Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday,
April 12, 2019
First, we have the branches which reveals believers.
“in me” = reveals the Indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ.
JOH 15:2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.
Relationships & Intimacy = know that Christ indwells us and because He does, we should treat one another as we would want others to treat us; MAT 25:40; Luk 6:31.
LUK 6:31 "And just as you want people to treat you, treat them in the same way.
JOH 15:2 "Every branch [believer] in Me [TLJC] that does not bear fruit, He [Father] takes away; and every branch [believer] that bears fruit, He [Father] prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.
Throughout this passage the apostle John uses the vine, the vinedresser and the branches as a metaphor to represent the relationship of the believer with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have the vine and the branches used as a metaphor to represent the unity between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Church-age believer.
Vine = the Lord Jesus Christ.
Branch = believers of the Church-age.
Vinedresser represents God the Father.
The vinedresser metaphor refers to God the Father as the author of the PPOG = with emphasis on the PPOG that God the Father created for every Church-age believer.
The Vine Metaphor = refers to the humanity of Jesus Christ during the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union -- This metaphor will focus in on the servant-hood of our Lord.
The branch metaphor refers to the believer who is the basis to produce divine good or fruit-bearing.
martures = we get our word for martyrs or for someone who is willing to give their life to something or for someone.
All precedence and all production of divine good in the Church-age comes from the vine - our Lord Jesus Christ.
"in me" is a reference to the believer in Union with the Lord Jesus Christ; Col 1:27; Joh 14:20.
"Dead branches" representing dead works on the part of the believer or the production skills minus spiritual skills.
“production skills minus spiritual skills” = we know what we should be doing as far as our production skills are concerned, but the average believer lacks the spiritual skills needed to fulfill the production skills.
There are three principles of doctrine that I need to make sure that all of us understand as the basic doctrines that we need to learn, to metabolize, or to apply.
These Doctrines Are:
1. The Two Power Options.
2. The Three Spiritual Skills.
3. The Four Spiritual Mechanics.
The “Two Power Options” are being filled with the Spirit and the power of the word of God; Eph 5:18; Heb 4:12.
The filling of the Holy Spirit is the first power option and the first spiritual skill in the spiritual life.
Without the filling of the Spirit we do not have the power to live the Christian way of life.
The filling of the Spirit converts human I.Q. into spiritual I.Q., so that we have equality to learn spiritual phenomena as taught in 1Co 2.
The third spiritual skill is the problem-solving devices deployed on the FLOT line of the soul also known as the Forward line of troops which is a military acronym.
There are also the Four Spiritual Mechanics. This refers to the filling of the Holy Spirit (PSD#1 & 2), metabolized Bible doctrine (MD) circulating in the soul (10 PSD), the execution of the PPOG.
The "dead branches" represent dead works on the part of the believer or the production skills minus spiritual skills which means that we produce human good with human power.
The branches that are called "live branches" represent the ability of the believer who knows that divine good only results from living by using the spiritual skills.
Question: What are the spiritual skills?
The spiritual skills refer to what the branch "in me" that does not bear fruit refers to the believer who does not produce divine good.
Two categories of branches referred to as “dead” branches” or “alive branches” or loser believers and winner believers.
1JO 2:28 “To shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”
The prepositional phrase “Kai me aischunomai which means to be embarrassed; to feel shame; to be ashamed.
It means guilty because of one's actions, characteristics, or associations --- saying things like "you should be ashamed of yourself."
(a) Drifting off course from grace, GAL 5:4.
(b) Coming short of the grace of God, HEB 12:15.
The Apostle Paul told them that they had been severed or cut off from the Lord Jesus Christ and they were seeking to be justified by the Mosaic Law and they have fallen from grace.
(a) Drifting off course from grace, GAL 5:4.
(b) They had come short of the grace of God and were in danger of becoming Loser Believers plagued by bitterness; HEB 12:15.
(c) Lukewarm Loser believers, REV 3:15-16.
(d) Shipwrecked believers, 1TI 1:19.
(e) Believers who became psycho or double-minded, JAM 1:8; 4:8.
(f) Those who fail to metabolize doctrine, JAM 1:22-24.
(g) Enemies of the Cross, PHI 3:18-19.
They were drenched in fear and hysteria – fear, worry, anxiety, panic, confusion, irrationality, and garbage in the soul result from being a loser believer.
Fear is a road block preventing metabolization of doctrine from circulating in the soul and eventually choking it out through scar tissue of the soul.
2TI 1:7 “God has not given to us a lifestyle of fear, but of power and of virtue-love and of sound mind.”
Hatred – anger, hatred, bitter jealousy, loathing, animosity, vulnerability to imagined insults or injury, implacability, malice, tantrums, irrational violence, and even murder.
The selfish Loser Believer who is said to be of the Self-centered category- or the self-justification category, self-deception, self-absorption; etc.
Reaction Category = jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, hatred, vilification, malice, revenge motivation and operation, inordinate ambition and inordinate competition, all accompany this problem.
In verse 2, notice that 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 disciplinary suffering in two categories:
- The law of volitional responsibility which produces a tremendous amount of self-induced misery;
2. Divine Discipline. - The law of volitional responsibility which produces a tremendous amount of self-induced misery and divine discipline.
- We also have the principle of pruning which is necessary to redistribute where the energy for divine production should go.
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.
Prin: Just as God provides divine discipline and punitive action for the non-fruit bearer, so God provides suffering for blessing for the fruit-bearer.
In verses 3-4 of Joh 15, we are the cleansing of the branches for production.
Verse three is salvation cleansing of the branches.
Nothing in your life, including what you thought, what you said and what you do, can ever hinder your spiritual life = including your past.
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."
Nothing that ever happened to you before salvation should be a hindrance to your worship of the Lord and the production of divine good.
Back now to Joh 15:4, where verse four refers to post-salvation cleansing of the branches, which is in 1Jo 1:9.
Post-salvation refers to the cleansing of the branches from personal sins which took place after your salvation and that is which is found in 1Jo 1:9 for us as it was found in Psa 32 for the Old Testament believers.
Joh 15:4 "Abide in me [fellowship], and I in you [command for understanding the indwelling of Jesus Christ and His mind which is Bible doctrine].
"abide" = an aorist active imperative of the verb meno which is a command that means that it is an experience that the believer goes through after salvation and not a reference to positional sanctification.
The verb that is being used in a certain passage is given with what we call a tense, then a voice, and finally a mood.
Joh 15:4 -- abide = aorist active imperative of the verb meno = a command that means that it is an experience that the believer goes through after salvation and not a reference to positional sanctification.
The verb that is being used in a certain passage is given with what we call a tense, then a voice, and finally a mood.
The Greek verb meno was in the aorist tense which is a tense that reveals that there are certain points of time that the believer must set aside or certain points of time that the believer has set aside to rest in the Lord.
The active voice says that the believer produces the action of the verb which is to be at rest or to abide in rest with the Lord.
The imperative mood says that this is a command for believers to fulfill and chooses to set time aside for R & R with the Lord.
Abide = command to R &R (Rest and Relax);
Experience = lifestyle of the believer.
Positional = how our Lord looks upon all believers.
Sanctification = devotion and dedication to the PPOG.
We are never commanded to try and change or add to our position in Union with Christ.
The principle of accurate Theology says that knowing who we are in our position in Christ will change our condition, however, knowing our condition can have absolutely no power to effect our position.
Prin: Knowing your position effects your condition but knowing your condition cannot effect your position.
Second prin: Knowing Positional Truth can change your condition but knowing the truth concerning your condition cannot change your position.
Third Prin: Knowing your position in Christ can change your condition in Christ.
Fourth Prin: Your condition can never change your position but your position can change your condition.
Fifth Prin: All spiritual life and growth is based 'upon the principle of our position not our condition. It can be summed up in one word: source."
We must allow what we are in fact to become what we are in experience.
We all know that the Lord is our source (i.e., our everything) and we are complete in Him; Col 2:10.
We must let this reality become an experienced reality.
It is faith in the facts of our position that gives us the daily benefits of growth in our condition."