Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday,
February 17, 2019
John 15 = “Vine and the Branches” — some of the “Most Unique Principles” that our Lord and His disciples celebrated as they did, the night before His death .
In the middle of the Passover, our Lord would celebrate the blessings that God the Father planned — God the Holy Spirit reveals — God the Son to execute the Father’s plan.
Our Lord had spent and prepared His disciples to celebrate the greatest event that was about to take place at the “Last Passover” until the Lord was ready to come back and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
Our Lord began to reveal some of the most interesting doctrinal principles that come our way, as it did His, the night before the Cross.
Our Lord prepared for His disciples for one of the greatest relationships that ever existed between God and man.
The “Word of God” teaches us the importance of being accurate, especially when we are told that the Lord loves to see the respect that His people have for Him and for His ways.
Joh 15:1, The vinedresser metaphor refers to God the Father as the author of the predesigned plan from God, as well as your personal sense of destiny.
Vine metaphor = the humanity of Jesus Christ during the dispensation of the Hypostatic union where undiminished deity and true humanity now resides in one person forever.
God the Holy Spirit is in control of the life of God which is found in the souls of men; (that is either the man or the woman).
It is the ministry of fruit-bearing which is at work when the filling of the Spirit is alive within the believer resulting in the production of the divine good of the Spirit as Gal 5:22-23, teaches.
God’s Word;
God’s Power;
God’s Spirit!
All waiting for the will of God to be taught and to be applied by every member of the Church-age or the Royal Family.
Notice how the apostle Paul begins this section by reminding the believers in Galatia about the importance of the freedom and the liberty that our Lord wants His bride to function or to live by.
Freedom and liberty is a reflection of our Lord’s life and His word as he prepares himself for “Divine Blessings from above — that is the Power and the Spirit.
The main principle here is the key to “WHY” you and I can live the great spiritual life that God the father designed or created as we grow in God’s Word and God’s power.
For those of you who have studied with me the doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, this passage gives us all the knowledge and power that we need to function under.
Knowledge is power, and the power comes from the Word above, and like many other great passages these things are happening all around us.
JAM 1:17 Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.
Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from God the Father while the “Cosmic Christian” is unstable in all their ways; Jam 1:8; 4:8.
The apostle Paul said that “the whole Law or the fulfillment of God’s plan is fulfilled in one word, in the statement [that is in the doctrine that “You and I shall love others as we love ourselves.
There must NOT be any gossip or speaking evil because if we do so we will end up in spiritual cannibalism as GAL 5:15 warns us about “biting and devouring one another as we all do if we do not take care of our tongue.
JAM 1:19 “This you know, my beloved brethren. But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak [sins of the mental attitude and sins of the tongue] and slow to anger;”
This passage just gives us the power we need to serve and honor one another rather than speaking evil of one another.
The apostle Paul continues with the importance of GAL 5:16 where Paul tells us; “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
The battle goes on in GAL 5:17 were we are told that the flesh
[OSN) sets its desire against the Spirit [Gal 5:22, 2Co 5:17] while the Spirit is against the flesh;
Paul gives us some guidance and directions we all need to “live by” and “grow by” as in GAL 5:18, the divine answers we need, we are told that “It we are led by the Spirit, we will not be slaves to the Law.
The battle really begins as GAL 5:19 which says “The deeds of the OSN are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions.
In GAL 5:21, more of the deeds of the flesh or the deeds of the OSN is also revealed by the sins of envying, drunkenness, carousing, and many more things like these.
The apostle Paul says that he forewarned us about the fact that those who practice or live by these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
kleronomeo = nothing to do with inheriting salvation but it has to do with inheriting your very own inheritance of divine blessings.
The apostle Paul says that we should have the fruits or the productions of the Spirit.
The word fruit is the Greek noun karpos in the singular not the plural because it is theologically one fruit with nine different manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit.
Nine different manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit — it is not the fruits of the Spirit but the fruit (singular) which is called love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self‑control.
- Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience - Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self‑control.
“True vine” = our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ”
“Vinedresser = God the Father who clothes all believers.
“Branch” = Every believer in union with our Lord.
Fruit through the branch is a metaphor for the Church-age believer.
No fruit or production can be any better than the vine which produces it.
1JO 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
1JO 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.
Because of positional sanctification plus the grace provision of the three spiritual skills, it is possible for the believer to manufacture productive righteousness.
The vine metaphor emphasizes the fact that all precedence and all productive righteousness in the Church-age comes from the vine – our Lord Jesus Christ.
Joh 15:2 “Every branch [once again every believer]
“In Me” is a reference to the believer in union with Christ.
- Dead branches representing dead works or the production skills minus spiritual skills;
2. “Live branches” representing productive righteousness, or spiritual skills as the basis for production skills.
Joh 15:2; The branch in Christ that does not bear fruit refers to the believer who does not reveal the righteousness of God.
Dead works is not fruit-bearing and is punishable.
God the Father removes and takes away all dead wood, dead branches, branches which produce dead works.
God the Father takes away or removes the dead works through suffering in two categories:
1. The law of volitional responsibility which produces a tremendous amount of self-induced misery.
2. Divine Discipline.
Mat 7:17-19 = A true analogy, “Every healthy tree produces good fruit. And every diseased tree produces worthless [degenerate, or evil] fruit.
A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Pruning is necessary to redistribute where the energy for the Divine Production we should all desire to live by.
The branch that does bear fruit has to be pruned occasionally so that the spiritual skills will increase and maximize.
This is suffering for blessing.
Just as God provides divine discipline and punitive action for the non-fruit bearer, so God provides suffering for blessing for the fruit bearer.
Look once again at Joh 15:3-4 which are the cleansing of the branches for production.
Verse three is salvation cleansing of the branches.
Nothing in your life before salvation should be a hindrance to your production of the righteousness of God which should be alive in you.
ISA 43:25 “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.”
ISA 44:22 “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
In PHI 3:13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
PHI 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Now, back in Joh 15:4; this verse four refers to post-salvation cleansing of the branches, which is the rebound technique.
This is for any believer who desires to go forward in the plan that God has provided for those who desire to be cleansed naturally, mentally or spiritually.
Joh 15:4 “Abide in Me [fellowship], and I in you [cognition of Bible doctrine]. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit from itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
“Abide” is a command means that it is an experience after salvation for others to have and it is not a reference to positional sanctification which refers to the Baptism of the Spirit and being in union experientially with our Lord and Savior.
We know that this interpretation is correct because we are never commanded to be in union with Christ.
This is a command to remain in fellowship with God through the use of 1Jo 1:9, so that experientially you will be able to produce Divine Good.”
The believer can only produce productive righteousness when filled with God the Holy Spirit.
The branch in Christ of Joh 15:2 is positional sanctification, but the branch commanded to abide in Christ is the believer commanded to experiential sanctification through the filling of the Holy Spirit.
We are going to note the phrase “I in you” which is the command for the believer to learn and metabolize Bible doctrine.
The vine, TLJC, has provided for us the precedent, the pattern, and the information necessary to produce divine righteousness rather than a self-righteousness.
Abiding in Christ is the filling of the Spirit.
Christ in us is cognition of Bible doctrine.
These spiritual skills are required before we can produce “much fruit.”
The phrase “do nothing” is dead works, the function of production skills without spiritual skills.
The production of divine righteousness is a grace provision from God which meets God’s perfect standards.
God provides the means for fruit-bearing through the filling of the Holy Spirit, cognition of Bible doctrine, and through the attainment of spiritual adulthood.
Production skills minus spiritual skills result in dead works.
The believer who does not abide in Christ is out of fellowship, and therefore, minus the first spiritual skill, the filling of the Spirit
All dead works are judged and burned immediately after the Rapture of the Church, Rom 14:10; 2Co 5:10.
The drying up of the branch means that the believer minus spiritual skills dries up with the production of dead works.
Production skills minus spiritual skills equals dead works.
Whenever we get into a dead works syndrome, we will inevitably hurt other people and cause a lot of trouble, which means we will end up being hurt ourselves.
- The believer in fellowship.
b. The believer in doctrine.
c. The believer in prayer.
Abiding or remaining in Christ is reference to the Church Age believer in fellowship with God.
It is called “abiding” because the filling of the Holy Spirit only occurs in the PPOG.
When we reside in the PPOG, we reside in the place of the filling of the Holy Spirit.
The believer has fellowship with God on the basis of the fact that the Holy Spirit controls the soul of the believer.
The filling of the Holy Spirit produces productive righteousness.
The Filling of the Holy Spirit is the first spiritual skill.