John 15. Thank you for coming. We are continuing on with the I Am's of Christ. I've said many times that it's the reference to God the Father saying His name is I Am when He went to rescue the Jews from Egypt. So when Christ, thousands of years later, looks to this title of I Am, it wasn't lost on the Jews. They were very upset by this, even to the point of desiring to kill him for blasphemy. They knew what he was claiming when he said, I am. He went and said it many different ways, and we are currently, or compared himself to many different things. And this one we're dealing with now is, I am the true vine. Starting in verse one of chapter 15, we'll read through verse eight. I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes so that it may bear more fruit. Let me just stop for a second. We could just say, we could just take this one first part of the verse, I am the true vine, and just deal with that only, and it would probably be a bit more comfortable, but we would lose a lot of depth of scripture that comes after that, and so that's why we're reading and gonna discuss all the way through verse eight. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, He is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. All right, so, Some difficult things here to deal with. As you read this, you may get the feeling that you can lose your salvation. Last week, I spent the message going through, what I said was, if this were the only passage dealing with salvation, I probably would agree with you. But we have so much other scripture that brings a concreteness to your salvation once you are in Christ and have eternal life that it is impossible to conclude that an in-Christ state and a state of eternal life could be lost. But there's certainly something going on here that we need to figure out and we need to understand it because it's important. Let's just set the stage. I think we did last week a little bit or mentioned these same things. Judas had already left. This is the disciples and Judas has already left to go do, to betray Christ. We get this statement where he says in verse three, you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. So I take this as being that these are saved individuals, okay? That these are the saved group. Certainly Judas was not. And There's about to be a lot of turmoil, because Christ is gonna go to the cross, and going to leave them, be resurrected, strengthen them for 40 days, and then get the helper of the Holy Spirit, and go on to do some amazing testimony for Christ in the rest of the New Testament. but there's this warning here about this time in between. So he's preparing them for his subsequent departure for heaven, knowing that there would be some disturbance, and there was, in their hearts and in their resolve and understanding what was happening. And he gives them this lovely metaphor of a true vine as one of his encouragements. So last week we dealt with the concept of the loss of salvation, and then I spent maybe too much time reading Grace, some passages from Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, which is John Bunyan's book about his spiritual testimony that detailed his struggle with sin, his understanding of whether he was saved or not. It's a wonderful book, I highly recommend it. The title again is Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. by John Bunyan, B-U-N-Y-A-N, written in the early 1800s. If you write that title and put PDF after it into the Google search bar, you will find free copies that will pop up in PDF form, which is Adobe's form that looks like a book, and you can just flip pages and read it there. If you want a hard copy, I typed it into eBay and there are currently over 300 copies of this book on eBay for sale. So there you go. Grace Abounding and the Chief of Sinners, wonderful book from a Puritan who was concerned about holiness and his walk in a very convicting way, how serious he was about his walk and salvation and many other things. So, I want to deal just a little bit more with the last passage that we dealt with on eternal security, which is whether you can lose your salvation. So go to Romans 8. Romans 8.28. So we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God. I was trying to think of how to say this. I think it's going to come out pretty strong. I want it to be strong, but it shouldn't be as strong as it's about to come out. It should be a crime to only read that part of the verse and stop. Why? Because there's a lot of people that say, oh, I love God. I love God. So all things should work out great in my life. I would say you must keep reading to get a better definition of who it is who God causes all things to work together for good for. Here we go. To those who are called according to his purpose. So what is the true definition of the love of God? Someone who loves God. It's a little more than that, because there's people that would say they love God, but want nothing to do with Christ. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. Are you conformed to the image of His Son? That's Christ. Is He your Savior? Are you looking to Him? so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified. And these whom he justified, he also glorified." These are not people that casually create a God that they love, that isn't the God of Scripture, love that God, and then think their whole life is going to work out right. Do you see the problem there? The God that you have to love, we know from Scripture, is through Christ, His Son that He sent. Through Christ has some difficulty in saying, am I that person who has trusted Christ? Certainly the beginning of that trust, we find out here, is predestined. So God calls us. We would never choose God. No one of us would choose God without God touching us first. He also called, and these whom he called, he also glorified. These whom he justified, and these whom he justified, he glorified. So there is a progression that happens in the life of a believer that I don't want us to forget. This is the context of the verse with respect to can you lose your salvation. He's already established a pretty solid definition of one who loves God. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? Great point. The us is the important part. It's not a casual us. It is a very defined us. only those who have trusted Christ as their Savior. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? There's great blessing that comes from being in Christ. You are adopted as his child. We've seen some of these blessings in lists of things that come. If we are in Christ, then we say, who will bring a charge against God's elect? That's verse 33. What's really important there? It's God's elect. So it's saying this is a saved individual. It's not saying who will bring a charge against someone who just happens to think they're saved, okay? It's defining it very clearly as someone who is elect, okay? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Like no one is gonna have a condemnation of the elect that will stand. I saw him murder someone. the condemner might say. And Christ says, my son paid for that on the cross. Right? Really? Yes. Yes. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died. Yes, rather. rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us, meaning the evidence that Christ is with God and took on man's sin is evidence the sin has been taken care of. He couldn't have taken on sin, not covered it, and be in God's presence with some undealt with sin in his pockets, for a trite example, right? He couldn't have brought that in God's presence, it must have been, it had to have been dealt with. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? No one. Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? So we go through all these things that we read last week. But I wanted to bring in, it's very important to, the most important part of the question is not, can you lose your salvation? The most important part of the question is, are you saved? That's the real question, okay? So, with that, we're moving forward to the, let's move back to the John 15 verse. And we want to deal with a word that's an important word. In verse four, abide in me. I did my, hadn't done it for a while, but I did my look to the 1828 dictionary. Abide comes from the word abode, which gives you a great idea of what abide means. Okay, oh look, welcome into my humble abode, right? That's your house, your dwelling, okay? The abide comes from come underneath, come into, abide, stay here, stay in, right? Abide in the abode, okay? This being covered by a house, a dwelling. All right, so that's where it comes from. It means to continue, to dwell, to rest, to stand firm, to be stationary. First definition, to rest or dwell, so abide with me, you know, come and stay with me. To tarry or stay can be for a short time as well, where in Genesis 24, 55, we're not going to look there. He says, abide with me for a few days. So he's just saying, stay with me, and then he defines the period of time. or it can be used in Psalms, sorry, can be used as in Psalms 119.90 to continue permanently or in the same state to be firm and immovable. You could say, if I abide in Christ, it means I'm not moving from this Christ, okay? I'm not leaving, I'm abiding in, I'm staying. He's my rock, he's my fortress, okay? All right. Another definition in Webster's 1828, to remain or to continue. So all those are there, certainly in the context of John 15, he's saying, it's not for a short term, right? He's not saying, it'll be good, just a couple days, abide with me a couple days. No, abide with me, and then he goes into this description of what this abiding is like. Now verse three I think is saying that he's dealing with saved people. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you abide in me. All right, so what is he saying here? He's saying that I'm going to use a metaphor that all of you are going to know. If you're walking through your vineyard and you see a vine and you want to cut it off because it's going in the wrong direction or whatever, you chop it off and it is unable to sustain itself and produce any more grapes, any fruit, when it's unattached. So the thing here is is that he's saying, don't think you can leave the in Christ-ness of what we've attained so far and go out and do some good work, okay, under your own strength. It has to be in through me, through the power of the Holy Spirit, okay? It makes me think I want to jump to something I was going to save to the end, but it might be a good time. I'm always worried about my illustrations, because sometimes they're kind of trite. Obviously an illustration, there's always flaws in an illustration. But I had this thought of, what is something that's most like someone coming to Christ but not abiding in Christ? An example that I could give. And I thought of an absurd one, and so the absurdity is good in this case. I want you to think that you get invited to a wedding. And you go to this wedding, and it conducts itself as a normal wedding. There's nothing different about it, all up until the point All the vows are given, all the promises made, the songs and the prayers, all up to the point where the pastor says, I now pronounce you husband and wife. And as those words are uttered, the bride and the groom say, yes, we're married! Okay, that's a little strange. And then they shake hands, they turn, and they walk. They say, thanks for coming, everybody. And they walk off the stage. One gets in his pickup truck, and she gets into her car. They drive away. And you're like, what was that? What just happened? Maybe see him in town the next time. You're like, what's going on? We just always wanted to be married. Well, isn't married have a togetherness that follows? An abiding in that follows? Like that you might want to, walk together, eat together, and spend time, talk together. No, no, I just wanted to be married. Well, that's so strange. And so, obviously, quite a trite example. But the idea of something really serious, right, that that there's a profound misunderstanding of the event, right? A profound misunderstanding of what it actually is, right? Now, I certainly understand, you know, in my example, it really only works really well when they just leave right at the wedding, right? Because that's the most profound, like, I just, I got what I wanted out of it. What was that? To be married. Well, but are you really married? You didn't consummate the marriage. You don't care about the person. You violated all your vows. It's like, what? Right? Just real confusion to those observing, I would think. And that was my, this is what I think Christ is saying. He's saying, all right. You're with me now. Now you gotta abide with me. We're gonna walk together. We're gonna cry together. We're gonna study. We're gonna learn together. We're gonna figure out who each other are, right? Well, God knows who we are. We're gonna figure out who he is, right? We're gonna find problems that we're gonna have to work through. We're gonna chip off things that we don't like or God doesn't want in our lives. And the Holy Spirit's gonna do this process, okay? And what he's saying is is that In this chapter 15 verse is, I'm sorry, in these verses of the first part of chapter 15, it's in order for you to bear fruit, in order for this to produce something, okay, you're gonna have to abide with me past me leaving. If I leave and you all just disappear and go back to what you were doing before without any testimony, without any, Holy Spirit, without any work of the Lord, without any commitment to this, you know, it's nothing, okay? So, the best, and I'm gonna read this, the best explanation is that these warnings are directed towards professing Christians who appear, at least outwardly, to be connected to the vine. They are branches in the vicinity of the vine, but they are disconnected. Judas Iscariot, who is no longer there, is a good example of a false professor. The parable of the seed and the sower presents young plants that seem to start out well, but then wither away. The book of Hebrews with its many warning passages seem to be directed at those who have made an initial positive response to Jesus but are considering turning back. They're like the children of Israel who left in the exodus with Moses but then refused to enter the promised land. They started out on the journey but didn't complete it. Go to Matthew 7, 15. Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles are they. So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. So we have this passage that something went around for a while that Christians are to be fruit inspectors. Kind of cute, right? In our own lives first, right? Am I bearing fruit? Am I bearing some of the fruits of the spirit? Am I making progress in my Christian walk? He's saying, if you do not abide in me, you're not going to bear any fruit. And it gets really serious in the next passage. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of the father who is in heaven will enter. So he's saying these are, I'm just gonna tell ya kinda something that's gonna happen at the judgment. To the people that aren't bearing fruit, or are bearing bad fruit, if I use his parallel, many will say to me on that day, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles, And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. What's the most important part? Those three words, I never knew you, to be known. I find it interesting, in the Old Testament, to be one flesh with your wife was to know them, okay? So this knowledge, this knowing was a way of talking about the sexual consummation, right? Had not known her, okay? So the idea of becoming one flesh, okay, as a metaphor for an intimate relationship, right? And here God says, I don't know you. I don't know why this popped into my head. Has anybody heard of the Habsburgs, the Habsburg Empire? Went for like 500 years in Eastern Europe. There was a family who reigned Serbia and a huge area, Germany and a bunch of areas, the Habsburg Empire. They made lots of alliances through marriage and things. They were Roman Catholic. But there was something that happened at a Habsburg family funeral that I think is really neat. And they take the body, and they would knock on the door of the priest. And he would say, who's there? And the person on the outside would say, I have, and he would state his name. And he said, he is the king of this, and the prince of this, and the king of that. And he would go through all his titles. And the priest on the other side of the door would say, I don't know him. This is a king. And he would knock again. He said, who is it? And he would say, I'm so and so. And he would give his name. He would go through all his awards throughout his life. All these awards. I don't know him. They would knock a third time. He'd say, who is it? He'd state his name. He'd say, a poor sinner. The door would open to him. Now, I admire it that there was a message of salvation, let's say, not a complete one, but a message of salvation in this funeral for the Habsburg family. If you find out atrocities of the Habsburg Empire, I'm sure it was done over 500 years, but I thought that was kind of neat. To be known by God, okay, is the question. All right. I think, let's go to 1 John 2.19. We could call it the withered branch principle, let's say. They went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out, so that it would be shown that they were not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. Let me go a little bit further up. Let's go to 18. It is at the last hour, and just as it "'As you heard that Antichrist is coming, "'even now many Antichrists have appeared. "'From this we know that it is the last hour. "'They went out from us, but they were not really of us.'" Okay, so what's going on here? This is, comparing it to the John 15 passage, it's the withered branch, right? They were people who were there, and then they went out, we're gonna go do the work. They're like, well, You should stay with us if you're doing the work. No, no, we're going to go out and do this work. And they weren't doing it right. They didn't have the truth of God's Word. He's calling them antichrists. I think there's pastors that are fleecing large congregations throughout this country. saying they can heal as long as the money flows in. Terrible, terrible, ghastly testimonies claiming to be Christian. It's a very sad thing. Great documentary on it, American Gospel, was done several years ago. We're exporting this all over the world. We, meaning the United States, you know, we're supposed to be the bastion of Christianity. And the biggest of churches, they must be the ones that have it right, you know, 70,000 attendees. that have cars and jet planes and, you know, just excess stuff, and that are just fleecing the congregation, very much in a similar way that I read where Christ is dealing with the leaders of the Jews when he is there. And he says, you're fleecing them. You're a shepherd who like butchers the flock. And so here's these people. What my point is, is that people can be deceived and people know that and can use this position that I'm standing here and have as some sort of authority, right? I'm just like you digging through God's Word, right? But they use it as a position of authority to gain wealth, to gain, to pressure, to access to God through me kind of stuff, which is just horrific, right? I'm just using my imagination, but these people went out from us, they were not really of us. Abide, abide, right, comes to mind. For they'd been of us, they would have remained with us, meaning they wouldn't have left. They left because they were gonna go do something and say some things that weren't right and gain power, and he's calling them antichrists. For a while, both Peter and Judas seemed identical in their walk with Christ. Observationally, there was no hint. But Peter was attached to the divine, Judas wasn't. It wasn't that Judas was saved and lost his salvation, it was that Judas was never attached. The branch not only can't live, but certainly can't produce fruit. This is my favorite one because I think it's the most comforting. It's always a struggle. I know there's people that are saved that struggle with their salvation. That's a John Bunyan. And so for me to say here and put more pressure on you Question your salvation, right? I don't like to do that, but there's people that are maybe confident in their salvation But aren't saved So it's a balance here and that scripture does that balance right it's not my job I'm just bringing scripture before but I realized that those are Tried to cover both sides of it. But to me this one is the most comforting so I It's a diagnosis verse passage. So 2 Peter 1. This is great. We'll start in verse 1. We're going to read through verse 11. also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned." Oh my goodness, what a prophetic statement. And in their greed, they will exploit with false words, that's what I was just talking about, Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. That works with the other part of the message. a bondservant apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have received a faith of the same kind as yours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of our God. of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, and the true knowledge of him was called us, but by his own glory and excellence. For by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by loss. So this, I would say these are people, he's saying turn to Christ to escape the corruption in the world by loss. For by this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, Knowledge and in your knowledge self-control and in your self-control perseverance and in your perseverance godliness and in your godliness brotherly kindness and in your brotherly kindness love So I'm gonna stop there for a second. What he's saying is there's fruit that flows from turning to Christ there's fruit that flows from the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Now here's the comforting, should be, well, it's either comforting or convicting, because it's a diagnostic. For if these qualities, the ones that we just read, are yours, a piece of these qualities are yours, and increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, Be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you, for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. What is he saying? He's saying there's salvation. I pronounce you man and wife, right? And then there's something that flows from that. That's more difficult. More difficult than the pronunciation of man and wife, right? I'm going back to my trite example. You go home and you start to work things out and you learn to love this one that you've been given in marriage. and she learns about your little foibles and you learn about her little foibles and you wrestle through these things and in the same way that people come to a pastor or come to an elder or come to someone they respect and say, I'm just a new Christian, I'm reading in the Bible, what is this about? This is wild, I don't, okay, well, let's work through that, right? In that same way, that's evidence of your salvation, right? One of the things that are here is in your knowledge, you're looking for knowledge. Okay? A good start is to be in a Bible-believing congregation, right? To edify you, to ask questions about this word, to study it. Self-control. You have more self-control than you once had when you were an unbeliever? Okay? If you're an unbeliever and you have no self-control, not going to go well. If you're in a new marriage and you don't have self-control, not going to go well. Perseverance, so this is another important part of Christianity, is persevering, right? Not every day do you get up and want to do it, right? And then you're like, where else do I go? What else do I do, right? Like, this has changed my life and it's important. Okay, get back into it. Get a fresh drink from that crystal cool water of the well of Christ. And take a few more steps. So this is what that John 15 passage is about. I would put a big box around this passage because it calls everything together. It tells you the beginning, it tells you the continuation, it tells you the danger, and it gives you a diagnosis. Do you have some of these qualities? Are some of them increasing? I'm not saying every single day, right? Probably the diagnosis is not on a minute by minute level. But you might use the diagnosis on a monthly level, right? Am I increasing in my self-control? Am I increasing in my knowledge of God's word? Am I increasing in my kindness towards others? Am I increasing, and all these things, how are they coming to us? Through the vine, through the vine of Christ. We're not mustering up these things on our own. Right? We're not just reading the self-help book to be kinder. We have no basis for the kindness. The basis from the kindness is Christ dealt with us in the most kind way possible in giving us a Savior and forgiving us. So, I hope that helps. We're going to end there. Our Father, we thank You for, wow, the challenging parts of Your Word. that we are to be confident in our salvation, but yet also always looking to that we're performing and that we are working and growing just as a young child would grow as he takes on more food and learns and that we would be growing in you. We pray that we would stay close to the vine, that is Christ, and Abide in that we ask these things and pray for this congregation and the week that follows and all the difficulties that we will for sure face and That you would comfort our hearts and challenge us and just ask these things in Jesus name. Amen