The True Source

John 15:1-9....

John 15 is one of my favorite chapters because of verses 1-5.......oh, there is so much more in this chapter, but the reality of life lies within those verses..........Jesus is our source.......God is the pruner, He is over the vineyard, but to be right with the Great Husbandmen, Who will harvest what is His and burn those that are not, is through the True Vine, the True Source, The Only Way To God!

Life gets so muddied with all sorts of things and we are dealing with this one minute, or one day, or one week, then the next it will be something else.......the juggle struggle gets overwhelming at times!

However, when our focus, our dedication, our lives become about the Husbandmen and then the Source to produce for that Husbandmen, then life gets really simple! I didn’t say easy, I said simple!

You see, there is so much truth in what Jesus is telling these disciples, not long before Jesus will be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. The disciples will go through a tremendous amount of pressure, doubt, fear, anger, sorrow, in a very short amount of time.

Jesus knew all of that, but what He also knew that through Him that they would experience greater by abiding in Him!

In reality all that we need to be concerned with is the Husbandmen, His Father, bearing fruit unto Him!

No way for us poor souls to bear fruit unto God the Father, we have no source on our own!

Jesus is the True Vine/Source to bear that fruit

Remember a few Sundays ago I preached from the parable of the sower in Matthew 13....Jesus said that the seed that fell on good ground (sincere heart) would produce 100 fold, 60 fold, and some 30 fold.

The idea is not the number but the production

Jesus said in Matthew 7:17–19 “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

Then in Matthew 7:20 “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

The fruit is the life lived unto God, it is not about works getting you to Heaven, it is about the genuineness of your faith, where do you abide!

Where do you stay?

Jesus says in verse 3 that we are clean through the Word......what Word?

The Words that Christ has spoken to them and essentially to us!

John 6:63 “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

Ephesians 5:26 “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,”

Cleaning is basically pruning, getting the junk out, that will help the branches produce the fruit of God the Father, the Essence of the Godhead!

The Words of Christ..........The Person and Work of Jesus Christ reveals that to us.....

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” ........and then John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

Those are 2 important reports from the apostle John that we need to know about when looking to Jesus, actually that whole 1st part of John 1 is essential for us!

Grace and Truth is what Jesus was full of.......but it wasn’t a solely human being the contained that, it was Jesus fully God and fully man or truly God and truly man.

John 1:3–5 “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

Our cleansing comes from the light of Christ and coming after Him, following Him! he is the only source of our life unto God!

We cannot bear fruit of ourselves it is not possible.......abiding in Christ is the only way to bear fruit unto God!

You have heard of the legalism teaching or law-keeping teaching, if that is your source unto God then you cannot bear good fruit, even if the fruit looks good, it is still not from the True Source!

Jesus the Christ the Son of the Living God is the only source, a life given unto Him, abiding in His Way and His Truth, and His life is the only source to bear fruit unto God!

I asked where do you stay or abide, a few moments ago......what does that mean abide in Christ?

Our faith is the key in abiding.......we seem to stay in what we have faith in......I live around people I have a lot of faith in.......

Abiding, staying, remaining, are powerful truths in our existence!

It is in Jesus where the reality of our lives in lived, it is living unto the Husbandman and that living is only through the True Source Jesus Christ!

In John 6, when Jesus spoke some hard words and some of His followers left because His teaching was hard for them.......Jesus asked who was left in John 6:67 “Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?” .........Peter answered.....John 6:68 “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”

I wonder if that is our approach to life?????...........Jesus from this Word of God, the report of the apostles, that was given by inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit........Jesus said that the Words that He speaks to us are Spirit and they are Life......I wonder if that is our approach when we are always looking for the next best thing, the next best book, or the next best song, the next best speaker, the next best thing to happen in our lives.......and those Words of Christ that contain the only Spirit and Life that really means anything?????

To whom shall we go, there is no one else but You, Lord!!!

Moving on to verse 5..........Jesus is the only Source for us.......if we look to anything else, we are just living in the temporary......that is all we are concerned with!

Jesus the True Vine.......He told the woman at the well that the “true worshippers will worship God in Spirit and in Truth”.........Jesus is the only way to worship God, a life lived in, through, and with Jesus!

The greatest reality to me in this verse is the last part.......Jesus reveals the truth of anything else..........it produces nothing!!!

Some of the great thinkers will say, without Christ your will still produce nothing, however in reality that life will produce nothing as far as eternity goes and also if that life produces something for the temporary.......well, then I think that speaks for itself doesn’t it?

Temporary ends and eternity remains........

Oh yeah there is an eternity for those who abide in the temporary......it is hewn down and thrown in the everlasting fire where they are tormented at all times!

I am going to move on from there lets go to see what that fruit looks like......Galatians 5:16-25.....

The works of the flesh are manifested or are evident in this production:

Adultery.....

Fornication....sexual immorality

Uncleanness.....impure, sexual or otherwise

Lasciviousness.....unrestrained in immoral acts and attitudes

Idolatry.....putting more glory or boasting in anything other than God

witchcraft.......sorcery.......Greek word pharmakiea.....which means carries the meaning of “black magic” which would lead us to the mood and mind altering drugs.

Hatred......Hostility

Variance......To sew division or discord

Emulations....to provoke to jealousy

Wrath.....Rage

Strife......Selfish ambition

Sedition........Dissension

Heresies.......teaching what is not true, especially about Jesus

Envying....your jealousy

Murder........killing

drunkenness

Revelings.......Carousing

That is a long list......and there is truly more....when Paul “such like” anything like those things..........a life that produces those things happily and willingly will not inherit the kingdom of God!

The true fruit is:

Love

Joy

Peace

Longsuffering

Gentleness

Goodness

Faith....where we stay!

Meekness

Temperance.....self-control

There is no law against these thing because they are the things of God!

When we abide in Christ the works of the flesh have been put to death!

If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit.......

If we are Christ the Spirit lives within us, let us also live in habitual spiritual lifestyle or continuous life style

In other words live out what we abide in and Christ will produce that fruit in us!

Colossians 3:10–11 “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”

Christ is all.......J.C. Ryle stated about this: “These 3 words are the essence and substance of Christianity”