 the urgent necessity of a fruitful abiding. We're gonna be looking at John chapter 15, verses one through eight, specifically here this morning, a good bit of time in verse one, and I am really looking forward to over the next several weeks, spending a little bit of time in this text. It's just a text that we're gonna need to take some time to look at. I pray that it's gonna be very edifying to my brothers and sisters. If you're not in Christ, I pray it will be extremely convicting to you, text by which, with the Lord's help, you will search your own heart and soul, but it is a glorious text of scripture. So now as we come to John chapter 15, it's Thursday night in Jerusalem, right? It's Passion Week. This is the last week of our Lord's earthly ministry. In fact, we are just a few short hours away from his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas has been exposed as a traitor, and events have been set in motion which will lead to the Lord's mock trial. They're gonna lead to the Lord scourging his crucifixion and eventually his death. In John chapters 13 and 14, he's gathered together with his disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem, and they're there to observe their last Passover meal together. It's a last supper, so to speak, bringing to close three years of ministry together. So he's been giving them, in these chapters, parting words, parting words, parting instruction, parting encouragement before he leaves them and returns to his father by means of the cross. Now this is an important time for these disciples. These are words that they need to hear. These are words that you and I need to hear. This is a section now of John's Gospel called the Farewell Discourse. The Farewell Discourse. And it's a time that the Lord takes to prepare them and to reassure them for all the difficulty that lies ahead. For the Christian life, they're going to live in his physical absence from them. They're gonna face difficult circumstances, but he has given them and given us glorious promises. And given these 11 disciples that remain as well as you and I today, glorious promises. Glorious promises given to all who will put their faith and trust in Christ. These are glorious promises that apply to all believers. Now remember with me for just a moment, a little of what the Lord has said that he on his part is going to do for them as he departs from them. If you remember, look at John chapter 14 verse two. And one of the things that the Lord says he will do for them, he says in my father's house, there are many mansions. And to tie this with our text today, if you remember that word for mansion there means abiding places, places where they can abide, right? In my father's house, there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go, the Lord says, to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'm gonna come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. Look at verse three. And what are verse 13? I'm sorry, drop down to verse 13. And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do that the father may be glorified in the sun. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it, the Lord says. Drop down to verse 16. The Lord also says that he's gonna pray to the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever. That's the spirit of truth. If you drop down to verse 26, he's also the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity. Look at chapter 14 verse 18. Christ himself says, I'm not gonna leave you orphans. I will come to you. Drop down to verse 23. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him. And we, the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, here specifically, father and son, we will come to him and make our home with him. Look at verse 27. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. If you think about these promises, now, as we've worked through John chapter 14, these are glorious promises. Glorious gifts. Just in the short time we've spent looking at John 14, I don't believe that we've done them the justice they deserve. Glorious promises. And oftentimes Christians are guilty of living like paupers and beggars because we don't lay hold of those glorious promises and depend upon God as we should. Now, these promises not just to these disciples in John 14, but to you and I, and to you and I to live the Christian life. These promises that are given, not merely mystical, right? Not nebulous, not indefinable or immaterial or unrealized wishes or hopes. These promises are realities, amen? If you've been living the Christian life for any length of time, you've seen the Spirit of God. You've experienced the Spirit of God working in your life to produce holiness, to produce peace, to help you in the battle with sin, right? To enable you to obey Christ. These gifts are experienced gifts. They're tangible, they're material, they're practical, they're treasures that are owned by the believer. So what a tremendous abundance, right? A tremendous lavish abundance of gifts that the Lord gives to genuine believers in their union with Christ. It is glorious. Now, in chapter 14, we've been given a glorious insight into what Christ has done for us having departed to the Father, preparing a place for us, sustaining us, manifesting himself to us, answering prayer, enabling and empowering us by the Holy Spirit, giving us peace with God and a peace that passes understanding in our circumstances, right? And in John 14, verse 31, the Lord and His 11 true disciples leave the upper room on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane. In chapter 14, verse 31, the Lord says, but that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do arise and let us go from here. Now, in John 15, as we come to John 15, verse one, it's night. It's night as they walk through the city, out an eastern gate, over the Brook Kidron, toward the Garden, the Garden of Confrontation, right? In their conversation as they walk, the Lord turns from what He has done for them and all of these glorious gifts given to them and He turns to now what they must do. He turns to what they must do. Considering the promises and gifts that He's just given them, He turns now from God's sovereign grace to the responsibility of man, beginning in John 15, verse one. I am the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ says, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, 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 bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit. And so you will be my disciples. I'm considering now in John chapter 15. The promises and blessings of God in Christ to every genuine believer through the gospel. We come to this premise statement that I wanna repeat and remember as we work through this text. It is the urgent necessity of every professing Christian. In fact, their highest priority must be to glorify God by bearing increasing fruit in union with Christ through a prayerful abiding in him. Let me repeat that statement. It is the urgent necessity of every professing Christian. In fact, their highest priority must be to glorify God by bearing increasing fruit in union with Christ through a prayerful abiding in him. This is a description of the Christian's life, the Christian's priority, the Christian's aim. Most professing Christians today are completely ignorant of the promises of God, completely ignorant of the guarantees of God given in the gospel. The sad reality behind that truth is the fact that a vast majority of professing Christians are not actually Christians at all. In large part, the reason for that are wicked false teachers who peddle a false peace with God through a damning false gospel. They're not preaching the gospel. They're not preaching the truth of God from the gospel, from God's word. Many come to Christ as a result of this and as a result of their own ignorance, they come to Christ over the wall, so to speak, rather than enter through the little narrow gate. They pray a prayer to receive Christ, right? Or they get baptized. Maybe they experience a guilty conscience at a church service one time, and so they walk an aisle, they say a prayer and they ask Jesus into their hearts. They have some experience, right? Some experience, some experience with a guilty conscience and to placate a guilty conscience, they do what they're told to do, walk this aisle, say this prayer. Listen, if you meet it in your heart, then you're genuinely saved. False gospel, false gospel, a false response to the gospel, a false understanding of conversion. None of that is a saving response to the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And in that understanding, in that response, what ends up happening is that they strip the gospel. They strip the truth of God from its supernatural power to change a life, to convert a soul. They strip the gospel of its power. Now, they believe themselves to be saved. Many of you know exactly what I'm talking about because you and I grew up in the same kind of churches, right? Have the same kinds of experiences. They believe themselves to be saved because someone told them that they were, or because they really wanted to believe it. They wanted to placate, ease their guilty conscience. And someone came along preaching peace, peace, when there was no peace, and they take it hook, line, and sinker. And as they take it, listen, no experience of actual regeneration, no experience of new birth, no God-given repentance, no godly sorrow and mourning over sin, no radical heart transformation, no hungering, no thirsting for righteousness, no war with sin ensues, no desire to share the gospel. Christ doesn't become to them exceedingly precious. Their affections aren't changed. Their desires aren't changed. There's no lasting perseverance in the faith. You follow them five years later. There may have been a moral transformation, but other than that, it's life as usual. They've stripped the gospel of its power. They believe themselves to be saved, but they are not saved. Now, that completely misunderstands conversion. Completely misunderstands biblical conversion. Their theology then, their theology gets filtered through bad experience, and they come to believe something false about conversion. They presumptuously claim assurance of their salvation with no fruit or no evidence of genuine conversion. An unbiblical view of conversion leads to an unbiblical view of the believer's union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Unbiblical view of conversion leads to a failure to understand these glorious promises, understand their workings in the Christian life. They fail to understand and grasp the promises of God given in the new covenant. Promises like those that we looked at in John 14 that are given to believers to help them live the Christian life. This person struggles along after a false conversion, not understanding or experiencing any of those promises. An unbiblical gospel, an unbiblical response to the gospel, an unbiblical view of conversion leads to false and fruitless so-called Christians packing the church today. Now, there are some of you here today who are struggling to live the Christian life, competing priorities, struggles. You take one step forward, only to slip two steps back. You're trying to put it all together, but it's a battle. You're struggling to live the Christian life. Maybe you're here today and you've regressed into a fruitless neglect, a fruitless neglect. You feel like a dead branch. Whether you're a brand new Christian, fresh out of the box, or whether you're a seasoned veteran, you've been a Christian for years, we all need to understand and apply John chapter 15 verses one through eight. We all need it. This is a concern of the Lord. And he's speaking in John chapter 15 verses one through eight to genuine Christians, the traitor has gone. These are the 11 remaining disciples and he tells these men, abide in me. We need this text. The alternative of not living in John 15 is to go to hell when you die. If you don't live in John 15, you will die and burn in hell for eternity. John 15 is a critical text for us to understand and apply. We need to know this. We need to apply it. We need to live it. Now John 15 forces us to consider the essential nature of a genuine Christians union with Christ. If you're concerned this morning with a state or condition of your soul, John 15 is going to call you to a biblical examination of the biblical evidence. Humble yourself to the word of God. Receive it with meekness. Understand what the Lord is saying here. You can't base assurance of your salvation on mere inclinations or impressions of a deceitful heart. Well, I feel like I love the Lord. And I had this experience 10 years ago and I'm still coming to church. No, no. Are you producing fruit? Are you producing fruit to the glory of God by abiding in your union with Christ? And many of you have been fruitful in your Christian life. John 15 is gonna challenge you to greater fruitfulness. There are dangers here. There are warnings here throughout that apply to every single person in this room. You and I both need to apply and hear what the Lord is saying in John 15. That leads us again to our premise statement. It is the urgent necessity of every professing Christian. In fact, their highest priority must be to glorify God by bearing increasing fruit in union with Christ through a prayerful abiding in him. Now to make this point as we get into the text, the Lord uses the metaphor. We're often visual learners. We tend to remember things that we see. The old phrase, right, a picture is worth 1,000 words. The Lord uses here a picture. It's a beautiful word picture of the vine and the branches, a fruitful, beautiful vine. It's a metaphor that the Lord is going to use to illustrate his point. It's a valuable teaching tool, right? It helps us to learn, helps us to think. So the first thing that we wanna do as we come to our text in verse one is to look at the various parts of the metaphor. In verses one and two, first on your notes, let's look at who's involved. Who is involved? In verse one, the Lord says, I am the true vine. And my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Now there are three subjects here with the picture. We wanna take our three subjects to this metaphor. The vine, the vine dresser, and the branches. Those are the three parties here, participants in this word picture that the Lord is using in John chapter 15. So let's take a look first at the vine. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I, literally in the Greek, I, I am the true vine. I want you to see three profound truths communicated by this one simple statement. There's more here than that, but we're gonna take a look at three, okay? The first truth that he's communicating by this statement is one, the deity of Christ, the deity of Christ. Here in verse one, this is the last of seven critical I am statements in the Gospel of John. If you remember, as we've worked through the Gospel of John and we've seen the other six, the Lord uses this Greek construction, very interesting Greek construction, ego, a, me, ego, a, me. And he uses it in specific contexts in the Gospel to communicate a specific truth. That truth is this, that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. That's the purpose of him using this Greek construction, this Greek statement, I, I am the true vine. The use of the phrase as we've studied before began with God back in Exodus chapter three, verse 14. Moses comes to the burning bush and Moses on behalf of the children of Israel asks God's name. So God responds to Moses, I am who I am. Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Now that, in a Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it's the same construction, ego, a, me, right? I am has sent me to you. So he goes on later in chapter three of Exodus there and the Lord says, this is my name forever. I am, God says, is my name forever. And this is my memorial to all generations. If you think about that name for a moment, I am, think about what that communicates to the children of Israel and here, the Jews in the first century and you'll see why the Lord uses it in the import of that. The first thing here is that it communicates that he is eternally existent. To say that I am, he is eternally existent. The Bible says that God has a life in himself and as we were working through the Gospel of John, we saw that God has granted that the Son should have life in himself. In other words, he was not created, he is always there. He is eternally existent. Has a life and being in himself. His life didn't derive from anyone or anything else. He is completely, as the theologians called it, independent, the Asaity, it's a character of God, a characteristic or a character attribute of God called Asaity, the Asaity of God. Means he's completely independent. His life doesn't count on you or I. His glory doesn't count on you or I. He's dependent on no one and nothing. He's completely independent, all right? Now Jesus Christ comes along. He's eternally existent. He has being and life in himself. He is independent, no dependence whatsoever on anyone or anything else. And then Jesus Christ comes along and uses the very same Greek construction, declaring himself to be the I am. Now for any normal man to say that and to say it in the way that God said it would be blasphemous. We know from scripture, again, as we've been working through the gospel, we know how the Jews of that day responded to him using that term, right? They responded to him how? They wanted to kill him. They wanted to kill him because they recognized it as blasphemy. Sounds odd to us. We don't necessarily understand it in our context. But here, Jesus Christ is communicating that he is the eternally existent I am. That would have been blasphemous. Blasphemous or just crazy, right? No one would have believed it from a normal man, but we all know what Jesus Christ is claiming here. He said elsewhere that I and my father are one. Incidentally, if you think about it, every time the Lord Jesus Christ called God his father, the Jews knew what he meant by that. To call God his father meant that he shared in essence with the father, making himself equal with God. If you remember in the text, again, the Jews picked up stones to kill him because he made himself equal with God. He said before Abraham was, what? I am, wow, right? He said I, I am the light of the world. No mere man can say that. It would be crazy or blasphemous. I, I am, Jesus Christ says, the bread of life. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I, I am here in John 15, the true vine. And my father, there he goes again, right? My father is the vine dresser. All of these are claims of deity. They're all claims that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. Now all of that coincides with John's purpose for writing his gospel. In John chapter 20, John tells you why he writes. He writes that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Now why is all that important? One reason that it's important is that in John chapter eight, verse 24, Lord says, if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins. You will die in your sins. In other words, if you do not believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, you will die in your sins and go to hell. It's not important. Someone might say, no, that's not fair. Who are you to answer back or reply back to God? If you do not believe, Jesus says that I am, you will die in your sins. You say, well, that's not fair. You answer in your ignorance. One of the profound truths that I am communicates to you and I is that Jesus Christ says I am, and that tells everybody else that you are not. Every fiber of your being should be crying out, I am not, and he is. Jesus Christ is. You are fallen, right? You are polluted, corrupted, defiled by your sin, deserving of hell, and he is the light. He is the bread of life, the good shepherd, the resurrection in the life. He is the true vine, the source of life and health and fruitfulness to the branches. We must abide in him who is the eternal I am, amen. So I am communicates the deity of Christ. Secondly, the Lord says I am the true vine. First point, I am the true vine communicates the deity of Christ. The second, it communicates a further fulfillment of God's redemptive purposes in Christ. And I want you to see this because I think it's an important point. It communicates a further fulfillment of God's redemptive purposes in Christ. As we've been working through the gospel of John, we've seen Jesus in fulfillment of several Old Testament pictures. As we work through the gospel, there's several ways in which the Old Testament points to Christ, several ways in which the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills Old Testament scripture. We've seen him fulfill the Passover, right? We talked about the Lord Jesus Christ being the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He fulfilled the Feast of Tabernacles when we were in that text, right? He's fulfilled the temple. He is the temple. By saying here that he is the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ now stands in fulfillment even of the purposes of God for the people of God. What I mean by that is this. In the Old Testament, Israel was referred to as the vine. Israel was referred to as the vine. In Isaiah five, God says, for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant. Think about that for a moment now. Israel called the vine or the vineyard of the Lord of hosts. In Jeremiah chapter two, he says of Israel, yet I had planted you Israel, he says, a noble vine, a seed of the highest quality. However, now in the Old Testament, what's also seen continuously is at the same time that Israel's called the vine or characterized as being the vine or the vineyard of God, Israel fails at every turn. Israel becomes a fruitless vine, a failure, fails to produce the good fruit that God was after. Turn with me and let's look at one of those texts. Let's look at Isaiah chapter five together. Isaiah chapter five. Isaiah chapter five, God says that he plants them. God says that he cares for them. And then we see Israel failing in their role as the vine. Isaiah chapter five, look at verse one there with me. Verse one. Here, the Bible says in verse one, now let me sing to my well beloved, a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. My well beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. Who is the well beloved? It's God, right? Look at the text, right? God has planted his vineyard on a very fruitful hill. Planted the vineyard on a fruitful hill, verse one. Look at verse two. He, my well beloved, you could look at John 15 and say the vine dresser, the husbandman, right? The gardener. Verse two, he dug it up and cleared out its stones. And he planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst and he also made a wine press in it. So he expected it, after having done all this for it, he expected it to bring forth good grapes. But it didn't bring forth good grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. And now, oh inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge please between me and my vineyard. Verse four, what more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? And now, please let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge and it shall be burned. I'll break down its wall and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it waste, it shall not be pruned or dug. But there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry for help. Now notice with this text in Isaiah five that with Israel's failure comes the judgment of God. Now you can make the connection, can't you? And we'll make the connection as we work through John 15, the connection between the Lord and his vineyard in Isaiah five and the Lord and his vineyard in John chapter 15. With Israel's failure comes God's promise of judgment where those dried and withered branches will be gathered up and cast into the fire. In Jeremiah chapter two, verse 21, the Lord says, yet I had planted you, Israel, a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned from before me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine? Listen to this from Ezekiel chapter 15, beginning in verse six, thus says the Lord God, like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will set my face against them. They will go out from one fire, but another fire shall devour them. Then you shall know, God says, that I am the Lord when I set my face against them. And thus I will make the land desolate because they have persisted in unfaithfulness, says the Lord God. Israel set up as a choice vine, right? God took care of them and cared for them. If you remember the picture in Ezekiel 16 of God cleansing them, washing their blood off of them, giving them life, right? Putting a ring, putting jewelry on them, caring for them. And then Israel fails to produce fruit. And in their fruitlessness, in their faithlessness, God judges that it's in this context, right? Those texts, Isaiah 10 is another one. Talking about Israel being a judged vine, a faithless, fruitless vine, it's in this context that Jesus now walks with his disciples in John chapter 15. And he declares himself now to be the true vine. Israel, faithless, fruitless vine. Jesus Christ comes in John 15. I am the true vine. Think about that with me for a moment. He is the true vine having now fulfilled in his person and his work that which Israel had failed to accomplish, namely bearing good fruit, namely bearing good fruit. You know, Josephus had mentioned that on the face of the temple, if you looked at the temple in Israel at this time, on Herod's, the temple structure that had been built, on the face of the temple above the entrance was a golden vine that had been etched into the face of the temple. So if you think about it, there are some that suppose that as Jesus and his disciples walked out of the upper room, walked through the city of Jerusalem to an eastern gate. They had to go over the Brook Kidron, sort of up the Mount of Olives toward the Garden of Gethsemane. They might have seen that golden vine above the entrance to the temple and the Lord uses that now as an object lesson to teach his disciples as they walk. I am, Jesus says, the true vine. In other words, Israel has failed as a vine. Jesus Christ now fulfills the redemptive purposes of God in him becoming the true vine. Now that has implication for us. In the Old Testament, only those who were connected to Israel received the blessings of God. You had to be connected to Israel to take part in the blessings. Now Jesus is saying, as he comes along and says, now I am the true vine. Jesus Christ is not only claiming deity to himself, but now he's saying in a radical shift in redemptive history, the Lord Jesus Christ is now saying, I am the true vine. If you want the blessings of God, you need to be connected to me. I am the true vine. Now we have to understand in this plan of God, you see this connectivity between these pictures in the Old Testament now fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to understand you and I together that God will have the fruit that he has ordained for his glory. Now let that sink in for a moment. God will have it because he's God and he will be glorified. When Israel fails, Christ fulfills and all those in Christ will fulfill this ordained glory of God in fruit bearing. We'll do it. Now there's so many Christians today, right? This is common, common. It's a vast majority of the teaching that comes out of most pulpits today would say you can be a Christian and you really don't need to be concerned about your fruit. Listen, just do the best you can. Matter of fact, don't even strive to do the best you can. Just let go and let God, right? And they live, and someone can say I'm a Christian and live like the devil, but because they made some profession of faith or because they believe intellectually in the facts of the gospel, they'll say I'm a Christian and there's been no regeneration, no spirit of God in dwelling them, no power. Their Christian so-called life is devoid of fruit. But listen, God comes along and where Israel failed, the Lord Jesus Christ in victory triumphs, right? The Lord Jesus Christ in power secures for God the fruit that God deserves for his glory. The Lord Jesus Christ purchases that. It's a part of the new covenant. All this we see promised in the new covenant. All those in Christ will bear fruit to the glory of God. We see new covenant promises. If you think about the Lord Jesus Christ securing all of those promises, fulfilling all of those promises in the new covenant in the gospel, we see those new covenant promises given, don't we, in John chapter 14. Lord says in John chapter 14, he's gonna go away and he's gonna pray to the father and the father's gonna send you another helper. Who's that? The spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of God. The giving of the spirit of God is a new covenant promise. He says I'm gonna give my peace to you. I'm gonna give empowerment, enablement to you. He's gonna do the New Testament, new covenant believer is going to do great works in his name. I and my father, the Lord says, will make our home with you. All of these are new covenant promises. Let me show you something with respect to this, okay? Do a little theological study here. Go with me to Deuteronomy chapter 29. Deuteronomy chapter 29. I wanna belabor this point a little bit because there's so much false teaching with respect to this today such that a vast majority of those that profess to know Christ don't know him. They live faithless, fruitless, so-called Christian lives when God promises and it's seen in the power of the gospel that their lives will be transformed. They will be indwelt with the spirit. Their hearts will be changed and they will walk in his statutes. You look at Deuteronomy chapter 29. Look at verse one, right? So Moses is here in Deuteronomy 29. They're having a covenant renewal ceremony, so to speak, before the children of Israel go into the Promised Land. Moses is going to remind them of the covenant, right? So he says in verse one, these are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. Now Moses, verse two, called all Israel and said to them, you've seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs and those great wonders. Now imagine with me for a moment, what the Lord did, right? The great wonders, the great signs that they had seen, the pillar of fire by night, the cloud by day, the parting of the Red Sea, right? The death of the first, those tremendous plagues in Egypt. They had seen all of these mighty wonders. Did they doubt the power of God? Well, they shouldn't have, they did, they did. There's no way they should have doubted. Look at all that God had done before their eyes, right? But what does it say in verse four? Yet, even despite all of that, they did not believe the Lord their God. In fact, God swore in his wrath that because they didn't trust him, they didn't believe him, that all that generation would die in the wilderness before this point, they didn't believe him. And it says the reason for that in verse four is yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear to this very day. Think about it now, that is a gift of God. That's a gift of God. God is the one who gives a heart to perceive. God is the one who gives eyes to see and ears to hear. And in this case, verse four, the Lord had not given that to them. In verse five, and I have led you 40 years in this wilderness, your clothes have not worn out on you. Your sandals have not worn out on your feet. You've not eaten bread nor have you drunk wine or similar drink that you may know that I am the Lord your God. Now go over to chapter 30 and look at chapter 30 in verse one. He, Moses is exhorting them to faithfully keep the law. And what we're finding out from the children of Israel is that they cannot keep the law. They're a fruitless, faithless vine in and of themselves. They cannot do it. The problem is not with the law. The law is righteous, holy, just and good. The problem is not with the law. The problem is with their ability to keep the law. They can't do it. You see, they can't do it. So Moses then prophesies a time, he prophesies a time when God will see to it that they keep it. All the way back in Deuteronomy, we have this sort of prophecy of the new covenant. Deuteronomy 29, God's not giving you a heart to perceive. He's not giving you eyes to see and ears to hear to this very day. Now look at chapter 30, verse one. Now it shall come to pass when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you and you return to the Lord your God and obey his voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children with all your heart and with all your soul that the Lord your God is the one who will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under the heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you and from there he will bring you and the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your father's possessed and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers and the Lord your God, verse six, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love in order to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul that you may live. That's what it's gonna take, right? Old Testament, they couldn't faithless, fruitless vine incapable of keeping the commands of God. So what must God do? God must give them eyes to see. God must give them ears to hear. God must circumcise their heart and cause them to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, right? Flip with me now to the new covenant. Let's look at Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36. All of this ties together with our understanding of conversion in the New Testament, with our understanding of the vine and the branches in John 15, all of it ties together with Jesus Christ, the greater Moses, which we'll see in a moment. Ezekiel chapter 36, and look down with me at verse 16. God will see to it that they produce fruit for his glory. God's gonna see to it, and he's gonna see to it by means of the new covenant, which is purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ by his blood at the cross, okay? Look at verse 16. More over now in Ezekiel 36, 16, the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds. To me, their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity, right? You understand what that's saying. Therefore, verse 18, I poured out my fury on them for the blood that they had shed on the land and for their idols with which they had defiled it. And so I scattered them among the nations. They were dispersed throughout the countries. I judged them according to their ways and their deeds. When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned my holy name. When they said of them, these are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of his land. Verse 21, but I had concern for my holy name, God says, which the house of Israel, that fruitless, faithless vine had profaned among the nations wherever they went. Therefore, praise God, for the therefore in Ezekiel 36, verse 22, right? Therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, I do not do this for your sake, oh house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went, and I will sanctify my great name, God says, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst, and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I am hallowed, when I am revered and worshiped and exalted in you before their eyes, for here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna glorify my great name in this way, for, God says in verse 24, I'm gonna take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land, then I'm gonna sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean, that's a ritual purification. The Lord is going to cleanse them from their sin, is gonna cleanse them from their iniquity. I will cleanse you, he says, from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Verse 26, I will give you a new heart. Sounds like Deuteronomy, doesn't it? I'm gonna give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I'm gonna take the heart of stone out of your flesh and I'm gonna give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit, the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God, right? I'm gonna put my spirit within you and I'm going to cause you to bear fruit. I'm gonna cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, you shall be my people and I will be your God. In other words, we will abide together. We will abide together. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it, bring no famine, so on. This is the new covenant promises of God in the gospel to the believer today who puts their faith and trust in Christ, who turns from their sin and entrusts themselves to the Lord. God says, I'm gonna do it in you. Do you see? I'm gonna do it in you. Now in John 15, back in John chapter 15, Jesus now, in John 15 verse one, the greater Moses, the greater Moses now stands in John chapter 15 verse one and says, I am the true vine. Apart from me, you can do nothing in and of yourselves. Apart from me, you're gonna bear bad fruit. You can only bear good fruit as long as you are connected to the vine, as long as you abide in me, where Israel was faithless, the Lord Jesus Christ has proven himself faithful, right? Where they were fruitless, every branch in him produces good fruit. He is the one, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one to whom Israel points. Do you see? I am, the Lord says, I am the true vine. Now based on the promises of the new covenant, based on all that that we see, connecting all those Old Testament pictures, now to the Lord's statement in John 15, one, that he is the true vine, all of these promises in the new covenant. Based on divine enablement, God is going to do this for his name. Based on divine empowerment that comes through union with Christ being indwelt by the spirit, the greater Moses now stands and commands a life of his people of fruitfulness. Look at verse four, John 15, verse four. Jesus says, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Jesus says, verse five, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. Do you see that? He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. Look at verse eight, by this my father is glorified. Do you see the connection? All this goes together. God will be glorified in this. By this, my father is glorified. Verse eight, that you bear much fruit. And so you will be my disciples. Wow, right? We of ourselves, in and of ourselves, apart from Christ, apart from the work of God in us, like the children of Israel, we can do, how much? Nothing, nothing, not one thing, not one thing to please God, not one teeny, tiny little speck of anything, apart from abiding in the vine, the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. But God, but God has seen to it in Christ and all the promises of God that are fulfilled in the gospel, fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, God has seen to it that we will, only through union with him, only through abiding in him, by attachment, by abiding in the true vine. God, God's provided for his name to be glorified. Do you see? The gospel that's being preached today, does not glorify God's name. There's no life transformation with all the filth that's peddled from most churches today. It goes out in the name of the gospel, that's not the gospel at all. Because there's no life transformation. There's no regeneration. There's no indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It's not conversion. God has said, if you're genuinely converted, you will be a fruitful branch that abides in the vine. That's what God has guaranteed in the gospel. And he's done that for your sake? No, he says in the new covenant. He's done that for his holy name's sake, for his holy name's sake. And because he loves you, because he loves you. God has provided for his name to be glorified. It's so ignorant, so unbiblical, to believe that there should be fruitless branches in him. Do you see? John 15, how it all fits together, it is absurd. It is absurd. With all that Christ has done, all that Christ has purchased, all that God has promised, it is absurd to think that there will be fruitless branches in him. He's purchased this by means of the new covenant in his blood. From the time that we're born again, from the time that we're born again, he begins to produce it. He goes to work, right? Then Paul say, work out your salvation with what? Fear and trembling, why? Because it's God who is at work in you, both to willing to do according to his good pleasure. From the moment you're born again, if you're in Christ, from the moment you're born again, God begins to work in you, to glorify his holy name by producing fruit in you through your abiding in the vine, the true vine. All of that guaranteed by God's redemptive purposes in Christ, all those promises fulfilled in Christ. Now it's not gonna be perfect and sometimes you may think to yourself, I don't know how much fruit I've seen lately, but God is at work. You may go through trial, you may go through difficulty, you may go through adversity. All of those trials, we're gonna see as we work through the text, all of those trials, all of those difficulties, all of that adversity meant to prune you so that you bear what? Much more fruit, amen. God is seen to it. God goes to work. You Christian, brother or sister, you need to go to work. You need to abide in the vine. You need to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Because it's God who is at work in you. You need to abide in the vine. There's so much in that statement, right? I am the true vine, Jesus says. I am the true vine communicates the deity of Christ. I am the true vine communicates a further fulfillment of God's redemptive purposes in Christ. But thirdly, that little statement in verse one also communicates that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Christian's life-giving source, life-giving vine. It communicates that Christ is the Christian's life-giving vine. You know, it's appropriate as we get to John 15 and he begins this section of scripture, it's appropriate that it all begins with Christ. All begins with Christ. It begins with Christ, the middle is about Christ and the end is about Christ. It's all about Christ. Christ is the sum, Christ is the subject and Christ is the substance of the Christian life. This is about the Christian life, right? The source of resurrection life and the source of all living fruitfulness in the life of a believer is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian? It means to be united to Christ, to be in union with Christ. It means to abide in Christ. It means to follow Christ. It means to count all things lost for the excellence of knowing Christ. It means to count all things rubbish that you may gain Christ and be found in Christ. It means preaching Christ and Christ crucified. It means fully pleasing Christ in whom we live and move and have our being. It means to love Christ by keeping Christ's commandments. It's all about Christ. He is the life-giving vine for the Christian. Amen? No blessing, no blessing is afforded to the believer. No blessing comes to the Christian except that blessing which is mediated by the Lord Jesus Christ. No Holy Spirit, no grace, no love, no peace, no thing comes to no one except that which is mediated by Christ. The vine will supply all that is necessary. Nothing eternal, nothing good, except that which is brought to us by Christ. He's all that we need. He's everything that the Christian needs. He's supplied everything that is necessary. Paul said, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. If you're attached to him, if you're attached to the true vine, then you have everything that you need. You have everything that you need. All the branch has to do is stay attached to the vine. And even that he provides for us, even that he provides. In Christ you have a heritage. You think about it that way? In Christ you have a heritage, a heritage among the fruitful in God's progressive progressing redemptive plan. In his progressive redemptive purposes, you have a heritage in that. Where Israel failed, if you're in union with Christ in the new covenant, you will be a fruitful branch bringing glory to God. You must abide in the vine. Work out your salvation because it's God who's at work in you. Look at John chapter 12. Just flip the page. Flip the page and look at John chapter 12. And look down at verse 20. You need to be connected to the true vine, abiding in the true vine. We'll look at what that means next week. God gives us glorious promises. John chapter 12, look at verse 20. Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip who was from Bethsaida of Galilee and asked him saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus. But Jesus answered them in verse 23 saying, the hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified. Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain, much fruit. He who loves his life will lose it and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me and where I am there, my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him, my father will honor. Lord Jesus Christ falls into the ground that colonel and dies, dies on Calvary for all who are his own. He secures their redemption, secures their salvation, secures their right standing with God, forgives them of their sin. His righteousness are credited to them, their sin credited or imputed to him. He bears their penalty, pays their penalty, bears their punishment, expiates their guilt, propitiates God's wrath and saves his own. Those who are in Christ, Christ saves them to the uttermost. He loves them to the end and in that, he gives a picture of what it takes for you or I to produce fruit for him. We love him because he first loved us. He gave his life for his own. If you're in Christ, he gave his life for you. He died to secure your salvation. He loved us and so we love him. And if Jesus was a grain of wheat that must fall into the ground to die, you or I, if we are going to be in union with him, the Lord Jesus Christ says, you must fall to the ground and die. If you love your life, you're gonna lose it. It doesn't mean that our life is the object. I must hate the object of my life. It's a figure of speech. Count it all lost for him. Count it all rubbish to have him. That's what he's talking about. If you hate your life in this world, you have him. You have Christ. You have life, resurrection life, the bread, the living water. You have him. You must die. He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone abides in me, do you see the connection? If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Let him abide in me. Where I am, my servant will be also. Also, praise God. Where he is, if you're abiding in him, where he is, you will be also. Do you see? Abide in the vine. He is the true vine. If anyone serves me, him, my father will honor. That's an amazing thought, isn't it? Brother, sister, listen. If you're here today, you're not in Christ. You've not been genuinely saved. Listen, God holds out to you eternal life. He holds out to you a promise that if you will turn from your sin, you will put faith and trust in Christ alone and trusting yourself to him, abiding in him, then God will forgive you of your sins. He will cleanse you from all your filthiness. He will cleanse you from all your idols. He will rip out of your chest that heart of stone, which is rebellious and spiteful toward him. He will give you a heart of flesh that loves Christ, sees him as exceedingly precious, loves what Christ loves, hates what Christ hates. He'll indwell you with his spirit. And with his spirit, the strength and enablement that his spirit provides, you will live for him. You will bear fruit that is pleasing to God, such that when you stand before God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, with Christ as your mediator, he'll say to you, well done. Because of the works that you've done in your own strength, no. Because of the works that have been produced in you by him. And he'll say to you, well done, good and faithful servant. And he'll give you an inheritance not just heirs, but joint heirs with Christ. It's a glorious, glorious plan, glorious salvation. How shall we escape? If we neglect so great a salvation, don't neglect it, right? Don't neglect it, abide in the vine. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, apart from you, we can do nothing. We feel it, Lord, we know it. Apart from nothing, there is nothing in us that pleases you, that is, in our flesh. We can do nothing apart from you to please you. We can't save ourselves, can't wash ourselves off, can't make ourselves right with you, can't redeem ourselves, can't propitiate your wrath, can't expiate our guilt, can't remove the stains of our sin. Apart from you, we can do nothing. Can't live the Christian life, can't produce fruit. Apart from you, we are fruitless and faithless. We acknowledge it, Lord. We acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy apart from Christ. I pray, God, there's anyone here that doesn't know you. Lord, that you will show to them their utter hopelessness apart from you, that you will reveal to them the glorious promises that are afforded in the gospel, the glorious promises purchased by Christ, what Christ has done, and that we will look to him, the true vine, they will look to him and be saved. We acknowledge you as the true vine. All the promises of God we see in Christ as yes and amen. And we thank you for that glorious blessing. For my brothers and sisters, Lord, for me here as we study this passage together, help us as we work through this passage to abide in the vine. How prone to wonder we are, oh, God. Help us, Lord, to abide. Help us to understand these things so that this rich and glorious theology just transforms our practice, transforms our living, mold us into the image of Christ, lop off everything that offends and cause us by your grace to us in Christ to be well pleasing in your sight. We love you, Lord. Thank you for all that you've done. You've done everything. We are grateful to you for it. God, in Jesus' name, we pray all these things. Amen.