It's very nice that you're here and I trust the Word of God would bring fresh blessing to our soul and challenge our spirit. We'd like to look at a very simple concept from out of one of the Gospels, develop it from the Old Testament that we try to rightly understand what our Lord was saying, and then make a few very simple practical applications to your life and mind. We'd like to find out how we can glorify our Father which is in heaven. Don't you turn to the Gospel of John. in chapter fifteen. John chapter fifteen. In the upper room our blessed Savior is seeking to re-impress a summary statement upon the hearts and affections and the mind of his followers. There's just a small company there. Judas has left, and we assume that he has left the upper room and is going through the city and either having seen a vineyard or else the masonry in the gateway of the city or the temple rather, he is caused to provoke and use this particular illustration. The Lord says, I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except that abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. for without me you can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples. We've had aspects and attributes and qualities of our Heavenly Father drawn to our attention, and it's warmed and encouraged our heart to realize His greatness and His character and His person. And it seems very appropriate that you and I should have some kind of an aspiration, a desire within our heart to glorify our Heavenly Father. Many of us would have brought to our mind something of Christian service, some immense sacrifice, and here the Lord... draws attention to his followers and says, if you do one specific thing, you will glorify your Father in heaven. And one aspect of our being productive and bringing great glory to our Heavenly Father is to be a fruitful child of God. But to rightly understand this, it appeals to me that we need to go back and have maybe what would be to your rather lengthy readings. And yet from reading the Old Testament scriptures, we can see very well that what the Lord has in his mind is a very Jewish concept. And it's a little strange to you and me, and yet it's very evident to his disciples. He says, instructed in the language in which our Bible was written and the way the Lord spoke, he said, I am the vine, the true one. And there's an emphasis upon that statement. He has, at the beginning of his statement, a very emphatic declaration, I am the vine. the true one. And he is trying to contrast himself with a false vine, a counterfeit vine, a vine that should have been fruitful in this world but failed. And he is drawing to your attention and to mine indirectly, and to his disciples, and he says that there is only one way in this world, on this earth, to bring forth that which will glorify the Father, and that is in a very close personal, intimate relationship with me. Judaism has been set aside. Now you must be very close to myself. There is no longer a way of being fruitful under the old economy. We're introducing something absolutely new, and it's in a vital relationship with me. Turn, if you would please, back to Psalm, the eightieth Psalm. I would like to read just a few verses in a number of sections out of the Old Testament, and will gradually make a progress and be able to have in our mind a clear picture of what the Lord is saying. In Psalm eighty, the psalmist Asaph writes, Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubims and shine forth. This great eternal shepherd, our great God, is like a shepherd to the nation of Israel. And the psalmist says in verse eight, Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Now in picture language, we are seeing the nation of Israel being taken and transplanted as a vine out of Egypt and brought into the Holy Land. Thou preparest room before it, and did cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. During the reign of David and Solomon, the hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, the Mediterranean, her branches unto the river Euphrates. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges? She's fallen of the discipline, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her. The nation of Israel is the vine. and the vine was taken out of Egypt, planted in the Holy Land, and God did everything possible for that vine to be productive and fruitful. In fact, Jeremiah says in chapter two and verse twenty of his prophecy, that I planted you a good vine and you became a degenerate seed. You prostituted your affections and alienated your hearts from me. I was looking for you, and I planted you as a good vine, and I wanted you to bring forth fruit for me. In the book of Isaiah, please turn to chapter five. And the next declaration that we have that clarifies what the vine is, the prophet says in Isaiah chapter five, verses one to seven, Now I will sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. He fenced and gathered the stones thereof, planted it with the choicest vine. See, there's the analogy of Psalm eighty and Jeremiah two. built a tower in the midst of it, and made a wine press therein, and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, the men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard than I have done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes. Now go to. I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up. break down the wall thereof and it shall be trotten down it will lay waste and it shall not be pruned nor dig but there shall come up briars and thorns I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it now here's a very clear statement for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant plan he looked for judgment discernment scrutiny that issued injustice that's the concept of the word but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry. So we can tell that what he was looking for was not great, but he was looking for moral characteristics, attributes of God, born out in the life of the people on earth. On earth he wanted a people that would bear fruit for himself. On earth he wanted a company of people and he chose them and did everything possible for them, but they were selfish. Hosea in chapter ten in verse one in this similar era, he charges the nation and says, Israel is an empty vine that has brought forth fruit to itself. A lot of wood, a lot of profession. Under the name of Elohim and Jehovah, they carried on many religious practices, but God could not see discernment and righteous behavior. He was looking for moral characteristics. He was looking for inner qualities in a nation of people, blessing them and providing for them in a very rich and profitable way. After their discipline, Ezekiel in chapter fifteen of his writing, he adds to an insight. And he asked a very simple rhetorical question, really. The word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree, than a branch of which is among the trees of the forest? The prophet is not interested in wood here. He's not a horticulturist. He knows that this is the symbol of the nation of Israel. And he said, what is the vine tree for? Ezekiel perceived this. Shall wood be taken of it to do any work? Will men take a pin of it to hang a vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel. The fire devours both the ends of it and the midst of it. Is it meat for any work? No, you don't do anything with a vine. There's only one purpose for the vine to bring forth fruit. There's only one purpose for the vine to bring forth fruit, the kind of fruit that God is looking for. And on earth, God is looking for a people that will bring forth the characteristics of God. In a very subtle, much more modest form, the essential image and likenesses of God. The kind of characteristics that were seen in our blessed Savior. And now in that upper room, or just outside of the upper room, back in Luke, John chapter fifteen, the Lord makes this very clarifying statement. He turns to that little handful of disciples and says, I am the vine, the true one. You have attached yourself in your mind to Israel. You thought that because you were the children of Israel and maybe of the tribe of Judah, you are going to be a source of blessing. But Israel has failed. Judaism has failed. The whole Mosaic order is now being set aside and I am telling you, that it is a personal relationship to me that is so important. I am the vine, and my father is the husbandman. What is the father looking for? Fruit, character. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance, faith, All of that is character. All of that is passive. All of that is the demonstration of the life of the Spirit within. And the Lord Jesus is beginning to develop the thinking of his followers to perceive that God is expecting in us, in his followers, in his disciples, the reproduction of the life of our blessed Savior. John touched upon it. in first John in chapter two, and I think it's verse six, when he said, if any man abide in me and says that he abide in me, he ought also so to walk even as he walks. And now you and I are being drawn to a very simple expression of the vital truth of Christian experience. You today as a child of God are either a fruitful vine or you are not a fruitful vine. You are either producing the fruit of the Spirit, or you are not producing the fruit of the Spirit. You are either seen, evidently, as a maturing, growing child of God, who images and mirrors and has within something of the likeness and similarities of life and attitude and person of our Lord Jesus Christ here on earth. This portion of Scripture has absolutely nothing to do with the salvation of a soul. This portion of Scripture is entirely the concept of bearing fruit here on this earth. And because of this, the great imperative is that I stay close to him. I am the vine, the true one. Every branch in me, every one of us born of God, every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. There shall be a time in his own judgment when we have produced so much willful wood, so much leaf, and no genuine fruit, that will be removed from the opportunity of bearing fruit. We will be lifted up and removed. That's the force of the word. And obviously, he is following through the figure of the husbandman, who would come, see the long branch out of the vine, follow it down. There is no fruit, no large grape, nothing succulent or productive. And so the knife is applied and it's cut off. and removed. In verse six he clarifies it, carries the figure, that this man abide not in me. He is cast forth as a branch. There's absolutely nothing to do with the salvation of your soul. You mustn't take figures of speech and confuse them with other statements made by the Lord in the Gospels on other topics. His subject is as a fruit-bearing vehicle here on earth. If I fail, I am cut off and set aside, and what happens, but men take you. And as far as your profession is concerned, and as far as being fruitful in this world, we are consumed. We wither, we die. There is nothing for God in our lives. And men take our profession, and we are set aside. We are worthless. But every branch in me that beareth fruit, he purges it. Now today, as a child of God, you and I are either fruit-bearing believers or we are not producing fruit. If you are a fruitful child of God, and there is gracious development within you and me in some measure of the works of the work of the Holy Spirit in this nine-fold and nine-perspective development, this enriched character, because you are drawing upon Christ, We as a vine have no strength, no support. Our life must come all through our blessed Lord Jesus. So closeness to him is the key. Quiet time spent with him. Sensitivity to his word. Allowing the word of God to cleanse and refresh and revivify us. All these things freeing the spirit of God to create a deeper, richer, more full Christian character. It is that to which God is beckoning and drawing each of us. We are or not all going to produce great soul-winning missionary efforts in our lives. But every one of us are a branch. And every one of us can produce the fruit of the Spirit of God if I abide in him. Now I place my Bible here on the desk, and it remains there. It is unchanging. It stays in the same relationship to me in which I placed it. That's what the word abide means. To stay in the relationship in which we have been placed. It is sometimes translated in our New Testament. Continue or remain to abide. You have been taken by the Spirit of God and planted and rooted in to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we draw his life and lean upon him that his life would be expressed in us, that frees the Spirit of God to create those very blessed fruit of the Spirit. And of course, the husbandman comes and he sees that vine and that particular branch is laden down. So he does everything to support it. He raises it up. And then he sees that the dust of the pathway has come and settled in that holy land, which is very prevalent. And the men passing by the vineyard have kicked up and the dust is settled on the leaf. And so the sunshine and the rain can't get to it. So he'll very carefully, graciously, easily wash off. He'll purge and cleanse. And we are washed by the ministration of the Word of God. At conferences such as this, our spirits are refreshed. Our minds are drawn up again, and we gird ourselves, and the Word of God comes and bathes and gently cleanses. But, of course, as that vine grows, and the branch becomes heavier and richer, and the fruit begins to bear it down, while there's a little sprig of wood, of course, the blade is going to come, and not to cut off the branch, but prune away. And that's the second stage of the purging. One stage is the simple bathing. of the Word of God. It comes to you in your devotional reading, the ministry and the local assembly. But then there is the pruning knife, and that form of purging or cutting back, sometimes we misunderstand. What is it for? That we won't waste this vitality that is ours in the wood of mere profession and external things. But because of that pruning act, All of that rich, succulent sap that you have drawn from the vine itself will begin to produce richer and greater fruit. And so we go through those trying experiences, those burdensome times, in order that our fruit will be more rich, that the branch might be shorter, but much more productive. He purges it that it brings forth more fruit. to clarify, so the thinking of the disciples is, now you are clean through the word which I spoke unto you. That's one way in which this word of God comes and cleanses us. Now he couldn't say that in the upper room, back in chapter thirteen in verse ten, he says, now you are all clean, but having reference to Judas. You're not all clean yet. Judas left, and now we can turn to that same group with the absence of Judas and say, now you are clean. You all have a vital relationship with me. I know that there is a great emphasis on our land for producing activity. I know that the local church is pleased when you enter in with great vigor and do good works. I know and it is needed that the evangel must go out. The Sunday school classes must be taught. The ill must be visited. The aged comforted and strengthened. The young people encouraged and time spent with them. But remember what the Lord Jesus said. Herein is my father glorified when you bear much fruit. Some of you are housewives and you have children. You're carrying a tremendous burden of trying to raise a family even alone. Some of you are burdened greatly and your activities are limited at this time because you may be in college. or you're a businessman that's carrying a heavy load. And God knows what our external activities can be. And here in this portion of Scripture, I would like to suggest that the Lord is underlining character and not our conduct. It is our inner life expression, and that will always be possible for you. And when you begin to bear fruit, the night will come, the water will wash, the word will bathe, But God is looking for more fruit. And much fruit is born in a hospital bed. And much fruit is born in the home where you're not able to get out. But you're knee deep in diapers and dishes and irritated husbands and impatient children. And much fruit can be born there. And God is looking for this in your life and mine. We must never so fatigue ourselves. in physical activity that we forget the treasured, blessed reality of taking time to be intimately, spiritually, mentally, ethically close to our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn those times of devotional reading into, Lord, open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things from out of thy law. Lean heavily upon him in the times of struggle or conflict. Ask him to bring the verses back to create the love and the joy and the peace. The long-suffering, the patience and the gentleness toward others, and those inner qualities toward God. And then that settled, quiet inner serenity that comes only from drawing in close fellowship and communion with Him. I personally feel that there is a tremendous importance upon a portion of Scripture like this. You see, it has nothing to do with gifts. It has to do with your personal relationship to the Lord Jesus. It has nothing to do with your service. It has to do with your personal, close, devotional tie to Him. And it shows itself in my moral attitude, my ethical perspective. It governs me in times of tension. Now there's not many people that are looking for it or profited by it, but soon your spouse shall understand, and soon your children shall respect and appreciate, and those in the local church shall find something uniquely refreshing about someone who walks even as he walks, and your usefulness shall bring much glory to your father. It is hard for us in a time of activity and restlessness and efficiency and achievement to realize that we can do nothing. But without him we can do nothing. Fruit may be born for a short period of time, but if the distance of the thickness of that India paper comes between the branch and the vine, just that thin separation, there's death, cessation of fruit. And when I dabble with the carnal, when I confuse my personal desires with the spiritual direction, when I find myself cooled of heart and slipping off and wandering in mind, dabbling in thoughts and attitudes and behaviors, so unbecoming, the distance is there. And I need to confess that. Because you see, the blood of Jesus Christ In the present continuous tense, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, is constantly cleansing us from sin. And that has sealed that relationship. And we are secure. But down here on earth, as a fruitful vine, men take my testimony and set it aside and it's burned and wasted. And if I'm ever to be fruitful and develop a real Christ-like character, I must stay close to Him. Draw on Him. And such a delightful encouragement in verse seven. If you stay in relationship with me as I placed you at your spiritual birth, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, if you glean the concepts of the greatness of our God and his holiness and his character and his sovereignty and his varied attributes, and if we see his hand dealing with us and we're productive in this life and we lean upon his word for guidance and his words abide in us, Then there will be answered prayer. He shall ask, and it shall be done. And in this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit. May I turn your direction of thought to First John chapter two. Just a simple statement. First John two. Verse twenty eight. And now, little children, now little-born ones, now, those of you who have received the nature of God planted within you, and can be so much like your Father and your Lord Jesus Christ. And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him. at his coming. There was a time when my children were smaller and they would look forward to my return from a trip or an absence from home and it was almost easily perceptible what had happened in my absence. The girls would run out and put their arm around me and give me a kiss and that's a delight to every father and then I'd look for my son and he just wasn't there. Now there was a reason for that. And when I looked up at him and saw him and found him, I did. Why was his head hanging down? Well, because he knew that I had gotten the message of something gone wrong. That's exactly what it said here. We may have confidence. We may look him in the face. Won't that be a very precious time? When you're swept off into his presence, and because you have stayed close to him and been a fruitful believer, and even during the times of washing or pruning, You have not allowed those circumstances of life to separate or distance you. You have abided. You have stayed close to him. And your life has been productive. And that when he shall appear, you will have confidence. And you will look him right in the face. And there will be, by the implication, open exchange between you and he. What a blessed thing. You will not be ashamed before him at his coming. And so I urge you. Abide in Him. Stay close. Don't allow anything to interfere with your becoming more and more like our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.