I AM THE TRUE VINE

Tell everybody, thank you so much for attending this morning, especially our covenant members here at 12

Five Church. Your participation with the body is out of obedience to what

God has called us to do. In fact, the writer of Hebrews says not to neglect the gathering together of the saints, but it's not out of a legalistic heart.

It's one out of faithfulness to our King and to fulfill the one another's that Christ has called us to.

That same passage goes on to say to encourage one another in love and good works. So for our covenant members here at 12

Five, you are loved. Thank you so much for being here. And so also, if you are a regular attender or a guest this morning, you too are loved.

Thank you so much for being here on this Lord's Day. In fact, if you could find a

Connect card that we have at this table over here. If you have any questions for us, who we are or what we're about, please fill out that.

Ask us questions or tell us if you have any prayer requests because we would love to be able to do that for you. And we would have this to be able to reach out to you and we'd love to get to know you even better.

And so with that being said, that's our aim this morning is to unify around the Spirit and in truth and to worship our sovereign triune

God. Also, I got a few announcements I want to make you aware of. Coming up very shortly,

October 5th. What is that? This coming Saturday, October 5th, we are having a church family picnic.

We missed it last summer. We had a lot going on and so we are overdue and we are excited. So if you're interested in going to the the picnic, please text this number here on the screen.

This is Jamie Agee's number. And please reserve your seats for the whole family.

This is going to be at Craighead Forest Park at Pavilion 5 from 12 p .m. to 3 p .m.

That is this coming Saturday. Also, we have membership class coming up on October 9th at 630 p .m.

And so membership class, obviously if you're interested in being a covenant member here at 12 .5 Church, you want to be a part of this class.

You need to, right, to learn more about who we are, what we teach, what we see or see as first -tier gospel issues, and those issues that are tertiary that we can lovingly disagree with with one another.

And maybe you're a guest and says, well I would just like to learn more about 12 .5 Church as a whole.

We are a four -year church plant and we would encourage you come be a part of our membership class just to learn more about who we are.

And so also on October 9th, we're starting our membership class and we're starting a new midweek

Bible study. Basically, bring all your questions, right. If you have doctrinal questions, exegetical questions, just practical life questions, we would ask that you would text this number on the screen, which is

Pastor Nathan Hargrave's number, about questions that you may have. That way the the elders, we can go through these questions prayerfully and spend whole

Wednesday nights on a particular question or a set of questions that the body has. And so if you would, just text

Nathan and preface it with a question. So with that being said, before we jump into our service, we pray for a local church.

And so if you would, please join me in praying for Community Fellowship Church here in Jonesboro. Heavenly Father, you are so gracious.

We thank you so much for your grace upon grace. God, we understand that your mercy is more and renews our hearts each and every morning.

God, we lift up Community Fellowship Church here in town. God, they're an evangelical church and they preach the gospel of grace.

God, we pray that you would bless them in their endeavors to herald the good news of the gospel of peace and of grace and of love.

And God, we specifically pray for the fellowship and the leadership. God, just please help them to be a healthy church.

God, guided by the truths of your Word. And God, just allow us to be a partner church.

God, to come alongside them and help in any way that you see fit. We pray all these things in your name,

Jesus. Amen. All right, if you would, please stand for our call to worship this morning that comes from Hebrews chapter 12.

This time of call to worship isn't just everybody consuming, right, being entertained or something like that.

No, we are the members of the true church, all the saints gathering together, and so we participate in declaring these truths together.

So that being said, our passage says, for you have not come to what may be touched and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg.

For they could not endure the order that was given. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said.

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God and to the innumerable angels and the festal gathering.

And to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to Jesus and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

And all God's people said, amen. Now, I want to transition to praying corporately together as a body.

This is a time to revere God's name on high, and so we pray a prayer corporately together, a prayer of adoration.

Let's pray. Our God, you have helped us to see that whatever good may be in honoring and rejoicing, how good is he who gives them and can withdraw them.

That blessedness does not lie so much in receiving good from and in you, but in holding forth your glory and virtue.

That is an amazing thing to see deity in a creature, speaking, acting, filling, shining through it.

That nothing is good but you, that we are only good when we are near you, and it is a glorious thing to be like you.

That is our magnet. That is our attraction. You are all good in times of peace, our only support in days of trouble, our only one sufficiency when life shall end.

Lord, help us to see how good your will is in all, even when it crosses our will.

Teach us to be pleased with it. God, grant us to never lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, and the exceeding wonder of your amazing grace.

Amen. It fits me, it gives me grace.

He stood condemned. Here I stand, now justified.

My guilt is his, his grace is mine. I see my sins on my right.

Here's the deep mirror of countless sins that I have.

He's I know, and thousands more. Behold my

God, he knows I'm so brave.

I stand, dressed in beauty, not my own.

Then Lord shall I fully know. Not in that day how much

I owe. Sing this chorus. Praise the

Lord, my soul. Praise the Lord, now and for the rest.

Christ is all my righteousness. Praise the

Lord, his mercy is more.

Stronger than darkness, new every morn.

Our sins ain't our many, his mercy is more.

Passions all knowing, he counts not their sum.

Thrown into the sea without a bottom or shore.

Our sins ain't our many, his mercy is more.

Praise the Lord, his mercy is more.

Our sins ain't our many, his mercy is more. Father so tender, he's loving us all.

He welcomes the weakness, the vilest of all.

Our sins ain't our many, his mercy is more. Praise the

Lord, his mercy is more.

Our sins ain't our many, his mercy is more. Pitches of kindness he lavished on us.

His blood was a payment, his life was a cost.

We stood neither dead, we could never say how many.

His mercy is more. Praise the

Lord, his mercy is more.

Praise the Lord, now and for the rest.

Praise you God, isn't that true this morning? As we sing this next song, yet not

I but Christ in me. Just pay attention to the lyrics as we sing this. It may not just be a repeat of how we.

One gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer.

There is no one else to give.

He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom.

My steadfast love, my team and boundless peace.

To this I hold, my hope is only

Jesus. His love is wholly bound to me.

Oh, how strange and divine I can see.

His love, but I am not forsaken.

For by my side, the Savior, he will stay.

In weakness and rejoice, his power is displayed.

To this I hold, my shepherd will defend me.

Deepest valley, he will die, shall the future show.

The price it has been paid. For Jesus bled and suffered for my sin.

He was raised to walk on to follow

Jesus. For he has said that he will.

Until I stand with joy, the hope is only

Jesus. For to him, for to him.

Our passage of scripture this morning comes from Hebrews chapter 12. Starting in verse 7 that says,

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Besides this, we have earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respect them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them.

But he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.

But later it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained in it.

What an encouragement to know that we have a loving, gracious father that loves us so much that he will discipline us when we disobey.

When we start to all go astray at some point or another. He holds us firm in his grasp and he loses none of those that are truly his.

And we are able to go before the throne of grace and confess our sins.

And to have our hearts assured that Jesus Christ is the perfect mediator of a better covenant.

Amen. And so let's go to our Lord in a prayer corporately, praying on behalf of one another.

Oh God of grace, you have imputed our sin to our substitute. And you have imputed his righteousness to our souls, clothing us with a bridegroom's robe, decking us with the jewels of holiness.

But in our Christian walk, we are still in filthy rags. Our best prayers are stained with sin.

Our penitential tears have so much impurity. Our confessions of wrong are filled with so much aggravations of sin.

Our receiving of the spirit is tinctured with selfishness. We need to repent of our repentance.

We need our tears to be washed. We have no robe to cover our sins.

We have no loom to weave our own righteousness. We are always standing clothed in filthy garments.

But God, by your grace, we are always receiving a change of clothes. For the one who believes,

God, you will justify the ungodly. We are always going into the far country and always returning home as a prodigal son.

Always saying, Father, forgive us. And you always bring forth the best robe.

Every morning, let us wear this robe. Every evening, return in it. Go out into the day's work in it.

Be married in it. Be wound in death in it. To stand before the great white throne in it.

Entering heaven in it as shining bright as the sun. God, grant us to feel you in the fire, in the food, in every providence.

And to see that your many gifts and creatures are but your hands and fingers taking hold of us.

You're a bottomless fountain of all that is good. We give ourselves to you out of love. For all we have or own is yours.

Our goods, our family, church, self. To do what you will.

Please, God, honor our lives with your will. Conform our image more into the image of your son.

And if it be consistent with your eternal counsels, the purpose of your grace, and the great ends of your glory, please bestow upon us the blessing of your comforts.

And God, if not, let us resign ourselves to your wiser determinations.

Amen. Like me.

Once was lost, but now. Was blind, but now.

It was grace. It was grace that taught my heart to fear.

My fears relieved. Ashes did.

Let the hours be light.

My chains are gone. I've been set free.

My God, my Savior, has ransomed me.

In lack of mercy, he brings unending love.

Amazing grace. Has promise.

Mercy brings unending love. Amazing grace.

The earth shall soon dissolve. The sun forbear will be.

Thank you so much for this worship service that we've had so far, Lord. As we prepare to continue in preaching and continue in this worship,

Lord, just thank you for these beautiful songs that we've sang, Lord. They're not just words on a screen or words on paper,

Lord. They're truths. They're powerful truths. Just pray this morning,

Lord, as we take up this offering this morning, Father. Lord, I pray that you would bless it. Lord, we love you.

Lord, we praise you. We ask you all these things in your precious name, in Jesus' name, and all of God's people's sin.

Good morning. Well, we're in the seventh sermon of the seven -part series, and I want to take just a minute to thank the church, to thank

Pastor Jeremiah, Pastor Nathan, for giving me the privilege of coming before you and bringing this series.

I can't tell you how much it's meant to me, how much I've grown by it. Actually, I've preached more sermons in this series than I have before, so it's really given me an opportunity to not only get deep into God's word, but to also, for a better word, refine the craft of preaching, the whole thing, from preparation to prayer to whittling it down.

That's one of the biggest things I learned, is how to make it actually shorter to get rid of the fluff.

I'm one that wants to put everything I find in there that I like, but I like that, so that's been a great thing.

But still, to be able to bring you God's truth of who his son really is has been really a privilege, so I thank you.

Like I said, this is the final series in the Who Do You Say That I Am? We've been going through the seven great

I Am statements of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John, and today we're going to be talking about when he says,

I am the true vine. This week, Jesus continues to pour truth into the apostles in the upper room discourse.

Less than 24 hours, he will leave them and go to the cross. He's trying to prepare them for how they will carry on without him, and he tells them a very important truth.

You will still be attached to me, and that's what we're going to be talking about today.

If you'd like to go ahead and turn to chapter 15, that's where we'll be starting today.

I do want to bring it into just a little bit of context, because if you read my note that I sent out, there's a very important truth that Jesus gives them from when he said,

I am the way, the truth, and the life, to where he gives this statement, I am the true vine.

And this is something that is critical. It's not only going to be critical to the apostles when they go forward to spread the gospel, but it's also critical in our lives.

And it's found in John 14, verse 16. He says,

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

I mean, how critically important this is, especially when you think about how several of the apostles wrote the gospels and then other epistles and stuff.

And this speaks, this is the Holy Spirit prompting them, bringing to remembrance everything that Jesus said to them.

And it's going to tie in to what we're saying today about Jesus being the true vine and some of the other things that he said.

So let us pray. Father, we're just so thankful of your many promises, guarantees that you give us for our lives, how we can continue in our lives, even though you are not with us physically, that you've given us the

Holy Spirit, that you're in us and that we are in you. Father, guide us, direct us, sanctify us more so that we can also be witnesses to the truth of the

Son of Jesus Christ. I pray. Amen. Well, in the section that we're in today,

John 15, 1 through 8, I'm going to read it. It says, actually it's 1 through 6, sorry.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit

He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned.

Now, most scholars will call this an extended metaphor, and I'm not an English student, so I'm just going to go along with them, and that's what

I'm going to say. We know it's not a parable, and it's not really an allegory because it doesn't tell the whole story like, you know, the sheep and the shepherd and the door.

So, that's what I'm going to call it, but regardless, there's four main players here that we see in this extended metaphor.

We see the true vine, and Jesus tells us right off that he is the true vine. We see the vine dresser.

He also tells us that that's the father, but then we see the branches that bear fruit, and that's the apostles, the remaining apostles, and then we see the branches that do not bear fruit, and that's represented by Judas, the one that betrayed them.

So, when Jesus says, I am the true vine, he is, of course, speaking of the grapevine, and all in Israel were very familiar with grapevines because this has great imagery and symbolism to the people of Israel.

That was actually their national symbol was the grapevine. On the front of the temple, it is told that there's a huge golden grapevine.

That's how important that was to them. They were the vine and the father's vineyard.

In Exodus 15, 17, it speaks of this. It says, You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place,

O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.

So, the imagery here is the Lord bringing them out of Egypt and planting them on the side of a mountain,

Mount Zion. However, the sad part is that in many of the verses in the

Old Testament that speak of the vine, it's speaking of Israel's apostasy, their rebellion, and their outright refusal and rejection of God and his word.

And there's many such verses like that. Jeremiah 2, 21 says, Yet I planted you a choice vine.

He's speaking of the chosen people, the people that he chose, that he brought out, that he planted and nourished himself.

And he goes on to say, Holy of pure seed. That they were to be a pure race.

They were to be kept separate. An example to the Gentile nations. He goes on to say,

How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? That's pretty strict.

That's pretty bad when he says that. And he's speaking of their rejection of God. He's speaking of their rejection of his loving care of his precious vine.

They had become an empty, a fruitless, a wild vine. No wonder the care of the vinedresser, their father in heaven.

So this brings us to the first part, and that is the true vine, Jesus Christ.

Now notice that Jesus Christ says, he doesn't say, I'm just the vine. He says the true vine.

And this isn't necessarily something that's opposite of the false vine, even though it does speak of that.

But he's being, he's referring to being the perfect vine. The essential vine. The genuine vine.

The enduring vine. The real vine that God had put in place before the beginning of the world to step into the world and to bring to salvation.

He's standing among the ruins of Judaism. And he's stating, I am the true vine. Don't be worried about the false vine.

I am the true vine. He is claiming that God has not failed.

That he has sent the true vine. Israel was a failed vine that foreshadowed the true vine.

They were the type of the true vine. And Jesus comes and in reality, he is the vine.

And it tells us this, Jesus spoke of this in a parable in Luke. If you would, go ahead and turn to Luke 20.

I'd like you to see the imagery here and exactly what he is saying. Now keep your finger in where we're at in John because we'll go back to that.

But this is a parable where he explains what has happened with Israel. And it's very explicit.

Okay, he starts out by saying, and this is John telling us that Jesus is talking. It says,

He began to tell the people this parable. A man planted, and that's

God the Father who he's talking about. He planted a vineyard and led it or rented it out to tenants.

Of course, these tenants as we'll see, these are the religious leaders, the false religious leaders of Israel.

They're actually evil tenants and went into another country for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant.

This is a prophet. He sent a prophet to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.

But the tenants beat him, sent him away empty -handed. And he sent another servant, but they also beat and treated him shamefully, sent him away empty -handed.

And he sent yet a third. So he's sending more and more prophets to him.

But this one also they wounded and cast out. Then the owner of the vineyard said,

What shall I do? He says, I will send my beloved son. I don't think

I need to tell you who that is. Of course, that's Jesus Christ. Perhaps they will respect him, he says.

But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, This is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.

Do you see that? The imagery here, let us kill the son so that the inheritance may be our inheritance.

And that goes right back to, you remember when Lazarus was raised from the dead. Some of the

Jews believed in Jesus Christ. And some of them ran back to Jerusalem. And the

Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. And what did they say? If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him.

And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.

The Romans will come away and take away our inheritance. This is what they were saying.

What is rightfully ours, what we have earned, what we should get. I think the imagery is just striking here.

In 15, it goes on to say, And they threw him out of the vineyard, and they killed him.

Just like Jesus Christ. They threw him out of the vineyard, they banished him from earth, and they killed him.

So it goes on and he asks the questions, What then will the owner do of the vineyard do to them?

And he goes on to say, He will come, destroy those tenants, and give the vineyards to the others.

He will destroy what they have. And that's what he did. When they heard this they said,

Surely not. But he looked directly at them and said, What then is this that is written?

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Jesus is the cornerstone.

Jesus is the true vine that the Father has sent. And this brings us to the second section,

The Vinedresser, which is God the Father. In verse 1, I am the true vine, that's

Jesus talking, and my Father is the Vinedresser. And what Jesus is explaining to us here is the importance of the

Father's work on earth. The Father is at work on earth. He is the one that will send the

Holy Spirit, we're told. He provides everything that we need and oversees everything in our spiritual life, in our spiritual growth.

He is the Vinedresser that takes care of the vineyard. And he tells us that God the

Father is responsible for our growth, our sanctification. All the

Father's care for them is because of His love for the Son and all of those that are attached to the vine.

The Father prunes, we'll be told later. And He waters. He inspects.

He prunes some more if it's needed. He weeds and He harvests the fruit.

All for His love of His Son. Now in verse 2, it says,

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit,

He prunes that it may bear more fruit. So we see two types of branches here.

The first does not bear fruit. And it doesn't say a word about God pruning those.

And then there's the branches that do bear fruit. And that is the branches that the

Father prunes. And it tells us it will bear more. So in verse 2a, we have the next section we're going to talk about.

And this is the fruitless branches. Those branches that do not bear fruit. And this is resembled by Judas Iscariot.

And this is a section of the metaphor that most people disagree with. Or they'll use it to claim something that is not true.

Because it seems to be that these branches that it's talking about here that does not bear fruit is attached to the vine.

And they will use this verse to say, Oh, we can lose our salvation. We were attached, but now they're not attached anymore.

But, of course, that's not what it says here. That's not the context. If they would just look closely at the words that Jesus Christ uses in this metaphor, they would realize that.

In verse 6, Jesus clearly says, it's the branches in this group do not abide in him.

In verse 6, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers.

And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and they are burned. It's clearly stating here that these branches were never actually a part of him.

And this phrase describes those who outwardly attach themselves to Jesus Christ.

They are only in close association with the Son of God. And we see these fruitless branches throughout scriptures, and they're called many things.

They're called the tares among the wheat. They're called the fish that are thrown away. They're the foolish virgins that were shut out of the wedding feast.

And one of the most stark realities of all, they're the goats that will be separated from the sheep in the last days.

And even John speaks of these again in his first epistles. The first epistle, 219, when he says, they went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

They went out from them for a reason, because the vine dresser took them away. Exactly what it says.

They will be gathered up. And in the upper room was a perfect example of this fruitless branch.

Right before them, a false branch. One that was attached to Jesus Christ, but one that withers.

Is taken away. Thrown into the fire and burned. And of course, this was Judas. I mean, outwardly

Judas was indistinguishable from the other apostles. If you remember, they asked

Jesus who it was when he said one would betray them. They didn't have a clue who he was.

They had to ask. This was one that walked with them all the time. Walked with Jesus, heard his words.

And it was apparent that he was one of them. But he wasn't. He was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

It was a branch that did not bear fruit. And there's a reason these branches don't bear fruit.

It's because they can't bear fruit. All they can do is rob energy from the vine.

From the plant. All they can do is rob energy from the other branches that do bear fruit.

They're symbols of false believers. They're symbols of church goers. They're symbols of some church members.

I mean, they don't really know Christ, is what he's saying. Because they don't abide in Christ. They're entirely superficial.

They put on a show. They act like Christians. But they're actually not.

Because if they were Christians, God would prune them, we're told. So this brings us to the profound truth.

And this is hard. This is a hard truth. This is just as hard as Jesus saying, no one can come to me unless the

Father draws him. It's difficult. If you are a Christian, you will bear fruit.

Okay? If you are a Christian, you will bear fruit and you will be pruned.

We'll see that in just a minute. The inverse is, if you do not bear fruit and you don't abide in Jesus Christ, you're not a

Christian. It plainly tells us that in this verse. You will be counted among the goats and not the sheep.

Let's look at verse 6 because it tells us what's done with the ones that the vine dresser takes away.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers.

The branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and they are burned. And what

Jesus is doing, he's trying to give them an understanding of what has happened to Judas and what will happen to Judas.

He explains to them, if you do not bear fruit, if you do not abide in me, there's five things that are going to happen.

You are going to be thrown away, you're going to dry up and you're going to wither, you're going to be gathered up with all the other fruitless branches, you're going to be thrown in the fire, and you're going to be burned.

It's not hard to imagine what Jesus is saying here. We all know it if you've read

Scripture. He's talking about the final judgment. I mean he states exactly, almost exactly the same thing in Matthew chapter 13.

In verses 49 and 50. Listen, it sounds almost exactly alike. So it will be at the end of the age.

The angels will come out and they will separate the evil from the righteous.

We'll gather them up, is what they're doing, and throw them into the fiery furnace.

They will be thrown into the fiery furnace, and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

What a sad outcome. We've got to understand, and we've seen it, we've experienced it,

I've experienced it before, that wherever God's people are gathered together there will always be the wheat and the tares.

There will be those that know the Lord and those that know about the Lord. There will be those that are in Jesus Christ and those who just walk with Jesus Christ.

And we saw this after we talked about Jesus being the light of the world. When He started telling us about these doctrines of grace, started telling the disciples and it said a lot of them at the end said oh this is a hard saying, and they turned away and walked with Him no more.

These were dead branches that were being taken away. So we've seen the true vine, the vine dresser, the fruitless branches, and now we're going to see the branches that bear fruit, and that is the true apostles that were with Jesus Christ.

Starting in verse 2. Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is he that is bears much fruit.

From apart from me you can do nothing. And it's playing from this entire section of scripture here.

The true marks of a Christian is you will bear fruit. It's our evidence.

It's the work of our lives. It's the outpouring of our faith. It is the fruit and that is the evidence of our salvation.

On the sermon of the mount what did Jesus say? You will recognize them by what?

Your fruit. Their fruit. You will recognize them by their fruit.

Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes? Are figs from thistles? He's plainly saying people that are not saved do not have spiritual life and our spiritual dead will not bear fruit.

They cannot bear fruit. And this brings us a question. What is the result of this pruning that he's talking about?

Every branch that does bear fruit he will prune. Well we see it here. You will bear more fruit.

It's the law of multiplication that he's telling us here. But that's not all. If you'll look down in verse 8 it says by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit.

And there's the law of multiplication. You go from fruit God prunes you. You go to more fruit.

He prunes you again and you abide in him and you go to much fruit. All because of the caring loving work of God the father in our lives.

So I have a question for you. Which branches do you think the vine dresser spends the most time pruning?

Well I can tell you it's not the branches that have the least potential for production.

It's the branches that have the highest potential to bear much fruit and even more much fruit.

It's the ones that can be most productive. Have you felt the cutting edge of the pruning shears are the pruning knife in your life?

Maybe even repeatedly. Maybe he's pruned you and then he comes back and he does it again and he does it again.

This will tell you something. It's because he sees the potential in your life to produce much fruit.

But before that can happen just like we said. We're talking about pruning here.

And pruning can be painful. We all know this. Those that have been pruned.

It's painful. He uses sharp instruments to do it with and I brought one with me today.

These are my pruning shears. They're parafalcos. I've got some grape vines and a bunch of other stuff that I use these on.

They're very sharp. Unfortunately I found out the hard way. When my finger gets in the way of the branch

I'm trying to prune. I've nipped the end of it before. And it can hurt. But this here is for small branches.

The ones that aren't very tough. Maybe they're branches that they've been real stubborn in their lives.

And they haven't pruned just a whole lot of fruit. Maybe they have pet sins.

Maybe they're hard hearted. This is what he uses for that. And it hurts doesn't it?

This is what God does. There's the old saying that says God has taken me behind the woodshed several times.

That's what he's doing to you. He's pruning. Well like I said there's a purpose.

There's an object in this pruning. He's removing anything from your life that can drain your spiritual energy.

That can hinder your spiritual growth. And that's what he's trying to do is to get you to grow.

To move on in your sanctification. It involves cutting away anything that's limiting your sanctification in your life.

That's what he's doing. It includes discipline. And that's hard.

It's hard to fathom discipline in our lives from the Lord. That includes trials.

That includes suffering. It includes persecution. We read this verse today. This process is in Hebrews 12, 7 through 11.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom the father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, you are then illegitimate children and not sons.

He disciplines us for our own good that we may share in his holiness.

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. But later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

More fruit. Much fruit to those who have been trained by it.

Here we see it. He prunes us because of the love that he has for us.

Because we're his sons, it tells us. So that we can be holy. More righteous.

Separated from sin of this world. So that we can be conformed into the image of his son.

So that he can mold you into what he has created you for.

This might be to have a more effective ministry. It might be to be a humble servant.

It might be to have less selfish desires in your life.

And the list goes on. I could go on and on. What is his will for your life?

That's what he's pruning you for. And in verse 8 it says, By this, my father is glorified, that you may bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

Evidence that you are Christians following Jesus Christ. Now I want us to look back at verse 3 for just a minute.

It says, and I'm going to start in 2. Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

And he throws this statement in there, and there's a reason. Already you are clean because of the word

I have spoken to you. And some might go, it's kind of like a parenthetical statement that he put in there.

What is he really meaning here? But what he's telling them is they are already clean because of his word.

He's talking about salvation here. He's saying you are already saved. And he's doing this for two purposes.

One is he wants them to understand that God does not prune you into salvation. That's not what he's doing.

He's pruning them so they can go for more fruit. They already have fruit. I mean, fruit for fruit to more fruit to much fruit.

And that's one of the things he's saying. And we saw this in Titus 3, 5 talking about this already clean.

It says he saved us. Not because of the works done by us in righteousness according to his own mercy.

By the washing of regeneration, the renewal of the Holy Spirit. That's how we're clean.

The washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit. But he's also telling them this for another reason because right after this verse he starts talking about abiding in me.

He wants them to understand you are already saved. Now you are saved.

Abide in me. So there's several reasons why he puts this in there. So I want to go back to pruning for just a minute before we move on.

In Psalm 119 David talks about this. It's in verse 67 and 71.

He says before I was afflicted what's he saying is before I was pruned

I went astray but now I keep your word. It was good for me that I was afflicted.

He's admitting. It was good for me that you pruned me Lord that I might learn your statutes.

See David here is admitting that he has gone astray. His spiritual growth was being hindered and then he was afflicted.

God pruned him and he learned the truth of God's word. He learned how to apply

God's word to his life because of God's pruning. He produced more fruit and much fruit.

So what is keeping you from resting in God's word? What is keeping you from being in fellowship with God's people?

From obeying God's precepts? From praying to your Lord and Savior? From attending and serving in your church?

From supporting your church? What is pulling you away from fulfilling

God's will and design for you? As a father as a husband as a wife as a mother as a daughter or as a son what is

God going to have to prune out of your life to get you to fulfill his will and his design for you?

And I think the biggest question is how much pruning is it going to take? We all go through pruning because he loves us.

So this brings us to the section where we're going to talk about the imperative that he gives us.

Abide in me. After Jesus tells us our standing we're already clean.

And that we do it because of the word that Jesus has spoken to us. He tells us to abide in me.

Abide in Christ. And he goes to say in verse 4, Abide in me and I in you as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine.

Neither can you unless you abide in me. We have this wonderful phrase here.

Abide in me. But this isn't the same phrase and some people get mixed up here too.

It's not the same phrase as the Pauline statement when he uses in Christ or in him.

This is different and we just talked about when Paul says you are in Christ he's talking about your salvation.

That you are in Christ. You have accepted Christ. Christ is in your life. But now

Jesus is telling you, you are in me. You are clean. Now I'm giving you the imperative verb to abide in me.

Being in Christ is the cause and the effect is abiding in Christ.

Once we're a Christian once we have this new creation in us we are commanded to abide in Christ.

Now this word abide means to stay, to remain, to reside. So do you see it?

You already have to be somewhere to stay or to remain or to reside in it.

We're already in Christ. But now he's saying stay in me. Live your life like you're in me.

Abide in me. It implores us to do so many things. To have vigilance.

To be in God's word. To fellowship with God's people. To derive the sustenance of our life not from the world but from Jesus Christ himself.

I mean Paul summed it up in four great words. To live is

Christ. That's what Paul is telling us. He is living for Christ.

He is abiding in Christ. And then in verse 5 we have this wonderful promise from Jesus.

I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me you can do nothing. This is one of the ways along with pruning that we can bear much fruit by abiding in Jesus Christ.

But it says here, from apart from me you can do nothing. And this nothing is anything that is good in the eyes of God.

It is spiritual works. Nothing is anything that is not spiritual.

God will not accept it. It will not be pleasing to him. You have to abide, you have to be in Christ, abide in Christ and produce fruit, do spiritual works to be pleasing from God.

Apart from Christ no one can produce spiritual fruit. And the reason is they are spiritually dead.

Something that is dead like the vines that wither and dry up cannot produce fruit. Now the psalmist tells us, and I love this section of Psalms.

He tells us of those who abide in Christ. And this is Psalm 92 verse 13 through 15.

It says those that be planted in the house of the Lord, those that abide in Christ shall flourish in the courts of their

God. They shall bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing.

They declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him.

That's what he's stating. That's a wonderful picture of a plant being planted in Christ and growing and flourishing in the courts of their

God. That's what Jesus wants us to do, to flourish in his courts.

Bring forth fruit and old age. They shall be fat and flourishing.

Now the opposite of that is those that don't seem to be planted in the house of the Lord. It's not saying about being saved, but they complain because, well, they feel empty.

They feel like they've been kind of separated from God. That they don't have the relationship that they once had.

And the problem is they don't trace it back to their source.

They don't trace it back to the correct source. And that's the scarcity of their communion or their abiding in Christ.

The psalmist tells us be planted in the house of the Lord and you will flourish in his courts.

In the section of scripture that we've been talking about today where Jesus tells us I am the true vine.

Jesus has told his apostles and has told us four very important things.

Four very important results of being in Christ. One is we have the presence of the

Holy Spirit in us. The other is we are permanently attached to the vine.

We are permanently attached to Jesus Christ. The third is even though it can be painful, he will prune us.

So we can bear much fruit. And it's because of his divine love for us.

And the fourth is what Martin Lloyd Jones calls our personal responsibility. We can now abide in him.

Now through these things, through the help of the triune God, the apostles will go forth after Jesus' crucifixion and they will spark a flame that will spread to the ends of the earth.

We can do the same thing. We can do the same thing.

We can spark a flame that will go through generations of our family. We can spark a flame that will spread through our church, through our friendships, through our community.

God has a purpose in your life. If you follow these four things, he will make it happen.

Now seven weeks ago, I stood before you right at the very first. It's even the title of the series and I asked you the question that Jesus asked of his apostles, who do you say that I am?

And I asked if you could answer that question. And since then we've seen a lot of things.

We've seen that the spiritual nourishment that Jesus came to bring is based on the triune

God's love for us. His eternal love. And if we feast on him, we will be filled to overflowing and have life more abundantly.

That's because he is the bread, the true bread of life. We've seen that not only is

Jesus God, but he is the righteousness of God. He leads us out of darkness of this world into the light of salvation.

And in doing so, we receive his righteousness and we reflect his light.

Because he is the light of the world. We've seen that Jesus Christ is the only truth in a world of false religions.

He enters in through the door because of obedience to his father. And he becomes the only door to the father.

He has told us that he is the door. We've seen that Jesus Christ knows us by name.

And he calls us by name. And we're told that his father gave him his flock, who the saved, the elect, are part of in eternity past.

And Jesus alone will lay down his life for his sheep. He is the good shepherd.

We've seen that Jesus Christ shares all the attributes of his father because he is God bodily.

Jesus Christ alone has resurrection power over spiritual life and physical life.

He has conquered death in both realms because he is the resurrection and the life.

Jesus Christ has shown us that it was his atoning work on the cross that brings us into the presence of the father.

That he is the revelation of God that points to the father. And that through regeneration we have eternal life with the father.

And that is because he is the way, the truth, and the life. And lastly he has shown us that even though he is not with us bodily, we are still with him.

We are still permanently attached to him because he is in us and we are in him.

He is the true vine in our life. So through these seven weeks can you now answer this question truthfully?

Who do you say that I am? Well if there's any doubt, let's let scripture tell us who

Jesus Christ is. If you would turn to Matthew 16. We'll be starting in verse 13.

Matthew 16 starting in verse 13. This is Jesus speaking to his apostles.

He says, who do the people say the son of man is? He's asking them. And they said to him, some say

John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah are one of the prophets.

And then he asked them blankly. He said to them, but who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him and said, blessed are you Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.

Do you see it? Do you see the answer? It's right there on the page in front of us.

It's not merely the words. It's not merely the words that were spoken,

Christ the son of the living God. See, anybody can know the words. I knew the words and I said the words when

I was 15 years old and it accounted for nothing. It meant nothing in my life.

Nothing changed in my life just because I said these words. It was basically worthless.

It's the rest of the verse here that's the key to the answer. Do you get it?

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.

That is the key to the answer. No matter what answer you state, no matter what you say, it is only correct if the father in heaven has revealed it to you.

That's what we've been talking about in all seven weeks of this. Peter had accepted and understood the testimony of God concerning his son

Jesus Christ. That is the only way that he knew the correct answer and that's exactly what

Jesus said to him. Peter had faith. It was in here.

His heart had been changed. He knew the answer because it lived in him and he believed in it.

He knew it and he said it. He spoke the words because it was revealed to him.

That is where we find the correct answer to the question. If all would please stand.

Everybody please stand. Sometimes we will have a song of reflection and we're going to have that today.

When I get through praying, we will sing this song. Please pray with me.

Oh Lord God, Heavenly Father, we come before your mighty throne. We are clothed in your righteousness because of the sacrificial work of your son

Jesus Christ. We stand in awe of you. Not only because of the love you have for us, but how you continually display that love in our lives.

Strengthen us Father so that we may not only boldly but with confidence proclaim the greatness of your son's name

Jesus Christ. Let our lives be an example of what you have done in us through your grace and mercy.

May our voices continually sing of your praises, of your magnificence, so all the world may know who you are.