I Am The True Vine (You Are The Branches) - John 15 V 1-11 This Is Part 2 Series

I AM THE TRUE VINE (You are the branches) - John 15 v 1-11 THIS IS PART 2

Welcome to the last Part in this series of messages on the “I AMs” of John’s gospel. We are continuing the thoughts in “I am the Vine” that has much to do with bearing fruit and abiding or remaining.

Last time in PART 1 we looked at the vineyard, and the Father’s special care of it. We looked at the pruning that has to be done, and the discipline of the branches so they might produce more fruit. The passage is all about bearing fruit. We saw that the pruning has nothing to do with loss of salvation. In verse 2 it says “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away,” and in some places, there are people who try to teach that a Christian who falls into sin has been cut off from the Vine and has lost salvation. That is a wrong understanding of what the passage is about.

So much of this confusion about salvation is because of the Charismatic movement that thinks people can wander in and out of salvation. It thinks a person must keep himself and it does not realise the keeping is done by the Lord. The branches are kept by the Vine, not the other way around. Go back to the Good Shepherd “I AM”, where we learn the wayward sheep received the rod of discipline, not picked up by the scruff of the neck and thrown out of the sheepfold. The loss of salvation is a horrible doctrine, one falsehood from the Charismatic movement. The sheep are kept by the Shepherd, not the other way around. I want to be crystal clear about that. Eternal security is a biblical reality.

I will add one quote from Pastor in Rotorua (New Zealand) as he sums this up well I think -

[[The Bible clearly teaches that Christians are secure in their salvation in Jesus Christ, not because of their behaviour, but because of the person of Jesus. Ultimately they believe in a different Jesus - One who cannot keep them (I Peter 1:5), preserve them (Jude 1:1), protect them (John 10:28-29), or seal them “until the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).]]

VERSE 3

{{John 15:3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”}} This verse confirms the true nature of God’s word. The word cleanses. Two of the best known verses supporting this are, firstly, from the Psalms, – {{Psalm 119 v 9 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word”}} (clean and pure); and this passage in Ephesians speaking of what Christ does for His Church – {{Ephesians 5 v 26 “that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, Eph 5:27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless.”}} The glorious Church, the Body of Christ, is comprised of individuals, who, each one, needs cleansing by the word of God to be presented to Christ with His glory, having no spot or wrinkle. This is the work of the Father as He tends to the branches, and prunes what needs to be pruned. Let the bible do its work in your lives. Know the word of God!

VERSES 4 AND 5

{{John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. John 15:5 I am the vine and 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.”}}

These verses are all about dependency, abiding or remaining, closeness and connection. I want you to picture this – a grape vine has the branches attached, but the odd branch, is just not responding to its place in the vine, and it is not productive, not doing what it is supposed to be doing. Why might that be? Is there any restriction? Now I want to make that application to Christ and His people. If those branches in Him, the True Vine, are not producing fruit, it is because something in the branches is causing restriction of the goodness of the sap that is meant to flow through them. The branch actually resists the Vine. The lack of fruit is proof of that.

How many of you are resisting the Saviour because you are afraid of a deeper commitment. The Holy Spirit wants to lead His people into all truth, but some are reluctant to follow because they are afraid of deeper commitment. Remember this, it is the sheep that walks closest to the Shepherd along the path, who knows Him best. Be a branch that is willing to open the channels within it, to receive as much goodness from the Vine as you possibly can. You will know Him through the word of God. Allow the Father to prune the useless parts, the selfish, the sinful parts from your life so the work of the Holy Spirit can flow through you unrestricted.