The Word
Vol. 9 No. 12
Upper Room Discourse
John 15:2-8
Divine
Good Production
John 15:2, “Every branch
in Me that does not bear fruit He takes it away; But everyone bearing fruit He prunes it in order that
it should bear more fruit (more Divine Good production).”
Last week we noted the definition of Divine Good production so this week
we pick it up with
Divine Good is the work
performed by a believer, (mental, overt and verbal), in exhale of Bible
Doctrine resident in the soul as a result of the spiritual sustenance of Jesus
Christ (The Vine) and Predesigned Plan of God the Father (The Vinedresser)
through the enabling power of the filling of God the Holy Spirit.
2 Thes
2:16‑17, “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our
Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, 171)
comfort and strengthen your hearts 2) in every good work and 3) word.”
B. There are three types of good in history.
1. Divine
Good, the production of the growing or mature believer.
a.
Righteousness is the thinking of God, and Divine Good is the application of
that thinking.
2. Human
Good, the production of evil by an unbeliever or reversionistic believer.
a.
Human good began in the Garden of Eden right after the fall with operation fig
leaves,
b. Evil is the thinking of Satan, while human
good is the application of that thinking.
c. Human Good includes a works for salvation,
morality for salvation or a keeping of the law for salvation mentality, (any
form of legalism),
3. Moral
Good, the observance of God’s Laws of Divine Establishment. This can be
produced by both believers and unbelievers.
a.
If produced by either group they will be blessed in time in that category of
Divine Establishment they are honoring.
b. If produced by a believer under the enabling power of
the Holy Spirit it is also rewardable in eternity as
a category of Divine Good.
C. What we think is good is not always Divine Good.
1.
Many times wrong motivation parlays good into what is classified as human good
which is actually evil in God’s eyes.
2.
Good may be human good that is dead works which is the function of good deeds
done by means of the flesh / Sin Nature, or it may be Christian service done by
means of the Word and Spirit functioning in your soul which is Divine Good.
3.
Yet, Christian service can also be fulfilled in the power of your ability, your
human energy, and your personality rather than the power of God which renders
that service to nothing more than human good. Anything done with wrong
motivation or not under the Filling of God the Holy Spirit is human good.
4.
What you do under the control of the Holy Spirit is Divine Good in contrast to
what you do in the energy of the flesh which is human good.
5.
Everything depends on the relationship of that good to the “three sources of
good” and “the first three keys to Divine Good” noted last week.
D. The contrast to Divine Good is human good,
which comes from the O.S.N.
1. Human good is dead
works,
2. Human good is not acceptable to God,
3. Human good has no place in the Plan of God,
4. Human good will not save mankind,
5. Human good of the believer will be destroyed at the
Bema Seat of Jesus Christ,
6. Human good of the unbeliever is judged at the Great
White Throne Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ and is the basis for indictment of
all unbelievers,
a. Unbelievers can do nothing humanly worthy to enter
into God's heaven but they do not go to hell because of human good but for
there constant rejection of Christ's redeeming work upon the Cross.
E. There must be spiritual growth before there can be production of
Divine Good.
Remember that Divine Good is the
production of the growing or mature believer. We produce Divine Good when we
apply the righteousness of God to life. Righteousness is the thinking of God
(His Word) and Divine Good is the application of that thinking.
1.
All production must come from within the boundary of Bible doctrine,
2.
It is the will of God that you learn His Word before you produce Divine Good.
a.
You don’t put baby believers to work doing anything; you need to teach them
first, cf
b.
When the baby grows up, it will work and produce naturally as a result of all
the training it received.
3.
The right mental attitude plus the filling of the Holy Spirit results in being
in the Will of God and the production of Divine Good,
4.
The believer is only a fruit bearer under the following conditions.
a.
You must have consistent post-salvation renewing of your mind by God’s Word,
b.
You must have resultant spiritual growth.
c.
You must have the correct mental attitude.
5.
Producing Divine Good demands having right priorities. Right priorities are
consistent divine viewpoint of life, which originates from perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine.
F. The believer is designed to
produce Divine Good.
1.
Divine Good is the production of the Royal Priesthood,
2. It
is part of God's Plan for you to produce Divine Good. The believer in phase two is the recipient of grace
and designed for the production of Divine
Good,
3.
In eternity past, God knew how much Bible doctrine you would have at any
moment, so he prefabricated all the Divine Good you would produce and entered
this information into His divine decrees with your name on them.
4. The only production which counts as Divine Good is
production based on something in your soul (God’s Word), which is there as a
result of grace (
The filling of the Holy Spirit
and Bible doctrine exist in your soul as a result of grace.
G. The production of Divine Good is related to
God’s Logistical Grace Blessings,
1.
Logistical Grace includes three factors of Divine provision.
a. Life
Support is provided for every Church Age believer. This explains how and
why we are alive every moment. The only reason we are alive is because of
logistical grace. We do not earn or deserve it; there's no work we can
accomplish to keep ourselves alive.
b. Blessing
is provided for every Church Age believer, both winners and loser. This
dramatizes the justice of God, in that the justice of God sends life support
and blessing to the indwelling righteousness of God in both winners and losers.
This emphasizes grace. God sends blessing through the grace pipeline in order
to sustain life. You are alive only because of the grace of God, not because of
anything you do. Winners utilize logistical grace, losers
coast on it, but never utilize it.
c. Divine
Provision for every Church Age believer to execute the Plan of God. All
doctrine comes from the prepared Pastor-Teacher. If you have persistent
positive volition, you will find doctrine and your right Pastor-Teacher. This
provides for you the right mental capacity in order to serve God as a vessel of
honor (2 Tim
2.
In
a.
The first principle we see under Logistical Grace blessings is the provision of
capacity in fruit bearing. Through the grace provision of God’s Word, the
Filling of the Holy Spirit and the Grace Apparatus for Perception we are
provided with the right mental attitude to produce Divine Good.
3.
In verse 7, “Heart” is
KARDIA that means the Right Lobe of our soul where you store and retain
Bible Doctrine, the righteous thinking of God. So we see the application of
God’s righteousness, His Word “Purposed”
is an HAPAXLEGO-MENON, a Greek word used only once in scripture, which is the
verb PROAIREO from PRO that means “before or ahead”, and HAIREO or AIHREOMAI
that means to, “choose, prefer, or
decide.” In extra Biblical Greek literature PROAIREO was used to mean, “to bring forward, bring forth from one’s stores, to
bring forth for one’s self, to choose for one’s self before another, and to prefer.
In scripture PROAIREO has come to mean “decided or purposed”. It is used here
in the Perfect Tense, Middle Voice, and Indicative Mood. The Perfect Tense speaks of completed past
action. The positive believer has made a decision in the past regarding the
works he will perform now and in the future. The Middle Voice says that the believer is acting upon himself. He has
made the decision for himself. He has decided the direction he is going to take
and the actions he is going to perform. The Indicative
Mood stands for the reality of the situation. He has made up his mind. It
is a done deal, not to be changed.
“Not grudgingly” is ME EK LUPE. ME is the
Greek negative, “not”. EK means “from, out from or out of”. LUPE is a Noun,
here in the Genitive Case that means, “Pain
of body or mind, grief, sorrow,
annoyance, or affliction.” It
is typically used as sorrow throughout the New Testament.
In
“Under compulsion” is made up of EK that again means “from, out from or
out of”, and ANAGKE, also in the Genitive Case, that means, “compulsion or of necessity imposed either by the circumstances, or by law
of duty regarding to one’s advantage, custom, or argument.” Sometimes it refers
to compulsion in regard to calamity, distress, or dire straits.
So we translate this
portion of
4. Principles:
a. Whatever you have made
up your mind to do, do it. If it is a little or lot, just do it as God’s Word
and the Spirit have placed on your heart and you have determined for yourself
to do.
b. Do not take side steps
or short cuts as a result of outside influences distracting you.
c. Unless truly influenced
by God, do not add to what you had originally determined to do. Adding can lead
to approbation lust.
d. Do what you set out to
accomplish in the way you determined to accomplish it.
e. Never worry about what
other people think or will say about your work, good or bad.
f. Be at peace and be
confident with whatever it is you have decided to do or have done.
g. Do not enter into any
fruit bearing reluctantly / begrudgingly. It’s better to not do the work and
remain in fellowship than to do the work and be sinning.
h. Do not use the previous
point as a cop-out; an excuse for not producing Divine Good. Get the correct
mental attitude, adjust to the righteousness of God, (via Rebound, Filling of
the Spirit and God’s Word) and do the work.
i. Do not feel compelled or pressured or that you have
to do it because someone told you to or because of what others may think, (peer pressure).
j. Absolutely do not enter
into any deeds with anger, bitterness, resentment, or approbation lust.
k. Do every good deed with +H; the joy and happiness of
God emanating through your soul.
5.
In verse 8, “all sufficiency” refers
to God providing everything necessary to keep you alive and to take in doctrine
(Logistical Grace Blessing), “so that
you can have an abundance of every Divine Good production.”
Verse 10, “He who
supplies seed to the sower and bread for food,” is once again
speaking of God’s Logistical Grace provisions so that you may produce even more
Divine Good, “increase the harvest of your
righteousness.”
Remembering the principle,
“Righteousness is the thinking of God (His
Word) and the application of God’s thinking is Divine Good production.
Therefore, “increasing the harvest of your righteousness” speaks to increasing
your fruit production to more and much fruit.
If you would
like more information on this subject,
you may listen
to lessons 10-030 through 10-032.
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