Men, please return your seats and turn with me to John chapter 15. John chapter 15, and as you do so, Let me also acknowledge among the many visitors that we have this morning that have joined us to worship with us, two brothers that have come all the way from the U.S. that are joining us for the conference, but also they are with us in our midst this morning, and you are welcome. And they've come with a gift or a donation of legacy standard Bibles that will be given during the Reformed Conference. And for that, we are grateful. And also, I hope that you will be at the conference. At least, if you won't be there, the Bibles that remain, we will take care of them. Let's turn our Bibles to John chapter 15, and we'll simply read the first five verses. 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 a 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." We'll end our reading there. There was a video, a funny video that was circulating of an Indian lady who bought an iPad for her father. The video was in Hindu, but you didn't need to know Hindu to get the point. The young woman, as she visited the father, she asked the father whether he liked the new iPad. that she sent for his birthday. And the father replied, yeah, good, I like it. But then she watched him as he used the iPad to use it as a chopping board, chopping his vegetables, his fruits, and his tomatoes. She was horrified as she watched him rinse the iPad and throw it in the dishwasher. Now in reality, or in real life, it is no laughing matter. when you see something costly or something of value not being used in the manner it was intended for, or not being used for the purpose it was intended for, or even worse, being used for what it was not meant for. And the saddest of all is that when People who've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb fail to live their lives in a way in which God himself would like them to live. When they fail to live their lives for the purpose for which he saved them for. When Christians mellow through life as non-Christians, Chasing and accumulating the things of this world, hoping that by the accumulation of these things, they will be more happy as they journey through life. Never to stop for a moment what is it that God wants them to do. Never to stop for a moment to consider why God saved them from their sins and left them on earth and not simply took them out of this earth into eternity. And in our passage this morning, the Lord Jesus Christ gives the disciples this lengthy discussion, this lengthy metaphor that reveals God's purpose for them, that reveals God's purpose in saving them. And the summary of it all is that He wants those who are His disciples to bear fruit, and not just to bear fruit, but to bear much fruit. The Lord Jesus Christ pictures Himself as the true vine. and His Father as the vine dresser, and His disciples as the branches." And we must not forget the context. It goes back to chapter 13 and verse 1 when the Lord Jesus Christ said, now the time has come for me to depart. And when you read in chapter 13 and 14, we see the Lord Jesus Christ teaching His disciples, teaching us on what He was doing to maintain this union with them. He's preparing a place for them. He's maintaining Himself to them. He's manifesting Himself to them, to His disciples, and He's supplying everything they need. by the power of the Holy Spirit. In chapter 15, it is the other side of the truth. And the other side of the truth is what the Lord Jesus Christ wants His disciples to be and to do while He's away. and is that they will bear fruit. They will love one another, and they'll show the world that they belong to Him. In chapter 13 and 14, we see the fullness of divine grace. And in chapter 15, we see the responsibility of the believers to bear fruit. And so, as we go through this passage, the question that we need to ask is, are you bearing fruit for God? Because that's the point of this metaphor, this discussion that the Lord Jesus Christ gives, is that those who are connected to Him will bear fruit. As the vine, as the branches are connected to the vine, all those that are connected to Christ will bear fruit. And we see this in the seventh and the last I am statement in the Gospel of John. And the first thing we see from the onset is that Jesus Christ is a true vine. Jesus Christ is the true vine, and that's what the first half of verse 1 says. I am the true vine. And when you see This seventh statement, the I Am statement in the Gospel of John, the grammatical structure of this seventh statement, the I Am statement, is similar to the fourth I Am statement in the Gospel of John. In John chapter 10 and verse 11, the Lord Jesus Christ there tells us that, I am the good shepherd. Now you see both in the fourth statement and in the seventh statement, the I am statement, the Lord Jesus Christ combines a noun and the adjective. Here He says, I am the true vine. So the vine there is the noun and the adjective is true. And in John 10 verse 11 again you see there the noun is the shepherd and then The adjective is the good shepherd. And so, if we are to give a literal translation, the Lord Jesus Christ here is saying, I am the vine, the true vine. I am the vine, the true vine. And that literal translation captures the eco-distribution of emphasis between the vine and the true. And when the Lord Jesus Christ says, I am the true vine. He's not really saying that as opposed to the false vines, but rather the Lord Jesus Christ's main focus here is that of dependability. That is the vine, the true vine that can be depended upon. The other vines are not depended upon. The others. It can seem as if they have much to offer, but they are not dependable. Now, why would the Lord Jesus Christ use this parallel or this picture language? What would the disciples have thought when the Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the true vine? Now, when you go back to the Old Testament, in the Old Testament, Israel is often referred to as God's vine. God, in the Old Testament, as He speaks to the nation of Israel, He's referring to Israel as the vine that God Himself planted, and therefore the vine became a symbol of the nation of Israel. And when you read Isaiah chapter 5, verse 1 through to verse 7, in Isaiah 5, 1 through to 7, The prophet Isaiah paints a picture of the Lord planting a vineyard and expecting to find fruit from the vineyard, expecting to find good grapes at the harvest, but it only produced worthless fruit, worthless grapes. And as a result, the Lord threatened to destroy the vine because it did not fulfill its intended purpose. And when you read Psalm chapter 80, in Psalm 80, again you see this similar analogy used of Israel as a vine. And there the psalmist is crying to the Lord. that look what has happened to your vineyard. The walls, the edges are broken. The vine is no longer protected. And wild animals are ravaging the vine. And so the psalmist cries out to God that God may visit the plantation and make it fruitful once again. Also prophets like Jeremiah, when you read in chapter 2 and also in chapter 6, he uses this analogy of the vine. And in each case in the Old Testament, Israel was God's vine that God had planted with the intention of it bearing fruit, but they were disobedient and unfaithful. They were unfruitful. But now when the Lord Jesus Christ comes in and says, I am the true vine. He's basically saying, like an unfaithful Israel, I am the faithful vine, the one who fulfills all the expectations of the Father. And in John's Gospel, we've already seen that Jesus is a true temple, the dwelling place of God with His people, when you go back in chapter 2. We also saw that Jesus is the living waters, which Jacob's well could not give. When you go, we read in chapter 4. But in chapter 6, we also saw that Jesus is the greater Moses who supplies God's people with the true bread that comes from heaven. And it gives life to all that partakes of it. And when you read in chapter 7, again you see that Jesus fulfills and supersedes the Feast of Tabernacles. And then in chapter 8 and chapter 9, we see that Jesus is the true light of the world. And here we see Jesus saying, I am the true vine. And when Jesus tells His disciples that He's a true vine, He means that unlike faithless Israel, Jesus is the ideal realization of all that God intended for His people. He is the epitome of what God wanted his people to be. He fulfilled all the expectations of the Father. He brought forth the fruit that Israel failed to bring. Just as the vine is the source of life for his branches, Jesus, the true vine, is the source of true and everlasting life. for those who believe in Him. And this was what He was saying when He said to His disciples, I am the true vine. And this is what He's saying to all of us this morning, that He's the source of true and everlasting life for those who believe. The second thing we see is that God the Father is the sovereign and gracious vine dresser. God the Father is the sovereign and gracious vine dresser. And that's the last half of verse 1 and verse 2. 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." And you notice that this, I am saying, the seventh I am saying, is unique in the sense that it has a follow-up clause or statement. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I am the true vine, and then He adds, my Father is the vine dresser. Now, the word my there is what is commonly referred to as a personal possessive pronoun. It's normally what children, babies will get to know at an early stage. They'll be referring to my mother, my father, my car, my house. There's this sense of possessiveness. It's a personal possessive noun. Now here the Lord Jesus Christ wants to show that while he is the true vine, he's saying my father is the vine dresser. And then he goes on to show us that the role of his father is two-fold. He cuts off every branch that does not bear fruit and he prunes branches that bear fruit so that they are more fruitful. And the picture there is the father, God the father, who is the vine dresser. or the gardeners, other versions will say, is looking after his vine, his vineyard. He has this interest in the vineyard and he cuts off unproductive branches and then he prunes and tenders the productive branches so that they can produce more fruit for him. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away." Now, some tend to understand verse 2 to teach that believers may lose their salvation. And for most Armenians, this is a run-to verse. He said, no, it's clear there. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Now, the problem of looking at that verse in that way is, first of all, the clear teaching of the Bible. The Bible itself teaches us the eternal security of genuine believers in Christ. In fact, in John itself, in John chapter 10 and verse 28, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, when He says, I'm the good shepherd in that context, He says, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one can snatch them from Me. And then in John chapter 6 and verse 39, again you see there the Lord Jesus Christ saying that the will of the Father is that I lose none who have been given to me. And there are many other passages that refute this claim that this teaches us that you can lose your salvation. But the second problem to view that this verse teaches that you can lose your salvation is also viewed in the purpose of the metaphor or the analogy that the Lord Jesus Christ gives, which presumes that the branches containing the life of the vine will certainly go on to bear fruit. If the teaching there is that any branch containing the life of the vine will certainly go on to bear fruit, then we need to ask ourselves the question, what are we being taught there? Who are these branches? Who do they represent that are taken away and thrown into the fires? To understand this is to approach it the way we look at parables. The parable is given for a specific lesson, and the lesson that the Lord Jesus Christ wants us to know is that there are two branches. There are those that bear fruit and then there are those who don't, and those who don't bear fruit. clearly shows that they do not have the life of the vine. They are not connected to the vine. And this is why the vine dresser is not interested in them. And that's why they don't produce fruit. That's why they die and they are burned. That's what they are good for. And these branches, they represent those who profess outwardly to believe in Christ, to be connected to Christ because of some religious attachment, because of some religious establishment, or belonging to some religious establishment. And they find security in that. In Matthew chapter 3, Matthew 3, verse 7, all the way to verse 10. When John the Baptist was rebuking the Pharisees, who thought that by being children of Abraham, they would get into God's kingdom, even though their lives were not producing any fruit. John rebukes and warns them, and he says, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the lake of fire. And John is saying you can have this sense of security because of belonging to some religious establishment or claiming that you're children of Abraham, but the bottom line is, how is your life producing the fruit to show that you are connected to the vine? Because the vine dresser, the Father, is interested in those who are connected to Him in Christ. In fact, verse 3. even shows that the Lord Jesus Christ is not referring to those who believed in Him that they'll lose their salvation. Verse three says, already you are clean. Verse three of John 15. Already you are clean because of the word that I've spoken to you. And so, those branches represent those who are not connected to Christ. Outwardly they profess to belong to Christ. And yet there'd be no real change that comes about because of faith and repentance and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no life in them. And there are many who profess to be Christians. who are not under the gracious watch of the vine dresser. Because the father, who is the vine dresser, is in control of his vineyard. He watches over his vineyard. He is the owner. Every branch in his vineyard that is connected to the vine, it's under the protective watch and eye of the Father. The Father watches so that nothing goes to waste. But also this gives us this sense of faithfulness from the Father as He goes through His vineyard. He's looking at the branches that are producing fruit and He tends them, He cares for them so that they are more fruitful and nothing escapes His watch. And this thought. He's comforting and assuring to those who are believers in Christ to know that we are under the constant watch of the Father, the protecting eye of the Father, and the Father Himself is tending His vineyard. He's taking care of them and ensuring that they are more productive. It is his interest to see that they are productive. They are connected to his son. He loves his son. And all those who are in his son are connected to him, the father. And those who are not connected to the son, They are not under the watch of the Father. And that's why they are unfruitful. They don't have life in them. The Father is not tending them. He's not watching over them. He's not protecting them. They lack the life that only comes by being in Christ. The Father, the Divine Dresser, knows all who are His, and this thought must cause you to pause, must cause you to think. You may find comfort in being part of a church establishment or belonging to a family where parents are Christians, but the question is, Has there been a point in your life when you realize your sinfulness and cry out to Christ and believed in Him for the forgiveness of sin? And are you daily under the watchful eye of the Father? Is the Father busy pruning and taking care of you so that you are more fruitful for Him? You cannot deceive the owner of the vineyard. You can deceive others, but not the owner of the garden. But in the third place, and quickly, we see that the union between Christ and his own is very close. The union between Christ and believers is very close, it's very real, it's there. And we see this when we read verse three all the way to verse five. And it is in those phrases, abide in me and I in you. Verse three, already you are clean because of the word that I spoke to you. 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. I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. From apart from me, you can do nothing. The union between the branch and the vine is the closest that you can imagine. And this is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, that think of the branch and the vine, how close they are. How the branches are in the vine and the vine is in the branches. How the branches are dependent on the vine. And He says, if you imagine that, that's the union between Christ and His own, His disciples. He is the vine, they are the branches. He abides in them, they abide in him. The union between the vine and the branches is the secret of the branch's life. The branch draws its strength and fruitfulness from the vine. If the branch is separated from the vine, it has no life of its own. The sap and the juice that flow from the stem is what gives the branches its life. The union between Christ and His own is just as close and real. Believers in and of themselves have no life of their own. They have no spiritual strength, no spiritual power. Everything in them comes from their union with Christ. They are what they are, they do what they do because of this union with Christ. Christ is united to them and they are united to Him. Christ unites Himself to His disciples. by his Holy Spirit. And they are joined to him by faith. And there is this union that is real, that is close, just as the union between the branch and the vine. And this union brings comfort to believers. that in the world dotted with hostility to Christ, in the world dotted with hostility to the Christian faith, those who are in Christ have no cause to despair. They have no cause to despair that they may lose their salvation, that they will not reach heaven. that the life in them is because of Christ. It is real. They experience it. They live in it. And they know that apart from Christ, there is nothing in and of themselves that can produce spiritual life. And as they journey through life, They know they're in Christ, and Christ is in them. And all the benefits that come by being in Christ, they experience it every day. There's this union, and Christ supplies them with all that they need. to journey through this life, showing forth the glories of their salvation in Christ. And they know that apart from Christ, there's no life. And this is the comfort that believers have in this life. to live in full assurance that I am his and he is mine. And that whatever it is that he allows in my life, it is for my good. He's pruning me for his glory so that there's more fruit in me. All the trials of life are not here to kill me. They're here to strengthen me. They're here to encourage me. They're here to remind me that I'm under the watchful eye of the vine dresser. And he doesn't want me to be unproductive. Jesus is all that believers need. The resources of the Christian life is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is enough. He's doing something for us in his Father's house and expect us to live and do for him while he's away, producing fruits for his glory. And this comfort is not yours if you are not united to him. This thought does not bring any comfort to you. You who finds fulfillment in religious activities, in religious connection, and yet separated from Christ, this is not for you. This does not bring comfort to you because you know as you are seated there, when you search your heart, you know that this union is not real in you. You know that this life of Christ is not real. You can come and sing with everyone. You can come and gather with everyone, but when you sit in silence of heart, you know that this union is not real in you. And this thought does not bring comfort to you. It must cause you to despair. It must cause you to set your heart. It must cause you to come to the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. Only as you get connected to Him, as you believe in Him, will His life flow through you, flow through you. Only then will you be able to enjoy the life that true believers enjoy. Bearing fruit for God is not only possible but certain if the branch remains in union with the vine. If the life of Christ permits a disciple fruit will be inevitable. Much fruit is expected. And the words of our Lord Jesus Christ should cause all of us to ask the question, am I bearing fruit for His kingdom? Am I truly connected to the vine? If I'm truly connected to the vine, Bearing fruit is inevitable because the life of the vine is in you and you're under the care of the vine dresser. And the vine dresser, who is God the Father, who takes care of you, expects to find fruit because the life of His Son is in you. Are you bearing fruit? for his kingdom. If there's no fruit of salvation in you, it may be because you've never been connected to the vine. It's because you've never known what it is to have your sins forgiven and to have the life of Christ by His Holy Spirit permits your life and to live for His glory. If there's no fruit of salvation in you, it's because you don't know Christ. and all that you may come to Christ today. Those of us who are believers, are you producing much fruit for God? What is it that you've allowed over the years in your life that have begun to grow that needs to be pruned by the Father? May you cry out to Him to set you today so that He may bring the knife of pruning and cut off those branches or those things that are weighing you down in your walk with Him. May God Himself be glorified. Amen. Let's take a moment or two to...