Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1625
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, October 23, 1881
“Without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5.
THIS is not the language of a man of ordinary mold. No saint, no Prophet, no Apostle would ever have addressed a company of faithful men and have said to them, “Without me you can do nothing.” Had Jesus Christ been, as some say, a good man and nothing more, such language as this would have been unseemly and inconsistent. Among the virtues of a perfect man we must certainly reckon modesty, but this from a mere man would have been shamelessly immodest! It is impossible to conceive that Jesus of Nazareth, had He not been more than man, could ever have uttered the sentence, “Without Me you can do nothing.” My Brothers and Sisters, I hear, in this sentence, the voice of that Divine Person without whom was not anything made that was made! The majesty of the words reveals the Godhead of Him that uttered them. The “I Am” comes out in the personal word, “Me,” and the claim of all power unveils the Omnipotent!
These words mean Godhead or nothing! The spirit in which we listen to this language is that of adoration. Let us bow our heads in solemn worship and so unite with the multitude before the Throne of God who ascribe power and dominion and might to Him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb. In this adoring state of mind we shall be the better prepared to enter into the innermost soul of the text. I am not going to preach upon the moral inability of the unregen-erate, although in that doctrine I most firmly believe—for that Truth of God did not come in our Lord’s way when He uttered these words—and neither did He allude to it.
It is quite true that unregenerate men, being without Christ, can do no spiritual action whatever, and can do nothing which is acceptable in the sight of God. But our Lord was not speaking to unregenerate men at all, nor speaking about them. He was surrounded by His Apostles, the 11 out of whom Judas had been weeded, and it is to them as branches of the true Vine that He says, “Without Me you can do nothing.” The statement refers to such as are in the Vine and even to such as have been pruned and have, for a while, been found abiding in the stem which is Christ—even in such there is an utter incapacity for holy produce if separated from Christ!
We are not called upon, just now, to speak upon all forms of doing, as beyond us, but of that form of it which is intended in the text. There are certain forms of doing in which men excel who know little or nothing of Christ. But the text must be viewed in its own context and the Truth of God is clear. Believers are here described under the figure of branches in the vine—and the doing alluded to must, therefore, be the bearing of fruit! I might render it, “Apart from Me you can produce nothing, make nothing, create nothing, bring forth nothing.” The reference, therefore, is to that doing which may be set forth by the fruit of the vine’s branch and, therefore, to those good works and Divine Graces of the Spirit which are expected from men who are spiritually united to Christ. It is of these that He says, “Without Me you can do nothing.”
Our text is only another form of the fourth verse—“As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in Me.” I am therefore going to address myself to you who profess to know and love the Lord and are anxious to glorify His name. And I have to remind you that union to Christ is essential, for only as you are one with Him and continue to be so, can you bring forth the fruits which prove you to be truly His.
I. Reading, again, this solemn sentence, “Without Me you can do nothing,” it first of all excites in me AN ASPIRATION OF HOPE. There is something to be done—our religion is to have a grand practical outcome! I have been thinking of Christ as the Vine, and of the myriads of branches in Him, and my heart has hoped for great things. From such a root, what a vintage must come! Being branches in Him, what fruit we must produce! There can be nothing scanty or poverty-stricken in the fruit of a Vine so full of sap! Fruit of the best quality, fruit in the utmost abundance, fruit unrivalled must be borne by such a Vine. That word, “do,” has music in it! Yes, Brethren, Jesus went about doing good and,
We have been saved by the almighty Grace of God apart from all doings of our own and now that we are saved, we long to do something in return! We feel a high ambition to be of some use and service to our great Lord and Master. The text, even though there is a negative in it, yet raises in our soul the hope that before we go from here and are no more, we may even here on earth do something for Christ! Beloved, there is the ambition and hope before us of doing something in the way of glorifying God by bringing forth the fruits of holiness, peace and love. We would adorn the Doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things. By pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by love unfeigned, by every good and holy work we would show forth the praises of our God!