John 15:4-11 part 1 Theme: New Covenant Branches

If you will, at this time, take your copy of the scriptures.

I might be a little too loud.

Take your copy of the scriptures and please turn with me to John chapter 15. John chapter 15. We will consider verses four through 11. John chapter 15, verses four through 11.

Let me open this up in prayer.

A glorious God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for we gather together to hear from you through the words of Holy Scripture. For to hear John's account of Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. For to hear from the Apostle's mouth himself, not from me, for please remove me, but allow me to, by the power of your spirit, to explain this text and feed your people, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, through your spirit.

Amen.

Bless him, Lord.

So we're back in this wonderful and glorious text, right? We took a two-week break from John and now we're back in it today. And well, today I wanna begin where I left off a few weeks ago, and that is to begin with our Venn diagram.

So if you will look on the back of your bulletin, you will see there a Venn diagram.

And in this Venn diagram,.

We see how a person can be in Christ and not in Christ. So you can be in Christ, but not truly.

In the way that this text is explained.

And the way that the Bible explains to us.

What it means to be in Christ.

And the clearest picture of this that we have seen in the Gospel of John has to do with Judas Iscariot. Judas was a physical descendant of Abraham of the tribe of Judah, who within hours of Jesus speaking, here in chapter 15, had left to betray him.

A follower of Jesus Christ had left to betray him, and we will see later on, months down the road, I mean later on, right? And he betrays him with a kiss. One of the most intimate ways that we've ever seen betrayal done is found in Scripture.

Judas was not only an Israelite under the old covenant, but he was a disciple of Jesus. He was a follower, he was chosen by Jesus.

And as I was walking through this, I mentioned, do we have any followers of Jesus up in here?

Right?

Or do we have any disciples of Jesus up in here? So you can be a disciple of Jesus and not be a Christian.

You can be a follower of Jesus and not be a Christian. However, you cannot be a Christian without being those two things, a disciple, someone who learns from Christ, and a follower, someone who follows after Christ.

So let's not get it twisted up in here, right? We're Baptists from the Protestant Reformation, so we were born Baptists, and we believe that when someone is truly born again, when they're a Christian, they cannot lose that salvation they have been given.

Eternal life is just that, eternal, right? It's not something that you get for a moment.

Until you screw up.

It's something that you're given, and you have for eternity.

So we see this in three stages, right?

So right now, Evan, I believe in Christ, positionally righteous before God. I have right now eternal life, and yet I'm going to die. But the Bible tells us in John chapter five.

That when I die, I will escape the judgment.

And enter into life.

Thank you, Lord.

My spirit will be in a better place, the place of heaven, the place where the Father and Christ dwells, and that, too, is eternal life.

And yet, there's something else that I will experience.

In the future, and it is when that spirit.

Is reunited back with my body.

In the resurrection of the dead, and therefore will be the final result of eternal life. But yet, right now, if you're in Christ truly, you can say that you have eternal life. Basically, dying is just like, you know,.

Leaving this shell.

I've heard it said going to a better neighborhood, but maybe from the trail of bark to Brentwood, right? I don't know. I haven't been there, right?

I don't know. I just know it's gonna be grander than this. You know, so this eternal life that I'm experiencing.

Right now, it's great because I have Christ in my life,.

But I'm still suffering with things.

I don't say physical pain. Like this, for the last two weeks, I've been struggling with a sinus infection. So, you know, if I need to spit or something, please forgive me. I should've brought like a cup up here.

I didn't wanna go shell out.

But I'm struggling right now, all right? In this portion of eternal life, I'm struggling.

But there's coming a day, right?

Hallelujah?

There's coming, concerning Jesus, because he was a branch that was in Jesus that was taken away in the inauguration of the new covenant was when, well, excuse me,.

The inauguration of the new covenant was the sentence. And it was the knife used by God to remove Judas as a branch from the true vine, which is Jesus Christ. We talk about the inauguration of the new covenant, we believe that the kingdom of God is right now, that when Christ came, he ushered in the kingdom of God, that he inaugurated that kingdom.

And the new covenant is basically just the covenant.

That governs the kingdom of God. And yet this kingdom of God is not fully here yet. I'm able to meet, once again, Pastor Cal's brother and his lovely wife, and they have this newborn baby. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the name is Millennial Reign, right?

Right now, we are in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

That's what we're in right now,.

Because when he first came, he inaugurated the kingdom.

When he comes again, he's going to consummate that kingdom.

So right now, we're in this kingdom of God,.

In this new covenant, it governs that kingdom.

And when Christ inaugurated that kingdom,.

He inaugurated the new covenant that governs the kingdom.

When that happened, all those in the old covenant that were not looking to Jesus Christ, from the vine, get this Venn diagram. I got a bigger copy up here, right? We see in this Venn diagram, it represents three headings, or three sections.

If you have the old covenant, the new covenant,.

And the visible church membership.

And notice how you can be in the old covenant, right?

As a physical seat of Abraham, or across the line.

But you can also, in that old covenant,.

Be a part of the new covenant. Just like you, if you look over in the visible church membership, we have Gentiles and physical seat of Abraham. So Jews today, right, the ethnic Jew today, and they can be a part of a church, and that they can be in Christ in the new covenant.

However, but they can also be in those, you can also today be a member of a church.

And not be in Christ.

To be in Christ means that you have experienced the new birth, you're in the new covenant, the true vine, the olive tree, you're a descendant of Abraham, spiritually,.

We'll get into that a little bit in a minute,.

And you're in the kingdom of God. But you can be in these two things.

Without ever experiencing the new birth.

Meaning you're not in the kingdom of God,.

You're not governed by the new covenant,.

You're not truly a part of the true vine, you're not truly a part of the olive tree, and listen to me, you're not a descendant of Abraham.

What we see here is that a person can be.

In the old covenant and get saved through the new covenant.

By looking forward to the seat, right? In order, you can be in the old covenant, you have these promises of the Messiah coming. There were promises given. And the way that you can be in the old covenant.

And save through the new covenant. Is that as you're hearing these promises,.

As you're hearing these promises of the Messiah, you believe in them, you're looking to them, you're trusting in these things.

That are going to be reality one day.

My dear friend, like Abraham, if you were looking to these things, even though you were a part of the old covenant,.

Christ has not come yet,.

You are saved by the blood of Jesus and you enter into the new covenant when it was inaugurated.

And in the same way, someone can be.

In the Visible Church membership and be saved by looking back at that promise. Hindsight 2020, looking back at what took place. We have more information than Abraham had. Abraham was told that a seed would come from him who would keep the covenant, obey the law,.

And inherit the land. And then that would bless the nation.

We're looking back at the Christ who hung on the tree, who kept the covenant, who received the world, and blesses the nations through the preaching of the gospel.

And we've seen that here in this church. Recently, we've had members of this church who thought that they were truly Christian,.

But under the preaching of the gospel,.

Realized that their profession was false and then they were born again.

And they brought that to our attention.

And we baptized them as believers in Jesus Christ.

Because we're baptized, right? We've seen them here, we've seen God do things here.

And however, one can also be in the old covenant.

And be attached to the true bond.

By way of their ethnicity and not be saved and therefore removed from the bond.

Again, in the same way, a person can be.

In the Visible Church membership by way of a profession, and not be saved and therefore be removed from the bond.

It is to be connected without a connection. You can be connected.

Plug something in, whether it's a microwave,.

A TV or something, whatever it may be. It happens to me with phone charging, right? I put my phone charge in, stick it in,.

And like an hour, I'm thinking,.

Okay, finally, my phone is charged and I go to look at it, and it's still dead. I plugged it in, but it wasn't really plugged in.

There wasn't a connection.

That's what church membership can be for a lot of people. I think they're plugged in to Christ, but you're only a member of a church. My dear friends, there's gonna be.

A lot of church members in hell.

You can be connected without having the connection. Point being, someone could, from the old covenant, and excuse me, someone could have been in the old covenant, just like someone could have been a church member and not be a Christian.

They're just disciples of Jesus.

They're just followers of Jesus through the church. Now, as Baptists, we believe in what's called regenerate church membership. So Pastor Calvin and myself, we try to, and again, things can happen, right?

We try our best to make sure that those who apply for membership, that we welcome.

Into membership are Christians.

However, we have to accept people on their profession of faith. Like, I don't have any kind of superpower to root into someone's heart.

And know what they really believe.

And know that their transformation has taken place,.

Which is why this Venn diagram is true.

Just because someone is a member of a church doesn't mean they're in the new covenant.

Amen.

Only those who are truly regenerated, born again, are in what's called the invisible church membership. Romans 8, verse nine says this. You, speaking to Christians who are part of a church membership, you Christians, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

If, check your hearts, people, if, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ.

Does not belong to him.

There, if you do not have the spirit of Christ,.

Like your friends, it doesn't matter.

If you're a member of a church, you do not belong to Christ. To be in the new covenant is to belong to Christ, and those that belong to Christ have the Holy Spirit,.

They have the spirit of Christ,.

Which is the Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of God,.

And we can get on to some deity conversation here,.

But I digress, this is not what this message is about.

But a future, we'll put a pin right there, right? The new covenant is the covenant, again, that governs the kingdom of God, which no one can see, according to Jesus in John 3, they cannot see it or enter into it unless they're born again, unless God supernaturally grants to you repentance and faith to turn from your sins and to trust in Jesus Christ.

You cannot even see it.

Amen.

We're gonna be hearing today that, man, these Christians are weird, what are they talking about? You don't see it? I'm desired more than any, he gave me the ability.

To neither see it nor enter into it.

And I made a statement last week that was spoken about in our discord,.

And I might have said it a few times, right? Y 'all don't know me at all. And that is that God does not have a bride and a side chick.

Amen.

And here's why, if you look at that diagram, it holds truth. The bride of Christ are those.

That are in the new covenant, whether it's old covenant. Advent Jews.

Looking forward to the seed, which is Christ,.

Or it is those of us who are looking back at the fulfillment of that seed and what Christ has accomplished. Whether it's those in the old covenant looking forward or us looking back, those looking forward that believe in the promises of Jesus, that believe, y 'all, we are the bride of Christ.

The invisible church of old and new Testament is the bride of Christ.

That word Testament there, it just means covenant.

God has made Jew and Gentile one in Christ, the body of Christ, the church, the bride of Christ. And according to Ephesians chapter three, I would say it's coming off of 2 .11 onward, but according to Ephesians chapter three, that is the mystery of Christ hidden from all ages.

That God is going to take the Jew and the Gentile and make them one people in Christ. So who are God's chosen people? The churches, the Christians,.

It's those that believe in Jesus Christ.

Other people, I don't know, other friends and Christians,.

I don't get up here with any boast.

I am a child of God. I am God, I am someone whom God has chosen for the foundations of the world.

To be conformed to the image of his son.

Amen.

My friend, you are as well.

The people of God are those that believe in Jesus Christ. And if you do not believe in Jesus Christ, you are not the people. Friend of mine from Facebook,.

I asked for his permission to quote this.

Edwin Ramirez, I pray I'm saying his name correctly. He put this on Facebook, quote, in many ways, the visible church in our day is just like Israel of the old covenant. She wants a God in her own image and will do all she can to silence the mouth of God's prophets.

A lot of people, especially in the Bible, Bill, say they believe in God. And you have a conversation with them,.

My dear friends, it's not the God of the Bible.

Amen.

They don't know anything about God.

They don't know anything about Jesus. And they don't know the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

And yet we're supposed to receive them on the profession of their faith and they may God to be some magical gene that they can rub and comes out and grants three wishes. It's a figment of their imagination.

You want to know God, it's the God of the Bible.

There's only one.

He has made himself evident. Our theme for this Lord's Day is new covenant branches. And this will be a two-part message as of right now.

I could change next week.

But my proposition, this is what I aim to prove throughout this series, is that new covenant branches are not old covenant or visible church membership branches. We're different. We're not special, but we are attached.

We have that connection.

We're not just connected.

We have the connection to Jesus Christ.

If someone was in the old covenant only, meaning they were not looking to Christ, they were broken off when the new covenant came,.

Meaning that they were connected with us.

And in the same way, if you are only in the visible church membership, meaning you are not at this present moment.

Looking for Jesus Christ,.

You too will be broken off from the true God, which is Jesus.

And to that, I say, take heed to just repent.

Right now, repent. He's the only way for the Father.

He's the way, he's the truth, he is the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.

And then, join me as I read for you our text. John chapter 15, verses four through Jesus speaking. He says, abide in me, and I in ye, 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 to the fire and burned.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you,.

Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

By this, my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so fruit to be my disciple. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, abide in my love. If any, excuse me, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be with you, and that your joy may be full. In our outline today, we're going to see that Jesus tells us how to be branches that bear much fruit,.

And we see that it's through abiding in Jesus,.

Through proving we are his disciples,.

And through being joyful.

Point number one, and this is the only point we'll get to today.

So if you're like, oh, it's almost 25 minutes in, and you're just not getting to this point,.

This is the only point we're gonna get to today.

So rest assured. Abiding in Jesus.

Point number two, proving we are disciples of Jesus, and point number three, being joyful in Jesus,.

And we'll look at those two points next week.

But as we transition, I wanna begin by reading.

The context of verses one through three of our text,.

And I may mention that when interpreting this text, we go back to our first message of this. The direct interpretation, he is only speaking to ethnic Jews who are in the Old Covenant, amen? By way of application, he is speaking to church membership.

Direct interpretation, ethnic Jews. His physical descendants, the physical descendants.

Of Abraham, who every one of his disciples were.

I also wanna say that this word here, abiding,.

It just means to remain.

Verse one, again, Jesus begins with the I am statement. The text of Rematon, basically saying that he is God, and as God, he is the true vine. I am the true vine. My father is the vine dresser. Every branch that is in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

We'll stop right there for a minute.

Jesus and his disciples are in the upper room, teaching him, this is where he washes.

The feet of his disciples.

This is where they have the last Passover,.

And Judas leads to betray him.

At the end of this chapter 14, Jesus says these words. He says, rise, let us go from here. And in doing so, he says, let us go from this upper room, and their destination was the Garden of Gethsemane.

And on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane, again, this is something that we have to read into, because the text doesn't say these words, right? But he passes by the temple, and on the temple, Herod had carved out a vine, plated.

And as they're going to the Garden of Gethsemane, whichever route they took, maybe it was a long distance, I'm not sure, Jesus says these words, and I don't believe that he just coughs these words.

Up out of nowhere.

He says that he is the true vine. Israel was pronounced as a vine. Jesus says he is the true vine. He was the true Israel. And that his father is the vinedresser. He's the gardener. He's the one that's making sure that the vines, that the branches that are connected to the vine are grown.

And that every branch, right, O covenant church, we'll bring in application, church membership, that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes. This Greek word here for prunes is kathiro.

And it means, you can basically connect it with sanctification. It means to cleanse of filthy impurities, to cleanse of filthy impurities. If you go back to that text, it says that every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes.

He wants to kathiro. He wants to cleanse you of your filthy impurities.

That you may bear more fruit.

He says to them, already, so he's speaking to his disciples,.

Already you are clean.

And I want to say that this is talking about already you are born again. This word clean here is kathiros. I would say that this is talking about justification. The Greek here is, it basically points to a cleansing by pouring.

And I mentioned, I think the thing about.

Watering a plant.

And the Bible speaks about how some sow and some water. Right, so in the preaching of the gospel, we are sowing seed and we are watering plants.

Right, and the text tells us that it is God.

That gives the growth. It says, already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Again, in our justification, we are cleansed by the pouring of the word. And this takes place in the preaching of the gospel when we undergo the washing of regeneration.

Pauline Geneseo, right? This is where we get the word, born again. By the washing of our new birth. That is when we are justified, made right with God.

Amen.

And in our sanctification, we are cleansed from our filthy impurities,. Listen,.

Through the washing of the word.

Thank you, Lord.

And this takes place when we are under the preaching of God's word. Paul, in Ephesians chapter five, verses 25 through 27, calls it the washing of the word. He's speaking to husbands and wives and how they're supposed to treat one another.

And he compares the two with Christ and his church. The bride of Christ, the one people of God, Jew and Gentile. Verse 25 says, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. And now he's gonna get into the church.

And gave himself up for her.

Who did he give himself up for?

The church. That he, Christ, might sanctify her, speaking of the church, having cleansed her.

By the washing of the water with the word.

This washing this water here is not actually speaking about water. It's speaking about the word. That he might cleanse her, not by dipping her in water, but by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

In our sanctification, God is Romans and prairies. The Bible says without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Those that are branches, those that are truly in him, they are justified, they are being sanctified and through the sanctification process,.

He has grown us to the image of Christ.

Thank you, Lord.

So that we can see the Lord. We're saved to be saved. We're saved, being saved to be saved. We are justified. We're being sanctified in order to be glorified. But the bride of Christ is sanctified through the washing of the word, which takes place in which we speak about it as the primary, ordinary means of grace.

So for some of y 'all that might not know what that means, is we believe that God uses ordinary things.

To conform someone to the image of Jesus Christ.

He uses a ordinary person such as myself.

In the preaching of the gospel.

To grant you justification, to give you repentance and faith. He also uses ordinary people like myself in the preaching of the gospel to do extraordinary things. Right, so you have someone like myself.

Who stands up here behind the pulpit,.

Opens the book and explains to you these things.

And God's going to use this message today,.

I believe to transform you. This is what we call the primary, ordinary means of grace. Also a primary, ordinary means of grace is for those that have been baptized.

To partake in the Lord's supper.

That's why we have it every week.

We do not want to deprive the people of God of an ordinary means of grace that God is going to use to grow you and the Lord. My churches do not have this every week, I am back. This is something that God uses to take us from A to B, to take us from being, in our sanctification, right, that process, because sanctification is a process, but when you're justified, you now have to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

Well, how does he do this?

Through the ordinary means of grace.

He's sitting in the preaching of God's word.

And if you're baptized, you partake in the Lord's supper.

Also a means of grace is fellowship.

Amen.

Jay talks about, you know, he's been in churches that, you know, once the singing was over, once church service was over, it was like pulling a drain plug out of the tub. You know, you have that picture of the water.

That sucked up out of the system.

As soon as church service is over,.

People just head towards the door, see ya.

When fellowshiping with one another.

Is a primary means of grace,.

This is what God's going to use to grow us.

Not me, I didn't think of that.

God uses ordinary things to grow us and humble us. And so it's important for us.

To have fellowship with one another.

However, the pruning can also take place in discipline. And my dear friend, brother of the first in the life,.

Brother, you have to sit here.

And listen to someone like me, right?

I'm listening.

Help us, Lord.

Yeah.

Listen, there's days I'm like, whoa, man.

Listen to me.

Brother that, that God's strong hand. Trust me, I know that strong hand. I'm that hard-headed guy that had to have the strong hand.

And those of you that know me well would say,.

There's some days you shouldn't. Amen, brother.

I was talking about myself. If you're in the new covenant,.

The Father prunes you for the purpose of bearing the covenant. The snips and the knives of the Father covenant. The same snips and knives that grows us into the image of Jesus Christ. We see this in many of you when Jesus talks about.

The sower and the seed, that it's the word of God that actually calls.

In the leaves because of that.

The primary means of our sanctification takes place.

In our gathering together.

Christian, this means that your being here today.

Is extremely important.

It's extremely important. Now, point number one, abiding in Jesus Christ. Again, I said this, we're just gonna do one point. We see this in verses four through seven. Let's begin by reading verses four and five.

Jesus says, Abide in me and I in you, as the branches cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the true vine, 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. Now, I believe it was week two in this paragraph, which I think we're in week four of this paragraph,.

If I'm not mistaken.