The Impossibility of the Christian Life - Part 2 - Paul Washer

let's open our Bibles to the book of John chapter 15 again let's stand and please follow along with me as I read John chapter 15 if you were here last night I would just iterate that the reading of the scripture is commanded in the New Testament I think it should be a central point in in our services and that we read by faith believing that if we will fight the good fight here in the next few minutes and focus our mind upon the scriptures that God will speak through his word please do not be guilty of despising the reading of the Scriptures but take it as God you know always there's this great opportunity that he will speak to you just through the word that is read so listen as I read John chapter 15 verse 1 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 so 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 will be done for you my father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples just as the father has loved me I have also loved you abide in my love if you keep my Commandments you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's Commandments and abide in his love these things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full this is my commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you greater love has no one than this that he lays down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do what I command you let's pray father Lord you know all things do you know how tired our body and how tired our minds Lord the Lord you your strength is perfected in weakness and that it is not eloquence are the quickness of mind but it is the power of the Holy Spirit the power of your word that has been read father we preach by faith we have believed and therefore we speak Lord I pray that you would take your word through the illuminating and renewing work of the Spirit but you would apply it to our hearts and that those who are Christian would leave here with a greater capacity to know you and to walk with you and if there are those who do not know you that their need would be exposed that their sin would be made known to them that Christ would appear to them glorious father please help in this time Lord Lord you know I just want these things to be a reality in my life and I just want them to be communicated to my brothers and sisters in Christ and that they be a reality in their lives Lord there's no hope here but you but you are enough in Jesus name Amen Jesus says in Chapter one I am the vine we spoke about that last night that he is the true source of all true spiritual life and power now I make a division between spiritual life and power that is not so much made in Scripture as it is necessary for me to do so because of the times in which I live there are so many people who equate intimacy with Christ and the Holy Spirit with power for ministry power to do great things power to perform miracles power to impress extravagant signs and wonders well if there are any true signs and wonders they are definitely the work of the Holy Spirit and cannot be contrived by men but I want you to understand something a man can stand in a pulpit and at times the Holy Spirit will be of great help to him empower him to preach and to say things to communicate truth to God's people and that is a power that's necessary not only for the preacher but it's necessary for every believer as they minister in the body of Christ according to their gifts so we need power but power is not just for carrying out our gifts or our ministry power is for living a godly life you see my great concern is not let me put it this way I don't spend my time every day thinking about how I can be a more eloquent preacher or how I can even be a better expose etre in the sense of using different techniques to communicate truth I would have to say the great burden of my day is drawn out of the great need of my day and my great need is to be more godly it is so easy to preach in a sense I mean I'm standing before you you're listening to me but you really don't know who I am you don't really know if I'm godly you don't really even know if I'm sincere but it's in watching me live that I will be vindicated or accused and that's what I want you to see is that we need the power that flows from Christ but it's not just power to do ministry its power to be conformed to his image that is the priority and if we are conformed to the image of Christ than everything else seems to fall in place and let me put it even in a higher degree if we are manifesting conformity to Christ around the people who know us best you see when we come into a place even if we're not trying to be hypocrites we will put on our best face but it's around those people who are closest to us our wives our husbands our children our intimate brothers and sisters in Christ they really know and so that's my desire when people will ask me brother Paul you must have all kinds of needs what can we pray for you about I always say this pray that I will love my wife as Christ loves the church because the most difficult thing is to truly love and to truly be christ-like around the people who are closest to you but if you can't do that everything else is just a stage in a play and so we want to realize that all spiritual life flows out of Christ but I don't want young men just thinking I need spiritual power so that I can do something with it like build my own kingdom it should be I want this life I want this power flowing from Christ I want to be intimately connected to the vine so that I can look like the vine so that I can bear fruit to the glory of the vine because it is all about Christ I think it's safe to say that we live in a Christological universe at least in God's mind that everything he's ever done he has done for his son and if you and I are to go out and produce fruit it's not to build our own Kingdom and it's not to somehow exalt ourselves but it's to demonstrate how Christ has such power that he can work through such weakness well having said that let's look at verse one I am the 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 so that it may bear more fruit now I want to read you something that I've written here God is intensely concerned about the beauty and fruitfulness of the branches God is intensely concerned about you as a branch individually but he's intensely concerned about the branches collectively as a church and not just with this universal idea but this local church that you can point to he is intensely concerned that we be fruitful and beautiful now why is that because God has done everything he has ever done for his son he loves his son he desires the glory and good pleasure of his son and he wants his son's reputation to be very high to say the least and that reputation at least for this moment in time depends somewhat up on the behavior of those who consider themselves to be his disciples we can read this in the Old Testament we read it again in the book of Romans that because of the bad behavior of the people of God the name of God was blaspheme among the Gentiles and so the father who sent his son to die for us who sent forth the Holy Spirit that we might be regenerated is Oslo intensely concerned not only with our freedom from the condemnation of sin but he's intensely concerned with our freedom from the power of sin it is God's desire that you be a holy pure chase beautiful fruitful people unsoiled by the world and my dear friend you need to take this as seriously as God does you do now let me say something here that's very important there are places that you may feel the freedom to go that I can't go there are things that you feel the freedom to watch and to listen to and to participate in that I cannot many many years ago Leonard Ravenhill friend of mine told him said Paul is really kind of downcast Leonard Ravenhill sent me a little track I still have it today I don't agree with everything that's in the track but the track puts forth the major truth and it's this others can you cannot that's the name of the track and basically the whole idea here is this if you truly want to walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit if you truly want to be an instrument of God then what others can do you cannot you have to guard this deposit that is within you you have to be zealous about this relationship an illustration that I love to use is about an old man a great violinist in Europe who played his last concert as an old man and a young violinist came up to him and said this sir I would give my life to play like you and the old man looked at him and said son I have given my life to play like me do you want to see God's fruit in your life do you want to see God's beauty in your life do you want to be even more than someone who's theologically correct do you actually want to have a fragrance about you a perfume about you life life-giving virtue flowing from you is that is that what you desire then you're going to have to take this relationship with Christ extremely seriously you're going to have to seek for greater and greater intimacy and you're going to have to avoid the things that would soil you that would twist you that would grieve him the father desires such people because he cares about the branch because he cares about the vine now I want us to look at this text look what he says in verse 2 every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away now the evidence of genuine conversion is the fruit that you bear make no mistake about it there is such horrible undescribable heresy with regard to conversion in America today the idea of the continuously carnal Christian the idea that a person one time in their life made a decision pray the prayer ask Jesus can't come in believed the promise of Revelation 20 now they're saved they live the rest of their life like a devil and their Christian that is not true I have heard preachers say even this a man can pray that prayer ask Jesus Christ to come into his life and then become an atheist and still go to heaven and it's because they do not understand the doctrine of being born again they do not understand the doctrine of Revelation the doctrine of regeneration the scripture is very very clear salvation is through faith alone in Jesus Christ and that is it it is faith alone you add works to it and you are preaching another gospel salvation is by faith believing in Jesus you are justified nothing in my hands I bring simply to the cross I claim that is salvation but what you need to understand is the one who leaves has been regenerated by the Spirit of the Living God and when Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 5:17 that if any man be in Christ he's a new creature he is not reciting apostolic poetry he's not speaking in Etta 4 or hyperbole he means it is a theological truth it is a proposition it is biblical you really do become a new creature you really do it works something like this all those very simplified prior to your conversion you had a God hating Adamic heart at the moment of conversion you became a new creature and although there is an aspect of you referred to as the flesh and unredeemed aspect of you that fights against this new heart that fights against this new nature you are a new creature and because you are a new creature you have now new affections new righteous affections and those new righteous affections draw you to devotion to Christ and obedience you see when the Bible - if you ever wondered why John the Gospel of John actually begins in the beginning where do you hear that before where have you heard that before you hear that in Genesis don't you in the creation story why John is talking about the new creation in Christ this is big stuff I like to put it this way more there is a greater manifestation of the power of God in the conversion of one sinner than in the very creation of the universe he created the universe ex nihilo out of nothing but to make us Saints he takes some mass of corrupt humanity and makes it into a new creature and so it is a theological truth that the evidence that you have truly been converted is that you bear fruit not sinless perfection not at all not that the true Christian doesn't struggle with sin that's absolutely absurd but I can tell you this the true Christian will manifest a new way of life newness of life it is the result of the converting regenerating work of the Spirit of God it is the result of the indwelling presence of the Spirit in their life the empowering of the Spirit and it is the result of the continuous relentless Providence of God who says you will be my people and I will be your God I who began a good work in you will finish it and so because God the Father is so intensely concerned about the vine and the vines good pleasure and the vines reputation he is going to govern over he is going to oversee this vineyard the Providence of God will be one of the greatest realities in the believers life it will be relentless it will be inescapable now in Christianity evangelicalism even reformed whatever you want to say even in in the purest body of people the most biblical church you're going to have those who are truly converted and those who appear to be branches and yet or not and what does the Bible say is going to happen it says every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away he removes them now how does he do it well I want you to look at a practical means and what does it and I want you to look at a supernatural means in which he does it first of all the practical means there are two reasons why evangelicalism in America well there are many but I want to focus on two reasons why evangelicalism in America is so disgusting one of them is the men preaching the gospel do not understand the gospel and they're leading people into an empty cradle ISM and their purpose needing them to be converted when they are not that's one of the problems the other great problem is hardly anyone in this country I know there are a few but there are so few that the percentage would be in single digits absolutely hardly any churches today practice biblical church discipline and when a church decides it is not going to practice church discipline or it is going to ignore church discipline it is basically looked at its master and said I will not obey you and I have heard people say they said it they just didn't realize what they were saying when they say something we don't discipline anybody here we're going to love people as opposed to the Christ who commanded you to discipline people so I suppose your love is greater than his and yet he says no greater love has any one than this that he lay down his life for his friends the same one who laid down his life for his friends commanded church discipline and the reason why the church is in such a state because it's no longer understood it's no longer practiced even the entire way congregations are set up now the mega church mentality everything of it is absolutely impossible to do what Jesus said how do you know when your church structure is not correct how do you know when your church is too big when you can't follow the commands of Christ within that body that's how you know and yet preachers today say we can't do this because we're too big then your bigness ought to scare you we can't do this because we don't think it's loving you have opposed Christ Paul is very clear in his letter to Timothy and first Timothy that he's he says Timothy I'm not sure I'm going to make it to you so I'm writing to you these things that you'll know how to conduct yourself and what that means is you don't have the right nor does your pastor or if you are a pastor you do not have the right to conduct your in church as seems right in your own eyes you have the strict command to follow the master with regard to his bride if I had to leave my bride with you and go on a long journey I would give you careful instructions and I would deal with you if they were not carried out and he has given us instructions it is not a cruel punitive church discipline oh it is a loving compassionate church discipline that God has given us in order to restore sinners and to protect the reputation of the church and when you refuse to be a part of that you are disobeying Christ there's just no other way to say it I'm sorry there's not there have been scholars down through the ages who said who have said actually that the moment of church ceases to practice church discipline it ceases to be a church this is so brothers it is so very very important church discipline now let me just go with you real quick what that means because some of you probably never even heard of this it it comes about that within the congregation it is discovered there is a brother in a in a sin in a continuous ongoing sin usually public usually scandalous and in-depth but it doesn't have to be public necessarily it doesn't have to be scandalous a brother is in sin another brother goes to him and says brother according to Matthew 18 brother you're in sin and if the person says oh I recognize that I repent thank you then then he's one his brother there's nothing left to do unless it be something greatly public and scandalous this must be taken care of in a public manner but he's one his brother but if the brother says I don't care I'll continue in my sin then the brother who has rebuked and goes and gets wiser men that himself the judge usually the elders and they come together and they deal with the brother brother you must turn away from this adultery you must turn away from the sin you're committing you must turn away from your idolatry and he tells the Esther no I don't care then after much admonition in prayer and heart-wrenching intercession by those involved finally after pleading and pleading they bring it before the congregation and the congregation begs this brother with tears in their eyes please turn from your sin and he says no I will not then they put him out they do not put him out for punitive reasons they put him out for redemptive reasons so that if he is a believer God in His Providence will deal with him even to the point of unleashing Satan himself until that brother is brought back into the fold in the moment he walks in those doors repentant and broken the church envelops him in such love works for his restoration lays down their life for him but in many cases what happens is the man is turned out he continues in his sin the Providence of God never becomes evident Satan is never unleashed and it is proven that that man has been a false convert from the start brothers we're not given options I mean I know what's taught in seminary I deal with seminaries not in all seminaries but in most of these seminaries today it's like well if you want to start a church like this plan over here plan a and then there's Plan B for this certain demographic and then there's Plan C and this is a new way of doing it and this is innate who gave you the right who do you think you are one of the most fearful things is going to be on the day of judgement is to have been an evangelical pastor in the United States of America will be terrifying when many of them are cast into hell and others of them see their entire ministry burned up it's kind of a side note but let me just share with you because if you're a pastor here I want you to realize this churches today you go to even some of the most carnal and you will find within that church a group of people who all they want is Jesus and it's unbelievable all they want is to hear the word preached they just want to worship they want a ministry they just they just want Jesus it's all they want but it's a tiny segment of people in this huge carnal company and the pastors what did they do I think about this they spend all their time all their energy and direct everything in the service and everything in their men in their ministries in order to cater to the carnal wicked in their church and in doing so the Bride of Christ is over there starving to death when can't you see it it's all over America this one little group in the church all he wants is Jesus it is the Bride of Christ and this Minister spends his entire life giving smoke up on the stage and dry ice and entertainment and all kinds of worldly carnal promises feeding the carnal while the Bride of Christ starves to death and they will be judged for what they have done to his bride bunch of little boys most of the lot unconverted no sense of God about them and no sense of the stewardship and the seriousness of that stewardship they would all do well to be converted and then to read Richard Baxter's reformed faster it would help Spurgeon's lectures to my students portraits of paul we live in don't think that I'm just some wild man up here open your eyes and look what's actually being done if my wife had to go shopping late at night she's coming out of the Walmart store and going to her car she's attacked by three men who began to beat her and abuse her severely and you knowing my wife you walk by her sir and out of fear for your own skin self-preservation you act like you do not know what's going on and you let her be abused by such men I'll find those men I will and I'll deal with them but then I'll come for you then that all the evangelical pastors should hear what I'm saying you cater to the carnal to keep your big Church in your big buildings and everything else while the Bride of Christ wilts away in a corner pining only for Christ that's what's going on in America it's what's going on in America and there are certain things for which we should have no patience and that's one of them just remember this if you use carnal mean means to gather carnal men into your church you will have to increasingly give them more carnal things in order to keep them but if you're looking for the Bride of Christ and you're doing all things suffering all things for the sake of the elect all you're going to have to do is preach Jesus and they'll come around let's go back to our message so there is a practical means of God's removal and that is through church discipline I want you to know something the pastor who comes to you and lovingly and fearfully rebukes you and your sin don't you realize he's the man for you don't you know he knows he's putting his job on the line his reputation on the line his own skin on the line so if he comes to you he's got to be motivated by love it's the flatterer who's a son of perdition in the devil not the pastor who cares for your soul so God uses practical means to remove these branches but then there are supernatural means Ananias and Sapphira as a supernatural means also in in 1st Corinthians 11 those who ate and drank judgment upon themselves in Corinth another supernatural means now I'm going to share with you another that very few people speak of I just want to read you a text 1st Corinthians 11 19 for there must also be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among you now I want to share with you something I want to come out there because I want to make this very very clear why are there so many false teachers in America today well there are several reasons you say well it's a work of the devil yes but I want to show you how it is uniquely a work of God's providence these false teachers by and large what are they prospering what are they what are they proclaiming they are men whose God is their belly and they prove it by the way they live their God is their belly they are sensual carnal men they are materialistic and that's all they think about now those who go out to them those who who leave a local church those who who leave maybe a church where the gospel is being preached and leave that church and go out to these men why do they go out to them are they deceived well some of them could be but why are they being drawn out they're being drawn out by carnal materialistic sensual promises in the fact that they're following after those promises prove that they have the same heart these carnal wicked men gather around them carnal wicked people whose God is their belly they want prosperity more than Christ they want healing more than price Marcedes more than Christ they want all these things they want the American Dream in Jesus name now imagine this if all those people were left in a true body a true local church do you realize what a corrupting influence they would have and so God raises up false prophets in order to draw this poison out of his church and away from his people and gather it all in one spot before there was medicine if there was infection on an arm they would put a bomb they would put a mass of something whether it be figs or some sort of cloth over the top of it in hope of drawing the poison out of the body these false prophets like Benny Hinn and the rest of them they have that purpose those who would identify themselves with Christ but are carnal and fleshly people if they remained in the church they would destroy it they would infect it but they they're drawn out by these heretics see my dear friend this this Christianity thing is very prophetic very apocalyptic and wet these are serious things these are just life and death Heaven Hell works of God now here's something that I want you to say that is very very important God's removal of a person be redemptive there are Christians we are all capable of this of going astray and so God will use church discipline to bring us back to the fold that's the purpose of church discipline it's for his people God will also use extraordinary events of Providence in our life extraordinary things even to the point of striking us physically in order to bring his people back to him in order to bring an individual back to him what is redemptive but you need to understand the removal of branches also as indicated here in John and also in Matthew 7 if those branches are removed because they never were a part of Christ and when they are removed my dear friend they are cast in to hell I know this is not very popular today but hell is just as much a reality today as it was 2,000 years ago you know I hear these preachers today I actually hear them on CNN and other things like that when they're asked about Hell they say things like this they say well you know we just want to teach the words of Jesus in our church and I'm sitting there and go this guy has just disqualified himself for the ministry based either on ignorance or immorality and say well what do you mean well here's what you need to understand I challenge you to read the Bible read the entire Old Testament and you will find very few references about Hell read the epistles and you will find very few references about Hell we would know nothing about hell if it wasn't for the words of Jesus Jesus talked more about Hell than absolutely everybody else in the Bible so when a man says we don't teach on Hill we just want to teach on the words of Jesus either he doesn't know the words of Jesus or he is a deceiver because Jesus is the one who talked about it but since which discipline isn't practiced in the gospel isn't preached correctly what happens we have so many people in evangelicalism today that go to church every Sunday and they are asleep in the pew and they are on the road to hell they are on the road to hell one of one of my one of the men I admire mostly in the present present day and as a friend of mine is Ray Comfort he goes out into the highways and the hedges and he preaches the gospel to the loss that will never enter into a church I go into the church to reach the loss that are there and there's just as many inside the church as there is outside of the church but the ones in the church are even in greater danger because every Sunday that they hear a message that has any truth on it it is heaping up more judgment upon them and they are asleep they are convinced even by their own ministers they are convinced then it is right with them when it is not evangelicalism is filled with these false prophets and preachers who say peace peace when there is no peace and to be responsible for damning countless countless souls to hell so it is a serious thing now I want to make one more statement about the father removing branches there's possible there's possibility here of an immediate reference to Judas he was the one that joined the lot was called into the lot and yet was the son of perdition from the very beginning from the outset was a son of the devil he had to be removed from this apostolic band in order that it might function correctly if you realized their dirt before the crucifixion of Christ and even during it a lot of things were being done for that apostolic band one is this wild branch is being removed Judas son of perdition which would have without the presence of Christ being among them physically he would have contaminated the whole lot he's being pulled out the one who's going to be designated is one of the chief columns among them Peter he's having to be dealt with in what way it was necessary that Peter deny Christ you say necessary Jesus said Satan has asked to sift you and he doesn't say and I have stopped him doesn't say that but he says he's prayed for him now what's going on when everyone when Jesus told everyone you will deny me you will deny me you will even you will scatter Peter said not me I won't if Peter had been left in that state of pride self-sufficiency he could have never been abused to that apostolic band he had to be crushed but the amazing thing my brothers and this is always the case this is from Samuel Chadwick he was he was wondering what he should preach one day and that happens to preachers so he decided to take a walk in the village and he's walking along there he comes the blacksmith shop and there's this gigantic man in this leather vest and he's got this hammer and he's beating this piece of metal on an anvil like crazy and there's another man standing beside him like this finely dressed and so Samuel Chadwick walked over there and tried to talk to the man swinging the hammer as though he were the blacksmith and the man that was finely dressed said sir he's not the blacksmith I'm the blacksmith and Samuel Chadwick said well you know you're just standing here this man's doing all the work he said yes he is and in their old whole English he said this man is nothing more than an idiot sir he's an imbecile he doesn't even know what he's doing and then Samuel Chadwick began to investigate well what's going on and the blacksmith said this this man has no clue what he's doing he's beating a piece of metal I'm telling him where to hit exactly I'm telling him how many times to hit exactly I'm telling him where to hit exactly this imbecile believes that he's destroying a piece of metal but I am using him to create a work of art in Samuel Chadwick had his sermon that's exactly the way God uses the devil the devil said I'm gonna beat this Saint to death and God and His Providence said and you will hit only where I tell you and you will hit only as many times as I tell you and you'll hit as hard as I tell you and you thinking you're destroying my child I'm turning him into the image of Christ that's what he had to do with Peter so he removes he removes this one branch and then he takes this other branch and fashions it into a useful instrument then we can go back to the Puritan idea of a bruised Reed can't wait the because this is Peter this is his elect this is one of his he doesn't cast him out doesn't snuff him out doesn't throw him away but he creates something spectacular out of him now in Malachi chapter 3 verse 2 I want to make one final point about the father and removal when the Messiah comes among his people he will be like a refiners fire in a fuller so notice that in many of the rebukes in the seven churches of Asia what do you say he says basically I love you he said that's why I'm doing this I love you I'm coming to discipline you because I love you the the evidence that the Messiah is among his people is that he's among his people as a refiners fire and a fuller soap and that means the more you see God's providence functioning in the cleansing and the pruning and the disciplining and the refining fires the more you see that in a church the more that church is right with God but when you see a congregation filled with mass of carnal people lying adultery greed idolatry everything typical evangelical church and you see that and no one's dying oh don't think it's the mercy of God it's the judgment of God the judgment of God in that he has removed the candlestick it is his absence that proves his judgment do you see that have you ever wondered and I would recommend a book to you and that's jao it's a school of Calvary in which he demonstrates throughout the scriptures and church history what that a more a man or woman is used as an instrument of God to the degree that they're used so is to the degree their suffering this Messiah is constantly refining constantly cleaning and so Saint look at this the very thing that we need the most is the very things we pray not to have typical prayer meeting if there is one at all in an evangelical church as Lord saved me from suffering save me from discomfort it should be Lord like Christ at all cost like Christ at all cost oh my dear friend listen the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of evangelicalism today and when everyone is saying missions missions missions and you know I work in a mission organization my whole life is missions but I hear everybody evangelicalism saying no we need more missions we need more missions and I'm going no we need to quarantine this whole thing don't spread it any further leave it here to die I can go every place in the world and show you where indigenous leaders come to me and say please no more Americans now there are some good missionaries please not throwing the baby out with the bathwater but do you actually want to export American evangelicalism a refiners fire the fuller soul and if he is not working among a church in that way it's because the candlestick has been removed you know a good question would be this and I wouldn't care who did it Calvinist or Armenian the good question would be this when is a church no longer a church now so we see that he is he's pruning now I want you to see something if you if we read in verse 2 and 3 he says in the last part of verse 2 he says he prunes it so that it may bear much more fruit then he says in verse 3 you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you the word prune there in verse 2 and the word clean in verse 3 of the same root the idea is cleaning and Jesus says you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you now what does this mean I've written here Christ is declaring that the disciples are clean because of the teaching they have received from him because of his teaching the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit they are now prepared to bear even greater fruit they are prepared to be fruitful now I want to talk about God's means of cleansing his people and his church God's means of pruning now I'm going to show three different things just bear with me first of all in the believers life the first means that Christ points out here in verse 3 to make us clean is his teaching now I said this among the pastor's this morning I'm going to say it again I don't think that we do this intentionally but especially among reformed guys or guys who read the old Puritans in the early Baptists and Presbyterians and big church history seriously it seems like the moment we start growing in these areas our chief course of study is the epistles or study in Romans we're studying Galatians you know studying all these things Ephesians and I see something of a neglect of Christ's teachings now all of it is Christ teaching we do recognize that but the Gospels are not to be neglected but I think sometimes it is easier to go to the epistles because there we only have to wrangle with theology not really but that's the way we treat them but when we go to the words of Christ there's not a whole lot to wrangle with there are demands there are radical radical life-changing demands the entirety of the Christian life is that according to Christ is that your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the most exquisite keepers of the law oh yes Christ teaches justification by faith it is not just a Pauline doctrine if we must believe in the son for God so loved the world he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life we know that that is the teachings of Christ but then it's this teaching of this our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done that is one of the most radical declarations anyone has ever made you've never seen it that way possibly but it is the whole intent of the heart of Christ is revealed in that prayer he says in his incarnate state has a man he says I exist for one purpose there was one flame burning in my heart that your name be separated as holy from all other names that your kingdom come that your will be done my entire life is given to that he says my entire purpose seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness and all these things will be gathered unto you what does it matter if a man gains the whole world and loses his soul if you don't I hate your father and your mother you're not worthy of me take up your cross and follow me the words of Christ the teachings of Christ are the means in which and I'm speaking about the Gospels I'm speaking about the epistles I'm speaking about the full counsel of God's Word it is all the teachings of Christ one part interprets the other I want you to know that it is the Word of God that is the primary means of pruning us and cleaning us and to the degree that we submit our life to God's Word we are made bearers of fruit there is such a neglect of God's Word among us how much time do you honestly spend in the Word of God every day think about it you know people say well I'm just not that way I'm just not a read or I'm just not this listen dear sir if if your factory where you work came to you and promised you a job making four times what you're making the only thing you have to do is memorize a 600 page manual I guarantee you'd be up all night memorizing that manual wouldn't you you'd do anything for worldly gain it we're talking about life eternal life and eternal death look I was walking through Peru one time I was walking down the streets of miraflores and i saw this thing on the ground it caught my attention I realized it was written by the Catholic Church it was a track and it said something about Baptist on it so I knew it would be you know some kind of attack and so I picked it up and I read it and I said oh Lord if only this were true you know what they were saying that Baptist ought to be avoided at all costs because they were fanatical people of the book who believed that every word of the Bible was totally inspired that it was to be every bit of it taken seriously and applied to life and that they're just fanatical about the study and application of the Bible and I Oh Lord if only this were true it's not if only it were true if only it were true you cannot do this Christian life through listening to John Piper or John MacArthur or anybody else even though I love those men you cannot do it you could only do it through the Living Word of God you must take this seriously fathers you must take this seriously with your children with your wives with everyone look there's there's no other way okay I'm just telling you there's no plan B the cleanliness of your life and the ability to bear fruit is directly related to you reading listening submitting to obeying the word of Christ because it's not just enough to know it Judas knew it it's not just enough to hear it those who build their lives on the sand they hear it but to hear it and to do it will not generations rise up against us one day those who lived before Gutenberg the Gutenberg press who would have longed to have one page from your Bible those who exist now who have no correct translation will they not rise up against you on the day of judgment for your apathy toward such a treasure my dear friend I know you may be angry with me you may think that I'm just too straightforward but it's better to hear this now than to hear it then while there's still time to correct your way the Word of God the teachings of Christ are away in which were cleaned now here's one of the parts that I believe that's so beautiful and it just shows how gosh the the Bible is so inspired and God is so wise you need the son teaching you need to spend hours in the word you need to memorize Scripture and he saturates your life he need to be like John Bunyan you know they said if you cut him his veins would bleed the Bible you need the sons teaching but then you need thing that people simply do not understand if you just had the teaching alone it would not be sufficient but the father comes in his Providence and he applies the teaching I've written here the father applies Christ's teaching to our lives through his works of Providence testing and discipline the continuing inescapable relentless work of God leading to greater and greater sanctification and thus greater and greater fruit bearing listen to this Romans 8:28 29 and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren the Sunan bonum the greatest good of God in your life is to conform you to the image of Christ you ought you that happens as you submit to the teachings of Christ and then the Providence of God works to take that teaching and mold you to mold you into the image of Christ look at Romans 5 3 through 5 and not only this but we also exult in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance proven character and proven character hope and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has who was given to us what is he saying he says we're rejoicing in all these things by the power of the Holy Spirit because we know that God is working all these things trials tribulations sicknesses death everything to do what - give us the character and virtue of Christ James says consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have it's perfect results so that you may be perfect and leet lacking in nothing first Peter 1 6 through 7 in this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary you have been distressed by various trials but then he says so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in his praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ you see so what do you have you had this thing in which you have the teachings of Christ there in your very hands to read to pray over to cry out to God for the spirit to apply it to your heart and then you have the Providence of God working relentlessly filling every aspect of your life with meaning in his economy he makes no he makes no move that produces no good I mean what I'm saying is God doesn't work at a loss everything in your life he is using to conform you to the image of Christ and he knows exactly what you need and instead of praying all the time to avoid the berry fires you should pray that he would sustain you through them a dear professor at southern was telling me one time of a man he knew there was a student and the woman it was a young couple in and the young lady her husband was a student enough she so longed to have children and she had miscarriage after miscarriage and one day he he gets in he brings his wife home she just had a miscarriage he has to go to the pharmacy he gets in his car he turns on the car the radio comes on and the news broadcaster just mentioned some woman who is infamous for her immoralities a famous very famous musician and said she had just given birth to her second or third child from a guy she chose or something to have this baby with and he said when he heard that he was furious with God said god that's my wife crying right now in that apartment she loves you she longs to raise children for your glory and it's miscarriage after miscarriage and this woman here who acts like a beast is giving birth to another child and another why he goes to the pharmacy he comes back and when he comes to his parking place there's a young man standing there in the parking place waiting on it and I mean this is you know reform guys so they don't really do this very often guys standing there and he says uh I need to talk to you what I just I got to tell you something I know God sent me here to tell you something what he went you need to understand something God knows exactly what you and your wife must pass through in order to be conformed to the image of Christ now will you fight against it or will you submit to it he knows what you made I want to tell you this love I wrote while back something I was writing on the love of God and I put his love is as violent as his wrath he knows what you need but most people they really don't want what God wants for their life most ministers do not want what God wants for their life I remember one time I've had both my hips replaced I got metal my wrist is made out of man I got more meadow in me than a Tonka truck and and prior to the operations and different things that the Lord's done I lived in just chronic pain it was horrible I remember going out in Peru the church had been display wiped out by this kind of marginal charismatic group that had come in I was struggling with that I was in so much pain I couldn't hardly stand up the doctors used to say we don't even know how you stand every part of my body was hurting I remember walking out on the roof of the house because in Latin America and Peru you do a lot on the roof and I'm walking out and there's tears in my eyes and I said God why why I'm hurting so bad and now this everything coming down on my head and no God did not speak to me but I began to have I begin to remember all those times the University all those times in seminary we'd have those all-night prayer meetings me and another guy and we'd cry out Lord I don't care what it takes make me like Jesus destroy everything ruin my ministry grind me to powder but conform me to the image of Christ and it was like the Lord was saying I'm answering your prayer are your desires mine what do you want there's a sense in which all those that are heretical prosperity preachers are right God will give you what you want that's terrifying the Pharisees wanted the glory of men God gave them their reward in full and then they went to hell do you want what God wants which is conformity to the image of Christ joke about a militant Christianity that changes the world Christianity isn't it doesn't change the world through militant activity we change the world by being conformed to the image of Christ character and that's costly any wild donkey can preach to be conformed to the image of Christ it's a lifetime dear Saint those of you there are a few of you here today and you've suffered some horrible things and a lot of times in your suffering you thought it was without purpose well now you know the lid of the tombs been ripped off and Christ has filled your day with light there was reason for that he knows what you need to be conformed to the image of Christ now don't rebel so there's these acts of Providence but other than acts of Providence there's also what we call in the book of Hebrews chapter 12 we didn't have time to read it there is God's discipline he says now just I I just want to you to see something here for just a moment just listen to this language says you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood and your striving against sin and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor faint when you are reproved by him for those whom the Lord loves he disciplines and he scourges every son whom he receives scourge his brother did sometimes we read the Bible and we don't realize what we're reading it's just like our sea scroll points out in Isaiah 6 you know here's this angel takes this hot coal and and with tongs and he puts it on Isaiah's lips and we think Oh what beautiful imagery what beautiful imagery this coal is so hot an angel won't touch it and he puts it to the most sensitive part of Isaiah's body his face exploded in pain and therein you have the suffering of a prophet scourge is the idea here is someone being tied up between two poles and whipped with a whip until their back is bloody I know what culture you were raised in effeminate hypocritical stupid a culture that would say oh my God would never do anything like that yeah your God wouldn't do anything that the God the Bible does you have no idea how intense his desire is for our holiness and you have no idea how rough this pilgrimage can be I mean when it's really a pilgrimage what do you think it was joy John Bunyan thought 12 years of prison time was just wonderful retreat to write a book he suffered there with the rats and the mold and the filth and the excrement and out of it came a book second only to the scriptures and its usefulness among the people of God and church history didn't put him in an ivory tower to ride it you can't write books like that in an ivory time what do you want my dear friend so many people because of all this this netted YouTube celebrity ISM and all this vomitus appreciation of men and I know I'm part of it it even makes it more ludicrous in my mind everyone thinks in young ministers and other ministers Satan works through this to make people think you're not a successful minister unless you have a blog everybody's reading unless a hundred thousand people are reading your tweets or whatever they're called or unless you know you're preaching in all the conference's that is that that's a lie I would submit to you the philosophical truth or at least it's it's a beautiful picture of the question when the young when the old theologian says to his young class would God take the most beautiful rose he ever made and plant it deep in a forest in which no thinking creature walks would he do so and if he did so how would he be glorified by that rose students go he'd never he'd take his most beautiful rose and put it for everyone to see he couldn't be glorified if no one saw it yes he could because he would see it every day and revel in what he has made I submit to you that the best of preachers and the best of men are unknown to you they asked ji Packard one time who's the greatest preacher in the world J I Packer said you don't know him Conrad Morel said one time the best sermons that have ever been preached and preached to six people I can remember one time preaching in Texas and a whole bunch of people came out for the meetings I was going to teach through the the New Covenant as it is brought forth in the Old Covenant the beauty of the prophets and everything about the coming of the Messiah and as I got up in the pulpit there was a professor seated there to my right and I looked over and I thought oh Lord it was a brother family from from India moogly our dr. moogly our he has forgotten more about what I was going to preach on then I have ever known in my life and I said Behold the wisdom of God the scholar and the godly man is seated no one knows his name and a wild donkey of the man gets up and can only preach a fragment of what he sees every day in his daily devotions you see young men it's not about this it's about being cut it this way it's not about the most famous preacher wins it's the one most conformed to the image Christ if you are without discipline you are an illegitimate child if you are without these workings of God's providence in your life it's because you do not belong to him one of the greatest evidences of you being a child of God is the evidence of the paternal Providence of God in your life and if it's not there you ought to tremble you ought to ask yourself do I truly belong to him make your calling and election sure test yourself examine yourself to see if you are in the faith now I want a goal of pruning and then we'll have to to call it a day the goal of pruning look at verses to every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit he's constantly working to make us more fruitful now if you look at verse 8 my father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples two things we learn here 1 the father is glorified by our fruit the other thing is fruit is evidence of salvation fruit is evidence of true conversion fruit is an outflow of regeneration let me say this very very important there's a big deal today and sometimes I'm accused of it John MacArthur's accused of it others of what's called lordship salvation but these people are teaching that you know me then I'm teaching that in order to be saved you must believe in Jesus and fully and completely submit to his lordship and that's works the people who talk about lordship salvation on both sides both of them are wrong they don't understand the issue the true gospel does not say that in order to be saved you must repent believe and live as though Christ were Lord doing all these things submitted to his will that's not what the Bible says the Bible teaches this in order to be saved you must repent and believe the gospel now but as I said those who believe those who repent and believe what has happened to them they've been regenerated haven't they they become new creatures does it mean that his new creatures the moment that they are converted they now fully submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ and we're without sin absolutely not none of us fully understand the idea of the lordship of Christ none of us even come close to fully submitting to his lordship what does it mean it means the moment we are regenerated we recognize him as Lord we do do that and we desire to submit to his law we desire to submit to his word we desire to submit to his sovereignty and as we go on in life we are seeking to submit to his law to his sovereignty to his word and when we fail and we all do what happens we repent and we start again and little by little we are growing in our submission to the lordship of Jesus Christ folks that's just Christianity that's just Christianity it's not salvation is by faith and works it is salvation is by faith but the same supernatural work of God that produces faith also produces fruit and as we go on growing in sanctification which is ensured by the indwelling Spirit and the Providence of God we go on bearing more fruit we go on living and greater and greater submission and when we step out of that what happens the father comes and he lovingly disciplines us now I want you to look at verse 16 you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name he may give to you now the point that I want you to see here is this first of all God has chosen us one of the purposes of conversion is that you might bear fruit now we see that in another place if you just look over really quick at Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them he's saying the same thing as we see over here God has chosen us before the foundation of the world that we might bear fruit and fruit according to the design that he has laid out because never forget God not only gives life to the vine through his son God's providence directs the shape and form of the vine his Providence determines how you should grow where you should bear fruit what quantity of fruits you should bear exactly what it should look like but make no mistake about it if you are truly converted you will bear fruit there will be times when it seems that your fruitless because he will be pruning you back but if you look at the full course of your life you will see fruitfulness now people say what is that fruit well here you need to be very careful because if you just do a word study you can kind of get messed up fruit here has to do with just all the things that are accompanying evidences of the Christian life they have to do with character they have to do with ministry they have to do with the fruit of the Spirit they just have to do with all the things that accompany Christian life but if you look in verse 16 trying to go kind of fast if you look in verse 16 you will see something that I think that a lot of people miss he said you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you would this go and bear fruit I think that's very interesting I don't think that's just there by accident we have a go somewhere else don't we in math you go and make disciples and I think that I think that this passage right here could be added to all the other passages that we call Great Commission passages because the idea is that a vine doesn't stay put it is going out into all the world and we go back to those metaphors of Israel in the Book of Isaiah in the Book of Psalms this idea of spreading out into all the world and bearing fruit your great passion should be to bear fruit for the glory of God and for the need of the world you are a fruitful vine you have been appointed don't come around me going well you know I'm just a humble little Saint and I really can't do anything listen everybody's that way everybody's a humble little Saint who can't do anything apart from me you can do nothing but we have all been appointed to bear fruit not in our own power and wisdom our own direction but under the direction and power and wisdom of God not only can you bear fruit you will bear fruit he will see to it that you bear fruit so go he says and be fruitful and you say well brother Paul I haven't bore that much fruit that's possible that's possible but it also could be that you've never seen the reality of the need to be connected to Christ an abiding relationship with him you said for brother Paul the moment I was converted the moment I believed I was justified he became my head I became part of the body and all yes that's true but it's talking about more than just a position it's talking about an experience it's talking about a way of life it's talking about daily feeding off of Christ that's he didn't use the metaphor that you must drink my blood and eat my body he wasn't teaching on cannibalism nor was he teaching on something of a permit he was talking about feeding off of him to the church and Lao disea he said you will dine with me and I will dine with you it's the only supper where we are dining from Christ we are feeding from Christ it is him it is his life and there's the cult there's the word I've been looking for it all day I'm tired there is the word cultivation the cultivation of a relationship with Christ an experiential relationship with Christ I look at his word and every directive comes from there any other wind that blows by it is all tested any feeling and emotion it's listed by the word and he's so-called prompting or leading up the Holy Spirit tested by the word so I cultivate with the word and the word as I read it cultivates me it plows me it cuts me it filets me it lays me open it has power to speak into my life to recreate to renew in all these things and then I cultivate how other things books from men that had great fires from women who bore much fruit reading of their life reading their memoirs reading teachings that they give cultivating realizing no I'm not going to go to the mall why because of the horrible things that are presented there I'm not gonna go i order out of an LnL being catalogue but I'm not going there no I'm not going to go see that movie no I'm not going to listen to this I am NOT going to offend the Holy Spirit there's a great deposit given unto me I'm going to be holy now I am a wild man in my house is a circus of joy don't think we walk around moaning all the time we do all kinds of things but there are certain things we do not do there are certain things we do not watch there are certain things that are not a part of our life why guarding cultivating this thing certain things I'm not going to allow into my garden because it will ruin tiny foxes and it's usually tiny foxes that spoil the vineyard most of you wouldn't go see a horrible x-rated movie but you will allow enough of other stuff to tiny foxes to spoil the vineyard cultivating this relationship with Christ in order to be fruitful oh and here's something for the prosperity preachers they would agree with me you know we ought to bear fruit and as a we ought to be fruitful we ought to be a fruitful vine yes that's true but you need to remember something trees do not eat their own fruit that's a good thing to remember the fruit is always for someone else and like the old preachers used to say you shovel it out God shovels it in God's got bigger shovel than you do so just keep shuffling it still Leia lay our lives down to bear fruit for others let me just give you some verses in closing now these are verses I'm 50 years old and I'm like wanting to live to like it I'm asking for ninety-one really I am if it goes beyond that if God is exceedingly abundant and all I ask or think I may live longer but I'm really counting on 91 and but I have seen old old men in their 90's there's a picture of George Mueller in his last days he's sitting there in a chair he's in I think his early nineties made the man's face glows you know you're looking at an old man but at the same time he looks like a little boy sitting there I see my my brother that I was talking about Richard Owen Robertson came to preach for us he's in his 80s walk up to the pulpit in his hands like this shaken to put the microphone on and then he turns towards the crowd reads the passage and all of a sudden that back straightens out and that chest comes out and he preaches for two and a half hours and I'm telling you he is skinning some rabbits when preachers so in old age I'm not looking for less fruit I'm looking for more more of the strength of the flesh is whittled away so more of the strength of the spirit might appear he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season it's leaf does not wither and whatever he does he prospers see I'm not gonna give that to the prosperity teachers it's mine it's gonna be prospering on to the glory of God and prospering in the healings of lives and the saving of souls what do we care about money what do we care about things that shine and that will rot and rust is bearing fruit life given to nations that know no gospel psalms 52 8 but as for me I am like a green olive tree in the house of God I trust in the loving kindness of God forever and ever that's that's for me it'll be for me when I'm riding on my deathbed I still be a green tree because this outward man is perishing but the inward man the man I really am it's being renewed daily Psalms 92 12 the righteous man will flourish like the palm tree he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon planted in the house of the Lord they will flourish in the courts of our God they will still yield fruit in old age they sell be full of SAP and very green my wife says you're getting gray head and I said yeah honey but I'm still full of SAP and very green Oh What did he say life bubbling up Matthew 13:23 and the one on whom the seed was sown on the good soil this is the man who hears the word and understand it understands it who indeed bears fruit and brings forth some a hundredfold some thirty some sixty and some thirty now once you look at this the least of the Saints are bringing four thirty fold fruit the least of them John 14:12 truly truly I say to you he who believes in me the works that I do he will do also and greater works than these he will do because I go to the Father and sends the Paraclete one of the things and I want to admonish especially the pastor's here that have really good theology how come this these types of verses now are only read by TV preachers who read them and then misinterpret them totally why aren't they read by you to your people this confidence of even though our body is breaking even though hell is unleashed against us we're a fruitful vine the angel of the lord encamps around us I was listening to a very famous preacher this where Hannah's listen a very famous preacher several months ago and he is he's a heretic and I was just you know I sitting there and though well he came on I just thought I'll listen to this guy you know what I realized it was a real rebuke from God he was quoting some of the most beautiful powerful promises regarding what I call biblical prosperity which biblical prosperity has has oftentimes nothing to do with finances I'm talking about life and he's quoting all these things and I'm sitting there listening to it and not out of him but just out of the verses that are being quoted I am so edified and I'm so full of believing what God can do in my life and then all of a sudden he takes all of that that teacher and turns it into materialism and focuses it all on your best life now now here's the problem it's not him that I saw it was made I ought to be giving these types of things to the people of God but interpreting them correct I want to be telling them he can do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think let's believe him for that I would it be telling you can be a green tree how to tell him look rivers of living water coming up inside you all these things are for the people of God but the heretics have taken them away from us and we're almost embarrassed to talk about them tecna's in that just reading those verses didn't it fill you with hope it does me and I've read them of gazillion times every time I read them it's like whoa that's who it's about it's all you're gonna get out of our form Baptists right there anything louder than that you better call an ambulance but dare do you see that brothers and I know if my desire is if I desire like as a man and as a minister to see you just grow and bear fruit and be beautiful even though in the midst of that you may suffer but the beauty and the brokenness and all that for you and then stand up one day before your God is a is a fruitful branch and these promises are for you they're for you don't let anybody steal these things from you and if you're a minister remember how I hate to say it this way but how positive and uplifting our faith is you know in some churches it's like I'll walk in and it's like man start singing hymns you know you are God and I am a worm step on me and watch me form it's just like what alright going to a church and you know I preached a lot on conversion the wrath of God and everything but the whole prayer meeting is God thank you for not crushing us under your wrath and I'm going okay we got that down now can we move the horn to something okay he's not going to kill us all and we're justified let's look into what this means to be a child of the Living God and to be happy and all these things that are promised all right well I'll pray before I think of something else to say father please bless your people with abundance of grace to be holy with abundant outpourings of the Spirit of the Living God that it would produce graces and virtues in them not eating or drinking but righteousness and joy in the holy spirit that their homes be marked by salvation and that salvation would produce joy oh dear God as as as they laughed as they laughed over Isaac let us laugh over 1 greater than Isaac with great joy rejoicing and all that you have done in Jesus name please visit our website at heart crime machinery.com there you will find information about the ministry our purpose beliefs and methodologies and extensive information about the missionaries we are privileged to serve you

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 23,267

Rating: 4.9170122 out of 5

Keywords: Paul, Washer, impossibility, of, the, Christian, John, fruit, salvation, regeneration

Id: BqHpAPolpTk

Length: 89min 49sec (5389 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 18 2012