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pt.2 Two Kinds of Branches: Two Kinds of Works, Only One Kind of Fruit. (The Doctrine of Good Works and of The Fruits of the Spirit)

 

 

ReNEWed COVENANT Ministry

SABBATH BIBLE STUDY

 

9-22

(2020)

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Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com


The Doctrine of Good Works

and of

The Fruits of the Spirit

Part 2

Two Kinds of Branches:

Two Kinds of Works, Only One Kind of Fruit.

 


Prayer in the words of Isaiah the prophet

Isa_32:3-4 :

Lord let the eyes of them that see not be dim,

and let the ears of them that hear hearken.
Let the heart also of the rash understand knowledge,

and let the tongue of the stammerer be ready to speak plainly.
Amen

Jas_3:12 – Jas_4:10
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
Jas 3:13  Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
Jas 3:14  But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
Jas 3:15  This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
Jas 3:16  For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
Jas 3:17  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Jas 3:18  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
Jas 4:1  From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Jas 4:2  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Jas 4:3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Jas 4:5  Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
Jas 4:6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Jas 4:9  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Jas 4:10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

James who was the kinsman of Jesus Christ, as he teaches the 12 tribes scattered (Jas_1:1) abroad he is here elaborating upon  the doctrine of Good works, by use of many analogies. Starting with fruits and asking the question if one variety of fruit can be produced from a totally unrelated kind naturally, and the answer is assessed as “No”.

He asks if a fountain or spring can bring forth both a salty water anf a sweet water from the same source or place,  “No”.
And so like the lesson we are again going to reflect upon from our Lord Jesus to His apostled disciples of whom we with to be like and learn from that:

Jas_3:13  wise men endued with knowledge shews out of a good conversation or conduct his works with meekness of wisdom.

but our of the other source and therefore opposed to wisdom, knowledge we will see these fruits or works:
Jas 3:14  bitter envying and strife in hearts… in this he says ” do not glory”, as glorying like this is a “lie …against the truth”.
(now remember the Holy Spirit and Comforter is the Spirit of Truth, which brings Godly wisdom to men who abide in the vine and share in it’s sap, therefore James says:

Jas 3:15  This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
Jas 3:16  For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
Jas 3:17  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Jas 3:18  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

And so as we consider more on the lesson given of our Lord to his disciple in John 14 and 15, I would that you consider the division we are encouraged to make, the Judgments we are obligated to make as we consider the works and therefore the good fruit or corrupt fruit of others, as well as we consider the distinction between bearing fruit and nor producing anything worthy of being called fruit, in that it has no multiplicity, it can not pass on the kind from which the vine it may even claim to be part of is descended. It is for this Cause James goes on to say:

Jas 4:1  From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Jas 4:2  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Jas 4:3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

James warning to Israel’s 12 tribes of the Diaspora, the Israelite Gentiles being Christianized, is a theme common to Israel’s prophetic warnings, wherein he identifies the source, the seed, of war and fights and divisions or heresies as we saw also mentioned in Gal 5:20 as a work of the flesh according to Paul, and James says to Israel that all of this is because of lust or covetousness: War, fighting, divisions are full of lust, they do not ask as the Lord Jesus spoke “what so ever you ask in my name” in Joh_14:13-14& Joh_15:16 as well as the continuance in Joh_16:23-26.

Rather they ask amiss or wrongly. And wrongly how? Not truly in the name of Jesus, and according to God’s will, unto The Father’s Glory, but to consume the fruit, to eat the fruit to their own glory.

Therefore He said:
Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Jas 4:5  Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
Jas 4:6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Humility before God deserves Grace, and grace gives gift from the Father who is the husbandman / farmer or vine-dresser to Jesus who is the true vine which if you are humbly and gloriously united to , then you have the desire of will to ask for the lust to be trimmed away, the falsehood to be removed, the war and fighting to cease from the tribes of God’s people.

One who abides in the vine recognizes that God hath chose him and others jointly with him ‘out of the world’, and therefore the world hates them and they with God hate the world.

James rightly classifies those wo are friends with this part of the world as committing adultery, like the scripture speaks against the mingling or mixing diverse kinds of which results in a defiles fruit, a fruit corrupt for multiply the kind from which it has come, so is one who is to claim they abide in the vine, while they bring forth no fruit, which is a proof of their spiritual hybridity, in using the works of God’s law, or the Name of Jesus Christ to produce sterile seed, which can never propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Baptism as a case example of a good work to be made worthless by the fruitless

There are 2 things to keep in mind as we continue considering the lesson of our Lord and the Doctrine of Good Works and of the Fruits brought forth of the spirit, and a good example can be seen in:

Mat_3:1  In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
Mat 3:2  And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Mat 3:5  Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
Mat 3:6  And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
Mat 3:7  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Mat_3:8  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
Mat 3:9  And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Here are the 2 things to use from this example to keep in mind:

1. Baptism is a good work, and these men that came to John’s baptism desired to do a good work

2. Even good works are made evil by the fruitless person who attempts to practice good. Those works that are in no way evil simply by doing them, and as a matter of fact  are works commanded to be done, such as baptism, are not even good works unless one is a believer and therefore has the fruit of the Spirit upon themselves as a branch abiding in the Vine, and bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance.

In other words:
Tit_1:15  To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving / faithless, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
Tit 1:16  They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Christian baptism is to be followed after fruits of repentance are brought, and fruits of repentance brought once one is a branch abiding in the vine and having nourishment from God the Father to work a work of righteousness by Jesus Christ.
According to Act_2:38 one who has had God’s spirit poured out upon them, and who has been pricked in the heart unto repentance, will in fact “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” in baptism, but until one is a branch, there is no access to the vine, and no access to the Father, and if the sap is not in the branch prior , there can be no fruit worthy of repentance.

Therefore what is produced if no connection to Christ is made prior to a good work, such as baptism?

A corrupt fruit, and one not worthy of even being called fruit, as it is consumed or eaten of ones own lust and not to God’s Glory through Jesus the true vine.

For instance, these Pharisees and Sadducees of Matt 3 came with out “fruits worth of repentance” and John refused them for having no fruits, therefore baptism to these men had no connection to true good, it was nothing more than a ritual and therefore was not a fruit at all, but rather was the total opposite, a manifestation of darkness and death, and therefore is not a gift of the spirit at all, but a dead work they did them self without giving glory to God for bringing them to true repentance and connection to the humility of God’s Grace prior to baptism.

Jesus warning is like James and John the baptist’s, in regards to the source of the spring or the nature of fruit of a tree, that is the nature and nurture of the branches of a vine that:

Joh 15:4  Abide in Jesus, and Jesus in you as a branch is:
As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine (share sap and nutrition with the vine), neither can you (bear fruit or good works), unless you abide in Jesus Christ.
This is because:
Joh 15:5  … without Christ ye can do nothing. Like James, statement concerning the tree or the spring as a representation for people, Jesus speaks of a branch and the focus is on the common source, or the nature of the Vine, fig, olive, or fountain of salt or of sweet fresh water. and
Joh_15:2  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

These statements came upon the prior chapters answer to the Question asked by Peter, and then Thomas saith unto him in

Joh_14:5 …Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

And Jesus answers his question by inverting the answer into himself, wherein the way and the one you are following becomes one consistent answer:

Joh_14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Joh 14:7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

and then Philip picks up on the idea a little, but not all the way and says:

Joh 14:8  … Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

So Philip piggy backs on the Q and A of Thomas, and say ‘Oh, the point of the way and following you Jesus, is to see the father!’  and so he says … Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. , as if ‘ that is enough to see the father and you Lord can shew us Him!’

But Jesus again says and start to teach the lesson of Works and Spirit based of this series of Q &A concerning where is Jesus Going that we cannot go, but we must go to be with him, and yet we do not go with him but we go through him, this is the same conceptual analogy as the Husbandman who is the father, the Vine which is Jesus Christ the Some and th branches which are Jesus Believing disciples, and those disciple bear fruit and those fruits are manifestations of the work of the father the husbandman the vine dresser, there for Jesus Says to Philip:

Joh 14:9  …Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Joh 14:10  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
Joh 14:11  Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
Joh 14:12  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
Joh 14:13  And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

And it is then upon this discussion of following Jesus, as a path and as a road to the father, the only path and road to the father that Jesus established the Work of Jesus in perfect unity with the Father in drawing disciples to seek the truth of the ways of God.
The first works done are those works done by the husbandman the father, and those next works are done by the son which Jesus says the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. So at every turn v.13 comes to pass in Jesus testimony the Father may be glorified in the Son. And it is upon that glory, that Jesus even begins to teach about the works and fruit a man as a believing disciple can ask and recieve of God’s will (no our own will) in reconciling the love which we have towards Jesus with Jesus Love he has for the Father in saying:

Joh 14:14  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Joh 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

And then Jesus, offers atop of the initial blessing of the work of the Father which he does for us, that great work making us believers with love in our branches to bring forth fruit and even greater Work of God in giving us comfort by Asking for anything in God’s will in keeping with the commandments of God.
All of this available to a believer, whom the father through Jesus Christ has worked upon they have beene introduced to the Personal Comforter or Paraclete who is none other than a the Spirit of Truth, the Very Holy Spirit of promise who we are also to thank for sealing the heart of true believer by Faith, in saying this:

Joh_14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Joh 14:17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Joh 14:18  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Joh 14:19  Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
Joh 14:21  He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

This an absolutely important foundation in understanding how ‘doing anything’ that can be called fruit before God is indeed fruit and therefore does the function of fruit, a function which last week was shown from the Law of God in creation’s genesis “yield fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself.” and commandments to keep and guard in not sowing thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled. Deu_22:9 .

And while we often only think of fruits function to feed us (consume of our own lust), in the greater function fruit with seed is to multiply the kind in which the tree or vine is, which the branches bear.

Therefore:
Joh 15:2  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Joh_15:6  If a man abide not 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.
Joh 15:7  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Joh 15:8  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
And so the job or function of the branches of a fruit tree is not to recognize they are abiding in the vine, that is a given for a branch.

But this is often the way in which these verses are taken, that is to be in Jesus, and connected to Jesus is to know you are connected to Jesus, and then the sad illiterate disciples say,
“It is enough to be connected to the vine, But to do good works, or to judge other branches by their works past that work of God in making one a believer is un needed, keeping the commandments- is un need to show one as a believer.”

But let me before moving on, point out an often missed part of the verse above:

Joh_15:2  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he (the father) taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth (cleans or prunes) it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

See there are 2 types of branches that are said to be “in me”, that is those that are connected to the vine
1. The vine branches that bear no fruit
2. The True vine branch that bear fruit.

1. The first the vine that IS connected to Jesus and therefore claims to be “in Christ” or “In the vine”, but beareth no fruits that glorify the father those branches are cut off and those branches are burned.

2. The second is the branch that is pruned which then will bring forth more or much more fruit to glorify God thereby.

And so Joh 15:6  that… man abide not in Jesus, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
And so here is the point, there a branches connected to the Vine, these are those who look like believers, they seem like Christians and they many even do things that look like they will be fruitful are fruit full, but because those works, or those efforts are not done to and for the glory of God through the pure abiding connection, the directly flowing sap of the Vine these branches look like they are in Christ the vine by their is an internal disconnect, in fact the Holy Spirit has not connected with them, comforted them and reached out and made them fruitful to the glory of God Alone.
Not in the glory of their own selves, even by Christian sacraments and virtues, religious item which they as a branch bear, but these being not energized by the work of the Spirit of God giving that direct connection to Jesus Christ and his imputed or transferred life blood of righteousness by the comforting work of the Holy spirit sent by the Father on behalf of the asking of the Son has not been accomplished on their behalf, these therefore cannot Bring forth fruits, no not even the fruits of repentance. For there mind is not changed to the glory of God, which is the only purpose of bearing any fruit.
Listen, Jesus tells us plainly to do good works, to bear fruit and bar much fruit, but all fruit must be to his glory and never our own.

Not even in pious works of righteousness as those who were at John’s baptism were willing to perform.

The Father knows our heart and he know whose glory we are working for, because he knows if we are his workmanship:

Eph_2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

A true branch is NOT a Worker, But IS A WORK of God the father, flowing though grace given in the vine of Jesus Christ, to be manifest as a branch that bears fruit- you produce his fruit, with His seed with in it that multiplies the kind of vine that has bore it.

A recipient of the care of the father as the husbandman as the vine dresser, and as branches that produce those peaceable fruits of righteousness.

Ask the Father in Jesus name to care for us with good nutrition and support, also ask the Father to prune us and trim away our dead works. And as we start to walk in those goods God’s Word “ordained for us to walk in” to clean us through his word, we are asking for more  pruning of our self away, as Jesus said: not just to not do wrong things of works of the flesh,  for those are un-productive and corrupt fruit, which are
such as
Gal_5:19-21  sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these: which shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

We then beside these wicked things, we also must conclude that any so called ‘good work’, even if it is a work we can do that is in the bible, even if it is the keeping of the commandments of God, even baptism, if it is devoid of sharing in the accomplished fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance. –
That so-called good work falls short of God’s glory, And can not be called Good at all- Having not been worked in the Power of Jesus Righteousness.

The fruits of the Spirit which are found in a heart humbly turned to God’s glory, and acknowledging its source as only from the vine cherished of the Father must precede all we call pure or good, for these show the work of the spirit indwelling and uniting us to Christ, these come down from above.

And so, the only works able to be called good are those works God has ordained that we walk in, and that has his marks of Spiritual descent embedder in their very nature.

But if this is not your doctrine take heed and consider the Grace of God freely through the faith which it gives, repent humbly before the father which bestows His good gift from above.

And Take Heed:

Mat_3:10  Now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 3:11  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Mat 3:12  Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

 

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About JS Lowther

Foremost I know that I am a chief sinner saved by Grace. I am a servant of YHWH Almighty the one true God Who is Father, Son and Spirit. I believe in God's only begotten and perfect Son Jesu(s) Christ whose redemption power of my soul I have Faith in and testify of. Having been redeemed by the blood of Christ, I wish to no longer spend my time in the lusts of the flesh and of this world, but to promote the Gospel of the Kingdom by means of the knowledge of the New Covenant, a reNewal of the Covenant God made with his people Israel in the blood of Christ (Jer 31:31 and Heb 8:8) whereby He writes His Law upon the Heart and Mind beside the forgiveness of sin and transgressions. I believe Christ Jesus is the incarnate Son of God as the WORD made flesh, and the son of man born of the virgin Mary conceived of the Holy Spirit: I believe Christ Jesus Lived a perfect life for us as a living sacrifice as well as a pattern of the Sanctified newness of life a believer has in Him, I believe Christ Jesus died a cursed death on the Cross for His people of Covenant who are sinners, and I believe in Christ Jesus who Resurrected with power from Death from the grave to Justify the offenders. This is the same Jesus who is indeed the Son of David and king of Israel, who is both LORD and Christ over all the kings and dominions of the earth! In the fullness of time YHWH will regather his people under the Head of the Church, Jesu(s) Christ to affect his will according to the Lord's prayer, Psalm 2, 8 and 110 as well as Genesis 1:26. The focus of my administration of the Gospel is like unto my Lord's who said "I have come not but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.."(Mathew 15:24), and so I have come to my European kinsman according to the flesh. It is my mission to show the Israel of God the Salvation which is taught by Scripture Alone and offered in all ages by Grace Alone through Faith Alone in the work of Christ Alone to the Glory of GOD Alone. As a modern day Puritan separatist it is my goal to purify the church of Christ with Faith heretofore stated. I am studying to show my self approved, if you have any questions just ask!

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