEAKER_00: He always was before the beginning of time, and he always will be after time.
SPEAKER_00: He is and will be.
SPEAKER_00: There's no power in heaven or earth that can or will change that.
SPEAKER_00: In short, God is God and he will always be God.
SPEAKER_00: And so bringing this back to Jesus' identification of I am denotes his eternal self-existence.
SPEAKER_00: And this is important because oftentimes when I hear Christians speak of Jesus, we like to refer and relate to Jesus in a very personal way, his humanity, which is extremely important, but usually at the sake of his divinity.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is not merely a piece of our theology.
SPEAKER_00: His divinity, his godness is not a piece of our theology.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is our theology.
SPEAKER_00: This is what separates us from Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, and Jews, that Jesus Christ is God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is God, always has been, always will be.
SPEAKER_00: Not merely a piece of God or God like or an angelic being or a spokesperson for God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is God.
SPEAKER_00: He is the fullness of all that God is.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier on in John's gospel, John chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, John begins his gospel account of Jesus by saying, In the beginning was the word.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word Lagos used to communicate the self-expression of God.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, indicating separateness, and the word was God, indicating union.
SPEAKER_00: So the word was with God, but the word was also God.
SPEAKER_00: He was in the beginning with God.
SPEAKER_00: All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
SPEAKER_00: That's a bit of a tongue twister that gets me every time.
SPEAKER_00: In simple terms, if it doesn't exist, Jesus Christ didn't create it.
SPEAKER_00: If it's not there, he didn't make it.
SPEAKER_00: And if it is here, he did.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is the means by which everything came into existence.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a proof text against any other faith system that would say Jesus Christ is a created being because according to John's gospel, he can't self-create himself.
SPEAKER_00: You can't create yourself if you don't exist.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ was with God and he is God and He is the creator of all things.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 1.15.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Apostle Paul picking up on a similar theme.
SPEAKER_00: He says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
SPEAKER_00: Not firstborn in that he is the first created thing, but rather firstborn in his prominence and position.
SPEAKER_00: Just like a king and a firstborn son, that firstborn son is going to inherit all that the king has.
SPEAKER_00: He is the rightful ruler of the kingdom, second only to his father.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus Christ shares that position with God.
SPEAKER_00: He is the firstborn, the top, pre-eminent one of all creation.
SPEAKER_00: For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
SPEAKER_00: And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
SPEAKER_00: So he didn't just create everything, but he holds everything together at this moment.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are breathing at this moment because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You and I woke up this morning because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This world does not spin out of control right now, flinging us into the abyss of space, keeping us within the right distance to the sun, making sure the earth doesn't spin too fast.
SPEAKER_00: All of that is a work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Have I made the point yet that Jesus Christ is God?
SPEAKER_00: That's the point he's making by saying I am.
SPEAKER_00: He is.
SPEAKER_00: But before we get back to what Jesus says in our text, we need to make a note of a pattern that John has in his gospel with these I am statements.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus begins these I am statements, we see this pattern where his identity, he declares I am, and then connects his identity with the purpose of giving life to his people.
SPEAKER_00: Specifically.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's every single connection of an I am statement.
SPEAKER_00: So I am the bread of life in John 6.35.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, you have life there in that descriptor.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says, I'm the only one who can satisfy the longings of your soul and sustain you in a real lasting way.
SPEAKER_00: And he plainly states that.
SPEAKER_00: But then in the same teaching, in the same text, later on in verse 51, Jesus says, I'm the living bread that came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I am the bread of life, giving life to my people.
SPEAKER_00: Those who eat the bread will live forever.
SPEAKER_00: The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh, referring to the penalty of sin that he would pay on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He would give his life on the cross, and through that anyone who chooses to come to Jesus Christ in faith will have life.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am the light of the world in John 8, 12.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
SPEAKER_00: John 10, 9 through 10.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am the gate of the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And really, he actually says, I am the door, and what he's referring to as being a gate for the sheep to come into, a sheep pen.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and go in and out and find pasture.
SPEAKER_00: The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.
SPEAKER_00: I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Jesus being the door, giving life to his people.
SPEAKER_00: John 10, I am the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that doesn't seem necessarily like it's Jesus explicitly saying he's giving life to his people.
SPEAKER_00: It sounds like he's laying down his life for his people.
SPEAKER_00: But if you look at what Jesus says in the very next verse, he says, He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, when he sees a wolf, he's out of there.
SPEAKER_00: When he sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs.
SPEAKER_00: And the wolf snatches them up and scatters them.
SPEAKER_00: He hurts and kills the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: But the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep so that they may live.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I am the good shepherd giving life to his people.
SPEAKER_00: I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: John 11, 25 through 26.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus goes to Lazarus' tomb to raise her, and Mary and Martha are a bit of a mess because their dear brother has died.
SPEAKER_00: And they requested Jesus to come and heal him before his death.
SPEAKER_00: And when he shows up, Lazarus has been dead for several days now.
SPEAKER_00: And he says to Mary, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe this?
SPEAKER_00: Let me just stop right there and ask you that same question.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe this?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life?
SPEAKER_00: That if you believe in him, though you may die, you will live.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone who lives and believes in him shall never die.
SPEAKER_00: And then John 14, 6, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No one comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, we have here Jesus' statement that he is the true vine.
SPEAKER_00: And as we explore this, we're going to see how it relates to Jesus giving life to his people.
SPEAKER_00: Now, for all you farmers and amateur gardeners, I want to ask.
SPEAKER_00: You know who I'm talking to.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you a qu I am not a gardener, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I actually looked up one of the dearest memories of mine growing up, my grandma had this garden, this sprawling garden in her backyard.
SPEAKER_00: And I loved going to grandma's house because we would let ourselves into the garden.
SPEAKER_00: And she she cared for it and tended it.
SPEAKER_00: But when grandkids came over, she just let us have free rain.
SPEAKER_00: We had cherries, raspberries, strawberries, uh, these little things in a pod that were green that looked gross, and we could eat them, but uh.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then uh raspberries, and then and then finally at the very corner of grandma's garden was a grapevine.
SPEAKER_00: And I would have picked a lot more grapes if there weren't always bees buzzing around there, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But when it came time to pick the grapes, grandma would make some grape juice and some jam, and it was it was delicious.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I remember grandma's grapevine, and so a little while ago, I I proposed to my wife, hey, let's grow a grapevine.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that sound fun?
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean is, like, we'll plant it and you could take care of it, because I gotta go to work, but um, you know, but let's try it.
SPEAKER_00: And so looking into it, uh, planting a grapevine and taking care of it is a lot of work.
SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of work.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot that goes into establishing a grapevine, and and you don't even get to get fruit until like a couple years after you plant it.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what is that?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I want results now.
SPEAKER_00: All you farmers and amateur gardeners, let me ask you this: what does a vine do?
SPEAKER_00: What does a vine do?
SPEAKER_00: A vine, very simply, is the conduit of everything needed for a plant to produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: In this case, Jesus is referring to a grapevine when he says, I am the true vine.
SPEAKER_00: If you were to go to a vineyard and pick a cluster of grapes off a branch, it's only because that branch was connected to the vine and had a healthy connection to that vine.
SPEAKER_00: Clusters of grapes don't just randomly grow themselves completely disconnected from the vine.
SPEAKER_00: All the water and nutrients from the soil and the sun needed for a cluster of grapes to grow comes from a healthy union of a branch to a vine.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus first uses this gardening analogy to convey a significant truth about who he is and who God is.
SPEAKER_00: God, the Son, Jesus, is the vine.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he says, I am the true vine.
SPEAKER_00: And my father is the vine dresser.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus, notice, doesn't just say, I am a vine.
SPEAKER_00: Or I am vine-like.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's a divine joke in there somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: That one's free.
SPEAKER_00: This was an intentional adjective employed to reveal the foolishness of man's attempt at spiritual life as demonstrated specifically through the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, God frequently employs the figurative language of Israel being a vine in Psalm 80, 8 through 9, for example, recalling the history of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You brought a vine out of Egypt, you drove out the nations and planted it.
SPEAKER_00: You cleared the ground for it, it took deep root and filled the land.
SPEAKER_00: That's again referring to the nation of Israel, taking them out of the nation of Egypt, planting them in the land of Canaan, and growing into a nation.
SPEAKER_00: But then you have Isaiah 5, 1 through 7, who begins to recount that same history, but there's some negativity to it.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 5, 1 through 7, this is God saying, Let me sing for my beloved, my love song concerning his vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
SPEAKER_00: He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines.
SPEAKER_00: He built a watchtower in the midst of it so that people could keep a lookout for anyone trying to sneak in and take the produce.
SPEAKER_00: And he hewed out a wine vat in it so that the grapes could be immediately useful.
SPEAKER_00: And he looked for it to yield grapes.
SPEAKER_00: He planted this vineyard, he waited and waited, gave it everything it needed for protection and for usefulness, and then waited some more for it to produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: But what did it yield?
SPEAKER_00: It yielded wild grapes, rather sour grapes.
SPEAKER_00: Grapes that really weren't good for anything.
SPEAKER_00: They were sour to the taste.
SPEAKER_00: They really weren't used for wine-making or for eating.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't really good for anything.
SPEAKER_00: And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is an indictment on the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Judge between me and my vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: The vineyard that I cared for, that I built everything for, that I've done everything needed for, and yet they yielded wild grapes.
SPEAKER_00: Judge for me.
SPEAKER_00: What more was there for me to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
SPEAKER_00: When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
SPEAKER_00: And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured.
SPEAKER_00: I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
SPEAKER_00: I will make it a waste, it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briars and thorns shall grow up.
SPEAKER_00: I will also command the clouds that they rain rain no rain upon it.
SPEAKER_00: For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting.
SPEAKER_00: And he looked for justice.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what God was looking for in the produce of his people.
SPEAKER_00: He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed.
SPEAKER_00: For righteousness, but behold, outcry.
SPEAKER_00: God's people were unable to produce the spiritual life as God's vine under the old covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Though he was the gardener, though he was building everything for it, everything needed for it to thrive and succeed, his people were completely unable to be the conduit of spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: And this is an extremely important point of application for you and I.
SPEAKER_00: Because oftentimes we try to generate in ourselves what only Christ can provide.
SPEAKER_00: We try to generate spiritual life within us while not going to the vine, to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to just burst your bubble right now and say there is no life in you, no spiritual goodness, no spiritual life in any of us apart from Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He alone is the true vine.
SPEAKER_00: He's not merely a vine, he's not an option, he is the only option.
SPEAKER_00: He is the true vine, meaning that only he can provide authentic life for you both now and forever.
SPEAKER_00: There is no life apart from him.
SPEAKER_00: And brings us to the question: how do we know if we are connected to the vine?
SPEAKER_00: How do we know that we're producing the right kind of fruit, so to speak, using the language of the illustration, John 15, verse 2?
SPEAKER_00: Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: We have a few indicators as to whether or not we are connected to the vine and have that conduit of everything needed to produce spiritual life in us.
SPEAKER_00: We have several indicators.
SPEAKER_00: Very simply, it's not it's not uh cryptic language, it's not some secret or or mystical uh code that we have to decipher.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks actually quite quite plainly.
SPEAKER_00: Being connected to the vine means bearing fruit.
SPEAKER_00: That's the whole point.
SPEAKER_00: He says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Fruit is the common denominator in all these things.
SPEAKER_00: My working definition of bearing fruit, that's the branch connected to the vine bears fruit.
SPEAKER_00: My working definition for this, and maybe you've heard this if you've been raised in the church or you've hung around Christian people long enough, this definition of bearing fruit is simply the visual evidence of Christ's life in you.
SPEAKER_00: Fruit for a vineyard is the visual evidence that the branch is connected to the vine, correct?
SPEAKER_00: If you have an apple, like I'm not, like I said, I'm not a gardener, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know much about plants.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So when I see a tree that's supposed to be an apple tree, I don't know it's an apple tree simply by its structure or by the leaves.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's an apple tree because it has apples on it.
SPEAKER_00: Same thing with a grapevine or any other plant that produces fruit.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it is based off of what it produces.
SPEAKER_00: If this is true, then there will be undeniable visual evidence of the reality of the Christian connected to Christ, evident for the world to see.
SPEAKER_00: That's what fruit is.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 3, verse 7 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist is preaching and baptizing people in the wilderness, and some Pharisees and scribes, these were the religious.
SPEAKER_00: Religious leaders and rulers of the day.
SPEAKER_00: They show up to kind of see what's going on with John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: And when John the Baptist saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, checking out what's happening, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath of to come?
SPEAKER_00: Basically, who told you to come and get prepared for the Messiah's coming?
SPEAKER_00: Who told you that?
SPEAKER_00: Because I know you don't believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: I know you're not carrying whether or not he comes.
SPEAKER_00: So what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 6, verse 43 through 45.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, no good tree bears bad fruit, nor, again, does a bad tree bear good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: For each tree is known by its own fruit.
SPEAKER_00: For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, verse 45, I'm adding the therefore because it's implied here what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good.
SPEAKER_00: And the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil.
SPEAKER_00: For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
SPEAKER_00: So then Jesus connects our fruit, the fruit of our lives, with the words that we use.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 5, 16 through 21.
SPEAKER_00: You probably have this up in your, well, you don't have this part up in your house, not verses 16 through 21, because these are the works of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And we we forget the works of the flesh when we talk about the fruits of the spirit, right?
SPEAKER_00: The fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, on and on and on.
SPEAKER_00: I'll get there, don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't like repeating myself sometimes, even though I do it.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 5, 16 through 21, Paul is setting up the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But to set up the fruit of the spirit, he compares it with the works of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, he says, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: For these are opposed to each other.
SPEAKER_00: Your natural inclinations, your natural sinful desires are opposed to God's work in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, avoid the works of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
SPEAKER_00: Now, verse 19, the works of the flesh are evident.
SPEAKER_00: Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we don't have to worry about maybe idolatry in the way that we think of it, but it's anything that you put ahead of God in your life, anything that is worth all your time, efforts, energy, treasure, that is an idol.
SPEAKER_00: Enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, jealousy, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
SPEAKER_00: I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: These are the works of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And again, Paul presents these so that he may compare them to the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's not fruits of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This is actually singular fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's a singular word.
SPEAKER_00: And everything he lists in this is to show us that these are different aspects of the same fruit, the fruit of a Christian, the life of a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things, there is no law.
SPEAKER_00: And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, meaning if you are in Christ, your old sinful fleshly self has been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So no longer are you demonstrating the works of the flesh, you should be demonstrating and living by the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The consistent characteristic of bearing godly fruit in a person's life is that it reflects the character and nature of God while renouncing all that is natural to our sinful desires.
SPEAKER_00: It is the growth of righteousness and goodness in our lives and the withering of our pride.
SPEAKER_00: It is obedience to Christ and resistance to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: If a person is truly in Christ, then their lives will bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gives us another indication whether we are connected to Him in verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: The first indication is that we bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not all we do.
SPEAKER_00: Look again at verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Every branch bears fruit.
SPEAKER_00: That does bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: What's the second thing that happens?
SPEAKER_00: He prunes.
SPEAKER_00: He prunes that it may bear more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, when Jesus says this, would have been thinking of that painful action a gardener has to take as he cuts away at the vine.
SPEAKER_00: He takes apart, even parts that may even look healthy, cuts those pieces away from a branch.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that they might may bear more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And looking up how to care for a grapevine, you'll notice that one of the things they they tell you is to prune relentlessly.
SPEAKER_00: Just start cutting away, not aimlessly.
SPEAKER_00: There's intentionality to it.
SPEAKER_00: But it's meant to convey, don't be scared to prune away at it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the same with God.
SPEAKER_00: God prunes away at our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Not to punish us, not to make you feel pain, but so that you may bear more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: The eleven disciples, hearing this, would have thought about the intentional cutting away of certain parts of branches.
SPEAKER_00: And he's communicating to them that life connected to the vine is sometimes hard and painful, but it is so worth it.
SPEAKER_00: It is worth it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's for the purpose of growing us in godliness.
SPEAKER_00: That's the beautiful promise that every Christian who is in Christ possesses, that our pain and our suffering and our hardship and our agony is not meaningless.
SPEAKER_00: It has purpose.
SPEAKER_00: That purpose is God pruning you so that you may bear more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul writes this in Romans chapter 5, verses 1 through 5.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, made right before God, we have peace with him through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the being connected to the vine.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at what he says in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, not only do we rejoice being connected to the vine, but verse 3, we rejoice in our sufferings, our pain, our hardship.
SPEAKER_00: We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.
SPEAKER_00: Endurance produces character.
SPEAKER_00: Character produces hope.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, hope does not put us to shame.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
SPEAKER_00: When a Christian suffers or experiences hardship, pain, affliction, it is always God pruning you back.
SPEAKER_00: We can have confidence in him by removing those parts that are hindering your faith, those who are in Christ will eventually produce better, more fruit for him.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful promise.
SPEAKER_00: Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers of all time, aside from Jesus, and a personal hero of the faith to me, once said, Grace is given to keep us from sin, which is a great blessing.
SPEAKER_00: But what is the good of grace except it is in the time when the trial comes?
SPEAKER_00: Certainly the grace that will not stand in the hour of temptation or affliction, it is a very spurious sort of grace.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a grace that's going to last.
SPEAKER_00: And we had better get rid of it if we have it.
SPEAKER_00: When a godly woman's child dies, the infidel husband sees the mother's faith.
SPEAKER_00: When the ship goes down and is lost in the sea, the ungodly merchant understands the resignation of his fellow man.
SPEAKER_00: When pangs shoot through our body and ghastly death appears in view, people see the patience of the dying Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Our infirmities become the black velvet, which the diamond of God's love glitters all the more brightly.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God I can suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God I can be made the object of shame and contempt for, for in this way God shall be glorified, and in your life more fruit will be produced.
SPEAKER_00: God is glorified in you and through you when we suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Christ becomes big, we become small, his greatness is revealed, and our faith increases.
SPEAKER_00: What a beauty and joy it is to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: And I say that as someone who's not going through any present suffering right now, not nothing big.
SPEAKER_00: And it's easy to say it in these moments.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't negate the truth of this promise.
SPEAKER_00: There will be pain, there will be hurt, but we know the divine gardener is working away at our lives so that we can produce more fruit and he may get more glory in us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, so far, all that we've looked at with regards to being connected to Christ as a branch would be to a vine has been passive, meaning everything that happens, producing fruit and being pruned, that's all passive.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's stuff that happens to you, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's just the natural working of being connected to the vine, of being connected to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to come out of you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to choose whether or not you get pruned.
SPEAKER_00: God prunes you.
SPEAKER_00: God's the one who sends the pruning.
SPEAKER_00: But I want us to turn to something that Jesus brings up, that Jesus mentions, because there's an active role that you and I have in this whole equation.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus gives a command here: abide in me, and I in you.
SPEAKER_00: As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he says, I am the vine, you are the branches.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.
SPEAKER_00: For apart from me you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Again, you cannot bear fruit on your own.
SPEAKER_00: That's something that happens as you are connected to the vine.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.
SPEAKER_00: If you abide in me, my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
SPEAKER_00: By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
SPEAKER_00: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.
SPEAKER_00: Abide in my love.
SPEAKER_00: If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.
SPEAKER_00: As I read through this, you'll notice that I emphasized a particular word.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you a chance to let me know what that word is.
SPEAKER_00: Abide.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there we go.
SPEAKER_00: Good to know you're still awake sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: He commands us to abide in him.
SPEAKER_00: And actually, the fruitless life is a result of not abiding in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He compares the ability for a person to produce godliness in their lives to a branch that either does or doesn't abide in a vine.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us that if we abide in him, we can even have the confidence to go to God Himself and ask for anything that we want.
SPEAKER_00: And it's going to be done for us if we abide in the vine.
SPEAKER_00: Now that there's a catch to that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not really a catch, it's actually the consistency of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we don't get to go to God with all of our carnal desires and say, God, give me a bigger house, give me a nicer car, give me a bigger raise, give me toys, give me all these things.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he's talking about because the more you abide in the vine, the more you desire more of the vine's life.
SPEAKER_00: The more you abide in Christ, the more you want of Christ, the more you're going to go to God and ask for more of Christ in your life so that you can produce more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: And he assures us of his love and then commands us to abide in his love.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, he plainly explains that if we keep his commandments, we will abide in his love, just as he has kept the Father's commands and abide in the Father's love.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to abide?
SPEAKER_00: Some of your translations might say continue in or stay or remain.
SPEAKER_00: That's really what it means.
SPEAKER_00: There's no mystery to this word.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Greek word meno, and it literally means to stay, continue in, remain.
SPEAKER_00: It's the call of Christ to his people to not give in to the temptation to seek life outside of him.
SPEAKER_00: It's the call for tempt uh for contentment, believing that all that Christ has for you is sufficient, and therefore you have no need to seek satisfaction anywhere else.
SPEAKER_00: It's a faith that Christ is enough, which is why we seek to obey him completely and fold you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you this: is Christ enough for you?
SPEAKER_00: Is Christ enough for you?
SPEAKER_00: If everything you have was stripped away at this moment, no money, no home, you had to fight to get clothes, fight to get food.
SPEAKER_00: At the very, very lowest point in your life, would Christ be enough for you?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's the call to abide in him.
SPEAKER_00: Not to go after other things that are going to try and fill that void or try and give you life, but rather remaining in Christ, knowing that no matter what happens in this life, Jesus is enough.
SPEAKER_00: That's the call of abiding, of remaining in him.
SPEAKER_00: Question I had to ask myself in this.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus qualifies what it means to abide.
SPEAKER_00: Abiding in Christ means obeying his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: It means submitting myself to him.
SPEAKER_00: I had to ask myself, have I obeyed Christ completely and fully?
SPEAKER_00: Do I abide in his love by keeping his words?
SPEAKER_00: And if I'm honest, I don't have to think real hard about the areas that I haven't chosen to abide in Christ in.
SPEAKER_00: The hope, however, what seems like such a high standard, obeying Christ and His commands, the hope that we have is that there is grace and that we're still connected to the vine, the source of life.
SPEAKER_00: The areas that God is pruning in you are the areas that you and I choose not to abide in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If we're connected to him, then we see the fruit of godliness being produced in our lives and we seek to actively obey him.
SPEAKER_00: The areas that we fail in, the areas that we rebel in, are the areas that God is dealing with as you seek to obey him.
SPEAKER_00: Now remain in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Remain in him as he works through you.
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you when I was talking to Webb and Jason about this verse, and I expressed to Jason that I love this passage because it just gives me so much rest.
SPEAKER_00: It gives me so much rest.
SPEAKER_00: We try so hard to produce goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I try so hard to be a good dad, to be a good husband, to be a faithful pastor, to not be angry at people as they cut me off on the road.
SPEAKER_00: I try really hard.
SPEAKER_00: But all that is good is not going to come from me.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to come from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The object of my goal is simply to remain in him and let his life work through me.
SPEAKER_00: Not to go to myself or to anything else.
SPEAKER_00: Remain in.
SPEAKER_00: Obey Him.
SPEAKER_00: Submit to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Let Him have His way with me.
SPEAKER_00: As we look to close here.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's the first thing He mentions.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.
SPEAKER_00: And more clearly, he clarifies this in verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: He says, If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers.
SPEAKER_00: Cut off from all life, goes over there, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
SPEAKER_00: Many commentators will say that this is referring to apostate Christians, Christians who supposedly had come to Christ and yet turned away from him at some point.
SPEAKER_00: I would say that this warning here is not just for them, but also for you and I, if we are not in Christ right now.
SPEAKER_00: Friend, if you are here this morning and you are not in Christ, this is the warning for you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say this with as much care and compassion as possible.
SPEAKER_00: Those outside of Christ, within hearing of my voice right now, if you're not in Christ, meaning that you have not trusted in him for salvation and turn from your sin to the living God who saves people, you are a fruitless branch.
SPEAKER_00: You are a fruitless branch.
SPEAKER_00: And according to Jesus, the fruitless branches are thrown into the fire, which is a euphemism for this very real place called hell.
SPEAKER_00: Which I know Jesus is supposed to be meek and mild, and he's supposed to be kind of the one that everybody loves, but nobody talks about hell more than Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So many of his parables are filled with eternal implications, one of them being eternal torment in hell.
SPEAKER_00: Very real place.
SPEAKER_00: They're thrown into the fire.
SPEAKER_00: If you are removed from Christ, hear me now.
SPEAKER_00: This is your future.
SPEAKER_00: Also hear me right now that there is hope.
SPEAKER_00: Your future can be changed.
SPEAKER_00: Using the language of this illustration, it is never too late for a dry branch to be grafted to the living vine.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you this morning, you can at this moment confess your sins to God.
SPEAKER_00: Put your faith in Jesus Christ, who took your sin upon himself.
SPEAKER_00: He paid the penalty with his own life's blood on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: Experience the wrath of God poured out on him, buried your sin in a tomb, and left it there as he rose three days later.
SPEAKER_00: Give up your sin right now.
SPEAKER_00: Give it up right now at this moment and submit yourself to God who will joyfully accept you into his kingdom and family.
SPEAKER_00: And once you're there, abide in his love.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for your people here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that we will see you as the source of all that is good.
SPEAKER_00: See you as the source of the spiritual life we need.
SPEAKER_00: That we cannot produce goodliness or godliness or righteousness apart from you.
SPEAKER_00: We must be connected to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, I I pray for this call that you have placed here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: That we would know who you are, know who we are, and then abide in you, remain in you, connect to you.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to understand and to glorify you in our pain as we know that you are working all things together for the good of those who love you and are called according to your purpose.
SPEAKER_00: That you are divinely pruning away the areas of our life that are not going to be the most beneficial or fruitful to us.
SPEAKER_00: But what awaits us down the road is a harvest much greater than we could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for those souls here this morning, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Dry branches who are far from you, who face the very real reality of an eternity apart from you in a real place called hell.
SPEAKER_00: You are the God who saves.
SPEAKER_00: We know you can, we know you will.
SPEAKER_00: I ask you, Lord, to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Save those here today who are far from you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: May they turn to you in repentance and faith, give their lives to you, humbly submit themselves to you, and trust in you for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in Christ's name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.