Text: John 15:1-5
-Key verse 5, Jesus says, "for without me ye can do nothing"
-Prerequisites for bearing real fruit.
1) Must be saved, born again, must be one of the branches
attached to the vine, the Lord Jesus Christ.
-You must abide or dwell in Christ and He must abide or dwell in you.
-This is accomplished the moment a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit of God comes and seals and indwells that individual until the day of redemption.
-So, first you must be saved
2) You can’t bear real fruit by yourself or in your flesh.
-Christ has to do the work.
-Christ is the one that does the fruit bearing through you.
-Remember, Jesus said, "for without me ye can do nothing."
-The more your life is yielded over to him the more fruit he will bear through you.
-Christ was able to bear much fruit through the life of the Apostle Paul, not because he was a well-educated person and he was or because he a wonderful family and religious background and he certaintly did.
-No, Christ was able to bear much fruit through the life of the Apostle Paul because Paul was totally yielded to Christ.
-Notice what Paul said in Gal. 2:20, the key - "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me"
-Christ through Paul wrote most of the New Testament
-The bulk of instructions of how a Christian is to live his life can be found in the Pauline Epistles.
-Christ through Paul was able to eatablish many New Testament churches throughout the known world at the time.
-We have to be very careful about the fruit we are bearing as Christians, because alot of it is artifical.
-It is artifical because it was done in the flesh without Christ.
-The Bible says - Rom. 8:8, "So, then they that are in the flesh
cannot please God"
-Many a ministry has been built in the flesh.
-The Bible says, "the arm of flesh will fail you"
-There are going to be alot of disappointed Christians at the judgment seat of Christ.
-See I Cor. 3:10-15.
-They thought they were building with gold, silver, precious stones but in actuality they were building with wood, hay, and stubble which will be burned up.
-The reason being, because Christ wasn’t involved with the thing at all.
-Everything was done in the flesh for the glory of man and not God.
-How can one judge his Christian life as far as whether Christ is bearing fruit in his life.
-Well, it is not by how many souls you have won, or how big an offering you gave, how many committees are you on, or how big your church is.
-But is your life characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit found over in Gal 6:22-23 - read & go over.
-Are those things operative in your life?
-They can only be prevalent in your life if you allow Christ to live through you.
-Let Him do it through you.
-You see we have to get to the point and realize that you and I are only vessels that he wants to use.
-If you and I try to do anything for the Lord in our flesh, then we will fail miserably.
-Oh, maybe in the world’s eye or the fundamental crowd’s eye we are successful but in Christ’s eye we have failed.
-I believe if the fruit of the Spirit is exhibited in our lives, then Christ is truly living through us and the rest will fall
into place.
-We have to remember just as it was true of our salvation, "without Christ we can do nothing".
