"Ye Can Do Nothing"

Text: John 15:1-5

-Key verse 5, Jesus says, "for without me ye can do nothing"

-Prerequisites for bearing real fruit.

1) Must be saved, born again, must be one of the branches

attached to the vine, the Lord Jesus Christ.

-You must abide or dwell in Christ and He must abide or dwell in you.

-This is accomplished the moment a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit of God comes and seals and indwells that individual until the day of redemption.

-So, first you must be saved

2) You can’t bear real fruit by yourself or in your flesh.

-Christ has to do the work.

-Christ is the one that does the fruit bearing through you.

-Remember, Jesus said, "for without me ye can do nothing."

-The more your life is yielded over to him the more fruit he will bear through you.

-Christ was able to bear much fruit through the life of the Apostle Paul, not because he was a well-educated person and he was or because he a wonderful family and religious background and he certaintly did.

-No, Christ was able to bear much fruit through the life of the Apostle Paul because Paul was totally yielded to Christ.

-Notice what Paul said in Gal. 2:20, the key - "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me"

-Christ through Paul wrote most of the New Testament

-The bulk of instructions of how a Christian is to live his life can be found in the Pauline Epistles.

-Christ through Paul was able to eatablish many New Testament churches throughout the known world at the time.

-We have to be very careful about the fruit we are bearing as Christians, because alot of it is artifical.

-It is artifical because it was done in the flesh without Christ.

-The Bible says - Rom. 8:8, "So, then they that are in the flesh

cannot please God"

-Many a ministry has been built in the flesh.

-The Bible says, "the arm of flesh will fail you"

-There are going to be alot of disappointed Christians at the judgment seat of Christ.

-See I Cor. 3:10-15.

-They thought they were building with gold, silver, precious stones but in actuality they were building with wood, hay, and stubble which will be burned up.

-The reason being, because Christ wasn’t involved with the thing at all.

-Everything was done in the flesh for the glory of man and not God.

-How can one judge his Christian life as far as whether Christ is bearing fruit in his life.

-Well, it is not by how many souls you have won, or how big an offering you gave, how many committees are you on, or how big your church is.

-But is your life characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit found over in Gal 6:22-23 - read & go over.

-Are those things operative in your life?

-They can only be prevalent in your life if you allow Christ to live through you.

-Let Him do it through you.

-You see we have to get to the point and realize that you and I are only vessels that he wants to use.

-If you and I try to do anything for the Lord in our flesh, then we will fail miserably.

-Oh, maybe in the world’s eye or the fundamental crowd’s eye we are successful but in Christ’s eye we have failed.

-I believe if the fruit of the Spirit is exhibited in our lives, then Christ is truly living through us and the rest will fall

into place.

-We have to remember just as it was true of our salvation, "without Christ we can do nothing".