"WHEN THE SAP FLOWS, FRUIT GROWS"

• But the question as to how we see that fruit grow is one that tells us how to provide God with that which he wants of us.

Phil 1:9-11  And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and [in] all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

He is coming for fruits of righteousness that bring praise to His glory.

• This is what Paul said in Ephesians is the purpose of making the church.
• To be the praise of His glory.
• So we need to have this fruit.
• The way to have it is simple.
• When the sap flows, the fruit grows.

Israel asked the question  of how to approach God.

• What is there that will cause us to be able to stand before a holy God?
• What a profound question!

Hebr 10:4-6  For [it is] not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and [sacrifices] for sin thou hast had no pleasure.

No, Israel, sacrifices and works and more good works will not give God pleasure.

• What will do it?
• The answer is in verse 5.
• The Body prepared for Christ was the only thing that would please God.

The Son of God was the only thing that would please God.

And if all the hundreds of years of sacrifices did not please Him during the Old Testament, how mush less do our good deeds please Him so much so that they make a way for us to come to God?

• There is no way that our good deeds can save us.

The only way we can be acceptable to God is by somehow getting into Christ.

• We are accepted IN THE BELOVED.

John 17:25-26   O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare [it]: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

To think that the love the Father had to Jesus would be in us, after thousands of years of sacrificing could never please God enough!!!

That is why I preach baptism in Jesus Name so powerfully and forcefully.

• We are baptized into Christ.
• Water baptism in Jesus name shows that.
• Nothing about ourselves could ever please God, so we are buried with Him in baptism.
• We bury the old life.
• We bury the very thoughts that we can please God by good works.

• Not only did this body of Christ please God by removing sins and being sacrificed as the only sacrifice after thousands upon thousands of previous sacrifices that would truly please God, but this Body is also the very thing that the Church is in.

Being in the church can never be accomplished by joining a congregation.

• You are baptized into it.
• You are born again into it.
• You are Born of the water and of the Spirit into it.

Matt 17:24-27  And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute [money] came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

The temple tax was compared to taxes put on the populace by a king.

• And Jesus asked if the king's children paid the taxes or the people of the land.
• Peter said the people of the land paid, not the children.
• Then Jesus said, "Then the children are free."
• The children of the king were above the people of the land and did not have to pay tax.
• The temple tax was like taxes from God the King, and his palace was the temple.
• And Jesus was SON OF GOD.
• Oh, if only we could be free!
• If only we could have the love of the Father as Jesus had it!!
• If only we could be in the family!
• But how?
• How do people get into a family?
• THEY ARE BORN INTO IT.
• But aren't we already born into a particular family already, and it is not God's?
• Yes.
• But chapter 18 shows Jesus taking a baby and saying unless we are converted and become as a little baby then we cannot enter the Kingdom.
• GOOD NEWS!!!
• We can get into the Kingdom!
• We can be born into the family.
• We are born a second time.
• We are born again.
• We actually get baptized into Jesus Christ through real faith, and become someone who is in Jesus Christ.
• It is there that we need to ever remember, from then on, that we are totally new creatures.

You get into Him by being born again.

But once you are in Him, you must not slow down the flow of His life in you.

Here is what we spoke about this morning.

The branch is you and the vine is Jesus.

• You must attach yourself securely to the vine so that the flow of the sap goes into you fully.
• And though no good works can cause us to please God, there are some people who are genuinely in Christ who were born again, but never really understood what it takes to please God.
• Just being in Christ pleases God.
• And they think that good works is what they must do in order to please God more.
• And the very thing they use to try to please God more is the thing that actually starts slowing down the flow of the sap into the vine.
• They become power-drained.
• They clog up the arteries.
• Like cholesterol in an artery due to eating junk food, we eat spiritual junk food when we believe that the more good things we do the more we please God.

• What did Jesus say cleanses us as the master purges the branches that it might bring forth more fruit?
• THE WORD HE SPEAKS TO US.
• TRUTH.

John 6:27-29  Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

BELIEVE ON CHRIST.

• There is a FAITH that attaches you to Jesus securely.
• Faith that you are UNITED TO HIM.
• It does not matter what you feel like, you are seated with Christ above all powers.
• Don't act by your feelings, act by your faith.
• Feeling bad about yourself does not change the fact that you are seated with Christ.

• Sin abounds more in this world and where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.
• There will be more grace to combat the sin in our times, which sin was not matched in other ages beforehand.
• There is so much slackness and lulling to sleep, that there is a grace that will keep us wide awake and alive.
• And all you have to have is a commitment to do God's word and you will be IN CHRIST.

Its not just that the word will be made known to us and make us free.

• We will not even have the word made known unto us unless we live like verse 31 said.
• We must continue in the word.
• If we make a commitment to obey the book, the whole book and nothing but the book, then we shall know the truth.
• Then God will grant revelation.
• You cannot put it over on God.
• When God sees that your heart truly is turned to Him in faith and total obedience, then suddenly He says He will reveal the truth to us.
• And something beyond reading words in a leather-bound Bible happens to us.
• We read and revelation makes the word alive.
• An ingredient called revelation is thrown into our hearts as our minds understand the word.
• It becomes alive.
• It starts clearing away all the spiritual cholesterol.

• This plugging up of the branch can kill you.
• My mother-in-law found out what killed her brothers, and was given medication to clear out the cholesterol.
• We need to clear out the blockage of false notions and false ideas, and get the life flowing into us from the vine so we won't fall off and dry up and die.

Colo 1:21-23  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in [your] mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and [be] not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, [and] which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

We will be blameless when we meet God at the judgment if we CONTINUE IN THE FAITH.

• Stay in the vine.
• What put us in the vine?
• Getting into Jesus.
• What keeps us in the vine.
• Knowing that nothing else is going to help us please God than by staying right here.
• When we start thinking our good deeds are pleasing to God, then we start plugging up the life from flowing into the branch.
• We begin to trust in something else other than simply being in Him.
• We are only accepted when we are IN THE BELOVED.
• And we commit to obey the word and revelation comes.

• People get all confused here and say that I preach we do not have to do good deeds at all.
• We must be careful to maintain good works, but they do not save us.
• That is what we must get straight.
• We only have to worry about staying in the vine.
• The branch has no worry about making fruit grow from itself.
• Jesus said without Him, the vine we can do nothing.

So if I can do nothing by way of making fruit, and without Him I am empty, then forget about producing fruit.

• Fruit is good works.
• Fruit is godly living.
• Fruit of the Spirit.
• But it is of the Spirit.
• Making myself kind is not fruit of the Spirit, but fleshly good deeds.
• It is not of the Spirit if it is me making it happen.
• I only have to make sure I am in the vine.
• And so long as I am there, sap will flow and fruit will grow.