Final Discourse

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Final Discourse

John 15:2

2 Every [pas] branch [klema] in [en] me [emoi] that [autos] beareth [phero] not [me] fruit [karpos] he taketh away [airo] : and [kai] every [pas] branch that beareth [phero] fruit [karpos] , he purgeth [kathairo] it [autos] , that [hina] it may bring forth [phero] more [pleion] fruit [karpos] . KJV-Interlinear

2 '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. NASB

In this very simple illustration, Jesus teaches us of the repercussions of our decisions in life. Now we need to know the players. There are many vines in this world. All of the vines are false vines except one, the true vine of God through whom, Jesus Christ, all things come into this world. The other vines of this world represent all of the false religions, all of the false philosophies, all of the weird ideas that people can come up with in their life.

Those people who believe in Christ are grafted permanently onto the true vine, that of Christianity. As believers we have certain expectations placed on us. Certainly we can contribute nothing to Gods plan, we are human and nothing a human can do is made a part of Gods plan for the human race nor with the angelic conflict. That is to say, there is nothing that we can do to help Gods plan along. We cannot improve on His plan. We cannot alter it.

There are two types of believers. Those who advance in their spiritual lives, and those who do not. Those who advance are by far in the minority. Those who do not advance in their spiritual lives unfortunately represent the vast majority of believers in history.

Of those who advance in their spiritual lives, the group of folks that pursue their spiritual lives throughout their lives to the point of achieving spiritual maturity, are in an even smaller minority. There will be a large number of folks who will achieve some degree of advancement in their spiritual lives, but not all of the way to maturity.

So we have three groups of believers. The largest group consists of those who are negative and do not advance at all in their spiritual lives. The next group consists of those who advance some in their spiritual lives, but they lack the self motivation to pursue their spiritual growth all of the way to maturity. The last group is the smallest group of folks, and they are the ones who have a genuine desire and self motivation to advance toward and achieve spiritual maturity regardless of the circumstances in their lives.

Now we have the vines of the world. All other vines are worthless. We focus on the true vine of Christ. The believers are its branches. The key words here are 'in Me.'

This refers to believers in Christ. Those who do not produce fruit are taken away. What does a good gardener do with plants that do not produce fruit, but are otherwise healthy plants? He takes them away to some sort of storage, perhaps for future use.

Believers are taken away (not thrown away), and their future use will arise in heaven, when all of history is finished.

Fruit? What exactly is that? Production. What is our production in the Christian life anyway. We know that there is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation. There is nothing that we can do to earn our spiritual life. There is nothing that we can do to advance ourselves in our relationship with God. That is to say, there is nothing that we can do from the energy of our own resources. We call that the energy of the flesh or from our sin nature.

There are two sources of production. Oh, by the way, everything you do in life is production of one kind or another. The key here is from what source or from what power does that production come? There are two sources - the sin nature, and from God. The sin nature originates from within ourselves. The power of God becomes available to us when we are in fellowship.

Needless to say, this only applies to believers.

Now, when you are in fellowship, then anything you do is divine production. When you are out of fellowship, then anything you do is human production from the energy of the flesh or of the sin nature as we generally describe it.

All divine production is termed gold, silver, and precious stones. All sin nature production is termed wood, hay, and stubble.

Now note. Anything means anything. Divine good is not specifically doing something good for someone. Like giving to the church or helping little old ladies across the street. All evil production (that is the only thing that comes from the sin nature) is not specifically doing something bad, like telling lies or robbing a bank. The emphasis is on the sphere in which you live (in fellowship or out of fellowship), not on the things you do (or don't do). You can be sleeping and in fellowship and log a lot of divine good in your life.

Likewise you do have responsibilities which God expects from you. Those responsibilities are to God, to your self and to others. Fulfilling those responsibilities is in effect applying Gods Word to your daily life. That application does two things. It helps you to learn even more in your spiritual life through the reinforcement of your learning process, and it helps you to mature to greater heights in your spiritual life. If you try to sleep your way through life, you will wake up with nothing

Now back to the vine. If you do not advance in your spiritual life, then God removes you into storage at it were and there you await eternity. You live your life as historical filler and that is the legacy you have to offer history. You are a total dud, spiritually.

Those who advance some in their spiritual lives, are also removed. They produce some, but you know a good gardener will remove borderline productive plants and make more space for the plants that produce more. So as a borderline producer, you had your chance, you failed, and you too are removed.

The best group to be associated with is that which produces much fruit in their lives. God spends His attention, as the wise gardener, caring for the really productive branches of this true vine. He will prune you with life's learning experiences, by allowing you to learn, to advance, to fail, to pick yourselves up and to continue forward in our life. He will guide with discipline where necessary. He will guide with encouragement where necessary. Your relentless positive attitude and His expertise, will guarantee total success.

Those who have their heads on straight and know that this life is not merely a life where we grow up, go to work, and retire to a round of golf, but we are preparing ourselves for an even greater life in eternity, will always get up regardless of their successes or failures in life, and move forward in their spiritual lives. They are not discouraged. They expect to stumble. They know that life is not going to be easy or perfect, but ... There is a God and there is a plan which is far greater than anything in this world, and there is an eternity, and that is where our real destiny and our real life exists and will begin.

Such is the vine from which God either removes those who are not interested or are marginally interested in their spiritual future, or where God meticulously prunes and cares for those who have a genuine desire to let God make them far more than they can become themselves.

Did you catch the implication of the last half of that last sentence?