Will You Make It To the End? If Not, Look Out!

There is an eternal principle that will make a difference between heaven and hell for you: without Christ you are capable of absolutely nothing. You can make big plans for your life, do a lot of good, live morally, go one some missions trips sharing the Gospel, be involved in leadership at church or school, contribute to your community, help the homeless, adopt a child from Africa, etc. and still go to hell. You can do a lot of good on earth and still end up in the same place with Adolf Hitler or Judas Iscariot or Michael Jackson.

TWO TYPES OF BRANCHES

In John 15:1-11, Jesus illustrates for us two types of branches: ones that bear fruit and those that don’t. There may be no greater analogy of the evidence of a genuine believer than one of bearing fruit.

What is the purpose of a branch? It’s not hard to figure out. The purpose of a branch is to produce fruit. Producing fruit as a branch is about submission to the will of the Father and bearing fruit means obeying Him. To bear fruit is to have actions and thoughts that could be labeled obeying His commands.

God will do whatever is necessary to help genuine branches produce as much fruit as possible – “” (John 15:2). Sometimes when branches aren’t producing fruit can’t do so because they are not receiving the sun or nutrients they need so they will be lifted up into the sun or pruned to allow them to bear fruit.

God does not allow genuine believers to not produce fruit. That person may go through short periods in their life when they live in sin and don’t produce fruit, but the pattern of their life will be the opposite of bearing fruit. So real Christians bear fruit and fake ones don’t. So our question is this: how do you know if you are going to make it? How can you tell if someone is bearing fruit? Answer: they are always abiding Him. In others words, they do not fall away … ever (John 15:3). They continually abide.

WHAT DOES ABIDE MEAN?

The word “” (John 15:4) means “remain.” It means to keep on serving Christ till your last breath. This means it is safe to look at a person who has “walked away from the faith” and we can confidently say they were never saved, because they did not remain. Real branches remain real branches all the way to the end. They don’t all of a sudden because something else. No matter how many good deeds or fruits they bore in life, the key is remaining. Jesus’ use of the word “” has in mind the rest of their lives.

Jesus says, “” (John 15:4). In other words, you cannot bear fruit if you are not connected to the vine. This is easy to understand. Go into the school parking lot, find a leaf, go home and place the leaf in a pot, give it water and sun. Will that leaf grow? Not without the tree it won’t. We don’t bear fruit without our union with the vine.

Consider the example of George Whitfield. George Whitfield led outdoor evangelistic crusades during the 1700s during the Great Awakening. He preached some 18,000 sermons, which averages to about 10 per week. Historians say thousands of people came to Christ during that period, but when Whitfield was asked how many were converted, he said, “We’ll know in 5 years.” Whitfield understood with passing of time people reveal if their “decisions” for Christ were genuine. How? By their fruit. Your fruit proves your commitment.

When you think about it, the worst thing that could ever happen to someone is know all there is to know about Christ and never commit yourself to Him.

SO WHAT?

One of Satan’s greatest lies today is that it is easy to become a Christian. It is not easy to abide in Christ; it is very hard. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar and Satanic. And that is why you see so many students leave your church or this school who seemed to be walking with God and all of sudden adopt the world’s way of living and give their life to that instead of God. They fail to abide in Him. They are not remaining because they thought it would always be easy, but it won’t!

We can be so deluded. Some state there are 2 billion people in the world claiming to be Christians; when I hear that I think, “What the heck is the criteria for being a Christian?” Some polls report will even claim almost half of American people profess to be born-again Christians! Are you kidding me?

It’s one more of an indication of how many people live under the delusion that because they have good feelings about God or Jesus, and sign a line on a survey, they really are born-again Christians. This is the ultimate delusion.

Remaining a Christian is not easy. Jesus calls it difficult, a dying to self, a taking up of the cross, a narrow path, etc. And you don’t just walk some aisle or say a prayer; if that was the case, salvation would be easy.

We have to raise the standard for what it means to be a Christian. If we don’t then our churches will be gone forever. We have to call people to genuine conversion and not simply just to profess what they don’t possess. If a profession of faith in Christ doesn’t result in a changed life that hungers and thirsts for God’s Word and desires to obey Him, the profession is only that – a mere profession. Satan loves such professions, because they give church members the damning notion that they are saved when they are not.