SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/16/2016 12:51 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 The Blessings of Abiding Branches
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 15:2b-5, 7-11
Message of the verses: We begin this SD by looking at the Lord’s
Words that emphasize two important truths regarding spiritual conduct: “4 “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. 5 “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
(John 15:4-5).” The first thing we see
in these verses is that a true believer will produce fruit, and so there is no
such thing as a fruitless Christian.
True Christians abide in Christ and He in them, and this is the reason
that they can bear fruit. In Matthew 3:8
we read a challenge from John the Baptist to some Pharisees “"Therefore
bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”
He then goes on in verse 10b to say “every tree that does not bear good
fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Sounds familiar with what the Vinedresser says He will do to the
branches that do not produce fruit. Now
in contrasting true and false teachers Jesus said the following in Matthew
7:17-20 “17 “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad
fruit. 18 “A good tree
cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 “Every
tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 “So
then, you will know them by their fruits.”
This also sound familiar with what Jesus is telling His disciples in John
15.
Now the
second important truth regarding spiritual conduct spoken of by the Lord is
found the last part of verse four through verse five: “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 “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.” MacArthur writes to compare this with Hosea
14:8 “O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look
after you. I am like a luxuriant cypress; From Me comes your fruit.” MacArthur goes on to write “There may be
times when believers have lapses, when they fail to be faithful to their life
in Christ. But true branches, though
whom the life of the vine flows, cannot ultimately fail to produce fruit (cf.
Pss. 1:1-3; 92:12-14; Prov. 11:30; 12:12; Jer. 17:7-8; Matt. 12:23; Rom. 7:4;
Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 5:9; Phil. 1:11; Col. 1:10; James 3:17).”
How can we
define true spiritual fruit? Well we
cannot define it by how large a church is, just because of it size, for there
are cults that have large audiences and they certainly are not fruitful as the
Word of God describes being fruitful.
Let us look at how the Bible defines fruit as it describes it in terms
of spiritual qualities found in Galatians 5:22-23 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Notice it says the “fruit of the Spirit” and
not the fruits of the Spirit. MacArthur
adds that “those Christlike traits mark those through whom His life flows.”
The Bible
also talks of spiritual fruit as being praise offered up to God as seen in
Hebrews 13:15 “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of
praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”
Sacrificial
love as we meet the needs of others is also fruit produced by believers. Remember what Paul was doing among the
Gentile churches as mentioned in a number of Paul’s letters as he was collecting
an offering to take to the hurting church in Jerusalem and some of those in the
Gentile churches were offering to help by even missing meals so they could use
the money to help those in Jerusalem.
Paul also mentions how the Philippians gave a love gift to him and he
wrote “Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your
account” in Phil. 4:17.
MacArthur
writes that “Fruit may also be defined as holy, righteous, God-honoring
behavior in general. Such conduct is ‘fruit
in keeping with repentance’ (Matt. 3:8); the fruit produced by the good soil
(Matt. 12:23) of a transformed life; the ‘fruit of the Light [that] consists in
all goodness and righteousness and truth’ (Eph. 5:9); the ‘fruit of
righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God’
(Phil 1:11); the ‘peaceful fruit of righteousness’ (Heb. 12:11). Paul prayed that the Colossians would be
continually ‘bearing fruit in every good work’ (Col. 1:10), because Christians
were ‘created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so
that we would walk in them’ (Eph. 2:10).”
So we see that the Bible has much to say about the fruit that Christians
can produce which will bring honor and glory to the Lord.
Think about
leading someone to the Lord as Jesus give an example of in the 4th
chapter of John when He leads the Samaritan woman to saving faith and then many
others in that town of Sircar. I have
written in other Spiritual Diaries that God has called us to do good works even
before the foundation of the earth as seen in Ephesians 2:10 and that I believe
that we are to do those good works that He has planned for us to do and the
only way we can do them is through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives
which is what flows from the vine to the branches in the analogy that Jesus
uses in our chapter we are now studying, and as the Spirit flows from the vine
to us, the branches, then we bear fruit, and then much fruit in His power. There is nothing better in the way that a
believer bears fruit than to tell others about Christ and then see them saved
as you think that the Lord has given you the privilege of changing the
direction of a life from going to hell to going to heaven as that is a wonderful
to produce fruit.
We have one
more lesson in this section which we will do, Lord willing, on Saturday
morning.
I just
looked up how many times the word “fruit” is used in the NASB95 in the New
Testament and found it to be forty-seven times.
The following is from the Greek/English dictionary that is on my Online
Bible program which defines fruit.
“1) fruit
1a) the fruit of the trees, vines, of the fields
1b) the fruit of one’s loins, i.e. his progeny, his
posterity
2) that which originates or comes from something, an effect,
result
2a) work, act, deed
2b) advantage, profit, utility
2c) praises, which are presented to God as a thank offering
2d) to gather fruit (i.e. a reaped harvest) into life
eternal (as into a granary), is used in fig. discourse of those who by their
labours have fitted souls to obtain eternal life”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have to be connected to the Vine to produce
fruit, and that means that I have to be a true believer to produce fruit for
the glory of the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to use my life
to bring honor and glory to Him, but producing fruit in my life.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “They followed a star to where He was”
(Matthew 2:2).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men’?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/16/2016 1:41 AM
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