We'll begin three services here in this auditorium. We're moving back to an 8 .30 service, so that will give relief to some of you who are sitting on the harder chairs instead of those soft benches. Keep that in mind, please, and if you can, join us at 8 .30 on Easter Sunday morning for that worship service. And then Easter Sunday night, the Worthy is the Lamb. presentation by our choir and orchestra is going to be an exciting time. I would like to make it very clear that you do
not have to have a ticket to come, okay? The tickets are printed as a means of promoting it to remind people that we invited the place and the time and the occasion. And we want you to use those tickets, but the tickets don't guarantee seats, and nor do you have to have one to get in. Okay, is that clear? If it's not, please see somebody afterward. Don't see me about it. Just ask your neighbor next to you. Maybe he can explain it. I think that's got it, though.
Romans chapter 7, please. Romans chapter 7. We're going to look today at the three verses that we have examined in some detail the last time we met together. I'm going to pick out a thought that I'd like for us to focus on a little more deeply. In Romans 7, beginning in verse 4, it reads, Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear
fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, not in oldness of the letter. The particular phrase I'm interested in is the last few words of verse 4 where it says, that we might bear
fruit for God. We have been freed from the law, its demands and its condemnation, so that we might bear fruit for God. We are free to be fruitful. This past week, one of Minnesota's most notorious criminals, was released from prison, T. Eugene Thompson. Mr. Thompson was condemned by the law, and according to the laws of this state, paid the price that was demanded. And after paying that price of the state, he was released from incarceration in the state penitentiary. You
and I We're at one time lawbreakers. We were criminals in God's universe. We were sinners. We did not meet the standards, the righteous standards of God's law. Therefore, the law condemned us, and our condemnation was death. The Bible says the soul that sins, it shall what? It shall die. The wages of sin is death. And it goes on to say, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every one of us were criminals
in God's universe. The law condemned us to death, not just physical death, but eternal death, which is separation from God for all of eternity in the fire of hell. That was our just due for our sin, our crime against God's holiness. But those of us who have been saved one day heard about Jesus Christ. And we understood that the Lord Jesus Christ took upon himself at the cross the penalty for our sin. He suffered our hell for us. He took our place on the cross of Calvary.
So that as Paul says in Galatians 3 .13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. The curse, the condemnation of the law was placed upon Jesus Christ so that he paid for your sin and for mine. And then he was raised from the dead. alive forevermore to enforce the salvation and the victory that
he had died to purchase. When you and I came to that point of trusting the Lord Jesus Christ, we at that moment were identified or united with Christ. As we saw earlier in our study in Romans 7, before we were married, as it were, to the law which condemned us. But when we trusted Christ, we died to that old mate, and we were resurrected that we might be joined in a new union with Jesus Christ. And the reason that we have been freed from the law, therefore, is that we might now
bear fruit for God. That we might serve God in the new way of the Spirit, not in the old way of the law with its minute rituals and its commandments. Now we serve God in the new way of the Spirit, he says in verse 6. We have been freed that we might bear fruit. And today I'd like for us to consider this matter of fruit bearing. And to do that, would you turn in your Bible to what I think is the key passage in the Bible regarding
this subject, John chapter 15. We're going to spend the rest of our time today in the 15th chapter of John. Our Lord speaks to his disciples and to us, and he says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. 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. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken
to you. 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. I am the vine. 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. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are
burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. and so proved to be my disciples. I'd like for you to think with me regarding the background of this matter of fruit bearing. Viticulture was quite common in
Palestine, still is today to some extent. The climate there is particularly suitable for the growing of grapes, with its abundance of warm sunshine and its cool late summer nights producing heavy dew. When Joshua led the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, vineyards were already well established there. Those vineyards through the centuries have been grown on the gently sloping hillsides of Palestine as well as in the valleys. Viticulture was a part of the way of life of
the people of Israel. Partly for that reason, God had the Old Testament prophets use vineyards as a symbol of Israel on a number of occasions. For example, Isaiah, in the fifth chapter of his book, says, speaking for God, that God had planted a vineyard and had dug well around it. He had expected that his vineyard would bring forth good produce, good grapes. But instead, the grapes were bitter. They were bad grapes. In verse 7 of Isaiah 5, he says, Israel is my
vine. In other words, he was giving a picture of what had happened to Israel. God had established them in the land expecting that they would bring forth fruit, but they didn't. The psalmist in Psalm 80 uses the same picture. Jeremiah repeats it. And even our Lord Jesus used this picture of the vineyard in his teaching. For example, in Matthew chapter 21, he gives what is called the parable of the vineyard. And there again, the vineyard is a picture, a metaphor of the
nation of Israel in his day. This discourse that we are reading in John 15 about the vineyard, the vine, the branches, the vine dresser, was given as the Lord Jesus walked with the eleven disciples, remember Judas had already gone out, as they walked together to the Mount of Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane where he prayed. They had been in the upper room where they observed the Passover feast and now were on their way
to that place of prayer and waiting. As they walked, they perhaps passed through the temple area, perhaps going through the outer gates of the temple. Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that the outer gates to the temple in those days had a vine of gold. on them. And on that vine of gold were large clusters of grapes made out of gold, those clusters perhaps as tall as a man. In the Passover season, those gates were left open all night long so the people could
come into the temple area and pray. And it may be that Jesus chose that pathway as he went to the mountain to pray, and as they went through the gates, pointed up and He said, I am the vine, the true, and you are the branches. Or it may be that as he walked down the gentle, sloping hillside to the brook of Kidron to pass over it on up into the Mount of Olives, that he passed by one of the many vineyards that were located
on that hillside. And he reached out and touched one of the vines and said, I am the vine, the true. and you are the branches. The Lord Jesus is giving here a significant teaching about fruit bearing. What is the significance of this discourse? What does he mean when he says, I am the vine, you are the branches? Well, think with me about that picture for a moment. The purpose of a branch, is to extend the life of the vine, is it not? A vine grows its branches so that it can extend
itself and thus produce its fruit. That's what a vine and branches are all about. In the previous two chapters in John, Jesus has been saying to his disciples, I am going away. He said that while he was away, he was going to keep them in communion with himself, John 13. He was going to prepare a place for them that they would have a home in the Father's mansions. He said that he was going to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and through the Holy Spirit, he would
be with them to meet their needs. So that's what he was going to be doing while he was away. But what were they going to be doing while he was away? The answer to that is found in John 15, where he says, Now I am the vine, but you are the branches. In other words, very shortly, the vine is going to disappear. The vine, me, is going to become invisible to the world. But you, the branches, will still be in the world. And I will evidence my life. I will extend myself
through you, the branches. That's what he is saying here. That is the significance of this teaching. The purpose of branches is to bear fruit, not just leaves. What is the fruit that Jesus is talking about? I think we could summarize it by saying this very simply. The fruit of the branch is supernatural life. That's what it is. Whatever else it may mean by way of application, what Jesus is referring to here is his own life.
You are the branches. You have been chosen to bear fruit, and that fruit is the evidence of his own life. In other words, Jesus is saying that those of us who are Christians should have evidence in our lives that we are at one with God. There should be proof in our lives that we have supernatural life. Now specifically, what is that supernatural life? How does it manifest itself? How can we tie this down to tangible
terms? Well, I believe that there are six evidences of supernatural life that Jesus gives to us in this chapter. And that is, by way of application, the fruit that he's talking about. Are you a fruitful Christian? Let's take a look today and see what the fruit is that the Lord expects to see in our lives. The first evidence of supernatural life is prayer that is answered. Look at verse 7. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done
for you. Look again at verse 16. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. The first evidence of supernatural life is prayer that is answered. The language that our Lord chooses to use here is very strong. G. Campbell Morgan, an expositor of the last generation, put it this way. Demand as you do whatever you
are inclined to. That seems rather broad, doesn't it? It's not quite as broad as it seems there. The Lord is not saying that he will grant our every whim. Thank God he doesn't. But what does it mean when he says, whatever you ask in my name, that will be done? I believe what he's saying is this. When you pray, if you're going to pray in my name, ask the Father what I, the Son, would ask for. To pray in Jesus' name does not mean to rattle off your prayer request and
then say, in Jesus' name, amen. I'm not opposed to that, but it means far more than that. To pray in Jesus' name means that I am putting myself in the position of Jesus Christ in prayer. And I am asking of the Father. What Jesus Christ the Son would ask for himself. And so as you go to prayer, and you pray for somebody, or you lift up a petition of need in your own life, as you ask the Father, ask the Father for what Jesus would want. You say, but wait a minute.
How do I know what Jesus would want? There's only one answer to that question, and here it is. You find out in the Bible how you ought to pray, so that you pray and ask for what Jesus would want. That's why Bible study and prayer have to go together. Because if I'm going to have an effective prayer life, I need to pray and ask the Father for those things that Jesus
would want. And the way I find out how Jesus would pray, what Jesus would want in a given situation, is to read the word and get to know him, see what he's like. Are you doing that? When was the last time you had a prayer answered? Sometimes I think that we talk too much in our prayers. You know what I mean? We have our prayer lists all made out. And we rattle those things off like an evangelical rosary. And somehow we think that that's praying. My friend, that's
saying prayers. I had a pastor friend who is now with the Lord, was considerably older than I when I knew him, told me about a prayer meeting he was in one time with a prayer giant. And I have forgotten, unfortunately, the name of the man that he was praying with. But he said that that man of God said two words during a whole 45 minutes of prayer. You know what those two words were? Oh, God. That's all he said. Every few minutes, those two words would be uttered.
There was some kind of a powerful, deep intercession going on there that was beyond verbal words. It would do a lot of us good just to wait on God in prayer to see what he wants to say with an open Bible before us as we're on our knees. Do you know how to pray? Or is your prayer life consumed with asking for what you would like and what you want? Isn't that the way we're so
often caught up in our praying? When in fact what I should be concerned about is maybe covering less things every day, slowing up the pace a little bit, spending some time in the Word and finding out how I should ask God for that particular need so that I can pray in Jesus' name. Jesus said that one of the proofs of supernatural life in the branch is prayer that's answered. There's a second evidence that he points out. That's
in verse 11. It's joy that is full. He says, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. In other words, our joy is his joy that he's given to us. And I remind you that he talks about his joy here at the time when he was facing his greatest sorrow, humanly speaking. The garden of Gethsemane was right up there before them. The time when he would cry out to God and would sweat, as it were, drops of blood. And yet he
speaks about his joy. It ties together with what the writer of Hebrews says, doesn't it, when it says, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. And he says to his disciples, I'm giving you my joy, and I want your joy then to be fulfilled. The way some people live their Christian lives, it's no wonder people around them say, if that's what a Christian is, forget it. They're depressing to be around. Do you ever find yourself avoiding some Christians? I mean,
we're speaking honestly now. I like what Merrill Tenney said. Jesus intended that the disciples' lives should be both spontaneous and happy. rather than burdensome and boring. Where does your life fit into that? What is your joy today? Do you have a fullness of joy that surpasses circumstances? Jesus' joy did that that night. It still does today. One of the evidences of supernatural living, my friend, is that there is a joy about you Not a frivolity, but there is a joy about you that
shines through when the going's tough. And the people in the office, at the factory, in the neighborhood, they see that. That's fruit. The third evidence of supernatural living is found in verses 12 and 13, again in verse 17. It's love that is sacrificial. He says, this is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
And, of course, he did that. You say, but I don't have very many people to lay down my life for. In fact, I don't have anybody right now where my life is required. How can I show love? Well, let's talk about some other ways then. When was the last time you gave up some luxury or some comfort that someone else's need could be met?
You know, it's not enough to say, God bless you, or I love you in the Lord, and I'll be praying for you, and to go away when we have the capacity to meet the need in the life of that person, even at our own sacrifice. John said, let's not love in word, but in deed and in truth. When's the last time you sacrificed something for somebody
else? For your wife, your husband? One of the reasons there's tension in homes is the fact that husbands and wives are trying to guard their borders rather than opening the gates and sacrifice for the other. Have you sacrificed time to listen to somebody else without sermonizing back? Love produces unity, not rivalry, submission, not self -assertion. One of the evidences of love in your life, or fruit in your life, rather, is love that sacrifices. How many people in your
office know that kind of love? Can you think of anybody in your office that really sacrifices for other people? What about you? Will you bear that fruit this week? A fourth evidence of supernatural living, verses 14 and 15, understanding that is intimate. You're my friends, says Jesus, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends for all things that I have known, have heard,
for my Father I have made known to you. Do you realize that as you spend time in the Word, and as you bear fruit as a branch, that you will gain insights into people and circumstances and world situations that will be an intimate kind of insight, a special insight? The people around you will say, how in the world does she know that? But he is so young. How could he have that
kind of wisdom? The answer is very simple. If you're bearing fruit as a branch, you will have understanding that the Lord will give you that will be very intimate. The kind of understanding and insight that a friend shares with a friend. We gain that insight through the word in our fellowship with the Lord. We're going to know what God is up to in this age. And instead of being scared and panicky and anxious about some of the things in the world seen, we can rejoice
that our God is in control. And we can help others see the way things are heading. Show them their need for Jesus Christ to be delivered from the world system that's literally going to hell. A fifth evidence of supernatural living is persecution that's unjustified. Verses 18 to 25 talks about that. We'll just read verses 18 and 19. Jesus says, If the world hates you, you know that it
has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Some people have the mistaken idea that if you're a nice guy as a Christian, if you really live the spirit -filled life before people, that they're going to applaud when you come into the room. As you walk down the hall, they're going to hail you as one highly favored. My friend,
that's a mistake to think that way. If you live the kind of life that we're talking about here, the world system is going to hate you. And Jesus tells us why here. It's because that that kind of living exposes the world system for what it is. It doesn't like to be exposed. It likes to remain secret in darkness to do its evil. But a Christian who's bearing fruit will throw light on the world and thereby create an enmity toward himself. Jesus said, if any man will come after
me, let him what? Deny himself. Take up his cross daily and follow me. That runs counter to the world's advice because the world says that we should be concerned about self -esteem and self -fulfillment and self -realization and self -assertion. Jesus said, if you're going to follow me, deny yourself. That's extremist to the world. That's radical Christianity. No, the world doesn't mind Christianity that's moderate. Christianity that makes them comfortable. But the world despises
Christianity that exposes its wickedness. A sixth evidence of supernatural living is witness that is empowered. Spirit empowered. Verses 26 and 27. When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness of me, and you will bear witness also, because you have been with me from the beginning. And so the sixth evidence of supernatural living is the fact that we have a witness that is Spirit
-empowered. Even in the face of rejection and hatred, that witness will be effective. Question. Are you a fruit -bearing branch? There are several stages of fruit bearing. Let me just review them. In verse 2, there's the stage of no fruit. Oh, you see, that person's not a Christian. My friend, John 15 has nothing to do with the doctrine of salvation. Well, people have gotten all messed up in their theology because they try to read in salvation, John 15. Jesus is nowhere talking
here about salvation. He's talking about fellowship and fruit bearing. He says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, the Father, the vine dresser, takes away. It's possible for a Christian to have no fruit in his life. He can't go that way indefinitely. But he can know periods of no fruit. And the vine dresser, the Father in heaven, is very concerned about that. So what
does he do? He says he removes that branch. That word remove there can mean take away, and it's possible that the Father can take away a person by an early death, 1 Corinthians 11 .30. But the word also means to lift up, and I think personally that's the emphasis here. The vine dresser reaches down to that branch that is bearing no fruit, and he lifts it up, trying to get it into the sunlight so that it will bear fruit. He works with that branch, in other words. He goes on
to say, and every branch that bears fruit. So that's the second stage. Bearing some fruit, some answered prayer, some witness that is Spirit -empowered, some understanding, and so on. Then he says that those who bear fruit, the Father prunes. That is, he clips, he snips, he cleanses. So that it might bear more fruit. That's the third stage, but that's not the end. In verse 8 he says, By this is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit. That's the stage that God
wants us to get to. How do we get there? Verse 5 says, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. What does it mean to abide? 1 John 3 .24 tells us that to abide is to obey. To obey him. Are you obeying the Lord? The state of Minnesota demands that I take care of my kids. Can you imagine anything more unreasonable than that? The state of Minnesota says, if I don't take care of my kids, they will try me for child abuse
or child neglect and punish me. And therefore, I take care of my kids. Right? No. I don't take care of my kids because of the law. I take care of my kids because I love them. Why should you obey Jesus Christ? You say, because if I don't, he'll clobber me. You don't know him very well, my friend, if that's the way you look at him. The reason that we obey Jesus Christ and abide in him and fellowship is because we love him. The secret to abiding is obeying. The secret
to obeying is loving. And the secret to loving is knowing. If we know Him, we'll love Him. And if we love Him, we'll obey Him. If we obey, we'll abide. And if we abide, we'll bear fruit. How are you doing? Is there the evidence of the supernatural in your life? Heavenly Father, I pray that you will search out the heart of every one of us. Surely you've spoken this morning. Where in there are attitudes that need to be repented of or actions that have to be confessed so that we
can get into that place of obedience? I pray that we'll have the courage to do it. In this invitation time, deal with us. I pray that we'll not be fruitless. And face the prospect of standing before you empty -handed, only to have our lives go up in smoke with nothing to present to you at the judgment. In Jesus' name, amen.