Wait, stop. There is a world of articles, books, and information out there when it comes to Christianity, but we are mostly stuck with rhetoric and double talk when it comes to our relationship with the Lord, our new identity as believers, and the security and finality of the work of Christ. Are you getting everything you need spiritually from your church? Or do you find yourself feeling hungry for more? Join Lenny as he unpacks what Scripture really taught about our Lord Jesus Christ in context and why this matters to you. Wake up, wake up, wake up to grace.

Welcome back, everyone. I'll be continuing our discussion on John 15 today, looking again at verses 1 through 6. In my last message, we came to the conclusion that abiding in Christ is believing in Christ. This concept raises a lot of dispute with many of today's church leaders, so my goal is to address these arguments, and in doing so show you the math and how we can prove the truth in this passage. As we discussed in my last message, Yeshua spoke to believers here. That does not mean that everything said was about believers. I say this often because many miss this simple principle and go way off the beaten path in their theology. I don't want this for you. I want for you what John wanted for his audience in his first epistle, for you to abide in what you heard from the beginning. What I mean is I want you to understand this in light of the gospel of grace, the gospel that brings peace with Yahweh to those who believe. In our John 15 text, we see a theme of fruit bearing. But along with some very encouraging words, we see some words that sound a little frightening if we're being honest. We have Yeshua saying he is the vine, and then we have branches in him getting taken away. Even worse, we have branches getting thrown into the fire and burned. By far the most troubling part is that all these branches seem to be in Christ. Every time a person is referred to as in Christ in our New Testament, they're a saved believer. So the question we must ask then is how can a believer in Christ be taken away or thrown into the fire and burned? What purpose might Yeshua have had in making such a harsh analogy? In regards to being thrown into the fire and burned, many see this as punishing discipline. Some even cite Hebrews 12 as a reference to God punishing Christians for their sin. This Hebrews passage is certainly a go-to for this type of teaching, but it's not about Christians who are sinning. Hebrews 12 4 is about Christians getting persecuted for truth, which is the sin of their accusers. They're literally getting flogged for bearing fruit, not the other way around. I go over this in message number 19 if you'd like to put that bad doctrine in the fire to be burned. The only time we see this reference to God chastising Christians is when they are facing a similar fate as their sinless Messiah, who was literally chastised, which also means scourged for being righteous. We really have to be careful that legalism doesn't blind us from truth as we read. Using this analogy against sinful Christians is a major interpretive error and a compromise of grace. I've also heard it said that the fire here is a refining fire, like we see in other places in Scripture. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time understanding an analogy like this being applied to a withered branch. Show me a withered branch that's been refined by fire. I know in my garden branches don't come back from that. I don't think our Lord would use such words about one of his own, do you? That doesn't sound like the same Messiah that said, And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. Taking it even further, a multitude of so-called Christian leaders will tell you that the branches thrown into the fire are believers who lose their salvation. This view is so off the path, I wouldn't have time to investigate it in this message. As we just read in John 6.39 and see everywhere in Scripture, a Christian can't lose their salvation. Although we never lose our salvation, I can say the less we value our salvation, the less we benefit from it in this life. It's tragic to take what we've been given for granted. But now that we've heard some other views on the passage, what do you say we think for ourselves, and pray that the Lord guides us to what we can learn from this text in our scripture? In John 15, one through six we read, 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 does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. In reading the words of Christ Yeshua here, do you think this idea of him being the true vine was something he came up with randomly? In our Western theology, it would be easy to assume that he uses this word simply for the sake of making a good analogy. Some might even see it as parabolic. But it's not random or parabolic, and it's very significant that we understand why he calls himself the true vine. We see the same analogy used of Israel throughout the Tanakh, which is known as our Old Testament. Let's see a little of what the Tanakh has to say about Israel being a vine. Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn from you in disgust, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land. Thus says the Lord of hosts, they shall glean thoroughly as a vine, the remnant of Israel. Like a grape gatherer, pass your hand again over its branches. That's Jeremiah six, eight. Here we see the remnant, which refers to the faithful in Israel being gleaned from the vine. The poor were often allowed to glean in the fields after the harvest to gather the good scraps that were left behind from the harvesting. Then we read, For there shall be a sowing of peace, the vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their due, and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all things. And that's Zechariah 8 12. Again we see this analogy, and in this case it appears to represent the exact meaning that we find in Christ Yeshua's words. The remnant of the faithful will be those who possess all things. What about the others? If the faithful possess all things, then what's promised to the unfaithful? And then in Isaiah we read, For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. And he looked for justice, but behold bloodshed, for righteousness, but behold an outcry. That's Isaiah 5 7. Here we see Judah being favored among the tribes of Israel. What tribe did Yeshua come from? You guessed it, he came from Judah. But prior to Christ Judah was not pleased in the Lord, were they? And then in Jeremiah it is written, Yet I planted you a choice vine, holy, of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? That's Jeremiah 221. Now we read that a choice vine had become a wild vine. This could prove to be very important to our vine and branches analogy. Who would be the wild vine, the faithful or the unfaithful? Would the wild vine still have been in the original choice vine? If we see things from a covenant view, Israel was partaking in the new covenant. The Messiah came to them. Yeshua was their Messiah for their salvation. Can you see how the Jews who rejected their Messiah find themselves in this analogy? Okay, now let's read a passage that blows the minds of scholars and causes so many to believe that Matthew actually pulls the prophet Hosea out of context in his gospel. Matthew 213 reads Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, and to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, out of Egypt I called my son. Now listen carefully here. Hosea is whom Matthew quotes. And Hosea writes When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. When we read through Hosea, we see clearly that he's describing Israel and their exodus out of Egypt. Israel's exodus out of Egypt is the most powerful story of redemption that we have in the Tanakh. Why in the world does Matthew make Christ Yeshua's birth a comparison to Israel and redemption? Well, it's not hard to see when we see the context of divine passages, is it? Is this making sense so far? The first exodus out of Egypt brought Israel out of Egypt and into redemption. The second Exodus would bring true Israel to redemption. The second Exodus would begin through Christ Yeshua and his finished work on the cross. It's also interesting how this pertains to what's being said in our John 15 passage. Just at the moment Yeshua would soon declare at the cross it is finished. The final Passover lamb would also be slaughtered by the Jewish high priest who would also declare, It is finished, upon completion. And nobody would realize in that moment that these things took place side by side. But the main point I want you to notice for this message is that Matthew is essentially revealing what Paul calls a mystery in Romans 11. The mystery we're unraveling in our vine passages from the Tanakh. Christ Yeshua is the true vine. In other words, he is true Israel. Yes, when we say Christ is Israel, people get all upset and react saying things like Jesus isn't a nation. No one said Jesus is a nation. Remember, this is a spiritual analogy. We aren't really vines and branches either, are we? No, we're human beings. These kind of wild statements only reveal that someone's never studied the topic, and they're just not ready for a paradigm shift. Let's see what Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans on this topic. Then you will say branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud but fear. That's Romans 11 19. I detail this passage in an older message, number six, and we'll certainly be giving it more attention as we go into our Romans study. But we can see here that branches are getting broken off for unbelief. In this passage, the tree seems to represent the covenant made with Abraham. This covenant represents Christ. We have to remember that the promise to Abraham, which was redemption, came before the law. The new covenant wasn't really the second covenant in this way, it was the original covenant. And the covenant of the law was only a shadow of the reality to come, according to Hebrews 10. In Paul's analogy, however, we see another set of branches. Gentile branches are grafted into the covenant tree with the natural branches as we look further into his words. And what keeps them from being broken off? Faith. Belief. Unbelieving branches are broken off, whether Jew or Gentile, is what we learn in Paul's analogy. So how do we apply all this to our vine and branches passage in John's Gospel? 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 does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. We see some branches and the vine getting taken away, and others pruned. Interestingly, the Greek word translated as taken away can also mean lifted up, and lifting up a branch into the sun would help it to bear fruit again. This is something we can ponder as we meditate on scripture, but I think Yeshua refers to the same branches that are thrown into the fire and burned in the following verses. We see important phrases repeated in this way throughout our Bibles, and there seems to be no exception here in my opinion. These would be the wild branches that we read of in Jeremiah 2.21. So just as in Paul's analogy, we have branches getting broken off or taken away. We also see branches bearing fruit and getting pruned. We'll get to the application of this in coming messages. What we see here is belief and unbelief in this vine. The vine here is Christ, but is representing the covenant of the promise. The promise made to Abraham before the Mosaic Law even came to be. They weren't ready yet to hear about branches being grafted in. Paul was chosen to bring that mystery into the picture through his analogy. But the reason unbelieving branches can be in the true vine is because he's using the vine analogy. This is not the same as being in Christ. All people are now in a covenant with Yahweh. The Mosaic law no longer applies to any person. It's the law of Christ that rules the kingdom. You either believe it or you don't. Yeshua said, Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. In John 15, verse 3. Judas had just left the room at this time. The disciples probably would have made this connection. They were clean, and Judas wasn't. Just as Yeshua had said earlier in John 13, 10. Jesus said to him, The one who is bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you. For he knew who was to betray him. That was why he said, Not all of you are clean. It's important to note here why they were clean. They were clean because of the word Yeshua spoke to them. This was Christ teaching salvation by faith alone, a concept that had largely been lost in their day, in favor of a law-based righteousness. And then Yeshua speaks again of the branches to stress importance. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. Yeshua here lays out how we abide. We believe. He clearly displays the outcome of not abiding, its destruction. A dead branch represents spiritual death. In the end it will burn. Dead branches burn until they're gone. Separation from Yahweh is the end result. Yeshua also lays out for us what happens when we believe, so we can be confident in what is happening, as we're pruned and bearing more fruit. Others will also be encouraged by this as it proves our faith to them. Abiding is believing, and this abiding is alive and active in the Christian. We're called to participate in this, not by initiating anything, but by responding to this call to bear fruit. As we go through life, believing can be most challenging due to the world around us and our own weak flesh. If believing was automatic, then why would so many Christians struggle in their walk with Christ? Stay tuned for our next study as we shift into the application of all that we've learned so far. The content of this message can be found on my blog post at wakingup to grace.com. My writings include linked references and visual aids, which will give even more valuable insight, and it's always free of charge. The comment section below each message is a place where we can share mutual encouragement and insight with one another outside of the social media.