Inspirations from the Gospel of John
John 15

Jesus said in John chapter fifteen;

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
     Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away: … (John 15:1,2).
     If a man does not abide 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 (John 15:6).

The Apostle Paul shows us that “…the word of the truth of the gospel;…brings forth fruit…(Colossians 1:5,6). The fruit is the spiritual development in the believer which in turn produces a productive disciple that brings the fruit of souls into the kingdom of God.

We must abide in the doctrine of Christ, the gospel, in order for the sap of God’s Holy Spirit to produce our fruit through the truth of the gospel. In other words, we cannot change or abandon the gospel, the requirements for our salvation. We are saved by faith in Jesus’ atonement for our sins and His resurrection from the dead.

Jesus warns the church in Sardis to “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found your works perfect before God” (Rev. 3:2).
     God assures the overcomers that, … "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels" (Rev. 3:5). Jesus said that if we deny Him, He will deny us (Matthew 10:33).

Some of the believers in the church in Sardis were beginning to drift away from foundational doctrines of the church and the truth of the gospel. Jesus is the only way to the Father as He said in John 14:6. There is only one plan of redemption that can give us eternal life.

The believers in Sardis are told to “strengthen the things which remain,” and to “Remember therefore how you have received and heard, and hold fast, and repent” (Rev. 3:3). “Remember” that God gave His only begotten Son and He is the only way, truth and life (John 3:16,14:6). If they do not obey this warning then we can see them being portrayed as those hapless, faithless branches in John 15 that are being severed from the Vine of Christ and cast into fires of hell.

While we are told that they will be removed by the Father, it is their own lack of regard for God’s word, and their preferences for the precepts of men that causes their removal.
     We are told to regard the …” the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness: otherwise you also shall be cut off” (Romans 11:22).

When Jesus tells us to abide in Him, it is for our protection and safety, our overall welfare and peace. Let’s heed those warnings that are written in love to guide through the perilous wilderness of this life into the promised land of eternal life.

Whoever transgresses, and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, has not God. He that abides in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son. - II John 1:9,

Copyright 2023 by H.D. Shively

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