Ron Dunn Podcast - Campus Crusade Training - The Way of Fruitfulness

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

Ron leads a training for Campus Crusade staff and preaches out of John 15. Fruit bearing is a quality of life. You cannot pick fruit that has not been born.

Now would you open your Bibles this morning to the New Testament, the Gospel of John, chapter 15. I'm going to read verses 1 through 8, and then verse 16. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 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. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine,

no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. 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. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. Now verse 16. Why? That ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, You know, I love conventions. Every year, our denomination has a big convention. They meet different places. Last year they met in Dallas, and I think we had about 18,000 delegates registered. I just love conventions.

You know, you see people you've not seen in a year or so, and there are just so many exciting things going on, and I really love them, and I always hate when they're over. Last year we held our convention in Portland, Oregon. That's such a beautiful state. And when the convention was over, we still had a couple of days left and a little money left. So my wife and I said, well, man, we just, you know, don't want to go back home. And I mean, after all, the kids are taken care of. So we began to look for another convention to attend.

And I read in the paper that the National Procrastinators Fellowship was meeting, and I wanted to go to that, but they kept putting it off. So finally, we saw where the FPA was having its annual convention right there in Portland, and so we were able to go to that and just had to, you don't know what the FPA is. Oh, the FPA, excuse me, the FPA is the Fruit Pickers of America. So we had the privilege of attending the Fruit Pickers of America convention, and it was really exciting. They had quite a few exhibits in the halls there, the latest tools for picking fruit, and the latest styles of baskets and bags to carry the fruit in,

you know, once you've picked it. And they had some new manuals there on how to pick fruit faster. And they had, you know, different people there that had been long years in picking fruit and were experienced, and they were having, you know, different study courses and seminars on how to pick fruit. And it all, of course, you know, like a convention does, just build up to a climax. And on the last day there, they brought in an inspirational speaker. He was the man that had picked more fruit that year than anybody else in the country.

And so everybody, of course, just flocked to hear this man speak. He just inspired them, you know. He just brought them to a fever pitch with his example, you know, of how much fruit he had picked that year. And when the convention was over and the last amen was said, everybody there, all those fruit pickers, grabbed a basket and a sack and they all went out to pick fruit. And they came back in that afternoon and they didn't have any fruit. And that really threw the convention into frustrated tailspin because here they had the latest methods. They had all of these new tools.

They had these new multicolored baskets and they'd had the inspirational speaker on how to pick fruit and why you ought to pick fruit. And they went out and worked and worked and worked, but they weren't able to pick much fruit. And so they appointed a committee to make a study on why it was that they were picking more but enjoying it less

and why it was that there was so little fruit. And you know what they discovered? They discovered that in their convention, they talked a great deal about fruit picking. They had all the latest methods. They had all the latest instruments. They had the inspirational speakers to inspire them to go out and pick fruit and work harder than you've ever worked before. And yet they discovered that they had overlooked one very essential thing.

They had placed all the emphasis on fruit picking and none on fruit bearing. And they discovered that before you can pick fruit, the fruit must first of all be born. There has to be the bearing of fruit before there can be the picking of fruit. And I think one reason they overlooked this perhaps is because, you see, fruit picking involves just my time and my energy. And I can do it with absolute detachment.

But fruit bearing is the product of a life and is the result of a certain quality of life. And it is impossible to bear fruit with detachment. And so they reconvened and decided that what they needed to do was to keep the methods of fruit picking and all of that, but they needed to back up and discover, first of all, how to bear the fruit so that it can be picked. Because you cannot pick fruit that, first of all, has not been born. Have you ever had a passage of Scripture that you've read over and over again,

and then one night while you're asleep, the Lord puts in a new verse, a new word, words it just a little bit differently than it's ever been worded before? I know that's what happened to John chapter 15 because I don't know how many times I've read this passage of Scripture, but about a year or so ago I was reading it anew

and studying it afresh, and I discovered something in this passage of Scripture. I discovered something. I discovered that Jesus Christ in this passage, as He refers to this matter of fruitfulness, doesn't say anything about fruit picking. And He does not call us fruit pickers, but He calls us fruit bearers. And there's an awful lot of difference

between picking fruit and bearing fruit. Over and over again in this passage, Jesus is saying, I have called you that you might bear fruit, bring forth fruit. If you abide in me and I abide in you, you will bear much fruit. Every branch that abideth in me, it will bear fruit. Over and over again, the emphasis is on fruit bearing. I think that probably all of us have a desire to be fruitful and more fruitful.

I think that there is something greatly wrong in your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is not in your heart this morning a desire, Lord, how can I be more fruitful? I want my life to be a rich harvest, and I want my life to be as fruitful as it is possible to be. And what I want to share with you this morning is the way of fruitfulness, whatever you want to call it. You know, the

secret of fruitfulness, the key to fruitfulness, anything that you want to call it. There are so many secrets and so many keys. But I want to share with you what Jesus has to say in this passage of Scripture about the way or the secret of fruitfulness. How is it that we bear fruit? How is it that we become more fruitful? And it's my conviction that if we will bear the fruit, God the Father will see to it that it's picked. What God is looking for this morning, I am convinced, is not so much fruit pickers as He is people who will lay down their lives, who will give themselves up to this matter of being a fruit bearer.

And I repeat, there's a great deal of difference. Now let me say just several things about this matter of fruitfulness. Some of it will be obvious to you and old hat, and I trust some of it will be fresh. First of all, Jesus makes it very clear in this passage of scripture that fruitfulness is proof of our union with Jesus Christ. Fruitfulness is proof of our union with Jesus Christ. Fruitfulness is proof, is the unmistakable evidence that you and I are in Jesus Christ and He is in me. For instance, in the second verse, He says, 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. Look at the emphasis. Every branch. He said, I am the vine. You are the branches. And we need to understand that Jesus is the vine. I am the branch. You are the branch.

And every branch in Jesus that does not bear fruit isn't worth having around. And he says he takes it away. And then in verse 6, he says basically the same thing in another direction. If a man abide not in me, therefore he's not bearing fruit, because he abides not in me. 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're burned. The 16th verse, Jesus says, You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and I have drawn a circle around you, I have set you apart, I have ordained you for this purpose, that you should go and bring forth fruit.

And the purpose for which God has saved you and me, and the purpose for which God has commissioned me and ordained me is that my life should be fruitful. And apart from bearing fruit, I have no reason to live. I cannot justify my existence apart from fruitfulness. Every branch that does not bear fruit. Jesus is not a pack rat. Jesus is not a saver of old souvenirs. And he says if there is a branch that is not bearing fruit, that is not fulfilling the divine purpose, he says we don't keep it around.

He said it is removed because it means that he is not abiding in me. And every man that does not abide in me, he's cast forth as a branch. You see something very interesting here. There's only one good thing that a branch is for, and that's to bear fruit. If you'll study in the Old Testament, you'll discover that the Bible lays it down that you're not even supposed to make a pen, a writing pen out of the wood of the branch. When you would bring your sacrifice to the temple, you also would bring wood to burn that sacrifice.

But the law laid it down that you were not to bring the wood of the vine, the wood of the branch. It's too soft to use in lumber for building. It is good for nothing. Do you know what a branch is? A branch is simply a grape rack that God made. That's all a branch is. It's just a grape rack.

God said, I want to produce grapes. I want to create grapes. I've got to have something to hang the grapes on. I'll make some branches and I'll hang grapes on the branches. And if the branch doesn't want to be a grape rack, then it's of no value to me, I'll throw it aside. And it seems to me that what God is trying to say to us in the Old Testament through these laws is this, that apart from fruit bearing,

there is absolutely no use for a branch. Absolutely no use for a branch. And if a man is in Jesus Christ, and the life of Jesus is flowing through him, there will be fruit. And fruitfulness is proof of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. When I was much younger, we had some grapevines. I discovered that there are two kinds of branches.

Now let's say that it's not the fruit-be bearing season right now and you go out and you look at those branches and they all have leaves on them every one of them have leaves and you watch them you take this branch and this branch two branches both of them are bearing leaves both of them have the evidence is the signs of life but as fruit bearing season rolls around, you'll notice that one branch bears rich, luscious grapes. The other branch does not bear grapes. It still has the leaves, but it does not bear grapes. Now, I'll tell you what you can do. You can take a knife, and you can go to that branch that is bearing grapes, and you can

cut around where that branch is connected to the vine and you will see that it is stubbornly entrenched into that vine and it is very, very difficult to cut it off. But if you go to that branch that has only leaves on it and is bearing no fruit and you take that same knife and you begin to cut around it, you'll discover something. You'll discover that that branch has only a superficial attachment to the vine. Only a skin surface attachment to the vine. It has no vital, real entrenchment, no vital, real union with the vine. Therefore, the sap that produces the grapes is not connected and is not flowing through the branch. It is not what? Abiding in

the vine. And you know what you do? You cut it off. And you know, we have people in our churches today professing the name Jesus. I tell you, their lives got so many leaves on them, you can't even see the wood. They're so busy. They have so many labels and they do this and they do that. But I tell you, there is absolutely no fruit in their lives. No fruit in their lives. You know why? Because they have merely a superficial attachment to the Lord Jesus Christ. They have a denominational attachment to him. They have a label attachment. But the life of Jesus is not flowing in them. They have no real vital union. And therefore, that's the reason they're not bearing fruit.

Well, you know, this necessitates our defining what fruit is. Because if it is true that every person who is abiding in Jesus, who has any kind of connection at all with the Lord Jesus Christ, if it is true that He's going to bear fruit, then we need to understand what we mean by fruit. What do you think fruit is? You say, well, that's having people saved. Well, that is fruit. That's part of it.

But that's not all of it. Let me give you a definition of fruit. Fruit is the outward expression of the inward nature. Fruit is the outward expression of the inward nature. When my wife and I were in Portland, we rented a car one afternoon and began to drive up and down the countryside. We saw an orchard over to one side, and my wife said, what kind of trees are those? Are those orange trees or plum trees or peach trees? I said, I don't know. There's no fruit on them. I don't know. You know, my dad can walk through a forest, and he can look at the bark of a tree, and he can look at the leaf on a tree, and he can tell you what kind of tree

that is. I've never been able to do that. You could drag me out to a forest, and you could say, what kind of tree is this? I don't know if that's an oak tree, an elm tree, a spaghetti tree, a peanut tree. I don't know what kind of tree that is. But I tell you something, if I'm walking along, and I see a tree, and there's an apple growing out of it, it doesn't take long for this keen mind of mine

to put together a few facts. Aha, that is an apple tree. Well, how do you know? Well, there's an apple growing out of it. What is an apple? An apple is simply the outward expression of the inward nature. I know what the inward nature of that tree is. It's apple. Why?

Because I am seeing the outward expression of it. An apple is the outward expression of the inward nature of that tree is. It's apple. Why? Because I am seeing the outward expression of it. An apple is the outward expression of the inner nature. That's what fruit is. That's what fruit is. What is the inner nature of a Christian? It's Jesus. For we have become partakers of the divine nature. And the nature of a child of God,

he has the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling in him, living in him. And I tell you that if you are in Jesus Christ and he is in you, there is going to be some outward expression, some visible manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. And if there's someone who proclaims to be a Christian,

who professes to know Jesus Christ, but there is absolutely no evidence of the life of Jesus in his life, the character, the disposition, the meekness, the gentleness, the compassion of Jesus in his life, I tell you something, that man does not know Jesus. There will always be fruit. Now, some of these grapevines we had when I was a kid, the grapes they would produce, I mean, you know, they were just hard as marbles and just shriveled up. Looked like they were already raisins. But they were fruit.

And I could look at that and I could say, hey, that's a grapevine. I have some folks in my church, I tell you what, the fruit that they have is kind of hard as marbles and shriveled up and looks like a raisin, but it's fruit. It's not much, but there's some evidence

that Jesus Christ is alive in their life. Now I want to tell you something. We have a phrase, we say the fruit of a Christian is another Christian. I'm not certain that's true. I think the fruit of the Christian is the Christian life and the fruit of the Christian life is another Christian. You'm not certain that's true. I think the fruit of the Christian is the Christian life

and the fruit of the Christian life is another Christian. You see, the first thing that a Christian bears and manifests in his life is the life of Jesus. And it is the life of Jesus flowing out of his life

that produces the other Christians. And the proof that we are in Jesus Christ is the fact that there is fruit, the outward manifestation of the inward nature, the Lord Jesus Christ expressing Himself through our nature. I've known some people that were tremendous witnesses, tremendous soul winners. And yet I have seen in their lives so little evidence of the nature and the spirit of Jesus. I'm thinking now,

a fellow, you know, he'll say, man, I'm filled with the spirit. I'm filled with the spirit. But he'll go into a restaurant and he'll be rude and impolite to that waitress. That fellow's no more filled with the spirit than a dead tree is.

You see, fruit primarily in the first place is the life of Jesus, the nature of Jesus, the character of Jesus expressing itself through your human personality. All right, let's move on now to the next observation. Not only is fruit proof

that we are in Jesus Christ, but now this is most important. Fruit is produced by our union with Jesus Christ. Now have you noticed something as we read these verses? It never says that the branch produces the fruit. It simply says the branch bears the fruit. Who produces the fruit? Where does the fruit come from?

Who produces the fruit? I'll tell you who produces the fruit, the vine. The life that's in the vine, the sap that's in the vine, the nature that's in the vine produces the fruit. And as I said a moment ago, the branch is simply a channel through which the fruit that the vine has produced will express itself and will become visible. The branch does not produce fruit, my friend. The branch simply bears the fruit. I think that there's nothing quite so important in our service and our ministry is understanding this. The responsibility

for production, my dear friend, is not on the branch. It is on the vine. The responsibility for producing is not on the branch. It is on the vine. It is not the branch that produces. If the branch produces, it will only produce another branch. And that's why we've got so much dead wood in our churches. The responsibility for results is not upon the branch. The responsibility is upon the vine. It's known that there have been some vines whose roots have gone for nearly a mile to seek out richness, to seek out nourishment. I'll tell you there is no link to which Jesus Christ will not go to nourish our lives. It is His responsibility to produce.

It is His responsibility to create. It is His responsibility to draw. It is His responsibility to draw. It is His responsibility for the results. I am the branch. He bears it through me. My responsibility is to be available and surrendered and allow Jesus to do all He wants to do through me. But I tell you this morning, the responsibility for production is not upon me. It's upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's suppose that you're walking with Jesus, walking in the Spirit, abiding in the Lord, and you go in to visit.

You have an appointment with this fellow to share with him the four spiritual laws. As far as you know, the Spirit of God is filling you. You're walking in Jesus. You're abiding in Him. As far as you know, everything is right between you and the Lord, and this is an appointment that God is filling you. You're walking in Jesus. You're abiding in Him. As far as you know, everything is right between you and the Lord, and this is an appointment that God has put together. You share the message of Christ with this fellow. He accepts it.

He's saved. He prays to receive Christ as his Savior. All right, who gets the credit for that? You or Jesus? Why, you know who gets the credit for it. Man, you're not going to be that carnal to say, hey, look what I did. No, you go away saying, praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

Why? Because all the credit goes to Him. All right, now let's suppose you make a next visit, your next appointment. You're still in the same spiritual condition, filled with the Spirit, abiding in Christ, walking in the same spiritual condition, filled with the Spirit, abiding in Christ, walking in the Spirit, and you go in and you share the four spiritual laws with that fellow and he rejects it. Now whose responsibility for failure is it?

Did I hear anybody say Jesus? Now you understand I'm speaking in human terms. There's no such thing as failure as far as Jesus is concerned. But let's say you failed. Who failed? The Lord Jesus. Why? Because the responsibility of production is upon Jesus. It is the vine that does the producing. Listen, let me share with you the principle by which Jesus Christ lived and by which Jesus Christ ministered. Have you ever heard this verse? I'm sure you have. John chapter 5, verse 19. Then answered Jesus and said unto them,

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself. Well, now what do you mean by that? I mean, after all, He's the Son of God. He has the power to raise the dead. He has the power to cleanse lepers. He has power to give sight to blind eyes and sound to deaf ears. And yet Jesus Christ said,

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do, for what things soever he doeth, these also the Son doeth. Now, look over again in John chapter 8 and verse 28. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man,

then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father taught me, I speak these things. One more verse. John chapter 14, 10. Believeest 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.

Jesus said, I can do nothing of myself. And the works that you see me doing, it is really the Father that is doing it in me. Listen, the principle by which Jesus Christ lived and ministered was this. He said, I do nothing of myself. I only do that which the Father does through me. In other words, Jesus Christ said, I am not the source of my own sufficiency. You remember when Jesus was in the wilderness

temptation and after fasting for 40 days, he was hungry and the devil came to him and said, if thou be the son of God, command these stones be turned into bread. Now that was a temptation to sin. Now let me ask you, what in the world would be sinful if a man was at the point of starvation, hadn't had a bite in 40 days, what would be the sin? And if you had the power to do it, to turning stones into bread. And those little stones over there resemble little loaves of bread. You talk about the power of suggestion. Oh, the devil knows what he's doing. And he was saying, Jesus, look at that. Those little stones, they look like loaves of bread your mother used to bake, right? Listen, if you're the Son of God, prove it and command these stones be made into bread. What's wrong with a fellow getting something to eat?

It would have been a sin for Jesus to have done that. Why? Because at that moment, Jesus would have become the source of his own sufficiency. He said, the Father is my source of sufficiency. And if the Father wants these stones to be made into bread, he'll do it. I will not do it. Thou shalt not tempt me. Get thee behind me. Jesus said, I refuse to be the source of my own sufficiency. Now listen carefully. Jesus, in order to do this, had to reject his own divine resources.

You know, I've done a lot of useless preaching in my life. Some of you may think I'm doing some more of it this morning. I'm a Southern Baptist. You know, Southern Baptists are very evangelistic oriented. Now, the basic difference between Southern Baptists and other denominations is this. Many other denominations never talk about winning people to Jesus. Southern Baptists talk about it all the time,

but don't do much of it. That's the basic difference. Now, I don't know how it is in your church, but I tell you, the average Southern Baptist has a built-in guilt complex because he doesn't witness and win people to Jesus. You see, he knows he ought to. He knows he ought to, but he doesn't. There's fear.

There's lack of motivation. He tries, but he has a built-in guilt complex because he knows he ought to be being fruitful but he isn't. And the average preacher will feed that guilt complex every Sunday morning. The most useless preaching I've ever done in my life is threaten those people and say, now you need to get out there and witness

and you need to get out. And one of these days, some dear saint of God is going to stand up and say, preacher, would you quit telling me what to do and tell me how to do it? You see, the problem with people is that you quit telling me what to do and tell me how to do it? You see, the problem with people is that they don't know what to do. I think I missed something. Anybody care to enlighten me? Ma'am?

Oh, well, we are. I am. That's what I'm doing. That's what we're going to be doing today and tomorrow. But you see, the problem with the people is not that they don't know what they ought to do. Paul says in Romans chapter 7, I have the will to do what's right, but how to perform that which is good I find not. On Sunday morning, I'd threaten my people with the judgment seat of Christ.

I'd say, you folks are going to catch it one day. I'd try to break their hearts and paint a picture of the poor lost people. I didn't make a soul winner out of one of them. I've had so many study courses. I tell you, there are people in my church, they could lead a fence post to the Lord. They... I think they've done it sometimes. I think I've got some in my church right now. I mean, you know, they've become now a recognizable statistic.

And that's about all. You know why Southern Baptists and why we make such a big thing out of baptisms? You know, how many baptisms did you have? Because on the associational record, they don't ask how many people were saved, they ask how many baptisms. And so we emphasize how many baptisms because then it becomes a recognizable statistic. And so I've got a bunch of dead wood. But praise the Lord, there's statistics.

I was in Birmingham, Alabama a couple of years ago. The pastor I was with had been invited that year to speak at the evangelism conference. His subject assigned to him was how to learn to love the lost. While I was there, he said, Ron, I want you to help me to find a text. I said, that's standing on my head.

There's bound to be a lot of verses in the Bible that tell you how to learn to love the lost. So I began to look. Now, I found verses that told me I ought to love the lost. I found verses that told me what I would do if I loved the lost. I couldn't find a single verse

that told me how to learn to love the lost. I don't know what text that fellow ever used. But I came back and I said, Lord, I must pursue this because I want to make a confession to you. At that time, my evangelistic zeal was at an all-time low. I'll just be very honest with you. About that point in my life, I couldn't care less whether people went to heaven or hell.

Now, I knew I ought to, but I couldn't generate anything, you know. I was sitting around waiting for the Lord to do something, to give me a new experience that would catapult me out and just make me, you know, witness and share. I said, Lord, show me how to learn to love the lost. He took me finally to the Gospel of John. I believe it's chapter 20 or 21

where Jesus has His breakfast with Simon Peter. And as they're eating, Jesus says, Simon, do you love me? Simon said, yeah, Lord, I love you. Jesus said, feed my sheep. He asked him a second time, Simon, do you love me? Yeah, Lord, I love you.

Jesus said, well, feed my sheep. He asked him a third time, Simon, Simon, son of Barjona, do you really love me? And Simon, by this time, was getting just a little bit exasperated. He said, Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. Jesus said, Feed him a sheep. And you know, not one time did Jesus ask Peter

if he loved sheep. I can imagine Simon Peter saying, But Lord, I don't love sheep. I don't like them. They stink. They smell. I don't like sheep. Jesus said,

I didn't ask if you love sheep. I asked if you love me. I don't care whether. They stink. They smell. I don't like sheep. Jesus said, I didn't ask if you love sheep. I asked if you love me. I don't care whether you love sheep or not. That's beside the point. Do you love me? Well, yes, I love you. You can feed my sheep. You know what I learned?

I learned I don't have to learn to love the lost. I learned to love Jesus. And I want to love Him and abide in Him and fellowship with Him. I want to do anything and everything He tells me to do. And I feed His sheep. And so I discovered in my church one day

that when my people begin to fall in love with Jesus, begin to see Him in His beauty and His glory, begin to deepen their walk with Him, they begin to reject and refuse to become the source of their own sufficiency. You know what I discovered? I discovered those people

that hadn't even had the training were out witnessing. Just everywhere they went, they were telling people about Jesus. I discovered those people that hadn't even had the training were out witnessing. Just everywhere they went, they were telling people about Jesus. People began to be saved. Homes began to be changed. You know why? Because a bunch of people at MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church discovered that they loved Jesus.

All the responsibility for producing is upon Jesus.