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 Five 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 Five 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 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.

Let's all sing this song together. This is a new one. I defeat the gospel, bring all the sins that I have done.

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.

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.

O 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. ... ... ... ...

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. And 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 -8, I'm going to read it.

It says, actually it's 1 -6, sorry. I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. 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 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 vine dresser 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 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 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. 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 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 and 15 it goes on to say and then 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 corner stone.

Jesus is the corner stone. Jesus is the true vine that the father has sent. And this brings us to the second section the vine dresser which is God the father and verse one. I am the true vine. That's Jesus talking.

And my father is the vine dresser. 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 vine dresser 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 will 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 two 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 tears 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 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 a 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're 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 will 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 our grapes gathered from thorn bushes our 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. And have you felt the cutting edge of the pruning shears or 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 is 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 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 more selfish more less 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 gonna 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. This is kind of like a parenthetical statement that he put in there. What is he really meaning here. 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.