As we look here in John chapter 15 with verse 1, Jesus starts out here with a statement. He says, I am the true vine. This is one of many statements that Jesus made in the book of John that proclaims him as deity, that proclaims him as to be one with God. But what is he telling us here? (John 15:1) 1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. We look at the old testament and the vine related to the Jewish people, to the Israelites. They were considered divine, as a symbolic statue. As Mark read in Isaiah chapter 5 this morning, God prepared a vineyard. But that vineyard produced sour grapes. It was not intended to produce sour grapes, but it did. Jesus is talking to his disciples here. He is telling them that I am the true vine. The nation of Israel is not the true vine of God. They failed, they produced sour grapes. Their fruits were not worth making wine out of, only to throw away. They were of no good at all. But he says, I am the true vine. And he tells them you are the branches. He makes a metaphor here between the branches. There are two branches here. There are branches that produce good fruit and there are branches that do not produce fruit at all. And the father is the vine dresser. He is the vineyard. He takes care of the vineyard. He prunes away the vines and branches that do not produce any fruit at all. But then in tune with that, he also cares for the vines that are producing fruit so they can produce more fruit. And you notice here, as he is talking to his disciples, he says, you are already clean because of the word he has spoken to them. Now we know there was one who wasn’t clean and this was Judas Iscariot. But back in chapter 13 he had already brought out the fact that Judas was not one of them. And he was already about doing his business to do the coming of the people, to take Jesus away and crucify him on the cross. And the funny thing about that is, the other disciples didn’t realize there was anything different about Judas. Back in chapter 13 when he says the one that dips his bread in the cup with me and eats with me. It is he. He is the one who is going to betray me. But they didn’t realize, the scriptures say that they didn’t realize what Judas was about to do. They had no idea. Are any of us like that today? Do we look like sheep on the outside and raving wolves on the inside? Jesus said in verse 4; 4. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. Lets take a look back at Isaiah chapter 5. What is the fruit here that Jesus is telling the disciples that he is looking for? If you abide in me you will produce fruit. What is the fruit? The first thing that came to my mind was in Galations where it tells us the fruits of the spirit. But as I look back in chapter 5 of Isaiah and Isaiah was writing his song of praise to his lord, in chapter 5 verse 7 he says; 7. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: So Israel as a nation is a vineyard. And the vines of that vineyard are the children of Judah. They are the children. It goes on to say; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. I think the fruits God is looking for in his people are righteousness and justice. He is looking for us to be a righteous people. He is looking for us to be just in our actions to others. (John 15: 5) 5. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing You see, without Christ we can not be righteous. It is impossible for us to have a right standing with God until we come onto Jesus Christ. And why? Lets take a look in Romans chapter 10. Lets take a look at Paul’s prayer for Israel. (Romans 10:1,2) 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. You see, they weren’t part of the true vine. Their fruits were not righteous. They were not justified in their actions. They were not obedient onto God in a way he saw fit. (Romans 10:3,4) 3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. You see, before Christ came we had to work our way into a right standing with God. We had to follow these certain guidelines, follow these certain rules. We had certain sacrifices we had to make for peace offerings, for sin offerings. There were many different offerings that had to be made. But you know, the righteousness of God is the same then as it is now. It has not changed. 4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. You see, we can no longer go about to live our lives and be a good person. It is not possible for us to do. We no longer have to try and go around and live right. You see, it is faith. It comes from a faith in our hearts that we believe Jesus died for our sins and that he paid the price to reconcile us back to God because it is impossible for us to do. Therefore we don’t go around establishing good works any longer because we believe in Jesus and he does the good works for us. We no longer do sacrifices because Christ was the final sacrifice once and for all. He paid the penalty for death, our death, on the cross for each and everyone of us. He has made the way for us to come into a relationship with God again. You see, in Isaiah, he says, I have taken away my hedge. He has taken away his protection from his people. But it is through faith in him that we come back into that protection in Christ. Lets go back to John 15. (John 15:6) 6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. There are a lot of different theological beliefs in this that if you don’t maintain a right standing with God, if you don’t stay close to God in your life, that you are going to fall from grace. There are a lot of contradicting scriptures with this, and we won’t go into that. A lot of people think you are going to gain different crowns, that you going to have different rewards in heaven. And that your rewards will be tried by the fires. And that your rewards will stand in what you do. And what is not good and of God will not stand. But here I believe Jesus is making a metaphor between the vine and the branch. When a vine that produces a branch that does not produce fruit, the father cuts it off. The vines that do produce fruit, he prunes and he cleans and he nurtures so they bear more fruit. So this is an analogy against branches that produce fruit and branches that do not produce fruit. It is an analogy between people who work for God and try to serve him and stay close to him and the people who don’t try to stay close to him. This is the final judgement. This is hell fire and damnation. There will be weeping and mashing of teeth. This is the place that people who don’t accept Christ as their Saviour. This is an analogy that they will go to hell with satan and his demons. But those who do serve him and abide in him, they will have eternal life in heaven. Whether there are rewards or what. As Bob said in Sunday school this morning, we may not know all things, but we do know if we do abide in him and live for him and have trust and faith in him that we will be with him in heaven. (John 15:7,8) 7. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. How often do you have a prayer and it never seems to get answered? Isn’t that the big question when you read over scriptures like this? If you abide in me, if you are my child and you ask whatever you will, your prayer will be answered. The key here is we have to abide in Christ. We have to keep our heart in tune with God’s will. It’s easy for us to get off on our own will and desires. Sometimes we pray, Lord, give me a new home. Give me a new car. Those things glorify God, or to glorify self? We need a home. We need a job and a car to get around in our society. God knows we have need of these things. (John 15:9-11) 9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.11. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. I think Christ is letting his disciples and us know that he has abided in his father’s love. He has been obedient onto his father’s word. He ended up going to the cross and paying the penalty for our sins, the sins of the whole world. He is being obedient unto the father and the father is being obedient onto him. Therefore, we should take this as an example and as we abide in Christ we should be obedient onto Christ. Christ said he did not come to condemn the world but to save it. He said; 11. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Are we always joyous? Are we always full of joy? Not always, I don’t think. That is why we must always abide in Christ. We must continually stride to serve him and be as close to him as we can. The scripture all through here says we need to abide in Christ. What does it mean to you to abide in Christ? To abide or to remain with. We need to stay close to Christ. It is so easy in this world, especially today, to get drawn away in all the things this world has to offer us. Believe me, it gets pretty tough when you have to live in a trailer. It gets pretty tough when your family has to grow up with things and look around and see the world. They have a lot of other things in their lives. But you know what, I consider myself blessed because I have a home. I have a home that is paid for. My children have a roof over their head. That is what Christ said that he would give us. He knows our needs. If our hearts are in the right place he will bless us. And that is what he is telling us right here. Abide in me so your joy may be full. I have failed in that so many times. I know that is where I am right now. I know that is why in my life where I am right now. This sermon is not about me. It is about being obeying and being obedient to God and his service. If we are obedient onto God, he will give us blessings. He will give us joys that we never dreamed he could give us. I am telling you, people, we miss out on so many joys in our lives because we are so busy an we don’t go to him and abide like we should. You know, the closer we draw to him the more joys and blessings we will have in our life. Jesus said you have not because you ask not. We get so wrapped up in this life trying to make a living, trying to pay the bills, making sure our kids have this, making sure our wife has that, and food is one the table. But God knows we have all those needs. He will supply all those needs. He said you have not because you ask not. We know those blessings when they are of God. Other people look at them and say, well, that is just the way circumstances go, that is great. God knows us on a personal level and the more we abide in him the more that comes out and he shows in our lives. He says: (John 15:12,13) 12. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. In this, Jesus is not speaking of giving our life as literal. He is saying we ought to love someone as we love our self. We love ourselves enough to make sure we have food on the table. We love ourselves enough to have clothes on our back. We love ourselves enough that we can take care of our self, but we ought to have this love towards our fellow brothers. That is what Christ did when he came here. If we are to abide in Christ, that is what we should show. We should be a people who are willing to give. Look for ways to serve because one day there was a time that someone brought me to Christ. Someone opened their mouth and let me know that Christ loved me. They let me know there was a God and he cared about me. And you know that was told to me so many times, but there was one particular time when it rang true in my mind. My eyes were open and I saw the one true and living God. And he made that difference in my life. I missed out on all those things, basketball and sports, in my life because I was wild and missed out on a lot of that. God can give us things we never thought we could ever have. He gives us life eternal. He has made a provision for us to live and enjoy and to abide in him for eternity. Forever. Why shouldn’t we abide in that? Why shouldn’t we? God has called us friends. No longer are we servants, but are friends. He said here, a servant does not know the mind of his master, but friends do. Friends share with one another. God wants to share with you in all aspects of your life. Will you hear? Will you listen? Will you love one another? Will you love your neighbor? Will you love your enemy as yourself?

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