The Right Connection, Pt.2

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message on the right connection.

Today we continue in John chapter 15, gaining insight to the Lord, understanding how we can bear fruit when we're connected to the right vine. That's coming up in just a moment, but you need to know we're here for you 24 hours a day to talk or pray or listen or connect with resources at this phone number, 866-899-WORD. I pray you've jotted it down.

Maybe store it in your cell, 866-899-9673. We'll connect you with those of us happy to talk or listen or pray and especially connect you with resources. You'll find those resources on our website as well at www.tewonline.org. Like the daily encouraging word email from Dr. Don, you can sign up today at www.tewonline.org.

Now, Dr. Don Wilton. As a minister of the gospel, together with my fellow ministers on our staff, we spend a lot of time counseling and helping and supporting and encouraging people in varying different predicaments and circumstances. What Jesus was saying to his disciples was simply this, pastor, when you counsel, you need to major your focus on the fact that Jesus Christ is the right connection. When you have anything to say in the pulpit, you need to focus on the fact that Jesus Christ is the right connection. What Jesus was saying to the apostle Paul is, Paul, when you preach, you need to major and focus on Jesus Christ and him crucified. What he was saying to Charles Haddon Spurgeon back there in the 17, 1800s, he was saying to him, Charles Spurgeon, every time you open the book, you need to make a beeline for the cross.

Why? Because I alone am the true and the only connection. I am the true vine. Number two, note that the unsaved will be revealed and exposed. That is the second major thesis of John chapter 15. Jesus was making a statement. Look with me at verse two and then again at verse six. Jesus said, he cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. In verse six he said, if anyone does not remain me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers, such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned.

All the commentators that I have read on this particular issue have one thing in common. They all point to Judas Iscariot. This is the march down the road to Gethsemane. Here Jesus was surrounded by men who called themselves disciples and what Jesus was about to tell them is this, that there is a counterfeit among you. And I'm going to demonstrate to you publicly and unapologetically that all counterfeits, the unsaved, will eventually be exposed and be revealed. In Galatians, writing to the church at Galatia, the apostle Paul put it like this. He said, the sins of the flesh are made manifest. They are made plain for everyone to see.

He said, listen, it is impossible to even look like a Christian and behave like a Christian and yet not to be connected into the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is guaranteed that you will be revealed. Why? Because I'm the true vine. If you're not connected into the true vine, you have no sustenance.

Why? Because God is the husbandman. He is the gardener. He is the man into whom his heart and soul go the roots of the Christian disciple. And if we do not draw the sustenance directly from the heart and the soul of Almighty God, we do not have a relationship.

We will be cut off and we will never bear fruit. Number one, note that Jesus is the true vine. Note in the second place that the unsaved will be revealed. But note in the third place that the saved will be cleansed.

The saved will be cleansed. Now in the second part of verse two and verse three and then verse five, listen to what the Bible says. Jesus said, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be more fruitful. Then in verse three, he says, you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. In verse five, I am the vine, you are the branches.

If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit for apart from me, he can do nothing. The unsaved, at least the saved, will be cleansed. Now that word for cleansed right there in verse two is the word kathairo in the Greek New Testament. It literally means to be made clear. It literally means to be made free from all obstacles. That's what it means.

It literally means to present an unhindered passageway. And what Jesus was saying, he's saying that if you are not saved, you will be revealed, you will be exposed. If you are saved, you are going to be cleansed.

I'm going to work in your life. I'm going to clear out the passages. I'm going to clear out the clogged arteries. I'm going to allow the blood to flow. I believe Jesus was speaking about spiritual discipline.

I believe that Jesus was saying that any born again believer must subject him or herself to the cleansing power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, how does he do that? There are two ways.

One is radical surgery and the other one is not so radical surgery. One is when he takes those little clippers and he cuts us off just at the point we need to cut off in order to make us grow properly. Now, my favourite flower is the rose. I'm not an expert on growing roses, but I wish I was. You need to go and see Dr. Bob Haas' roses.

They are absolutely magnificent. But I know something about growing roses. At a certain time, at a certain moment, you need to go and you need to prune that rose bush. You need to cut it back.

You need to do just a little tad bit of surgery on the old thing. And what will happen is that by virtue of pruning it in the right place, the result is a flower that will boggle the mind and a perfume that will knock your socks off. It is something that is so special. And Jesus is saying that for all saved people, that what I do as God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is I am continually in the business of trimming you back, not in order to cut you down or to assassinate you or to trip you up, but I am trimming you back in order to clear away all kinds of obstacles so that the blood can flow freely, number four, number four. We need to note that fruitfulness bears results. Fruitfulness bears results.

Four major themes here in chapter 15. Number one, Jesus is the true vine. Number two, the unsaved will be revealed and exposed. Number three, the saved will be cleansed. And number four, fruitfulness always bears results. Now, beloved friends, this morning there are eight results here in God's Word and I intend to give them to you.

I hope you have your pens with you. You might say to me, well, pastor, what does this mean? I have people from time to time come to me and say to me, pastor, how can I really know if I'm saved? How can I know that I know that I know that I know that I know that I'm saved?

Here it is. Jesus was giving his disciples eight results of spiritual fruitfulness. Jesus was saying there are eight ways in which you can know that you are connected in the right place.

Here they are. Number one, you will glorify God. You will glorify God. Look at verse eight. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit.

Why? Thereby showing yourselves to be my disciples. Isn't that beautiful picture? Jesus makes a direct connection between who he is, the fruit that we bear in relation to the validation of who we say that we are. And Jesus said that as a consequence of our fruit bearing, we will bring glory to God. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's message. The right connection with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment. I pray that you'll understand we're here not just during this broadcast or this podcast, but also 24 hours a day on our Web site. T e w online dot o r g is a place you can find not only today's program, but a myriad of both audio and video programming that will help you grow in your faith, that will help root you into the Bible itself. God's encouraging word that's online at t e w online dot o r g. While you're there, we'd love to have you follow Dr. Wilton on some of our social media or maybe sign up for the daily encouraging word email. It's a wonderful, supercharged moment of application of God's word.

It launches every morning about six o'clock in the morning email a phonically and you can sign up right now on our Web site at t e w online dot o r g. That's t e w online dot o r g. Now, back to the conclusion of today's message, the right connection with Dr. Don Wilton. So here's the question that I have to ask of myself today. If I say that I'm a born again believer, if I say that I have Jesus Christ living in my heart, if I say that I've been washed and redeemed by the blood of the lamb, if I say that I've trusted him as my Lord and my saviour, if I say that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world and he's written my name in the Lamb's Book of Life, I've got to ask myself this question. Do I glorify God with that which I am doing? Is my life a public and practical demonstration of the glory of God?

Is the resultant impact of my life the fact that God is being glorified or is man being glorified? Number two, you will grow in his love. You will grow in his love.

Look at verses nine through 12. Jesus said, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. Continue in my love, he was saying. If, and note the conditional sentence, if you obey my commands, you will continue remaining in my love. For just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love, the word is I have told you this, that my joy may be in you and your joy will be complete.

Why? Because my command is this, love each other as I have loved you. There is no greater love than the demonstration with which I have loved you in laying down my life for you. And in verse 17, therefore, this is my command that you love one another.

Here's what happens. Jesus was saying to his disciples, you have come to me because of my demonstration of love. I came to you because I demonstrated love. That's what John 3 16 is all about. God so loved the world. God's love, the Lord Jesus Christ's love, man's love. As a consequence of our connectedness, Jesus is saying, you can know that you are one of my disciples if you love people.

Now, one of the joys that I experienced here in our great church is just good old fashioned love. See, this is not something that we concoct in our imagination. This is not something that we just talk about.

This is not something that we manufacture. This is not something that we deliberate upon. The Bible says by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

That's not open to discussion. What Jesus was saying is you don't need a deacons meeting on this. You don't need a preacher to get up and say it. It is the very fabric of our connectedness. It is part and parcel of the blood flow that we have because of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. What are the results of our fruitfulness? Number one, we will glorify God. Number two, we will grow in his love. Number three, we will experience complete joy. Now look at verse 11.

I read it a moment ago. I've told you this so that my joy may be in you and so that your joy as a result may be complete. Isn't that magnificent? Isn't it amazing that Jesus Christ hands over to us the completeness of his own joy and of his own grace? Beloved this morning, you and I know so well that there's a lot of unhappiness in the world. We don't understand what it is that would possess a person to become so angry that they would resort to such violent means to express the lack of joy in their lives.

There are people hurting all over the world today. And what Jesus is saying is that one of the ways that you can know that you know that you're a fruit-bearing disciple is if you experience the completeness of my joy. It's not a false joy. It's not a Colgate toothpaste kind of joy. I see people like that from time to time walk around and they smile.

It doesn't matter what happens. I've got nothing against that. I know people, they can drop a brick on their toe, they're gonna smile. People just seem to, they worry me because they just smile. I want to walk up and give them a little slap after a while just to kind of bring them back down to earth.

But that's okay. I love people who smile all the time. Please keep on smiling. You know there's some people in our congregation this morning who cannot smile because you're hurting. You've lost a loved one. You've been diagnosed with some illness. You've lost your home.

You're in financial need. God is talking about the inner inexpressible joy that God gives to us. You will glorify God.

You will grow in His love. You will experience complete joy. Number four, and I love this one, you will be called God's friend. You will be called God's friend.

Look at verse 14 and 15. You are my friends. If you do what I command, I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends.

For everything that I learned from my Father, I have made known to you. Can you believe that Jesus Christ has permitted us to be called His friend? Now I ask you this morning, what does a friend do? Think about your friends in the congregation.

Think about your friends at home. You confide in them. They lift you up. They go out with you. You have fun with them. They even admonish you. They keep you on the straight and narrow, otherwise they wouldn't be friends.

They do everything for you. You are the one that they want to be with most of all. Jesus says here, do you know what? Because you are a fruit bearing disciple, I want to be with you. Because you want to be with me. I want to stick with you. I want to walk with you and talk with you. I want to advise you and admonish you.

I want to accompany you. I want to become amalgamated and infused in the fabric of your life because you are my friend. Number one, you will glorify God. Number two, you will grow in His love. Number three, you will experience complete joy. Number four, you will be called God's friend.

Number five, you will bear fruit that remains. What a wonderful picture in verse 16. Jesus said, you did not choose me, but I chose you.

Here He was talking about His absolute sovereignty. I believe that Jesus was reminding His disciples that no man can choose his own salvation. He was reminding His disciples that only God is the author and the finisher of our salvation. He begins salvation. He continues our salvation and He brings to fruition our salvation. Salvation is born in the heartbeat of who God is.

And because of His grace, God has extended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ Jesus died for us. But as a result of that, in verse 16, I want you to know that you are appointed to go and to bear fruit that remains. I look around our congregation this morning and I see so many people who have had fruit that remains. There are so many products in our congregation of fruit that remains, of lasting fruit. I think of the incredible impact of all the discipleship training groups. I think of master life. I think of experiencing God. I think of men and women and boys and girls in our church who are meeting in homes on Saturdays and Fridays and Thursday nights studying the Word of God. I think of those who are giving of themselves their time, opening up their homes, giving of everything that they have. And the Bible says, my friend, a major evidence of a fruit bearing disciple is the fruit that remains. It is fruit that remains. What a tremendous privilege.

What a privilege. But number six, we will know that our prayers will be answered. A sixth result of our fruit bearing is that our prayers will be answered. Look again at verse 16. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Now friends, there are many different groups today who jump all over verses like that. There are prosperity religions out there that directly contradict the Word of God. Prosperity religion basically means that if you give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, you have got to become healthy, wealthy and wise because you can ask anything. God's going to give it to you. Okay, Lord, how about $2,000 today?

Thank you very much. I mean, it's just a direct contradiction even to the gambling sickness that is gripping the world today. It's an easy way to just become rich. But the Bible says that's not what God's plan is all about. You see, having our prayers answered according to what Jesus was saying is in direct proportion to our abiding in Him. And because we are connected to Him and we abide in Him on that basis, we become connected into the divine will of God.

Isn't that a beautiful picture? Isn't it a wonderful thing to know that as believers today, we can say, Lord Jesus, I know that you are in control of my life and that you are chartering and mapping the course of my life according to your divine will. Number seven, it means that we will understand the behaviour of the world.

I don't have time to get this in right now, but verses 18 through 27, Jesus begins to talk about the fact that the world is going to turn against the disciples and Jesus said, you will never understand the behaviour of those outside of Christ if you're not connected right. And then number eight, and this is a powerful point, listen to them again. What is the result of our fruitfulness, of our fruit bearing? Number one, you will glorify God. Number two, you will grow in His love. Number three, you will experience complete joy. Number four, you will be called God's friend. Number five, you will bear fruit that remains. Number six, you will know that your prayers are always answered. Number seven, you will understand the behaviour of the world. But number eight, you will be ready to respond to Him.

That's what verse 27 is all about. You also must testify as I have testified because you belong to me. Are you ready to respond to Him today? That is the question, are you ready to respond? Don't we all, when we hear God's word, feel a need to change something to make a response?

Some of you need to change the very core of who you are in saying yes to Jesus, no longer striving to be the boss of your own life, but saying yes to the Lord, being Lord of your life. You've heard Dr. Wilton proclaim God's truth from the pulpit, and now as he comes into the studio, open your heart to what he's about to talk about next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much, and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today I repent of my sin, I confess my sin to you, and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey, and in just a moment I'm going to come back with a final word. If you just prayed that prayer with Dr. Wilton moments ago to give your life to Jesus Christ or rededicate your life to Jesus, please know how excited we are, more importantly, literally how excited the angels in heaven are rejoicing that you have made the decision to say yes to Jesus.

We exist to try to encourage you in that decision, and so if you give us a call at 866-899-WORD and tell us about it, we'd love to put some resources in your hands that will help you grow. Our phone number again is 866-899-9673. Dr. Wilton has prepared specific packages for you if you gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life to Christ absolutely free that he wants you to have. That will help you grow in your faith. We also stand ready to connect you with a local Bible-believing church. We feel like that is so important, and we literally have thousands of churches around the world that we can help you connect to that will help love on you and give you opportunities to grow in your faith there as well. Again, give us a call at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673, or meet us online at www.tewonline.org where you'll find great things like this. Jesus said, You are the light of the world. God gives us so many opportunities to share the gospel. I believe today that America is weeping. Our friends, family, and neighbors are weeping.

So what is God saying to us? We are the light of the world. Jesus brings hope. There is warfare, spiritual warfare going on like we've never experienced.

We'd had better wake up, America. We need to encourage one another in times like these. Speaking of encouragement, I have a life-changing ministry resource to send you from a good friend of mine this month for your gift of support to the encouraging word, The Loneliness Solution, Finding Meaningful Connection in a Disconnected World, book by Jack Eason.

The Loneliness Solution is a great resource to encourage people on how to discover genuine friendships with others. I want you to get a copy for yourself and copies to keep on hand as you go about your day to give to others. You will never know how much a word spoken or a gift given at the right time can change someone's life.

Call us today at 866-899-WORD to request The Loneliness Solution book for a gift of $15. Thank you for your prayers and continued support of the encouraging word as we share the gospel to deliver lost souls from the clutches of darkness around the world. Our time is just about gone, but before we get away, closing thoughts from our pastor and chief encourager, Dr. Don Wilton. Well, here I am again.

What a day this has been. You know, one of the things I want to say to you is let's stay connected. You know, we've got so many means to be able to do that.

You can write to us, email us. You've got all the details right there in front of us. We are. We're a family together. We stay connected in so many ways, and your life is very important to me. I see you there, and God shows me, and I want to be able to pray with you and connect with you and be a vital part of your relationship, your growth. Your needs are made.

I'm walking in your shoes, and I want to pray for you. Please don't stop. Call us.

Write us. Keep praying. Keep giving. Keep connecting. Keep rejoicing. Keep celebrating.

Keep striving. God is on his throne. This is the encouraging word, and now you know why. What a glorious day, but oh, there's more to come. Tomorrow, Dr. Wilton talks about a direct understanding of the church and so much more. That's tomorrow on the next edition of The Encouraging Word, featuring the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton, and I hope you'll join us tomorrow.