JOHN

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John Chapter 15

John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

I don't know how the gospel of Jesus Christ could not be any plainer than this. No matter what denomination or church affiliation we belong to the message is the same. The word when we first believe cleanses us from sin and makes us clean. We are a new creature in Christ Jesus.

What a beautiful thought. To be clean, to be whole to have a new beginning with no bad past. Nothing man can do will change that and no one person on the face of the earth can remove us out of the safety of the Father's hand.

There is a big if that many do not like to speak of though. We have some who teach once saved always saved and predestination. Yet we see so many warnings and "ifs" in the bible. If we abide in Christ, If we stay the course. If we continue in the faith once delivered to the saints.

The saints are all who believe and turn to Jesus as savior. No man can pluck them out of the Father's hand. No one can cause true believers in Jesus to lose their salvation. If we are determined to continue in the faith and not deny the Lord or turn back from Him, we will not lose our salvation. Jesus said all who believe shall be saved. Naturally if we stop believing that would cancel it out. That doesn't meant that we won't doubt and fear once in a while but to turn away, stop following Christ and become completely apostate is different.

I believe that is why the Lord put this chapter in the book of John about abiding in Christ. We believe, we receive and then we stay the course. We abide in Christ. We can repent and restore fellowship anytime we stray though. We must remember that making mistakes, sin and seasons of unbelief doesn't cut us off forever. We can always repent and restore our relationship with our Lord.

If those that teach the Augustinian and Calvinistic doctrines of predestination teach eternal security for the elect then how would they know whether or not they were part of the elect? That would make me insecure in my faith, not secure. For who would know? I feel more secure believing that Jesus saves me because I believe in Him and want to live for Him and His word says that if I believe I have eternal life. That is more secure than hoping I happen to be one of the "elect" that is predestined from creation.

My thoughts on predestination is that God predestined all who believe and trust in His Son for remission of sins, will be saved. I never will believe that God ordains anyone or predestines anyone to go to hell. I believe He has predestined all to go to heaven and receive eternal life but some will refuse to believe, choosing rather to abide in sin or in their false religions. However, I believe they are predestined to go to Heaven if they turn to Christ and believe.

Every branch that abides in Christ will bring forth fruit. Every branch that does not abide in Christ is cast forth or removed from the vine. The Jews were broken off because of unbelief but will be grafted in again in the future. I read that thousands of Jews already have believed in Christ and have been grafted back into the vine they were once broken off from.

John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Whatever glorifies the Father and furthers the cause of the gospel, whatever is good, perfect, pure and in the Father's will, will be done if we abide in Christ and His words abide in us. If we depart from the sound doctrine of the word, we are not guaranteed anything or any answer to prayer unless it is a prayer of repentance and a returning to the faith we once departed from.

John 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

God is glorified when He answers our prayers and when we bear fruit unto life eternal.
The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Strive for these things and look for these things. When any Christian religious group forget these things and began to smite their fellow servants instead of exercising love and patience, they stop following Christ.

If we read church history, we will mourn and grieve over those who did horrible things to their own fellow Christians in the name of Christ representing His church so-called. We can't just blame the Catholics here because Protestants also put to death and persecuted dissenters from their faith. A lot of this can be traced clear back to the teachings of Augustine. He influenced a church-state type of control over the people. That may or may not mean Augustine was a bad person because people that came after him could very well misinterpret something he said or wrote.

If one is not born again by the spirit of God, there is no way he or she could ever over come sin in the flesh. We can't force faith on anyone by government control. The kingdom of God is not of this world. It is within each believer. We can't set up the kingdom of God until Jesus Himself returns in person. Lets not make the same mistake the church in the Middle Ages made. They saw that the Lord delayed His coming and started to teach that the 1000 year reign of Christ was already happening through the church.

They began to smite their fellow servants and suppress all who disagreed with this erroneous doctrine. The reign of Christ will not begin until Jesus comes Himself. There is a present day revival of the dominion and kingdom now doctrine. It is deadly. Replacement theology which teaches that the church replaces Israel as God's chosen people is also deadly. Stay away from these doctrines because they are not the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Love is the main theme of His doctrine and from there we can preach the gospel of repentance and being born again by the spirit. This cannot be forced on anyone by any laws of man. Jesus loved the lost and so should we. Jesus loved the rich man who held onto his riches and had to reject the savior's teachings. Jesus wept over what was coming in the future for the Jewish people. He didn't gloat. He wept and so should we. If one is lost we should weep. If our one is hurting we should hurt.

John 15:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

If we don't keep the commandments of Jesus, we do not love Him. His first commandment is to love God with all our hearts and the second is to love thy neighbor as thyself. I doubt very much that we would burn ourselves at the stake, steal from ourselves or harm ourselves if we are in our right minds.

John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

Obedience to the gospel and walking in the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, will cause joy. The unhappiest Christians are those that do not love one another.

Love does not mean going around complimenting everyone even if they are deep in sin and in error. Love is telling the truth but in the spirit of meekness. There is nothing more disgusting than arrogance and being high minded, thinking we are better than someone because we think we are part of God's elect and everyone else is not. If we are part of God's elect because we have come to Jesus for salvation, let us be humble about it. We have nothing that we didn't receive by His mercy.

John 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

If we are the ones doing the persecuting rather than the ones being persecuted that is a good sign that we are not the elect or in the faith.

Jesus did not command us to go around putting people to death who are apostates or who we think are apostates. He never gave us that authority. In fact when two of the disciples wanted Jesus to call fire down from heaven to destroy those opposing Jesus, Jesus rebuked them saying He came to save not destroy men's lives.

A day of judgment will come upon those that persecute God's people but we are still living under grace and are in the days of mercy. Jesus has not returned yet in person so it's still the days of mercy and the days for preaching the gospel. We must occupy until He comes, doing what He calls us to do. We are not to think He delays His coming so we have to set up the kingdom for Him and began to cast out and persecute those that disagree with us.

The gospel is a spiritual change that comes only by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can tell of this power and preach this gospel but we can't do the saving and the changing. Only God can make one who is dead in sin, alive in the spirit.

We can baptize all the people we want in any name we want but if they are not born again by the spirit, they are not saved and we can't save them no matter what they do or what church they join.

John 15:21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

Hate is not a trait of a true believer. If we persecute people who disagree with us, we do not know God.

Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Its better to be the persecuted than to be among the persecutors.

John 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

We do well to remember the need for the continual presence of the Holy Spirit in our individual lives as well as in the church.

John 15:27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Because of these faithful witnesses, we also in 2025 can believe on Jesus Christ and be saved from sin. DC