in studying the Bible that we remember the literary and historical context. So I want to remind you that John communicates truth by the dialogue between people with each other and people with Jesus. That's how he communicates his truth.
That's that's one of the ways he does it. So a significant part of John's gospel is something that the other gospels leave out. John never records what we would call the sacraments, the baptism of Jesus.
Never records that or uh what we would call the Lord's supper or the Eucharist. Now what he does record is what they talked about in the upper room the night of the Lord's supper. Now this is totally absent from all the other gospels.
Just think about this. The other gospels were probably written the theories are vary but maybe 20 years after Jesus. They thought he was coming back soon.
So why write anything down at first? But the apostles started dying. So the gospels really started uh being written around probably 50.
But this upper room discourse all these beautiful text from 13 chapter 13-1 17 didn't appear until late in the first century. John didn't write till the middle 90s. So for 45 years this wonderful dialogue was not known by the early church.
There's some powerful text in here. Now we've done we've dealt with the foot washing. That was pretty much 13 and uh 14.
Now we're moving to another topic. Now this topic is a very famous topic but a topic that I think we tend to read into it more than read. Now I'm going to use my notes tonight.
I want to read a a couple of introductory notes and uh I want to make a comment before I read this. People often ask me, would you give me the name of the 10 books that have helped you the most understand the Bible? That's a good question and I I have tried to think about that through the years.
But what I want to give you tonight is the two authors that have mostly influenced my life in theology. One of them is a Plymouth brethren and he's the one I'm going to quote, FF Bruce, and his little book that I'm going to quote from is called Questions and Answers. Um, he wrote an article for Plymouth Brethren Magazine.
He's from England and he wrote a an article for years answering questions that people wrote in as a young pastor. uh issues that I'm going to deal with next week in my sermon like women in the church, uh speaking in tongues, uh baptism, baptism of the spirit, divorce, all these hairpull issues. I think I got the most balanced biblical information from this man.
If you know a young preacher, um, if you know somebody, you really want to get a book in their hands that'll help them struggle with some of these issues, I hope you'll go to amazon. com. This book is not in print, it's paperback, and it's called, it's in the notes, Answers to Questions by FF Bruce.
I'm going to quote from it. It has meant so much in my life that if I had to handcopy it, I think I would. While I'm on the subject, the other one is an Assembly of God author and his name is Gordon Fee and uh he is the one that wrote the book How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth, Gospel and Spirit.
Just an excellent scholar. These two, if you if you want a recommendation for me, and I would go to amazon. com, put these author's name in, their books are going to come up 75% discounted because it's online and they're used.
I think you'd be blessed. FF Bruce Garden fee. Now, here's the quote from FF Bruce about this text and it kind of fits in our question and answer time the other night.
I want you to hear this question. I want you to think about how you understand because this is the chapter on abide. Paul uses in Christ John uses abide.
Listen to FF Bruce. I'm going to make a little my little opening statement that I'll tell you when I'm quoting him. This is a wonderful and troubling passage.
It gives believers great encouragement of God's love and the promise of effectiveness, but it is also a dire warning. Theological traditions are often so difficult to discuss in this area. Let me quote one of my favorite commentators.
This is the quote. John 15 verse 4 and 6. What is meant by the expression unless you abide or by the quote if a man does not abide is it possible not to abide in Christ.
Passages like these are not difficult in themselves. The difficulty arises when we try to make them and other scriptures square with our theology. instead of using them as a basis for our theology.
At the very time when our Lord was speaking, there was a glaring example of one who failed to abide in him, Judas a Scariot who has just left the upper room. Judas was chosen as his 11 colleagues were. Their association with the Lord brought them no uh privileges which were not equally open to Judas.
The plain passages of scripture which teach the final perseverance of the saints should not be misused as an excuse to soft petal the equally plain passages of the danger of apostasy. Now see the word apostasy is a cuss word for us. But this text says, "If you do not bear fruit, the branches are cut off and burned.
" And we're talking about Jesus is the vine and believers are the branches. Now, this takes me back because this is a this is a terrible I've just how do I put this tactfully? Through the years, I have just killed myself on some of these issues.
And by killed myself, I mean prayed, read, cried, uh begged God for information. And after decades of struggling with these, I've come to a perspective. Uh students, sincere, aggressive, committed students asked me about these issues.
Early on in my teaching ministry, I would try to tell them in a summary what I came to over decades of study, prayer, tears, and agony, and they would go, "Oh, thank you very much. That's very interesting. That's an interesting perspect.
" They never paid the price themselves. I quit telling them because it was it was not right for me to tell them this where I came out which I'm not sure I'm right and and they not paying a price to find their own understanding and walk in it. You understand what I'm saying to you?
So I would like for you to let me try to stretch you. I I don't necessarily want you to agree with me. I mean I don't agree with me either sometimes.
Um, but I do take the Bible really, really seriously and I let the Bible be the guiding star, not what I've always heard. Um, let's look at 15. I'm going to try to do 1 through 17 if I can because it's pretty much a literary unit and it's about Jesus as the true vine.
And then beginning in verse 18, we're going to talk about the world, how believers fare in the world. um they hated Jesus, they're going to hate you. And that's surprising to us because we think we all should get 10% discounts for being Christians.
I am the true vine, Jesus said. Now, of course, you got to know who is this? This is a Jewish man talking to Jewish uh disciples.
In the Old Testament, Israel is often depicted as the grape vine. I hope you know that on Solomon's temple was a golden uh grape vine. Think of Isaiah uh 55, not 55, five about the vineyard of the Lord.
Best grapes, best ground. Um most of the places where this uh metaphor for Israel is used, I've listed them in your notes. I'm not going to quote them here, but most of them in in your notes are negative.
God did everything for the grape vine and the grape vine failed to bear fruit. Israel was not what her privileges should have made her. She had the one true God.
She had a God's revelation. She had the covenant. She had the patriarchs.
She had the Messiah. And Israel is characterized by unbelief in idolatry. It It's shocking and sad.
Now um I would go on to say that Jesus is addressing not only Jewish men but Jewish men have come to believe in him in in a real sense. I believe the church is the true Israel. Now when I say that I don't know it just depends on how much you have read in some of these areas and and how much you know of some of the these uh uh modern theologies connected here.
I really do not believe that the church replaces Israel. I mean, Israel has a unique historical place in the history of the revelation of God. But Israel is not the center of God's message to the world.
It's not come and be a Jew. It's not come and let's go to the synagogue. It's not come and let's rally around the law of Moses.
Israel is the source of our understanding of God's will for all human being. But if you look at Romans 2 where it says true circumcision is not of the body but of the heart. And the new covenant is not external performance.
Jeremiah 31:31-34. It is a new heart and a new mind. Internal performance.
And if Jesus is the new temple, the focus of the new worship, then we have got to realize that the true vine has become those who believe in Jesus Christ, not who your mother is. And if you have any doubt about that, tonight when you go home, I would ask you to read John 8:31-59. John 8:31-59.
a group of Jews bragging that they were Jews. And Jesus said, "It's not enough. Never has been enough.
" On that point, I would say to you, Baptists, your children aren't saved because their parents are Baptists either, right? There are no grandchildren in Christianity. Everyone has to come to him on their own, right?
So, we got to be careful. If we say Israel is not special because who your parents are, then we've got to recognize in the church today is not special who your parents are. As a matter of fact, the statistics today are shocking.
And that is that 85% of children who grow up in the church after they become adults do not attend church. 85% evangelicals. What's happening is we worry about our children and we try very quickly to have them saved and baptized and sometimes they haven't gone through the real pain of lossness first.
Those who are saved as adults tend to stick better than those who are saved younger. Now, that doesn't mean they're not saved. I would never say that.
But it does mean we may be picking green fruit. And the evidence is the the down the line years of commitment and faith. Okay.
Uh notice again in verse one uh Jesus says, "I'm the vine. My father is the vine dresser. " It is John that says Jesus says, "I don't tell you what I've heard.
I and I don't tell you what I believe. I don't I tell you what the father told me. I don't do this myself.
I do you what I saw the father do. " He again is linking his revelation to that of the father. Look at verse two.
Now, this is the one that scares me and it and I think we ought to be more scared by this. Not scared that we're going to lose our relationship with Christ, but scared that we've perverted what our relationship should be with Christ. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.
Now I think where this becomes so poignant to me is in the parable of the soils. You've got this seed that falls on several kinds of soils. The seed is the gospel.
Jesus talks about it. One soil is so hard the foot paths. It never germinates.
The birds get it. That's those who do not believe. But three of the four soils the seed germinates.
the plant comes up. One of them comes up in the weed roots and the weeds choke it out. One comes up in the shallow soil and the sun kills it with the heat.
Of the four soils, only one germinates to fruit bearing. And that is the only soil that Jesus said is truly redeemed. Now, it doesn't matter how much fruit, some 30, some 60, some 100.
But fruitbearing is the evidence of salvation, not germination. Now see that flip-flops the way we normally talk about this as trusting Christ. I certainly believe we need to trust Christ.
But I want to tell you this and I want to say it as strongly as I know how. If you have trusted Christ and there is no change in your heart and mind and lifestyle, I can say to you biblically, there are warning lights everywhere about your relationship with Christ. We are not saved because of the fruit, but the fruit is the mark of the evidence that we've met him.
I would be very hardressed tonight to define what fruit means. Some say it's evangelism. That's easy for those who are evangelists to say.
Some say it's it's Christ likeness. I would probably tend to be more in line with that. Other it's just the idea of seeking to serve him.
It's a new world view. Um, you can't meet Jesus and not be changed. Can I put it that way?
Now, some change fast and some change slow. I know that. Some fall and have to get up and fall again and have to get up.
I know that and have no problem with that. But I must admit to you what just kills me is the people I see in politics and the people I see in churches who claim to know Jesus Christ and get caught in this horrible greed, sex, me and more because it's a bad witness to the whole church. Now certainly they could be saved.
You know, we talk a lot in the Baptist church about being backsliden. I want you to know as a Bible teacher, there is almost if if probably no scriptures about backsliding. May I say that again?
There are no scriptures about backsliding. We have taken something that the Bible doesn't talk about to explain the shallowess of American Christianity. I'm over it.
He prunes it. This is the word for cleanse. We get the Greek word catharsis from this about a cleansing a catharsis experience we call it.
This is this Greek word. Now the word cleansing it. Why?
Have you ever seen a um an orchard that's been pruned? Have you ever seen a grape vine that's been prun? My soul, you'd think that person hated that grape vine.
They cut everything off. That little stick sticking up is it. Everything's been cut.
Why? Because the new vines next year will grow more grapes than the huge old vines that are there from this year. Do you mean that God disciplines us and acts as a parent in our lives to help us be more fruitful?
That's what I'm saying to you. Many of the things we go through is not just simply bad luck, fate. Oh my, what?
No, no, no. I think if Jesus was perfected by the things that he suffered, Hebrews 5'8, that God is working in our lives, by the things that happened to us in a fallen world to help us be more like him, to trust him, and to show others what he's really like. The notes say, "The pruning maximizes the fruit bearing, exposes fakes, and keeps us dependent on God.
" Amen. We never get to the place we raise the flag and say, "Spirit, I'll take it from here. " No.
No. We never get there. I want to read one more note if I could.
It's if you're following me, it's it's the second item at verse 152. It is possible because of the context of chapter 13-1 17 to relate this cleansing back to the foot washing of chapter 13. They were already bathed.
I hope you remember back in 13 there are two words for wash. One means to wash the whole body and one means two separate Greek words. One means to wash part of the body.
It almost is like Jesus is saying you were completely washed the word that you received. The Bible it does it two way. We receive Jesus, God's revelation, and we receive his teaching and word.
The word and Jesus are both ways of talking about the revelation of God to which we respond. They have been cleansed. Now, remember I mentioned that washing the feet may be an example of ongoing cleansing.
First John 1:9, right? Um with that wonderful text written to Christians that if we're, you know, he's faithful and just will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's talking to Christians.
That's real possible. Or it is equally possible all of this is relating to Judas. Equally possible in this context that all of it is relating to him.
Um it is not only obedience that is required for abiding but also ongoing repentance. The purpose of suffering in the life of the believer may have several aspects. Number one, develop Christlikkeness.
Number two, temporal punishment for sins. Does sin have consequences in the life of believers? Yes.
Some Christians have done things that have damaged their witness, their giftedness, and their potential for service. Would you agree with me that third? Uh it's simply life in a fallen world.
Now I just want to take my visa. Did that visa happen because I was thoughtless and stupid or did that visa happened because God had another plan? Do I know?
Do I know if I have a wreck on the way home tonight if that's because I speed? I'm a preacher. I exaggerate.
I like chicken and I speed. That's how you know you're called. I'm at three of them.
Now, if I have a wreck, is that just living in a fallen world and so many cars going from Monroe to Texas are going to have a wreck in a year? There is a statistical number. You know that, right?
There's a statistical number. It's going to happen. I don't care how good a driver, there is a statistical number of wrecks going to happen on that highway.
Now, do I have a wreck because I sin the day before? Because God wants me to grow? Do I hit somebody that God wants to get?
See, I have no clue about that. I choose to believe. I want you to hear what I'm saying.
I do not know. I choose as a believer to believe that nothing just happens to God's children. I choose to try to take every event without spying trying to identify the source, without blaming God.
I try to take every experience and say all right I don't know why I'm here I don't know why me I don't know why now I don't know why this I choose to believe you are with me and for me and something good can come out of this that is a mental that is a mental worldview commitment more more than a precise scriptural understanding and I want to tell you the book that has really helped me in this area and if you have struggle in this area. You haven't thought about this much because all of us are going to get into things we wonder why me, why now? Why this?
And this is a I remember years ago when I first read this, it's a little hard to read, I must admit, but oh, it's just great book. It's out of print. Of course, all the books I know are out of print.
I'm out of print. Um, it's a Quaker lady from the 1800s. Her name is Hannah Whitall Smith and her book is The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life.
Now, I want to tell you when I have family members who are why me, why this, why now, this is what I send to them. This is what I send. This book has been such a blessing to me.
I don't the the line that always gets me is faith does not know that it has wings until it's knocked off its feet. Untested faith may be true faith, but it's never vibrant faith. Okay.
Um, notice in verse four, abide in me and I in you. Now, I think it's really important here. Um, this is an imperative.
This is a command. This is a command to continue to abide. Um, how does that fit with our emphasis on once saved, always saved?
A command to continue to abide. It does not fit. The Bible is an eastern book.
We are western thinkers. We are used to syllogistic logic and propositional truth. Eastern people are used to tensionfilled truth.
Live in the tension. Most theological truths come in tensionfilled pairs. The biblical statements.
Now I'm going to say this. It's going to bother you when I say it. I hope you'll think about it before you react.
The biblical statements are usually hyperboles, overstatements. They usually overstate the truth from two sides to make us struggle with the implications of the middle. Is God sovereign or do human beings have to choose?
Are we secure or must we persevere? And every truth is like that. And it's not that you get to pick one half or the other.
That's what denominations have done. And what they do is the Bible says it right here. That settles it.
Yes. But the Bible says other things on this subject. John 15 is another statement from the Bible.
And it says a command, abide in me. Abide in me. It look at verse five.
He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. Here is the promise that if you believe and trust irregardless of circumstances, your life will be effective. It's effective because of who Jesus is, not because of who you are or are not.
This is a promise. Cling to me and I will through you. Man, what a great promise that is.
All of us get to the place we wonder, I could have done so much more if we are yielded to him. I tell young preachers that, you know, they're they're really freaky about two things. Whom I'm going to marry and where am I going to go.
I'm sick of the whom I'm going to marry one. Just get over it. It'll happen.
Hormones are good. It'll it'll happen. The other one, where do I go?
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where you go. The only option we have as believers is Lord, here am I.
Send me. Everything else is up to him. Every we have no decision of where.
We have decision of availability. Do you hear what I'm saying to you? When we say I'm available, then he will direct our path to where he wants us.
And we got to get over this greener grass syndrome of I wish I did. I wish I was. I wish I had.
All of that is from the evil one. All of it. Look at this negative.
15 is the positive. Believers are promised effective service if they abide. Now look at the next phrase.
Apart from me, you can do nothing. There's the positive statement balanced by the negative statement. If we abide in him, we'll have effective fruit.
Well, apart from him, we can do nothing. Now, several times this statement is made and sometimes the positive, sometimes the negative. But but the the the key is true.
Jesus is the vine. The vine produces the fruit. The branches don't produce the fruit, but the branches must stay connected to the vine.
Then the vine will produce the fruit. How much fruit? What kind?
This is where I like pe Well, people say, "Oh, being a preacher is the greatest call of God. " That is not true. Doing the will of God is the greatest call of God.
There is no distinction between the gifts. Amen. The Holy Spirit does not give junk.
If you're a housewife or a policeman or a lawyer and you believe God led you to that and that's what he wants you to be, God bless you. There is no distinction between these vocational choices if we're sold out to him. What you do is not the issue.
Who you are in him is the issue. Is the issue. Notice in verse six, if anyone does not remain in me, holy moly, the negative alternative is stated again.
If anyone does not remain in me, he's he's Jesus is speaking to a the disciples in the upper room. Now he speak is he speaking about Judas, is he speaking about Israel? Or is he speaking about false faith?
I wish I knew. I don't know. But the options are there.
Verse seven, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, now this is a third class conditional if, which means potential action. It's not certain. It's not It's not a command.
So what does it mean if you abide in me? Well, you can. It's not a first class.
You will. There is a contingency here. My words abide in you.
Now, this is where abiding in Jesus and abiding in God's word, it is made equal. I I I want to say that the that the gospel is a person to be welcome. It's also truths taught by that person.
Can I Can I just say, 'Well, I know Jesus, but I I don't I I don't do what he tells me to do. Is that fair? No.
Can I just say, 'Well, I know the Bible really well. I can I can answer questions about the Bible, but not have an intimate personal relationship with Jesus. I have met people who I think know the Bible well just for the purpose of refuting believers who try to witness to him.
They're lost. It is a personal relationship and a willingness to to act and abide in the truths that he taught. It's it's a both end.
Um now I I want you to look at your Bible in verse 7. I want to scream and holler and jump and down. I have heard this preached on so much I just want to throw up because what's usually happened this little phrase, whatever you wish, whatever you ask, it shall be done.
that's just pulled right out of the context of the upper room and turned into a health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. Now, it is very true. This is repeated several times in John and in Matthew.
Jesus says this several times. I have done a special topic in these notes and I've listed it for you here. It's called prayer unlimited yet limited.
It's in 1 John 3:22. Matter of fact, my my special topic on the word abide is in 1 John 2:10. So if you have the notes and we'll tonight look back there.
Here again is this problem of taking one verse pulling it out of the context and it making it everything. Is it has it been your Christian experience that everything you ask for you get? Has that been your experience in prayer?
It has not been mine. Have have we asked sincerely? Have we asked uh with enthusiasm?
Yes. But the Bible also lists some conditions for answered prayer. It's not just whatever you ask.
Listen to these conditions. Whatever you ask in my name. Now that is not just sticking in Jesus' name on the end of a selfish prayer either.
In Jesus' name means in his personality in his character. Keep on seeking keep on knocking and it shall be open. Persistence.
Whatever you ask, not spending it on your own lust. James, whatever you ask without doubting, James. These are all conditions to answer prayer.
The worst thing God could do to most Americans is answer their selfish, materialistic, more for me prayers. Because people will become Christians for all the wrong reasons. Do you become a Christian for what you can get out of it?
Or do you become a Christian because of him who died in our place? Are you in this just for what you can get? Or are you in this because we found peace and joy and forgiveness in him.
Verse n verse eight, the father will be glorified by answered prayer. And I think the answer prayer here is bearing much fruit in context. And what is bearing much fruit in my opinion?
Christlike living. If we lived like Christ, our prayers would probably get answered. Abide in my love.
I want you to look at my note here. Just let me me read it. Believers are commanded to abide.
Here's the list. Abide in prayer. Verse 7.
Abide in obedience. Verse 10. Verse 20.
Abide in joy. Verse 11. Abide in love.
Verse 12. All of these are evidence of a personal relationship with God. What's the evidence?
Prayer, obedience, joy, and love. Don't tell me you're a Christian if there's no prayer, no obedience, no joy, and no love. This is the fruit.
By their fruit ye shall know them. Matthew 7, good fruit does not grow on bad trees. Bad fruit does not grow on good trees.
By their fruit, prayer, obedience, joy, love. Do you know him? Do you talk to him?
Are you happy irregardless of circumstances? Do you do what he tells you to do if you understand it? These the these are not easy questions.
Look at verse 10. If you keep my commandments, now I've made a I've underlined this in purple. Obedience is an evidence of true disciplehip.
Chapter 831. Chapter 14:es 15- 21. Chapter 14:es 23 and 24.
Luke 6:46. Jesus said, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things I tell you to do? " First John over and over, a new commandment.
That's not a a new suggestion. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you. If there are Christians that you don't love, you need to get your heart right.
If there are people in this church who hurt your feelings and you're holding a grudge, it's going to damage your relationship with Christ. He'll fix it. You love and forgive just as I have kept my father's commandments.
And why do we do this? that your joy may be made full. Verse 11.
I'm going to quit there. Brothers and sisters, I forgot who said this. It was someone, you know.
Who was it? Might have been Hershel Hobbs. I don't.
Listening to sermons is a dangerous thing because if you didn't know, that's one thing, but texts like this and us going through them like this, you can't leave this building and claim you don't know about this. And the kicker is not that you vote whether you like it or enjoy the presentation or agree with all the points. The kicker is you can't leave this building without thinking about these truths.
The worst thing I can think of is hearing this kind of truth and being completely unchanged and unaffective. Yeah. So the question is what is this saying to me?
What what what is this about my life? What of this paragraph is the Holy Spirit trying to apply to me? I can't answer that for you.
But I guarantee you this. I don't believe you're here by accident. And I don't believe this text was written as a historical document only.
This is the living word of God. And we're called on to abide, to pray, to obey, to love, and to be full of joy. Would you bow your heads?
Now, folks, if one of those is missing, you need to talk to the Lord. If there's no joy in your heart, something's wrong. If there is known known known disobedience, it's going to affect your worship.
It's going to affect your joy. It's going to affect your peace. It's going to affect your assurance.
It's going to affect your worship. If there's known unlove, if there are people you really don't like and haven't dealt with, it's going to hurt your relationship with Christ. I don't know what the Holy Spirit wants to do.
I'm not going to give an imitation. It's not important me to give invitation. But I want to say this to you.
The days ahead will tell if you took seriously these words. If you have been cleansed by the word, if you have been abided and indwelt with by the spirit of Jesus, and if you abide in him is how you respond to these things. Lord, we thank you for the privilege of gathering in your name.
We know that many brothers and sisters around the world would so enjoy getting together to study your book, but are not allowed to. Many don't even have your book in their own language. We pray for them.
We thank you for our blessings. But we know that our blessings bring a spiritual responsibility. And we pray the spirit would have freedom in each of our lives to show us those areas, those areas that might keep others who know us from trusting you.
those areas that are not not pleasing to you in our lives. We pray that people that we know, whether at church or at work or at school or the neighborhood, will know by the way we treat them and others that we've been with you and there's something different about our lives. We ask Lord for this supernatural light to shine in the way we treat each other, the way we worship together, the way we reach out, and the way we try to be the people of God in this place, in this time.
We need your mercy. We need your empowering.
