Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
What it means to be initiated into the secret of the mystery. Part 70. The mystery of the fruit of the vine.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Grace Bible Church
Pastor/Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday,
July 13, 2005
The keyword or the key term is abide; it appears 10 times in the eleven verses.
The second part of the chapter, verses 12-17, talks about the relationship of believer with believer and the key word is Love.
One other relationship that is continually a matter of struggle = the believer with the world, the last part of the chapter, 18-27.
What the eagle means to you as a national emblem, the vine and the branch meant to the Israelite.
What is a vinedresser?
It’s the gardener, the one who carries out the whole work of cultivating, pruning, working with the vine.
As the vinedresser dealing with fruit from the branches, I believe that God not only brings times and seasons to change the trees and to change the weather but to change His children.
God gives us certain seasons that we might pause and reflect, that we might look within ourselves as we look back and reflect on what direction we are going in.
TLJC says something regarding position, and then He says something regarding production; they are not the same, they are mutually exclusive.
ROM 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
God says, I looked at my vineyard and I wanted to see reproductions of my life and I did not find it.
He names 2 reproductions, justice and righteousness.
That is not in the light or idea of fruit; bearing fruit has to do with reproducing the life of the vine in the fruit of the branch.
The Lord never once commands us to bear fruit, He commands us to abide in him, and when we abide in Him, fruit comes.....and it comes in abundance.
I exchanged the energy of the flesh for the work of God the Holy Spirit in my life.
Unfortunately, in our day and age, and with little apparent thought for the implications involved, Christian leaders have crammed upon believers the idea that Christian character is a thing to be built by strenuous self-effort and self discipline.
Galatians 5:22-23 is the shortest life of Christ ever written, for the fruit of the Spirit is the outliving of the in-living Christ.
Dr. Scofield - “Christian character is not mere moral or legal correctness but the possession and manifestation of nine graces: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.”
JOH 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
Fruit - nominative singular masculine noun “karpos” = production, in the singular revealing the fact that God the Holy Spirit has to develop in us all nine of the characteristics which are about to be mentioned.
“Of the Spirit” - tou + ablative of source - pneumatos = God the Holy Spirit.
Pres-act-ind - estin - e*stin = “it keeps on being”
The first part of the fruit - nominative singular feminine noun “agape” = love.
Since the Holy Spirit declares that “agape” love is the greatest virtue of all, 1CO 13:13, it is reasonable that it should stand first on the list of the fruit of the Spirit.
Agape love is a relaxed mental attitude love.
Agape love is a mental attitude love which manifests itself through thoughtfulness of others, good manners, being relaxed around others and avoiding the sins of the tongue.
Doctrine gives integrity, concentration, the Royal Family Honor Code, spirituality, stability, which all add up to genuine love.
Agape love is unconditional - you will accept and tolerate people as you find them.
Agape love contains built-in virtue and therefore has capacity for true love in friendship, romance, marriage, and all other human interaction.
God the Holy Spirit has produced this love in you when you can handle being the victim of others’ mental attitude sins.
1. Agape love is that problem solving device of Christianity which is defined as unconditional love toward all mankind.
2. Being impersonal, agape love emphasizes the virtue of the subject rather than attraction to an object or rapport with an object.
3. Agape love toward all mankind is the ultimate expression of virtue.
It is also the ultimate expression of humility.
4. Agape love for all mankind is the ultimate expression of virtue, humility, objectivity, and is the basis for being receptive to Bible doctrine, which is the basis for growing in grace and knowledge!