 And in this session we're going to discuss cheap grace and the fruitlessness of faith. Cheap grace and the fruitlessness of faith. We're going to look at John chapter 15 as a starting point here, specifically in verses one through eight, John chapter 15 verses one through eight. Cheap grace and the fruitlessness of faith, what impacts this error, this heresy of cheap grace just impacts so many different areas, just undermines the gospel at every turn. We're beginning to see that as Pastor Mike works through those passages. But here, undermining genuine biblical God-wrought faith in the Christian's life. Cheap grace and the fruitlessness of faith from John chapter 15. Let's begin reading together in verse one, John chapter 15 beginning in verse one. Here, the words of Christ. Christ 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. 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, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and 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. And by this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit. And so you will be my disciples. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord and God, we praise you and thank you for this time together. What a joy it is, Lord, to study your word. You're just so grateful for your word, Lord. So grateful for the clarity of it, the truth of it, Lord. Just we joyfully rejoice, God, in submitting ourselves to the authority of it. Lord, thank you. Thank you for revealing yourself to us in your word. Thank you for Christ. Thank you for this glorious salvation, God. We're in awe of it. We're so grateful for it. And we love you, Lord. And we want to live a heart, soul, mind, and strength for you. Lord, thank you for this time of studying together. I pray that you bless it, God, and bless it to our hearts. God, bless the labor of your people for you and your vineyard, God, and just bless to our hearts and minds the truth of your word, that we might praise, exalt, worship, and honor Christ for his glory, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Charles Spurgeon once said that there is a vessel drifting. There's a vessel drifting, and she soon will be on the rocks. But a pilot has come on board, and he is standing on the deck, and he says to the captain and crew, I promise and undertake that if you will solely and alone trust me, I will save the vessel. Do you promise it? Do you believe in me? They profess to believe in him, and they trust the vessel implicitly to his care. And as the ship is tossed about on the waves, the pilot shouts, you with the helm there, and he doesn't stir. At the helm there, can you hear? And he does not stir. He doesn't stir. And the shout comes. I want you any confidence in the pilot. He says, oh yes, so yes, I have faith in him, he says. He will save the vessel if I have faith in him. But don't you hear the pilot? As he says, have faith in him, and you won't touch the helm? Now you aloft there, reef that sail, and he doesn't stir. But he lets the wind still blow into the sail and drift the vessel onto the coast. And now then the pilot cries, some of you look alive and reef that sail. But they do not stir. Why captain? He says, what shall I do? These fellows won't stir or move a peg. But oh, says the captain, I have every confidence in you pilot. I believe that you will save the vessel. Then why don't you attend the tiller and all that? Oh no, he says, I have great confidence in you. I don't mean to do anything. Now when that ship goes down amid the boiling surges, Spurgeon says, and each man sinks to his doom. I'll ask you. Did they have faith in the pilot? Did they not have a mimicking and mocking sort of faith, and only that? For if they had been really anxious to have the vessel rescued and have trusted in the pilot, it would be the pilot that had saved them, and they could never have been saved without him. They would have proved their faith by their works. Their faith would have been made perfect, and the vessel would have been secured. This chapter 2, verse 14, James says, what use is it, brothers, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works, can that kind of faith save him? The answer to that question is no. There is an absurd and a fruitless face that will cast your ship onto the rocks and send you to your doom. Paul explains to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 19, that you suffer the utter shipwreck of your eternal soul when you toss overboard and reject that working, vibrant, living, healthy, and fruitful faith that results in a good conscience before God. There is a cheap counterfeit, an unbiblical and damning notion of the grace of God and salvation that produces a worthless and fruitless faith in the wicked hearts of men. We're only too happy to choke it down. Much of the professing church today preaches a cheap grace that is in no way God's grace, and it leaves sinners standing idle on the deck of their own ship, their own sinking ship believing themselves to be saved, and yet death to the shouts of the pilot. It is a cheap grace and a fruitless faith. The captain of their salvation is bidding them, come and follow me, and they don't stir. Christ says, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple, and they won't lift a finger. God says, go work a day in my vineyard, and they shout back, I go, sir, and they never go. So if you're here today, and you profess to be a Christian, need to understand that our Lord Jesus Christ makes a very important distinction regarding those that profess to be in him. His distinction, as we'll see, is based on very important and very clear outward evidence, and that outward evidence depicts a very important and very clear inward spiritual reality. You might say to yourself, I thought the Lord was only concerned about my heart, as many do. You might even quote 1 Samuel chapter 16 verse 7, where the Bible teaches that the Lord does not see as a man sees, for a man looks at the outward appearance, or the Lord looks at the heart, or rest assured, you who say that, that you might think that or believe that, God knows your heart. The problem is, is that you don't. Jeremiah 17 says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And many of you out-witnessing, as I have, you've heard professing Christians who are living in their sin justify themselves in their sin and say, well, the Lord knows my heart, and they say that in a way that that's good for them. The problem is that it's not good for them, but God, rest assured, knows your heart. God makes a distinction, and we see it here in John 15, God makes a distinction based on fruit and the inner reality that that fruit affirms. And by the grace of God, we could ignore all of this cheap grace nonsense that is taught and simply go to the Word of God for ourselves and see ourselves examine ourselves in the light of God's Word. The question becomes in this for many today who are inoculated by this cheap counterfeit as will we humble ourselves enough to receive what God's Word graciously reveals to us. Right? But there is a distinction that's made. The first point on your notes from John 15 beginning in verse one is that you have to make the distinction. You've got to make the distinction as well. Jesus Christ, our Lord, makes a distinction, look at verse one. He 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. Here at this point in John, it's just a short time now before the crucifixion of Christ, he is about to go to his death. And Jesus Christ is gathered together with his disciples, Judas the traitor, that betrayer has left to go and make provision for his betrayal. And Jesus and the disciples are about to cross over the Brook Kidron and make their way toward the Garden of Gethsemane. When here in John 15, Jesus Christ makes the last of seven I am statements that prove his deity, that he is God in the flesh, showing himself to be God in the flesh. And he says to the disciples, I am the true vine. And my father is the vine dresser. Jesus, the true vine, in contrast with all that is false, in contrast with all that is shadow and type, he paints an important picture of the believer's union with himself, the Christian's union with Christ, just as a branch depends on the vine for life, for growth, for fruit. We become, as Christians, joined to Christ by faith. And just as the vine or that branch depends on the vine, we depend on Christ for life, for growth, for health, for vitality, and for fruit. We depend on Christ for our very lives as a Christian. Galatians chapter two verse 20 says, I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So the father comes along, Jesus is the true vine. The father comes along, he is the vine dresser. The vine dresser plants and waters and tends and cares for the vine, cares for the branches, loves the vine and so tends to the branches. The vine dresser tends to the branches and he here makes a distinction. He takes away the fruitless branches and he prunes and cares for those that bear fruit. There's a distinction and it is here that Christ makes this important distinction verse two, 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. Here in verse two, there are two types of branches. We need to come to understand this. Two types of branches that are depicted here. These branches both represent those who profess to be in union with him. They are professing to be in him. There is the true branch genuinely abiding in the vine, producing fruit. And there is the false branch that is not abiding in the vine, bearing no fruit. At first blush, they both look the same. There is many have said like wheat and tares, good fish, bad fish. Foolish virgins and wise virgins, they both look the same. They're both near the vine, they both got leaves on them. They both would say, Lord, Lord, there's only one that's doing the will of the father. There's one that is true and one that is false. And we can tell that by the fruit that's produced. There is a faith that is a belief in, a trust in, a reliance upon, a hope satisfied in none other but Christ. And that is, that faith is gifted by God. It is supernatural. It produces a God wrought conviction about who Christ is and what he has done for you. And that produces a faithful following with heart, soul, mind and strength abiding in the vine. But there is also here a pseudo faith, a false faith, a fruitless faith. It is a belief in a trust in a reliance upon a hope satisfied in none other but a decision that's made, a prayer that is prayed, an emotional experience, maybe religious activity. It results in no great conviction about Christ. It results in no great change of heart. It may produce the external leaves of a moral reformation, but it won't produce the internal renovation, total transformation of a dull and rebellious heart. It is a fruitless faith. Let me give you some distinguishing characteristics of the fruitless faith of the fruitless branch here. One, it is a dead faith. It's a dead faith. James says again that faith by itself, if it does not have the fruit of works, is dead. It is a dead faith. He goes on to say in chapter 2, verse 26 there in James, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Now Christ said of the church in Revelation, church at Sardis, Revelation chapter 3, he said I know your works. You have a reputation that you are alive, but you are dead. You know, there's one thing that is helpful about the zombie craze that everyone is wrapped up in. This spiritual application might be it. It is a zombie faith. I never thought that I would use a zombie application in a sermon, but there it is. It's a zombie faith. It may look like a real person. It may not smell as good. It may have really bad teeth. It looks like a real person. It moves around like a real person, but its throat is an open tomb. There may be activity there. He's moving around, but it is heartless. He is dead while he walks. It's a zombie faith. He's producing no vital signs of real life. There's no heartbeat for Christ. There's no love and affection and zeal. He's just dead while he walks, and there's not going to be any fruit. You don't see zombies winning Nobel Prizes and inventing cures to medicines, and no, he's dead while he walks. Listen, don't mistake activity for fruit. You can be doing a bunch of stuff and be dead. You can actually work and have no driving heartbeat for Christ, no love, no affection, no zeal, no hatred for sin, no broken heart over sin, no mourning over sin, no poverty of spirit, no meekness in submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ, no hungering and thirsting for righteousness, no desire for the Word of God. They call themselves a Christian, and yet there is no fruit of a living, thriving, healthy faith. You come along and you put them under conviction through the Word of God, maybe you put them under the laws, you evangelize them, and they gnash their zombie teeth at you, right? Proving in their defensiveness and self-righteousness, proving they're a zombie. It's just a dead faith, a fruitless faith. Secondly, it's a presumptuous faith. It's a presumptuous faith. This faith presumes to claim Christ while refusing to acknowledge that Christ makes demands on your life. Christ makes demands on your life. If you're in Christ, we submit to Christ as Lord, we obey Him as Lord, there are demands to the Christian life. It is a faith claimed without repentance and turning from sin. It's a faith that says I claim Christ and yet continue to live the way I've always lived, or continue to live the way everybody I know in the world continues to live. It's a faith claimed without submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and as such this fruitless faith is just a faith that hears. It doesn't obey, right? Jesus asks in Luke 6.46, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? It is a presumptuous faith. The verbal allegiance alone will get you nowhere. A profession alone will get you nowhere. The name, the label alone will get you nowhere. James says again in chapter 1, verse 22, prove yourselves to be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. John comes along and says, little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous. He who sins is of the devil. Let no one deceive you. This doing, by the way, is to be done as a way of life. This is the way of life of the Christian. We're to be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving ourselves. It is one thing to build a shed, right? But it's another thing altogether to be a builder. We're to be a doer, we're to be a doer of the word, we're to be people of the book. Christians are to live as doers of the word. Otherwise, if you're living your so-called Christian life, professing to be a Christian, but not submitting the Lordship of Christ, not living out a healthy, vibrant, fruitful faith that comes from the Lord and the Lord alone, it's a gift of God and your faith is presumptuous and empty and shallow. Presumptuous faith is often a one-time, one-dimensional faith that is exercised almost exclusively to get salvation, and that's it. And it virtually has no more impact on the so-called Christian's life. Not that much really to do with Christ. There's no real love, no real zeal, no real affection for the Lord. I remember reading Jonathan Edwards, a treatise on religious affections. And it's just the one thing you can't fake. There's so much that you can produce fake fruit. You can produce hypocritical fruit. You can produce leaves. You can produce a moral reformation in your own strength, but you can't produce genuine God-wrought fruit. You can't produce a love and affection, a zeal, a heart. You can't change your own heart. When the whole of the Christian life is motivated by faith in Christ, it is driven by faith in Christ, propelled by faith in Christ, executed by faith in Christ. This presumptuous faith is the faith of Esau. Esau could have cared less about his birthright. He just wanted the blessing. And how many people do you know that claim Christ for that very reason? You know, I don't want hell. I want heaven. And you know, by the way, I'm not really concerned about whether or not Jesus is gonna be there when I get there. They despise their birthright. They just want the blessing. And Esau says, sought repentance with tears and could find no place for it. The glorious thing about heaven is Christ. When we get to heaven, we're gonna worship and praise the lamb who was slain for all eternity. And it is gonna be glorious. But if you can sit in churches today and you hear a preacher talk about the glories of Christ and hear it again, another sermon about the glories of Christ, and you're like... You're missing it. You don't get it. You have a dead faith. Presumption, a presumptuous faith is wanting the gift without the giver. Wanting salvation without the savior. It is a presumptuous faith. But also here, it's a fruitless faith. It's a fruitless faith. The distinguishing factor of the Christian life observably outwardly is fruitfulness. We're to be fruitful in our faith. I'll turn with me for an example of this to Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. There's just a good example here in a parable that Christ taught. Luke chapter 13. And look beginning in verse six. Luke chapter 13, verse six. This is the parable of the barren fig tree. And again, another example. Scripture is replete with examples of this false fruitless faith depicted everywhere. And it's depicted everywhere for a reason. And we need to be warned by it. We need to take heed to these warnings that our faith is genuine, that our faith is producing fruit, that we are in abiding in the vine. Here in Luke chapter 13, beginning in verse six, he also, it says in verse six, spoke this parable. He says, a certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Now initially you gotta recognize from verse six here that you're planted with a purpose. You're planted with a purpose. Great care was taken by the vineyard owner in planting this vineyard. If you can imagine, he puts it in a choice place. He tills the ground, he weeds the ground, cares for the plants, the shoots. He tends to them, he fertilizes them. And then all that care that was given, he put a wall. He built a tower, did all this for his vineyard. And like the Lord says of Israel, what more could I have done for my vineyard? Today, the church, what more could I have done for you? The Lord brings you to a healthy, loving, thriving, biblical church that preaches the word of God, puts a Bible in your hands. What more could God do? He wants you to be saved, you know? Turn to the Lord in faith and repentance. Turn from your sin and be saved. The Lord here in verse six, he comes expecting to find fruit. You were planted with a purpose. The purpose is to produce fruit for the Lord. That fruit comes in many forms but the Lord comes expecting to find fruit. It's appointed for men to die once and then comes the judgment. And so you have, as a result of verse six here, where each one will be judged according to his works, according to the fruit that he produces. Verse seven, it says, then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none. Cut it down. Why does it use up the ground? And we're reminded in this, one of the greatest graces of God. Aren't you happy for it and just praising the Lord for it? One of the greatest graces of God is time. The patience of God, the long suffering of God. You know, at this time, it wasn't uncommon for a fig tree to produce three crops a year. Three crops a year. One of those was virtually unedible. You had two crops that were produced and fig trees were expensive. They were very valuable. And so this fig tree, not only not producing three rounds of fruit per year, hadn't produced any fruit for three solid years. You know, anyone would look at the fig tree and say, this is a complete total loss. This tree is worthless and almost in righteous indignation. It's like, man, dig that thing up. It is worthless. Get it out of here. Why does it take up the ground? But the Lord here is gracious, full of compassion, right? Slow to anger, bounding in mercy. You might understand here, the profession, the external leaves, doesn't, they don't matter. It's worthless without the fruit. It doesn't matter what the intention of the fig tree is. I intend to produce fruit. I desire in my heart to produce fruit. What matters is the fruit. Are you producing fruit? I don't want to sin. Go and sin no more. Turn from your sin and follow Christ. Again, not sinless perfection, but you've got to turn from your sin. You can't continue to live in the world and expect that you're a Christian. Religious activity by itself doesn't matter. The Lord comes and he comes seeking fruit, verse eight. But he answered and he said to him, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit well, but if not after that, you can cut it down. Literally it means there, dig around it and fertilize it. It means dig it and dung it. You're to dig it and dung it. You come to a loving, faithful, healthy, biblical church and you've got brothers and sisters who've been following the Lord and you've got brothers and sisters who will come and they'll dig around you and they'll dung you. That's all in love, right? Let me dig around. I want to dung you. So that's a loving thing for a Christian to do. The Lord in his patience and his grace and his compassion, he's long suffering, not willing that any should perish, but eventually in verse nine, you have their appointment here with perdition. You have an appointment with perdition. It's a point that men die once and then comes the judgment. John the Baptist said in Matthew three, again, speaking of fruitless faith. And even now he says, the ax is laid to the root of the trees, therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. You know, wheat is gonna be gathered into the barn, but that fruitless, worthless chaff will be burnt in unquenchable fire. The Lord comes seeking fruit. Fourth, ultimately it is an unsaving faith. Ultimately it's an unsaving faith. James again in chapter two, verse 19, James says, you believe that there's one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. And I read this from one of the commentators, says I have no doubt that devils are very orthodox. I do not know which church they belong to, although there are some in all churches. There was one in Christ's church when he was on earth, for he said one was filled with devils. And there are some in all churches. Devils believe all the facts of revelation. I do not believe that they have a doubt. They have suffered too much from the hand of God to doubt his existence. Now think about it for a moment. They have felt too much of the terror of his wrath to doubt the righteousness of his government. They are stern believers, but they are not saved. And such a faith, if it be in us, will not, cannot save us, but will remain to all intents and purposes a dead in operative faith. It is a faith which produces works which saves us. It is a faith which produces works, right? That saves us. The works do not save us, but a faith which does not produce works is a faith that will only deceive and cannot lead us into heaven. So what about these branches here? We see in John chapter 15, beginning in verse one and two. What about that branch that is bearing fruit? Verse two, Jesus says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. In every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. So the father, the vine dresser, right? In his loving, tender compassion, as a loving father disciplines his own son, he cuts away those things that stand in the way of a righteous life. He cuts away those things that stand in the way of holiness, of bringing honor and glory to Christ. Sometimes that's painful and difficult. Pruning often takes place through difficulty, through trial, through suffering. He made the captain of our salvation perfect through suffering. You're gonna suffer. There's gonna be difficulty, there's gonna be trial, but it's through that that he graciously and lovingly conforms you into the image of his son. It's how we are prepared by God for heaven. It's how we are conformed. We were predestined to be conformed into the image of his son. It's how he makes us more like Christ. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12, and there's an explanation here for that. Hebrews chapter 12, this is a blessing and it's good and the Lord works all things for our good. Hebrews chapter 12, and look beginning in verse seven, this faithful, loving, compassionate, patient, loving, faithful pruning that the Lord does that we need is good for us. Hebrews chapter 12, look at verse seven. If you, Christian, if you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? If you spare the rod, you spoil the child, right? You don't discipline your son, you hate your son. You despise your son. We fathers discipline our kids because we love our kids and they need that, it's for their good. Verse eight, but if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers when you are, then it says you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we've had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect and another argument from the lesser to the greater here. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present but painful. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable what? The peaceable fruit, it yields fruit. Fruit, if you're in the vine, if you're abiding in Christ, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. And the pruning shears there that the Lord uses is the word of God. The pruning shears are a loving brother and sister coming alongside you, calling you to their side, right? It's the body of Christ, it's the word of God, it's the spirit of God convicting you of sin. It is trial and difficulty in your life. It's the grace and compassion of a loving heavenly father who disciplines those whom he loves. So you wanna produce good fruit. Point one on your notes. You had to make the distinction. Point two on your notes. You have to check the connection. Do you wanna produce good fruit? Do you wanna abide in the vine? You've got to check the connection. It says in verse three, back in John chapter 15. Verse three it says, you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, Christ says, 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. In verse three, the disciples minus one were already born again because they embraced the gospel that Jesus Christ was preaching to them. But next, we must understand here that there is only one fruit producing source of power for the Christian, we must abide in him. And I think about it this way for a moment. The source of life to an apple tree is the root. Whether it has apples on it or not, the source of life to that tree is the root. Apples on the tree wouldn't give the tree life, but the whole of the life of the tree will come from its roots evidenced in the apples. If that tree stands in the orchard when spring comes, there's no bud, there's no blossom. When it stands there over the summer and there are no leaves, there are no fruits, and it stands there the next year with no leaves, no fruit, no bud, no blossom, you would say that it is dead. And so it is with the fruitless professor in Christ. There is no connection to the root. It's the connection to the root that produces the fruit. Here, beginning in verse three, Jesus is just saying, abide in me, get the connection. Listen to this from John MacArthur. The question here is not whether we're saved by grace, but how grace operates in salvation. No lordship advocates love to portray themselves as champions of grace, but they characterize grace in an anemic way that misses the whole point. God's grace is a spiritual dynamic that works in the lives of the redeemed through faith, right? Instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. True grace is more than just a giant freebie, opening the door to heaven in the sweet by and by, but leaving us to wallow in the sin in the bitter here and now. Grace is God presently at work in our lives. By grace, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. By grace, He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. Now that is an efficacious and effective, a working, a vibrant, a dynamic grace that pours out into your life through your faith. You living by faith under the God doing, according to all His good pleasure in you, you live by faith in the Son of God. You're a healthy, thriving, working dynamic. You're not an inert, dead, faultless, fault fruitless professor. You're producing fruit for the Lord. And it's that dynamic grace of God in salvation that does that. You must be connected to the root. This is intimately connected with our understanding of the new birth, with our understanding of regeneration, with our understanding of the grace of God in salvation. In a basic sense, the branch is not gonna survive, will not survive, will not produce fruit if it's not connected to the vine. Neither will the professing Christian be saved unless connected to God the Father through union with His Son. The believer can't bear fruit on his own. The Lord says that here in John chapter 15. If they are true believers, then that believer cannot fail to produce fruit and cannot fail to produce the right kind of fruit. This is the nature of God's grace. So where does cheap grace come in then and throw a wrench in this deal? We have the power of God by His grace in salvation. The Lord's sustaining us. If we abide in the vine, where does cheap grace come in and throw a wrench in this? Many go to church, right? Many filling churches for various reasons. Maybe it's to placate a guilty conscience. You come under some conviction. You understand that you're a sinner. You understand there's a heaven and a hell. And so maybe to placate an accusing conscience to justify themselves in their sin. Maybe it's for the kids. I don't wanna make sure to raise my kids in a Christian home, so to speak. Maybe it's for the music. Maybe it's to pass out cards for business contacts. Maybe it's that girl that you met, whatever it is. Many people go to church for various reasons, whatever the reason. They come under the desire maybe to be saved. Maybe they face some conviction of her sin and you say, you know what, I wanna follow Christ. I wanna be saved. I wanna go to heaven when I die. And they may often hear in those churches in the quietness of this moment. No one looking around, every head bowed. Pray this prayer silently as I prayed aloud. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, right? Admitting yourself to be a sinner is not enough. Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Make me the man that you want me to be. Save my soul, amen. No mention of repentance, no contrition over sin. It is simply looking at the blessing like he saw. If they even mentioned the word repentance at all, it isn't often biblically defined. The person is under the distinct impression that what he is doing is saving him. It is a replacing God-wrought means of repentance and faith to be saved with man-made methodology to be saved. It is a replacement of the means of God with man-made methodology. Almost immediately, they are certified to be born again after their sincere decision to accept Christ. It means to say they have a deceitful heart. They don't know what sincere means. They're baptized soon after and therefore they think of themselves and they're told that they are children of God. They're told not to doubt. That's of Satan. Don't doubt. It's Satan who makes you doubt. If you've prayed and you prayed sincerely, where is Jesus right now? Well, Jesus is in my heart. That's what they're told. They're told that that's the basis of their assurance. The grounds of their assurance is the sincerity of their heart in praying to receive Christ. Is that the grounds of our assurance? Sincerity of your deceitful heart? Is that where our assurance is grounded? The sinner walks away with the understanding that he has savingly believed due to what he has done. He's made a decision. This is decisional regeneration. Over time, he begins to indulge and sin a little. Again, his fervor at one point waxes and wanes. I remember when I was 12 years old. I was the first time that I walked down the aisle to say a prayer and asked Jesus into my heart. And I was fervent for a while. Carried a Bible in my back pocket, talked to other people about Christ and I was no more saved than the Pope. I was just lost. I had departed the faith, ran headlong into my sin. My life became this inexorable march toward more and more sin, a fence against God. I was lost no matter how sincere those tears were that I cried when I walked the aisle. Over time, he begins to indulge and sin a little. He finds he has no power against it because there is no power against it apart from abiding in the vine. He slips back into all the same patterns of sin that he was in prior to being born again. And he says to himself, this is not of works. This life is not of works. I can do this or that and get forgiveness. All I've got to do then is ask for forgiveness. And he slips farther and farther into the world, sinning more and more as others do. And as he becomes more and more in this pattern, he justifies himself more and more confirmed in the idea that he can pretty much do as he pleases. Having no desire for the real truth of God's word, he morphs his theology. It's a theology of his own mind, his own creation, a theology of his own wicked heart to justify himself in his sin. And he believes that this is Christianity. I can just go and ask for forgiveness. So as the pastor then of the first Baptist church of the far country, he comes along, he looks at the congregation and he does the same thing. How can Christians live like this? So he says to them, says to himself, they must be carnal Christians. And he justifies them in their sin. Those that grow up in that church that want to be a pastor, maybe they come under a little bit of conviction. When I was 17 years old in just horrendous sin, I went down front again and crying to the pastor at the time about my sin and thought in my guilty conscience, with this kind of emotional response, maybe the Lord wanted me to be a pastor. Placating a guilty conscience had nothing to do with me becoming a pastor, just in sin. So they go to the denominational cemetery, I was seminary, where they teach the exact same thing. They teach the exact same methodology and the cycle continues, the cycle continues. This is the industrial machinery for mass producing false converts of cheap grace. It is not a grace that is efficacious in the life of the believer to turn them from sin. It is not a God wrought faith and repentance. It is a man-made pseudo-faith, pseudo-repentance at best. This is the product of a wicked man-made wisdom perverting and corrupting the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits, full of good fruits without partiality, without hypocrisy. You know, it's a law of nature, right? It's a law of God, a law of nature that we bring forth fruit after our own kind. It says that in Genesis chapter three. We bring forth fruit after our own kind. Well, if you're in Christ, if you're abiding in the vine, then you're gonna bring forth fruit according to your kind. And your kind is born again, Christian, born again in Christ abiding in the vine. You are a saved believer. You are bringing forth fruit of your own kind. What do these fruits look like? One, you have the fruits of repentance. Fruits of repentance will be there. In 2 Corinthians chapter seven, beginning in verse 10, the Bible says, for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. Now, let's take for a moment. How do you know the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow? You say that you wanna be saved. You wanna be in Christ. If you're abiding in the vine, if you're in Christ, you're going to produce godly sorrow and godly fruit over sin. How do I know that it's godly sorrow? How do I know that it's not worldly sorrow? Because godly sorrow produces fruit. Look at verse 11, for observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner, what diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, just righteous anger over sin, right? A hatred of sin, what fear, a fear, a healthy fear of the Lord, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication, a clearing of yourself, just don't wanna have anything to do with that sin anymore. I don't wanna be thought of in that way. I don't wanna have that stench on me any longer. Lord, help. In all things, it goes on to say you proved yourself to be clear in this manner. So it produces fruits of repentance. But this saving faith, this fruitful faith produces the fruit of obedience. Produces the fruit of obedience. If you're not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and obeying the Lord from the heart, you're not a Christian. The Lord calls us, the Spurgeon said this, I said, a man cannot really believe that Jesus Christ has taken away a sin by such sufferings as those of the cross and yet trifle with sin. Said, as a man is a liar who says, I believe that yonder bleeding savior suffered on account of my sins and yet holds good fellowship with the very sins that put Christ to death. Oh, sirs, he said, a faith in the bleeding savior is a faith that craves for vengeance upon every form of sin. You hate your sin. It's gonna produce the fruit of a hatred for sin. It's gonna produce the fruit of obedience in the Christian life. A Puritan said this. He said, a duty may be neglected and yet a man may be saved. But a duty persistently and willfully neglected may be the leak that will sink the ship. We're to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The fruit of genuine saving faith is obedience to the Lord. Are you obeying him? Are you living for him from the heart? Next, it produces the fruits of the Spirit. Galatians chapter five, verse 22. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against us there is no law. It produces the fruit of the Spirit. It produces the fruit of worship in spirit and in truth from a grateful heart. Produces the fruit of worship. Listen to Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 15. Here the Bible says, therefore by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. It's gonna produce worship. If you're biting in the vine, you're devouring his word, you're learning of him. It's gonna produce a worship in your heart for Christ. You wanna worship the Lord, honor the Lord, exalt the Lord. It's gonna produce worship. It produces the fruit of converts for Christ through evangelism. Talking about it, if you're in the Lord, it's gonna produce the fruit of you opening your mouth. Taking a stand for the Lord. Proverbs chapter 11, verse 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. He who wins souls is wise. It produces the fruit of a poor spirit. The fruit of a mourning over sin. A meek submission to the Lordship of Christ. It produces the fruit of a pure heart with a good conscience. Produces a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. You recognize these as the beatitudes. It produces a heart of mercy. It produces even the fruit of persecution. Right, second Timothy 312. All who desire to live godly in this present age will suffer persecution. And eventually it produces the fruit of life eternal. Amen. You must understand that you cannot do this in and of yourselves. We bear the fruit that he produces in us. You must make the connection. You must abide in him. We must draw near to him. He certainly draws near to us. It is he that works in us to will and to do according to his good pleasure. You must draw strength and empowerment from his spirit through his word. So you make the distinction. What fruit am I producing? What fruit's being produced? You'll know them by their fruit. You make the distinction. You check the connection. Am I in Christ? Am I abiding in the vine? Or am I doing this on my own? In my own grit with my own effort? You check the connection. And thirdly, you choose your direction. You're left with nothing. But choose your direction. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? Verse six, back in John chapter 15. Verse six says, 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. Verse seven, 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. There's two results here. There's condemnation, condemnation and there's joy, blessing and glory. There is either Christ or total collapse. One of the two. Which one do you want? It's an absurd thought to choose this fleeting and passing world. It is an absurd, ridiculous notion to choose the fleeting pleasures of sin, pleasurable for a season and to disregard what Christ has done to save sinners. It's an absurd choice but here it is. Condemnation or joy, blessing and the glory of God, your Creator, Christ or total collapse. This was said at a time when the disciples here in John 15 had the ideal object lesson of a false branch among them, Judas. Nothing left here with the false branches but to throw them into the fire. It's interesting when you think about the word that Christ used for hell in the New Testament often is Gehenna and Gehenna was a waste dump outside the city of Jerusalem where the worm never dies, the fire never goes out. It was a waste dump. If you can imagine Jerusalem, a pretty large city at that time, all of their refuse thrown into Gehenna. Dead animals, the leftover junk from cooking your food and the sacrifices thrown in Gehenna. The stench, the maggots, the filth, the bacteria, the stench. It was an awful, awful place and that was the depiction that Jesus used of hell. I think about that for a moment. What do you do with something you don't want? I can't keep that foul stinking filth in my own house. Now, honey, take the garbage out, traipse it down to Gehenna. What do you do with something that you've created to reflect your glory, to worship the sun and you've shed your blood to redeem? Give it everything, give it everything, including your own sun. What do you do with that that bites the hand that feeds it? What do you do with that foul stinking, filthy thing? What do you do with that that won't live to the purpose for which you created it? You take it to the dump. You throw it in Gehenna. We are created to bring glory to God the Father, to worship Him from our birth because sin and Adam, we rebel against Him. Matthew chapter seven, verse 21, this is not everyone who says to me, "'Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, "'but he who does the will of my Father in heaven, "'many will say to me in that day, "'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, "'cast out demons in your name, "'dun many wonders in your name?' "'And Christ says that I'll declare to them, "'I never knew you, depart from me, "'you who practice lawlessness would live for God." We're glorified to see God the Father glorified high and lifted up to exalt Christ who paid the ultimate price for sinners. And Jude rightly says, rightly says they are wells without water, these traders wells without water, these rebels, clowns without rain, they're carried about by the winds, they're late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, filming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Is that not an appropriate response to the rebellion of man against God? Holy God, our creator, however, here in verses six through eight, Christ in astounding mercy, in astounding patience, calls us into the miracle of who he is and what he has done by saying, abide in me, Christ must be our center, his word, his will, his glory, his life, his death, his resurrection, his intercession, Christ is our portion. Christianity is union with him. And by the grace that is from God, we must abide in the Lord Jesus Christ, turn from your sin, place your faith in Christ, your trust, your reliance, your hope. Is it an obvious choice? Why would you die? Why would you continue in this fruitless, empty husk of a life that you are clinging so tightly to? Why won't you place your faith in and trust in Christ to save you? Why wouldn't you follow him? We will not have a place in heaven because we're fruitful or without being fruitful. We don't earn a place in heaven, pardon me, by being fruitful. But we will not have a place in heaven without being fruitful. And that fruitfulness coming from abiding in Christ, abiding in the vine, the power of his spirit at work in us. Fruit is the distinguishing mark of the true Christian. Despite what cheap grace would say, despite the wicked, worldly reasoning of self-justifying, self-righteous men, fruit is the mark of the one in whom God is working. Fruit is the mark of the one who abides in him. Produce fruit for God's glory. Point three, choose your direction. The Lord Jesus Christ says, come, follow me. Will you follow him? He says, come, abide in me. I'll give you the water of life freely. Follow Christ, let's pray. Father in heaven, we praise you and worship you. We long to see our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, exalted God high and lifted up, worthy of all honor and praise and glory. So we praise you and thank you for this glorious truth, God. And Lord, I praise you, God. I'm so thankful to you, Lord, that it's not according to my own effort, now that it's not according to my works, and I can't do anything apart from Christ. Thank you, Lord. I'd be destitute and without hope in this world. Lord, your grace and in your mercy and your compassion, Lord, your loving kindness toward us, your patience with us, that you made provision for our sin, which you didn't have to do when we're so undeserving, the God you did. And then, Lord, you call us by your effectual working grace, God, and you draw us to yourself and you cause us to be born again, you make us alive in Christ, you give us with him every spiritual blessing, and you cause us by your spirit, God, to abide in him and to produce fruit, God, to produce this Christian life, which can amazingly sow, God, to be pleasing in your sight. What an awesome thought. So we praise you, we worship you, we thank you. God, protect us from this mindless, heartless, empty, ritualistic, religious nonsense that says that we can just be, just clean up the outside of the cup, and yet be a Christian when our inside is just full of dead men's bones. So we thank you, Lord, for the glorious working of your spirit in us, God, the glorious working, the outworking of your grace toward those who believe in that it produces this fruitful faith. Lord, and thank you, Lord, that you've given us that fruitful faith as a means by which we can examine ourselves and test ourselves, as Paul says, whether we're even in the faith. And thank you, Lord, that that fruit is a testimony of our trust, independence, and you, but also got a testimony of your great goodness and grace and saving wicked sinners to a lost and dying world Lord, certainly, that needs you. And we pray that we would be walking trophies of your grace, God, just displaying the beauty and excellencies of Christ for your glory, for your eternal worship and praise. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.